The Official Ottawa Sports Radio Thread #8

[Tighthead]

Read his twitter account, he posts about them to get freebies

Strange that you enable his vast privilege by following him.

 

[Pierre from Orleans]

Only part of his radio persona, and if it was true, you would think he would have more empathy for others. Instead he seems to think he is better than everyone. The story of his past seems to change depending on when and who he's telling the story to. And it must have worked because he have created himself and strong following and place is Ottawa's wealthy and powerful, and unlike other local celebrity he believes he really is Mr Big Shot. You would never see him to reach out to people like Ian does, if you don't worship him you are blocked.

You are to Simmer as I was to Cody Ceci

 

[Larionov]

All I ever hear is self deprecating humor about his south rockcliffe estate.

Dumb question, but I assume by "South Rockcliffe" he means Vanier?

I've learned to accept Simmer for who he is, but I could see how his personality would rub some people the wrong way. He's a bit like that dude we all know who is constantly telling war stories and looking to one-up you in the process. He's also, err, pretty confident in his opinions, and he always has one. For talk radio, though, his shtick works - they are in the entertainment business, and they figure that if you want in depth analysis from people who play it straight you can go read The Athletic...

 

[JD1]

Dumb question, but I assume by "South Rockcliffe" he means Vanier?

I've learned to accept Simmer for who he is, but I could see how his personality would rub some people the wrong way. He's a bit like that dude we all know who is constantly telling war stories and looking to one-up you in the process. He's also, err, pretty confident in his opinions, and he always has one. For talk radio, though, his shtick works - they are in the entertainment business, and they figure that if you want in depth analysis from people who play it straight you can go read The Athletic...

Yes Vanier or Overbrook. He clearly pokes fun at himself for his lack of a lavish lifestyle and lack of accumulated wealth that would be typical of someone that spent 20 years working in the league

 

[ianmendes]

[QUOTE DELETED BY MODERATOR ]

It's rare that my jaw drops with something written on here, but this is truly a WTF moment. Like legit Tuna, WTF are you talking about?

There are so many layers to this, I don't know where to begin. But to suggest that:

a) Shawn Simpson said "coloured kids" on the air and I let that go unchecked is absurd. When we started on the air together, Simmer would sometimes make derogatory comments that I would try and correct during a commercial break. I remember early on he would call the Sedin twins the Sedin Sisters -- and finally one day I told him that was unacceptable. But I explained to him why it was unacceptable and that was the end of it. You never heard him equate a struggling athlete to a female while we were on the air together. So to suggest that he would have said this with me on the air and then have it go unchecked is simply untrue. On top of that, I received exactly ZERO e-mails/texts/tweets about that alleged incident. Don't you think if he actually said that on the air, it would have created a stir? And don't you think that as a visible minority, listeners would have specifically sought me out to condemn this comment??

b) To then go one step further and claim it was the reason for our split is some tin-foil hat nonsense. We were split up in the spring after some changes were made and that is how management thought the pieces fit together the best. Simple as that. There is no other back story.

ALL of you have the ability to easily reach out to me directly and verify these types of stories before posting them on the internet so they can spread like wildfire.

Ian

 

[GCK]

It's rare that my jaw drops with something written on here, but this is truly a WTF moment. Like legit Tuna, WTF are you talking about?

There are so many layers to this, I don't know where to begin. But to suggest that:

a) Shawn Simpson said "coloured kids" on the air and I let that go unchecked is absurd. When we started on the air together, Simmer would sometimes make derogatory comments that I would try and correct during a commercial break. I remember early on he would call the Sedin twins the Sedin Sisters -- and finally one day I told him that was unacceptable. But I explained to him why it was unacceptable and that was the end of it. You never heard him equate a struggling athlete to a female while we were on the air together. So to suggest that he would have said this with me on the air and then have it go unchecked is simply untrue. On top of that, I received exactly ZERO e-mails/texts/tweets about that alleged incident. Don't you think if he actually said that on the air, it would have created a stir? And don't you think that as a visible minority, listeners would have specifically sought me out to condemn this comment??

b) To then go one step further and claim it was the reason for our split is some tin-foil hat nonsense. We were split up in the spring after some changes were made and that is how management thought the pieces fit together the best. Simple as that. There is no other back story.

ALL of you have the ability to easily reach out to me directly and verify these types of stories before posting them on the internet so they can spread like wildfire.

Ian

Well said Ian. I would personally like this thread to deal with content rather than personalities. There is no on air personality that will please everyone so it becomes character bashing.

