Thursday, December 20, 2007

Good news for my employer: Bob Kravitz to drive time.

It is highly unlikely that I will ever again leave my office before 6 p.m. Former Indianapolis Star writer Ruth Holladay reports that Bob Kravitz, the Indianapolis Star's only general sports columnist and hair-puller-in-chief, will host the new drive time sports talk show on 1070-AM in Indianapolis. For those who aren't aware, currently Indianapolis has two sports talk stations, WXLW 950 (ESPN Radio) and WNDE 1260 (Fox Sports Radio). Currently, 1070 WIBC is Indy's leading news talk station. Sometime soon, that format (and the WIBC name) will move to 93.1 FM. The 1070 AM station will become the new ESPN affiliate, which will leave 950 without national programming at the moment. Both existing sports stations have local drive time shows and weekend shows. Kravitz will be the third.
Why will this be good for my employer? This news makes it quite unlikely that I will ever again leave my office before 6 p.m. While I usually listen to XM Radio, I just can’t risk accidentally hearing part of Kravitz’s show. While I have made clear that I just don’t care for the content or tone of Kravitz’s writing, my objection is halfway serious. For years, the Star had two sports columnists, Bill Benner and Robin Miller. Those guys weren’t perfect, but at least there were two of them. After the Star forced out Miller on some trumped up rules violation, Kravitz shared the stage with Benner. After Benner left, we were blessed with C. Jemal Horton, who was, well, not well-regarded. After Horton left, about four years ago, the Star hired a guy named Mike Freeman from the New York Times. Freeman, unfortunately, had a George O’Leary problem: his resume claimed that he had earned a degree that he didn’t earn. Freeman quit in January 2004, before he ever started. That means that for the last four years, Kravitz has been the only general sports columnist for the Star. Now, with a third sports station coming to town, instead of providing a forum to a new voice, we will hear from a guy who already gets a disproportionate amount of attention.

1 comment:

Jason said...

Yes, not a pretty prospect at all. I used to have Sirius, dropped it because I don't drive much anymore, but I miss it for the fact that I couldn't stand the local sports crap on the radio. Or any of the local crap on the radio, for that matter.