Philadelphia = Terrible MEDIA Hockey Town

[icehole]

@radoran

Football is football.  The idea to have one game a week was genius.  It's a drinking event that happens at the turn of the seasons.  The actual sport itself has little to do with its popularity.

I used to think the sixers had a bad fan base.  Even if the flyers pack the place with 20k and the sixers put in 5k though, I guarantee you more eyes are on the sixers games.  I don't know how much radio you listen to, but it's been non stop for a month now.

I think the flyers jersey is a fashionable item for the African Americans.  To have Simmonds on the team helps bring a few of them on board.  I think it would be very hard to find many that watch over 50 games a season though.  On the other hand, you can find many Caucasians frothing at the mouth to talk some hoops.  I have no problem with that but I think a lot of it is a psychological thing that makes them feel a bond with African American people that they look up to.  How many white kids want to be Dr J?  How may black kids want to be Bobby Clarke?  

[Poconono]

I also don't get the constant droning on about the Sixers and the draft occurring on both Philly sports stations.  Do they really believe they're even close to turning things around?  An organization that continually banks its future on crippled big men has a long track record of failure but everybody in town seems to be buying in.  There are actually far more basketball calls than even the Phillies while the Eagles still stand on top. 

 

Instead I've been listening to the NHL station on Sirius but usually have to bail when they start pontificating on the greatness of the Pittsburgh Crosbys and how they are now the model to emulate.  I guess that means everyone else should threaten to relocate and tank for a couple of seasons in order to win the Cup.

[radoran]

1 hour ago, icehole said:

@radoran

Football is football.  The idea to have one game a week was genius.  It's a drinking event that happens at the turn of the seasons.  The actual sport itself has little to do with its popularity.

I used to think the sixers had a bad fan base.  Even if the flyers pack the place with 20k and the sixers put in 5k though, I guarantee you more eyes are on the sixers games.  I don't know how much radio you listen to, but it's been non stop for a month now.

I think the flyers jersey is a fashionable item for the African Americans.  To have Simmonds on the team helps bring a few of them on board.  I think it would be very hard to find many that watch over 50 games a season though.  On the other hand, you can find many Caucasians frothing at the mouth to talk some hoops.  I have no problem with that but I think a lot of it is a psychological thing that makes them feel a bond with African American people that they look up to.  How many white kids want to be Dr J?  How may black kids want to be Bobby Clarke?  

 

Philly is just top to bottom a great sports town. Look at it - we have won one Championship since 1983 and are still rabid fans of sports.

 

I've accepted that the Flyers will need to actually WIN another Cup before hockey becomes a top drawer sport

 

I generally listen to the Fanatic one my commute to and from work. Probably no more than an hour a day combined. And I generally watch Philly Sports Talk when I get home until 6. And, yes, it's ridiculous how much focus there is on two sports that aren't going to play for another three months. I laugh about it most of the time.

 

I still think Philly qualifies as a "great hockey town" and certainly moreso than... at least 20(?) of the other hockey Cities.

[flyercanuck]

4 hours ago, icehole said:

@flyercanuck

So do you live out of town?  You're not missing much.  Years ago, when the flyers got Versteeg around the deadline, I listened to 97.5 and 94.1 to hear about it.  After listening for a while, I went to 98.5 in Boston and they were talking about it.  

I honestly think race has a lot to do with it.  Beyonce and Jay-Z were at the NBA finals game last night.  Most black people can relate to basketball because that's what they grew up with.  A great number of white people think black people are cooler than they are so they try to get into it.  What celebs are at hockey games...Tom hanks?  Hockey is missing an entire race of fans.

 

I'm an hour north of Toronto.

[sarsippius]

4 hours ago, icehole said:

Ok, I need to get it off my chest.  I wrote a while ago how Philadelphia is a bad hockey town.  The topic was changed (by moderators I guess) to Philadelphia is a bad "Media" town for hockey.  I don't know...it's pretty clear to me now that Philadelphia, as a city, has basically no interest in hockey.

