Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Wacky Brazilians Distract Viewers from Paying Attention to RTV6 Newscast

by Kent Sterling

Depending upon you taste in newscasts, people leaping up and down with signs as they protest something or another can either be a nuisance of hilarious diversion.

Tonight on RTV6 – yes, I watch a lot of RTV6 because it’s either good for the right reasons or great for the wrong ones.

Tonight, Brazilians used the backdrop window facing Monument Circle as their opportunity to stake their claim as the happiest bunch of protesters ever.  They certainly have the paid-by-the-hour protesters who carried rubber rats around beat in the enthusiasm department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRexVGSmeSQ

Colts WR LaVon Brazill Is Suspended for Four Games; NFL Should Revise Substance Abuse Policy

by Kent Sterling

imagesBanning marijuana use by professional athletes is just silly, and if that was the substance for which Colts wide receiver LaVon Brazill tested positive, the commissioner Roger Goodell should jot a note of apology and reinstate him before his four game suspension begins.

The penalty for marijuana use is the effect it has on the user.  I’ve seen dozens of people get stoned hundreds of times, and not once did it make the user smarter, more social, or do anything but diminish their ability to function.

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I have never seen a stoned person turn violent, or commit a subsequent crime.  I’ve also never seen someone do it launch into a more serious issue with opiates.  I’m sure it happens, but in my

The social stigma of marijuana among the older of us continues to unnecessarily demonize this drug.  By the way, I am in no way a proponent for getting stoned.  It appears to be a pastime for people who enjoy boredom, and who am I to intervene in an effort to make people more productive.

Let’s say that Brazill is at a party where a bunch of friends are getting stoned.  In what way was he disrupting anything, or negatively impacting his ability to run fast and catch footballs.

So now a 24-year-old young man will lose more than $100K, and is one toke away from a full year rip which would effectively end his career.  What’s the point?  What is the counterpoint to make this consequence meaningful?

NFL players are five weeks away from needing to focus on football for any significant period of time, so from a pragmatic perspective, what is the point of this suspension.

Maybe Brazill is a great guy, and maybe he’s an idiot – I don’t know – but I do know that this suspension is not going to do him any good, and won’t be a positive change agent for anyone else.

If the suspensions discourage marijuana use among the microscopic culture of the not quite 2,000 players on NFL rosters and practice squads, what is the positive impact of that?  Less runs to the 7-11 for Little Debbie’s Star Crunch Bars?

The ban on marijuana by professional sports leagues is reactive and silly, and the time has come for someone in charge to stand up and say so.

Until then, silly knuckleheads like Brazill will lose cash and standing as they tweet about how they continue to smile:

Unless the substance Brazill used was something other than marijuana – like an opiate.  That’s a different story.

Carlos Marmol Finally Released by Chicago Cubs, and He Blames Cubs Fans

by Kent Sterling

UnknownIt’s always a little unpleasant to read that a formerly great baseball player has been designated for assignment.  I imagine the manager or general manager calling the player into his office, and giving the player the bad news.  That’s a day that comes for almost all players, and if you have any empathy, there is a bit of a knot in your stomach – even when it’s former Cubs’ closer Carlos Marmol’s turn.

I found out about Marmol from a friend, who said that he “will return to being a Cub fan now that this has FINALLY happened!”  Not sure the removal of a guy can ever make a team better, but at the very minimum, it should be a little less stressful to watch the Cubs without Marmol as a bullpen option.

Marmol wasn’t always a scourge during the parts of eight seasons in which he toiled for the Cubs.  His career at Wrigley ends with a 23-32 record, 117 saves, an ERA of 3.50, and a WHIP of 1.329.

In 2008, Marmol was virtually unhittable with a great fastball, and a slider that was almost never touched.  The best set-up man in the game that year, Marmol gave up only 40 hits in 87 innings pitched as he earned his only trip to the all-star game.

Marmol’s 117 saves rank third in franchise history, behind only Lee Smith (180) and Bruce Sutter (133).  Over his career, Marmol gave up more walks than hits – 366 walks to 355 hits in 542 1/3 innings.

Even eulogizing this guy.  Marmol’s fastball evolved from a difficult to hit pitch that had great movement to a lick your chops and hack pitch over the past few years, and that was the difference between good and bad Carlos.

