Mattj, you and Lance were a great morning show. You brought the substance level on all subjects up several notches along with a good sized dose of Rockets talk. I had stopped channel surfing and just kept the dial on 610 in the mornings. Vandermeer and Andre Ware will be a crash and burn disaster together. There is no way AM610 should put those guys together on a daily basis. If your station's management doesn't see this they deserve the consequences. If Andre Ware is added, they need someone with a little gravitas who is pointed and opinionated like you to carry him. This will make me leave the radio off a lot in the mornings.
Matt and Lance brought me back to listening in the morning. I loved the balance of sports talk. We actually got rockets talk. Marc and Andre I know will not talk basketball much, and it will be mainly football talk. So I will probably go back to finding something else in the morning.
agreed, especially with the first paragraph... i found myself switching over alot to 790 when it was granato and lance because they just never really talked that much sports.... it was frustrating. i really dont care for davies and dukes. mattj and lance was an excellent combo, imo. real, actual, intelligent SPORTS TALK. damn shame.
i remember listening to lance and john's very first show. man..they were on for a very long time. that show was just part of so many of my mornings, and i'm sad to see the last piece of it go from 610.
Was that the day when John Tyler crapped in his diaper on the plane? Granato got in trouble for that lil tidbit.
it should have been john and lance in the morning then matt and adam in the afternoon. too bad. i will never listen to mark and andre's show. i don't have any interest at all in college football and not enough in pro football to listen to it all the time. does 610 realize how limited the morning conversation is going to be with those 2? kiss knowledgeable rockets and astros talk goodbye. i hope lance joins john on the new station so i have something to listen to in the morning. matt and adam should transfer to 790 and do the time slot before charlie comes in, then i can just take 610 off my dial.
If only we could afford Napoleon Dynamite. Hey any press is good press right? Right? Hello? Echo! Crickets.
Matt, I hope you realize you're that station's only 'saving grace' now. I would milk it for all it's worth if I were you. Seriously though, I tenth what other posters here have already said about you and Lance doing the morning show. It was even better than John & Lance combo. You guys worked very well together, and I found myself really enjoying the show and your sense of humor. It's sad that experiment was so short-lived, but I guess Lance and John are good buddies and they both wanna take on the challenge of bringing that new station into the mainstream of Houston sports talk radio. Anyways, Good luck with Rich "Amateur Journalism" Lord...you will need it, buddy.
Was there some sort of management change at KILT that led to all of these defections? I haven't been able to listen to Lance since I moved to NZ a few years ago (his show was on at like three in the morning here), but I was able to listen to the afternoon and evening shows quite a bit. I really thought the Matt and Adam pairing was a good one. They should try to keep them together. They really do need to think up something new with the rest of the lineup. Rich Lord has regressed to the point that he just is not very enjoyable with Mark. They don't have the best chemistry and don't really bring much to the table. Mark just *exudes* Texans company man to me and Rich has turned to a bit of a buffoon with all of the Vince Young slurping. We are heading to Kenny Hand and Ed Fowler levels of crud, I'm afraid.
Losing John and Lance within weeks of eachother is kinda sad. I've been listening to those guys for over 10 years. The mornings will not be the same and I refuse to listen to Andre Ware and Vandermeer. They are good during Texans games...that's it. This ends an era of really pretty darn good sports radio in the morning. 790 is awful on all fronts. 610 just took a huge step back. Double Rods...for the final time!!!!
A shame that over 10 years of schizo timeslots and great shows is over. Of course, the fans of 610 from waaaaayyyy back when remember that Lance started out on the Sunday night "Sports Sunday/ Fantasy Football" Show (1995?). If I remember right it was from 8p-10p, after "Fast Break with Nate" (Nate Griffith, 610's original reporter and Sports Flash anchor) Remember when John & Lance's show was orignally called "The Bench"? It was on from 6a-9a and then went into the show from Prime Sports with two chicks, Annie Z and someone else. All the old fogeys that listened were pissed that Mike Edmonds (RIP) & Ed Fowler were yanked off the air. Then, in about 98 or so they got the 4 hour time slot from 7a-11a. Houston then got subjected to The Dog, Damon 'The Dog' Perry from 1on1 Sports in the 5a & 6a hours. The Dog was so bad that John & Lance's call screener, Michael P. Davis, wa given the 6a hour-- The Star 610 Scoreboard show. Eventually, (Spring of 99?) Adam Wexler was added to the show along with the 5a hour. Michael P. was shown the door somewhere around late 99/early 2000, and that's when Kenny Hand (along with Wex) became John & Lance's lead-in. After a few years of everything going smoothly, Russ Small entered the picture. Everyone thought Small was going to get the Texans PBP job, and he ended up fu##ing with John & Lance's timeslot for a year or so. John and Lance had to share some hours with Russ, but eventually moved to 5:30-9a. Then Russ pissed everyone off in town and lost the Texans gig before they even started playing. Vandemeer did the 9-11 when he came to town, and that kept John & Lance in the 5:30-9 slot. When Palillo left 610, as we all know, Vandemeer went to the afternoons, which then brings us to the current marathon timeslot of 6:30a-11a over the past 3 years for John & Lance. I have to say it's amazing the success they have had over the past 10 years considering they were changing timeslots just about once every other year (except in the past few). I wonder if Matt & Jeremy will get a chance to team back up and audition for the morning slot?
I heard about this friday afternoon. It's a shame. If Fizzle gets one of the slots, can I take his job? I also have a weird obsession with bad 80s music.
i thought matt and lance had poor chemistry. but I understand they didn't have time to gell. we'll see what happens.
I remember Prime Sports, Remember Ken Silverstien on KTRH back in the day. When Prime was on, I heard him doing the updates from ballgames when they go around the league to the different parks. Now he's doing them for Sporting News Radio. Andre Ware isn't the homer you guys are making him out to be, and he talks more than football. Of course you've only heard him do mostly football, that's been his job in this town.
Andre is awesome. When you have only heard a guy doing color or being interviewed periodically as a guest or an insider you don't get to know the person. Kinda like TV guys, you watch them for 3 minutes during each evening's newscast but you don't really get to know them. When you start talking about a four hour show you really get to know them. That's what makes hosting a sports show special. Think about our guys, the ones that let you in...if you listen regularly don't you feel like you know them? You know John's kid crapped on the plane. You know Lance's brother has a big head. You know Marc has a baby named Luke. The Vanderbaby. You know Rich suffers through the MS150 every year. And you know a hundred other things about these guys. It's inevitable. If you listen enough that crap just comes out and when the guys are likable or even just interesting it makes for a good host. Mix in a little knowledge, some good contacts for real interviews (not just some schmoe selling a book), some quirky personality, and poof you have a good 'show'. And it is hard in radio to have an on-air personality and an off-air personality. Your one true personality surfaces on air and off given enough time. John is who he is: A lovable goofy b*stard. Lance is who he is: a funny sumbitch. And so on. I know Andre, and he is the coolest emeffer you have ever met. The guy has a Heisman...the elitest of elite fraternities...yet he carries himself affably. Give him two weeks and the Dickinson will come out and you will laugh your ass off. His street cred is impeccable. Guests? SportsRadio 610 will have a cadre of guests like we have never seen. Sure most of it will be football initially but that will change. And Marc is a workhorse. Since he isn't in that afternoon slot anymore he will go to all the Astros and Rockets practices and games and change the general perception that he only knows football. That could not be more distant from the truth. Why did Westwood One use him on their national broadcasts of March Madness every year? Because he only knows football? When he was the Voice of the Hurricanes he called an knew every sport. Give it a chance. That is what I am doing.
