Radio KBwD is on the air

Coincidental to some research on the background music for ESPN's World Cup commercials, we ran across this wholly underrated gem at a buddy's Memorial Day weekend BBQ.

Ladies and Gentlemen, from Dublin, Ireland, it's U2 performing "Surrender".
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ESPN West

ESPN has been planning for a little over a year now, to move a team out to Los Angeles, and have them do the late night Sports Center from a fabulous new facility. Well, that facility is just about complete, and today ESPN announced who was leaving the beautiful state of Connecticut and heading to La La Land.

This is a good news/bad news thing. ESPN will be shipping out solid and creative SportsCenter anchors Neil Everett and Stan Verrett. Unfortunately, we here in Pacific Time Zone will also be saddled with the unbearable Stuart Scott.

Read more here from Awful Announcing.

Spelcheck?

ESPN is handing over some of their broadcasting and production duties to college kids during ESPNU Campus Connection Week.



We’re thinking that Sara probably wants to get away for awhile.

H/T: Awful Announcing

Quickies

Possessing the wisdom and foresight we thought was exclusive to U.S. Congress, the citizens of Mexico City voted overwhelmingly to keep the Mexican petroleum industry in a state of ancient technology and stagnating production. A non-binding referendum organized by the leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD) declared state-owned incompetence to be a matter of national pride and thus preferable to the infusion of state-of-the-art drilling and refining techniques for which privatization and elements thereof, would allow. Mexico: bringing you the finest in socialism and crony capitalism.


No one does the self-gratification quite like ESPN and in the case of honoring, during its ESPYs award show, the once “infamous” now “famous” black power salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympic games, they rose to new heights. We’re not as hard over as Jonah Goldberg is in article here and though we do understand where Smith and Carlos were coming from we believe the act and the context in which it was executed was ill-advised.

Indeed, it can done… Somali immigrants taking the place of Mexican (illegal) immigrants in small-town Iowa. In the final paragraph the article graciously concedes that many of the Somalis are legal immigrants with roots in Minneapolis.

...and finally...12 years, two Presidential administrations and numerous challenges from environmental and, you know, “social justice” groups later, looks like we’re going to complete the border fence down towards Tijuana.

Wonder if Mickey gets discounts on his lap dances?

We’ve opined previously on the completely asleep-at-the-wheel nature of the management of ESPN Radio’s local AM 800 affiliate here in San Diego. Minutes of dead air, update-less traffic updates, abrupt mid-segment commercial and station breaks… so much so that we suspect no one back at corporate really has a clue as to what goes on here on the Left Coast. If we suspected before, we’re pretty much convinced now as we can’t imagine anyone at Disney, ESPN’s parent company, would be thrilled to know that AM 800 and Angel baseball (in San Diego?) is sponsored, in part, by Pure Platinum… a gentleman’s club.

UPDATE #1: While were on the subject of trashing the World Wide Leader, we need to express some disappointment with their coverage or lack, thereof, of the Olympic swimming and track and field trials that have been going on this past week and which conclude this weekend. We understand that ABC/ESPN will not be covering the Olympics (NBC has the honors) so there does not exist the cross-platform promotional incentive but the lack of Sports Center/highlight coverage of these two hi-viz Olympic sports borders on journalistic negligence.

Spelling Bee title goes to yet another kid whose name we wouldn’t be able to spell.

Congratulations to Sameer Mishra of West Lafayette, Indiana for nailing “guerdon” to take home the Scripps National Spelling Bee trophy, yesterday. Props also to Justin Song of Carmel Valley Middle School right up I-5 who finished tied for 8th and was eliminated for missing on “satyagraha”, the word that describes Ghandi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance.

The Sklar Brother of Cheap Seats were big fans of the ‘Bee as witnessed in this compilation of highlights from the '97 Spelling Bee.



UPDATE #1: The champ, Samir Mishra, fights off a curve ball much to his own relief.



Thanks to Dar' for passing this along

Programming Alert

Bridging the gap between the Memorial Day orgy of televised sports and the start of the NBA Finals is the Scripps National Spelling Bee which will air beginning tomorrow on ESPN. Yes, ESPN.

