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October 2, 2004
Saturday, October 2, 2004. Warner
Saturday, October 2, 2004. Warner Wolf on 1050 ESPN Radio.I listened to Warner Wolf on 1050 ESPN Radio this morning and I thought he was excellent. I'll tell you why and do some compare and contrast analysis, but first I have to give a full disclosure about my association with Warner.
I first met Warner Wolf when he did a sports-talk program in WTOP-AM radio in Washington DC in 1965 or 1966 when I was sales manager of the station. Warner's sport-talk program was one of the first of its kind in the country and it became instantly popular in Washington (and, by the way, easy to sell). What I remember most about Warner was his prodigious memory. He had a feature on his program that involved people calling in and trying to stump him on sports trivia. He rarely lost. Absolute photopgraphic memories are an extremely rare occurrence in human history, but I suspect that Warner comes very close to having one.
Warner went from radio to televison in Washington and then to WABC-TV and WCBS-TV in New York, where he became famous for the line, "Let's go to the video tape." Warner was a very good sports anchor and used his two or three minutes of time in a half-hour newscast well. He was exciting and good natured. But I felt his greatest asset, his encyclopedic memory, was buried under the blanket of television vapidness and highlights, no analysis, no insight, just action--but that's TV.
When 1050 ESPN Radio went on the air last year with its new all-sports format, I began listening regularly, primarily because I couldn't stand the in-your-face, arrogant, nasty sports-talk show hosts on WFAN. At first I thought Michael Kay was terrific--knowledgeable and good with callers. However, I tired of Kay as his on-the-air personality changed. He became self-absorbed, silly, and nasty to callers. He became an angry dispenser of his personal opinions and berated and made vicious remarks to and about his callers. Worse, he often deviated from talking about sports and talked about himself , movies, sex--anything but sports. He also began kidding his producers with cruel , malicious remarks. His anger, narcissisim, and spitefulness began to dominate his performance and I stopped listening.
I never watch local commercial television station's newscasts, so I wasn't aware that Warner was let go from WCBS-TV this past June, two months before his contract ended. I learned of his dismissal when I was talking to an old friend and WCBS-TV ex-general manager who is also a friend of Warner's. To my surprise, my friend put Warner on the phone and we had a nice chat. He told me is was looking around and I said, "You ought to be on ESPN Radio--you were the best at sports-talk radio and ESPN readio needs you desperately."
So when I was listening to Wally & the Keeg (Wally Matthews and Tom Keegan) on 1050 ESPN one afternoon, I heard a promo for Warner Wolf on Saturday mornings. I was glad to hear that Warner was back on the radio, for which I thought he was best suited, and made a note to listen.
Warner was great on the air. He was talking to Bob Gallerstein, the Sports Center update announcer and side-kick. It was pleasant, fact-filled conversation about sports that showed off Warner's unbelievable memory for sport statistics. Warner also has an infectious, real, warm laugh that was sprinkled through the discussion. He came across as a happy sports nut who loved nothing better than talking intelligently about sports and being able to put current sports in historic perspective. Smart, fun, and imminently listenable.
Unfortunately, he was only on until 10:00 a.m. when Mike Crispino came on the air. Cirspino is another rude, nasty, mean-spirited, humorless, angry Mike who arrogantly cut off callers. He sounded as though he belonged on WFAN, not on 1050 ESPN. So I turned him off.
I'll listen to Warner Wolf again next Saturday morning, blog until noon and then turn on Jonathan Schwartz on WNYC-FM (993.9). A nice Saturday on the radio with some up-beat, intelligent radio veterans, not angry, nasty narcissists. Perhaps my affinity for Warner and Jonathan reflects more on my age and personality and the angry, nasty narcissists refelct the age and personality of the younger sports fan 1050 ESPN is try to appeal to. For the first time in several years I'm pleased to be old.
Posted by Charles Warner at October 2, 2004 11:57 AM