Mike & Mike Show Not Up to Par
Posted by Scott on June 20, 2008
The most famous sports radio show in the country is arguably ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning.” After listening pretty consistently for the last few weeks I have decided that this show is horrible. I like Mike Greenberg. If you haven’t checked out his book, Why My Wife Thinks I’m an Idiot, you should pick it up now. It is a very entertaining book. Honestly, I have nothing against Golic either. Together they have great chemistry. The fact is that the entire show is so generic and worthless to listen to. Two of my biggest beefs are…
- Commercial time is atrocious. The segments are max eight minutes and commercials can last as long as 10 minutes.
- They never discuss something in depth. Both guys give their opinion for about two minutes and then they go to commercial or the next topic.
Number two is a major issue for me because I listen to WDFN, a Detroit sport radio station. Admittedly, I am more interested in Detroit sports topics than Yankees topics. (I have discussed my hatred of the media’s love of New York) Still, the shows on the local station actually are entertaining. What is the point of sports radio? The real reason is to argue about sports. Mike & Mike will bring up a topic like last nights NHL Finals game. Not only do neither of them follow the sport, they don’t even convince me that they watch the game! If you aren’t going to really have an opinion don’t talk about it. I could sit in for Golic, if I was as good at talking on the radio as him in general, and come up with the same generic opinions that he does everyday. In fact, I can have a much more meaningful conversation about the game with my friend at work once I get there.
In the meantime, the morning show on the station I listen to talks about an event like ESPN would but instead of leaving it at a 6 minute segment on the game they will pick out a specific thing to discuss. For example, the ridiculous coverage on Tiger Woods this past week. Instead of talking about solely what is happening to Tiger they will broaden the issue to what if Tiger doesn’t break the record? What other athletes had injuries that prevented them from being great or breaking records?
Many people don’t like the calling-in aspect of sports radio, but that makes it what it is to me. There just doesn’t seem to be a passion to discuss without bringing in the fans of the show. (Yes, I know they talk about emails sometimes) Mike & Mike are great radio personalities, I respect them for that, and would love to talk to them about sports. Their show, however, just doesn’t entertain me the way I feel the most popular show in the country should. More than 50% of the show is commercials and their topics are too generic and don’t dig deep enough to bring meaningful and interesting discussions out from the woodwork.
Can someone explain why this show is thought of to be so good?
