Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Dan Dakich – Rollin' on 1070-The Fan

by Kent Sterling

Listeners look for a couple of different things in a talk host, but the overall skill set for a great talk host is an ability to

Peerless Radio Host Dan Dakich

present unique information and perspective in a compelling and fun way. That is as close a description of what you get with the Dan Dakich Show as any I can think of.

I’ll give you an example. Today, Dan previewed the huge game tonight in Columbus between Purdue and Ohio State. Dan told me and everyone else listening to watch for the Buckeyes use of flat ball screens to free up Evan Turner. He then explained the difference between a flat ball screen (the screener’s back is to the bucket) and a side screen (back to the sideline). Ohio State uses the flat screen to spring Turner free of his defender as he moves directly toward the basket. Ohio State also uses a 1-3-1 zone to defend. This zone allows Thad Matta to rest his guys a little on defense and use a six-man rotation.

Nobody brings both the knowledge of X’s and O’s and the ability to explain them to neophytes like Dan Dakich. Most of what I know about basketball I learn from watching thousands of games and listening to Dan explain the game. We had a lot of meetings that ended with ten-minutes of Dan diagramming plays on my legal pad. It’s easy to see why Dan was such an outstanding coach. If he can teach me how flex works, he would have no problem with people who actually run it.

Dan does much more than that. He watches tape like a coach. DVR is a great tool for dipshits like me and for radio hosts to record games and then watch later in the season, as Dan did last night with the first OSU vs. Purdue game. You know what most radio hosts do when they get home? They sleep, grab some dinner, watch sitcoms, and try to get aways from the stress of performing for three or four hours everyday. Dan? He’s watching tape so he knows what the hell he’s talking about.

Dan talks about sports not in some distant academic way. He brings passion and humor to his performance, and as unpleasant as it might be for hosts to admit, it is every bit the performance as a singer at Conseco Fieldhouse or a comedian at Cracker’s. There isn’t a live audience, but that makes it even more difficult for the host. There is a sense in the studio for a host that he is just talking to himself. Without some kind of feedback, it’s tough to have confidence that what you are saying has importance to anyone. Dan walked into the studio prepared to talk for three hours on day one, and he’s still bringing that energy and work ethic.

Denny Smith, a friend and host of “Investing Sense” on WIBC told me something last week in reference to my recent reversal of fortune, “A successful person, when presented with a catastrophic loss, will be successful again in two years.” Dan Dakich was replaced as head coach at Indiana University on or close to April 1, 2008. That puts him six weeks away from that two-year mark. Dan’s current gig at The Fan and his analyst role on the Big Ten Network is making Denny look like the very smart man he is.

Dan’s show airs from 10a-1p each weekday on 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis, and if you want to spend a fruitful three hours listening to a smart and funny guy talk about sports, check out the show. If you don’t live in the area, go to www.1070thefan.com and click to listen. It’s the best show of its kind in the country.

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All Sports Parents Are the Same – Crazy

An angry parent whom I do not know

by Kent Sterling

Watching sports parents at every level is the same. It doesn’t matter whether the kid is in college, the NBA, high school, or a fifth grader. They are all sure the coach just doesn’t see their kid as the person and player he is. The officials are boobs and single their kid. And they try their best to appear as though they care about all the kids equally. Not all of them make the effort to care about other kids, or be perceived as though they do. Some are just unrepentant assholes, and they aren’t afraid to tell you all about how their kid is the best player in the school, on the team, or in the world.

Over the past two years, I’ve seen them all. Almost exactly two years ago, I sat immediately in front of Armon Bassett’s Dad at the IU vs. Ohio State game in Assembly Hall. I had a feeling it was Bassett’s Dad because he was wearing a fancy sweatsuit and was an African-American. That meant it was either a player’s dad or former IU President Adam Herbert. I’ve seen Herbert, so I could eliminate him. I know Eric Gordon’s Dad a very little bit, so he was eliminated. Then, Bassett made a shot. Instead of cheering, this guy told everyone that Armon doesn’t do that enough and how the system at IU was holding him back. I took that to mean that the guy thought Armon was as good or better than Eric Gordon. Only a dad could think something that silly.

