ESPN980 Revamps It's Radio Sports Show Lineup- For Better or For Worst?

By Richard Lyons - APR 2016

ESPN980 has axed the Sports Fix Show- moved around its hosts and sent Thom Leverro packing! It appears that they are trying to do more with less. But will the new recipe work?

Well here we go again more sports radio show changes with ESPN980 and Red Zebra Broadcasting. So let's ask the obvious question- Why? Well the answer is simple, 106.7 The Fan is eating ESPN980's lunch with respect to the Washington Metropolitan area local sports radio circuit according to nielsen.com latest rating

Simply put its all about The Advertising Dollar - the US-based radio advertising market is a 15 billion dollar industry and from a local DC market perspective KIIS/92.1FM leads the pack with 75 million in annual revenues with WTOP/103.5FM taking a close 2nd with 70 million. Clearly ESPN980 is reshuffling its sports host deck to command a greater margin of the advertising dollars.

With respect to Red Zebra's Broadcasting programming changes, the paint hasn't had a chance to dry with the latest ESPN980 and Chuck Sapienza disaster aka The Man Cave Show featuring Jason "I am boring to listen to" Reid and Chris "I am no longer funny or relevant" Paul. For the life of me, I still don't understand how this lemon of a show was successfully pitched, internally embraced and ultimately funded to move forward by ESPN980 leadership. Chuck Sapienza- why did you resign from ESP980 and take a new position with the Naval Academy Athletics; hell having successfully sold the Man Cave debacle to ESPN980 leadership, you deserve an Academy Award Oscar for the 2016 Sports Show Pitch Man Of The Year and should be promoting new programming for Hollywood. But Chuck, if you want to keep it local, here is a tip, Fox is looking to develop a new spin off or continuation rival for its hit show EMPIRE and with your proven ability to sell the Man Cave Show to "White America With Deep Pockets" you are a shoe-in for pitching and selling the next empire rival to Fox. If you are interested, the Fox executive in charge of production is Mr. Michael Thorn- Executive Vice President of Development and he can be reached at michael.thorn@fox.com or (212) 301-3000.

O.K. enough of Chuck, let's get back to the issue at hand "ESPN980 Making Drastic Show Changes Starting 2 May 2016". As I said before, the changes are being made to hopefully gain rating traction from 106.7 The Fan aka CBS Sports. The Sports Junkies, Grant & Danny and Chad Dukes vs The World coupled with the miscellaneous antics and tooth-ache listening experience of Chris Russell produce better ratings and have a larger audience pool than Red Zebra Broadcasting ESPN980. In February 2016, Chris Johnson replaced Dan Zampillo as Program Director for ESPN 980, so it is fair to say that these upcoming show changes were championed by Chris Johnson and ultimately signed off by Terry Bateman, Red Zebra's Chairman of the Board. So let's peel back the onion on the proposed changes coming on 2 May 2016 and see what we have. First and foremost, I think that it is an absolute tragedy that ESPN980 decided to break-up the Sports Fix featuring Kevin Shennan and Thom Leverro. The Sports Fix was the most popular show within ESPN980’s arsenal of talent so why kill that one- DAH? If you had to kill something why not start with the Tony Kornheiser Show; its content and overall commentary structure does not appeal to the young or middle age DC-based population. Hence, thats why the Grant & Danny Show is kicking his as* in ratings. Nobody under 50 within the DMV listens to the Tony Kornheiser Show and it needs to be put out of its misery once and for all or at least for the greater good of mankind. Tony Kornheiser is no longer relevent- his time has past, just like Chris "I am no longer funny" Paul. It's like Stephen A. Smith and James "JB" Brown holding on to their hairlines, when there genetics are clearly telling them its time to shave da dome!

