This is not going to change as long as Lance Zierlein is in the show. This guy is all football. You can feel that Adam wants to talk Rockets but Lance would just not let him. Lance doesn't talk much about Rockets either because he doesn't follow them much these days or just doesn't care. If you want a more balanced radio hearing, tune in to Charlie Pallilo in the drive home show.
1st Caller Driven Radio sucks. 2nd They completely directed the conversation this morning towords the combine. You can't even blame it on caller driven radio because they opened up the first 60 seconds at 6AM talking about the Rockets win but for only about 60 seconds. The rest of the hour they talked about Johnny Football, the Combine and Clowney. I don't even recal them taking a call in the first hour and if they did it was later in the hour. 3rd The Rockets are in the home stretch of the season and are the number 3 team in the West and climbing. At 9-1 they are also the hottest team in the NBA. Just hours earlier they defeated a possible play off opponent on their home court in a nail biter. And you think Clowney and the Combine should be the main focus on the show this morning? Really? 4th The 7 oclock hour was really the only hour we had any decent Rockets talk. Even when some of the callers called in calling them out on their lack of Rockets talk they just blew them off. Clowney, Clowney, Clowney. What an embarresment for the radio station in my oppinion. We have the most exciting team in town compeating for a championship this season and the clowns on 790 in the morning chose to spend 90% of 3 hours talking about Clowney being really fast. And oh by the way, the combine just verified what we already knew. 790's priorities are seriosly flawed. It's no wonder they have a revolving door for on air talent and their ratings suck.
All good points... just saying there really isn't "that" much to talk about regarding the Rockets right now, other than the fact that they're playing well, still have some things to work on, and they have to continue to improve in order to have a chance to go deep in the playoffs. I guess they can deservedly bash Jeremy Lin for sucking, but there's still not much there to talk about. There was plenty of conversation around the trade deadline as all that speculation and "should they or shouldn't they" makes for great conversation. But, what do you really want them to talk about during the course of the regular season, if there aren't many other issues with this team besides the games itself? You'd see this in most major markets that have more than one pro sports team... hell, you don't hear any baseball talk around these parts now, but that is not the case in other places where both baseball and the NFL continue to dominate the sports landscape over the NBA. You'll get plenty of discussion during the playoffs, and that's honestly when things really matter.
I found this comical... the highest rated local sports show on all AM radio in Houston is "In the Trenches"... a year-long football only show.
It doesn't attract smart sports fans, it's flies on ****. It's the Meet the Kardashians of Sports talk.
In summation: Crash: Sports talk radio in Houston sucks due to the lack of conversation besides football. Nick: That's what the majority of Houston Sports fans want. I think both are right unless you want football sports talk non-stop. Edit: Because they talk so much football, most of it is repeated drivel that chases away smart sports fans before they can here their actual good takes.
790 talks more Rockets than any other major radio station in Houston. Rockets fans need to get a grip. Even before the Comcast disaster, 90% of the city did not watch a typical Rockets game. This message board is skewed by the fact that you are surrounded by like minded individuals who are at least somewhat hardcore. The majority of the city, even radio listeners, don't fit that category for the Rockets. It is worse now because of Comcast. If people were really eager to talk Rockets, they'd be a conversation topic more often. They aren't because people yawn their way through the Rockets talk for the most part on the radio.
I'm not much of a Sports Talk Radio listener, but I have been in a music funk this year. 610 has had more Rockets talk than 790 in the mornings when I try to listen unless 790 has someone from Rockets on the air. Granted the 610 talk isn't very informative.
You sure? Isn't the NFL Draft in early May? That's right around the end of the first round and beginning of the second. I'll bet good money they'll still favor football over the Rockets even if they're still in the playoffs. I used to be of the opinion that the Rockets needed to accomplish something in the postseason before warranting discussion on the local radio shows, but given how utterly pathetic the Texans and Astros have been lately, that goes right out the window. As far as I'm concerned, they're the only good sports story we've got going in this city right now.
I think its the nature of the NBA... where more teams make the playoffs then not, and just making the playoffs, or even winning one playoff series, is not that big of an accomplishment. This city was not basketball crazy in 1993 after the Rockets had an MVP candidate, along with a deep 2nd round run in the playoffs. It literally took championships before they owned the city. Also, look at the top sports stories/headlines on a national level... none of them currently involve the NBA.... which just exemplifies where this country currently puts regular season NBA basketball on its priority list. We know Houston is NFL crazy... but so is the rest of the country (and it gets more and more prevalent every single year). There's really not that much baseball talk when the Astros are bad. There's ZERO college talk here. But for the NBA to get headline status day-in/day-out, I firmly believe the Rockets have to be either defending a title or on the verge of winning one.
