12 and a half years in afternoon drive, across two partners and more fill-ins than we can count, is something few talk show hosts have done here. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise: by being protected in the lineup by two mass-appeal shows in the drivetimes, this is an opportunity to do the kind of unique, subversive radio he did in middays with Terry.

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he still has a job right? He seems like a guy who will do everything and anything to keep his job. 12 years of an annyoing SOB but 12 years nonetheless.

HOF career and still young.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

He basically had one other competitor his whole time there and didn't even beat them until MJH dissolved but yeah congrats on being a cockroach after the holocaust I guess .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

Those midday shows we're great. Maybe he can figure out a way get that mojo rising.

it's telling to me that the new afternoon show went out of its way to play 83 and pay homage to an afternoon show staple, yet dan seems to distance himself from the glorious past of ALSes, m-jeff, and all that. i think he's honestly believing he's evolved past that, and not having vintage/ish terry around in terms of outranking him in station senority means that he's probably not going to back down to his post-FOTSian vision. hell, you call the guy senor columnist FFS. he's let the FOTS thing get to him, and while this is a natural progression for the guy.... still, with his kids old enough to listen now i can't believe we'll go back to the halcyon days of count fagula just because he's on a few hours earlier.

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Agree. The glory days.

This is probably a better gig for him now. He can likely only turn around on 92 or 93 at this stage of his career.

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Coincides neatly with how old he looks .

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

The Penn State deep dive, while good intentioned, was the beginning of the slow death of the Score's afternoon drive show. I just don't think he knew how to balance the seriousness of that situation with his responsibilities as a sports talk radio host. Bernstein was never the same after that. Terry completely checked out from that point on as well.

A few shows. Maybe even a week at the most of deep dive was more than enough. However, the months long focus was such a tone deaf decision on his part relative to the demands of sports radio listeners. I really think MANY PTFB during this time, and idk if the ratings ever recovered.

I still listened after that, but the show just wasn't as enjoyable anymore.

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Very true.

Bring back High Noon. That was the sort of entertaining thing that helped make the show fun.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

The improbable rise to running shit at a major market (skypoint to OG) sports station is pretty remarkable.


Like Shawn Michaels becoming WWF champ.

Or Daniel Murphy turning into Babe Goddamn Ruth.

If Bernsie is Shawn Michaels....who does that make Mac?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Hogan.

Just keeps coming back to take the title over and over

This is WM 9

Spiegel is Yokozuna, Goff was Bret Hart

Nice

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Dan has made millions working half a day. Even his parents have to be proud of his success even though he didn't enter the family business.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Might not be popular opinion, but Dan could/and really should have gone national. He is an extremely talented radio host. He should have been the next Greenberg, maybe not on his level, but national for sure.

Why didn't he, his major fault of grandstanding social issues on one side only(hence not only alienating, but making people not listen) and his abuse of callers.

It is okay to be a left leaning person on issues whether it is left or right, but the amount of time and effort(for the love of god just look at his twitter page, its the Huffington Post of retweets) is what kept him local.

Big fish in small pond Dan ended up, which in chicago gives you a great living, cost of living cheaper than the coasts and a nice lifesytle.

But wasted talent in the end in my opinion. In the early days he was hilarious, very quick witted, and the show had me laughing each hour.
After PSU and then with Goff, the venom and anger just turned people off, hence the change. Hate listen is hard to pull down ratings unless you are really popular or a shock jock(i.e Howard Stern in 80s/90s).

I have never understood the line of thinking that says since he did not go national he wasted his talent. Dude was the drive time host for 10+ yrs in one of the biggest markets in the country. He has had a huge impact on the city that he calls home. Love him or hate him he is a success story

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

He could probably do what Michael Wilbon does on ESPN very easily. But the landscape is changing. ESPN is losing subscribers on a regular basis. Cable TV and broadcasting are not as secure of a gig as they once were. At a certain point the bubble of sports TV contracts will burst. Any industry that has an advertising revenue model can lose its audience.

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God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.

Hogan always ducked Shawn.

Good analogy.

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Well most people who have talent want to go to the top. It's no different than a newscaster who stays on the Chicago affiliate rather than taking a gig in New York or LA. There are people who are happy with a certain level of accomplishment and others who just want to climb the ladder.

Can we all agree that Bernstein could do Skip Bayless' gig?

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God is the uncaused cause of the universe. He had no beginning and has no end. He is not bound by the laws of the universe he created.