 

I often hear the radio hosts say "I love hockey".  No you don't.  That's like me saying I love salmon.  When I see a menu with steak, crabcakes, shrimp, pork chops, chicken, or salmon, guess which one I won't choose to eat.  When 99% of philadelphia looks at the cable guide and sees NFL, NBA, MLB, college football, college basketball, or NHL, guess which one doesn't get watched.

 

It doesn't even need to be on TV or even in season.  Up, until the end of april, the eagles were 90% of talk in town.  When the draft was two or three weeks passed, the attention immediately turned to the sixers draft (that's right....the sixers!).  After about 2 weeks of diddling themselves over getting the #1 pick in a bad draft, after tanking for three straight years, the conversations goes to Simmonds or Ingram for 2 weeks.  That shares the airwaves with the NBA finals.  I swear, if the flyers were in the finals right now, 65% talk would be about the NBA finals, 15% would be about the sixers draft, 10% would be about the eagles, and the flyers and phillies would share the rest.

 

If you think the radio stations, newspapers, and TV news just talk, write, or do stories on whatever they want, regardless of what the public wants to hear, you're completely lost.  They know what there demographic wants to listen to, read, and watch.  They all want ratings and they aren't getting it with the Flyers or NHL.

 

Guys that write on flyers forums or have flyers blogs are usually great fans, but that accounts for about 1%.  Outside of that, hockey is a clear #6 sport in philadelphia.  So excuse me when I hear fans say "philadelphia is a great hockey town" or when flyers players and coaches say "These are the best fans in hockey" and I laugh my tail off.  I have no pride for Philadelphia hockey nor will I ever argue with Boston, New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, or even west coast fans for superior fandom.  I know those cities have other interests too, but no more than Philadelphia does.  Philadelphia is a bad hockey town!

 

So, who the eff cares what jackholes on sports talk radio are talking about? If ityou bothers you, listen to music on your commute, it will soothe your soul.

 

Talk all you want about media, Philly is a great hockey town, ask the folks that pack the WFC every home game

[icehole]

3 hours ago, radoran said:

 

Philly is just top to bottom a great sports town. Look at it - we have won one Championship since 1983 and are still rabid fans of sports.

 

I've accepted that the Flyers will need to actually WIN another Cup before hockey becomes a top drawer sport

 

I generally listen to the Fanatic one my commute to and from work. Probably no more than an hour a day combined. And I generally watch Philly Sports Talk when I get home until 6. And, yes, it's ridiculous how much focus there is on two sports that aren't going to play for another three months. I laugh about it most of the time.

 

I still think Philly qualifies as a "great hockey town" and certainly moreso than... at least 20(?) of the other hockey Cities.

That's the problem with me.  I'm a 1 for 4 guy.  The one sport I like is the 6th most popular sport in my terrestrial listening area even though it is in the 4 "major" sports.  So I take more offense than most.

[icehole]

1 hour ago, flyercanuck said:

 

I'm an hour north of Toronto.

You're lucky.  You definitely get more hockey than we do.

[icehole]

1 hour ago, sarsippius said:

 

So, who the eff cares what jackholes on sports talk radio are talking about? If ityou bothers you, listen to music on your commute, it will soothe your soul.

 

Talk all you want about media, Philly is a great hockey town, ask the folks that pack the WFC every home game

I have a job where I can listen to something all day.  I like morning show stuff like Preston and Steve, I don't like political radio, and the music on the radio is atrocious.  I tried listening to some Canadian stations online, but Canadians aren't the most entertaining bunch.

The main hitters on radio in Philadelphia are actually entertaining.  But there's only so much LeBron, sixes, and Bradford talk I can take.  And what bothers me the most is how the worst team in town for the past decade has all of the sudden become the most popular...and they just almost set the record for losses.

