Reaction to Making Waves Part 2

My favourite chapter in the reading was about how to make your morning show funny. I think this is extremely difficult for the same reasons that late night TV shows are difficult. You have to have new, topical material to talk about day in and day out and find ways to make it funny. Sure some jokes are misses, but some aren't.

Steve Kaplan says the best way to structure a show in the morning is having a good cast of characters, and I know the perfect example for this. Last year, I would listen to Mo Egger on my way to campus, because I hated (still hate) Mike and Mike in the Morning, so Mo was the default choice. My opinion of Mo is that he's a nice guy, he's kind of funny, but as far as sports goes, he isn't opinionated enough. Sometimes you see him go "I think Adam Rosales has to go.....but maybe you keep him around as a depth player." Every other host would say, "Adam Rosales, SUCKS, and we need to get rid of him. Sure it's nice to see him sprint around the bases after a homerun, but after the third time of seeing that, who cares. He can't hit, he can't field so why keep him." The problem with Mo is he backs away from his opinions.

All that being said, I listened to Mo until his show was cancelled in budget cuts forced Fox Sports to put the Dan Patrick Show on. I was a little wary because a lot of the national shows aren't really that good, but I gave Dan a shot. I've always liked him, and he's from Mason (Comet Country!), so I gave him a shot. I've been hooked ever since. Dan is great. He is a great interviewer, and gets great guests, and asks his guests the questions that take some balls to say to someone. Connecting what Steve Kaplan says with Dan is simple....characters.

Dan Patrick- egotistical, full of himself, picks on his basketball skill by using words like "silky smooth jumpshot" and telling Coach K he could have started for Duke. He's experienced, married, and has kids so continually gives us life lessons.

The Danettes

Exec. Producer Paul "Pauly" Pabst- Soccer fan who gets made fun of by Dan a lot. Also a Cubs fan so....yea.....

Exec. Producer Todd "Fritzy" Fritz- Huge Broncos fan, gets made fun of constantly because he is the person that gets the guests on the show. Sends guests long emails and talks to them like he's the host of the show. Also contributes a few jokes here and there!

Producer Patrick "Seton" O'Connor- Huge Yankees fan and notorious story topper. Seton is the butt of many of Dan's jokes.

Producer Andrew "McLovin" Perloff- Huge Philadelphia sports fan. McLovin (in my opinion) is the funniest person on the show besides Dan.

So those are the main characters and they all rip on each other (including on Dan). They frequently bet on sporting events with the loser facing a few Dodgeball tosses. They get in fun situations and mischief (like this year, Seton and Fritzy thought they could block Tony Siragusa, which they couldn't). It's a sports show, that's more than a sports show that is funny and develops characters. I mean look at this! It's a damn dictionary of all of the terms they use!!! Even callers play a character, because when you call the DP Show, you gotta first say "(Your height, your weight)" then you hear a bell, and you continue with your call. Everything is great about this show, and it's successful because it's characters are interesting, and they are all funny, especially when they interact together. His guests seem to have more fun too. You think Coach K is uptight...until you listen to him insult Dan! My favourite Sportscentre anchors were always Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen, and now that Eisen is with the NFL Network, he is a frequent guest, and he and Dan are always so funny together!

One thing I've realized with reading this book is that I'm not a business person. I know it's important to know the business side of everything, but I know that I don't have the personality and the care that other people have toward the business side. Yea I think radio needs to change, and become more branded, and more than just a broadcasted radio show. The chapter that discusses video with radio is really important. Keeping with the theme of sports talk radio, DP Show on Direct TV 101, Mike and Mike, and the Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN2, Colin Cowherd on ESPNU, Rome is Burning (sure it's not like his radio show but another radio personality on air) on ESPN. Here is what radio needs to figure out though. National syndicated shows should find ways to become more innovative, and if that means taking content from TV and putting it on radio, or vice versa, than we should do it. If it means scouring the podcasts to find a diamond in the rough, than so be it!

Tune in next week to this blog as I go more in depth as to another person with characters on his show, yet he's only in podcast form right now. Stay tuned!!!