(1) My schedule has changed so I'm sometimes not in the car as much during drive, so my Hardline listening has diminished a bit. When I tuned in this past week, I have to say, I enjoyed the show. I thought the Danny rat story was overrated, but they did some car talk that got me laughing, and it seemed to me that I heard More Mike than I'd heard in recent months, which always makes for a better show.
(2) I sometimes punch over to ESPN, and heard something that I really liked on Monday afternoon: a couple of hours of "Football Firing Line," which I guess has been going on for awhile. It was Tim Cowlishaw and Matt Mosley, the usual Afternoon Show hosts, with Steve Dennis, Nate Newton, and another guy whose name I wrote down and now I can't find the slip. The Internets say Ed Werder is on the panel, but it wasn't him, it was an AA with a four-letter first name, a middle initial, and a last name. One of you guys can tell me who it was. [UPDATE 2: The other guy had a four letter last name: Clarence E. Hill, Jr., of the Star-Telegram.] Anyway, I thought it was a lot of fun with some trenchant Cowboys analysis thrown in for good measure.
What's the story on Steve Dennis, anyway? He seems pretty spicy and zero-BS but it seems all he does is fill in around the Dallas sports media scene from time to time. Would he make a good full-time host somewheres?
(3) Danny has a great radio voice, but in recent months it's gotten rough and a little breathy and sometimes cracks, as though perhaps he smokes and perhaps smokes a lot. (I don't know if he smokes.) Maybe he's been performing a lot. (You can tell when Mike's not far past a Petty Theft performance -- his voice gets noticeably tired.) Maybe he has to yell a lot at the Twilite Lounge. Maybe he's using a different mic or he's getting EQ'd so the treble is turnt up. His habits are none of MTC's business; I'm just saying his on-air sound has frayed some.
(4) UPDATE: Hey, how long has Matt McClearin been hosting the Cowboys post-game on ESPN? (Since there's only been one other game, I would think that's probably the answer.) Maybe the better question is, how long has Matt McClearin been working at KESN? I punch over from Norm and Donovan once in awhile just to see what's airing on ESPN or The Fan, and he was running the show (it sounded like) with Steve Dennis and Tim McMahon, if I caught it correctly. I thought it was pretty good.
I knew that he and Scot Harrison had lost their WJOX Birmingham show back in July but hadn't heard anything further. Since Cumulus is operating KESN, maybe Jeff C welcomed him back. (Scot's LinkedIn page says that he's "Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Taco Mama." Matt's says that he's "Account Executive at New Home Guide," which sounds like something you do until Cat can find a spot for you.)
ReplyDeleteGet ready for another crap-cast of the Cowboys with IJB on rabble.tv. Apparently, TC thinks he is a coordinator now since he reads Nate Silver. With Jake out, this might be their worst effort ever. And they want you to pay for it.
Plainsman, if you could have a clean slate Hardline with More Mike (and not necessarily Corba and dan paul), who might you add to make the best show?
I think the OGW brings out the best in Sirois and Bracket Dan.
I always love Firing Line when it was hosted by Galloway. It was on for years and Galloway was always funny. Frank Luksa was on ]as well as several other local sports dignitaries] and Galloway would pull no punches. Those were good ol days now gone.
ReplyDeleteSlinky, you're dead on, brutha.
ReplyDeleteYes, Pschmaltz, Danny is quite the avid smoker. Both kinds of smoke.
I do believe that this past Friday, the fill-in show for THL, Bewm in da House, was a sneak-peek at what will be airing from 10-noon weekdays once Norm retires (which, I have a strong feeling, will not be too far down the road). Indeed, I have a feeling the only thing that's kept Sirois on The Ticket the past couple of years is that this has been in the works. Move Donnie into an actual co-host partnership with Norm so he can get the experience needed to host a Varsity program (Sirois already has been a co-host so he needs less grooming), allow Norm to teach and lead by example what it takes to be truly successful, and when Norm retires move in another host (Sirois)--one with whom Donnie has worked with in the past, has real chemistry with, and will be able to be equal with in partnership. (Unlike the BaDD experiment, where Donnie was an unnecessary and let's be honest, unwanted/forced/squared-circle/third-wheel.) I for one enjoyed Friday's presentation. It was energetic, youthful but not overly so, and had a nice mix of sports-guy talk. I think they are a good transition from the old school OG musketeer Varsity showgrams to what's coming down the pipeline at some point in the not so distant future--that is, the M+Ms, TSJs, and whathaveyounots. The, in other words, shows that are for Millennials, by Millennials, and that will (and on the whole already do) leave the D1P1s with decidedly mixed feelings.