 

[FunkySeeFunkyDoo]

It's rare that my jaw drops with something written on here, but this is truly a WTF moment....
....

Really? Happens to me 2 or 3 times per day.

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

It's rare that my jaw drops with something written on here, but this is truly a WTF moment. Like legit Tuna, WTF are you talking about?

There are so many layers to this, I don't know where to begin. But to suggest that:

a) Shawn Simpson said "coloured kids" on the air and I let that go unchecked is absurd. When we started on the air together, Simmer would sometimes make derogatory comments that I would try and correct during a commercial break. I remember early on he would call the Sedin twins the Sedin Sisters -- and finally one day I told him that was unacceptable. But I explained to him why it was unacceptable and that was the end of it. You never heard him equate a struggling athlete to a female while we were on the air together. So to suggest that he would have said this with me on the air and then have it go unchecked is simply untrue. On top of that, I received exactly ZERO e-mails/texts/tweets about that alleged incident. Don't you think if he actually said that on the air, it would have created a stir? And don't you think that as a visible minority, listeners would have specifically sought me out to condemn this comment??

b) To then go one step further and claim it was the reason for our split is some tin-foil hat nonsense. We were split up in the spring after some changes were made and that is how management thought the pieces fit together the best. Simple as that. There is no other back story.

ALL of you have the ability to easily reach out to me directly and verify these types of stories before posting them on the internet so they can spread like wildfire.

Ian

@ianmendes - as a moderator here, sorry we missed this unfounded post.

 

[TheDebater]

Is it just me or does anybody else absolutely despise those "Alpine credits" commercials? I am not even referring to one or two, i have heard every single one of them and I literally find myself lowering the volume or pressing the Power button quickly for 30 seconds until they are done. The joke was not even funny the first time, yet they have been re-hashing it over and over and over for every single one and it just gets more lame every time.

The other horrible one from recent memory has to be the 1-800 got junk one where the woman is laughing hysterically like a mental patient because they are making her junk disappear. The female voice character put absolutely no effort into making the laugh sound genuine.

Also, Tim Horton's radio commercials were the worst, but I have not heard any in a while.

 

[GCK]

I hate Subaru one.

 

[BatherSeason]

I'll use my usual catch phrase on here of "respectively disagreeing". I've said it before and I'll say it again: We cannot please everybody. For every person who has the opinion above ("stick to sports!"), we have an equal number who appreciate when we delve into something trivial or non-sports related. Just this week we received a really positive and glowing note from a listener praising us for not being so bogged down in the monotony of sports and talking about some other things.

So we try and strike a balance and I would say that on average, we're still probably in the neighborhood of 85-90 per cent sports talk. That's our bread and butter and I think it's disingenuous and inaccurate to suggest that we don't talk sports for the majority of our show.

On a side note, I am extremely mindful of Lee's reputation in this market and so is he; and we're working on changing that. If you'll notice, he's actually less argumentative and combative -- and he's working diligently on being opinionated without being abrasive. It's tough to expect people to change overnight, but he's made some significant strides in that department. The guy truly cares about his craft and in terms of pure sports knowledge in a wide range of sports, he's far ahead of me.

I appreciate all of the feedback from our listeners.

Ian

I have no problem with some off topic discussions. Problem is with commercials there is generally only about 30-40 minutes an hour on air, 10-15 minutes an hour dedicated to contests and/or reading emails and texts. I understand the need for advertising, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for sports talk. I would love to hear a deeper dive into Sunday's NFL action where we don't only talk about the hosts' favorite teams. Or even 5 minutes a day dedicated to the NBA or MLB during the season. Heck even just a daily dive into the Raps would be enough. The underhanded Raps who beat LeBron's Lakers last night, pretty big feat. As a TSN affiliate there must be a way to tap into a daily or bi-weekly Raptors "insider". Doesn't have to be on every show or on every show, just once ever second day. As you mentioned, it's tough to please everyone for sure as air time is limited by the restraints I mentioned above. If you have time to go off topic after covering the "sports" aspect then it may be more appreciated.

BTW I truly appreciate the effort you make to come in here and have an open dialogue with your listeners and learn from us. I apologize if I ever came across harshly in the past. My only excuse if that I love sports and am passionate about sports radio.

 

[Ice-Tray]

Wow, this is not what I expected when I clicked on this thread.

I was kinda hoping there would be some posts on some neat team related tidbits discussed on the radio.

Silly me.

