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Saving Sports Talk Radio
Published: 6/28/2011 3:31 PM
Last Modified: 6/28/2011 3:31 PM

The most recent local sports talk radio show ratings are in: next to nothing.

One show beat out something like a foreign language cooking program, that's about it.

From time to time we're asked why we're all over local sports talk radio. Here's why. One station did a 30-minute weekly show trying to attack the Picker. But when you're so right, what's to attack, and that one was yet another failed attempt to grasp at ratings straws as it faded to silence.

All that draws any radio attention in this state is OU talk. Even some OSU radio people have switched over to the Sooners for the numbers. Going by some of those wearing OU ball caps at in-state crime scenes, we're not exactly sure what those demographics even mean.

We're sometimes asked why we aren't on sports talk radio. The answer is, obviouly, because we want what we say to get out and around.

The radio numbers have become such that it's time to help, or we won't have anybody left to oppose.

Here's how to save the genre.

1. Quit being so lazy.

Sure, it's easier to listen to yourself talk about nothing, or talk about something absurd to get attention. But booking good guests would be a marked improvement over what's around now. Don't waste time on repetitive calls from morons. Don't hang up on people who know you're a sap, or people who disagree.

2. Get a sense of humor.

Everything good has a basis in creative humor, wit, an original way of thinking and speaking. The best in any field make you smile.

If you're a boring person, why would you think anybody would go out of his or her way to hear you be yourself?




Reader Comments 20 Total
tulsan678 (last year)
The animal's fodder show needs help. The incessant arm wrestling references one day last week was unbearable. The guests seemed embarassed. Kevin Ward will go on a rant based on this comment and tell me not to listen. I don't listen much anymore but do on occassion in hopes the show has improved.
                    
hootie (last year)
The fodder show is the WORST. The last time I listened to it Ward spent 15-20 minutes talking about how nice the hotel he was staying ast in SE OK was. After I woke up from he nap it caused me to have, I woke to hear him spend another 20 minutes reading Texas sports writers opinions on the ou-Texas game. I thought his discussions with Bob Caepenter or high schools coaches were bad but that show totaly topped it off. I finally just turned the radio off from 9-11. The quietness is MUCH more intertaining!
                    
hootie (last year)
I quit listening last fall! To start the show Ward spent the firt half hour ranting about how nice the hotel was that he was staying at in Atoka (or somewhere like that). To end the show he spent the last 30 minitues reading (word for word) sports writers picks from 2-3 major Texas newspapers and then talked about how "clueless" their opinions were. Hello pot! I thought the Bob Carpenter baseball discussions put me to sleep but that show topped it off! I wish we could at least get BBJ on the Tulsa Animal but since we can't, I turn my radio off from 9-11 now. The silence is actually more entertaining than the fodder show and I stay awake now!!
The Picker (last year)
Isn't fodder what goes in the pig's bucket?
                    
hootie (last year)
I fit's the show PERFECTLY!!!!!
Atticus (last year)
Pick:
It's a slow time on the Animal because it's baseball season. About a month from now, Big Game Bob will have our heroes back in camp and callers will flood the lines with questions and comments. In the meantime, join me in visualizing Sooner glory for this coming season.
mayhem (last year)
The picker is right. Even during busy sports times I would tune in to either the OKC sports radio or the Tulsa sports radio and they would be talking about everything but sports. Usually something stupid like where the best place is to eat a hamburger and then they stay on that topic for 20 minutes. Anything to keep from having dead air except dead air is really what it is. When they do decide to talk sports all they do is stroke ou and talk about how ou can do no wrong. It is extremely nauseating. I stopped listening to them long ago.
JG78 (last year)
Well pick, in an actuall sports town like okc, you can find constant talk about the NBA, College football or heaven forbid Major League Baseball. Tune out the minor league version in Tulsa that takes the time to discuss the picker, pro mud wrestling and that team formally known as the Shock and stream the OKC version....

By the way... Rinse repeat... Rinse Repeat... You must have these topics canned based on the month of the year... You need some new material. What? No Funny Farm (what a steaming turd that was...) sequal in the works?
                    