[sarsippius]

16 minutes ago, icehole said:

 the music on the radio is atrocious

 

No argument there! I just keep rotating my cds in the car.

 

For the record I agree with everything you say about the content of sports talk radio, I find myself in a much better mood when I don't listen to it in the car so I limit it to 5 or 10 minute chunks at a time. I wish the Sixers well after the tank-a-thon but I don't follow them,  I am big on the Iggles but how much can you talk about things I already know. If there were an all hockey talk station.

[AJgoal]

So apparently Innis is out at 94.1 and Missanelli is catching flak for having a white station employee calling in regularly, well, read here: http://www.crossingbroad.com/2016/08/radio-wars-97-5-caller-dwayne-from-swedesboro-is-actually-97-5-producer-pat-egan.html .

[King Knut]

On 12/5/2015 at 8:56 AM, icehole said:

Im so sick of it.

First, there is absolutly no discussion in the media about the flyers...ever. I have sports radio on in the background all day. Whenever the flyers are brought up to a caller, they laugh and say "I dont care about that...let's get back to football".

Most casual hockey fans in town have no idea what they are talking about. I dont blame it completely on them though. The information isn't present. Do the flyers even have beat writers anymore? What happened with lavy...that was never covered. What are the trade rumors...never hear anything about that in the media. Why is medvedev a scratch...who knows because the media isnt on it.

Then I watch CSN for the game recap in the morning. The flyers are on a 4 game win streak. The eagles are on a 3 game losing streak. The flyers played last night and won. The flyers play tonight. The eagles dont play until sunday afternoon. So what kicks off sportsrise...you got it eagles/patriots preview. Do I blame that on CSN...no. CSN does what they have to for ratings. Philadelphia sports fans want to watch the terrible eagles news before the streaking flyers news.

I can blame CSN for having terrible anchors that have absolutely no interest in hockey. Jen Daniels talks about the flyers going on the powerplay. Then she says "later in the game, simmer scores on the setup from voracek". She didnt watch the f'ing game. If she did, she would know that simmonds scored seconds into that PP that she mentioned earlier...not "later in the game". Then I have to hear her say that "Edward Bellemare" put the flyers ahead. She sure knows her hockey.

Oh yeah, then there's a story about how the mayor elect, or whatever the F he is, is supporting some 19 year old moron on the sixers for getting into fights and driving 100mph.

Can the flyers move to canada...I'll follow them.

 

Complete agreement.  What's so humorous to me about it is that the Eagles are a pretty laughably miserable franchise.  I don't know what fans are expecting every year.  The past few and everything involving Chip Kelly have been just laughable.  

[radoran]

19 hours ago, AJgoal said:

So apparently Innis is out at 94.1 and Missanelli is catching flak for having a white station employee calling in regularly, well, read here: http://www.crossingbroad.com/2016/08/radio-wars-97-5-caller-dwayne-from-swedesboro-is-actually-97-5-producer-pat-egan.html .

 

Missanelli claims he knew nothing about it (and so do the folks at the station that pulled it off).

 

Glad Innes is gone. I haven't listened to WIP - at all - since he went on afternoons. Can't stand him or his schtick.

 

14 minutes ago, King Knut said:

 

Complete agreement.  What's so humorous to me about it is that the Eagles are a pretty laughably miserable franchise.  I don't know what fans are expecting every year.  The past few and everything involving Chip Kelly have been just laughable.  

 

The bizarre thing is now they're (we're??) excited to be competitive (with Wentz as QB, if everything goes as planned) 3-4 years from now.

 

The Flyers are the only team of the four "majors" to make the playoffs last season (and are the last of them to make the playoff Final (2010)) while the Sixers haven't been for four years (and have won one playoff round since 2003), the Phillies haven't had a winning season since 2011 and the Eagles haven't won a playoff game since 2008.