Look, if they are going to televise Poker and professional bowling then why not a spelling bee where the dysfunctionality resulting from a 13-year old moving in with their spelling coach rivals that of women's gymnastics. Besides, spelling is apparently not a point of emphasis with some people as it is with 'Bee participants.





Many thanks to our friend Dar' for passing along this photo from the parking garage of the Mission Valley Mall.

Dozens not maimed and killed by Thousands not Rioting and Looting Over Offensive Remarks

ESPN's Dana Jacobson got herself into a little trouble at a roast of ESPN Radio personalities Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic a couple of weeks back. Jacobsen a Michigan grad who by all accounts was completely sideways at the time, was directing her comments at Golic a Notre Dame grad when she allegedly shouted, “F### Notre Dame! F### Touchdown Jesus! F### Jesus!” You stay classy, Dana.

ESPN suspended Jacobson for a week – she just returned to her duties as co-host of First Take today. And there is absolutely no truth to the rumor that she gets absolutely bombed on a routine basis because she has to work with Skip Bayless. Link here for more from Awful Announcing.

ESPN has never addressed exactly what she said though Jacobson has apologized for the incident which means that she did indeed say something offensive.

Anyway, while looking at the angry mob outside ESPN studios protesting ESPN and Jacobson’s remarks, it reminded us of just how flippant and casual Christians treat their own religion. We had some thoughts on that here.

"Niedermeyer, Dead! ... Hoge, Schlereth, Dead!"

The national sports media’s obsession with Charger QB Philip Rivers and more precisely, his propensity to run smack at opponents and opponents’ fans, has reached epically ridiculous proportions as evidenced in attached piece here from AOL Fanhouse which documents ESPN’s Merril Hoge and Mark Schlereth drawing Ryan Leaf comparisons to Rivers.

And this morning on ESPN Radio, Scott Van Pelt, was commenting on Rivers’ jaw-jacking with Colt fans at the end of the game on Sunday and opined: “Do you know how many other starting NFL quarterbacks would have done that? None.” Hey, Scott: do you know how many starting NFL quarterbacks are still playing football right now? 4. We like that stat better.

Lo Neal, the Charger’s starting fullback (and many other Chargers) have come to River’s defense saying, “(Rivers)… is a great teammate, a good husband, a good father and a good Christian”. We will also add that Rivers is 27-8 in his first 35 starts. Did we miss anything?

Look, do we wish that perhaps Rivers didn’t run his mouth as much? Sure, if only so we didn’t have to hear all the whining ad nauseum on T.V. and radio. We’ve been critical of Rivers in this very blog but this is, for lack of a better term, a “family matter”…. we can make objective critiques and criticisms of Rivers’ game but when we see “outsiders” piling on, we’re going to lash out.

We’ve mentioned before the increasingly unwatchable nature of ESPN, especially its NFL coverage because of the overbearing nature of some of the rhetoric. Perhaps, ironically, we find the NFL’s house organ, the NFL Network to provide the most rational commentary and analysis. “Total Access” host Rich Eisen is solid, Jamie Dukes' “Put Up Your Dukes” is highly entertaining and we always love us some Prime Time.

Update: Rumors are swirling that Philip Rivers may have a partially torn ACL in his right knee as well as the sprained MCL. Get ready to strap it on, Billy! We’ll take back all those horrible things we said about you a couple weeks back.

Quickies: What’s in a word?, Mitt’s Mormonism speech and the 8(?) things you can’t say on T.V.

It would appear that campus “liberals” in Iran are far less enamored of their esteemed leader Mahmoud Ahmedenjiad than are campus “liberals” here stateside. Read article here reporting on student protests in Iran.

We have the text of Mitt’s Mormonism speech here. Read it and decide for yourself whether you think his religious beliefs would be an issue. Call us crazy but we don’t think Joe Lieberman would feel compelled to explain his Judaism to the American electorate were he running for President. Judaism being a religion, we might add, that rejects the central tenet of Christianity.

ESPN is becoming increasingly difficult to watch, anymore. They take self-absorbed and self-congratulatory behavior to an entirely different level. Here are a couple of recent examples of the World Wide Leader’s mediocre and/or possibly slanted programming.

