Is Don Cherry Still Relevant?

[Mobiandi]

I mean if you have to ask...

 

[egelband]

The podcast is the only thing he does now as far as I know.

I’ve listened a few times and it’s good. He has great recall and spins a great yarn. It’s actually a great spot for him.

 

[MMANumminen]

If the nutcases of today hate him, I like him

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Relevant to what? No one watched HNIC for Cherry. I didn't. After Hours tho.

 

[T REX]

Who?

 

[Seattle Totems]

Considering the state of the world right now, no, and I've defended him in the past. Same goes for his favourite player. It is a sad day in the NHL if no one speaks out against those that incite violence and such hate. The silence from that entitled old boys club is pretty deafening. It's enough to turn me off this spectatorless sport. There are more important things in life and in the world these days. Don Cherry and his ilk may hold some memories but they are dead to me.

Also want to say the fact we have to speak in hushed tones speaks volumes. Enjoy whatever freedom you think you have.

 

[tarheelhockey]

His podcast is in the top 10 hockey podcasts on Apple in a number of countries. It was the most listened to podcast in Canada when it was released for a number of weeks and was a top 20 sports podcast in all of the USA at one point. So it seems there is still an interest in him.

The podcast is closer to his old TV show than the coaches corner segment though so I don't listen to it frequently.

Being in the top-10 of hockey podcasts is near meaningless. How many relevant hockey podcasts are there? 3? Maybe 5? Chiclets is the only one with mainstream pull. Everything else is a niche within a niche.

Right now, Cherry’s podcast is not top-100 in either the USA or Canada. Whatever momentum came from the opening weeks is gone. And since hockey is effectively on an indefinite hiatus, every week that passes will be another week of irrelevance for all hockey media. When they finally get back to action, the likes of Rogers and Barstool will leverage their huge multimedia platforms to draw users back to their podcasts... but Cherry doesn’t have that anymore. So he falls farther and farther behind the pack, which is death in media.

It’s true what someone said upthread... deplatforming works. Inevitably the exile says “THAT’S FINE, I’LL START MY OWN CLUB!” and get 15 minutes of attention for the attempt. And then is not heard from again, as far as 99% of the audience is concerned.

 

[Godzilla]

Stopped watching him years ago, and certainly dont miss him one iota. Kinda forgot he existed actually.

 

[robertmac43]

If the nutcases of today hate him, I like him

Is this how you make decisions about most people in the world?

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

I haven't thought about him for a year, but the recent development with the OHL made me immediately think of him. Sure enough, I take a peak at his twitter and he's clamoring about how Doug Ford will save the OHL.

 

[JMCx4]

Isn't it time for this thread to move to The History of Hockey forum?

 

[digmor crusher]

I would watch Don all day, every day, over some boring players interview. Players interviews come up, I turn the channel. Besides, political correctness has run amok.

 

[Wolf357]

I admit it..I miss him...Yea he was dated...maybe not the best hockey insider..but I grew up watching him.
If you didn’t grow up in English Rural Canada in the 1980s/90s it’s kinda hard to explain how important HNIC was. We had 3 channels, and Saturday night huddled up watching coaches corner with it -40c outside was a very warm memory of mine.
I also miss the old HNIC theme a lot as well... but maybe it’s just remembering with rose coloured glasses... Cherry was out of touch with the modern world maybe 20 years ago but that’s what made him so enjoyable...would of been nice if he had just walked away on his own terms.

 

[BananaCat11]

I almost had forgotten about the old senile bigot. He is done worse then a burnt turkey on Thanksgiving. Hockey is better without him. People were fed up before his last outburst.

Maybe him and Mitch Miller can make a podcast or something. I am sure plenty of back woods hicks would lick that up.

 

[ElysiumAB]

I use to love the guy. Then I realized racism is a horrible thing (grew up in a racist family). He needs to continue to be IRRELEVANT

What did he say that was racist?

 

[ElysiumAB]

Even if you didn't enjoy him, or disagreed with his opinions, I don't think you can call someone on nationwide television in prime time on a Saturday night that has probably the most well recognized segment on Canadian television... irrelevant (meaning, the many people in this thread with the hot take saying he was never relevant.)

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

Isn't it time for this thread to move to The History of Hockey forum?

I personally believe the man has a right to respond, he's not dead....is he?

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

Even if you didn't enjoy him, or disagreed with his opinions, I don't think you can call someone on nationwide television in prime time on a Saturday night that has probably the most well recognized segment on Canadian television... irrelevant (meaning, the many people in this thread with the hot take saying he was never relevant.)