I agree with that. Being afternoon host in the 3rd largest city for 12 years is pretty successful.

But he got a demotion and he now knows he has to be careful. Because the SCORE is his only option at this point. At least at the money he makes. He's made a lot of enemies locally. He could write for one of the many websites. But that's not big money. He doesn't want to be some sort of beat writer and travel all the time at his age. He's not gonna go to another city for a radio gig at his age either.

He's been put on notice. And he knows it. Like I said, for the first time in Bernstein's SCORE career, he's scared and nervous. Somebody finally told him "NO"

And he's gotta get those kids through Northwestern, pay off the million dollar house and have enough for retirement. The SCORE is the only way to do that.

It was easy for him when he had a boss that was scared of him in Mitch Rosen. But this DeCastro has stepped in. He's not scared and he has a flame thrower.

Dan LeBatard's ESPN radio show contract runs out this summer and with his patron John Skipper gone, he's made it pretty clear that he doesn't think he's going to be renewed. Bernstein would be an interesting fit for that timeslot (almost the same one he's now on, 9-12 Central) if he could bring back some of the goofiness. ESPN Radio listeners are used to a little bit of SJW, DLB and (when he had the afternoon show, Bomani) are focused on social issues in sports just as much as the games themselves, if not more. But DLB's show is silly as hell while he's doing it.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

LeBatard has the mass appeal that Dan doesn't though. Although LeBatard will turn 50 this year, you wouldn't be stupid for thinking he may just be an older sounding guy in his 30's by listening to him. Bernstein sounds old, plays old, and looks even older still. That won't fly when trying to capture LeBatard's listener base, which is ironically a lot closer to what Bernstein and Goff thought they could capture in Chicago: Woke 20-somethings who live on Twitter and consume the show via podcast. What's more, do you really think Dan Bernstein has the balls to go chest-to-chest with the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Esquire, the way LeBatard did over the Marlins? I don't.

SJW and DLB? I thought that guy just got fired

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Oh, it'd be a softer show with less appeal, but I don't think the new cost-cutting ESPN cares about that. It'd be a lot cheaper for them, and a lot less controversial. [John Skipper was the guy who wanted LeBatard's kind of controversy.] Shit, they're the ones giving regular national shifts to Sarah Spain, and Dickerson and Hood do a fair amount of national weekend work. I was going down the path of Bernstein solo being cheaper than both DLB and Stugotz, and getting more of the silliness that he actually is capable of into the show.

Hell, even with his current stylistic issues, he'd be a better national host on CBS Sports Radio than any of the turds they have on their now, although I suspect he might currently get paid more than any of those guys.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

No one is saying that Bernstein is a failure. I've always contended that he could have been a lot more. I think he got lazy and comfortable in his situation. Back in the late 90s and 2000s there were a ton of sports radio stations that he could have gotten on air and built an audience. Hell, Matt Speigel was on-air at Sporting News Radio.

For people touting the 'drive time in 3rd largest market': Who cares. If you ask anyone outside of the Chicago metro area, who the hell knows Dan Bernstein? It would be the same asking who the hosts are in LA or Houston.

When Bernstein drops the 'i'm smarter than you act' and is solo he isn't as bad. However, the asshole persona that everyone dislikes is who Dan Bernstein is. He is not going to change. He can rein it in a bit but it is always under the surface.

The had his tryout on national radio and it went nowhere.

The truth of the B and B show is that anytime they were faced with legitimate competition, they lost the timeslot. They were never the highest rated show at their station. They regularly lost listenership from their lead in show. Afternoon drive succeeded (if you call it that) because of the momentum of THE SCORE, not because of B and B. I've always considered drive time to be woefully underproductive considering their competition and the history of other shows in that time slot.

Dan Bernstein has some skill but he is niche programming. Always has been and always will be.

It's ridiculous to equate him with Greenberg. Greenberg is a handsome guy (no homo) and while I do think he has decent intelligence, he is on TV because he looks the part of a tv anchor. Putting looks aside, they are basically the same age. Greenberg was one or more steps ahead of Bernstein in his career at every single annual "landmark" of age from the very beginning.

Dan has had a great career. 99% of the radio world, not just sports entertainers, would give their left arm for his resume and salary. Let's not romanticize him. He is not a ratings grabber and his time being the FOTS has damaged the Score brand both in terms of character and ratings.

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

Bernstein is ten times as witty (on the air) as Greenie.