Written By: Lamont
Seth Payne played for the Houston Texans; he was part of the inaugural season. As a football player, I thought he was solid. However, nose tackle is not a high profile position where you get to hear the player on a routine basis.
After Seth retired, he was an afterthought to me. Low and behold, a few mornings, I would hear him on 1560 AM with John Granato and Lance Zierlein. I use to think "this guy is pretty damn sharp for a football player". This is before I learned of his background at Cornell University. He was witty, entertaining, and a football geek.
Sometime later, I heard him either guest host or appear as a guest on Sports Radio 610. Nevertheless, Sports Radio 610's Programmed Director Gavin Spittle snatched him up
At the time I thought he'd been perfect for 1560 in terms of personality. 610 came off to me as formulaic whereas Seth appeared like Riggs from Lethal Weapon but a tad more cerebral.
Back then, I monitored local radio much more than I do today. I was a Sports Talk Radio slut. Once Seth became a full time personality, his personality remained the same for the most part. I did pick up on another element he added to his arsenal. Seth always came off as "Over the Top" upset. At the time I accused him of being fake mad. I actually believed he was playing up to the title of his show MAD radio.
It was very normal to hear Seth rip the Texans a new one and the following day apologize. It was similar to a news outlet going live with a bullshit story only to find out it was bogus. After the face, the news outlet prints the retraction on the back page. At that point, the average low level thinker has already got the initial bang and do not care about the retraction. As years passed, Seth explained that he's a naturally hyper person and tends to get overly excited. Over the years I have come to accept Seth's explanation a lot more than I did in the past.
As I look back at the makeup pf 610, it was the Wild Wild West of Flame Throwers between Josh Innes and Nick Wright. In other words, during that time period, you had to be a pistol to get some recognition between the two of them.
I always thought I had Seth's radio personality figured out but there was still something I couldn't put my finger on. While listening to Seth's Podcast Deceptively Fast, it hit me. He tries to be too damn perfect as a personality. Communications is not Seth's original profession. Seth entered the game at a disadvantage. Seth commonly references playing football for a non-football school so he had to overachieved. He entered a market littered with Syracuse (journalism school) alumns and seasoned pros with a some at his job and to make matters interesting, he works with one of them.
Commonly you will hear Seth correct himself or others on-air. From time to time he tries to break down how radio works. He is "by the book" when it comes to radio. When I use to bitch to him about heavily reliant on text messages and not tweeting, he would say Texting is better for radio than Tweeting. He may be right but at the time, I can remember thinking "you are brand new to radio" this would make more sense if it came from a ratings super nerd like Josh Innes. I told Seth, it seems like you read Sports Talk Radio for Dummies and trying to follow it word for word. Seth reminds me of the Rookie Officer fresh out of the academy, applying his teachings to the workforce.
Seth entered from a disadvantage and did whatever in his power to catch-up just to be on the same playing field as his peers. Hell, the case came be made, he's surpassed some of the Top Dogs locally in his radio acumen.
Is it a bad thing? No, but I do believe that a person can be so "by the book" you will become a nervous wreck and the job will no longer be fun.
Seth Payne played for the Houston Texans; he was part of the inaugural season. As a football player, I thought he was solid. However, nose tackle is not a high profile position where you get to hear the player on a routine basis.
After Seth retired, he was an afterthought to me. Low and behold, a few mornings, I would hear him on 1560 AM with John Granato and Lance Zierlein. I use to think "this guy is pretty damn sharp for a football player". This is before I learned of his background at Cornell University. He was witty, entertaining, and a football geek.
Sometime later, I heard him either guest host or appear as a guest on Sports Radio 610. Nevertheless, Sports Radio 610's Programmed Director Gavin Spittle snatched him up
At the time I thought he'd been perfect for 1560 in terms of personality. 610 came off to me as formulaic whereas Seth appeared like Riggs from Lethal Weapon but a tad more cerebral.
Back then, I monitored local radio much more than I do today. I was a Sports Talk Radio slut. Once Seth became a full time personality, his personality remained the same for the most part. I did pick up on another element he added to his arsenal. Seth always came off as "Over the Top" upset. At the time I accused him of being fake mad. I actually believed he was playing up to the title of his show MAD radio.
It was very normal to hear Seth rip the Texans a new one and the following day apologize. It was similar to a news outlet going live with a bullshit story only to find out it was bogus. After the face, the news outlet prints the retraction on the back page. At that point, the average low level thinker has already got the initial bang and do not care about the retraction. As years passed, Seth explained that he's a naturally hyper person and tends to get overly excited. Over the years I have come to accept Seth's explanation a lot more than I did in the past.
As I look back at the makeup pf 610, it was the Wild Wild West of Flame Throwers between Josh Innes and Nick Wright. In other words, during that time period, you had to be a pistol to get some recognition between the two of them.
I always thought I had Seth's radio personality figured out but there was still something I couldn't put my finger on. While listening to Seth's Podcast Deceptively Fast, it hit me. He tries to be too damn perfect as a personality. Communications is not Seth's original profession. Seth entered the game at a disadvantage. Seth commonly references playing football for a non-football school so he had to overachieved. He entered a market littered with Syracuse (journalism school) alumns and seasoned pros with a some at his job and to make matters interesting, he works with one of them.
Commonly you will hear Seth correct himself or others on-air. From time to time he tries to break down how radio works. He is "by the book" when it comes to radio. When I use to bitch to him about heavily reliant on text messages and not tweeting, he would say Texting is better for radio than Tweeting. He may be right but at the time, I can remember thinking "you are brand new to radio" this would make more sense if it came from a ratings super nerd like Josh Innes. I told Seth, it seems like you read Sports Talk Radio for Dummies and trying to follow it word for word. Seth reminds me of the Rookie Officer fresh out of the academy, applying his teachings to the workforce.
Seth entered from a disadvantage and did whatever in his power to catch-up just to be on the same playing field as his peers. Hell, the case came be made, he's surpassed some of the Top Dogs locally in his radio acumen.
Is it a bad thing? No, but I do believe that a person can be so "by the book" you will become a nervous wreck and the job will no longer be fun.
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