Ben + Skin + Travis Frederick

Really, really good.  Forget about how Frederick's presence elevates B&S into listenability -- we're hearing a guy who will have a long broadcasting career after his football days are over.

All right, this post is a give-up.  I've been absolutely slammed and feeling very, very bad that I haven't given the faithful Confessor any fresh content in way too long.  Please accept my apologies.  I've got a contribution from a Confessor in the hopper, but I haven't even gotten to that.

So, uh, leave some comments or stuff.

That Amazing Draft Coverage

I think I write a little something about this every year, but it's still true:  The Ticket's draft coverage is just terrific.

It's not so much that it goes wire-to-wire, which is pretty amazing in and of itself.  It's the quality and entertainment value of the commentary.

Norm, who remains very knowledgeable, has more or less settled into the role of an amiable master of ceremonies.  Oh, he offers substantive commentary and seems to know the draft class extremely well, but as the years have gone by, Bob Sturm, David Moore, and David Newbury have taken over more of the heavy lifting as to What It All Means.  At least that's the impression I have from the slices of the coverage I'm able to grab over the multi-day extravaganza. 

I really enjoy listening to Bob and it's great to see his profile in Cool Metro continuing to grow with his Dallas News writing and other coverage.  The best moment I heard from the weekend, though, was from The Boomtown. I think it was Saturday afternoon.  Norm had thrown the show to David & David, who were giving their thoughts on the state of the Cowboys' draft.  They spoke carefully and very persuasively without being bombastic.  I loved Newbury's point that all the best drafting teams "know who they are," and that the Cowboys don't seem to.

I swung by Ben & Skin's coverage and just had to shake my head.  There's an argument to be made that Ezekiel Elliot was the best pick, but B&S's over-the-top jubilation and insistence that it was the most amazing best-ever pick just sounded ridiculous after almost every Texas-based analyst was at best confused, and at worst appalled, by what the Cowboys had wrought.  (Although SI gave Dallas's draft an A-.)  Like their year-end Cowboys coverage last year consisting of how tremendously excited they were about 2016 after 4-12, the homerism seemed pretty apparent.  I don't like to ascribe motives to people I don't know, but man.

Having said that, I do ask myself this question and invite the Confessor to set me straight:  If Elliot really is a can't-miss offensive force that can replicate what DeMarco Murray accomplished a couple years back and more, is it possible to argue that in addition to more reliable scoring, his presence will extend drives both through his own skills and occupying defenders who would otherwise by smothering Dez, and in that way keep our shaky defense off the field?  And thus, with this single pick, the Cowboys have not only increased their offensive potency, they may have reduced the other team's offensive possessions, elevating (if only constructively) the entire Cowboys defense.  Whereas Jaylen Ramsey would only have improved one facet of the defense.

I think it's a dubious theory -- addition to the defense by subtracting defensive draft picks.  But thought I'd toss it out there in fairness to Ben & Skin.

In deference to Confessors who view this site at their workplaces and don't want to see babes pop up on their screen when the site flashes on, today's ginger will appear at the end of this deathless prose.

"Which tent is Mike's?"

I try to cover Campound coverage to the extent possible, but my listening has been spotty the last few weeks and that may continue for a bit.  Please weigh in frequently and in detail reporting on the best of our lads out in the forest primeval.

ThePlainsman1310@gmail

@Plainsman1310

BREAKING: The Ratings Go Up, the Ratings Go Down

Thanks to Anonymous 718 for passing along the latest ratings in a comment to the last post:

October Sports Radio Ratings

The Ticket is still comfortably ahead overall in prime time in the prime demo.  Cat should give The Musers a nice gift card to All-Pro Foundation Repair, as they seem to be shouldering the burden of keeping The Ticket on top when everything is averaged out.

I don't know if there is much to be made about the rest of it.  I think it's fair to say that over the last several ratings periods, The Hardline and Ben & Skin are in a pretty close battle.

All of this must be viewed against the backdrop of continuing controversy nationwide over the accuracy of radio ratings since Nielsen switched to the personal people meters.  (What other kind of a meter would a personal meter be?)  (I wrote about the controversy in this post.)  As I also wrote in that post, The Musers' steady dominance tends to undercut the argument that the methods for measuring ratings are seriously flawed -- although I think that its much broader appeal means that it will tend to weather random ratings variations better than the other shows that don't offer as much variety.

I find The Hardline/Ben & Skin race less interesting than Norm & Donovan + Bad Radio's struggles against G-Bag Nation.  Norm & Donovan are significantly behind, while this time around the delta with BaD is about the same as between The Hardline and Ben & Skin.  I guess the jump in The Ticket's ratings at noon means some people are switching from G-Bag to BaD -- but not enough to vault BaD into the lead.

 The Hardline continues to get slagged in these pages, but as I wrote after Cat's AMA, it does seem to me like Mike is making his presence felt to a greater degree than he was there for awhile.  And it makes it a better show.   Show prep seems a little better.  Not a lot, but better.  But I do hear those Confessors who are weary of the lo-info cultural criticism that seems to have become a feature of most episodes.

I've been thinking about auditing Ben & Skin and G-Bag to see if I can discern its appeal.  My very hit-and-miss listening to Ben & Skin hasn't impressed me, but I haven't really given it a fair shot.  Maybe I'll take that up.

In the meantime, your views always welcome.

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A few readers need to revisit The Rules of the Confessional.   I've rejected several comments lately that were fine with the exception of entirely unnecessary shots or insults of other Confessors.  That's a deletin'.