…..in the wake of the Ravens choke-job against the Pats last Monday night, the post-game commentary was fixated on Bart Scott’s temper tantrum at the end of the game and Samari Rolle’s (an African-American) allegation that one of the ref’s (also an African-American) referred to him as “boy”. They simply would not let it go…. these two issues were beat to death all week providing cover for Brian Billick and his coaching staff flat-lining in the fourth quarter which was the real story.

also, Tim Tebow’s acceptance speech upon winning the Heisman on Saturday (he had our vote, btw) contained numerous acknowledgments to his faith in Christ… in fact, it was the very first thing he mentioned upon winning the award. SportsCenter aired immediately after the ceremony and the Heisman presentation (we watched the taped re-broadcast at 9 PST) was the lead story and they played back plenty of Tebow’s acceptance speech….. except for any of the “Jesus” and “God” stuff.

Look… we’re not advancing an agenda or necessarily trying to make a point, we just thought it odd that a speech we saw a mere 15-20 minutes earlier and which contained several testaments to faith throughout the speech was wholely sanitized of the same when it came time to roll the hi-lite tape. A faith that Tebow felt was just as important if not more so than any other factor if his acceptance speech was to be believed

Your Zinger for the Day

As noted in an earlier post, we are big fans of Tony Kornheiser, sports columnist for the Washington Post and a frequent presence on ESPN and ABC. Of all the lame round-table, sports-guys-yelling-at-each-other TV programs, the only one worth watching is PTI (Pardon the Interruption) which he co-hosts with fellow Post-er, Michael Wilbon.

The freaks are really starting to come out now that Michael Vick has pled guilty to the dog-fighting charges against him. We won’t get into all the bizarreness of the past 24-48 hours by people coming to Vick’s defense… you’ll hear it yourself but we wanted to share a Kornheiser response on PTI this afternoon to something that Stephon Marbury, an NBA baller, said in regards to Vick. Star-bury attempting to minimize Vick’s involvement in the dog-fighting scandal said that Vick had merely “…fell into a bad situation”. TK shot back, “Vick bankrolled a bad situation.”

Good night, all.

JAWS!

Wow. Apologies. Posts were bordering on serious there for a while. Anyway, you all will be bid adieu this evening by a few comments on last night’s Monday Night Football game. Well, not about the game itself as it was a preseason game but about the announcers.

First, a quick word on announcers and sports talk TV/radio guys in general. As they like sports and they like to talk about sports, we are pre-disposed to liking them. Yes, we like to keep our relationships simple and as such, you don’t have to do a whole lot to keep us happy.

That is why the person of Joe Theismann had to work so hard to curry disfavor. You see, there was probably no color commentator on the planet that made listening to a particular ballgame more of a chore. He just oozed pomposity and regal arrogance. We always pictured him in a tunic robe holding a gold-leafed scroll while in the booth. Rather than offering mere opinions, Little Joey-T, made proclamations… grand, bold, sweeping proclamations.

And that would not have been so bad if it did not seem like he was making these same proclamations…. every damn week!

Worse yet, the man had zero sense of humor and that was never more apparent than last season when ABC put Tony Kornheiser in the booth (along with Mike Tirico) for its Monday Night Football telecasts. The reasoning being that Theismann would play it straight to the wise-cracking indifference of Kornheiser. Uhh… no. Either Theismann was too dense to realize that was his role or he felt it beneath him.

Either way, its of no concern any longer. Enter Jaws! The Polish Rifle, Ron Jaworski. The man LOVES football, makes insightful and pertinent comments AND has a sense of humor and doesn’t take himself too seriously so he has been (from what little has been observed) a great foil for Kornheiser.

Bonus points for starting his career with the old Los Angeles Rams… the Los Angeles Coliseum Rams… the pre-Georgia Los Angeles Rams with the glorious blue and gold uniforms…. alright, we’ll stop now.

Combine Theismann’s mere presence with the Network switcheroo beginning last season which relegated Monday Night Football to second fiddle behind NBC’s Sunday Night Football, and thusly second-fiddle match-ups, there became scant reason to tune in. That’s all behind us now. Monday night has true life-affirming value once again.

Welcome aboard, Jaws!