The Best and Worst of Cleveland Sports Media:The Radio; Joebees and Super Donuts

As a sports fan in Northeast Ohio growin up being a sports team often means waiting for the next game seem like an eternity. Being one of the great sports cities in the country means theres a lot emphasis on our teams, be they the Browns, the Cavs, the Tribe, or even our neighbor down in safe in Columbus, the media always has a lot of coverage, but sometimes quantity is better than the auctual quality. Here I'm going to break it down into three categories, Radio, Newspaper and Television, and how I feel that Cleveland Sports is covered, mainly focusing on the local sector, though I will have a few blurbs throughout if I feel that there is someone in the national media that is covering sports or our team well.

Part 1

The Radio

ESPN Radio WKNR 850 and WTAM 1100 seem to be the stations of choice for Cleveland Sports fans, manly because A.) Thats where they broadcast the games on the radio. B.) Those are the only two real Cleveland sports talk stations out there. Something that limits much choice in terms of who and what we listen to.

Now in terms of broadcasting sports, Cleveland is head and shoulders above the rest. For the Browns we have Jim Donovan and Doug Dieken, both men seem to be very supportive of the Browns and sound pretty much like a couple of fans are in the booth calling the game, Jim Donovan sounds like an excited 12 year old version of me calling the game in terms of his level of energy and excitement he brings into calling the game, and Doug Dieken while not the best analyst seems to know what he's talking about and in general sounds like he is doing his dream job. For the Tribe, we have Tom Hammond, and truthfully one of the greatest sounds in the world is when he starts screaming "A Line Drive Down to Deep Left Center, AWAY AND BACK! GONE! A HOMERUN FOR [Insert player here] Incredible!", and Joe Tait is a legend, probably the greatest basketball play by play man, EVER. These are the people that encourage me and my fellow Clevelanders to mute the lame network announcers on TV in favor of a hearing these men call the game.

Now we move on to the Sports talk show hosts, which shockingly is rather barren for such a great sports city. I think that 1100 does good on occasion, I think that Kevin Keane is great to listen to on the way home from a game you've just went to, especially after a W., when he talks about the energy at the Q, the Prog. or CBS, as if it was one big party rather than a sporting event, which is pretty much how a lot of my fellow sports fans in the city feel. Mike "Mr. Know-it-all" Trivasano is worth a listen as well, as long as he's not talking about Cleveland politics which seems to take up around 60-70% of the show.

850 on the other hand really has about one guy I truly clamor to listen to, and it will probably shock you. Tony Rizzo. When I first heard of him getting the gig, I thought of him as some cheesey sports host on Fox 8 and I thought his show would be a reflection of that. Not the case at all! Rizzo seems not afraid to go after a player or a team that is doing poorly and pretty much not ignore the voice of the common cleveland fan. He brings some great humor to the show auctually, and when he has Bernie Kosar on about every week, its a must listen! As for the rest, Munch sounds like a Hannah Barbara cartoon character, his upbeat positivness can sometimes get on ones nerves especially when the Browns are doing horrible, and he still thinks we can win the Super Bowl with DA and Romeo Crennel at the helm. He doesn't sound right at the end of Jim Rome's Nationally syndicated show as you generally feel in a sarcastic mood, and munchs mood is much more suited for a morning show. Kenny Roda, Why do we have a Pittsburgh fan talking about Cleveland Browns football? and Greg Brinda generally just yells at various things, not all of them making sense.

Cleveland is really in need of a voice on the radio right now, other than Mr. Rizzo, and sadly it seems pretty unreachable right now. Perhaps one day that will come, but for now, just keep listening.