Sports Talk Radio, Big Poppy, and More Fall TV

Those local readers of The Grandstander have no doubt noted the demise earlier in the week of local ESPN Radio outlet, 1250 AM. The station is still broadcasting all national ESPN radio programming, but all local shows and talent, most notably Stan Savran and Guy Junker, have been given their pink slips, and on January 1, the station will switch to Disney Radio. Good-bye Mike & Mike in the Morning, hello Hannah Montana and Justin Beiber. As Bob Smizik noted the other day, the radio station of Myron Cope is no more.

This now leaves 93.7 The Fan as the major player in sports talk radio in town. Yes, I know that 970 AM does Fox Sports with some local programming, and that Mark Madden spews his vile brand of commentary on some head banger FM station, but let's face it, The Fan is where most of the 1250 listeners will now gravitate. This action has also silenced the best of the sports talk jocks in town, Stan Savran. Of course, while Stan appeals to me, I realize that 59 year old listeners are not among the coveted demographics that radio stations are seeking. Let's hope that Stan finds a home somewhere on the dial, and soon.

*****

Thanks also go out to Loyal Reader - and frequent commenter - Big Poppy for pointing out to me that the actor on the new CBS series, "The Defenders," Jerry O'Connell (who I called a piece of "eye candy for female viewers" a few posts back) was the same actor who, as a young boy appeared in Rob Reiner's excellent movie from 1986, "Stand by Me." Nice to see that the years have been kinder to Mr. O'Connell than they have been to his co-stars. Corey Feldman has been known for cheesy reality TV shows, Howard Stern appearances, drug busts and not much else, and River Phoenix is dead.

That, as they say, is Show Biz.

*****

I finally caught up with the DVR recording of the new ABC series "The Whole Truth" with Maura Tierney and Ron Morrow, and I really liked it. Very good legal drama where it appears that each week Driven Prosecutor Tierney will square off against Hot Shot Defender Morrow in a highly controversial criminal trial. Last week, Tierney won the case, but it would appear that that Morrow will also win his share as the series continues. The key is that the result is not telegraphed to the audience (at least it wasn't last week), and that makes for a compelling story. Oh, and it seems that Tierney's and Morrow's characters share "a past" together that will no doubt lead to some degree of sexual tension, which, if acted upon, will no doubt ruin the series (reference "Moonlighting"/Cybil Shepard/Bruce Willis).

The bad news is that "The Whole Truth" goes head to head with "The Defenders" on Wednesday nights, which is bad news for one of these shows. Until then, fire up the VCR's and DVR's and enjoy both shows.

*****

I enjoyed the opening half of Ken Burns' "The Tenth Inning" on PBS last night. It was difficult to watch the piece that opened the show: Ninth Inning, Game 7, 1992 NLCS. You Pirates fans out there need no further information to know what I am talking about. Facebook Friend Dan Bonk has admitted that he turned off the the show at that point. Too bad, because the show was very good, and I look forward to watching Part II this evening.

*****

Can't believe that I just completed a posting that included the name of Justin Beiber.