By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
August 13, 2013
Well, if you had a future wager on what would arrive in Detroit first, a second FM sports talk station or a Cheesecake Factory, thanks to 105.1-FM’s debut on Monday — just 20 hours prior to the Grand Opening of the new chain eatery in Novi — you can now head to the cashier.
Monday was a busy day for the former adult-contemporary channel as the station had an 11am press conference to announce the flip and then went live at 3pm with the station’s centerpiece program featuring Drew Lane and his former producer on the “Drew and Mike” show, Marc Fellhauer.
I actually was in attendance for the press conference and ended up dominating the questioning — a point that was discussed by Lane and Fellhauer in the first hour of their new show. You can listen to the entire press conference here with my brilliant questioning coming at about the 13-minute mark.
And it was an odd experience for me, considering a sports talk radio station actually treated me with respect and didn’t send two Louis Farrakhan disciples to carry me out of the building when noticing my presence.
In fact, I honestly figured there was a 80/20 chance that I would NOT be allowed entrance into the presser when I was told by the secretary to wait for a PR person before I could enter the room where this shindig was being held.
But not only was I allowed to participate, the Greater Media liaison even offered me free coffee and cupcakes before the event commenced. And, to the best of my knowledge, the treats weren’t even laced with ricin.
After hijacking the press conference and asking an array of questions ranging from ‘Will Matt Dery co-host the midday program once his non-compete at 97.1 runs out’ to ‘Will you start a radio war with 97.1 and attack that station’s 40-year old virgin,’ I was even greeted by some Detroit 105.1 Sports employees with complimentary things to say about the website.
The most cordial was Fellhauer, who asked for my opinion on some issues and I gave them in an off-the-record bullshit session. (Fellhauer already is smarter than most in this town. He didn’t put anything in writing.)
The debut of the all-sports format got off to an odd and rough start as the new era of sports in Detroit was ushered in by some bizarre rip-off of the Chrysler/Eminem Super Bowl commercial from last year.
That “Up with Detroit” prerecorded bit was then followed by about seven minutes of “Drew and Mike’s” greatest hits, which meant the competition to Mike Valenti and Terry Foster didn’t get started until about ten minutes into the hour.
I am not going to delve into every intricacy of the first show because it isn’t fair to judge a program after only a few hours, especially when the whole enterprise seemed rushed to get on the air in the first place.
But I will make a few observations based on the comments at the press conference and a few hints from the first four hours of broadcast:
1) The major difference between the PM Drive shows on the two FM sports stations will definitely be format. I am pretty sure Lane interviewed more people (Mickey Redmond, Lloyd Carr and Charlie LeDuff) in his first show than 97.1 has in the last three years, if you don’t include coaches or players from WXYT-FM’s broadcast partners.
And while I am not a Redmond fan (the goof actually stated in the interview that the Grind Line was just as important to the Red Wings past success as Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov and Nick Lidstrom) ,and I believe Carr is a back-stabbing Judas, it was refreshing to hear a voice that wasn’t Billy Bob from Trenton wanting to talk about ice fishing.
2) The one area you’d think 97.1 would be more vulnerable for attack than even the Death Star’s thermal exhaust ports is their propensity to discuss every issue under the sun other than, ya know … SPORTS.
But Lane will have a hard time exploiting that weakness as it is really difficult to shoot womp rats from your T-16 when your bread-and-butter is talking about pop culture and issues other than sports.
I can hardly blame Drew or Greater Media for that strategy though. You’ve got a radio legend in Lane who has dominated the ratings in this town for three decades. It would be insane to force him to discuss sports for four hours every afternoon when his audience doesn’t want that.
And Lane didn’t just win the ratings war in afternoon drive, he accomplished this in the MORNING, which is the most vicious battle of them all. The short-term success of this endeavor is going to focus on how many “Drew and Mike” listeners are going to follow him up the dial.
And if my choice of poison is Lane discussing a weekend viewing of “We’re the Millers” or Pat Caputo pontificating on Detroit’s City Council, please give me the Jennifer Aniston/Jason Sudeikis talk.
3) The one bit of unsolicited advice I will give to new program director Jason Dixon is this: We understand that you can’t talk sports all-day, every day for 365 days a year.
The main complaint I get from brain-dead morons who still listen to 97.1 is that on a day where the Wings could be playing in the postseason, the Pistons could make a blockbuster trade, the Lions could be drafting that evening and the Tigers could be on a five-game losing streak based on idiotic Jim Leyland decisions, THEY STILL WOULD DISCUSS LIGHT-RAIL AND POTHOLES ON I-275!!!!!
It is one thing to branch out on a dead summer afternoon when the only topics are the MLB All-Star Game and the ESPY’s; it is a completely different animal when there is a cornucopia of topics to rant about and ya give me Scott “The Whale” Anderson’s opinion of the new bridge between Canada and the US.
4) While I do believe that the days of “Valenti and Foster” throwing up a 6.8 share are over and I wouldn’t be shocked to see a real battle between the two afternoon shows within six months, the rest of the 105.1/97.1 battle is going to look like a Dan Dority/Sheldon Cooper fight.
There is no chance that a provincial city like Detroit is going to support ESPN’s syndicated programs like “Mike and Mike” and “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” no matter how god awful “The Ticket’s” morning or midday shows are. And trust me, they’re an affront to broadcasting.
5) I am not going to rail against the midday show TOO MUCH because from what I can gather from the press conference and aftermath was that the Rico Beard and Ryan Ermanni show is just temporary until Matt Dery’s non-compete at WXYT runs out.
And if Ermanni and Beard are relegated to weekends or evenings, who cares anyway?
Although, if Ermanni is actually going to host a three-hour weekday program on top of his Fox-2 duties then he is the biggest fucking liar in the world on top of being a racist homophobe and the world’s worst gambler.
When WDFN fired Ermanni awhile back, I Tweeted about the dismissal. Ermanni attempted to correct me by saying it was HIS choice to leave. That he couldn’t handle his full-time gig at Fox-2 AND the AM-1130 talk show. That he was thrilled to leave Clear Channel because he got his life back.
No, Ermanni. You were shitcanned because you’re awful and your ratings were lower than the Emergency Broadcast Signal on repeat. It wasn’t your choice and the fact you are back on the radio at the first opportunity further cements my position.
Nothing bothers me more about 105.1’s new lineup than Ermanni’s inclusion. This is just a flat-out bad guy who doesn’t deserve the chance. Hell, I’d rather hear some fresh voice out of Specs Howard than this monumental douche bag.
When I was leaving the Greater Media compound yesterday morning, Rico Beard chased after me to introduce himself, which was a nice gesture on his part. He jokingly told me to take it easy on his new show.
I will do you one better, Rico. Read this article about your new broadcast partner and discover for yourself what you are dealing with.
Look, I am not trying to start shit here, and I was ready to let this Ermanni crap go, but the fact that he is getting ANOTHER opportunity has my head ready to explode.
But if you REALLY want to read it and you take enough initiative, you can email me at DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com and I will provide you with the password.
All in all, it was a good day for Detroit sports fans though. Finally, after years of waiting, there is an FM alternative to the odorous CBS Radio product. And I am confident that whatever issues we have with the early gestation period of 105.1, Greater Media is in this for the long haul; you don’t just make a decision overnight to flip a station that was performing decently while totally giving up the female demographic in the market on a lark.
Hopefully, that plan includes stealing a couple of sports teams away from “The Ticket,” more local programming and better on-air talent overall.
And if things go poorly, well ….. at least we will have more fodder for this awful websight™ (Terry Fraudster) for the next two years.