NC Times: Static best thing about Bolts pregame radio

ChargerRay · Sep 16, 2005

What do you guys think about the news Chargers flag ship station?

By: JOHN MAFFEI - Staff Writer

The Chargers and Clear Channel should be ashamed of themselves.

It's bad enough that Chargers games are on Rock 105.3-FM, a station with spotty reception in North County ---- especially for those driving through the valleys on the I-5 and I-15 freeways.

But why are listeners being subjected to a moronic pregame show featuring FM talk guys Eddie Pappani and Clint August? Didn't the Chargers learn their lesson when games were on Star 100.7-FM? Did no one learn that just because you think you know football and you have a job on radio, you can't necessarily talk football on the radio?

Everyone said Pappani knows football.

I saw Box Tops, Sonny and Cher, Little Stevie Wonder, the Supremes and The Association in concert as a kid, but that doesn't make me an expert on rock and roll. I've caught several pitchers who have made it to the major leagues. That doesn't make me a big-league catcher.

Through the preseason, I tried to cut the Chargers' pregame show some slack. New station, new format, new guys, give it some time, I thought.

But Sunday's broadcast before the season opener against the Cowboys was an embarrassment.

Pappani opened the show by whining about feedback in his headset. Hey, Eddie, as a listener, I don't care. You've had four weeks to get it right.

Deal with it.

Then Lew Bush, the former Chargers linebacker, and the only person on the show that knows football, got lost in the parking lot and was late getting on the air.

And there was a so-called "cool segment" with Channel 6's C.S. Keys.

It was a segment all right. But it was far from cool.

And there is a problem with the show's location in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot. Static is one thing, but with pounding music in the background, it made for difficult listening.

To top off the morning, Pappani went off on a tangent, giving the finger to the show's detractors. Certainly, I'm among the detractors, so I consider myself flipped off.

Chargers and station officials should listen to the pregame show, listen to what people are hearing on the way into the stadium, and pull the plug on these guys.

On the bright side

Josh Lewin has been a pleasant surprise as the new radio voice of the Chargers.

His delivery is solid and his knowledge of the team is fine. Plus, he works well with analyst Hank Bauer.

There are, however, still problems making connection with sideline reporter Katy Temple. It's hard to evaluate her work because there have been multiple technical problems.

Sunday's broadcast was nearly free of the gremlins that plagued the preseason games. And the postgame show with Steve Quis and Bauer is solid.

Monday doubleheader

"Monday Night Football" starts 90 minutes early next week with the addition of Saints-Giants to the TV schedule. That game was moved from New Orleans to East Rutherford, N.J., after Hurricane Katrina.

ABC will carry the Saints-Giants live until 6 p.m. when that game shifts to ESPN to make way for the regular MNF game between the Redskins and Cowboys.

ABC and ESPN announced the networks will conduct a telethon, as part of the Monday night doubleheader, to benefit the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund to assist long-term relief in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. ABC's Robin Roberts and ESPN's Chris Berman will host the telethon from ABC's Times Square studios in New York.

Around the dial

- Gary Thorne, Tim Brant and Sam Ryan will work Saturday's San Diego State-Ohio State game on ABC. The game will be shown live in San Diego, but the rest of the West Coast gets Oklahoma-UCLA with Keith Jackson, Dan Fouts and former Oceanside High baseball player Scott Walker calling the game. The San Diego State-Ohio State game will be shown in Utah, parts of Nevada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

- San Diego State football is back on The Mighty 1090 this week after the team was exiled to KASH 1700 last week. Alan Horton and John Kentera call the action.

- Kevin Harlan and Randy Cross will call the Chargers-Broncos game Sunday on CBS.

- Last week's Cowboys-Chargers game, the late-afternoon national contest on Fox, drew a 23.6 rating and a 46 percent share of the audience in San Diego. In Dallas, the game had a 29.9 rating and drew 51.1 percent of the audience. Nationally, the game ranked No. 1 and was Fox's highest-rated Week 1 game ever with a 13.6 rating and a 27 percent share of the audience (21.3 million viewers). The Cowboys-Chargers game outdrew "Monday Night Football" (the Eagles-Falcons game had a 13.0 rating and 22 share).

- Matt Vasgersian, the normally solid Padres play-by-play voice on Channel 4, had a bad Wednesday in San Francisco with several missed calls and a poorly timed in-game interview with Mike McCormick, who won the 1967 Cy Young Award as a member of the Giants.

> "The Longest Yard" will be released Tuesday on DVD. If you never saw the original version, the 1974 film that starred Burt Reynolds, this film is worth having in your sports library. The 2005 version stars Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Reynolds. If you saw the original, don't spend the money.

> ABC Sports, ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to televise all 14 races of the IRL IndyCar Series. The more compressed IRL schedule ---- shortened from 17 races ---- doesn't include an event at the California Speedway in Fontana. The IRL wants to end its season before the NFL and college football seasons, so the season-ending Oct. 16 race in Fontana is out. The 2006 season will finish Sept. 10 with a race at the Chicagoland Speedway.

- ESPN lost the NHL but has retained Barry Melrose. Melrose, ESPN's top NHL analyst, has agreed to a long-term deal and will be featured regularly on "SportsCenter," "ESPNEWS" and "Cold Pizza."

- CBS Sports and The PGA of America reached an agreement to extend the network's broadcast rights of the PGA Championship through 2011.

T10 · Sep 16, 2005

I haven't heard them on the radio this season. I wish that they would have signed up with the Might 1090 AM. I used to always listen to the radio broadcast when Hacksaw was the voice of the Chargers.

NC Times: Static best thing about Bolts pregame radio

ChargerRay Producer/Host of BoltTalk

T10 BoltTalker

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NC Times: Static best thing about Bolts pregame radio

ChargerRay Producer/Host of BoltTalk

T10 BoltTalker

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