What does Mike Francesa know about local hockey?

[The 29th Pick]

they all suck unless all you like is the Knicks and Yanks

[devilsadvoc8]

I gave up on sports talk radio a long time ago.  I'll listen to the NHL channel on XM sometimes but to me most of the sports talk hosts are useless and the fan call ins are even worse. 

 

I am much happier now.

Edited November 19, 2013 by devilsadvoc8

[EdgeControl]

Somers is my favorite radio host ever, you have to know it's a joke like CR1976 said. Sure I didn't wanna listen to him after one of the games the devils lost to the rangers in the '12 conf finals, but he's hilarious. Nassau Masoleum, Icelanders etc 

Exactly  Somers is a true rags fan and loves taking shots at the devs and isles.   hes a good "innings eater" for the fan

[Colin226]

Fatcessa is representative of the media in this market. If you are of the opinion that the media provides what the masses truly want, then this market is an awful hockey market. 3 teams combine for near-zero overall media coverage. Can't wait for the old media dinosaurs to die out already.

 

Totally agree.. It's honestly a shame that they all collectively refuse to talk hockey. I actually love when I'm in south jersey and put on 97.5 The Fanatic because it's incredibly refreshing to hear someone call up about the Flyers and not only be heard, but get an intellectual response and discussion.. When I was up in Boston they had a 2 hour radio show dedicated to the Bruins. Blew my mind!

 

The old-guard NY media here are hindering the market.. They are setting it back 2+ decades by making hockey out to be like some niche sport that makes you weird if you follow it enough to care.. We have 3 teams here and our ratings for the Finals last year blew every other city out of the water aside from Chicago and Boston.. I get that having 4 teams amongst the 2 biggest sports, plus the Knicks when they are relevant (and I guess moving to NY made the Nets noteworthy all of a sudden?) BUT why are we discussing the same NFL or MLB off-season sh!t over and over and over again Tuesday through Thursday when there are hockey games on. I mean we can't take one hour to dedicate to hockey in all of that? I think they are afraid of it for some reason, otherwise why treat talking hockey like it's taboo and, if all of a sudden if you discuss it, no one will listen?

 

I mean turn on SNY and it's the same.. I tweeted to the host of Loud Mouths after the Devils sale that I thought it was a little ridiculous they could even discuss it for 30 seconds on their like hour long show.. Guy tweeted back that it was a fair point and he brought it up briefly on the next show

 

I will say that I think it's partially a self-fulfilling prophecy.. The hosts downplay hockey, so people either decide "well I guess no one really does care about it" or "well I won't try to call in for it then", so it gets talked about less, so the hosts don't feel a need to satisfy the market by talking about it when they can just as easily discuss the flavor of the week in the NFL for 20 hours a day and have morons call in to say the same crappy comments all day long

Edited November 19, 2013 by Colin226

[DevsMan84]

Totally agree.. It's honestly a shame that they all collectively refuse to talk hockey. I actually love when I'm in south jersey and put on 97.5 The Fanatic because it's incredibly refreshing to hear someone call up about the Flyers and not only be heard, but get an intellectual response and discussion.. When I was up in Boston they had a 2 hour radio show dedicated to the Bruins. Blew my mind!

 

The old-guard NY media here are hindering the market.. They are setting it back 2+ decades by making hockey out to be like some niche sport that makes you weird if you follow it enough to care.. We have 3 teams here and our ratings for the Finals last year blew every other city out of the water aside from Chicago and Boston.. I get that having 4 teams amongst the 2 biggest sports, plus the Knicks when they are relevant (and I guess moving to NY made the Nets noteworthy all of a sudden?) BUT why are we discussing the same NFL or MLB off-season sh!t over and over and over again Tuesday through Thursday when there are hockey games on. I mean we can't take one hour to dedicate to hockey in all of that? I think they are afraid of it for some reason, otherwise why treat talking hockey like it's taboo and, if all of a sudden if you discuss it, no one will listen?