I made it a point to tell my friend Paulie Balst, with whom I sat, how good a shooter Armon is. Unfortunately, my habit of being confused by name pronunciations reared its ugly head. (I have met John Feinstein, have read most of the books he’s written, and heard him on the radio and TV dozens of times, but ask me whether his last name is pronounced “FINE-steen” or “FINE-stine” and I have precisely a 50% chance of getting it right.) I called Armon Bassett, “ARM-on”. Keep in mind that I was effusive in my praise. Bassett’s Dad snapped around and chastised my inability to pronounce his kid’s name as though it was preposterous that anyone in the state would not have his kid’s bio committed to memory. He then said it was a good thing arm-ON’s Mother didn’t hear me because “she would tear your head off”.

Conversely, I had a party last year, and Jennifer McRoberts came. The Pacers were playing, and she was riveted as she watched to see if Josh would get into the game. Her behavior was exactly how I would have expected a mom of a high school kid to act as she watched a road game she couldn’t attend. She was passionate and when Josh got into the game, her focus was complete. I always thought that NBA parents would enjoy basketball without all the stress because of the millions of dollars the kid was able to stuff into his bank account. Nope. They are just the same.

My nephew Tate played in a tournament last weekend, and my family and I caught one of the games. Tate is nine or ten, and is a really good player. His parents – my sister and brother-in-law – are sane and realistic people. They are very aware that winning and losing for kids is irrelevant. They know that Tate being a great kid is more important than his skill as a ballplayer. They also yell and scream at officials like it’s their job. In the interest of full-disclosure, my Dad was an absolute lunatic with umpires and referees when he was a fan. I sat next to him at the 1981 Seymour Regional game between New Albany and Floyd Central when Dad threw an unlit cigar at a ref because of a call he felt went against New Albany. Because Dad had a good arm, even a 51, he hit the official square in the back. So my sister acquired her ill-temper honestly. Of course, I did the same thing. Injustice toward my kin requires my loud attention.

My son plays college basketball at Loyola of Chicago. I sit among the parents, as I will tonight at the Ramblers play Valpo. The parents – one in particular – is vociferous in the extreme toward the officials. He gets angry to the point he will get out of his seat and walk toward the court screaming. I find it hilarious because I’ve done the same thing, but not quite with equal anger. This makes that dad crazier than I am, and I take great solace in that. I get to tell my wife, “I may be nuts, but look at that guy. Aren’t you lucky?”

If you are a sports parent, do yourself a favor and forgive yourself for all of your passionate outbursts toward coaches and officials. You aren’t alone, and you are likely no crazier than anyone else. If you are a coach, forgive all the parents for being passionate ambassadors for their children. Parents are easily the worst thing about coaching kids, but that comes with the territory. When my son was in the fourth thru seventh grade, he was fortunate enough to be coached by a really good guy and coach who was also the coach of a successful high school team. At the end of the first year, I asked him what he wants from parents. He told me, “A handshake and a thank you at the end of the season.”

At the end of every game, give your kid a hug and kiss. Make sure they are having fun. If they walk away from the game with a smile, drive home happy. Then, make sure and thank your coach and shake his hand at the end of the season.

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Kravitz & Eddie Keep Getting It Done

by Kent Sterling

Building The Fan was endless fun and presented a series of challenges that were as puzzling as they were predictable. Anytime a radio station automates even a single daypart – for those who are radio neophytes, automation means a computer is in charge of the audio – there is a huge risk of double-audio, dead air (silence when there is supposed to be noise), and occasionally a show from another station popping on.

Not being averse to placing hurdles between myself and success if the success can be bigger because of the hurdles, I hired two complete broadcasting novices to be the signature talents for the brand. When looking for talent, I wanted three things – unquestionable work ethic, a unique and honest perspective, and an ability to listen. Kravitz and Eddie both fit that bill perfectly. You can disagree with Bob Kravitz, but if you ever doubt that he believes everything he says or writes, you are wrong. I worked with Bob for over two years, and I never saw him care more about the response of friends, family, co-workers, or anyone else to make the effort to lie or try to manipulate.

Eddie is a different cat. No one out works Eddie. He prepares like a fiend, and can’t wait to get into the studio for the show. He repeats what I’ve always said the show should represent, “the best three hours of his day” with a mocking tone, but I truly believe he loves doing it. He will do anything he’s asked, once the need for that thing is explained. He is eager, well-informed, and as you know if you have ever listened to the show, knows everyone.

