1560 The Change

About a week ago the news came down regarding lineup changes at 1560. John & Lance 6-10a, Raheel & John Harris 10-12p, Sean Pendergast 12-3p and Travis Rodgers 3-6p with Sean and Travis' shows being national Sporting News Radio broadcasts. My first reaction was to run to my computer blog away. I decided though to give myself some time to really think about the changes and fully form my opinions instead of spewing a knee jerk reaction.

The fact that I spent a week thinking about this should tell you how big a fan of the station I am. I've been a gamer from the start through and through. When the changes were announced I had just finished blog posts on both the Sean & John Show and Travis Rodgers Now but had yet to post them. They were rendered moot so I had to now think about where my favorite station was going instead of where it had been. I wanted to break my assessment down into three parts the local shows, the national shows and where the station stands now and it's relationship with listeners.

The Local Shows
It's strange to see a station built around it's local appeal go from four to two local shows. Thankfully, one of the remaining local shows is John & Lance in the morning. I wrote a recent blog post with my opinions on the show and aside from a greater appreciation for Del's input, those opinions haven't change. I expect J&L to continue delivering the best morning product in the market and the callers to deliver the best animal noises in Houston.

I'm a little concerned about the new 10-12pm show with Raheel and John Harris. I'm afraid they are pairing a guy with a narrow appeal with someone who has limited entertainment value. What I mean is that Raheel is a bit of an acquired taste. Kind of like a fried spam sandwich with mustard. To the right person it's delicious and a lunch staple but most people never give it a chance even though they might love it. Johnny, on the other hand, can break down football like no one else on the airwaves. He's able to translate complex football terminology into something consumable to the masses. He's also able to speak intelligently on baseball and basketball. Where John falls a bit short is the entertainment side of a show. He works better as the straight man of a broadcast team. This is what made his pairing with Sean Pendergast perfect. Both of these guys have been at this for a few years now, so I hope they are able to craft a show that appeals to the midday consumer. In all honesty though, they could hire an intern to play with an iPhone fart machine for three hours and it would be better than the Brando garbage being broadcast now.

The new Raheel & John Harris show is walking into a good situation though. The Texans season died just as the Rockets started playing better ball. Raheel's strength is his basketball knowledge which lines up nicely with a January premier. Combine that with John's ability to break down the major bowl games, a likely Texans coaching change, high draft pick and Rockets trade deadline chatter and they could come out of the gate like a fireball. Though I'm not a big fan of caller driven shows, John and Raheel's strengths as broadcasters almost dictates a successful show would have a high caller volume. With a strong lead in from John & Lance they should have a great opportunity to build a winner. The competition down the dial is strong in listener ship but weak on content. The Jim Rome Show has been terrible for years now and I still don't know why the hell the Mighty Gwinn is yelling at us all the time.

I do wish 1560 could find a place for Danny Vara. Unless he's not interested in getting back in to broadcasting outside of South Bound Food, it's an indictment on local radio management that he is a man without a regular hosting job. Danny's a guy that has a great combination of broad listener appeal and good entertainment value. Maybe all these changes will lead to something for him down the road.

I'm a big believer is supporting your local businesses and I see local shows as no different. I'll give these guys every opportunity to win me over and as long as I believe in the product they're putting out, I'll continue to promote them in forums like this.

The National Shows
I couldn't be happier that both Sean Pendergast and Travis Rodgers are getting a chance to bring their shows to a national audience. Both hosts are extremely talented and offer unique perspectives. From the outset of Travis Rodgers Now on 1560, I felt like his show was being honed for national release. I had hopped it would be in the 10-1pm slot but 3-6 is good too. Travis' experience is in producing a wildly successful national show (Jim Rome Show) for over a decade. If you ever wondered who the real talent was on that show, flip it over there one day. It won't take you long to figure out it wasn't the guys still there. It took me about three shows on 1560 to figure out TRN was cannot miss radio. Travis is very good at exposing the twisted reality of the sports world with his dark sense of humor. He has quickly connected with listeners and has successfully integrated those listeners into the show through twitter. I have no doubt Travis will be a home run for SNR.

I've been a big fan of the Sean and John show from day one. They had their marching orders to not suck too much and delivered consistently. I was surprised when the S&J team was broken up but I know Sean has been doing a lot of fill in work on SNR recently. So maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. I can't say I have a strong opinion one way or another on Sean's solo show hosting ability. I always preferred the S&J show when both hosts were present and would usually listen to music when one was out.

What does concern me though is that even though both guys are coming from 1560, we as Houston listeners will be losing six hours of local programming. The old Houston listeners have to change their expectations of what Sean and Travis' shows are going to be. They will now have an audience that doesn't care about the Texans' woes or our frustrations with Gary Kubiak. They'll care about the Buckeyes, the Lakers, the Red Sox and all those other teams we may give a rat's ass about. I like the idea of having a national show to break up all the ridiculous calls from arm chair GMs trying to trade Yao Ming's contract for Carmelo but a six hour block of Yankees/Heat talk? I'm not sure I'm up for that. I need my Gary Kubiak bashing.

The State of the Station
As I took a week to think about the changes at 1560 and my opinions continued to form the one thing that didn't change was my disappointment with what I perceived as a shift away from a local sports focus. When Sporting News Radio moved its operations to Houston and 1560 became its flagship, a lot of listeners, myself included went "uh oh" and waited for the other shoe to drop. I think the sound we heard last week was the sound of leather hitting the floor.

I've been a gamer from the beginning. I bought in fully to the little guy taking on the radio giants and I supported the station the best way I could, through word of mouth promotion and by supporting their sponsors. My wife knew whenever we needed something a KGOW sponsor would be my first choice. Whether it was Dirt Free, Indoor Comfort, Wild Wing Cafe or Klein's, I felt it was my duty to repay the station for the hours of entertainment they had provided me by using the advertisers that kept them on the air.

You see I bought in to the 1560 spirit because I'm a small business owner and I'd bet KGOW has a greater percentage of small business listeners than any other Houston sports radio station. As a small business owner/Entrepreneur you're invigorated by the opportunity to stick it to the man. You pull for one another to beat the world of corporations and live by your own rules. But, starting with their marriage to SNR, the us against the man rhetoric from 1560 became increasingly difficult to believe. Now, with the recent lineup changes 75% of it's broadcast day will be national shows. I feel like this is  a 180 degree philosophical change for a station built on a local and extremely loyal fan base.

I realize this is a business and the 1560 management has to do what they feel is best for the company but on the other hand I want "my" radio station too. For more than three years now, those two forces have not only coexisted but flourished together. Now, I worry we are at a crossroads heading in different directions. Maybe we aren't. Maybe I'm being led down a path I never realized I wanted to travel. Maybe I'm just a fan whose favorite indie band just signed with a major label that is going to take them to new heights. The harsh reality though is that the indie band, major label marriage rarely works out and the promise of new bigger heights is almost never delivered.