Anonymous 415 Nails It (That Is, He Agrees with Me)

I was getting set to do an article on some early observations on 12-3 and 3-7, when ConfessorAnonymous 415 posted yesterday to the previous article (lightly edited by MTC):

So far I'm mostly liking the changes. I will admit that I'm partial to 3-7 over 12-3. For me to say that is incredible since I haven't been able to listen to 3-7 for over 5 minutes at a sitting for years now. 

I said mostly liking due to being less and less sold on Super BaD. I'm beginning to see chinks in Jake's armor. I'm beginning to see that while deserving and in a fundamental way ready for prime time, he's not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination. 

I also think Dan needs to dial it back a notch or four. To me it's obvious he's trying to make sure everyone (CTO) know that he still has his youthful fastball. At times it makes for uncomfortable radio. And this isn't Stern so this isn't a good thing. 

As to 3-7, the more Bob asserts himself and the scarcer Danny makes his presence known the better this thing gets. Danny's good for a segment and has nice add-ins throughout the show. Bob's getting more comfortable with each passing show and as a result is SOMEWHAT putting a matte finish on Corby's Corbyness. Good stuff. 

I think 12-3 is going to take a lot of time, experimenting, and even off-air discussions between Dan and Jake and/or Cat interventions to find its sweet spot.

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These observations mirror my own to a large degree.

Dan and Jake:  In general, I think this show is good, better than recent Bob and Dan.  I do think Jake has settled in very well -- it's Dan who seems to be thrashing about a bit.  He's clearly the boss of the show, which is fine.  But not having been the boss of the show for all those decades, he's having some trouble figuring out how he should be pitching his presentation.  "Dial it back a notch or four," says Anonymous, and that puts it pretty well.  He seems to be pressing.  It's not that he hogs the show -- that's neither fair nor entirely accurate -- it's that his role as the sarcastic gadfly hovering around the stentorian Bob doesn't sound quite right without Bob there to puncture.  He's a naturally intelligent guy -- he should just relax and broadcast instead of constantly setting up his next sarcastic observation, looking for angles for jokes, a process that (you guessed it) bogs down the show.  I have pretty much no complaints about Jake, except to say I'd like to hear a little more from him.

Corby and Bob:  After an uncertain couple of weeks, this show has taken off.  I listened quite a bit over the past few days, and I thought it was an enormous improvement over legacy Hardline.  Bob is so much more comfortable, so much so that he is really remaking the show.  Corby is proving to be a solid equal partner, and he has dialed back the Corbosity.  Danny has done a good job of picking his spots.  A very enjoyable listen.

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And, by the way:  Are you catching The Ticket's promos once again saying they're the number one sports talk station?  I don't have details, but I believe the latest book shows overall victory over The Fan.  But no one's making much noise about this; The Eagle beat 'em both in the demo, did it not?  (I'm not a ratings maven).