Nothing But Static on the Dial
With three pro sports teams in town, along with what is probably the largest Ohio State following outside of Columbus, you would think that we would have top-notch sports talk on the radio in Cleveland.
Well, think again. From the soupy drek of local and syndicated shows on WKNR, to what passes as sports talk in the afternoon on WTAM, Cleveland sports fans can be excused for asking “haven’t we suffered enough?”
The sad part is that it wasn’t always this way. I’m old enough to remember listening to Pete Franklin, who hosted Cleveland’s Sportsline radio show from 1966 to 1987 (if you can find Terry Pluto’s book on Franklin, You Could Argue But You’d Be Wrong, grab it).
Franklin knew what he was talking about, he had the ear of the fan and the local teams knew it. He could get 40,000+ fans into the old stadium by promoting I Hate the Yankees Night. He helped get the Cavs out of the grasp of Ted Stepien and worked to bring back Joe Tait.
Who in town has that kind of power today?
Now, if you want to talk sports on WKNR, you have to wait for the syndicated Mike and Mike Show (oof) to finish before Tony Rizzo comes on at 9 a.m., followed by more syndication with Jim Rome (why?) before Michael Reghi and Kenny Roda (double why?) come on at 3 p.m.
Think about that for a minute: in the 12-hour period from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., we only get six hours of local talk? You don’t think there’s enough going on sportswise in this town to warrant more than that?
Rizzo and Reghi are good examples of the current state of Cleveland radio – they’re both nice guys that are miscast in their current roles. Reghi is a solid announcer – I enjoy his work on MAC basketball – but not much of a talk show host. Same with Rizzo – he’s entertaining doing 4-5 minutes on the nightly news, but put him in front of a mike for three hours (well, more like 75 minutes when you factor in commercials, sports tickers, commercials going into and coming out of sports tickers) and there’s not enough there.
It’s not even worth talking about the abomination that is WTAM.
The big question in all of this is why? Why do Cleveland fans put up with this? Why don’t we demand quality? I can see where this may have worked in the ’70s, when WTAM’s signal was the only thing you could pick up on the radio and there were only five channels on the TV.
But in the age of The Well-Educated Fan, where all the sports information we could ever dream of is at our fingertips, why is this acceptable?
The one thing that saved my sports sanity was becoming a Sirius subscriber in 2005. No longer was I tied to dinosaur radio, and having a choice in what I listen to is wonderful. If you’ve never had a chance to hear real sports talk, take a listen to this clip from the NFL Channel’s Training Camp stop in Cleveland.
Maybe that’s the answer. If fans turn away and refuse to listen to what’s on local radio just because it’s there, if they go somewhere else – be it satellite radio, the Internet or wherever – then maybe we’ll finally get the level of sports talk radio we deserve.
Because, seriously, haven’t we suffered enough?
Red Right 88 
I totally agree we need local sports talk for morning drive. WKNR needs to drop Mike and Mike. They have good programing besides that.
The abomination that is WTAM can be heard all over the country. The Indians, Browns, and Cavs reporters are all good. At least provide why you hate it.
I think the product on WTAM speaks for itself. Try listening for an hour, it's horrible. It's practically one non-stop commercial and when someone does open their mouth what comes out is nonsense.
I agree on the announcers (Joe Tait, Tom Hamilton, Jim Donovan, etc.) but those guys don't work for WTAM. They are employed by the teams who buy airtime on WTAM.