Adam Clanton out, Josh Innes Suspended #BEEF

Written By: Lamont

On the surface, it comes off as a big snooze unless you know the backstory.  A year ago, Josh Innes and Adam Clanton got into a situation. 

Adam alerted the Powers that Be, that Josh Innes was wearing a OKC Thunder Shirt.   From that situation, Adam sort of had a gag order imposed on him from referencing Josh.

Fast Forward a year later, over the weekend someone found a take by Josh on JJ Watt being a bad pick from 7 years ago, Adam retweeted it.  Josh caught wind of it, and addressed it on air by mocking Adam in a Jerome Rome Style cadence.



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Josh Innes addresses Adam Clanton


The end result, Adam was released and Josh got suspended.

Honestly, I don't think anything should have came of this.   A simple retweet shouldn't get a person fired and Josh's segment was blah.  It almost feels as if the writing was on the wall.

I told a few people, the Josh and Adam situation was med, what was more interesting is listening to the Blitz (Fred Faour and AJ Hoffman) address it.  I think they were honest and fair but I heard Fred say people at ESPN 975 were celebrating that Adam got fired.



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Fred Faour and AJ Hoffman on Josh Innes and Adam Clanton

March Ratings Book and Quarterly Ratings

Written By:  Lamont

I have the ratings broken out by quarter (January-March).  There is also  a total for each slot, I like to get a feel or the aggregate.  In addition to, I have a breakout out by show.


Quarterly

For the last three months, Fred Faour and AJ Hoffman has been kicking ass.  There is no other way to put.  I am interesting to see if they can consistently maintain a 3 share over a prolonged period. 

Josh Innes is winning the 6-10a slot.  Josh's ascension in the ratings appears to correspond to the Super Bowl Fight.

John and Lance's Morning Show is strange because it's parsed with other shows.  In other words, their ratings from Jan-March is not 1.5 but likely higher.

By Show - March 

Can Arian Foster fairly interview Bob McNair?

Written By: Lamont

Arian Foster is making his mark on the Houston Airwaves. He has interviewed Scarface, Duane Brown, Snoop Dogg and Andre Johnson.

I love the podcast because the environment appears relaxed.  I believe the relaxed environment lends itself for people to say some weird shit.

Last week, after Bob McNairs "sorry not sorry" moment, Arian invited McNair for an interview

Based upon the strength of his prior interviews, I was like "Fuck yea".  Later, I listened to Arian's podcast with Andre Johnson.

During the interview, the topic about the ring ceremony came up.  Arian said he didn't come because he couldn't look at the guy and he didn't want to shake his hand.  A few people tried to tell me that was Arian's feelings back then and initially I thought "fair comment".  But then I thought about the Arian I know publicly; If you feel that Arian has changed a new leaf and allowed shit to go, you are mistaken.

I think Arian is more than capable of conducting a professional interview but if I already know "you feel some kind of way" about your guest, it changes the way I will receive it.

Although I would love for McNair to be on Arian's podcast, the reality is, media vultures would grab at least four or five quotes and headline them.  If I was Bob's Public Relations, I would seriously think about this.

As far as Arian, if you are trying to lock down a huge fish in Bob McNair in this social climate, you may want to play it close to the vest.

Josh Innes sues Lebron James

Written by:  Lamont


Josh Innes is suing Lebron James for $5 Million Dollars.  Initially I thought it was a bit with a fake attorney but apparently, Josh has real legal representation from an attorney named Charles Adams (The Big Angry Lawyer).

Charles Adams Audio 



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I really have no opinion, outside of it being so silly it's funny.   I would like to know what's the "or else".  If Lebron (which I expect) says "Go to hell clown", what Josh's next move be?

Bob McNair needs Rick Smith, Fire the PR firm

Written by: Lamont

I debated whether to write about Bob McNair.  After watching my friend Jermaine Every's video piece, Bob McNair needs to retire , I decided to share my thoughts.

No offense to Jermaine or many others who are consumed in groupthink, I wanted to approach the discussion from a different angle.

