TSN Overdrive (and other Toronto Sports Media) 2018-19 (v2)

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Dale Gribble

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Feb 9, 2019
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Were they destroying the fan 590 though? Because my understanding was that his show wasnt doing well. 1050 has always had a hard time getting their foot in the door of Toronto. People here are so used to 590 even though, in my opinion, it's not that great. Bob McCown gets so much respect from people and I dont get it. He doesn't seem to be an expert on any sport and talks out of his ass 95% of the time with wild speculation much like John Shannon, his buddy.
Please read my post again, as I’m pretty sure I said “in the same time slot”, and I’m even more sure that McCown isn’t on the 590 Morning Show.
 
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TheTotalPackage

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Sep 14, 2006
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I'll say this. I get the appeal of McCown for a few reasons, and there are legitimate reasons to prefer him over Overdrive, although I personally don't. One, McCown's clearly not a hockey guy, if I had to say there was a sport he cared the most about, it's either Baseball or the NFL. While, he is opinionated about some things, he has a couple quality principals. He doesn't like fluff stories or interviewing active athletes who don't say much. The big thing I would say he has over Overdrive and any other Canadian sports radio broadcast is an absolutely unreal network of very established American sports personalities. Would I rather Josh Lewenberg talking basketball (like Overdrive), or would I prefer when Bob reaches out to arguably the best living basketball sportswriter in Bob Ryan? He has similar connections around the sport. While I know he is now contracted by Rogers, for baseball, I love getting Dan Shulman. But, he also has similar veteran writers like the Bob Ryan example (who while specializes in basketball covers a lot of other sports).

This is why I think McCown is still by far the best in this city, and why I listen to him over Overdrive.

Sure, McCown has his moments and when he goes into the rabbit hole of a certain point that he is obviously wrong on, he still runs with it. It makes for cringeworthy radio. But unless he has certain sport specified guests on (Nick Kypreos, Doug Smith, Shi Davidi), his horizons are way more broad. He'll have guests on that you would never hear otherwise (particularly compelling U.S. ones), and when they get into a flowing conversation, it makes for great radio, both listening and informative wise.

That's the trouble I have with Overdrive. I've made my issues with the trio well known. But really, I don't care to hear them talk about the Leafs game from the night prior for the majority of the time. It's nothing new. I have this message board for that.
 
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Warden of the North

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Apr 28, 2006
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Overdrive and Primetime cater to different crowds.

McCown can go far more in depth about the business of sport. Hes not there to dissect any individual game.

And im 100% with him on not interviewing active athletes. Very, very few of them say anything of relevance and more often then not mumble their way through a cliche filled interview.
 

deletethis

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Mar 17, 2015
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A wall of commercials. Cringey player interviews. Forcing feeding the traditional sports radio demo people they'd never choose. I'm surprised anyone still listens.
 

WilliamNylander

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Jul 26, 2012
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Overdrive and Primetime cater to different crowds.

McCown can go far more in depth about the business of sport. Hes not there to dissect any individual game.

And im 100% with him on not interviewing active athletes. Very, very few of them say anything of relevance and more often then not mumble their way through a cliche filled interview.


Thats an advantage OverDrive has over other shows. Jamie and O are both former players with lots of friends still in/around the league. Even when they have active players on (Justin Williams for example), the interviews are still great and hardly ever cliche.
 
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Nineteen67

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This is why I think McCown is still by far the best in this city, and why I listen to him over Overdrive.

Sure, McCown has his moments and when he goes into the rabbit hole of a certain point that he is obviously wrong on, he still runs with it. It makes for cringeworthy radio. But unless he has certain sport specified guests on (Nick Kypreos, Doug Smith, Shi Davidi), his horizons are way more broad. He'll have guests on that you would never hear otherwise (particularly compelling U.S. ones), and when they get into a flowing conversation, it makes for great radio, both listening and informative wise.

That's the trouble I have with Overdrive. I've made my issues with the trio well known. But really, I don't care to hear them talk about the Leafs game from the night prior for the majority of the time. It's nothing new. I have this message board for that.

One of the main reason I stopped listening is because it became too American focussed. McCown acting like hates hockey is so much like ESPN it’s not funny. Adding Deitsch made it unpalatable.
I do like when Brunt is on though
 

Warden of the North

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Apr 28, 2006
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Thats an advantage OverDrive has over other shows. Jamie and O are both former players with lots of friends still in/around the league. Even when they have active players on (Justin Williams for example), the interviews are still great and hardly ever cliche.

Disagree. Williams was great because of himself. Overdrive has had their fair share of awful interviews with athletes.
 

RedRenegade

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Sep 16, 2008
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And im 100% with him on not interviewing active athletes. Very, very few of them say anything of relevance and more often then not mumble their way through a cliche filled interview.

