Upcoming PGH Sports Station Threatens Competent Baseball Talk

by Uncle Nate on Jan 30, 2010 7:59 AM EST

Bob Smizik is good at reporting on sports media and he has posted some juicy tidbits on his blog at the Post Gazette website in the past 24 hours. The CBS owned sports station that is set to take over 93.7 (B94) in Pittsburgh in mid-February is looking to have a largely competent line up featuring the potential to speak somewhat rationally on the Pirates.

The big news is that Joe Starkey has been swipped from his weekend gig at ESPN radio in Pittsburgh and at the Trib. While at ESPN, Starkey had notable worthwhile baseball conversations with Keith Law. Obviously Law will not be available to him any more, but competent baseball talk seems a realistic possibility. Starkey and an unknown co-host will apparently host the afternoon drive-time show. The hope here is that somehow Randy Baumann, formerly of the 'DVE Morning Show, is the co-host. John Steigerwald might be good too, though he is fairly blinded with anger towards all things baseball.

Paul Alexander and Jon Burton will apparently host a morning show. The thought here is that Burton is likely to be quite good, though I thought poorly of Alexander (who is much better on TV) when he had a show on KDKA-AM years ago (when KDKA-AM had the Bucs).

This is my first fan post and I'm not sure how to link, but here is my attempt to link to Smizik's blog: http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/bobsmizik/default.aspx

Good day.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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your post title misled me

I thought it meant more inane talk, initially…

To link, click on that icon that looks like 2 links of a chain, and paste the url in the box that pops up. Use it wisely, do not link to Smizik ;-D

by BurgherKing on Jan 30, 2010 1:00 PM EST reply actions

Credit where it's due

This is about the only useful purpose humans have discovered for Bob Smizik.

If hiring Alexander means he wouldn’t be on FSN anymore, I say do it. The smarm that emanates off him through my TV is just overwhelming sometimes.

by matskralc on Jan 30, 2010 7:41 PM EST reply actions

Agreed

Alexander is unbearable. I think he and Thor Tolo are secretly the same person.

by doolittle on Jan 30, 2010 9:41 PM EST up reply actions

I think Jim Colony caught on there

I’d love him as Starkey’s co-host. Still don’t understand how he was let go from ESPN 1250 in favor of some of the jokers they have there these days.

by doolittle on Jan 30, 2010 9:40 PM EST reply actions

Colony

Was apparently let go just for economic reasons. I assure you that the Chris Mack’s of the world are making significantly less money than Colony, who is much more veteran (and better). This epitomizes the utter lack of job security in media. In this case Colony is obviously much better, but because he cost more he is dumped despite the obvious degrading of the on air product. I’m speculating here, but the money savings between to the two is probably in the $30,000 range; I’d be stunned if it were more than $50,000 – so we are not l talking about huge amounts of money to maintain a certain quality level.

Colony is apparently going to do the same thing for The Fan that he did at 1250ESPN (which is to do the sports updates) but he will be with the morning show instead of the drive time show. That said, I agree that he’d likely be quite good as a co-host with Starkey.

As for Tolo, he was the worst on air. Alexander was somewhat better on air in that he did not offer a lot of bad schtick, but he offered virtually zero unique, worthwhile insight yet acted as if he was serious business. Thor was a joke and knew it; Alexander was mediocre on his best days but thought he was great. I’m hoping Alexander will be much better now that he has a co-host.

Good day.

by Uncle Nate on Jan 31, 2010 7:07 AM EST up reply actions