$.02...
Many others have put all of what I'm about to say down in writing, earlier in the thread. Hopefully at least Webby is reading this with a credulous eye. Palehose, there's no hope for you, and I feel that you are going to regret a lot of what you've contributed to this thread in the future.
So, as Beardown said, LoHo's an exceptional bullshitter. To quote Beardown, he "complicates the simple and simplifies the complicated." This is a problem, and it feels like an acute trait of LoHo's on-air personality rather than a functional error of the show that can be repaired by a producer. Unfortunately, this is also, to me, the most abrasive trait of LoHo's on-air personality (aside from the borderline objectification of women in the media, which is by far a more difficult issue to unpack here).
I generally dislike Mike Murphy's show due to his presence/delivery on the air, and even with that built-in bias, I believe him when he says that he has something on the order of "five hours of talk" to cram into a two hour show. The glaring difference between my inherent credulity re: Murph and the inverse incredulity re: Hamp + Holmes is that it feels like LoHo's inability to keep the simple simple and thoroughly investigate the complicated just feels like a waste of time. When listening to the show, it honestly feels like Laurence Holmes ("driver" of the show) can't come up with two hours of sports talk radio, and so he falls back on the above tactic.
Some would disagree with me on this point, but while the "not having enough talk to fill radio time" criticism could easily be made of guys like Matt Abattacola or Jason Goff when they fly solo, the difference is that the aforementioned rarely (this is where some/many would disagree with me) let their egos get in the way of their voices. Abbatacola and Goff (and also Paruch, who I would never accuse of "not having enough talk to fill radio time") tell it like they see it, and engage listeners with their insight. Intangibly, LoHo's insights on anything but the Bears (and even on this, his strong suit, he strays into rhetorical and logical spirals that only serve to confound the casual fan) feel, for lack of a better word, contrived and, inherently, irrelevant. Difference here, again, between LoHo and Murph: Murph is by no means an expert on any sport but baseball, but his demeanor (while abrasive to some, self included) can be abrasive, he rarely "reaches," his points come at you in a considered, concise manner, and if he does one thing extremely well that LoHo does not, it's that he engages listeners and makes them "want" to talk to him.
Which leads to yet another difference between LoHo and his younger colleagues at the Score: guys like Goff, Abbatacola (apologies if I'm butchering the spelling here), and Paruch are all guys I feel like I would enjoy having a conversation with. I can not say the same about LoHo, again, all due to the above.
Unfortunately, this has very little to do with Webby and his involvement with the show. I'm not sure how production meetings go in sports radio, but I would assume that Webby's capacity is primarily a functional one. If I'm wrong on this point, please do consider providing Hamp and Holmes both with some "outs" on their topics - a clear outline of where they can lead with their thoughts, rather than letting them squander several hours struggling to make the same point about the previous week's Bears game. I feel that this show reached the air at a perfect time for it to succeed, but I fear that once the Chicago football season ends, Hamp and Holmes will become an ever more grotesque trainwreck.
For purposes of the "focus group" objective at play here, I am a 24 year old male listener. I tune into, on average, 25~30 hours of sports talk radio a week, and the sports talk radio offered up on 670 The Score is the only sports talk radio I listen to regularly. As a listener, I have invested a lot of time and support (in the form of talking up the station here and with friends) to The Score. I have only called in to a show once, and it was to Murph's show when he was running a bit offering up a prize for the best contribution (the prize was one that would have helped me a great deal in securing baseball equipment for my first year in an amateur league). I am marginally college educated and (wait for it) make about the same per year as palehose23 likely does, judging by the digs taken at him in this thread.
I honestly hope this helps, Webby, and I sincerely wish you the best in your career.
_________________ Douchebag wrote: This thread is probably going to make Tim Raines want to do cocaine again.
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