I enjoy player interviews in the right context. I agree with the other poster that Overdrive does things a bit differently but that can work well. There's an NFL podcast I listen to (Thomahawk) with two former NFL players and they have some worthwhile interviews. There was a great one with Eric Weddle talking about what animal certain players are. It was hilarious.

p.s. I never listen to McCowan. Always Overdrive
 
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pcruz

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Mar 7, 2013
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Let me start this by quoting Ray Ferraro from his podcast: "Bryan Hayes is a star at what he does" .

There is nobody on the scene that can hold a candle to Hayes outside of Bobcat, a guy whose reputation is growing steadily and who seems willing to ask tough questions to any and everyone.

Overdrive is fun. Jeff is very obviously well liked by past teammates and opponents alike. He was a respected offensive player and brings a wealth of "very good player" experience.

Jamie is Forrest Gump. He has connections all over the continent in all aspects of the entertainment business. Being a goalie and a backup player makes his NHL experience the total Yin to O'Neill's Yang. He brings a lot of the behind the scenes parts to the game on a personal level - something that isn't awfully different in all professional sports.

The Ray segment is truly a masterpiece of radio analysis and is basically must listen.

However, TSN radio is new. The cache isn't there yet. There is an obvious lack of depth to the shows. Even Overdrive is very much a shallow thing. We get game analysis, current events, past personal experience from the relatively young hosts, and a whole lot of entertainment. The majority of depth into the sports comes from the television personalities - Duthie, MacKenzie et al.

It's not to say that TSN won't get there, it just takes time.

PTS has all the depth that 35+ years of experience from the host brings with it. It has the depth of the very best connections forged over decades with the best of the best in sports writing and coverage. Sadly, Bobcat is near his best before date and has no issue telling us all, so we can't expect him to stay for long.
With Bob, much of the depth and experience will go.
At that point, The Fan's lack of likeable people will hurt a lot.

Hayes will keep growing and getting in with the best of this time (as Bob did with the best of yesteryear), but he has a high level of charisma and a penchant for fun.

Overdrive will in short order be far and away the best and also the most listened to radio program.
 

93WrapAround

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Jul 4, 2018
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^^ agree with a bunch of points there. Hayes is a masterful radio host who you can pretty much throw anything at, and while he may not have deep knowledge across the board, he handles every situation very well.

that being said, as mentioned the show is pretty shallow. just opinions and takes about the games - not really any new knowledge brought forth. however, Overdrive succeeds for me because the entertainment value is far and away best-in-class. that's the only reason it works, imo. for example, First Up with Landsberg and Colangelo has some similar features (former player, long-time host, shallow show) but falls on its face (for me) because there's nothing entertaining about the show - hence I cannot take the shallowness. I'd rather listen to Talk 640 on the morning commute (politics/current events in Toronto, etc.) or even 680 news, because neither of the sports stations' morning shows are remotely compelling to me 90% of the time. Though Matt Cauz filling in for Landsberg lately has been MUCH more tolerable and brings the entertainment value of the show up immensely. Landsberg should just be phased out to be honest.
 

Deebo

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Jan 28, 2005
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^^ agree with a bunch of points there. Hayes is a masterful radio host who you can pretty much throw anything at, and while he may not have deep knowledge across the board, he handles every situation very well.

that being said, as mentioned the show is pretty shallow. just opinions and takes about the games - not really any new knowledge brought forth. however, Overdrive succeeds for me because the entertainment value is far and away best-in-class. that's the only reason it works, imo. for example, First Up with Landsberg and Colangelo has some similar features (former player, long-time host, shallow show) but falls on its face (for me) because there's nothing entertaining about the show - hence I cannot take the shallowness. I'd rather listen to Talk 640 on the morning commute (politics/current events in Toronto, etc.) or even 680 news, because neither of the sports stations' morning shows are remotely compelling to me 90% of the time. Though Matt Cauz filling in for Landsberg lately has been MUCH more tolerable and brings the entertainment value of the show up immensely. Landsberg should just be phased out to be honest.

Yeah, I enjoy the show much more with Carlo and Cauz rather than Carlo and Landsberg.

I wonder if Cauz ends up in MacArthur's old timeslot on TSN.

