What with the Craig Roberts "dismissal," and 610 once again starting to diversify away from sports ("We're doing this for your own good, indeed"), I think it's past time for someone to take up the sportstalk mantle in this town. There is more than enough talent, and probably enough ad dollars to make such a thing a viable venture, and the Owls need a real radio home away from that "one week on KPRC, one week on KTRH, two weeks on KBME" thing they got these past couple of years. That's all...just had to get that off my (virtual) chest.
How about this for an idea from left field. Have Craig team up with Russ Small. Now that should be an interesting 2 hours.
It would probably be difficult to achieve that because the only stations other than 610 that have enough power (wattage) to provide a quality source are owned by Clear Channel Communications. KBME does very well with its programming for older people - it actually has pretty high ad rates because their demographic works well for many advertisers - KTRH isn't going to change from news radio and KPRC is a station that CC really likes as talk radio. The only other station with semi-decent range is 650 and that is owned by 610. That doesn't leave you with much. If another sports radio station were to pop up, it would probably be an ESPN affiliate, but ESPN is pricey. By the way, KILT is not doing guy talk any longer. That went by the wayside a couple of months ago.
Yes, KILT is no longer doing "guy talk" per se. After the (minor) uproar, they went back to "95% sports," but they are now trying to angle back in the "wacky" direction. All of the on-air talent is careful to tell folks that they welcome "deviating into non-sports topics," and Russ Small in particular does it a lot. Their recent on-air promos emphasize the "comedy," and one or two in particular go with "We want you to talk about about anything other than sports things. PLEASE!"
I have a close friend who's close friends with Rich and Charlie and I am fairly well-acquianted with Lance. I can tell you that their main thrust is, was and will continue to be sports. I don't believe anyone at KILT outside of the marketing dept. liked the guy talk format. Lance and John occassionally have comedians which I think is fine. There is nothing wrong with having the option, but being forced into attempting that is silly. Besides, if you want comedy, hire comedians, not sportscasters.