 

And while the Flyers remain in the playoff mix none of the three others are expected to even compete for a playoff spot (with the caveat that the Birds play in the worst division in the league).

 

So, the important question for the Philly sports media? "Who's the starting middle linebacker?"

 

Bread and circuses.

[King Knut]

9 minutes ago, radoran said:

 

Missanelli claims he knew nothing about it (and so do the folks at the station that pulled it off).

 

Glad Innes is gone. I haven't listened to WIP - at all - since he went on afternoons. Can't stand him or his schtick.

 

 

The bizarre thing is now they're (we're??) excited to be competitive (with Wentz as QB, if everything goes as planned) 3-4 years from now.

 

The Flyers are the only team of the four "majors" to make the playoffs last season (and are the last of them to make the playoff Final (2010)) while the Sixers haven't been for four years (and have won one playoff round since 2003), the Phillies haven't had a winning season since 2011 and the Eagles haven't won a playoff game since 2008.

 

And while the Flyers remain in the playoff mix none of the three others are expected to even compete for a playoff spot (with the caveat that the Birds play in the worst division in the league).

 

So, the important question for the Philly sports media? "Who's the starting middle linebacker?"

 

Bread and circuses.

 

It's beyond a joke.

I'm not a basketball guy at all, but at least the '6ers have some sort of something attempting a rebuild with some youth and talent and a number 1 overall to chat about.

 

The Phillies have a lot of interesting things ahead everyone could be chatting about too. In fact, those two plus the Flyers have a lot of question marks, but a LOT of potential for bright and not terribly distant futures. 

 

The Eagles?  Looks like more of the same indefinitely.

 

The minute Chip Kelly unloaded two of the best receivers and running backs in the league for squat and everyone was like, "well we'll see what he's got in mind."  Every Eagles fan should have jumped ship.  I was done before then (incredibly devoted much of my life, they went back and forth with the Phils for my #2 team to follow in all sports) but at that point all I could do was laugh. 

 

And frankly, anyone who does all this intense reporting on the Eagles and anyone who follows that reporting like it's of the utmost importance... I can't help but laugh at them wasting their lives at this point.  

 

I'll follow them loosely, but at this point it's like following a Python routine.  Good for ridiculousness, absurdity and laughs... not the hopes and dreams that so many in this town still hang on that comic excuse for a franchise.  

 

 

 

[pilldoc]

 

21 hours ago, AJgoal said:

So apparently Innis is out at 94.1 and Missanelli is catching flak for having a white station employee calling in regularly, well, read here

 

Innes a tool and I'm glad he is gone.  He was an obnoxious whiny twit.  Good riddance! Missanelli is no better.

 

2 hours ago, radoran said:

 

Missanelli claims he knew nothing about it (and so do the folks at the station that pulled it off).

 

Glad Innes is gone. I haven't listened to WIP - at all - since he went on afternoons. Can't stand him or his schtick.

(Totally agree.  I have not listened to WIP in months.  It was actually a decent radio station back in the 90's but with all their gimmicks...it gets old real fast.  Don't even get me started on the morning show)

 

The bizarre thing is now they're (we're??) excited to be competitive (with Wentz as QB, if everything goes as planned) 3-4 years from now.

 

The Flyers are the only team of the four "majors" to make the playoffs last season (and are the last of them to make the playoff Final (2010)) while the Sixers haven't been for four years (and have won one playoff round since 2003), the Phillies haven't had a winning season since 2011 and the Eagles haven't won a playoff game since 2008.

 

And while the Flyers remain in the playoff mix none of the three others are expected to even compete for a playoff spot (with the caveat that the Birds play in the worst division in the league).

 

So, the important question for the Philly sports media? "Who's the starting middle linebacker?"

 

Bread and circuses.

 

Agree with everything above.   I remember back in the day when WIP treated all sports equally.  However  now a days all they promote are silly games and Wing Bowl.  Oh they did talk Phillies in 2008 when they were winning the Series, but that seems eons ago.