People listening to the show always accuse Eddie of being pompous. He isn’t. He is so far on the other side of pompous that he can’t see it from the part of his brain where he lives. Eddie is focused, and if you don’t engage his focus, you are not interesting to him. That is true of many very successful people. Show me a person who will listen attentively as others blather on and on about nothing, and I’ll show you an ambitionless and unchallenged soul. That’s not Eddie.

Putting these two guys together was a huge risk, but I trusted that they would find each other interesting and they fit what I wanted the station to be – smart and challenging. They work hard and they trust each other. They still don’t know a damn thing about radio, but with Michael Grady’s help the radio part of the equation is being handled.

Did I mention Michael. He is one of those guys who I believed instantly would be an enormous success. Successful people are talented, but more importantly do what it takes to be successful. There is no challenge that Michael ever rejected or duty too ponderous for his time. Show me a person who achieves and I’ll show you someone who says yes reflexively. Michael says yes, and then delivers better than what was asked.

There are things about doing talk radio that are transparent to the listener, but are hugely important. It’s one thing to be able to talk about sports for three hours. It’s another to build a daily three-hour show. Shows have structure – repeatable parts that air at the same time everyday. Without them, three hours is a really long time – both for the talent and listeners. Kravitz and Eddie were uniformly trusting and participatory in the process as we put together the “Five O’Clock Fight” with the help of Steve Reynolds, consultant to some of the best radio shows in the world.

They continue working without me, and I don’t miss them because the show sounds just fine six weeks after my demise. The only reason I would miss the work would be if somehow the show got screwed up and I felt I could help. It’s not. Kravitz & Eddie is what it has been, a really, really good radio show that happens to be about sports.

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Five Reasons to Be Optimistic About the Indiana Basketball Rebuilding Process

by Kent Sterling

It’s easy to respond to a six-game Big Ten losing streak with cynicism. Until the past two seasons, the Hoosiers haven’t suffered a six-game conference losing streak since World War II. That kind of systemic failure is usually met with skepticism at the minimum and usually an amount of horror. IU fans have shown a great deal of patience in a day and age when people are all about winning – NOW! Good for them, and good for the kids who continue to play hard and fight.

Will the optimism be rewarded by Tom Crean and the kids wearing candy-striped warm-up britches? It will, and I’ll give you five good reasons:

5 – Matt Roth will be back next year. Roth is a pure shooter, and not only do pure shooters make shots – they open up the floor for everyone else because defenders leave them to help at their own peril. For obvious reasons, the kind of dribble penetration offense Crean prefers can’t be very successful with help coming from the wings. Opponents choosing to help from Roth’s side of the floor will pay.

4 – The athletic department is finally being manned by professionals. Fred Glass is an IU guy, but more than that he’s a very, very smart IU guy who not only brings passion to the job, but a level of experience in sports administration. The cabal of boobs who hired Rick Greenspan instead of Jack Swarbrick got the job done right when they installed Glass. He’s a relatively young guy, and will do what needs to be done to bring IU back. He was instrumental in laying the groundwork to bring the Super Bowl to Indianapolis in 2012. You know how hard it is to get people used to South Beach, New Orleans, and Tempe to see Indy as a destination for the signature event of the most successful sports league in the history of the world? Glass led the team who got that done.

3 – The group who will be sophomores next year has a chance to be outstanding. Matt Roth, Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford, Maurice Creek, Derek Elston, Bobby Capobianco, and Bawa Muniru will play three more years in Bloomington. Jeremiah Rivers and Verdell Jones III will be back – Rivers for one more year, and Jones for two. We don’t know how good these kids are going to get, but if the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores, Indiana fans should enjoy this group next year.

2 – Victor Oladipo and Will Sheehey are reportedly two solid recruits. We’ve all seen video of these two kids, but I can tell you that it isn’t hard to put together highlight videos that make kids look unstoppable. Austin Etherington and Matt Carlino are a year behind those two. All four are ranked in the top 150, and while that doesn’t automatically convey greatness, there is virtually no difference between a kid ranked 112 by Rivals and the kid ranked 30. High school player rankings is not just an inexact science, it’s virtual guesswork. Getting more excited about number 30 than number 120 is silly. Maurice Creek was ranked 56th in the rivals database. Do you believe there were 55 better high school seniors last year than Creek? Maybe Josh Selby comes to Bloomington, maybe not.