Many are consumed with Bob McNair retiring, semantics of an idiom or racism.  I believe there's more meat on this bone

Bob McNair's People

When the Wall Street Journal dropped the headline on Bob McNair, I instantly wondered, "who is Bob McNair's publicist, who is the Public Relations person or firm in charge".  Common sense would lead me to believe publications outside of maybe John McClain with the Houston Chronicle has to go through people to get a sit down with McNair.  Why would you want McNair  hashing up a story he's not going to alter public opinion?  No matter if McNair are right or wrong, public opinion has made up their mind and the only outcome is making a year old matter worse.

Thursday, Mike Meltser and Seth Payne had the person who wrote the article.  He said he talked to McNair's people and they felt Bob wanted to set the record.

Below is the audio

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Bob McNair's People

After I heard this, not only is the problem Bob McNair's reluctance to let an issue go away, his "people" are equally responsible.  Whoever this contact person(s) are could have shut it down by saying "No thanks WSJ".

Rick Smith

As I thought about the timeline of events, something stood out.  Bob McNair's comments corresponded with the same time Rick Smith began dealing with his personal issues.  Bob McNair made his initial "inmate" comment in October.  According to Rick Smith, he was taking time away from the team in September.  I am not suggesting that Rick Smith has control over McNair but maybe Rick was more than just a General Manager.  Maybe Rick was hi adviser.   Hell, we all joked that Rick had Bob's ear, it's looking like, that may not be too far fetch.  In other words, if Rick was free of personal issues and 100% locked in with all of the stuff that was going down, I believe he would have steered McNair in the politically correct direction.

As far as Bob McNair retiring, I've been called for this for the product on the field, not because of Faux Outrage.  I think the Texans has a communications problem organization-wide.  From Coaches and GMs not on the same page to McNair to a coach unable to make routine in game decisions.  It appears the Texans have issues with communication.

Facebook data breach is political

Reading the stitches on the fast ball.  At least few times a year, we are guaranteed to have data breaches that catch the public's attention.  In reality, there are breaches daily but every now and then, we get them from major organizations.

Usually data breache's national media shelf life is at most a week.   We hear about it and then it's gone and the world is better again.

Facebook's data breach has been top news for nearly a month.  I wondered why.  What makes this data breach any different than hundreds before.

Facebook's owner Mark Zuckerberg is a Liberal.  He allowed an outside company to legally data mine millions of users.   Donald Trump's used the data during his campaign and the greatest woman on planet earth Hillary Clinton loss the election.

Well, I guess this makes the 829th reason Hillary loss.  Forget the fact 

• she ran a sloppy campaign down the stretch
• cancelled multiple appearances due to health
• disliked by a lot of minorities
• tons of Bernie Sanders supporters were against her

Facebook is the reason she loss!  As far as Zuckerberg's congressional hearing, I expect him to be flogged.  Mark will have to throw himself at the mercy of Democrats.  He's at risk of being banished from the club.

In a nutshell, Democrats are mad that Trump won. Facebook is only the latest excuse.  If you think about it, if you are dumb enough to believe the Russia shit, it's very similar.  A country who the democrats are traditionally sympathetic to since World War II is being accused of helping Trump.

Funny how things happen.

Paul Gallant goes nuclear after a caller calls him a racist

Written by: Lamont

As Paul Gallant and Landry Locker discussed Bob McNair, they took a call.  This was one strange call because it appears the caller was accusing Paul of blowing Bob McNair's comments out of proportion which led him to call Paul a racist.

The rest his history as Paul went nuclear.



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Paul Gallant a racist

Lance Zierlein checks a Social Justice Warrior

Written by: Lamont

I love when people grab their balls and say "eff you".

Thursday,  Lance Zierlein and Del Olalaye poked fun at old Southern Racists.   For what it's worth, Del does an awesome Southern Dixiecrat.  This week is the Masters and the Bench were impersonating Southerners.

Below is the audio



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Southern Dixiecrats

After the impersonation, John Granato took a call from "Tommy" who wanted to talk about the Rockets and "Big Mad" about slavery mocking.   I thought it was going to be an apology fest but Lance grabbed his balls and told the guy to get lost as Del and John backed him up.



