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Leonsis Takes Aim At Dukes In DC

Jason Barrett

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With the Wizards coming off an unprecedented 4-0 sweep of the Toronto Raptors and the Capitals facing a Game 7 on Monday night with a coach who’s never been there before, what’s Monumental Sports owner Ted Leonsis blogging about? Radio shows, of course!

In a post that spans three entirely different topics in just six paragraphs, Theodore takes aim at WJFK-FM personality Chad Dukes, adding armchair radio program director to his already impressive resume as a sports franchise owner. It seems this has been bothering him all weekend.

“On Friday, in drive time rush hour radio, from 500 pm to 600 pm, on 106.7 FM, the conversation wasn’t about the Wizards upcoming game, it was about bacon and potato casserole recipes, and favorite Seinfeld episodes. Is there any other market in America that sports talk radio converses about Seinfeld in drive time on the night of an NBA playoff game? Or the night before a big away Caps playoff game? Perhaps this is why Wizards and Caps fans don’t tune in? These kids today.”

— Ted Leonsis, via http://tedstake.monumentalnetwork.com

There are multiple factors to consider here. Most importantly, the Wizards are a broadcast partner with CBS Radio, which includes 106.7 The Fan. So criticizing the programming decisions of one show at a station that is paying you to broadcast games is strange.

Secondly, to Dukes’s credit, it wasn’t like he hadn’t discussed the two local teams earlier in the show. He had the radio announcers of both of Leonsis’s teams on to talk about both sports. In the first hour, no less. So criticism that implies a media outlet is responsible for whether or not people are tuned in to his team is not only off-base, but incorrect.

The basic fact of the matter is that Dukes, a radio host, is looking to entertain and gain ratings. Last time I checked, bacon is delicious and“Seinfeld” still is quite popular in reruns. Meaning, if you talk about it, people will listen and call in. The purpose of a radio station, or any media outlet for that matter, is not to simply trumpet the interests of the people they cover. To imply that sports fans are not watching a team on television because the people on the radio aren’t talking about the games at all times just makes zero sense.

Most bizarre though, is Leonsis’s sign off. “These kids today” is a pretty odd shot at a guy who has established himself as a huge proponent of local sports. Not to mention the fact that Dukes is 36 years old. This all seems like just an example Leonsis’s apparent insecurities about still being second fiddle to Dan Snyder’s team from a popularity standpoint.

Speaking of whom, if Ted wants a station that talks all Monumental Sports all the time, he can do what Snyder did. Just buy his own.

Credit to the Washington Post who originally published this article

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Ken Carman: Radio Hosts Don’t Know How to Talk About Baseball

Carman included himself in the group of radio hosts who don’t do a great job of breaking down Major League Baseball.

Jordan Bondurant

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Ken Carman

Is the art of baseball talk on sports radio lost? 92.3 The Fan host Ken Carman feels like it has.

On The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima on Wednesday, Carman said baseball talk even in Cleveland, had become trite.

“Because we don’t know how to talk about baseball,” Carman said. “And I put myself right in there it’s not where I am above the fray or anything like that. There’s a lost thing about talking baseball. The art of it I’m not sure.”

Ken remembered one of the most fun arguments he had with Lima was a knock down, drag out over bunting and getting callers screaming about the topic. He feels like hosts don’t dive as deep into the nuances of the game as they used to.

“You listen to old Mike and the Mad Dog from the early 2000s, and when the lineups would come out, them getting into shouting matches about who’s batting sixth,” Carman said.

Carman also thought about 2017 and 2018 when the Cleveland Browns had the number one overall picks, Carman also thought about the run in the 1990s the then-Indians had and were the top team in the city. Baseball talk dominated the radio airwaves also because there were no Browns at that time.

He felt like because of a number of factors with the Guardians, talking baseball on the show has been shuffled out of the limelight in some respects.