Against fastballs, opponents slugged .868 Marmol this season, and amassed a stratospheric 1.357 OBP.  In 2008 thru 2013, opponents batting average against his fastball went from .220 to .196 to .186 to .311 to .244 to .395.  Even as the slider has remained effective, it required the fastball to set it up, but the fastball needed to not be hit on the screws to do it.

Of the flyballs hit off Marmol, an incredible 41.7% left the park for a home run.

All that statistical gobbledigook adds up to unemployment for Marmol, and so it goes for the Cubs.

As though Cubs fans needed a parting gift of another reason to hate Marmol, he blamed the fans for his poor performance in an interview with Enrique Rojas of ESPNdeportes.com via phone from Milwaukee, “I would say that the lack of support from the fans was part of the reason of the mental block that I suffered recently,” Marmol said.

Marmol will sit in baseball purgatory for ten days as the Cubs try to work out a trade.  If not, Marmol can either report to the minor league spot where the Cubs point him, or declare himself a free agent.  If he signs elsewhere, the Cubs will be on the hook for the remainder of the $9.8M he was to make this year – minus the league minimum.

Even if he’s hated now in Chicago, St. Louis Cardinals fans will always have a soft spot in their hearts for Marmol because of a wild pitch he threw with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that allowed Adron Chambers to score the winning run of a game that was instrumental in allowing the Cardinals to earn a wild card berth in the postseason that was nurtured into an improbably World Championship.

Chicago Sports Fans Should Thank God for the Blackhawks, Because Hope Elsewhere Is Gone

by Kent Sterling

Chicago is a beautiful city until you peel back the layers of its sports teams.

Chicago is a beautiful city until you peel back the layers of its sports teams.

Winning a championship is hard, and there is no shame in not winning one for a few seasons, but minus a few outliers, the City of Chicago has had some barren years minus the Blackhawks over the past half century.

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Six times in the 1990s, Michael Jordan carried the Bulls to NBA Championships.  Once since 1917, the White Sox have won a World Series, and that reminded Chicagoans how much fun baseball can be.  Bears fans enjoyed a magical 1985 run through the league to a Vince Lombardi Trophy, but prior to that the Bears had not won a title since 1963 – a team that will celebrate the 50th anniversary of that season on titanium hips and knees.

Other than the Hawks, who look poised to have another run in them, where are the Chicago teams currently, and where are they headed.

UnknownChicago Bears

I was surprised when Lovie Smith was punted as the head coach, but that’s the way most teams in the NFL work.  After nine or ten years, teams get antsy and feel that they are just a new coach away from breaking through the ceiling to a championship.  The Steelers have been the most consistent NFL franchise since 1972, and they have had a total of three head coaches during that time, but everyone else knows better, so Lovie gets the boot.

The Bears are getting old almost everywhere, and they might be in a position in two years where they long for the records that Lovie put together over his nine seasons.  Of the four Pro Bowlers from the defensive side of the ball, only Henry Melton will be younger than 30 at the end of the 2013 season.  Lance Briggs will be 33, Charles Tillman is already 32, and Tim Jennings will turn 30 on Christmas Eve.

Offensively, the teeth are growing long too.  Quarterback Jay Cutler is 30, and while he’s likely to maintain his level of play for a few more years, he’s unlikely to improve, and what he did in 2012 simply wasn’t good enough to go to the playoffs for a variety of reasons.  It wasn’t all Cutler’s fault, but 38 sacks, 19 TDs, and 14 picks do not reflect a championship level of play.  Cutler is good enough to inspire hope, but not quite good enough to win it all.

Matt Forte is going to turn 28 toward the end of the 2013 season, so he’s another guy who is who he is, hwich isn’t bad, but in a division with the Vikings, Lions, and Packers, it isn’t enough.  Devin Hester will be 31, and Brandon Marshall is 29 – both beyond the threshold where improvement can be expected.

If the Bears are going to leap forward to a championship anytime soon, I don’t see anything that would lead a reasonable person to foresee it.

UnknownChicago Bulls

The Bulls were steamrolled in the second round of the NBA Playoffs by the eventual champs, the Miami Heat.

There is no chance that the Bulls will catch the Heat, if Miami maintains their roster.  If Derrick Rose can come back at 100% next season, they will take an obvious step forward, but that might not be enough to challenge the ascendant Indiana Pacers as the second best team in the Eastern Conference, much less the Heat.

The Bulls are in salary cap hell for next season as they have a maximum of $6M coming off the books for 2013-2014, while they add $7M because of contractual raises for Rose, Taj Gibson, and Luol Deng.