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Lance Zierlein shits down a Social Justice Warrior


I suspect Tommy was not a regular listener (likely a Mike and Mike holdover) and simply didn't get it.   Forget that, he was a social justice warrior waiting to be offended.  The segment was the least most racist or incentive unless you wanted to be offended

It was cool to hear the show address the caller and brush it off

Local Sports Talk Habits by Personalities

Written By:  Lamont

If you have been listening to radio as long as I have, there are certain things you pick up from hosts.  Sunday, I was listening to Sean Pendergast's National Show and I was reminded of how much he smacks.

Initially, I was going cut up hours of audio of him smacking when I realized, all of these guys have signatures.

First thing first, Grammar Copping.  I can always tell if a caller, texter or tweeter has gotten into a local personality's feels because they revert back to grammar copping.  The personalities clearly know the context and/or annunciation of what a person is saying, but if they are so butthurt they have to say "You are coming at me when you are spelling You as U, (Country Club Laugh) Ha Ha Ha). A lot of personalities in this market will fallback on Grammar Copping.

I use to think it was only me because my Grammar is pretty damn delicious on social media and by delicious I mean, interesting. Then I started to notice them doing it to everyone.

Lance Zierlein - NFL Man - I am not sure if its an inside joke or some secret society shit but the NFL Flossing is played up too much.  I am happy for Lance getting a gig with NFL Network but now it seems as if it's put on as a badge of honor.  It's weird because its not only Lance saying "I work for the NFL, look at me", his coworkers promote it just as much.  Of course it makes sense to play up a noted guy on your squad but for me it comes off ass braggadocios.

John Granato - Faux Dallas Hate -  Although I call it Faux Dallas Sports Hate, the reality is, John can really hate the Rangers, Cowboys and Mavericks.  It comes off ass old and hokey playing up to a "make believe" Dallas vs Houston beef.  It made sense back in 03/04 when the Texans were brand new but it comes off as fake as fuck and for the most part, many have moved on from that.  The irony of it, I hate Dallas.  I hate the City of Dallas because I always seem to get in trouble in that city but in 2018?

• Astros better than Rangers
• Rockets own the Mavericks
• Cowboys and Texans play every four years and neither has did anything

Jerome Solomon - Giggles   Jerome giggles too damn much when he's hosting or making guest appearances.  It comes off as a nervous condition but I've watched his TV Show and he does not giggle as much.

Fred Davis - 5 Hour Energy   When you listen to Fred, expect your heartbeat to go from 0-100 in 5 seconds.  Fred stays crunk.

AJ Hoffman  

Random Internal Interviews - Interviewing coworkers on the spot. It would be one thing if the people were interesting but they are not.  They are ok for a onesy but not as recurring thing.

Belcher - Guaranteed to produce at least one healthy belch per show.  I am convinced it's some shit stolen from Howard Stern but it still works and it's funny.  After he re-up'd with ESPN, they tried to get rid of it but the public outcry wanted it, so the belch is back

Fred Faour  

Grouch - Fred is just grouchy. He makes no bones about it. As a listener, it can be a turn off but if you know the show, it's easy to overlook.

Phone Number - He will give out the station's phone number at least 983 times in a 3 hour show.  Fred could stop taking callers/texts for the show and immediately give out the show's number.

Josh Innes 

Racial Man - Josh has fully embraced racial radio. A portion of his show will hover around race in some capacity.  He's seen that race radio is the meal ticket.

Hypocritical - Josh will blast people about the shit they do while doing the same thing himself.  Example: He blasted Doc Rivers for nepotism. Doc Rivers coaches his son Austin Rivers.  Meanwhile, Josh's girlfriend Jilly is working on his show.  He will also blast habits of media members and say, "I hate when the media do this......" then he does it.

Blaster -  One of the reasons I like Josh, he will go at the competition. He gives no fucks

ND Kalu - Just nice

Mike Meltser - Fair

Patrick Creighton - 

Loud - Patrick loves to over talk you. You can really tell when he's passionate about a topic because his octaves go up by 100 %.  The dude is literally the loudest person in Houston. I can save my data and just open a window and hear him; I am in Fort Bend and he's in the Galleria.