 

1 hour ago, King Knut said:

 

It's beyond a joke.

I'm not a basketball guy at all, but at least the '6ers have some sort of something attempting a rebuild with some youth and talent and a number 1 overall to chat about.

 

The Phillies have a lot of interesting things ahead everyone could be chatting about too. In fact, those two plus the Flyers have a lot of question marks, but a LOT of potential for bright and not terribly distant futures. 

 

The Eagles?  Looks like more of the same indefinitely.

 

The minute Chip Kelly unloaded two of the best receivers and running backs in the league for squat and everyone was like, "well we'll see what he's got in mind."  Every Eagles fan should have jumped ship.  I was done before then (incredibly devoted much of my life, they went back and forth with the Phils for my #2 team to follow in all sports) but at that point all I could do was laugh. 

 

And frankly, anyone who does all this intense reporting on the Eagles and anyone who follows that reporting like it's of the utmost importance... I can't help but laugh at them wasting their lives at this point.  

 

I'll follow them loosely, but at this point it's like following a Python routine.  Good for ridiculousness, absurdity and laughs... not the hopes and dreams that so many in this town still hang on that comic excuse for a franchise.  

 

 

 

 

Again totally agree.

 

My overall opinion is that WIP is an utter joke and I have not listened to them seriously in years.  ....And you know what... I don't even miss it.

[AJgoal]

1 hour ago, pilldoc said:

 

 

Innes a tool and I'm glad he is gone.  He was an obnoxious whiny twit.  Good riddance! Missanelli is no better.

 

 

Agree with everything above.   I remember back in the day when WIP treated all sports equally.  However  now a days all they promote are silly games and Wing Bowl.  Oh they did talk Phillies in 2008 when they were winning the Series, but that seems eons ago.

 

 

Again totally agree.

 

My overall opinion is that WIP is an utter joke and I have not listened to them seriously in years.  ....And you know what... I don't even miss it.

 

I remember it was pretty good with Macnow and Macdonald during the mid-day and then Steve Fredericks (RIP) in the evenings. Never liked the morning show (Or any morning show. Music, please?) or Eskin. They've just been catering to the lowest common denominator for years, and the product has suffered for it. It started with Cataldi, IMO, who put the original wedge between McNabb and the fanbase with his idiots at the draft. Now I like to listen to Glen and Ray Saturday/Sunday morning, but the rest of the lineup, weekdays especially, is unlistenable to me. I made the mistake of stopping on the channel yesterday at lunch and they were running a poll, "Are you embarrassed that Sam Bradford is the Eagles' quarterback?" No, I'm embarrassed that folks like you and people who call your shows are the model for how Philly fans are viewed around the country.

[pilldoc]

2 hours ago, AJgoal said:

Macnow and Macdonald during the mid-day and then Steve Fredericks (RIP) in the evening

 

This ^^^^ This tandem was the best they every had IMO.  They were knowledgeable, funny, and yet they had an air of humbleness about them. 

 

2 hours ago, AJgoal said:

It started with Cataldi, IMO, who put the original wedge between McNabb and the fanbase with his idiots at the draft

 

This too!! ^^^ Totally agree here.  I think you hit the nail on the head.  Cataldi is instigator for most of the shenanigans.  He alone creates more negativity than all the other hosts combined.  It then trickes down through out the rest of the day / callers.

2 hours ago, AJgoal said:

Now I like to listen to Glen and Ray Saturday/Sunday morning, but the rest of the lineup, weekdays especially, is unlistenable to me

 

Glen and Ray are listenable....the rest are a bunch of whiny twits.....

 

2 hours ago, AJgoal said:

I made the mistake of stopping on the channel yesterday at lunch and they were running a poll, "Are you embarrassed that Sam Bradford is the Eagles' quarterback?"

 

These are the stupid polls / games that make the entire station unlistenable.

 

Good Post!