Getting better in the short term is going to be very difficult, minus the re-emergence of Rose, who when healthy wasn’t enough to get the Bulls to the NBA Finals.

UnknownChicago White Sox

The Sox are currently in the cellar 10 1/2 games out in the American League Central, and they are getting old.  They’re mediocre everywhere.  Alex Rios is still a dynamic player, and Adam Dunn is going to hit enough bombs to make you forget that he’s hitting .193.  Alexei Ramirez is a good shortstop with speed.  That’s the end of reasons hope.

The mediocrity is defined by Jeff Keppinger, who is a starting second baseman only for a foundering team.  Conor Gillaspie and Dayan Viciedo play third and left, and they are young, but to this point aren’t showing the stuff of future studs who can lead a team.

To show how desperate the Sox are, they employ Tyler Greene, a former first rounder of the St. Louis Cardinals, who the Redbirds tried like hell to install as the starting shortstop in 2012.  They shipped him out in favor of Pete Kosma, who his .236 in his six-year career in the minors.

The pitching is okay.  Jake Peavy will be good when healthy, but other than Chris Sale, the rotation is filled with guys.  Addison Reed might be a dominant closer in the future.  Beyond that, the bullpen is a bunch of spare parts.

Sox fans get it as they are staying away in droves.  The Sox rank 14th or 15th in American League attendance at just under 22,000 fans through the turnstyles per game.

UnknownChicago Cubs

The Cubs are building methodically, which is exactly what I would do if I had a five-year contract that paid me a total of $25M.  That’s Theo Epstein’s plan, and Cubs fans are hoping that the kids being touted as change agents in 2015 or 2016 are exactly that because other than Anthony Rizzo, the youth at the major league level looks like anything but the core of a championship team.

Starlin Castro is who he is – an easily distracted but gifted player who is currently hitting .228 with an OPS of .582.  Whether the Cubs coaching staff can turn Castro around is anyone’s guess because it has more to do with what’s between Castro’s ears than what might be corrected with any technical adjustment.  Whatever happens, Castro is damn likely to be a Cub for the next six years because of a crazy contract extension that provided the kind of wealth that turns players without internal fire into a lazy player who just doesn’t care anymore.

The pitching has been okay with a good starting rotation cobbled together with duct tape and bailing wire.  Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood, and Scott Feldman are a combined 16-19 but all have an ERA of under 3.50 and WHIPs of below 1.20.  Whether the Cubs are good enough to win 75 games this year – I believe they are right now – is dependent upon the deals Epstein makes over the next five weeks.  He could trade Feldman and Garza for prospects because the name of the game is winning championships and being the best 75 win team in the majors is not going to fill seats or endear owner Tom Ricketts to a fanbase that has been justifying their love for the Cubs through psychosis for over a century.

The key to the Cubs future is having kids like Albert Almora, Javier Baez, and Jorge Soler develop into cornerstones, but there is a secondary issue that could corrupt all plans, and that is that the Cubs have to catch the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds.  Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer are smart guys, but Cards GM John Mozeliak and Red GM Walt Jockety are pretty damn smart too.

The Cubs becoming what the Cubs believe they are destined to become will have to be done over the Cards and Reds dead bodies, and that will be very difficult.

LinkedIn Has Popularity That Is Impossible to Ignore or Explain

by Kent Sterling

The two people in this LinkedIn logos with question marks over their heads are trying to figure out a use for LinkedIn other than inviting colleagues or accepting their invitations.

The two people in this LinkedIn logos with question marks over their heads are trying to figure out a use for LinkedIn other than inviting colleagues or accepting their invitations.

LinkenIn is a social media website with a huge stock valuation and millions of members.  I am sent invitations to network with people, join groups, and endorse those I know.

I do all of it.  Near as I can tell, LinkedIn’s primary function is to invite profession people we like, and accept invitations from others.  When bored, I endorse the people I really like.  That’s nice, but I have no idea what good any of it does for anyone.

The site won’t tell me exactly how many connections I’ve made, other than to say 500+.  I would guess I have between 700-800, of which I probably know 200.

Forty-two of my connections have endorsed my for my knowledge of radio, 34 for broadcasting, 29 for radio broadcasting, and others for disciplines like new media, social media, and oddly Adobe Audition.  Not sure what good that does, minus the recognition by peers, former managers/employees, and strangers that I know something about a variety of things.  It’s kind of nice, but mostly meaningless.