John Lopez

The Giggler - He just giggles, there is not much more to say

Seth Payne

Passionate - Seth will let loose if he feels passionate about a subject.  I love it

Corrector - Seth loves to correct people and tell you why you are wrong.  The shit is cool for football i.e. the things you know he knows but it can get a tad overwhelming when he do it in damn near everything.

Landry Locker 

Groucho/Contrarian - For a relatively young man, Landry is fucking grouchy, He don't suffer fools easily.  If he think it's stupid, he will flat out say it. It's so funny hearing Mike Meltser and Seth Payne trying to corral him and he's like "Nope, that's idiotic to me".

Joel Blank

As a former Rocket's Play By Play employee, he's rubbed elbows with the pros in town.  I notice that he corrects a lot of shit that fans have wrong .  In other words, if there's a common belief by the fanbase and they spit it at him like it's the gospel, he will check you and explain why you are wrong.

Sean Pendergast

I do not listen to his local show; I only listen to his national show on Sundays because weekend programming is awful.  The reason I cannot listen to Sean's local show because I cannot get beyond the smacking.  As he's transitioning or catching a breath, he smacks.  It's very pronounced.  Sean is not the only local personality who smacks, a lot of them do but his is so damn loud.  It's weird because I was a huge Sean fan when he was with 1560 The Game and I never noticed it, the minute he got with 610, it become an annoyance.  My guess is, the engineering is better at 610 and maybe I can hear things more clearly, nevertheless it makes my flesh crawl and I cannot listen

Radio personalities you should trust with baseball

Written by: Lamont

It's that time of year, baseball season.  Over the last 3 years (4 seasons), the Astros have grabbed local attention especially with their World Series win.  

Although I hate losing, you can learn a lot about personalities during losing seasons.  When the Astros sucked most personalities would not talk about them nor MLB outside of slim few.  I remembered the people who still tried talk about them or baseball in general.  Now that the Astros are beasting everyone has become an expert, similar March Madness.   Most personalities do not give a flying crap about college ball but in March, they are all experts.

Locally, there are a few on-air personalities I trust with baseball.  I love to learn, and if you can tell me something I didn't know, I will inhale that shit like coke, I don't do coke. 

Below are the guys I lean on in Sports Talk for baseball.

Patrick Creighton

Patrick Creighton loves baseball.  I can remember his time with Sports Radio 610 trying to talk the Astros and baseball, he couldn't because the Astros were bad and I got the sense he was steered away.  Patrick is a die-hard New York Mets fan.  It wasn't until he jumped ship to 94.1 Sports Map, I really saw his range in baseball.  Not only do he talk baseball on his show but he helps me on Twitter with various nuances of the game. 

John Granato

I remember a few years ago, I said Pallilo was the best baseball personality and Dustin Bennett said "Granato is solid too".  At that point I started paying more attention to Granato's baseball takes. He knows his shit.  Once you get to know Granato's personality and learn how to weave out the bullshit, he's a strong resource for baseball and....GOLF.

Matt Thomas

Before I really plaid attention to any of the other guys, Matt was my GoTo.   Since Matt's return to Houston, I always remembered him trying to squeeze in some Astros.  As the Astros got better and I broadened my scope, I didn't rely on him as much but he helped me a ton.

Josh Innes

Josh is the anomaly. He didn't give one flat fuck about the Astros when he was at 610.  He clowned them as everyone did but he always talked about baseball, specifically the Cardinals. He knows his baseball and to be honest, I think that is his sports strength.   Once he get started on the Astros, he will go all the way in and its not obscure stats.

Charlie Pallilo

It's simple, Charlie is Baseball Savant.  Charlie Pallilo's baseball knowledge is sexual.  When I listen to to Charlie from April-October, I feel like a freshmen in college in advance physics.  Not only is Charlie knowledgeable, his callers are just as strong.  I have always said, Sports Talk is the mirror effect, what you put in, is what you get out.  There's not going to be a whole bunch of bullshit on Charlie's Show. To be honest, it's sort of intimidating if you are a novice baseball or Astros fan.

After I listen to all of the regurgitated Astros, I rely on Charlie to make sense of it all.  Charlie is clearly the strongest baseball mind in this city and it's not even close.