I just tuned in after reading this article. Anyone else listening? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/3814141.html Local station looking for right morning mix By DAVID BARRON Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Having scrolled privately through dozens of audition tapes, KBME (790 AM) majordomo Ken Charles will, beginning tonight, stage a very public audition for the station's morning drive-time team. Tryouts begin at 8 p.m. today, when Brad Davies, who hosts a midday talk show on WHTK in Rochester, N.Y., joins Carl Dukes on SportsBeat. Damon Amendolara, who hosts a morning drive show on KCSP in Kansas City, will join Davies from 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, and Amendolara and Dukes will pair up from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday. "We want to experiment," Charles said. "This is too important to leave up to chance. I'm listening for content and chemistry and how their voices sound coming out of the speakers. It's one of those things that you'll know is right when you hear it." Charles said he may fly in other candidates in addition to Davies, Amendolara and Dukes. The morning drive show likely will air from 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays, replacing the final two hours of the Mike Greenberg/Mike Golic show and the first hour of Colin Cowherd's show from ESPN Radio. No start date has been set. Amendolara is, like KBME's Charlie Pallilo, a graduate of Syracuse. He worked an afternoon drive show in Fort Myers, Fla., for two years before moving in 2004 to KCSP. You can hear clips of his show at http://www.thedashow.com/crew/default.asp. Not surprisingly, Amendolara is a big fan of the Pallilo style of broadcasting. "Charlie approaches things the way I try to do," he said. "He's well-prepared, well-read and respectful of the callers." Amendolara said he'll veer into guy talk when warranted but added, "I'm not crude. I'm not a shock jock or a guy who yells at people. "We try to do an entertaining radio show that is about sports. It's 95 percent of what we do," he said. "There's a lot of cookie-cutter sports talk out there. We try to do something different. There is an entertaining way to put (sports) on the air." Davies began working in radio when he was in junior college in Utica, N.Y. He worked in Syracuse and Utica before moving in 2001 to Rochester. And ... hmmm ... he appears to be a Braves fan. His bio is at http://www.whtk.com/pages/braddavies.html. Davies is a fan of the Morning Zoo-style shows in that he enjoys more than one voice on the air, even though he has never worked with a full-time partner or co-host. "I love sports and take them seriously, but if you take them too seriously, it defeats the purpose," he said. "I try to stay topical. If a big non-sports story comes up, we'll talk about it." Davies said his most popular weekly segment is a Friday show in which he invites listeners to pick NFL games against the point spread for entertainment purposes. But he said he has never been to Las Vegas and never placed a bet. Dukes, who has been in Houston since 1998 and enters with the home-mike advantage, said, "This is a great opportunity and will help expand the station. We're doing a lot of positive things, and this is the next big one." Given some of Charles' past auditions, Amendolara, Davies and Dukes are catching a break. Charles said he has put candidates on the air at 2 a.m. on unused FM frequencies just to see how their voices sound on the air. These auditions, happily, will occur at a decent hour, and you'll get to listen in.
Another Brother, are you going to give it a shot? I thought you were entertaining, especially after you started to feel comfortable on radio. If you do, good luck.
I wonder if this has anything at all to do with Rick Ballou leaving Sporting News Radio. If ya'll remember he was clamoring for a job in Houston just a couple months ago.
I've been wondering what happened to Rick lately. What happened? Edit: Wow, Wheeler and Coppock have left recently as well. I really must be half asleep when I leave work, as I knew Ballou had been missing what I thought was "a few days" but now that I think about it, a bunch of fill ins have been on the show recently.
So, you're saying there's a chance I could hear local sports in the morning without hearing someone cough every 17 seconds? Or making completely unfunny jokes like "it's a hard knock life for Vishnu (sung to the Annie song)"? Sweet.
I used to listen to him all the time back when it was 1-on-1 sports and he came on weeknights after Papa Joe Chavlier. I called and let him know that Ricky would a) break the all-time rushing record and b) would win the Heisman in the waning days of the 1997 season. I also called him when I was hammered during game 1 of the 1998 Finals.
Ballou is not coming here, though I agree that he is good, and I enjoyed listening to him on my way home. I hope Todd Wright is given the full time gig on Sporting News.
Matt: Is Todd Wright no longer with ESPN? I loved listening to his show late night when 610 still had ESPN, but since the switch to 790, I think they play Fox Sports Radio at night. Ballou or Wright would be awesome at any time of day.
Wright got whacked for an "off the field incident with the law" he is currently doing the old Ballou shift Wed-Fri, until they find a permanent host or sell out, whatever comes 1st
I haven't listened to Arnie is a long time. I liked him alot. He had a good sense of humor, was entertaining, but his knowledge of sports outside of New York, Chicago, and LA was very limited. But he was very entertaining.
Todd Wright has been the best fill in. I hope he gets it too. Anyone listen to 610am after 1am? David Stein is freaking horrible. The guy doesn't talk sports at all.