There are groups who solicit or disseminate insight regarding a number of topics, but I have no interest in either taking the time to share or read perspective shared to or by those with nothing better to do than poke around LinkedIn.

I’m more than happy to talk/email/tweet to anyone about any topic in which someone feels I have expertise, but writing about it on LinkedIn seems both a waste of time and presumptuous.

I do get occasional messages, which are appreciated, but those are few and far between.  Most people use email or Twitter, but any port in a storm is fine.

And somehow this social media site is now worth $15 billion – yes, with a B.  The guy who invented it is now writing books about how to become a success.  I hope one in titled, “Enticing People to Invite Others to a Virtual Party Can Make You Crazy Rich.”

NHL vs. NBA – Why Does Hockey Lag So Far Behind?

by Kent Sterling

Of all these happy hawks, I would recognize Toews and Kane on the street, and that's a problem with the NHL.

Of all these happy Hawks, I would recognize Toews and Kane on the street but none others, and that’s a big problem with the NHL.

Two sports with their championship series that occur almost simultaneously.  One thrives, and the other struggles.  One has stars, the other has players with similar talents who minus their numbers appear identical.

The differences between the NBA and NHL remind me of the difference between NASCAR and IndyCar.  When I watched the Iowa Corn 250 Sunday afternoon, the racing was thrilling.  The cars were so fact and nimble.  NASCAR races are slow and plodding, yet many times more people watch NASCAR than IndyCar.

Why?  Recognition, and our desire to know what and who we see on our TVs.

The climactic Game Six last night between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins was incredible.  The final two minutes of the game were ‘can’t sit down’ exciting for fans of both teams.  The last two minutes of virtually every NBA game are filled with so many interruptions that any momentum is thwarted.

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The NBA hasn’t always dominated the NHL in popularity.  Back in the 1970s, hockey was a bigger draw than basketball.  So what happened?

  • The population drift to the south and west has made native ice available to fewer people, and that makes hockey less relatable to the masses.
  • Helmets.  Obviously helmets are a positive development in safety for hockey players, but they make it much more difficult to immediately recognize players.  In basketball, we see the hair, faces, tattoos, grimaces, and smiles.  We saw Magic’s smile, Michael’s tongue, and Larry’s stoicism.  At NHL games, we need to see the numbers to tell one player from another.  Because of that, there are fewer stars.  That’s similar to the NASCAR/IndyCar difference.  I watch a lot of IndyCar races, but the small chassis in IndyCar make it tough to tell one car from another.  NASCAR’s paint schemes and numbers are clearly different.  IndyCar is better about this than it used to be with teammates running virtually identical cars.
  • Management.  From the fans’ perspective, Gary Bettman has been a train wreck as a commissioner.  Two very long lockouts in the last decade have corrupted any attempt at building momentum among passive fans.  Over the past 22 seasons, the NHL has lost one entire season (2004-2005), missed 30 games due to a strike (1992), and had two seasons shortened to 48 games (1994-1995 and 2012-2013).  Completely unacceptable to allow the players and owners to avoid common ground and penalize fans.  Ignore what’s in the best interest of fans, and eventually they will ignore you right back.

The management of the NBA hasn’t been without blemishes, but David Stern has been smart enough to ride the wave of popularity created by stars like Jordan, Bird, Magic, Julius Erving, Isiah Thomas, Charles Barkley, and now LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Kobe Bryant.

Basketball is a more TV friendly event than hockey because the orange ball is significantly larger than the little black puck.  HDTV has helped people identify the puck without the nutty red or blue trail that Fox tried to force on viewers, but it’s still slightly more difficult to see.

There is hope for hockey because the games can be incredibly exciting, and NBC does a hell of a good job in producing its Stanley Cup Finals telecasts (is there a better play-by-play guy working today in any sport – minus Vin Scully – than Doc Emrick?), which are the only portals to the sport for the marginal/former fans, but hockey needs visionary leadership that will put the fans first.

The one piece of the NHL that the NBA could afford to adopt is the lack of timeouts down the stretch of a game.  The last 1:30 of a game can take as long as 15 minutes.  There are practical advantages to the timeouts in the NBA – like the windows for commercial content that they allow, and the perversion of the officials moving the ball 3/4 of the way up the court to make under three seconds left in the game enough time to change the outcome.

But it all comes down to the NBA being a star machine, and the NHL not being a star machine.  People watch what they recognize, and the NHL rosters are not populated with players that excite fans.