 

I mean turn on SNY and it's the same.. I tweeted to the host of Loud Mouths after the Devils sale that I thought it was a little ridiculous they could even discuss it for 30 seconds on their like hour long show.. Guy tweeted back that it was a fair point and he brought it up briefly on the next show

 

I will say that I think it's partially a self-fulfilling prophecy.. The hosts downplay hockey, so people either decide "well I guess no one really does care about it" or "well I won't try to call in for it then", so it gets talked about less, so the hosts don't feel a need to satisfy the market by talking about it when they can just as easily discuss the flavor of the week in the NFL for 20 hours a day and have morons call in to say the same crappy comments all day long

 

This is very true.  We are in a market that is complete saturated not only by teams, but teams will long traditions.  These NY sports guys are followers of this and do treat hockey as an afterthought mostly because to them, hockey is an afterthought and never really even followed it save for a few broadcasters like LaGrecca and Boomer to an extent.

[thecoffeecake]

Somers is my favorite radio host ever, you have to know it's a joke like CR1976 said. Sure I didn't wanna listen to him after one of the games the devils lost to the rangers in the '12 conf finals, but he's hilarious. Nassau Masoleum, Icelanders etc 

Those things are funny once, now they're just gimmicks. The guy is an idiot. I've always wondered if it was plausible to have New Jersey specific sports media outlets. Obviously, it would make a lot more sense if the Nets had stuck around, but they could still pick up Devils, Rutgers, Seton Hall, Princeton stuff, maybe some minor league baseball. I don't know specific figures of what the Devils get from their tv and radio contracts, but I'm sure it's astronomically higher than a New Jersey specific outlet could offer. One day, I'm sure. I don't know of many other places with a population as high as North/Central New Jersey that don't have their own major media sources.

[NJDevs4978]

Totally agree.. It's honestly a shame that they all collectively refuse to talk hockey. I actually love when I'm in south jersey and put on 97.5 The Fanatic because it's incredibly refreshing to hear someone call up about the Flyers and not only be heard, but get an intellectual response and discussion.. When I was up in Boston they had a 2 hour radio show dedicated to the Bruins. Blew my mind!

The old-guard NY media here are hindering the market.. They are setting it back 2+ decades by making hockey out to be like some niche sport that makes you weird if you follow it enough to care.. We have 3 teams here and our ratings for the Finals last year blew every other city out of the water aside from Chicago and Boston.. I get that having 4 teams amongst the 2 biggest sports, plus the Knicks when they are relevant (and I guess moving to NY made the Nets noteworthy all of a sudden?) BUT why are we discussing the same NFL or MLB off-season sh!t over and over and over again Tuesday through Thursday when there are hockey games on. I mean we can't take one hour to dedicate to hockey in all of that? I think they are afraid of it for some reason, otherwise why treat talking hockey like it's taboo and, if all of a sudden if you discuss it, no one will listen?

That's always been my pet peeve with local talk radio - specifically Francesa - I understand devoting Monday and Friday to the NFL and prioritizing baseball when it's actually 'in' season but it's like they feel they have to invent reasons not to talk hockey on other days. Francesa doesn't even do that much NBA anymore (aside from the occasional Knick ripping) so it's not even like his show is talking about the Knicks or Nets on those days, no it's literally become baseball/football 24/7 as opposed to sports 24/7.

What makes it particularly annoying with Mike is he's the top host at a station where the Devils are actually broadcast and he doesn't even bother to promote the product. He'll do one interview with Lou, maybe two every year and that's it. At least the other hosts at the station (Boomer, Joe/Evan, Somers) will talk hockey, though none are Devil fans.

[Bartholomew Hunt]

The morning show is awful too, boomer is too PC, and id rather listen to my own dump go into the bowl in the morning than hear carton speak in his wacky morning zoo voice. Horrible.