To further exemplify where NBA regular season basketball is on a national level, check out the current headlines/lead stories from espn.com: Cover picture - Clowney/combine Lead stories: 1. MLB bans home plate collisions (MLB) 2. Florida new #1 in college basketball (NCAAB) 3. Clowney wows in combine (NFL) 4. Archer runs near record 4.26 at combine (NFL) 5. Contract discussions won't distract Trout (NFL) 6. 49ers nixed Harbaugh trade (NFL) 7. Yanks vs. Winston in spring training (MLB/NCAAF) 8. Dale Jr. wins Daytona (Nascar) 9. Grienke comments upset Austrailian officials (MLB) 10. RB prospect: God told me to leave combine (NFL) Not a single NBA story/headline of note is out there today... and Houston is no longer "special" when it comes to NBA fandom that they should be an exception to the national norms. Hell, there are only a few big cities in america where the NBA team gets close to top billing (with LA not having a NFL team to compete against).
Even 610 morning show talks more rockets than 790 morning show. Its pretty sad. Joel Blank was making fun of lance in telecast yesterday saying the phoenix game was the first one he watched all year.
Why do you guys care what people on the radio talk about? If you wanna discuss Rockets, just come here or /r/nba
Look to the center of the screen on ESPN.com. The main page is dedicated to the NBA with a video and 5 stories including a video on Lebron's return. Also, the Collins story made the sports center topics. So according to the ESPN.com, NBA is the big story today.
This "Gentlemen" sports show is really awful, these dumba**'s will spend an entire segment (numerous times), agreeing on how little time they spend on the Rocket's. Really, do I need to know why you are justifying that you spend enough time speaking about the Rocket's? For God's sake, just talk about the ROCKET'S!! Then, there is this cuckoo caloo football show that basically talks about the same football stuff the previous show just discussed! (Uggg, I'm flipping people off for no reason) Its *****in bad enough we can not watch the Rocket's, but surely, you would think we could at least talk about them? (Thankful for Matt/Charlie)
Those are secondary featurettes, not the "lead stories" which are the headlines on the right side... and one of those stories (Collins) doesn't even directly involve the NBA (and isn't really being talked about in Houston). The bottom line is that on a day-to-day basis, the NBA is usually not the lead story till at least the playoffs.
http://www.stationratings.com/ratings.aspx?market=33 KBME 790 Clear Channel Media Entertainment has a cume of 180,100 maybe people are only tuning in for "In the Trenches" but the station as a hole is not getting a lot of listeners. even KILT 610 CBS Radio Inc has a cume of 367,700 which has twice as many listeners as 790. If you like football talk 24/7 365 days then I'm not knocking you because thats what you like. It's not right or wrong it's just your preference. However, the Rockets are the best thing going as far as sports in Houston right now and there is not a close 2nd. There is tons to discuss about the Rockets and tons of different angles. The day after such a huge and exciting win the local radio stations should giving the Rockets the attention they deserve and 790 did not do it. There was nothing wrong with talking about Clowney but really, how exciting is validating that the guy is an athletic freak. Who cares? All I care about is if the guy can play football. We will find that out on sundays. Clowney and the combine did not deserve to be the focus on the show this morning and not when 790 is supposed to be the Rockets flag ship station.
I think this is the more appropriate link. Your link requires me to register/log-in. (my link shows that "in the trenches" was the highest rated sports show in 2014 amongst ALL sports stations... also the morning show on 790 out-rated 610's): http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/02/koch-kalu-show-leads-the-way-for-kbme-in-monthly-radio-ratings/ Look, I thought it was an exciting game as well. Both afternoon hosts tried pushing the game as much as possible (including Matt playing the radio call of Beverly's 3). The callers still wanted to discuss other things (including one caller wanting to know why they didn't talk more about the Olympics!). You can't force listeners to talk about topics that just aren't captivating the city as a whole right now. If the Rockets aren't involved in some sort of "controversy", or there's not a trade deadline with rumors, fans don't have enough interest to discuss specific happenings of regular season games. There's also plenty of dedicated non-caller based talk, from having Bullard, Beverly, McHale, and Morey on the station on various different days and different times/shows. Like I said before, in 1993 the Rockets had the 2nd best player in the NBA, and had the best record in the NBA after January... ended up losing in 7 in the second round... and they STILL didn't dominate the sports radio airwaves (and this was pre-internet, pre-NBATV, pre-twitter, pre-mobile data plans). MORE people listened to AM radio then for news/instant updates, and there was still plenty of "other" talk. This city really needs the team to be defending a title, or on the verge of capturing a title, to give a damn about the NBA day-in/day-out.
FWIW, Charlie talked a lot more Rockets on the after noon drive time show and he runs a pure caller driven format. Matt and Adam just did not want to talk Rockets this morning. Part of the problem with Houston Sports talk is that they use an antiquated format, "Caller Driven Radio". The worst four words in radio are "First in First On". Houston really needs to get as far away from caller driven radio as it can. Just my opinion but seriously doubt any sports station using caller driven format will ever challenge for a Marconi.