I enjoyed watching the Hawks win last night – jumping up, pumping my fist, and yelling loudly enough that my wife came running to see what the hell was going on – but if Duncan Keith knocked on my front door this morning, I would probably think he was a Jehovah’s Witness.  If Luol Deng or Paul George came by, I would easily recognize either.

Why Victor Oladipo Should Be the #1 Overall Pick

by Kent Sterling

That’s a clear-headed kid.

Former Indiana University shooting guard Victor Oladipo will be taken in the top five picks in Thursday night’s NBA draft, but every team that passes on him will regret it.

That’s because Victor is a man of goals, vision, and sacrifice.  So many young men see draft night as the culmination of years of hard work, but Victor sees it as a a mile post on a trip that has only just begun.

Three years ago, Victor reported to Indiana as a lightly-recruited, low-ranked kid with some awesome dunks on his highlight reel, but little else.  Since his first day in Bloomington, Victor has worked and worked to try to reach his potential, and he became a first team All-American.

But the work hasn’t stopped, and there’s no telling where the improvement will end.  There is a presence with Victor that communicates a rare resolve.  It was immediately apparent when I talked to him prior to his freshman season.  When he told me things, I believed him.

His goals were lofty then – even for a team that was struggling like IU was at that point.

There will be kids taken in the first round who believe they have it made when David Stern calls their names.  Victor won’t be one of them, and that gives him the potential to be a very special player.

Alright, it can’t all be sunshines and lollypops.  There have to be some measurables to go along with the great attitude.  Excellent psychological makeup can’t block shots, steal asses, or knock down shots.

Victor is 6’4 1/4″ in shoes, and has a wingspan of 6’9 1/4″.  His no step vertical is 33 inches, and his max vertical is 42 inches.

The stats went up regularly through Victor’s three years in Bloomington.  Points per game grew from 74 to 10.8 to 13.6, and 3pt% rose from 24.3% during his freshman and sophomore seasons combined to 44.1% last season.  His total steals exploded from 34 to 49 to 78, and rebounds per game rose from 3.7 to 5.3, to 6.3.

Victor Oladipo is still ascending, and where his ceiling is might be high enough that GMs will be remembered for not taking him just like Stu Inman of the 1984-1985 Portland Trailblazers – the guy who took Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan.

Spokane TV Reporter Drops Two F-bombs During Report

I’m digging KHQ-TV (Spokane) reporter Lindsay Nadrich, but would rather not hire whoever edited this piece on picking strawberries.  The anchor’s reaction is hilarious.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1,000 times – treat every microphone is a live microphone.

Small market TV is the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1iA3182mNT0

Patriots TE Aaron Hernandez Should Be Suspended Immediately and Indefinitely

by Kent Sterling

UnknownNot sure what the New England Patriots are waiting for.  At the minimum, tight end Aaron Hernandez apparently destroyed his cell phone and security recordings from his home that police wanted to audit as they compile a timeline in the murder of Odin Lloyd.

The maximum is unimportant because a guy who destroys potential evidence in a murder trial is not someone an organization should want to associate with.

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There is a saying among some in the NFL that ankle bracelets don’t slow players down, but this isn’t a simple pot or assault bust.  The end of this story is that someone put a bullet in another man’s brain, and anyone who took part in the act or cover up must – at the minimum – forfeit their opportunity to earn major cash as an NFL player and a component in the brand of an NFL franchise and the league itself.

Oddly, according to an nfl.com report from Ian Rapoport, Hernandez may be due a significant part of his money regardless of the outcome of the investigation, or how the Patriots proceed.  There are two clauses that are standard in an NFL contract that simply are not present in the deal that binds Hernandez to the Patriots – and vice versa.

The “failure to perform” or “failure to practice” clauses that allow teams to not pay players if they are not able to practice of play due to disciplinary measures taken by the league or the team don’t exist, so the Pats are on the hook for a substantial bundle of bills regardless of his disposition.

Hernandez already has $9.25 million of the $16 million that is guaranteed, and the 2013 and 2014 salaries of $1.323 million and $1.137 million will belong to Hernandez whether he is in uniform or not, according to Rapoport.

That should in no way prevent the Patriots from doing the right thing – which is to cut this carbuncle loose for the USS Kraft.

This move would be far from disloyal – it would acknowledge that this is just a bad guy who did a terrible thing, if not a series of terrible things.