Edited November 19, 2013 by Bartholomew Hunt

[Triumph]

You guys all seem to listen to this stuff a lot.  Bottom line is if the ratings were poor, they'd change elements of these shows.  They're not, so they aren't.

 

I think having 3 teams in the market hurts sports talk radio.  Sure, most NY area sports fans, if they have a hockey allegiance, are Ranger fans, but the split isn't enough to justify that much Ranger talk because it turns off the other two fanbases.  The other thing is that the demographics for sports talk radio likely skew towards older men (35-54, and older), and hockey is a distant fourth there.

 

The other element is that I don't think hockey is a very good subject for sports talk radio in general - baseball has all sorts of downtime to obsess about the little details, football has the weekly element, and basketball is probably the best sport for talk radio given that the outcome of every game is meaningful. 

Edited November 19, 2013 by Triumph

[dmann422]

You guys all seem to listen to this stuff a lot. Bottom line is if the ratings were poor, they'd change elements of these shows. They're not, so they aren't.

I think having 3 teams in the market hurts sports talk radio. Sure, most NY area sports fans, if they have a hockey allegiance, are Ranger fans, but the split isn't enough to justify that much Ranger talk because it turns off the other two fanbases. The other thing is that the demographics for sports talk radio likely skew towards older men (35-54, and older), and hockey is a distant fourth there.

correct. I know on the rare occasion of a michaletti interview I tune out because frankly I don't care. I'm sure the same would happen with ranger or isles fans if Chico or daneyko had a spot.

There is a reason why they don't change their programming or coverage- their ratings are killing. Why change what isn't broke? Heck look how by mike NOT talking hockey we're talking about his show!

[CRASHER]

FYI, Russo is still on Sirius/XM....he's assembled a group of equally unlistenable trolls for his station on there too.... Dan Patrick..... Adam Schein....oh the pain....MDR was great until Bill Pido left, it's gone piece by piece down the crapper since.... it's a shame.... Satelite radio is a breath of fresh air compared to the NY Sports Drivel....now I listen exclusive to the NFL and NHL (and Busted Open M, W and F) channels and have happy drives throughout the day

 

Russo and Fatcessa need each other, but other are too damn full of themselves to realize it

 

Mike defintiely needs a partner, hearing him repeat the same sentence 3 x before he moves on is getting real old... I was Hoping Dog would come back when he was canned by XM, but I guess not...

 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

My criticisms have nothing to do with Mike's refusal to talk hockey...he knows so little about it in general that I'd rather he not speak of it at all. 

 

With Mike, though there's a LOT that I don't like about him, you kind of know what you're getting, as far as topics go.  A lot of baseball (mostly pro-Yankee and anti-Met).  A lot of NFL football.  Some NBA.  Occasional horse racing.  A lot of NCAA basketball once the tournament starts, at pretty much the expense of everything else.  And of course, whenever a hot topic (like when something new breaks about ARod) comes up, he'll beat it completely into the ground, and keep repeating the same monologues over and over. 

 

I think Colin pretty much said it all...hockey fans know that Mike isn't the guy to call into to talk hockey, so they don't...but compared to the rest of the teams in the area, there simply aren't nearly as many hardcore fans of the Devils, Rangers, and Islanders as there are of the other sports teams.  The Mets can suck for years on end (they haven't had an 80-win season in five years), but there will still be a LOT of Mets fans calling in, no matter what, and in such volume that a guy like Mike (who I think doesn't really love talking Mets baseball) has no choice.  You'll never see that volume of hockey fans calling into the show, and part of the reason for that is there really aren't that many hockey fans to begin with...not compared to baseball, football, and basketball.  

