more from the defender of all peoria reporters:
"Never bet against talent in radio and TV.
Whatever the format, the best in the business adapt and, given enough time and resources, make it work.
That’s why WSCR-AM 670 is smart to carve out a couple of midday hours in its weekday schedule for Laurence Holmes, who launches his new noon-2 p.m. weekday show Thursday, a prelude to the Cubs 3:05 p.m. season opener against the Rangers in Texas.
The challenge for Holmes, a 21-year Score veteran, will be to take what’s made him a nighttime standout over the last decade and adapt it to the expectations and demands of daytime sports radio.
Holmes’ show and podcasts have shown he knows how to get guests to open up, approach well-trod topics in new ways and hold an audience.
But not all the tools in his considerable arsenal will be of the same use.
The challenge for WSCR management will be to sit back and let him work it out, resisting the urge to make hasty, format tweaks or add a co-host (although that ultimately may not be a bad idea; a woman, perhaps).
Holmes is a shrewd guy. Less in need of a road map than a nudge, he should be able to work it out.
“We’re going to try to expand on the things we do well on the (nighttime) show,” Holmes said. “I really love interviewing people and I love bringing people in studio. Mitch (Rosen, the station’s operations director) and I have discussed that and that’s something that’s definitely on the table.
“We’re going to talk about the biggest stories that are going on in Chicago and we’re going to put a real emphasis on getting everyone involved as far as the teams in town,” Holmes said. “I want to get as many people inside the tent as possible — Cubs fans, White Sox fans, Bears fans, Hawks fans, Bulls fans. So whatever is hot, that’s what we’re going to go with.”
“Going with what’s hot” is a necessary mantra of daytime sports radio, and not always falling prey to that mentality is what made Holmes’ show a welcome listen after a long day.
But there’s a reason so much Chicago sports talk focuses on the Cubs and Bears, often at the expense of everything else, and it’s not just that WSCR is the radio flagship of the Cubs and Entercom Communications sister stations WBBM-AM 780 and WCFS-FM 105.9 are home to the Bears.
Those teams, for better or worse, are dominant in this town. The newspapers see it in their internet numbers, TV and radio stations in their ratings.
If and when the Bulls, Sox and Blackhawks become title contenders again, perhaps they’ll become hot and break through. Ditto for the local universities. (And everyone in local media will rejoice because it’s better to have too many hot topics rather than just a few.)
Until then, straying from those subjects during the much-scrutinized daylight hours is at a host’s peril.
One chip Holmes has in his favor is his proven success in podcasting with “The House of L,” and, with his move to daytime, he’ll be doing another podcast for radio.com that should enable him to deliver value to Entercom.
That platform is more accommodating than daytime radio to the long-form interviews at which Holmes excels. If he chooses, it also can be a radio laboratory for him and producer Tony Gill to fine-tune their broadcast approach.
“Tony’s 25, so his perspective’s at the younger end of the demo,” Holmes, 43, said. “He’s extremely valuable to making sure that our show stays relevant and stays hip.”
Adding Holmes goes beyond restoring a small measure of diversity to daytime lineup lost a year ago this month when Jason Goff was yanked out during the Score Spring Upheaval of 2018.
That bloodletting resulted in new shows for middays and afternoons, two hosts in new time slots, one host sent to the bullpen, another (Goff) walking away and two former employees rehired as co-hosts.
In carving out a couple of midday hours for Holmes, the Score’s daytime schedule of shows now sync with the rival program lineup on ESPN’s WMVP-AM 1000.
Dan Bernstein and Connor McKnight had their program reduced to three hours (9 a.m.-noon) and Dan McNeil and Danny Parkins were cut to four (2-6 p.m.).
This will require each set of co-hosts to tighten up its respective shows.
But the best make their situations work, no matter the challenge."
so heres another media blowjob from old phil, ok what about wmvps lack of black talent, you fuck
This is the most racist shit I can even imagine, what about julie, are you sexist phil? only a black host
can solve the diversity problem? To even think that is racist on its face? Well its ok phil, god knows
the amount of tribesmen in the sports media could fill the hold of the exxon valdez.
Phil, fuck you, you fat fuck. Your are so full of shit, try to get larrys cock out of your gaping maw in time for
your next meal.
later
sabu
p.s. hey costanza, I hate Phil Rosenthol as well