1 – The IU Basketball Development Center. There is nothing more important to parents of recruits than the ability for their kids to reach their potential, and the current facilities just don’t even come close to competing with other schools. Kentucky and Florida State have incredible practice facilities, and IU’s new complex will be their equal. When parents visit Indiana, I guarantee they ask, “Okay, Assembly Hall is great, but where do you practice? Where can my Johnny work on his game?” “Where do the girls practice?” “Okay, if the girls are practicing, where can Johnny get up 500 shots?”

As soon as the coach answers “The HPER”, the game is over. With this new beautiful facility, IU can compete for the talents of the kids who want to work like hell. This is a game changer for families considering Indiana.

The only thing I’m sure of about Tom Crean is that he is a tireless worker. What he knows or doesn’t know about basketball and managing kids is a complete unknown. With Dwayne Wade, he was a hell of a coach. Without him, he lost a minimum of 10 games per year. In the Big East, life is tough. Recruiting kids to play in Milwaukee is tough – really tough. Crean and Indiana could use a breakthrough recruit, but what they need more is a pipeline from Bloomington South, North Central, and the other Indianapolis high schools that produce an average of one NBA player per year.

With Creek and Roth healthy, another year of building strength, and the opening of the Basketball Development Center, I think we’ve seen the last six-game Big Ten losing streak for a few years. It’s darkest before the dawn, and it’s sure as hell pretty dark. The dawn must be coming.

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Delusional Jim Hendry Expects Better Season for Cubs

by Kent Sterling

It’s not quite time for the annual look at my exclusive Chicago Cubs Preview, but with pitchers and catchers reporting in five days and some recent optimistic and baffling comments by GM Jim Hendry, there is no time like the present to vent a little and clear my head prior to the weekend. No one wants to suffer through a holiday weekend with this kind of angst burdening my soul. As many know, my preview last year predicted exactly that the Cubs would win 83 games, which may have been luck or evidence of my prescience.

Chicago Cubs General Manager told the Chicago Tribune that he expects the Cubs to be improved because the current crop of players will play better. That logic works for any sports team or business. We need the current staff to improve their performance belies the lack of leadership that Hendry so fearlessly and so often exudes.

“We may do one more thing before camp or during, but we knew a couple of years ago this would be a year a lot the

Head Dolt Jim Hendry

contracts we did would restrict us,” Hendry said. “But I feel good about the guys we’ve brought in. And, as I’ve said since the end of last season, we need a lot of the guys who didn’t play well last year to play better.”

“It’s not like we had a lot of room for new bodies,” Hendry said. “We just needed to get a couple of pieces, and we really think Byrd and Nady are going to help us in a lot of areas, especially offensively. And I’m optimistic some of the people that didn’t hit last year will. Rudy (Jamarillo, the new batting coach) is going to help us. I think we’re quite a bit better.”

Doing the same thing with the same people and expecting a different result is moronic. Again and again, the Cubs rely on players recovering from injuries as well as free agents signed following an option year statistical explosion. Xavier Nady is recovering from Tommy John surgery (his second). Ted Lilly is rehabbing his shoulder and isn’t expected to be full strength until just before the All-Star Break. Marlon Byrd hit 20 of his 60 career home runs last season (in eight seasons). Ryan Dempster had a career year in 2008, driving his price way up for the contract he signed prior to the 2009 season. I could go on.

Where is any reasonable expectation for improvement justified. The defense up the middle is pitiful. Lou Piniella is losing his mind, and has evolved from being an angry tyrant to a forgetful and grandfatherly player’s manager. He allows players like Alfonso Soriano the freedom to veto a move in the lineup, or at least claims to have gotten Soriano’s approval for the drop from leadoff to the six spot. Even more absurd was Piniella’s insistence last season that Soriano hitting leadoff was only an issue once per game because he would likely only leadoff once. I guess inheriting an out during virtually every other plate appearance because of the pitcher immediately preceding him is meaningless.

