cluv8484 wrote:
Is that a coffee creamer he's holding there?
yeah IIRC his promo was about "the cream of the crop" or something, so he had to whip out a little coffee creamer to designate THE CREAM of the crop. i'm sure mean gene was floored.
also, in my previous replies to this thread i've talked about the economics of it and gone off on one of my tangents about the default social contract of america, but i haven't actually touched on THE MEAT AND POTATOES of the danny mack show experience. i've opined in the past that he's got that "pull up a stool" mentality that obviously fit in with "the afternoon saloon" but moreso his mentality as "the party host" or "the bartender" that ends up being his radio MO. whereas howard stern saw himself as THE RINGMASTER who was in charge of the circus freakshow that he exploited, erm, brought you on a daily basis, danny mac's whole MO is like you're coming to his house for dinner drinks and a sporting event, so he'll do what he's gotta do to try and have something you'll like there, whether it's 10 types of alcohol or 12 types of food, a swimming pool and/or game room for the kids.... his thing is making sure there's a little something for everyone who comes in to hang out in his populist mancave of a radio show, ergo he gives you all of the gambling stuff / show-bets, the music-themed days of the week, talk about middleaged man stuff like decorating the house, cooking out on the grill, taking the kids to visit colleges. whatever the case, mac tries to spray to all fields (except for the NBA) in the hopes of having at least a little something for you, that is if you're in his demographic of middleaged/middleclass white men who like sports, but aren't necessarily defined by it.
say, isn't that a slogan for a certain new sports talk radio station that wants to appeal to a demographic of middleaged/middleclass white men who LIKE sports but aren't necessarily defined by their liking of sports? wow it's like a match made in heaven, cuz lord knows that when you've got a bulls guest on dan certainly isn't going to be defined by his passion for the NBA, but i'm sure he'll tell you "oh yeah i like the NBA" which is exactly what the station is aiming for. and given that mac's radio schtick is to have a little something for everyone as opposed to, say, THIS IS REALLY. SMART. RADIO. AND FUCK YOU IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT! yes danny mack had the in/famous PTFB thing here and he ended up coining the term, but i think b&b really embraced that ethos and ran with it to the point that nowadays it's pretty much "listen more/closely if you don't understand what we're saying (the one and only unequivocal truth of sports) and THEN if you don't like it go fuck yourself and listen to something else because last we checked, *scoffs* we're the ones with the radio show here" --- and now the game is positioned to counter-program/market themselves to combat the people who post-FOTS b&b has pushed away from the radio, and they're going to do it by bringing in a guy who puts in a lot of effort to put a wide variety of topics out there so, ironically, he doesn't have to put in a lot of effort overall to really go in-depth with any given topic (save hockey, which he actually gives a shit about so it comes naturally/effortlessly) figuring that they don't need to have a show with a lot of hard/core appeal to a relatively-niche demographic (say focusing on bears fans or baseball fans) --- they just have to have a show that can at least convince you that they don't loathe you and assume you're an idiot by default unless you show up and flash your ALS card by putting the "job" in "rimjob" --- pretty much they just have to give you a decent product that isn't b&b.
mac is a known commodity in the market, he's had a track record of success (especially versus b&b in their current timeslot), and most importantly HE ISN'T DAN BERNSTEIN. as the evolution of post-FOTS bernstein from dan bernstein to THE MAN OF JUSTICE has caused many of us who once had b&b penciled in as daily appointment radio to eventually get to a point where we listen less than we don't listen, i reckon the game figures by putting somebody with name recognition out there against b&b they're bound to get a whole lot more listeners from the anything-but-b&b crowd, and then if the show is actually good they'll end up dominating the timeslot relative to afternoon drive sports talk radio in chicago because, shit, nobody listens to ESPNradio anymore. i mean yeah there's some token spaulding posts and maybe 1-2 other people (even steve from elmhurst has given up trying to stick up as the tent-post of the ESPN1000 community on here because ESPN1000 will take his calls) but short of some people who have immunity to waddle and therefore can stomach S&W because silvy is technically prolly the most underrated/overlooked sports talk host in chicago that isn't j-hood, yeah short of that nobody listens to ESPN1000 and it's just kind of here because it's chicago and they're ESPN and technically something HAS to be here. nobody really listens to that station unless there's a bulls game on or something.
ahem. so my bad on the TL;DR and really saying nothing in the last 2-3 paragraphs of totally-necessary-summarizing, but yeah the game has made a very solid and cromulent move in bringing danny mack in to counter-program b&b. they have nothing to lose because between the mac ALS and the people who will flip over whenever bernstein pisses them off (which happens more and more often as the years roll on) they're going to get a solid enough audience to deliver quality ratings books that are at the very least leaps beyond whatever harry and spike and/or jarrett payton were doing for them. and like i said b4, if the show is any good and ends up becoming "a thing" it'll end up trouncing b&b in the ratings books because i think the concept of a "scorehead"--- aka a listener who proudly declares allegiance to the station and leaves it on all day by default--- is an antiquated concept. that dare-i-say populist era of WSCR is over because, quite frankly without stephen A smith, they don't have to kiss your ass and pretend that they like you because they're cut from the same cloth as you anymore. when they started up in the 90s sports talk radio was new and unproven and blazing new territory going from little hole in the wall studios/companies into eventually becoming the "sports media" wing of giant media conglomerates.
nowdays sports talk radio is established and proven to be something that's successful in every major/ish marketplace: the formula works, and if you've got any sort of a footprint in the industry built on the back of ~10-20+ years of success and building up the brand into something people are going to consume whether or not it's any good because that's just what they do (see the score in 2014) then you don't have to go out of your way to coddle an audience and appeal to them like PLZ LISTEN TO US!!! WE LIKE YOU!!!! --- and WHOO BOY does dan bernstein know that. he's realized the 15/15/70 paradigm (15% of people really like you ALS-style, 15% of people really hate you gloopan kuratz style, 70% of people really don't give a shit either way as long as your show is halfway decent and not having a host screaming at people about child rape or something) and at this point in his career figured it is what it is and there's nothing he can do to have a giant revitalization where he ends up becoming wildly popular or suddenly desirable for larger/national/television media.... he is what he is and he's gonna be that for the rest of his life, and he'll continue to get solid enough #s til he hangs it up someday to go fuck off before he and his wife go plan the big wedding off in the sky.
the game knows this and figures bringing in the ford taurus of chi sports talk radio (solid, dependable (.....lol), gets the job done.... but if you wanted to impress people and had a lot of $$$ and a much better option right there you'd surely jump on it) but until that day comes, if it ever comes, you're gonna stick with the jon leiber of your sports talk radio pitching staff. YOU'RE GONNA RIDE THE HORSE (unless you're harry, of course, but that said does he come back for this?) and you're gonna put the safest most easy path to decent ratings out there in the hopes of getting your station a real/AM frequency someday.... and by cracky, if people actually listen to kaplan (cuz lord knows CSN has a vested interest in making sure you consume your USDA recommended daily dose of KAP MAN) and mac puts on a solid show that will easily compete with b&b and trounce it entirely if it's any good ---- yeah that'll likely be the ticket </logo> to getting the FM frequency that 100% of radios actually get or quite possibly the AM frequency that is truly ideal for sports/talk radio (it never sounds right in FM/stereo IMHO) and in the end.... isn't that what it's really all about here?
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Curious Hair wrote:
Les Grobstein's huge hog is proof that God has a sense of humor, isn't it?
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