Edited November 19, 2013 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[peteyvegas51]

Somers is my favorite radio host ever, you have to know it's a joke like CR1976 said. Sure I didn't wanna listen to him after one of the games the devils lost to the rangers in the '12 conf finals, but he's hilarious. Nassau Masoleum, Icelanders etc 

Love the man.  I don't listen to sports radio anymore but about 15 or so years ago, I sat next to him during a Nets game.  He was with a date (and what a knockout!) and he was making remarks out of the side of his mouth, so as not to ignore the woman he was with.  Anyone who takes him seriously has got it wrong.  Its all fun and games to that guy.  What a pleasure to be around.

[Daniel]

FYI, Russo is still on Sirius/XM....he's assembled a group of equally unlistenable trolls for his station on there too.... Dan Patrick..... Adam Schein....oh the pain....MDR was great until Bill Pido left, it's gone piece by piece down the crapper since.... it's a shame.... Satelite radio is a breath of fresh air compared to the NY Sports Drivel....now I listen exclusive to the NFL and NHL (and Busted Open M, W and F) channels and have happy drives throughout the day

 

Russo and Fatcessa need each other, but other are too damn full of themselves to realize it

 

For a while, Russo's channel had Dino Costa on in the evening.  For those who don't know, Costa actually used to post on this messageboard for a short while.  Since he is from Colorado originally during the Rockies' years, Costa is actually a huge Devils fan, and would talk about the NHL on his show.  I missed the particular episode, but was told he spent a while talking about Kovy's "retirement".

 

For those who don't know, he was moved to another station on Sirius in the morning, but was recently fired.    He eventually got a little meshuge in that he spent much of his show injecting his political views into the mix.  It didn't help that those views are very right-wing (not saying there's anything wrong with that, per se, just that it makes corporate types very uncomfortable). 

[CRASHER]

For a while, Russo's channel had Dino Costa on in the evening.  For those who don't know, Costa actually used to post on this messageboard for a short while.  Since he is from Colorado originally during the Rockies' years, Costa is actually a huge Devils fan, and would talk about the NHL on his show.  I missed the particular episode, but was told he spent a while talking about Kovy's "retirement".

 

For those who don't know, he was moved to another station on Sirius in the morning, but was recently fired.    He eventually got a little meshuge in that he spent much of his show injecting his political views into the mix.  It didn't help that those views are very right-wing (not saying there's anything wrong with that, per se, just that it makes corporate types very uncomfortable). 

 

His "THE RANGERS ARE DEAD" rant for like 15 minutes was one of the greatest things I ever heard on radio

 

I liked him....he was different....passionate....and not afraid to stick behind his words....yes some of them were neanderthal (mostly his views on women's sports)....but he was decent enough until he called the UFC "barbaric" and then went to sing the praises about boxing for 20 minutes....I was done with him then.....its a shame, he was ALMOST what I like a sports talk host to be....and man does he HATE Goodell!!!

[devlman]

I think Colin pretty much said it all...hockey fans know that Mike isn't the guy to call into to talk hockey, so they don't...but compared to the rest of the teams in the area, there simply aren't nearly hardcore fans of the Devils, Rangers, and Islanders as there are of the other sports teams.  The Mets can suck for years on end (they haven't had an 80-win season in five years), but there will still be a LOT of Mets fans calling in, no matter what, and in such volume that a guy like Mike (who I think doesn't really love talking Mets baseball) has no choice.  You'll ever see that volume of hockey fans calling into the show, and part of the reason for that is there really aren't that many hockey fans to begin with...not compared to baseball, football, and basketball.  

 

While I dont disagree with this, one can argue that its a chicken or the egg theory. If the hosts talked hockey, the hardcore fans would grow, and the existing ones would call in. But, if no host talks hockey, then there will never be a lot of hardcore fans in the market. These hosts wield a large influence.

[Daniel]

His "THE RANGERS ARE DEAD" rant for like 15 minutes was one of the greatest things I ever heard on radio

 

I liked him....he was different....passionate....and not afraid to stick behind his words....yes some of them were neanderthal (mostly his views on women's sports)....but he was decent enough until he called the UFC "barbaric" and then went to sing the praises about boxing for 20 minutes....I was done with him then.....its a shame, he was ALMOST what I like a sports talk host to be....and man does he HATE Goodell!!!

