They got famous because of Mike North.

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Certainly the most famous of the angry meatballs

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The angry meatballs are the people that buy tickets, buy merch, and listen to sports talk radio, the odd thing is that the SJW leftists the score hosts are catering to do not really have that much interest in sports. They may pay attention when they are told to by the political types because it fits an agenda they want to push, but they certainly do not care who the second baseman for the Cubs is this year or any other year.

Find it odd that they are quite willing to offend and push away a large and engaged audience in order to chase a much smaller one. Not nearly as idiotic as Bud Light offending and the losing a sizeable portion of their base consumers while chasing the apparently almost non-existent trans beer drinking group, but still a strategy that would be dismissed in a Marketing 101 case study.

The station was dismissed early on by the media elites, but grew via word of mouth by catering to the meatballs.

The funny thing is that even the most ardent SJW warriors on WSCR are political meatballs with rather shallow political thoughts, yet we are supposed to humor that for some odd reason. Social media seems to provide comfort for the political meatballs because they think everyone must have the exact same take on things when in reality it's just people reposting someone else's take on a subject.

I don't know who orchestrated the Great Leap Left at the station, or whether there was one moment that solidified it, but I've got to believe that the station was setting itself up for disaster when it took the midday counter-sports-culture show put on by two guys who's schtick was hating sports culture and sports radio, and not only gave them afternoon drive, but made the internet-trolliest of the two FOTS. That set up Child Rape Radio, which seemed to accelerate Terry checking out and pushed away MANY so that the bulk of who remained listening were the likes of Stone Cutter and Maddux Boy and Dan "Amir" Bernstein.

Along with that solidification of power came the unspoken mandate to program other shows in the lineup in a manner similar to FOTS, and pretty soon the daytime lineup was littered with guys who were doing their own sports talk version of a guy who hates sports talk. Then came the Age of Trump, where it was one's self-appointed duty to Speak Truth To Power and explain breathlessly that politics Really Matter, and because sports and politics are inextricably linked, Sports Is Politics. And wouldn't you know it, for some reason, everyone who was hired at a sports-talker to do a show like they hated sports talk and the culture or liking sports, began talking about politics in a very uniform way. On an unrelated note, there was another mass exodus of listeners around this time.

Many that is true, but an incomplete statement.

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There could be 11 strong candidates for worst Score on-air personality of all-time among the current Score lineup.

I like the angle, kinda like an anti-Mt. Rushmore, maybe Mt. Suckmore?

My first nominee would be Larry Holmes, he was given a show with the most common sports talk model when they partnered him up with an ex-jock, but the Hamp and Holmes experience was a failure.

Then an evening show, not really a rousing success, followed by the odd solo mid-day show where he struggled to come up with enough content to do two hours, again not exactly a rousing success.

We now have the tedious show with Bernstein, do not think they will play any bits from that show at the stations next milestone anniversary, not really sure who likes that show other than Mitch Rosen.

You would have to put Telander there for his brief run, everyone owes J. Hood a debt of gratitude for exposing that goof.

Not sure what Haugh really brings, a downgrade from Hanley for sure.

Jason Goff's run was brutal, but he fell into the same trap as McKnight and allowed Bernstein to drive the show off the cliff. Listening to McKnight try to appease Bernstein made for some painfully awkward radio.

Hard to believe that the mid-day show with North was the show that helped put the station on the map, now the mid-day show is Larry and Danny's feces strewn sandbox.

I don't like podcasts. I like live radio. I listen to Dan Patrick because they have fun talking about sports, movies, TV shows, etc. Zero politics or "serious radio". Reminds me of Dany Mac back in the day. It is entertainment after all. If I want politics I tune into Michael Smerconish on POTUS. And he has actual discussions on issues. I don't need to be preached to or talked down to by someone like Bernstein or Larry. Who wants to listen to that shit and their smarmy know it all tones? Parkins & Spiegel can still be a fun listen sometimes. So can Howard Stern. But if they get on a soap box no thanks.

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North to Bernstein to Parkins is thesis-antithesis-synthesis

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

Incompetent Mitch Rosen made it almost a certainty with the influx of sjw talk and horrendous hosts once avid Score listeners are now migrated to being avid podcast listeniers.

What other option was there? There wasn't exactly a great future in people doing Mike North and Mike Murphy impressions either. At the time that B&B got called up to the afternoon shift the rest of the lineup was terrible.

Even getting Dan McNeil to return only resulted in moderate success.

Bernstein made a lot of mistakes and programmed to himself rather than his audience much more than he should have but he was the only consistent performer the station had since McNeil left the first time.

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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!

I think the better option was, even if moving B&B to afternoons was warranted (and it was a ratings success at the time, of that there is no doubt), Dan shouldn't have been anointed as FOTS and given as much license to do the things he started doing or did more often.

A more forward-thinking program director, I believe, would have realized the need to bring to heel the host screaming into a microphone about child rape for months on end as quickly as possible, but since that guy had up to that point been allowed to incessantly mock other shows/hosts/departed hosts and generally display outright contempt for the listener base, there was no discipline to be had.