Ryan Theriot is a problem. His lack of range at shortstop, mediocre arm, and soft bat make him a virtual replica of Glenn Beckert. Beckert was a second baseman, the position Theriot is only somewhat suited for. Cubs fans look at Theriot as one of the younger Cubs, yet he turned 30 in December. Just so we are on the same page, here are the ages of the likely starters and other key players for the 2010 Cubs at the end of this season:

Geovany Soto, 27

Derrek Lee, 35

Mike Fontenot, 30

Jeff Baker, 29

Ryan Theriot, 30

Aramis Ramirez, 32

Kosuke Fukudome, 33

Marlon Byrd, 33

Alfonso Soriano, 34

Xavier Nady, 31

Ted Lilly, 34

Carlos Zambrano, 29

Ryan Dempster, 33

Randy Wells, 28

Carlos Marmol, 27

These guys are not at the point in their career, barring chemical additives, that baseball players get better or are injured less. This team is old, and expecting improvement is irrational. Hendry has built a team that cannot win, and is so hamstrung by terrible contracts that they have no ability to improve. The Ricketts Family will write massive checks totalling more than $102 of their roughly $135-million payroll for Derrek Lee, Ted Lilly, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Kosuke Fukudome, Aramis Ramirez, and Ryan Dempster. The four position players on that list averaged 40 missed games.

Hendry is never going to come out and say that the Cubs will suck because that would mean his job, but to say that he expects improvement is asinine. Hendry fans/apologists point to the six winning seasons since 2003 as reason to believe in Hendry’s ability to build a team. With a $135-million payroll, Ronnie Woo-Woo could put together an 83-win roster.

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Kent Sterling Fired From The Fan and WIBC as Program Director – Part Four

Oddly, the phrase, “Kent Sterling Fired” is still showing up as a source from Google to generate traffic to this website. As long as there is some twisted need for people to check on my unfortunate professional turn of fortune, I will let people know how I’m doing. I am the world’s foremost expert on my own life, and although I don’t find it too fascinating, I can fart a 500 word post on my own life.

I am curious whether people google “Kent Sterling Fired” because they hope that I have been, or heard that I was fired and wonder why. I’m hoping that the split is 50/50.

I met with an accountant this week about taxes, and he told me that there is a burgeoning group of a similarly displaced workforce out there determined to work for themselves. The corporate mentality just doesn’t seem as attractive when you spend a lot of time busting your ass to bring wealth to others, and then get your walking papers.

My accountant is great guy and taxman-to-the-stars Kirk Fosnaugh, and he came with some information about self-employment and small business ownership that was interesting and a little subduing. It’s seems the government wants more than their share of the money we make, and when you are just starting something and the message the government wants to convey first is that for every buck you make Uncle Sam is going to take roughly half. Ouch. For what? The interstate highway system? I’m good with that. That doesn’t cost half of my money though. Medicare? Social Security? $2-billion bombers? Keep ’em. Let me fuel the economy with my own reckless spending.

Rob Nichols, another Emmis expatriate and I, are starting a business where we will serve as partners in an initial small effort to help high school sophomores and junior student/athletes find a college home where they can find a home for both sets of talents. Do what you love, is my mantra as it always has been. Helping kids was tremendous fun when my son was in high school, and I think Rob and I can help.

This website is endless fun, and I added three writers last week to bring some more heft to the process of sharing unique perspective. The more this site is updated, the better the audience is served. And that will free me up to go out and talk to people. I like interviewing folks, so that will be the next step for the site. As time goes on, I’ll figure out how to sell it too.

The third thing I’m doing is writing a book about fatherhood. I’m into the fourth chapter, and that’s alternately fun and difficult. The good memories and times when I was a really good dad make it fun. Recounting those instances when my choices were a little bit selfish make for tough writing. That’s life I guess. Good times. Bad times. What I want is an honest account of being my Dad’s kid and my kid’s Dad. Dad was a great character, and Ryan is an incredibly fine young man.

I always wanted to do these things, so that’s what I’m doing.

I’m feeling really good. Not worrying about two radio stations 24/7 is a very positive step toward sanity. If I ever go back to radio, I’ll do it in a much smarter way. Delegation is key, and I always maintained enough responsibility of the day-to-day process of running the stations that it drove me unwittingly crazy. The thing I loved the most is helping the talent, and hearing them get better at what they do. That’s what I’ll do next time – if I choose to do it again.

