Letters to the Editor
kenkapkk
Published Letters: 131 Editor's Choice: 13
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Re Anonymous-Philly and Otherwise
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I too live in Philly and have some thoughts on the previous LW's stance plus some observations on National vs local sports talk. First off, anonymous' complaint is about one set of hosts, the morning "crew" and Cataldi, which deliberately plays to outsized adolescent male fantasies around women (babes galore) intertwined with sophomoric banter. I always thought this was a specific decision to recreate the successful "morning zoo" pattern of FM radio jocks to a sports format. Apparently it is wildly successful which unfortunately sas something unbecoming about much of male consiousness in the area. The "Wing Bowl" of which he speaks has gone beyond anyone's wildest dreams, filling the 21,000 seat basketball-hockey arena for an eating event that comes off like a Roman gala.
But in counter stance, most of the other hosts are highly intelligent, know their sports well and often are exceptional in handling the political issues that not only arise from sports but sometimes are brought up independently as well. I find it fascinating that on Sports talk radio many issues get discussed where cultural shifting is occuring through the dialogue. Michael Vick was a prime example of what no longer would be tolerated. And as opposed to Rome, many come down as extremely progressive on most issues, race, fairness, equality, dignity of women. They do not play to any base or bottom feeding natures of thier audience. And although I agree with James Levy's observations about facts in discussion, I find their intelligence and what they will tolerate galaxies beyond what one would find from conservative TV or talk radio.
In this respect, then, the hosts and level of discussion bode well for male intelligence and sensitivity, but then we do live in a BLUE STATE and a very BLUE CITY.
"It's disgusting. That these cretins are allowed to influence the way that Eagles and Phillies are run could be a very good reason we are without a Champion since 1983. But that's another letter."
LW has it backwards. The intelligence, sports wise of the fans has been very astute and way ahead of the ownership and one of the reasons I am not listening as much is the talk has settled into a diatribe and talmudic analysis day after day of how greedy ownership is and how badly the teams, (principally Phillies and Eagles) have been managed to meet the bottom line, not winning.
Sociologically I agree with the author in that there is a sense of community. Perhaps too much. Here the addiction to the teams literally parallels almost all aspects of a relationship, which then can significantly affect your life if you let it. Right now, betrayal is the word, and people are INCENSED. The boundaries over what is important and what isn't get blurred.
One last point. A competing station has opened up for about two years and I notice that WIP remains completely parochial, they will only concentrate on the local teams whereas WPEN will open to national subjects and a variety of topics. So its kind of like choosing to hang out in two very different communities at times in terms of focus, although the local issues always dominate.
BTW, Dan Patrick is on late at night nationally and David Simon very late. Simon's motto is "a celebration of life as seen through sports". Neither of these national hosts, as well as the late nite locals fits the paradigm suggested by the author. No babes, no booze and definitely a very high degree of both sensitivity and intelligence.
There is hope for the species yet.