Listening to terrestrial sports talk radio paints a grim picture of our society...

[RockRaven]

Virtually every ad I heard during a recent multi-hour car trip was gambling, boner pills/treatments, divorce/custody lawyers, and back taxes advisors.

And the sports talk content was hardly less depressing.

[moniss]

1. Gone are the days of early sports talk radio

when callers called in and reasonably informed hosts answered questions and had conversations with fans. Now it is nearly all about salary drama, personal drama etc. Tune in to most of these channels and you will constantly hear arguing about who is the GOAT of a particular sport.

What you won't generally hear is any discussion of track and field, very much about hockey beyond headlines, any real discussion or coverage of soccer, no discussion of NCAA baseball or wrestling, nothing beyond a headline about tennis, nothing about golf now that Woods is more or less kaput, nothing about general issues facing high school athletics and the list goes on.

But we will hear endless speculation and rumor about owners, stadiums, coaches, players, salaries, stupid things said on podcasts and on and on. What we won't hear is anybody talking much about the actual play of a player or the game beyond generalities like "they didn't play well defensively". But rare will be the conversation, for basketball as an example, where anybody talks about what specifically wasn't done defensively and what a player specifically wasn't doing such as moving their feet or was doing wrong such as trying to reach too much as opposed to move. Also rare would be anybody having the knowledge about a player and their career in college to speak about their skills development progression and their coaching. But the talking head host with the loudest mouth will talk all about how this or that player is "good" or "bad".

[tritsofme]

3. Definitely agree, general sports radio isn't worth listening to anymore. But there are some great podcasts that fill

the void, in my opinion.

If you are a hockey fan, I would recommend 32 Thoughts. It’s a Canadian podcast hosted by Sportsnet commentator Elliotte Friedman, probably the most connected insider in hockey today. It’s really turned into one of my favorite sports programs!

[moniss]

7. Thanks for the tip and I've been a

fan since the "Original 6" days. I try to explain to fans today that back then you were watching the equivalent of Cup quarter finals every single game. You had the 6 best players in each position every game. No helmets, straight sticks and then curved and the fights were off the charts.

I'm a big Gretzky fan mostly because of his skating and passing and I know todays fans make a big deal about Ovechkin and the career goals but for me I try to tell people that watching Stan Mikita fly down the ice was something else. Too bad that most of the tape of those games is gone or of low herky-jerky quality. Watching Glenn Hall in goal was truly amazing given the wars in the crease then compared to today. Seems like when I hear people today talk about hockey greats they don't really realize how great Glenn Hall was. They should read up on this guy.

[jmowreader]

2. SiriusXM sports channels' ads are equally depressing

They ALSO have life insurance ads and some guy selling "timeshare cancellation."

You haven't lived until you've been rolled up on a NASCAR race and heard first a plug for BlueGreen Vacations, The Official Vacation Ownership Provider of NASCAR, then almost immediately a plug for Wesley Financial Group, The Leader in Timeshare Cancellation.

Then come the life insurance companies. You've got someone named Ethos Life, whose sales strategy revolves around a commercial where a wife is nagging her husband to get life insurance because of a horrible dream she had about hubby being killed and her and the kids having to move out of the house because they couldn't afford it anynore. Then there's "Term Providers," who is run by someone named Big Lou. Big Lou's like you, he's fucked-up too. Oh yeah, and then there's a company that buys life insurance policies.

There are seven or eight outfits who want you to donate your car to them and at least one doesn't require a title, which makes me wonder....what happens when your neighbor who hates you donates your car to charity and they tow it off while you're at work?

[rubbersole]

8. Let's include 1-877-KARS-4-KIDS...

1-877-KARS-4-KIDS - 1-877-KARS-4-KIDS, donate your car today! And they've branched out to real estate donations.

[jmowreader]

12. Kars 4 Kids is one of the companies in the last paragraph

There’s also the NASCAR Foundation, who doesn’t take real estate yet.

The VERY BEST ads on the NASCAR channel are the ones trying to get you to buy tickets for a race while the race they’re selling tickets for is in progress. But that’s okay, my own advertising department runs ads to “help you get ready for the holidays”….in January.

[Crowman2009]

9. Then there's the Kars for Kids ads!

I try not to bust out laughing when the grown-up with the goat-like delivery starts singing.

[CoopersDad]

4. I have been beating up on this board for saying so but US sports are bullshit.

Bread and Circuses.

Fast Food and professional sports.

I do love the Olympics and some sports but I just lack the DNA to get excited about teams and big games and such.

[misanthrope]

17. You're correct

It is a distraction. But how you choose to interact with it is up to the individual, as you reflect.

I like college football and college basketball. I will watch some of the summer Olympics when they roll around, but that's about the extent of it. And it doesn't dominate my life nearly to the degree I have seen in others. I have plenty of other interests to fill my time.

In my youth, I liked the outdoors and sports, but was also drawn to more intellectual and artistic pursuits. My high school yearbook had signed comments from classmates in one adolescent realm or the other who called me "creative and smart for a jock," or "athletic for a nerd." I graduated with arts honors but could frequently be found shooting baskets in the gym.

Humans can be more complex than we assume.

[CoopersDad]

18. College sports is more pleasing for me, too.

Though, as a member of the K-16 educational industry, I see many more cases of sports taking away funding from academics, and that's a bummer.
Still, sports are for many a pathway to self-realization so I'm not gonna hold that against anyone.

Sports, arts, shop classes and the rest need to be supported.

[usonian]

5. So you listen to KNBR as well. Ha.

I get it over the airwaves aome 200 miles away, and it’s just awful,

They fired most of the senior “overage, overpaid, overqualified” announcers, including the extremely talented former Warrior Tom Tolbert, so they could hire kids (cheap, cheap, cheap) with no life stories to tell beyond their high school idiot adventures. One is the son of their star announcer (no nepotism here) and others are also former interns. What a shitshow.

THE POSTGAME LEADER.

I had to follow the Warriors on espn online, because the complete morons there lost the Warriors to another station that must be putting out 20 or 30 watts of power.

Losers catering to losers.

[RockRaven]

6. LOL, yup, that was the station.

What a bizarre yet terribly boring freakshow, content-wise.

And what the ads say about their target audience. Holy shit. Sad, sad, sad...

[BlueTsunami2018]

10. You target the demographic that listens.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with those products. If you’re into sports you might want to drop a wager every now and then. If you’re middle aged, you might want to spice up your love life. That’s also the time of life when most people get divorced. Unfortunately, you might need a good lawyer to avoid getting killed in it. And a lot of people have issues with the IRS. I know people who have those services with decent results.

That’s who listens to terrestrial sports radio. Mostly middle aged dudes.

[Paladin]

11. Hey, cheer up. Rush Limbaugh is still dead. (nt)

[Crowman2009]

14. There was this AM station in Detroit WJR who screwed up big time when they gave up on being the flagship station for...

...the Detroit Tigers and switched formats to conservative talk radio. In the long run they lost big time financially.

[Paladin]

16. Good. (nt)

[Johnny2X2X]

13. So much gambling talk

It's ruined a lot of sports talk. But it draws a certain listener. Your typical degenerate gambler.

And as the saying goes, no one ever lost money gambling, just ask any gambler. The lies gamblers tell themselves.

[Crowman2009]

15. Gone are the days of ads for food/beverage, local products, upcoming concerts/stage shows, and if you're in the...

...Detroit metro-area its auto dealerships, auto parts, tires, auto repair, etc.