ReplyDelete@Mike in Duncan Donuts
ReplyDeleteI agree almost completely...I have a really hard time imagining Norm retiring though, the guy is just all sports broadcasting all the time.
But I agree the friday presentation of Bewm in da house was great, and just the right mix of ticket wheels-offness and sports
I agree with slinky's comments also. Galloway knew his stuff and had some inside bar buddy sources that got him information no one else had. His work at WBAP was stellar but had turned into something of a joke when he was at 103.3.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Brad Sham and Chuck Cooperstein on KRLD's Sports Central. While all three of these guys have been reduced to a bit by the Ticket staff, it was good radio for it's day.
Think that pic might be of a dude, Pman. But hey, whatever floats your boat, gets your freak on.
ReplyDeleteMTC = Big Tent.
ReplyDelete@11:48, why complain about something that is completely voluntary to listen to? It is not aired on the Ticket. You have to actively seek it out to listen. Jake and TC ask for donations to produce the product, but they provide it for free. Why subject yourself to something you dislike? There seems to be enough of a following that enjoy the product for them to keep it going.
ReplyDeleteThe guy actually goes and makes negative comments on the rabble app too. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy Gordo's Monday morning segment where he takes crazy Cowboys calls but hate that he spends so much time on a random topic before he starts taking the calls. I'm not sure that a whole segment could be filled by callers but there definitely needs to be more time devoted to it. It feels rushed.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me if you are able to download shows on the $13.10 P1 Personal Account on the uSaveIt site?
ReplyDeleteI tabled a comment I was going to make about Danny,but now that Pman has made him a thread subject . . .
ReplyDeleteWe all know the Black Cloud bit, but it seems to me that lately Danny has just become downright angry about darn near everything. What really sticks out to me is how he went off on the bad call in OK State-Central Michigan game. He was just beside himself on how the officials could have botched that call. I can maybe see getting that worked over a bad call that affects the Cowboys or the Rangers. But Okie State?
Now on to the matter that really brought me here today - forget Draftkings and Fanduel. The ads for guaranteed, can't miss, 100% lock, FREE Monday night picks are really annoying.
As a long time Ticket stream listener, I gotta admit, the Frank Zappa song glitch is probably my favorite stream glitch of all time. Way better than getting trapped in the endless commercial whirlpool.
ReplyDeleteP-Man,
ReplyDeleteIn addition to your observation regarding the sound/strength of Danny's voice at times, I've noticed that there are certain words and expressions that used to be mainly used by Corby, are now being used by Danny and Mike as well. So much so that it reminds me of the Ticket's early days when they hosted the Barry Switzer weekly call-in show and about 30 minutes before Barry came on, they would set the Over/Under # on "Hell, Damn, Crap" references by Switzer. During the show, every time Barry said one of the 3 "magic words", the board-op would softly ring a bell in the background without Switzer knowing why. Made for great radio.
So for entertainment value, for the past several months while driving home from work each evening, I try to count how many times Danny, Corby and Mike will say "Man" or "You Know" or "I Guarantee You" in just the 1 hour or less drive time I'm listening. If the board op ever tried to ring a bell for every time THL uttered one of those words from 3 pm till 7 pm, he'd develop Carpal Tunnel by the time his shift was complete.
One little bit of irony about that as well...the original Hard Line show used to have a segment called the "Ya Know Olympics" where they would weekly play audio of player interviews and count the "You Know" statements and THL would just laugh at how dumb they sounded.
It appears the Unticket has launched a Ticket wiki:
ReplyDeletehttp://unwikit.com/wiki/Main_Page
Does this mean I can (should) retire?
ReplyDeleteI give that wiki 3 weeks before its full of stories of George's sex parties and VSBB.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm actually glad its there.
