Radio Sport
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I'm super disappointed.
My thoughts on the good and bad.
Firstly, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
Already on this thread I've seen some suggest an announcer I quite liked, they hated with a passion. You'll get that.
Anyway, I still tuned in over on the left side of the deetch when I could (their Week on Demand recordings got me through many morning exercise sessions, and weekend gardening efforts). It gave me a direct connection to the sport I was still connected with over there. More so than over here.
So random thoughts that I may add to or amend.
- I generally enjoyed their breakfast shows. Devlin in particular.
Devlin's rants could piss me off when I disagreed with him but I generally enjoyed him.
I know many of you disliked Veitch. I coukd park the reputation, and again generally (not always) enjoyed the show. His weekend afternoon's got a bit formulaic but meh (tried too hard to repeat and repeat and repeat his points).
Mulligan was was quite good and was the highlight of the brekkie shows featuring him, Richardson and Doull.
Nate Rarere ( @Gibbit ) was fun, and KJ and Peers played good straight guys to him recently.
- I miss the longer interviews.
Telfer did this really well and I think they suffered through getting rid of him. He'd spend a whole hour (less ads and news) interviewing a sportsman or author. They haven't done this recently and I think that's been to their detriment.
Veitch could and did the longer interviews well.
- Announcers I didn't like:
Lose. Thought he was dumb. Would try and take a contrary position to try and generate controversy but really couldn't sustain a logical argument.
Watson. Hated rugby particularly and team ball sports generally. Was a hard listen because of that anger. Would yell over the top of anyone who had a vaguely different opinion.
Golightly, similar. Kind of seemed to hate sport and would not buy into any disagreement.
There'sprobably more.
- Guys who were okish, somewhere between "I kinda liked" and "I didn't really dislike":
Graham Hill. He was at least entertaining.
Phil Gifford. Knew his sport, if at times I found that he struggled to articulate his message.
Waldegrave. Wasn't someone I went out of my way to listen to. No offence to Darcy. Just usually by the time I had listened to the preceding broadcasts in a day it was time to pack it in.
Dewhurst. Ok. Too much soccer.
Larmer. Never warmed to his delivery.
Pine. Ok but found him a bit bland.
McCardy. See Pine.
- The upshot for me on reflection and reading my own opinions above is enjoyment.
The guys who really enjoyed sport, revelled in it's history and it's fun, and we're able to convey that to the audience were the guys I liked.
Do hope they come back.
But good luck to @DrivingMaul if he can make a go of something.
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Devlin and the John Mitchell era. That was the high point.
Oh and some guy called “Steve” who knows all about Northland rugby
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@Billy-Tell said in Radio Sport:
Devlin and the John Mitchell era. That was the high point.
what do we do after a RWC loss? NewsTalk just won't be the same as Radio Sport
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I don't like the idea of RadioSport being gone one bit - but like many my listenership definitely waned in the past decade.
The problem for me was the content became very hit and miss. Even with the presenters I enjoyed Devlin, McHardy, Pine even Watson in his day there was way too little quality control. Too often it would veer off into "here is a 45 minute interview with the head of Dodgeball New Zealand" or "Here, let me tell you how much I know about American Sports". Why they ever let Miles Davis on I'll never know? Seems like a nice enough bloke, but I doubt BBC 5 live would let a NZer bang on about the Heartland Championship nauseam during prime time slots.
Even still they always managed to push out quality content, that Ian Smith interview on Sunday being the final example.
I long for the glory days where there was domestic cricket on all summer, controversy within AB management and selection, genuine promise with the Warriors and solid line up from AM to PM.
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The only sense of loss I feel is over ball by ball cricket - which was going anyway. I would tune in maybe once a fortnight when I could find nothing else to listen to. Generally only for a few minutes before constant ads or some inane comment would turn me and the radio off.
When it first started I was a big fan of everything except Deaker. Sadly it seems the stations owners wanted more Murray and less sport. Too many ad. I know it's a commercial station but it seemed I would always turn on and hear 3 mins of ads - one minute of the host say something like well that's been a great discussion, stay with us after the break - news coming up in 3 minutes and then we will have more on the xyz controversy.
Way too many hosts whose knowledge of sport was lamentable. It's your job - put some fucking effort in.
There were some bright spots. In the early days it was very good - but latterly too personality driven. I don't give a shit about you as a person I'm here for the sport you moron!! I have occasionally caught the Breakfast show when the car radio was still on radio sport from the previous days cricket and @gibbit seemed to do a good job of holding it all together but I never listened for more than two minutes.
Nobody's mentioned Mark Richardson - says it all.... Rigor summed up everything RS got wrong.
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@dogmeat said in Radio Sport:
When it first started I was a big fan of everything except Deaker. Sadly it seems the stations owners wanted more Murray and less sport.
Everyone can criticize Deaker, Veitch and to a lesser extent Deviln - but it will be shame if there isn't a flagship sports talk show in NZ coming out of this (Devlin was broadcast from ZB so I have no idea if his show is running). They all had their eccentricities but that kind of comes with the gig. Leading up to a big fixture or the Sunday after a major game they always had the big name interviews and didn't give them softballs.
Also did anyone ever figure out what a Biomag was?
