Sports Radio at its Best
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For some reason, this has been on my mind for a while, so I thought I'd get it off my chest.
Sports talk radio has been stereotyped as a bunch of mind-numbing yelling about absolutely nothing that makes sense by a dumb hick who cares about absolutely nothing except hearing his own voice. To a degree, this, unfortunately, is true. There are a lot of sports radio show hosts out there who could care less if they sound absolutely uneducated when they yell into a microphone for three straight hours as long as the world gets to hear inane conversations when they talk to themselves.
My point, though, is not to talk about those that bring sports radio down from where it could be. Those people need not be highlighted, as what they seem to perceive as sports radio basically boils down to bashing whatever action by an athlete or comment by a caller does not agree with their views. In fact, they bring down the whole genre, as most hosts do back up their statements with examples or clear thought processes at least. Rather, my point is to highlight those that realize that sports and the athletes that play them go through a lot and that everything is not always what it seems on the surface. All the while, they still maintain their objective viewpoint and journalistic integrity. Also, they don't cut off callers who are trying to make points without being rude just because the callers' views don't agree with the hosts'. They actually realize that without the callers, their shows would not exist and they'd be unemployed.
Unfortunately, St. Louis does not carry much national programming that can be heard even widely in the metropolitan area, so my experiences with nationally known radio hosts are limited. There are a few who have impressed me during the opportunities I've had to listen to them, including the Gamenight hosts on ESPN radio and Dan Patrick, who obviously is not on air anymore. What comments they make are always well thought out and backed up by evidence, and they do not overly dominate their shows with a big, booming "voice of God", intimidating everybody from contributors to guests to callers and making people feel that their opinions are the most important. They report, they comment, they listen, and they entertain, which is all that one can ask for, and all that is necessary.
I do have to mention in my opinion the two best shows in St. Louis, just because they go above and beyond what is expected for a radio host: the venerable Sports Open Line on KMOX and the Roll Home on 1380 ESPN with Bernie Miklasz and Randy Karraker. The hosts are always extrememly gracious, well informed, and back their opinions up to an unparalleled degree. I remember listening to Sports Open Line one night a few months ago, and Kevin Wheeler was involved in a discussion with a caller about which era produced the better baseball players, the 1950's-1960's, or today. The conversation could have easily become heated, and Kevin could have just yelled into the microphone, said his piece, cut off the caller and called him names, and moved on. Instead he gave the caller a chance to explain his views, even if they were a little bit skewed, and backed up his own opinions with his own thought process. The conversation took a good five minutes or so, and at the end he even thanked the caller, not with a simple regular "thanks for your call", but expanded on how despite their opinions were different he appreciated being able to engage in the debate. In fact many of the hosts on KMOX are like this; they'll give the caller enough time to explain his case before commenting, and as Miklasz and Karraker used to work at KMOX, perhaps this is why I enjoy their current show.
Now maybe I was brought up a certain way that many people aren't, believing that one should always be gracious to others. Also, since I was raised listening to the "more conservative" KMOX, maybe I'm used to a certain way of treating callers and that I believe that the only way to go is the most respectful way that I believe most hosts on the station do. Certainly, there are other shows that pass the grade, giving the caller enough time to say a few things before the host talks about what he's thinking about for a few seconds and moving on. But from my experience, the aforementioned shows go above and beyond the norm for a sports talk show. My belief is that one should treat those who give him his opportunities with the utmost respect, and because most of the time it is the callers who make the show and give these hosts a job and these hosts repay the callers with this utmost respect, I believe that they are some of the best in the business.