My wife is happy. I’m happy. Being off the radio career hamster wheel is an excellent psychological salve. There are so many extensions of the lessons taught to me during my 17 years at Emmis and three years at WGN and WMAQ in Chicago that I feel like it was an excellent training ground for what’s next – whether that next thing is managing these three enterprises, or having something else find me.

This will be a fun time that allows me to eat what I kill, and continue to work on being a better human being.

To those with whom I’ve worked, keep calling anytime. I’m not at Emmis anymore, but I count you as friends. Keep the faith. Newstalk and Sportstalk Radio are formats that can create great results for clients, and as long as that is the case, producing informative, entertaining and unique content will be critical. If the powers that be decide that you don’t fit, don’t sweat that. The world is bigger than radio, and you are all very talented people.

In the first paragraph, I wrote that I could fart a 500-word post on myself. I was wrong. I can fart an 816-word post on myself.

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Colts Lose a Super Bowl 31-17 They Should Have Won

by Kent Sterling

The ball is shaped funny and because of that football games don’t always end as they should. Remember Jackie Smith dropping the Roger Staubach pass in the 1970s in one of those delicious Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl losses? The guy plays 15 years – 14 with a terrible series of St. Louis Cardinals teams. He gets a shot to make a huge catch in the end zone for the Cowboys TD, and drops it. When you combine the shape of the irregular shape of the football with the odd emotional state of the players weird things happen, and those weird things did in the blue and white.

The first bad thing was the Pierre Garcon drop in the second quarter. If Garcon hangs on, the drive continues, and maybe the Colts go up 17-3. At that point, the Saints start thinking that it’s been a nice run.

Bad thing number two immediately followed the best play of the game for the Colts. Right after the Colts stone the Saints on fourth-and-goal from the one, Peyton Manning and the offense run it three times and fail to get the first down.

They got the ball back with just under two-minutes to play in the first half, and that is their bread and butter. They played it “smart” and decided that not attacking gave them the best chance at winning, and at that moment, the game changed. The Colts failed to get the first down, and gave the Saints excellent field position.

The last play of the half was a Saints field goal to bring the score to 10-6, and the Saints had life.

The third, and most obvious awful game-changing moment for the Colts happened on the very next play, right after the thoroughly excellent halftime performance by The Who. Sean Payton decided that he needed to reach into his bag of tricks to beat the Colts, and tried an onside kick.

The kick was directly at the guy with the worst hands on the team – Hank Baskett. I would rather see Jeff Saturday in open space running under a Manning pass over the middle than Baskett. As you might expect, Baskett took the kick right off his face mask, and the Saints rolled from that point forward.

The Saints never showed an ability to get to Manning, and minus a terrible throw to Wayne that IU grad Tracy Porter took back for the touchdown that iced it, he was locked and ready throughout the game.

The reason the Colts pay Bill Polian a lot of cash is to put as much thought into the 53rd guy on the roster as he did when the Colts drafted #18 in 1998. I’m sure Baskett was the best player available when Anthony Gonzalez went down in the season opener, but it was the miscue of that 53rd guy that really turned the game around for the Saints.

You never know in football. Sometimes, we think we know, but we don’t. If you told me that Joseph Addai was going to run like a man possessed, and that Manning would be laser sharp, I would have bet everything that the Colts would pummel the Saints. It looked as though exactly that was going to happen when the score was 10-0.

The sickening thing will be that Saints Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams will be asked the secret of the Saints defense stopping Manning and the Colts offense when they did nothing of the sort. Williams, who looks like Mike Martz’s ugly daughter, did nothing but allow the Colts to march from one end of the field to the other.

If not for the Garcon drop, the decision not to attack at the end of the half, and the late game drop by Reggie Wayne, the Colts would have basically been able to do whatever they liked. Gregg Williams is an oaf.

In Super Bowl history, this game slots somewhere in the middle for excitement, but right toward the front in terms upsets. I know the line was 5.5 points, but the Colts showed tonight that if they had been able to make routine plays, they win by two touchdowns.

That’s life. The ball doesn’t always bounce the right way. So many tipped Brees passes tonight, and not a single one landed near a Colts defender. It sucks that they need to wait an entire year for another shot. These chances don’t come along very often.

