Seattle Sports Talk

The fun is gone from sports talk radio in Seattle. You either get two guys bragging about how drunk they were in college or a really serious discussion of a .237 hitter making 2 million a year.

The most clever guy on 710 ESPN Seattle Chris Cashman is gone. Was he too funny? Did the humor go over the head of whoever the program director is? Seattle has had it's challenges on the field in recent years and now we've added to it by sucking the imagination and humor out of sports talk shows.

We do have some well prepared, professional men and women on 710 ESPN and KJR and I congratulate them for trying to make their shows informative and interesting. But there's still way too much of a frat boy mentality on the air and frankly it's the lowest and easiest form of humor there is.

Brock and Salk mix serious discussions of sports topics with interviews pretty well. They are obviously well prepared and not afraid to voice an opinion that might be unpopular with their listeners and each other.

Elise Woodward is the only woman in a hosting role on local radio and ranks very high in my book for informative interviews and well founded opinions.

Dave "Softie" Mahler on KJR comes closest to the "east coast" style of talk radio I'm used to. He's passionate, loud, tough on some callers and would work well in other markets around the country.

Kevin Calabro on 710 ESPN should be doing NBA games full time or maybe Mariner broadcasts next season. One of the best play-by-play men in the country should not be wasting his time or mine by doing talk radio.

As for everyone else, I wish them well. Talk radio is not an easy job. If it were easy everyone would be good at it.

My own general talk show on 710 am lasted only nine months in 2005. I refuse to defer the blame for that one. I will never point fingers, especially at the jerks who fired me.