After all, Hernandez is not just a person of interest or suspect in Lloyd’s murder, he is believed to have destroyed evidence, hired a cleaning crew to detail his house last Monday, and is alleged by the victim to have shot a man in the face while being driven home from a strip club on February 13th.

No Super Bowl victory is worth doing business with a tight end who appears to live his life like Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci’s character) in “Goodfellas.”

There appears to be no pragmatic penalty for the Patriots in delaying action, but to claim moral high ground by waiting for a legal determination would be ridiculous.  The American system of justice requires a guilty verdict before punishment is meted out, but no such burden is required of an employer.

That Hernandez is a bad guy is beyond dispute, and he should be cut despite the cost because it’s the right thing to do.

Hiring Dan Dakich on 1070 the Fan Still Makes Me Look Smart to the In-Laws

by Kent Sterling

imagesMy wife’s family lives in northwest Indiana, and they saw my name in a piece in the Gary Post-Tribune about 1070 the Fan radio host Dan Dakich.  It’s nice when the in-laws are provided evidence of something positive being done by the husband of the youngest of eight Purcell kids.

The Q&A with Dan dealt in part with how he got into radio, and while it’s true that I hired him, the credit for him being the guy trusted to host the 10a-1p slot on the fledgling station belongs to him.

No one in their right mind would have passed on a talent with the attributes Dan brings to media.  I tried to hire him to do a game day call to WIBC in 1994 based on his behavior over a couple of beers at Nick’s in Bloomington or during a visit or two to Chicago, where I lived until 1993.

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From that point forward, I would have hired Dan – or found a way to get the program director to hire him before I had the authority to do it myself.  He happened to leave Indiana University in 2008 at the exact moment I was looking for someone to fill the 10a-1p slot.  Serendipity was sweet for both of us.

Dan has four abilities that made him a can’t miss talent.

  • He’s honest – always and relentlessly.  If Dan lied, his head would explode.  He is completely unafraid that his opinions will upset people.  It’s not that he’s callous – he isn’t.  It’s just that the truth is important.
  • He’s transparent.  If Dan is thinking it, he says it.  The first time I met Dan, I felt like I knew him.  Radio is a medium that does not tolerate those who hide their feelings.  You won’t always agree with Dan, but how boring would it be if you did?  Life is too short to require political correctness from our friends, and on the radio Dan becomes a friend.
  • Dan gets bored easily.  The best of the best hosts know when a segment is becoming tedious.  Dan moves through calls quickly and bluntly.  That saves listeners the unpleasantness of realizing the callers have nothing to say.  Dan figures that out early on.
  • He knows what the hell he’s talking about.  Dan Dakich knows sports.  He studies, and understands the behavior of those who play.  That means he will not only tell you what happened, but why it happened.  That’s infinitely more interesting than the typical agate copy.

Dan did a really smart thing that I’ve talked about before during his “Falcon Basketball with Dan Dakich” show.  When Dan got bored, he did something else.  Most coaches just sit and answer questions without any regard for the audience or for his own desire to entertain or be entertained.  It’s drudgery for the coaches and the audience.

One weekend, Dan introduced a segment called “Dan Asks Dan,” which was more illuminating and fun than what had been elicited in the past by the host of the show.  Dan explained that he felt the answers to the questions he asked himself in the car on the way to the studio were often better than those in response to the host, so Dan decided to interview himself.

“Dan Asks Dan” was funny and informational, but more than that, it showed a need to be interesting and a revulsion to tedium that is at the core of every great radio show.  Great hosts cannot tolerate being bored.  Brandmeier, Limbaugh, Mancow, Stern, and others would rather be hit by a beer truck rather than be bored, and they trust that if they’re not bored, listeners won’t be either.

Dan continues to entertain and inform every weekday from 12p-3p, and as long as he does, Indianapolis will have a place where they can hear original thoughts on sports and entertainment presented in a compelling way.

For those of you who want to be hosts, learn these two lessons from Dan – always know what you are talking about and never be boring.

Hiring Dan was one of the half dozen really easy decisions I’ve made in hiring, and if it makes me look like a smart guy to my in-laws, all the better, but I hope one day he returns to coaching.  There are a lot of self-interested coaches being trusted to lead teens into adulthood, and he’s not one of those guys.  Kids deserve a mentor like Dan who commits not only to teaching young men about basketball, but helping them become productive adults.

Or maybe the radio show gives him a broader medium to allow him to teach masses what it means to be who you are and tell the truth.