One note…I told you on Monday that Dwight Freeney would play and be very effective. He was. All of the nonsense during the week about the ankle keeping him out was just that. One media outlet reported that Freeney was fine, and that was 1070 The Fan. Who Dat Gonna Beat Dem Fan?

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The Who Is the Best Rock Band Ever – Super Bowl Halftime Show Will Rock

by Kent Sterling

That’s a strong statement, saying that The Who is the best band of all-time. That puts them ahead of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.

The Who with Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey is their 60s, for God’s sake, are still the best rock band in the world. When they were in their 20s and 30s, no one came close. Keith Moon was the best drummer in the history of rock, and John Entwistle redefined the role of the bass player in rock. Both of those guys fell victim to their excesses, but the band still brings undeniable heat and energy to the angriest set list in the history of music.

Rock is defined by angst and a youthful impatience with the status quo. The Who brought that, and still brings it. As in “The Seeker”, one of Townshend’s best songs, The Who seeks. Not sure why that song wasn’t chosen as a CSI theme.

There are those who tout The Beatles as history’s best rock band. No band that threw songs like “Fool on the Hill”, “Yesterday”, and “Eleanor Rigby” on vinyl can be considered. Take all of the McCartney dreck out of The Beatles catalogue, and we can talk. “Taxman” is one of the best rock songs of any era.

The Rolling Stones are a joke. They are to rock what cotton candy is to fine cuisine. Post 1970, name a decent Stones song. Charlie Watts is adequate at best, and Mick Jagger is a poseur.

Led Zeppelin? Oh boy. That’s close. Even their slower songs are great. “Going to California” is just a beautiful song. The more bluesy songs are all so sexual that they made John Lee Hooker blush. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham are just as dynamic a lineup as The Who at their peak. I give the edge to The Who because their songs are about frustration and reflect a very pissed off mentality. Zeppelin was not angry as much as they craved vaginal ports. Both are valid reasons to write a great rock song.

It’s close, but we get the see the best of the best play their best today. Later this year, The Who will release another CD of new material. It will be an angry (of course) examination of aging. Who’s better to take us on that trip?

Today, it will be about celebrating their totally unique and magnificent artistic past – and it will rock.

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Kent Sterling Fired as Emmis Indy Program Director – Part Three

Being told to leave a place filled with people you care about is interesting. The work was relentless and the concern unending, but the people made all the sacrifice worthwhile, at least to the day I was canned. Had my wife taken a powder, as she was considering, that would have been an attention getter and I would have been challenged to change my obsession with helping the stations succeed.

My initial feeling was guilt over not being smart enough to get my bosses to allow me to continue to help WIBC and The Fan succeed. Yeah, I know that’s crazy. I dream about trying to help. I’m at work, hiding in the shadows trying not to get caught working. Very odd. The staff knows I don’t work there anymore, and they all tell me things will be okay. I know that, and tell them I’m fine. My concern in the dream is for them.

In real life, my focus is different. When I’m awake, I’m trying to figure out three business things, and how to live a little bit better balanced a life. Being responsible for the success or failure of a product that employs 50 people requires a best effort. Being a good husband and father also requires a best effort. That is the definition of a conundrum. The loser in my case was to choose away from where I was most secure.

All of that was good when Tom Severino was the boss. Tom, from my perspective, was the master of balance. He encouraged all of us to spend time with family and friends. When Tom died in July, those at Emmis he left behind tried to serve two masters. The first was to try to continue as Tom encouraged us to. Follow the righteous path of building strong and profitable radio brands while maintaining our humanity and a sense of fun. The other was to try to keep our jobs in a tough economy. For me, those two focuses were proven mutually exclusive.

Now, I get to do things I like, and build them the way I want to with the people I like and respect. And I get to spend time with my wife where I’m actually there, listening to what she has to say about things. A good program director spends a lot of time trying to get the hosts and producers mentally right, so that when they walk into the studio, they feel good about their performance. Talking into a microphone for three or four hours at a time without any feedback from the people you’re talking to is an unnatural act. At the end of the day, I was about up to my eyes in listening – my daily quota for external input had been exceeded by the time I got home.

Now, I get to listen. I look forward to seeing Julie and hearing about her day. This is the way life is supposed to be, I think. While I still feel terrible about no longer being allowed to help at the stations, I’m very happy that I get to try to move into a balanced life.