Dr. Strangelove (last year)
Whoa- I liked Funny Farm.
kcc12 (last year)
I enjoy listening to Sittler and Trammel, but Kevin Ward needs to go back to small town OK. He's the most boring host ever! Just because he goes to church with the owner of KDOV, doesn't make him knowledgeable or entertaining. Pat Jones is senile and offers nothing besides his old man rants. Ostrasky is a fat, boring, has been. More Haisten, Sittler and Tramell is all that can save that podunk station.
kcc12 (last year)
Love bottling company and their 3 convenience store locations around Lake Eufala FTW when it comes to remotes. Let's have one at the Grange in Haskell this weekend.
Dr. Strangelove (last year)
Whoa JG- I liked Funny Farm.
Golden Hurricane (last year)
The worst thing that ever happened to sports radio is Pat Jones. This isn't one of those "any publicity is good publicity things"...this is one of those "he has nothing to offer and is a cantankerous old man" things.

Sports radio was much better in this town about 10 years ago, but it gets progressively worse every year. Al Jerkens is good, but his value is dragged down by Jones and some of those other guest hosts...it just renders the his show un-listenable.

The OKC guys have never had anything to offer, so I haven't listened to them in years. The advent of satellite radio has solved my drive time listening conundrum...I pretty much listen to ESPN radio, Jim Rome and Dan Patrick when I'm in the car. Like the picker said, they have guests...and not some local yayhoo either...they have legit newsmakers in the sports world that are relevant to what people care about.

If I want local, quite honestly, I can get more of that from ESPN, Rome or DP too...I bet they have Bob Stoops on more often than the local stations combined. I guess if I want some TU info, then I would need one of the locals, but for OU and OSU, I guarantee you that the national guys do a better job covering them.
The Picker (last year)
JG 78, yeah, it's true enough, there is more topical stuff in OKC. But just look at who does the hosting. The OU stuff is like a campus radio station, only sappier. They all think they know the NBA simply because it's there. Their love of the Perkins trade is proof of their analytical skills. How could an OSU fan listen to that junk for ten seconds?

Their judgement is simply horrific. Yesterday two of them started going on about tennis player Roger Frauderer being the greatest ever.

And today he bites the dirt, and grass.

Frauderer has a world class forehand. But his backhand is awful. He couldn't carry Nadal's wristband at this point. He runs into Germany to try to run around his backhand.

Why listen to bad radio?

It's all there is.
senor notas (last year)
RUN!! We are having a sun storm. Sports Talk Radio? We have that in Tulsa? Who knew?
SixGunSam (last year)
Too much of anything turns a good thing bad but when you start off bad, 24 7 is much too much.

If and when a radio station finally figures out that God won't strike them dead for mixing genre's and offers a mixed diet of 4 or 5 differing courses with each limited course being the best of their genre

Naww! That's way too far out of the box.

Cheebugger, cheebugger, cheebugger, Pepsi! Pepsi! Cheebugger!
Golden Hurricane (last year)
bgb,

What a great post! You summed it up very nicely.

Say what you will about the Picker, but the guy HAS AN OPINION, and it's not phony.

That's the thing about radio and really any type of sports forum...you must have an opinion, it probably needs to make some sense and hopefully everybody doesn't agree with it.

Here's the thing...if you hold a strong position, state what you believe the case to be (whatever sport you are talking about) and you don't give in to the masses, then it will make for a good show.

Quality guests and meaningful, strong opinions are what make a great show...right now, local sports talk radio has neither.
The Picker (last year)
Since there seems to be no best, somebody emailed in asking about who is the worst.

It is intense competition from guys stuck in the past like the one in OKC who yells and seems to think that having fouled off a few in Japan qualifies him to speak of political and religious preferences, and the newspaper writer at the Oklahomering who does things like pick Colorado to win the Big 12, then says forgot they were in the conference.

It's like a 10-way tie for last.

fka (last year)
yeah he ought to move to Albuquerque where they could use all that hot air to blow up their balloons. i love it whenever a child rings up and he starts spouting how he is their mentor "saving the minds" of today's youth. about the only thing he is qualified to teach is how to grease up your fielder's glove with neatsfoot oil.
The Picker (last year)
fka, perfect.
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Out Pick The Picker

The Picker began entertaining – and infuriating – sports fans in 1993. Each week during football season, he writes about his picks of college and NFL games in his Thursday Sports column. He's never afraid of sharing his opinions about the game and the personalities who play it. Readers have a chance to go against him each season in the Outpick the Picker contest. He welcomes the competition.

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