BAD HOSTS CREATE BAD CALLERS & UNEDUCATED FANBASE - LM

BAD HOSTS CREATE BAD CALLERS & UNEDUCATED FAN BASE - LM

Lamont Mann

1-13-2013

HMW

Saturday at approximately 11:45 AM, I heard one of the worst "takes" since I've been a professional radio listener.  A caller, told Ted Johnson and  Brien Straw,  "the key for the Texans to beat the Patriots is if Brian Cushing were to give the team a speech".  At this point, I was livid but then he went on to say "Cushing should also cry".  That's when I had to pull over and get some gasoline. What happen to Houston Sports Callers?  It is my belief, callers and fan-base have become lazy and lean on the media  too much.

NICK WRIGHT

It's no secret, I went at nick Wright for being anti caller.  Nick would argue he's not anti caller but rather have "good callers" with "good takes".  Six months later, I am beginning to see his point to a degree but ultimately I still hold stance in wanting to hear a nice mix of host to caller ratio.  Although I mentioned Nick's initial stance, I would like to point out, In The Loop has been taking more callers.  Why haven't I fully accepted Nick's side?  

WHO'S TO BLAME?

I believe the hosts are to blame for the volume of bad callers and uneducated fan base.  It's simple, control your show, crush serial bad callers, disseminate good information.

• It's your show so control the damn show before derails on meaningless topics.  Although I thought it was bad for Nick to come out the gate in June and say "this is how my show is going to run in terms of callers" at that point he displayed a form of control.  
• I was a serial caller and some may say I was a serial bad caller.  In the last two years or so, I've stop calling the radio as much because I don't want to be equated with the clowns I hear on the air now..  I think hosts would be well within their right to embarrass a serial caller with a dumb ass take.  Serial caller is that person that calls every show, every day with the same shtick.  I have to give it up to Fred Fred Fauor and AJ Hoffman from the Blitz (97.5) for crushing bad callers.  If your take is asinine  these guys will let you know or just flat out hang up in your face.  I am not saying the Blitz takes are always solid but the way they approach bad callers, needs to be applied market wide.
• Now we address the uneducated fan base, a lot of this can be associated with the bad information disseminated by the hosts.  The cat is out of the bag, fans are lazy and we are at the mercy of the media.  Instead of getting on Google and researching information for ourselves, some of us rather call Lance and ask "Who do Mayock have going in the first round".   The point is, many callers are getting their information from radio and taking it as the gospel when some times the information could be wrong. So what typically happens, radio listener hears something on one station, runs to another station and regurgitate it, current host spends a whole damn call correcting bad information meanwhile the audience is dumber for hearing it.

HOSTS

It's a catch 22 for me, and I'm picking on In The Loop, I would be OK listening to ITL for 4 straight hours with no caller interaction but John Lopez takes are so awful, I much rather hear callers to reduce his talk time.  It's the same when Charlie Pallilo was solo,  Charlie was so boring to me, I wanted to hear callers however Pallilo displayed an arrogance of "I'm smarter than you" that he received fewer bad calls than most Prime Time hosts.  Then there are hosts like ND Kalu who contribute to dumb ass callers.

ND Kalu is a nice person and I totally understand not being a jerk to fans/callers but these "grand introductions" and telling idiots they are one of the best callers encourage them to call more.  Not only do it encourage them to call In The Trenches more frequently but they actually believe they are good and guess what, they call other shows with the ignorance.

When it comes to Matt Thomas, I'm a little indifferent because he managed to find a way with "Mood Music to let you know your take suck.  With that said, my one big problem with Matt is, he has a tendency to go too long with bad callers.  Once we have identified, this caller is a Jackass, it's time to get them off the line but I give Matt leeway because he's a solo hosts and the callers are defacto his cohost.

WRAP IT UP

As I stated before, I was a serial caller and I feel bad talking about callers because it's sort of an entertainment fraternity for me but lately the calls have been awful.

Then too maybe it's the timing being that it's playoff time and I don't want to hear a caller asking about

• Schaub's audibling
• Trick Plays
• Love You Blue
• Callers Box Score Recap 
• Brian Cushing Crying Speeches

BEFORE A MAJOR TEXAN PLAYOFF GAME.

OUT

LM aka SIR BLOG ALOT