I hope that my friends at Emmis get to continue to work toward the success we all know is possible there. The Fall Rating Book was great for both WIBC and The Fan, and hopefully the best is yet to come from a ratings and revenue perspective. What I genuinely hope for them is a little peace and balance. The last two-and-a-half years have been filled with changes that have put people there in a state of discomfort. We have said goodbye to a number of friends who were fired, quit, or died. And the work continues regardless. A talk radio station is a beast that requires feeding 24/7, and it never stops.

That cycle makes balance hard for everyone involved. Shows are either being performed or prepared – all the time. Add the chaos of change, and the people in that building are uniquely passionate or they would have turned their backs on the medium years ago. Emmis is a passionate company that attracts passionate people.

There is a life outside of radio. It’s good out here, and the lessons I’m learning everyday out here will be helpful should I ever decide to get back in.

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Tony George Shuts It All Down

First, he was removed as the head of the company that owns and operates the Indianapolis Motor Speedway among other enterprises. Then, he refused a position as the head of the Indy Racing League. After that, he resigned from the board of director for the company he used to run. Yesterday, he suspended operations at Vision Racing. That was Tony George’s last link to Indy Car. In less than a year, George has gone from The Man to a guy.

Whatever happened, and for whatever reasons, anyone who has watched the open wheel racing saga unfold over the past 15 years has to say that Tony George has balls as big as the oval at 16th and Georgetown. He started a major league. Starting a team in a major league is a generational issue. Expansion teams take forever to grow roots. The IRL had an advantage in that its showcase was the world’s greatest single day sporting event, but starting a league is crazy bold.

I know as much about open wheel racing as the average fan, but I am an expert in recognizing a person who has vision, and Tony George has vision. He had a dream, pursued it, and it became real. How many of you reading this has ever done that? Let’s see some hands. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Whether he was right or wrong in creating the IRL, history will judge. The people who were violently anti-George still voice their opinions, as do those who were in George’s corner. I can say this from experiencing it – the vibe was different last may. For the first time since moving here in 1993, I didn’t have to call and invite anyone to come down for the race. Friends called me. It wasn’t just about the Indy 500. They wanted to be here for Carb Day. It was the party and fun in addition to the cars and race. That’s a reflection of the experience of the weekend, which somehow became hip again. It takes a long time to build back loyalty after radical change, and there seemed to be a tipping point last year for the Indy 500, if not for the entire series.

There must be great pain within Tony George right now. All of the activities and thoughts that defined his life have either been stripped away, or he has abandoned. All of the responsibilities that motivated his work day are now gone. As he wakes up this morning, all he needs to think about are his wife and kids, and what he can next throw his energy toward. Wow. That is a change in dynamic that can be dizzying. If there isn’t pain, there is certainly a void.

While tethered to the board and Vision Racing, George was seen as a guy that still had something to focus on. Since the news yesterday, professional George is now an empty vessel who needs to sit down and decide what’s next.

He has enough money for his family to live comfortably for the next 20 generations if they employ even a modicum of discretion in their spending, but a man like George who is used to waking up with enormous responsibilities weighing on his mind needs to feel needed, challenged, and ultimately culpable for the success of a staff. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been George’s passion for his entire life, and now he is no longer tied to it in any official fashion.

All of the blood, sweat, tears, fears, joys, successes and failures have been judged as valueless by his family, and that must be exceptionally painful for George, especially as the tide seemed to be turning in the erosion of popularity of open wheel racing. George will get up this morning and find something to do beyond watching “The Price Is Right” and “Judge Judy”. His DNA is to get moving, so that is what he will do.

As silly as it sounds to wish strength for a guy with Tony George’s wealth, money doesn’t do much to help fill a man’s soul, and right now all of the responsibilities that gave George the self-image he enjoyed for the past 20+ years are gone. Say a prayer for this guy. He has given Indianapolis a great deal, and he has earned our sincere good wishes and more.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has never asked for a dime from the City of Indianapolis or the State of Indiana. As our tax dollars and subsidies have supported the Colts, Pacers, Indians, and so much else through the C.I.B., the IMS has been a self-sustaining money pump for businesses in Indianapolis. That fact alone demands our respect, and should move all of us to thank George if we see him, or pray for his strength when we don’t.

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