Greggo's twitter got lively again.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the troll Greggo was waging twitter war with has been suspended. I don't think its wise to make the sort of threats Greggo was making however but Greggo's lack of sound judgement shouldn't be that surprising to me
ReplyDeleteIf a black man using that word rates a mention on e-news, I suggest Corby and Danny avoid rap music in the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to maybe jog a few old timers memories. Does anyone remember in the first years of Jimmy-Jerry era, there was a local, late-nite televised sports show. Can't remember who hosted, but it was done up in a late night talk show fashion complete with a house band. The Paul Shaffer-esk band leaders last name was Spicegood, or maybe Swicegood, and if my memory is correct, he committed suicide due to some legal problems. Anyway, one show had Galloway and Skip Bayless together as guest. Man, you could tell they could not stand each other. Galloway was giving Bayless a hard time about his new book. Bayless condescendly asked Galloway if he ever even read books, and had he even taken time to read his. Galloway came back with a quick 'No, frankly I haven't! I haven't been that bored yet!' lol...classic Galloway!
ReplyDeleteThe producer's last name was Martin and he had something to do with Cowboys media or maybe the old Cowboy Weekly magazine. It was a discussion type show set in a bar. Martin was the host, behind the bar and Galloway was a semi-regular. Skip was on at times along with Dale Hanson, the other local TV anchors, with an occasional musical guest. Blackie and Jim Dent were also on. It was always on the uhf channels, it seemed to bounce from 21 to 33 to 39 to 27. It came on at odd times and you had to hunt for it at times.
ReplyDeleteIt was also the first time I remember seeing Craig and George. They had a group of young local talent on and they were doing impersonations of local sports host. I think Brad Sham was amused and Dale Hanson was not.
There may also still be a version of this show on one of the spanish channels. It uses a female host but still the same format.
The producers name was Lee Martin, and the name of the show was Sunday Showtime. Typically came on I think opposite the local sports segments at 10 o'clock, may have been a little bit earlier. Oddly enough, the "bar" was in a studio in northeast Dallas at Skillman and Forest
Deletehttp://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-cowboys/sportsheadlines/2012/05/07/lee-martin-the-man-behind-numerous-80s-cowboys-tv-productions-dies
Did the Ranch Report win?
ReplyDeleteThank you Ed.
ReplyDeleteNo problem. The one time I attended, Penny Hardaway was the sports guest, Norm sat in with Gallows, and Ray Wylie Hubbard supplied the music. Talk about worlds colliding
DeleteDamn, now Greggo is picking fights with Sturm on Twitter.....
ReplyDeleteWow.
ReplyDeleteA coming tell all book in the spring of 17 from Greg. Wake me when it hits the shelves, please.
Does anyone else think this won't end well?
Oh, man, just scrolled through HeeHoo's Twitter posts. I didn't unpack all of them so I didn't follow all of the subjects, but he's smokin'.
ReplyDeleteTaking action on whether there will actually be a book.
A publisher would have it vetted six ways from Sunday by libel lawyers, and -- given his history of, uh, unreliable utterances -- how much of his "truth" would even survive to the printed page?
There is, of course, self-publishing.
"There is, of course, self-publishing."
ReplyDeleteMight work as long as he doesn't try to sell it on the sidewalks around the grassy knoll near the School Book Depository. The city of Dallas has a problem with works of debatable fiction. :D
I don't think anything is going to end well with Greggo.
ReplyDeleteI hear DraftKings and FanDuel are merging. That does not bode well for the all day P-1.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of DraftKings and FanDuel in a round about way. The Robert Swift story on the Hardline yesterday had a curious emphasis on it being in SI.com. It struck me as odd. Is there such a thing as stealth sponsored segments?
ReplyDeleteI didn't find that odd at all. When the hosts are talking in depth about a single article I think they always try to give credit to the source of the article.
ReplyDeleteThey have definitely done stealth sponsored segments. They did one for ParanoidFan back in February
ReplyDelete@Gopher/@Plainsman,
ReplyDeleteBut would a Greggo book sell better than, "This Year Is Different: How the Mavs Won It All: The Official Story"?
@Shaggy,
I thought the stealthiest "ads" were from THL with Tilt and SilverCar (the Audi only airport car rental). Pimping a brewer's IPA is somethat questionable as well.
The most obvious and painful Hardline infomercial I ever heard was a two-segment love letter to Virgin Airlines. I recall that they hung out with Richard Branson under some pretext or another, and not long after that there were two consecutive segments that were obviously staged promotions. I thought all three of them seemed embarrassed to participate.
ReplyDeleteEd:
ReplyDeleteI had no idea he had passed.
http://sportsday.dallasnews.com/dallas-cowboys/sportsheadlines/2012/05/07/lee-martin-the-man-behind-numerous-80s-cowboys-tv-productions-dies