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@rotated Deaker was a dick. He may have been good once, but even I'm not old enough to remember.
What I didn't like was his complete ignorance about anything other than rugby and to an extent cricket. Even with those two sports he was quite often wrong. He was the kind of mouthy git you'd avoid in the pub - except you'd never find him there of course. -
@dogmeat said in Radio Sport:
@rotated Deaker was a dick. He may have been good once, but even I'm not old enough to remember.
Henry was ropable at the way that Deaker turned on him after the 2007 RWC to sell his book. Went from singing his praises to throwing him under the bus... not cool
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@nzzp The campaign against Mains (if he is reappointed I will not go to S.A. - what's that you say all expenses paid junket to the Republic, where do I sign0 the America's Cup thing. As I said he may have been good once but he was just an egotistical, lazy, embittered old man for the 20 or so years I heard him.
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@nzzp said in Radio Sport:
@dogmeat said in Radio Sport:
@rotated Deaker was a dick. He may have been good once, but even I'm not old enough to remember.
Henry was ropable at the way that Deaker turned on him after the 2007 RWC to sell his book. Went from singing his praises to throwing him under the bus... not cool
It's funny how time change though. At the time it did seem like a betrayal and Henry seemed really hurt by it.
In the post-Twitter age I reckon Ted would come off precious. Deaker was a blowhard that is what blowhards do. The TV version of Deaker on Sport was just him yelling at the screen before and interview wasn't it?
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@booboo Pretty decent assessment, booboo - in that I agree with most of it.
I usually found Devlin's hyper style pretty amusing and also parked Vietch's reputation - beyond that he seemed to have more connections into NZ sport than anyone else and was usually a very good interviewer.
I mainly listened to RS in the car, but to be honest, I switched stations about 10 days ago, when all they seemed to have to talk about was corona virus. Hope they come back when this all blows over. Don't think I'm a likely audience for a streaming service, DM - unless you can make it come out of the car radio!
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@dogmeat said in Radio Sport:
@nzzp The campaign against Mains (if he is reappointed I will not go to S.A. - what's that you say all expenses paid junket to the Republic, where do I sign0 the America's Cup thing. As I said he may have been good once but he was just an egotistical, lazy, embittered old man for the 20 or so years I heard him.
Sums up Deaker well. Deaker's treatment of Mains was the exact opposite to Henry in that he later had him (Mains) as a guest on his show after the earlier criticism. I do remember listening to Deaker's meltdown on air. Sad and amusing at the same time.
When I last listened to RS Telfer was still a host so I wouldn't know what it has been like in recent years.
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Deaker: full of himself and had been in decline as a host for a long time before finally being axed.
Veitch: actually quite good when not banging on about getting "on the large" or trying to come across as besties with any sportspeople he or the public regarded as cool. Latterly, you also had to somehow compartmentalise his personal offences also, which was pretty much impossible.
Telfer: also full of his own self-importance and the worst I've ever heard for cutting people off at zero notice if they disagreed with him and were actually making a good fist of it. Pathetic. But at least he was stongly opinionated, something all too often missing in recent hosts. The BTE was a must-listen but could also be infuriating.
Devlin: a screaming head. Very annoying. Also cringe-worthy how he'd bang on ad-nauseum about the "modern generation" and dick picks etc, and the stupid voice he'd put on when trying to take the piss out of any marketing types. One of the worst, and crazily over-rated. IMHO really fortunate to have had a few lucky breaks in a small local industry.
Kent Johns: the best PM show host I've heard and the only time I intentionally tuned into RS in the afternoon rather than listening to music or making phone calls. Not afraid to express an opinion but also considerate of others.
Mark Richardson: he's the only one I'll rate who hadn't had his own solo slot, as I think it's hard to call out individuals when operating as part of a team. I liked him on the breakfast show and I think much of the criticism that follows him around is either unwarranted or based on people completely misunderstanding his sense of humour which often appears to be based on getting a rise out of people. -
@Chris-B Agreed that it needs to be available for commutes/driving. Podcasts are already doing that and some hybrid of live/near-live is what I'm thinking of how I can deliver.
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@shark great summary.
Veitch was a great interviewer at times, but I couldn't separate his personal life actions and lack of remorse with his skillset.
I'd also stone cold forgotten Kent Johns. Quality fella, and really good.
Disagree with you on Devlin. Early Devlin was remarkable - took the industry in a direction it wasn't ready for; irreverent, but informed and insightful. That faded over the last 20 years though. Still capable of flashes of brilliance, but not consistently.
Overall, I despair at the lack of proper commentary and analysis around the place. The level is so superficial - on here you get deeper insight than most media outlets (which is a real worry).
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@Chris-B said in Radio Sport:
@booboo Pretty decent assessment, booboo - in that I agree with most of it.
I usually found Devlin's hyper style pretty amusing and also parked Vietch's reputation - beyond that he seemed to have more connections into NZ sport than anyone else and was usually a very good interviewer.
I mainly listened to RS in the car, but to be honest, I switched stations about 10 days ago, when all they seemed to have to talk about was corona virus. Hope they come back when this all blows over. Don't think I'm a likely audience for a streaming service, DM - unless you can make it come out of the car radio!
Great minds Christoper
As for the bolded bit: Bluetooth