 

Yeah, I found his political schtick a little tiresome, even though my political views are somewhat in line with his. 

 

But I loved the fact that he would often say what everyone really thinks, but, for some reason you're not supposed to talk about.  A few examples being how Jim Rome and Stephen A. Smith are two of the biggest non-entities in sports commentary, yet receive enormous salaries.  Another one being the absolute uselessness of on-the-field bimbos during football games. 

 

Man I wish he was still on the air to talk about the "bullying" of Jonathan Martin.

[Colin226]

I listen to Boomer and Carton specifically to hear Jerry Recco play Devils highlight clips and harass Boomer about it.. I've even tweeted him a couple times and gotten him to play some clips, which was awesome (though usually Craig is cutting in to make some Knick comment or Boomer spins off into a Rangers tangent)

 

I just refuse to accept that somehow the NY market is different than Philly or Boston, which actively discuss their hockey teams on sports radio.. I mean are we really saying that hockey is more popular in those cities? I find it hard to believe when we have 3 teams to talk about and our area does great ratings for hockey locally and nationally.. I'll admit that the other cities have fewer teams in the MLB/NFL to talk about, but again, we are talking about stations discussing sports for at least 16 hours a day everyday and they actively exclude hockey from their discussions while taking numerous calls on teams in other cities.. Ok, so maybe Mike doesn't want to bring up the Rangers, but he really can't even take 10 seconds to give a quick comment on their game? I mean it's so obvious that he has an anti-hockey bias

 

I work with a bunch of guys who are the typical ESPN/WFAN group and none of them are into hockey.. I don't blame them because all of their sports news sources treat hockey like it's cricket being played in India.. I firmly believe that if you had commentators on the FAN regarding hockey as this exciting topic that they would be happy to discuss on air, that it would catch on more.. But if all you ever hear when you turn on the commentators is "No one cares about hockey" then yes, you are likely to not care about hockey.. For some unknown reason, people are actually influenced by what these guys on the radio and TV say.. There is an enormous group of "sheep" sports fans in this area treating the radio talent's word like it has more value than the average Joe's does, and you know how I knw we have that many stupid sheep in this area? Because I listen to them repeatedly call the FAN only to get abused by Mike for their stupid ideas lol

Edited November 19, 2013 by Colin226

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

For a while, Russo's channel had Dino Costa on in the evening.  For those who don't know, Costa actually used to post on this messageboard for a short while.  Since he is from Colorado originally during the Rockies' years, Costa is actually a huge Devils fan, and would talk about the NHL on his show.  I missed the particular episode, but was told he spent a while talking about Kovy's "retirement".

 

For those who don't know, he was moved to another station on Sirius in the morning, but was recently fired.    He eventually got a little meshuge in that he spent much of his show injecting his political views into the mix.  It didn't help that those views are very right-wing (not saying there's anything wrong with that, per se, just that it makes corporate types very uncomfortable). 

 

Dino Costa who posted about Marty, then proceeded to type his jersey number as #31 twice?  That guy always seemed a little iffy to me...a bit of a fugazi. 

[Daniel]

Dino Costa who posted about Marty, then proceeded to type his jersey number as #31 twice?  That guy always seemed a little iffy to me...a bit of a fugazi. 

 

You saying it was a Dino Costa impersonator, or that Dino's a goldbricker? 

[sundstrom]

 

I mean turn on SNY and it's the same.. I tweeted to the host of Loud Mouths after the Devils sale that I thought it was a little ridiculous they could even discuss it for 30 seconds on their like hour long show.. Guy tweeted back that it was a fair point and he brought it up briefly on the next show

 

 

 

if it was andrew catalon who fills in from time to time, he's a huge devils fan forever and would talk hockey plenty if the producers felt it was worth it.

