it seems the "don't rock the boat" mentality is winning out and those with strong opinions are not necessarily welcomed by either the teams, station competitors or even the companies they work for.

It's possible that ESPN/Disney may be looking to get out of radio all together. Cut down the costs of running the station to nothing, which would make it appealing to potential buyers, and sell.

Sorry this is long, but I thought I was on a roll when I wrote it.

I just read the news about Danny Mac's release from ESPN-1000 and it got me wondering about the state of affairs for sports radio at that station.

According to Jim Pastor, the move to drop McNeil was due to the economic climate of radio and the decision to move in a new direction for middays. In my opinion, reading between the lines it means cut costs by eliminating as much local as possible and get ready to bring on the next "talking-head-turned-radio-host" from the mothership of ESPN. There is word that Brian Kenny of ESPN is being touted as the host of a new, national program they will pump out.

To be honest, I don't buy the "economic climate" excuse as much as I think it had to do with things Mac has done recently that may have compromised ESPN's cherished brand. The Mickey Mouse station is very guarded in how its brand is touted and and is very thin-skinned about things of a controversial nature. As an example,could there be anything more vanilla than "Tirico and Van Pelt"? By the way, didn't the "boo-ya" network just shell out an ungodly amount of money to buy the rights to broadcasting the major bowl games in the next few years? Aren't they tied into ABC by, in essence, taking over the network's sports broadcasting operations? ESPN/ABC is doing alright for itself which is why I don't buy the excuse that they are being hit hard during this tough economic situation we are in. They became the only all sports network after FoxSports shut down, thus, they were in the driver's seat as far as sports programming and coverage goes.

Mac wrote a column in the SunTimes recently that called the local sports media contingent to the carpet. He mentioned, by name, Daryl Hawks and how poorly he does his sports segments on NBC 5. He's ripped into NBC's lame Sunday night sports recap show (which he was right on about) and referenced hosts on the other sports-talker WSCR-namely, Laurence Holmes, Dan Hampton, Terry Boers and Dan Bernstein. He said that the sports media in the town really needed to do a better job, including he and his own show. He claimed responsibility for not doing as well ratings wise and he had in the past and thought that he and his broadcasting brethern needed to do their jobs better.

I think he was right on the mark about the sports media in this town. This city has fans who are passionate about their sports and would like more honest and in-depth reporting on their teams. Factual errors, or down-right team apologizing are things that many fans in this town can recognize and for a market this size that is irresponsible and unacceptable. However, it seems the "don't rock the boat" mentality is winning out and those with strong opinions are not necessarily welcomed by either the teams, station competitors or even the companies they work for.

Mac has stated in the past that while he spent time in Bristol some years ago, he was told that listeners shouldn't be giving their opinion on ESPN shows because ESPN tells you or makes your opinion. As Mac stated many times before, radio is at its best when it has a dialog with the listeners. ESPN decided to allow for local programming in specific areas, yet felt compelled to ram down our throats certain network shows like Dan Patrick, Tirico and Van Pelt and Mike and Mike.

Mike North's ego and inability to produce a quality morning (or other day part) show-along with poor management decisions-allowed the national show of "Mike and Mike" to win ratings book after ratings book. This was bad for both the SCORE and listeners of ESPN. In my opinion, the failure of a local sports morning show gave ESPN the idea that their corporate programming was far superior to that of anything produced locally, and, as such, could help keep their costs down at their affiliates by pushing their programming on them. Mac, Jurko and Harry's success seemed to pave the way for programming such as Silvy and Waddle and The Show, but with them pulling the plug on Mac, I wonder how much longer it will be before the station goes completely national.

If ESPN was making cost cutting decisions, just what does it think will happen when no one is listening to the station? Unlike their television situation, there is competition in sports radio and to increase ad revenues you need to have something that sets it apart from the rest. The call letters ESPN, although recognized around the world, are not enough by itself to just take over a sports radio market like Chicago, which enjoys talking about and giving opinions on sports-specifically Chicago sports.

ESPN has truly gotten too big for their own good. From creating their own awards show to producing terrible sports movies, the network has a truly inflated opinion of itself and, as such, has put itself into the position of being the "be-all and end-all" of sports coverage in their own minds. Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of the consumer, who must now seek out other options to express their opinions on teams closest to them. ESPN-1000 is still keeping some local programming on the air, but for how long is really the question. I think when the answer comes, it will not be good for any of us.