I have been listening to the local ESPNRadio station in Milwaukee, 1510 days 1290 nights on your AM dial for the past 3 months, and am now ready to give my assessment. From 10:30 to noon, I listen to the “D-List” with hosts Bill Johnson, Dan Needles, and Drew Olsen. From 3:00-4:00pm, I listen to “The World’s Greatest Sports Talk Show” with Steve “The Homer” True.
First the “D-List”
Host: There are three hosts, yeah, 3 hosts for a three hour show in Milwaukee. As I mentioned before they are, Bill Johnson, Dan Needles, and Drew Olsen. It seems that Johnson is the lead talking head and the other two are fillers, but none-the-less, there are three of them. Add into that mix, their loveable sidekick, “Spider”, and you have 4 guys chiming in throughout the show.
Drew Olsen has and continues to be one of my favorite baseball writers and adds some keen insight on what is going on with baseball, but little insight on anything else. I don’t blame him for not having great conversation about other sports, because he is paid to write about and know everything about baseball. Having him as a co-host doesn’t take anything away from the show, but it doesn’t add anything that a guest segment wouldn’t add, either. When he is speaking about baseball, just sit back and listen to what is coming out of his mouth, because you will learn something. When he is adding onto a conversation about some of the other sports they cover, it isn’t anything you haven’t heard of or thought of before, and isn’t quite that profound. Olsen sits in the "captain's chair" and leads the show in and out of breaks, but it doesn't ever seem like he is in control of what is going on.
Channel 12 (the local ABC affiliate) Sports Director, Dan Needles is on the show as well and I really haven’t gotten that much from him. He does add a broad knowledge of all sports, but there isn’t a specific talking point he can hang his hat on. He does add some of the filler for the show as one of their sound bites is “I’m Dan Needles, and I’m bitter”, and you will hear that at least once a show. They also mention that Dan went to “the Harvard of the Midwest” UW-Oshkosh whenever they can. For these items alone, he is worth being on the show, I guess. His thoughts are always clear and he doesn’t babble when speaking. No matter what sport he is talking about he will at the very least faux some sort of expertise there-in, and succeeds in sounding intelligent. It is apparent he loves sports and talking about them. He also frequently plays devil’s advocate to the other hosts just to arouse some further emotion from them. He almost makes me want to watch the channel 12 news at 10:00, but then I’d miss the Simpsons, or Family Guy, which is on its 10:00pm rotation right now on Adult Swim, so I probably won’t.
(Why does Cartoon Network decide to flip Family Guy and Futurama every quarter of the year? Seriously, when Family Guy is on at 10:30, it is a great night, Simpsons at 10:00, FG at 10:30, and Seinfeld at 11:05, it’s perfect. Now, until April, I will have a void at 10:30, and occasionally fall asleep prior to Seinfeld, it’s a real problem.)
Anyway, back to this. Drew Olsen sits in the driver's chair, but the leader of the pack seems to be Bill Johnson, as he generally takes the lead in conversations and kind of brings it all together. He is the Chris Fowler of this group, but not as polished, or, well, good. I don’t know where Bill Johnson comes from, but he, like Needles, has a broad knowledge of sports. Whatever topic is being thrown around at the time, Bill has a well-formed opinion and is easily provoked into argument by Needles. He knows (for the most part) when to defer to someone else’s opinion on a topic and when to interject his own thoughts. Johnson takes the point on most interviews and is a good interviewer. He gets the answers to his questions, and asks some good questions to gain insight from the interviewee. He also reads the local SportsCenter for the show.
The hosts play off of each other like any good combination of hosts should, but they are still learning their craft. The show has been on the air for just over a year and are still learning the ropes on what works best. If it were just Needles and Johnson, the show would be fine, as long as they had Olsen in once a day for one or two segments on baseball and the Brewers. One big problem I have with the hosts is that they (mainly Johnson) use some harsh language. Now, I don’t have any problem with people using that kind of language if the situation merits, but it just seems like it is forced some times, or they are just doing it because they can. Damn, hell, and ass are frequently thrown around, and really there isn’t any need for it about 90% of the time.
Grade: B-, but I was close to a C+.Sidekick: “Spider”. I don’t know his actual name, but I do know that his nickname comes from
Michael Imperioli’s character in
Goodfellas. He adds exactly what he should, promos for local sponsors and events, and if the hosts ask him for an opinion, he’ll give it, and nothing else.
Grade: B+Special features/guests: Every Wednesday is “List Wednesday” when the hosts come up with a top five list on a different topic each week. This week’s topic is top 5 bands from the 80’s you want to see re-emerge. Other topics have included top 5 UW basketball players and top 5 MU basketball players. The special features add a chance for listener interaction, which is the next topic, and they do get surprisingly good guests for being a show in Milwaukee. They will generally have the coach of a team a local team is playing soon on the show prior to the event and gain some insight from the opposing coach. This is generally very entertaining and informative.
In addition to random guests, Jason Wilde, Packers beat writer, is a guest every day at about 10:30. This segment is very informative and he has good points, but he is also on Homer’s show everyday, so both will get docked for that.
Grade: B-
Listener interaction: This is where the show does better than most. Starting with giving listeners a “D-List” number whether they email or call is a great way to make the fans of the show feel they are appreciated. They accept calls frequently and read emails just as frequently. If you try and call or email the show, chances are you will get some airtime more quickly than other shows you may listen to. Having the different segments such as “List Wednesday” or “Anything goes Thursday” allow the listeners to engage in interaction with the show on a steady basis. Kudos to the producers for coming up with these ideas.
Grade: A
Overall: Like I said, the show is entertaining. It fills 90 minutes of my day (which is really actually like 30 minutes with how much I am on the phone or interviewing) and it keeps me on the station for the duration, which is the goal of any radio station.
Improvements could be made with sound bites, language, and perhaps going to only 2 hosts. Plus, Wilde should really only appear on one show to make his visits unique. The show does a good job of covering both local and national sports, and doesn’t claim to be strictly a “local show” which is nice.
The show is still finding its way and in the future has the potential to be very good, which may be bad for the listeners, because the better shows get, the less time there is for listeners to be heard.
Overall Grade: BMore later on Homer’s show.
Until next time...