[Daniel]

if it was andrew catalon who fills in from time to time, he's a huge devils fan forever and would talk hockey plenty if the producers felt it was worth it.

 

And he's got the Kevin Todd jersey to prove it.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

I listen to Boomer and Carton specifically to hear Jerry Recco play Devils highlight clips and harass Boomer about it.. I've even tweeted him a couple times and gotten him to play some clips, which was awesome (though usually Craig is cutting in to make some Knick comment or Boomer spins off into a Rangers tangent)

 

I just refuse to accept that somehow the NY market is different than Philly or Boston, which actively discuss their hockey teams on sports radio.. I mean are we really saying that hockey is more popular in those cities? I find it hard to believe when we have 3 teams to talk about and our area does great ratings for hockey locally and nationally.. I'll admit that the other cities have fewer teams in the MLB/NFL to talk about, but again, we are talking about stations discussing sports for at least 16 hours a day everyday and they actively exclude hockey from their discussions while taking numerous calls on teams in other cities.. Ok, so maybe Mike doesn't want to bring up the Rangers, but he really can't even take 10 seconds to give a quick comment on their game? I mean it's so obvious that he has an anti-hockey bias

 

I work with a bunch of guys who are the typical ESPN/WFAN group and none of them are into hockey.. I don't blame them because all of their sports news sources treat hockey like it's cricket being played in India.. I firmly believe that if you had commentators on the FAN regarding hockey as this exciting topic that they would be happy to discuss on air, that it would catch on more.. But if all you ever hear when you turn on the commentators is "No one cares about hockey" then yes, you are likely to not care about hockey.. For some unknown reason, people are actually influenced by what these guys on the radio and TV say.. There is an enormous group of "sheep" sports fans in this area treating the radio talent's word like it has more value than the average Joe's does, and you know how I knw we have that many stupid sheep in this area? Because I listen to them repeatedly call the FAN only to get abused by Mike for their stupid ideas lol

 

Two NFL teams (both with big-time fanbases), two MLB teams (also both with big-time fanbases), two NBA teams (curious to see if moving to Brooklyn moves the Nets up the ladder, in terms of people caring)...the market is different, simply because with these other sports, there literally is twice as much to talk about.  The Bruins and Flyers are "competing" with only three other pro teams.  We may have three hockey teams in relatively close proximity, but in terms of air time, they're competing with at least five entities that are higher on a lot of fans' food chains. 

 

Mike has nothing to offer on hockey...he doesn't watch, and he doesn't seem to have any positive feelings about it.  I don't care what sports talk show hosts say about hockey...if they don't care, doesn't mean I'll stop caring.  I'll give you that, as the Devils' flagship station, the WFAN should probably pay some (any) attention to what the team is doing, but Fatso has so much undeserved clout at that station, that if there was acutally a meeting at any point about Mike adding Devils talk to his show, it was probably a three-minute session, tops, and I'm pretty sure how it ended.

 

 

You saying it was a Dino Costa impersonator, or that Dino's a goldbricker? 

 

I couldn't figure him out.  He came across as a guy trying way too hard to show the world he bleeds red and black.  Came across as a phony.  And that #31 was very odd.  If you don't know much about a guy like Claude Vilgrain or Andy Brickley, fine, but mistakenly posting Marty's jersey number as 31 (more than once) is just bizarre. 

[The 29th Pick]

I wonder if Fatcessa hates hockey because it's not an American sport as the NFL, NBA, MLB are

he seems like the prejudice type

[Colin226]

But CR they won't even take calls on the sport! I still think that, even given all of the other teams for more popular sports in our market, they could still easily slip hockey in if they actually wanted to mention it (Do 30 minutes of hockey every Wednesday and, assuming they talk sports for 16 hours total that day, we are talking less than 10% of one day devoted to local hockey).. But they won't even really take any calls on the sport when it's not the playoffs.. That's just unacceptable to me

Edited November 19, 2013 by Colin226