The Sports Fix was a winning combination because of Kevin Sheehan’s and Thom Loverro’s superb on air chemistry which mimics the behaviors of the hit TV series- The Odd Couple featuring Felix Unger and Oscar Madison. Kevin and Thom are like Andy and Barney of the Andy Griffin Show- A wonderful combination whose personalities complement each other offering a great listening experience for the viewing audience. It was great sports theatre as Thom would always keep Kevin in-check whenever he would become over zealous about a recent win or an insignificant accomplishment made the by Wizards or the Redskins. I am going to miss Thom's high pitched voice and the wonderful analogies and examples that he constantly had to give to Kevin to keep his overall excitement and excessive optimism of DC Sports Teams in check. So you axe Thom Loverro, who won DC’s Best Sportswriter Award last year and replace him with Chris Cooley. Chris Cooley is a good sports host when you are talking football, however he lacks the same passion and effectiveness when it comes to other sports such as basketball, hockey, baseball and boxing. Listening to Chris Cooley comment on sports other than football is like watching Tony Kornheiser host BET's Music Awards. The must have background, enthusiasm and sense of flow is just not there! The Cooley Film Breakdown thing is cool when in season, but what do the ESPN980 listeners really get the other 6 months?

Entertainment history tells us that when you f*ck with a “Working Combination” and try to replace it with (1) persons idea or opinion to implement change for whatever reason, the end results is most often less favorable and leads to a disastrous outcome. Case in point:

1. Sanford and Son Show: Sanford and Son was one of NBC’s hit series for 4 straight years until there was a salary dispute with Red Fox who later walked off the show. As a counter move, NBC stepped up Whitman Mayo’s role of Grady to replace Redd Fox as the main character and what was the final outcome of that decision- A disaster. The modified show was watchable with Mayo as the lead character but its overall ratings sank and the show was cancelled within the next 8 months.

2. Andy Griffin Show: The Andy Griffin Show voted as America’s best sitcom exhibited the same on-air chemistry as Kevin and Thom as Andy and Barney did back in the early 60’s. After (5) years of great success, Don Knott’s left the show to pursue other opportunities and his character was replaced with deputy Warren Ferguson played by Jack Burns. After just (11) episodes, the end results was not good and the deputy character was axed and show was never the same without Don Knotts.

3. Good Times: The show Good Times was a CBS hit that ran during primetime hours from 1974 to 1979. It featured the unwavering and loving husband and wife chemistry of Florida and James Evans played by Esther Rolle and James Amos. After (3) successful seasons, John Amos (James Evans) voiced his concerns to CBS leadership on the direction of show, specifically, how JJ’s role is being increasingly portrayed in a more negative and buffoonish manner than ever before. As a result of John Amos’s disagreement with white producers, he was immediately released by CBS and replaced with Moses Gunn through a new character/husband named Carl. Well there is no need to say how that worked out for CBS, as the show was later cancelled due to poor ratings.

In summary, I think that Cooley will be able to hold his own for the most part and if nothing else Kevin’s on-air persona is so dominate that his overall skill-sets should be able to mask any shortcoming that Cooley brings to the table. Ultimately though, I think that the Sports Fix show with Kevin Shennan and Thom Loverro will prove to be “Shoes Too Big To Fill” with the new show Cooley and Kevin. By-the-way, shouldn’t the show be called “Kevin and Cooley”, Kevin clearly brings more sports insight and on-air credibility to the table. Can you imagine what will happen when Kevin takes a day off- 99.9% of his listening audience will immediately turn to 106.7 The Fan and listen to Gant and Danny instead of stomaching Chris Cooley in solo mode. However, ESPN980 won’t dare let Chris Cooley go on air in solo mode, they will slide in Al Galdi temporarily to uplift and mask Cooley’s non-football based shortcomings.

The million dollar question is did Thom Loverro quit or was he fired or as they say in the broadcasting industry “conveniently let go by the station" like Chris "I can't stand to listen too" Russell. Sooner or later we will find out what really happened and it is my guess that thom was let go while objecting to some idiotic change that he strongly opposed; similar to the John Amos situation depicted above. Good Luck Thom Loverro, you’re unique but refreshing on-air sports personality coupled with all the memorable Sports Fix antics will be greatly missed by all DC Sports Fans. Be sure to check back next week for my commentary on the rest of ESPN980’s changes that are forthcoming.