OT: Happy Birthday John Short!!!

[aki]

I guess it depended on the type of guy you wanted to listen to. Short was always respectful to his callers, no matter what they were like or what their opinions were. Hall was only interested in his own opinion and was frequently rude to his callers.

This. Both knew their stuff, but Short was a gentleman while Hall was an arrogant know-it-all.

 

[Dorian2]

I'm a big fan of Mr Short. Bryan Hall not so much but he started calling Eskimo games in 1965. I believe he also had the first or one of the first call in sportstalk shows.

I believe John worked with one of the news services before taking a job as PR guy for the Oilers, which was before he ever had his sports talk show. But he never cow toed to the team. Neither did Rod Phillips. If things stunk they said so and didn't truck in the nonsense and pandering we see today.

Those guys are missed and won't ever be replaced sadly.

Today we have to stomach The Information Minister and his handpicked chatty Kathy doll. We have to listen to wet behind the ears Poindexter's like Tencer be rude to people/callers twice his age.

Its quite sad actually.

Man.... you're old Liquor:

Great references though.

 

[joestevens29]

I love how he interviewed Hervey. Kinda took over and instead of the show being about him, he just did what came natural to him.

 

[Fourier]

I guess it depended on the type of guy you wanted to listen to. Short was always respectful to his callers, no matter what they were like or what their opinions were. Hall was only interested in his own opinion and was frequently rude to his callers.

If they disagreed with a caller:

Short: You have a democratic right to be wrong.

Hall: You're a jerkaloo...Click! By the way, what ever happened to Earl Edwards?

 

[Paralyzer]

I guess it depended on the type of guy you wanted to listen to. Short was always respectful to his callers, no matter what they were like or what their opinions were. Hall was only interested in his own opinion and was frequently rude to his callers.

Agreed. I remember one caller was disagreeing with Hall on his opinion and he basically just hung up on him and didn't want to 'argue' because he knows he's right. It's liek the time him and Georges Laraque were on the radio together doing the Eskimos play by play and both of them had a bet on who would win the game. Loser would take the other out for dinner. Sure enough, Georges wins the bet and says right on the radio "So I guess your gonna take me to TR (Tony Romas) for dinner?" Bryan Hall responds "Nah, I'll take you somewhere nicer". After that, all the callers that night were calling him out on that and he'd hang up every single caller and denied he said that.

 

[Asher]

I listened to the show online. Most interesting to me was when Stauffer called in. He was raving about the Oilers, specifically about how they had a veteran GM and a veteran head coach (Bob's emphasis, not mine), and how you could see the accountability with your own eyes that now exists from top to bottom in the organization. Gee, too bad Bob didn't have a talk show or something so he could point out those flaws when they did exist...

 

[abootzky]

To me, John Short will always be one third of the Holy Trinity of Edmonton sports radio personalities with the other 2 being Rod Phillips and Bryan Hall. Rod was straight-up entertaining, John exemplified pure class and deep knowledge of sports while Hallsy remains a model of longevity as well as loyalty to his city.

I was interested to hear Dustin Nielson this morning paying tribute to John Short for giving him his start in radio sports broadcasting as part John's old Anysportanytime crew. I hadn't realized that Nielson was a member of what would become a pretty accomplished group there along with Rob Kerr, Jason Gregor, Wil Fraser & AJ Jakubec.

 

[Stoneman89]

John Short was an ace. Loved listening to him at nights, and miss his perspective on things. Treated caller with respect and got his facts straight. A true gentleman. And as has been mentioned on here, he told it like it was, and that ruffled some feathers, but he never backed down, and I really miss that kind of integrity in todays media. He is missed on the air.

 

[rboomercat90]

I'm a big fan of Mr Short. Bryan Hall not so much but he started calling Eskimo games in 1965. I believe he also had the first or one of the first call in sportstalk shows.

I believe John worked with one of the news services before taking a job as PR guy for the Oilers, which was before he ever had his sports talk show. But he never cow toed to the team. Neither did Rod Phillips. If things stunk they said so and didn't truck in the nonsense and pandering we see today.

Those guys are missed and won't ever be replaced sadly.

Today we have to stomach The Information Minister and his handpicked chatty Kathy doll. We have to listen to wet behind the ears Poindexter's like Tencer be rude to people/callers twice his age.

Its quite sad actually.

Yep, very well put. I used to listen to Short's show nightly back in the nineties. I rarely ever listened to Bryan Hall because he came across as a jerk. Preferred to just listen to the calm and easy going Short. I don't listen to local sports radio at all anymore. After Short retired, his replacements seemed to be more the abrasive type like Bryan Hall. After time it turned me off to the point I just stopped listening. Now I just prefer catching Bob Mccown's show on Sportsnet everyday. I get a good variety of sports from that and whatever I miss locally gets covered pretty well on the HFboards.

 

[Stoneman89]

Yep, very well put. I used to listen to Short's show nightly back in the nineties. I rarely ever listened to Bryan Hall because he came across as a jerk. Preferred to just listen to the calm and easy going Short. I don't listen to local sports radio at all anymore. After Short retired, his replacements seemed to be more the abrasive type like Bryan Hall. After time it turned me off to the point I just stopped listening. Now I just prefer catching Bob Mccown's show on Sportsnet everyday. I get a good variety of sports from that and whatever I miss locally gets covered pretty well on the HFboards.

After Short retired, the abrasive, know it all punk Tencer eventually came to the airwaves. What a change that was for any caller.

 

[MoneyGuy]

I'm not defending his on-air persona because I think he's a tool but, so everyone knows, the guy he was on his shows is the opposite of who Hall really is. He is the nicest guy in real life. It was an act. For what it's worth.

 

[Fourier]

I'm not defending his on-air persona because I think he's a tool but, so everyone knows, the guy he was on his shows is the opposite of who Hall really is. He is the nicest guy in real life. It was an act. For what it's worth.

That was always my impression though I never knew him personally. But a lot of people I knew in the Edmonton football circles did. Everyone I knew who knew Bryan Hall thought the same as well.

 

[Stoneman89]

I'm not defending his on-air persona because I think he's a tool but, so everyone knows, the guy he was on his shows is the opposite of who Hall really is. He is the nicest guy in real life. It was an act. For what it's worth.

You're not the only one. I know several people that would say the same thing. And Hallsy, like John Short, will talk sports with anybody, anytime.