Sure, but what if that man with that platform spread ideas every saturday to millions of people and you disagreed with his opinions? Are you supposed to still give him relevance?

I liked Don Cherry btw.

 

[JMCx4]

I personally believe the man has a right to respond, he's not dead....is he?

I didn't say The ANCIENT History of Hockey forum.

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

I didn't say The ANCIENT History of Hockey forum.

I think he's almost surprisingly irrelevant post-retirement. I haven't heard anything about him. To me he was just an entertainer, a character, and now that he's not on a widely viewed television show he doesn't matter anymore.

 

[cheswick]

Being in the top-10 of hockey podcasts is near meaningless. How many relevant hockey podcasts are there? 3? Maybe 5? Chiclets is the only one with mainstream pull. Everything else is a niche within a niche.

Right now, Cherry’s podcast is not top-100 in either the USA or Canada. Whatever momentum came from the opening weeks is gone. And since hockey is effectively on an indefinite hiatus, every week that passes will be another week of irrelevance for all hockey media. When they finally get back to action, the likes of Rogers and Barstool will leverage their huge multimedia platforms to draw users back to their podcasts... but Cherry doesn’t have that anymore. So he falls farther and farther behind the pack, which is death in media.

It’s true what someone said upthread... deplatforming works. Inevitably the exile says “THAT’S FINE, I’LL START MY OWN CLUB!” and get 15 minutes of attention for the attempt. And then is not heard from again, as far as 99% of the audience is concerned.

Niche within a niche? You're clearly looking at an American perspective. No hockey podcast will be the top 100 in the USA. Your aforementioned Chicklets barely breaks the top 200 in the US and is a top ten podcast in Canada. Hockey is not a niche in Canada. Don Cherry has never been on the air in the US. His relevance has always been in Canada and any discussion of his continued relevance would be a Canadian one. The argument that having a top ten hockey podcast in Canada doesn't show relevance because in your opinion there are only 5 relevant ones, is the definition of begging the question.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Niche within a niche? You're clearly looking at an American perspective. No hockey podcast will be the top 100 in the USA. Hockey is not a niche in Canada. Don Cherry has never been on the air in the US. His relevance has always been in Canada and any discussion of his continued relevance would be a Canadian one.

Sports itself is a niche. Most people are not hardcore sports fans and do not listen to sports podcasts. In America, "sports culture" podcasts are popular but none of them focus on a single sport unless you count fantasy football. They're more like drive-time radio, less like sports analysis.

In Canada there are only 2 hockey podcasts in the overall top-100. Chiclets is currently #6 which speaks to how much of a mainstream platform Barstool has become, and then BarDown which is all the way down at #60. There are a bunch of other sports podcasts mixed in there, but they're American stuff like Dave Portnoy and PTI which are unlikely to spend much time on hockey.

Being on the lower end of this spectrum is indeed a niche within a niche. Nobody gives a damn who's the 3rd biggest hockey podcast in Canada, let alone who's the 10th biggest. And especially not if that podcast is 10th biggest by virtue of having its audience shrink rapidly.

 

[ElysiumAB]

Sure, but what if that man with that platform spread ideas every saturday to millions of people and you disagreed with his opinions? Are you supposed to still give him relevance?

I liked Don Cherry btw.

If his ideas are going to millions of people, he's relevant... that's the point. No other actions necessary.

 

[cheswick]

Sports itself is a niche. Most people are not hardcore sports fans and do not listen to sports podcasts. In America, "sports culture" podcasts are popular but none of them focus on a single sport unless you count fantasy football. They're more like drive-time radio, less like sports analysis.

In Canada there are only 2 hockey podcasts in the overall top-100. Chiclets is currently #6 which speaks to how much of a mainstream platform Barstool has become, and then BarDown which is all the way down at #60. There are a bunch of other sports podcasts mixed in there, but they're American stuff like Dave Portnoy and PTI which are unlikely to spend much time on hockey.

Being on the lower end of this spectrum is indeed a niche within a niche. Nobody gives a damn who's the 3rd biggest hockey podcast in Canada, let alone who's the 10th biggest. And especially not if that podcast is 10th biggest by virtue of having its audience shrink rapidly.

By that logic Don Cherry was never relevant. Because most people are not hard core sports fans and most people don't watch hockey. It's not like his reach before was beyond the scope of hockey. HNIC routinely doesn't even beak the top 30 watched programs in Canada. The crux of this discussion is of his ongoing relevance or not. If the base of the discussion is that he was relevant prior to his firing from HNIC, the scope of the argument is completely limited to the scope of hockey in Canada. Not some wider spread appeal.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Does anyone listen to Cherrys podcast? How is it?