Do you know who has been on from 1-4 since MacArthur left?
 

pcruz

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Mar 7, 2013
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^^ agree with a bunch of points there. Hayes is a masterful radio host who you can pretty much throw anything at, and while he may not have deep knowledge across the board, he handles every situation very well.

that being said, as mentioned the show is pretty shallow. just opinions and takes about the games - not really any new knowledge brought forth. however, Overdrive succeeds for me because the entertainment value is far and away best-in-class. that's the only reason it works, imo. for example, First Up with Landsberg and Colangelo has some similar features (former player, long-time host, shallow show) but falls on its face (for me) because there's nothing entertaining about the show - hence I cannot take the shallowness. I'd rather listen to Talk 640 on the morning commute (politics/current events in Toronto, etc.) or even 680 news, because neither of the sports stations' morning shows are remotely compelling to me 90% of the time. Though Matt Cauz filling in for Landsberg lately has been MUCH more tolerable and brings the entertainment value of the show up immensely. Landsberg should just be phased out to be honest.
The depth will come.
What TSN will need to add are people with serious ties to other sports outside of hockey who can bring some true insight into the NBA, MLB, MLS, PGA, WTA, etc.

Hayes can direct conversations into all of those, but he doesn’t have pedigree in any of them. Noodles knows nothing outside of hockey (though his knowledge of it is vast) and Jeff loses interest in anything after 5 minutes into any conversation.

Today’s version of Bob Ryan, J P Morosi, Banks, Brunt, Shannon, Shulman, etc is what’s needed.

Ray, Duthie, MacKenzie. To a lesser extent, Dreger, LeBrun.
Sadly, it’s all hockey guys.
 

thehockeysong

Registered User
Nov 1, 2009
1,373
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Everyone has different styles that appeal to them, so I'm sure tone etc is pretty subjective and there's something for everyone. My issue with McCown has just always been his lack of knowledge, which hasn't allowed me to listen for very long. I find he runs into rough patches too often where he wants to come off rough and opinionated (no issues there - it's style) but to do so it's much more effective if you know a lot about what you're talking about.

Regardless of show, they're all guilty of having times where the average fan knows more about a story they haven't spent enough time on and it is cringe inducing to say the least. Daily shows are are research grind.
 

Joey Hoser

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Jan 8, 2008
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Yeah, I enjoy the show much more with Carlo and Cauz rather than Carlo and Landsberg.

I wonder if Cauz ends up in MacArthur's old timeslot on TSN.

I dislike Carlo more and more as time goes on. He just says stuff without thinking it through and makes an ass of himself way too often. When Lansberg questions or calls him out on something, he just falls apart. One example being the time he went on about believing that NFL game was rigged, and Lansberg and others spent quite awhile giving very obvious reasons what simply can't be the case, but Carlo just kept say "I still believe it's rigged", no matter how stupid it got.

Do you know who has been on from 1-4 since MacArthur left?

It's been Cauz or Wheeler.
 

member 300185

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My sources are telling me the Leafs might do something....or they might not.

I believe it.
 

Man Bear Pig

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Aug 10, 2008
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Please read my post again, as I’m pretty sure I said “in the same time slot”, and I’m even more sure that McCown isn’t on the 590 Morning Show.
It's pretty clear that I addressed your post in my first sentence and then moved on to other bigger picture types of things.
 

93WrapAround

Registered User
Jul 4, 2018
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It's been Cauz or Wheeler.

I must admit that most of the time I really enjoy hearing Wheeler. I don't generally get a chance to listen long, so it could be that he's more tolerable in smaller doses, but he's pretty well-rounded with various sports (mind you mostly just Toronto teams, can't recall him talking in depth about other non-Toronto players) and is an entertaining listen. He doesn't sugar-coat his takes, which I appreciate. From what I've heard from him, he deserves his own show, but I'd be a little disappointed if he went from the 7 PM timeslot to during the work day for selfish reasons. If TSN knew what they were doing he'd be in the morning timeslot with someone, and not Carlo/Landsberg. I could see him and Cauz being a much better duo.
 

Finnish your Czech

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Nov 25, 2009
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I dislike Carlo more and more as time goes on. He just says stuff without thinking it through and makes an ass of himself way too often. When Lansberg questions or calls him out on something, he just falls apart. One example being the time he went on about believing that NFL game was rigged, and Lansberg and others spent quite awhile giving very obvious reasons what simply can't be the case, but Carlo just kept say "I still believe it's rigged", no matter how stupid it got.



It's been Cauz or Wheeler.
Yeah I really don't think Carlo is made out to be a radio personality. Maybe it's because he's still new but it's pretty often that he says stuff that make no sense or are obviously wrong, and he never really brings any real insight other than really simple stuff. I actually find Landsberg good. I don't care if he is kind of "reckless" as a host, I think he asks good questions and calls out Carlo when he says stupid things.
 

RubberHead

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Apr 15, 2018
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Late 80s, so 30 or so years ago. Ballard fired him because he thought Hughson was too anti-Leafs.

Hughson is still overly dramatic, and downright goofy at times IMO.
1972 he started broadcasting Leaf games for CHCH, I don't know where you get this late 80's from.
 
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