Oliver and Bell should be an excellent afternoon drive show, although it's interesting that their show is essentially going to have the same dynamic as Buck and Kincade: one loud Yankee and one local college football guy. For some reason, I associate comedy bits with morning shows more than afternoon shows, so we'll see how Bell's bits play out in the later time slot. Leak will be important as a straight man with Bell and Oliver, plus he'll provide a link to the Stews' audience because he can drive a little Hawks/NBA discussion.
The one negative to the change is that Bell, Nick Celini, and Chris Dimino had developed great chemistry in the morning and had made Steak Shapiro superfluous; removing Bell means a great role for Steak and Steak is clearly the weakest of those four. The rampant success of Boston's three major teams has not been good for a guy who already came off as arrogant. Conversely, the Falcons' annus horribilis has been great for Mike Bell, who has done some very funny bits over the past couple mornings about the content of the team's 2007 highlight video. He and Celini played off of each other perfectly on that topic this morning.
I like Adams and Woolverton's weekend shows because they cover actual sports topics. 11-1 is a good time for them, as they'll be hitting 790's core audience. Der Wife will not be happy that 790 is breaking up Monsters of the Midday, which had become her favorite show. She's in the car a lot more than I am during the day and had really grown to enjoy that show more than any other. Personally, I listen in the morning for about an hour and in the early evening for about 15 minutes, so the moves are a slight wash for me. Mayhem gets a little weaker, while the PM drive show gets stronger.
By the way, it wouldn't be an AJC thread on sports talk radio without a race war breaking out and the sparks starting flying in record time. Here is the very first comment posted after the article went up:
what network signed them?
was it ENSN - the Ebonics News & Sports Network
It is a shame that Chernoff is departing and these two clowns are staying. Well At least Chernoff speaks english and can get another job
I love posters who criticize others for poor use of the English language and don't know that the word "English" is capitalized as a proper noun.
2 comments:
I kinda liked Chernoff, so I'd count that as a negative too, but otherwise I agree completely. If they had just dropped Shapiro instead of Chernoff, I could pretty much do away with every other AM pre-set on my car radio.
They should have gone with "The Bottom Line and Bell" in the morning. I agree that Steak is a very weak link. His value to the show has only been as a means for Bell and the others to play off his self-aggrandizing insecurity. I would have moved him (because they can't fire him) to the afternoon drive slot with Oliver and Woberton.
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