“I think that’s been lost over the last how many years in this city, everywhere,” Carman said. “I’m part of the problem, I’ll admit it, sorry.”

“One of the things I try to avoid, because I want to be better, and you are with me on this – I can’t turn every conversation into ‘Fix your sport’,” he added. “Well, this is the problem with baseball. That’s too easy to do, and it doesn’t help anybody’s interest. If I’m just telling you how bad baseball is, well you’re not gonna have any interest in baseball or talking about baseball. So it’s a terrible, terrible thing to do.”

Reacting to fan reaction in regards to the Guardians getting the top pick in the next MLB draft, Ken Carman said he was hoping to have a little fun on the air with it. But fan cynicism it seems has tapered expectations a little bit.

“There’s not as much generated craziness with the baseball draft that there is with the football draft or even the NBA Draft. But we can have a little fun with it,” he said.

“Are those just not baseball fans?” Lima asked in response to the cynicism in the fanbase. “Those don’t sound like big-time baseball fans.”

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Tony Kornheiser: ‘I Was Sort of Surprised at Reaction’ of Return to PTI Studio

“I was excited to go in. I’m excited to see if in three days, I get COVID because that’s my great fear. It was fun to do.”

Jordan Bondurant

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A photo of Tony Kornheiser
(Photo: Tony Kornheiser)

Tuesday’s episode of Pardon the Interruption on ESPN saw the beloved duo of Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon reunited in person in the show’s Washington, D.C. studio.

On his podcast, The Tony Kornheiser Show Wednesday, the PTI host, 75, talked about his experience.

“I went in. I was excited to go in,” Kornheiser said, per Awful Announcing. “I’m excited to see if in three days, I get COVID because that’s my great fear. It was fun to do. I have to say, it was fun to do for those people.”

The fan reaction to seeing Kornheiser and Wilbon back together in person for the first time in a long time was overwhelmingly positive. He abstains from using social media, but Kornheiser said he did hear from plenty of friends and colleagues who reached out afterwards to send well wishes.

“But friends of mine — or people I would consider at least acquaintances into friends — were basically unanimously happy that it happened. And I tried to answer each one of those things that I will do this occasionally.”

“Glad I did it,” he later added. “I was sort of surprised at the reaction…I had a very good time.”

Kornheiser did want to emphasize that anyone getting ideas that Kornheiser will be back in-studio on any sort of regular basis is sorely mistaken.

“I gotta want to do it. And I’m not gonna do it every day,” he said. “And if somebody thinks I’m gonna do it every day. I’m familiar with the phrase, ‘Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.’ I understand that’s going to happen, so I’m saying right now, I’m stressing occasionally, not regularly. Occasionally, I will go in there. If that’s not good enough, we know where the doors are.”

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Desmond Howard: Paul Finebaum Now a ‘Cariacture’

“You can’t take anything he says seriously. You just can’t. It’s like they march him out there, they pull the string in his back, and he just starts spewing negative things…”

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A photo of Desmond Howard
(Photo: Icon Sportswire | A Division of XML Team Solutions)

Both Desmond Howard and Paul Finebaum have been vocal on their stances about the Michigan sign-stealing allegations. However, Howard has shared his feelings about Finebaum, and they are not positive.

During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, the ESPN college football analyst had harsh criticism for Finebaum.

“Paul Finebaum is a caricature of a caricature of Paul Finebaum,”Howard said. “That’s what he is right now. You can’t take anything he says seriously. You just can’t. It’s like they march him out there, they pull the string in his back, and he just starts spewing negative things about Michigan. When a person does that repeatedly and you just know his shtick, you can’t take him seriously.”

Howard hasn’t been shy about defending his alma mater through the scandal. During an episode of College GameDay, the former Heisman Trophy winner told colleague Pete Thamel to “put your big boy pants on” after the reporter moved his segments on the program to inside Michigan Stadium after threats from Michigan fans were deemed credible enough that he was in danger.

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