Media Review: Colin Cowherd

Colin Cowherd is clever and entertaining, but he is more akin to a standup comic than a sports journalist—and that is the problem. ESPN today is more about laughs than real information.

Last Wednesday’s show spent more time discussing men using tanning machines than real sports talk. They also spent an inordinate amount of time discussing American Idol odds.

It was funny. But like Chinese food, it wasn’t filling—an hour later you are forced to wonder why you wasted your time on ESPN Radio. That is one reason I listened to two installments instead of the usual one show review. I needed to feel I had something to review.

That isn’t to say Cowherd doesn’t make great points, and provide useful analysis.

He does. Last Wednesday, he explained why the Dolphins will improve with Bill Parcells. He talked about the types of players Parcells likes to acquire, and how it will help build the Dolphins—after all Parcells has done it everywhere he’s been.

This Wednesday, he talked about how athletes behave badly. He talked about PGA Golfer John Daly, a poster boy for bad behavior. He also talked about how fans enable athletes to behave badly. He cited an example of a prosecutor who let an athlete off for speeding.

It was especially insightful given how fans here reacted to the arrest of college football players over the last year. Most fans here assumed the players arrested were wrong, and wanted harsh punishment. But there is a tendency to excuse bad behavior among athletes at all levels from high school to the pros.

Cowherd and his callers were highly critical of Daly.

Callers on talk radio are more important than I could ever imagine. I’ve expressed disdain for many callers to radio programs in Alabama. But after listening to the mental defects and Kiss-ass sycophants on Cowherd’s show, I appreciate good callers. I once got so steamed at something Jim from Tuscaloosa said on Paul Finebaum’s show, I posted a note on my blog comparing him to Dawson. I have to apologize for that. His calls were at least coherent and always insightful (and his call hitting Mayor Langford really is a classic.) His calls were thought provoking.

Cowherd’s callers on the two days I listened usually agreed with him, and contributed nothing but to inflate Cowherd’s already substantial ego. That isn’t good talk radio.

I need a reason to listen to sports talk, and Cowherd’s show doesn’t deliver any compelling reason. I’ll skip it.

Cowherd’s radio show is heard on stations throughout Alabama including Birmingham’s WSPZ-AM 690, ROANOKE’s WELR-AM 1360, WINFIELD’s WKXM-AM 1300, AUBURN’s WAUD-AM 1230, EUFAULA’s WULA-AM 1240, VERNON’s WVSA-AM 1380, DOTHAN’s WLDA-FM 100.5, HUNTSVILLE’s WUMP-AM 730, ROGERSVILLE’s WYTK-FM 93.9, DECATUR’s WWTM-AM 1400, BAY MINNETTE’s WNSP-FM 105.5, DEMOPOLIS’s WXAL-AM 1400, MONTGOMERY’s WMSP-AM 740.