A Tune-Up for the Phillies

Both papers report today (Inquirer; Daily News) that the Phillies will slide up the radio dial to WPHT/1210-AM for the next few seasons. WIP/610-AM will carry games on Friday nights, which 'PHT reserves for its well-known Sinatra program Fridays with Frank. The move makes a ton of sense, as former outlet WPEN/950-AM was a tough listen whose weak nighttime signal wobbled in and out of reception, especially if you were in a moving car.

The only downside I can envision is having to hear more promos for the new stations' respective talk-radio programming. The combination of Sean Hannity, Howard Eskin, Dom Giordano, and Angelo Cataldi, after all, is playing on hell's transistor radio. Listening to the "Big Talker" and "Philly SportsRadio" boast about their respective lineups of gasbags and juvenile delinquents won't do much for my mood while Chris Wheeler is trying desperately to put a shiny red bow on another Phillies waxing by the Braves on some suffocating August night.

Comments

[phillydad]

I am seriously considering buying the Sirius or XM Radio service to avoid the squelch and in and out dipping of AM radio. Do you know anything about subscription radio? By the way, AM radio... with love... FM might be on to something...

[Tom Goodman]

Tom: I am astonished you know the names of the "hosts" of these shows. I have never listened long enough to catch their names. By the way, I placed "hosts" in quotes because I think of these guys more as harboring some diseases than being individuals who invite us to join them in their space.

[Mark]

You're right about WPHT's ads. The last time they were on the "Big Talker," if the Phillies had a day game every ad break would have a message from Rush personally letting his listeners know that he was okay with being preempted. Ugh.

During Sixers and Flyers (remember them?) games on WIP I've never really encountered really ('PHT-type) irritating show spots. At least not bad enough that I have to turn them off.

Perhaps even worse than the station promos during Phillies games are the ads that the Phillies sell. They wonder why nobody listens anymore, but listening to the same 4 or 5 annoying ads for 162 games drives me nuts! Change them once in a while, would you? Note to United Airways - your ads aren't funny. Nobody likes that annoying voice in the airports, why would they want to listen to it outside an airport? Strohman rolls - enough with the bad baseball puns. The first time - kind of funny, the millionth time - not so much.

Or am I the only one who feels this way?

[Tom G]

Steve (and others who may be interested): I've had XM for about a year now and it is pretty cool for just the music alone. I'm glad that it will be carrying baseball, but I will be curious to see if I get a choice of which set of announcers to listen to. For instance, I also subscribe to MLB.tv and on that service, you do not get a choice of announcers, they use only one team or the other and so sometimes you are forced to hear some schmo go on and on about how the Reds/Mets/Diamondbacks are about to go on a hot streak. On the other hand, if you go to the radio section on MLB.com, you CAN choose the announcers.

As for Sirius, some friends of mine have that service and I think the non-sports programming for each service is nearly identical, but when it comes to sports (and Howard Stern) there are exclusive rights packages. Sirius carries the NFL, XM does not. It will be the reverse for MLB.com.

I've already taken up about half of Tom's bandwidth with this comment, so if anyone wants to email me to find out more, feel free.

[gr]

i miss WIP.