And if it's fair to point out Dan's consistent performance over the years, I think it is likewise fair to point out that once Terry was completely checked out and doing only part time, he (Dan) got a LOT of help from the Cubs rights, and his ratings performance during football/basketball season during those waning years of B&B were lackluster at best, to say nothing of the nosedive he took when B&G got rolling. A show which, as we've covered before, suffered from the same symptoms of B&B post-Sandusky: Bernstein fully at the helm of programming the show with no insight from his on-air partner, and no one in management with the power or willingness to get him to stop.

To put it very simply, choosing to focus on politics brought down both Mike North and dan bernstein.

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Don't take it personally.

Dan Bernstein has had 5 co-hosts in the last 7 or 8 years. His new co-host, like the others, pander to him. The new show bring up politics on a regular basis again. If you follow politics, you realize that most of what is said is completely partisan, goes unchallenged, and is mostly untrue, but that's become a regular part of the show again. How have politics hurt him? If anything, he seems emboldened to continue pushing his conspiracy theories.

I can agree with this though I think Bernstein also needs to be taking direct blame for this. Bernstein was never going to be a populist who had the love and admiration of Chicago but he didn't need to enter every day of his job talking about what he wanted to talk about and not what the listeners did. That's why the show was MUCH better in football season.

I think Bernstein's career was limited by the lack of anyone in control of his shows outside of him. I also can't deny that.

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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!

Agree on Mike North. Very bizarre move to turn the show into a news/sports opinion show. His political opinions, from the right, were not informed and he was ignorant. He probably started the move down this direction on the station and he was terrible at it. He got too big in his own head and didn't realize that his political opinions were not the reason to listen. Most of his opinions were not well argued, but may have helped create the current direction of the station (although 2016 broke a lot of people).

Comic book super fan Larry is currently doing a nerd voice to make fun of people that play fantasy football. super self aware as always

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Spot fucking on. The score made it big by hiring people that didn't go to college. Then the college elites kicked those peasants out and ruined the business.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

the difference in the station pre-twitter and post-twitter is most remarkable to me. Pre-twitter most shows were a reaction to what was in the newspaper but the reactions were at least genuine. Post twitter the shows are all driven by twitter and the reactions all sound like they're formulated with the knowledge that if you give the wrong reaction you will get the Dan McNeil treatment. Bernstein had about 2 dozen Dan McNeil twitter jokes per week on air circa 2007, today he's milquetoast Dan Bernstein.

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I can't speak for every show, but I think the whole Radio For People On Twitter contagion at The Score rose to prominence alongside the Sports Is Politics mindset. People like Dan, Jason, Parkins, etc., fell in love with the attention they'd get on twitter from like-minded people when they'd go off on a rant or go about virtue signaling, and with Dan being firmly in control of programming his show and vicariously programming others, I guess he figured a show for those who over-value Twitter responses by someone who over-values those responses was a match made in heaven.

Audacy stock is near 70% down from its recent reverse split.

It is funny to see how they are all in sync with how evil Twitter/X is, but are so dependent on it for show content.

Bernstein became lazy with the rise of Deadspin. You could just refresh the blog and read whatever B&B were going to say later that day.

When Daulerio killed the blog by way of pedo jokes, Danny had nowhere else to turn.

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Interesting takes from numerous people, some well thought out and crafted posts.

Seemed that back in the day each show had a slightly different vibe as the hosts brought slightly different and unique takes to the table.

Uncle Terry in his prime would often give you a radically different take, he was the first to even dare to mention that Jordan was not the angel everyone made him out to be, that would get you crucified on twitter today.

The direct and pointed questioning of team ownership North used to do would cause many younger people to feel uncomfortable as they are not used to direct conversations, and of course North would be crucified on twitter as the team ownership would activate useful idiots like Hub to attack North as being a right wing lunatic to discredit him. Hub's ridiculous defense of all things McKaskey would have been relentlessly mocked from sun up to sun down back in the day, now all the hosts just agree with him.

There is really no need to listen to WSCR because you can save yourself tons of time and effort by scanning the twitter takes on things, the hosts are just going to regurgitate those exact takes all day long, there is no differentiation between shows because the hosts and GM all rely on the exact same sources and therefore have the exact same thoughts.

You are better off talking with a meatball fan as the bar as at least they will give you their thoughts on what they saw in the game sans the twitter filters.

What?

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Agree with most of that Claw and its why I haven't listened to the Score in years, nor watched ESPN as they have similarities in just regurgitating the same shit across their channels with no real content or actual opinions.

Personally, I don't know how anyone could fix the Score. At one time, I thought they would move to Sirius/XM purely for Bernstein to get a wider audience to spew his Deadspin bullshit and to have more freedom with betting. I guess that never would have materialized because there isn't the audience to care about Chicago sports past a few shows.

We will just have the cherish the memories of the old days.

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Do you work with millennials?

Millennials constantly bow to authority and management.

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LOL, kinda wondering if you ever get out of the house, are you a shut in?

Millennials couldn't handle Mike North is one of the better "You'll never believe these facts about Millennials. You'll be shocked at #5" entries I've seen.

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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!