 

[coladin]

Is it just me or does anybody else absolutely despise those "Alpine credits" commercials? I am not even referring to one or two, i have heard every single one of them and I literally find myself lowering the volume or pressing the Power button quickly for 30 seconds until they are done. The joke was not even funny the first time, yet they have been re-hashing it over and over and over for every single one and it just gets more lame every time.

The other horrible one from recent memory has to be the 1-800 got junk one where the woman is laughing hysterically like a mental patient because they are making her junk disappear. The female voice character put absolutely no effort into making the laugh sound genuine.

Also, Tim Horton's radio commercials were the worst, but I have not heard any in a while.

Actually, I don’t mind some of them!

Commercials in general on radio will ingratiate. For some reason though, that eggs commercial on tv gets a reaction out of me every time lol. Love it!

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Quarter point grades
https://www.tsn.ca/radio/ottawa-1200/mornings-hour-2-1.1400152

 

[BatherSeason]

Quarter point grades
https://www.tsn.ca/radio/ottawa-1200/mornings-hour-2-1.1400152

This segment was tough to listen to. Very sloppy and disorganized.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

Commercials have been fine since they finally expired the Kars 4 Kids one. That was a heinous ad.
No real complaints about anything. I only get Simmer with J.R. during the Pierre McGuire segment. He got a little off the rails last week but he came back onside quickly enough.
Afternoons are radio gold with Ian and Lee, that's basically a Jim Rome/Alvin-level duo there.
I caught a part of TWSS and was wondering if Ms. Anwar covered Cherry, her pov as a poc would have been really interesting here.
A.J. is exuberant as always on 67's stuff, nice to hear. I'm not a fan of this during soccer broadcasts, which sadly we won't be getting anymore ( :-( ) but A.J. is really good cross-sports, just like Lee (and Ian!). Really the only joker in the mix is Simmer, but he has some good takes now and then.

 

[BatherSeason]

Just listening to the pregame show for the first time in years and was wondering why no Ottawa Senators related questions were asked to TSN Insider Bob MacKenzie?? Is this normal? I would much rather they discuss something Ottawa Sens related than the offside rule. Maybe I am alone on this one? The segment also seems much much shorter than they used to be.

 

[BatherSeason]

Card Games, whisky, Henry Winkler and Keith Urban's hat are all things that took priority over sports on TSN1200 this morning.

 

[Viletho]

Just listening to the pregame show for the first time in years and was wondering why no Ottawa Senators related questions were asked to TSN Insider Bob MacKenzie?? Is this normal? I would much rather they discuss something Ottawa Sens related than the offside rule. Maybe I am alone on this one? The segment also seems much much shorter than they used to be.

I'm pretty sure they normally talk about Sens related stuff, at least, the things that are kind of new. Like they were talking about Logan Brown when he got called up and things like that.

I don't listen to it live but the segment normally appear on tsn1200 and they talk about Sens stuff and others.

 

[Hockeytalk2424]

Card Games, whisky, Henry Winkler and Keith Urban's hat are all things that took priority over sports on TSN1200 this morning.

The station is really on the decline. They have interns hosting pre and post game shows now

 

[BatherSeason]

The station is really on the decline. They have interns hosting pre and post game shows now

Not sure what the problem with this is. I would rather listen to Callum Fraser or Chreecher over anyone on the station not named Mendes. The young guys on the station bring WAAAAY more than JR, Versage, and Steve Lloyd's of the world. The biggest issue with the current roster on the station is their inability to stick to sports. At least the younger hosts get it.

 

[Hockeytalk2424]

Not sure what the problem with this is. I would rather listen to Callum Fraser or Chreecher over anyone on the station not named Mendes. The young guys on the station bring WAAAAY more than JR, Versage, and Steve Lloyd's of the world. The biggest issue with the current roster on the station is their inability to stick to sports. At least the younger hosts get it.

Hey man is creecher graham? I’ve never heard anyone call him creecher it’s graham

 

[Sens1Canes2]

i prefer Lloydie on the pregame shows. Creecher a close second.

 

[BatherSeason]

Hey man is creecher graham? I’ve never heard anyone call him creecher it’s graham

So refreshing listening to Bunda and Chreecher host a show where 90% is sports talk. They even discussed the Baltimore Ravens on a station that limits it's NFL discussions to the Pats, Cowboys.

Cheers to TSN Weekends. Lloydie and JR can learn from this show.

 

[Hockeytalk2424]

i prefer Lloydie on the pregame shows. Creecher a close second.

Man why do you keep calling them Lloydie and creecher nobody calls them that man