Mac knew what he was doing when he let Terry have it in the divorce

WYC is about sticking your thumb in the eye of management. It should be ranting, funny and occasionally mindless, like Bluto yelling about Pearl Harbor. Needless to say, that isn't what it is about anymore.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Do we have audio of the old Heavy Fuel Crew days of WYC? I'd love to listen back to some of those - of course our memories oft times like to paint a very rosey picture of what it "used to be like", so it'd be interesting to listen back.

I miss the old opening for it. I know it was dated, and everyone got raging boners for the new one, but the new one seems "too clean"...and definitely too long.

While the content of it is poor, for sure, most of the time - it really is Dan's bonerrific reading of ecraps that kills it for me. You can hear it in is voice, as he launches in with a <giggle> "now here's one from Rudy...", then he starts talking in his really dramatic voice, making sure to adjust his voice to hit all of the proper punctuation marks, and always ending with a "well said" or "that's what the bit is" or a simple "perfect". Of course that is also greeted with a "that's the essence" or "I was wondering when someone was going to get to that, I saw that and..." type of remark from bobblehead Terry.

I don't know what is more confusing to me -- that Dan doesn't realize what a North-like character he has, ironically, become OR the fact that there are legitimately guys out there who spend a lot of time polishing his knob about how right he always is and/or how important the radio he's doing is to society. That's confounding to me. Sure, you could argue that people gathering here to discuss how ridiculous it is IS equally as ridiculous....but that would just be your narrative. And Dan told me to not like narratives.

He has become the Keith Olbermann of sports talk radio. Maybe he has studied Olbermann's arc and decided that is route for him.

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Good call!

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I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out. - Bill Hicks

Let's do it for Johnny!

It's eerily similar. It's almost similar to watching how Kobe Bryant copied Michael Jordan. The diction and sense of self importance and righteousness The air of superiority. The condescending way in which he views sports. It's Olbermannesque. Bernstein I generally used to like because he was the one guy on the station that would talk hoops. When he had his own show he acted differently. I called it prior to Bulls drafting of Brand. Everyone wanted Francis I told him I thought Baron Davis was the best player in the draft. There wasn't any shouting or berating then. Now it's like he seeks the confrontation or nut job caller because he thinks it makes for interesting radio.

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Gotta disagree here. While both want to do more than sports, or at least settle for doing more with sports, Dan's sense of professional self-preservation is too keen for him to truly emulate Keith Olbermann. Olbermann is like Bill Maher in that they both seem to be deeply unhappy people whose lives don't extend far beyond their public ones, which allows them to play with fire and risk going down in those flames (which both have, especially Olbermann). Meanwhile, as Jim O'Donnell would point out, Bernstein has a wife and two kids.

tl;dr: he doesn't have the balls to be like Olbermann

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No I'm not referring to his interactions with management. I'm simply referring to how he presents himself on the air. The other stuff like family life is not part of it. I'm just talking about the way he presents himself on the air.

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But the way Olbermann presents himself on the air is informed by who he is off the air. Do you think Keith Olbermann goes around bragging to anyone who'll listen that he forgets everything he ranted about as soon as he leaves the office every day?

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screwed up the quote function but it's in there

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I'm talking about the presentation which is as the intellectual sports guy. Olbermann has always presented himself as that. Bernstein does exactly the same thing. It has worked for Olbermann. It has made him an extremely wealthy guy. Maybe Bernstein thinks it will do the same for him. That's my point

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But your point is wrong. "Intellectual Sports Guys" are dime a dozen nowadays. Olbermann towers above the rest because he lives his job to such an extent that he crashes and burns on a regular basis. You watch him not only because he's creative and talented as hell and you want to hear what he's going to say, but because you're wondering how he's going to go too far and fuck it all up for himself like he always does. Have you ever wondered when Dan Bernstein will go too far and fuck it all up for himself? Off the top of my head, he's done that once, when he got fired from calling DePaul games because he satirized the Catholic Church's child rapists. That was eleven years ago, before he had two kids to put through college and a McBrownstone in Roscoe, and will thus never happen again.

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Bernsie doesn't have the balls to fully commit to the Olbermann gimmick, he just wishes he did. He's like if The Asylum produced sports broadcasters.

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There really aren't a lot of them. Look at the local landscape. Who besides Bernstein attempts to present himself as an intellectual. They are not really a dime a dozen.

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Bernstein doesn't push the envelope like Olbermann. Has not burned bridges like Olbermann. But it does attempt to view Sports from a different lens like Olbermann

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Laurence Holmes
Matt Spiegel
Matt Abbatacola
Jason Goff
Adam Hoge
Connor McKnight
Dave Kaplan
Matt Bowen
Dan Durkin
Matt Rodewald
Joe Ostrowski
Adam Harris
Tim Baffoe

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you can't be serious can you?

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You said "attempt."

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Yeah I didn't catch it til it was too late. Is there anyone from that group that you would consider the intellectual sports guy? Or anyone in this city?

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I don't even think Dan is that intellectual anymore. He's basically become an irascible Dave Kaplan.

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new construction in an urban gated subdivision

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I didn't think Chicago had gated subdivisions. I've never seen one, but then I guess I didn't look very hard.

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I would listen to Patrick and Olbermann if they were on. Bernsie is no Olbermann as you stated. Bernsie is a mancow to olbermanns stern.

He is definitely not Olbermann but he attempts to be. But I didn't like Olbermann all that much when he did politics. He was a political lightweight. The only guests that appeared on his show were those that agreed with his position. He was not comfortable with people that possessed opposing views. That is always the first sign for me that a person is a lightweight. Bernstein does the same thing but he can't to the same extreme because he has to take phone calls. But you can tell by the way that he berates people with different views that he is not comfortable either.

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I mean there is a gate, but you could walk around it. Its no Old Republic building .
If you go the WGN studios ever, look East. Wave to Dan and my guys! One of the guys I coached with is his neighbor, was going to stop by and say hello to dan a few times, didnt feel like I was sports educated enough.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Went to cubs game on Friday with 2 guys who went to HS with bernstein and I know he has even used one of these guys names on the air as the best player he ever saw in his area growing up, so i am going to say maybe he respects him?

These guys just laughed at the fact he is the voice of chicago sports, the guy who never played anything or was involved in anyway with any team. yes, this is the guy now that tells people how to prepare their kids, whats the best way to get good, how to coach , etc.

The 2 guys I was with are still friends with a large group of guys from HS and as a group they cringe that Bernstein represents what they are about.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I thought Dan was, of all things, a competent high school soccer player.

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And then you come to find out he played intramural high school soccer

If Dan Bernstein were a grade school girl you'd be the one sitting behind her in class, pulling her pigtails.

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