Watching since 1964

What have you liked about the show so far?

I wish I had seen that. Jerry Van Dyke did an amazing job playing Luther V. When 'Luther Van Dam' got mad...watch out!

Why thank you Lori.

Is this a fair observation? In the pro vs. con argument, it seems those against Schopp can't stand his attitude towards listeners/callers and others don't seem to mind it.

A good thing I think to for hosts of call in shows like these to keep in mind is a number of listeners and callers are people whom sadly have also had some real bad things happen to them and their families. I am not minimizing what happened, but some folks obviously have had far worse things inflicted on them than what we're discussing... You never know what the person on the other end of the phone is going through or has gone through.

Ok I'll help get your 20. The Monday show on si.com following the first Sunday Night Football game broadcast last season Dan Patrick said this on his webcast... "It felt so good to have makeup on again!" lol

# 1 Controversial opinions backed up with sound reasoning, fine. I have heard Schopp do that sometimes. Be rude to people, condescending, talk ad nauseam about your own uninteresting life; this thread has proven a number of people have tuned out. Now some listeners aren't bothered by S & B. Some people like WGR 55 as it is. I accept that. #2 I didn't say put just any fan on the radio, did I? "I think they are plenty of people who dislike the show that could do a better job than S & B if they entered the field of sports broadcasting." When I said enter the field of sports broadcasting, I didn't mean grab anyone off the street. Obviously some education and training in the field is required. It ain't rocket science but boy if someone set out to learn all they could about the game of hockey and football from some people that have played and/or coached at a high level, one would think it would really improve the level of sports conversation on that show. I had to deal with engineers in my job and not being one, I took every opportunity I could to glean as much info from them as possible. It took awhile but eventually I could talk intelligently about what they did. This is not meant to be a personal shot at either one of them, but I happen to believe that just because S & B are on the air, it doesn't mean they are great at what they do. Some of us think it is a very reasonable request to elevate the show to a higher level. We'll see what happens.

Many us who do or don't listen to that show do many other things this time of year...and all year round. We know the OP liked Schopp. He didn't like his negativity towards covering our NFL team 2 Mondays ago ( I guess it was) especially with the draft ending the day before. To me at least, it seems counter intuitive for the leading sports talk radio station to have a host complaining about covering the team that is the #1 reason people listen to the station. Regarding your last statement... I think they are plenty of people who dislike the show that could do a better job than S & B if they entered the field of sports broadcasting. Like politics though, at all levels of government, some of the best people for the job choose to do something else. And some better broadcasters than S & B could ever be aren't the 'flavor' Entercom wants or perhaps at the price Entercom wants to pay. Too bad, its very within the realm of possibilities they could get a larger audience hence more ad dollars.

John, Others will probably chime in to yay or nay me, but I only recall reading a few posters in this thread saying they were listening when Schopp said what the OP brought up. So I don't think we are disproving our point. I think a fair amount of people will agree this thread is so large because it is not just a few that dislike Schopp's performances. I also think people would listen again if things changed. By the way John, how often do you listen to the show in question? Skip

Ham Sandwich, I think your screen name is causing more wonderful cured meats to be consumed. I don't agree with your criticism of the article, but I give you credit for bringing up these same points to Tim Graham in the 'Ask Tim Graham' thread.

Billsrcursed and OCinBufffalo, You guys do a way better job here of providing 'sports talk for smart people.'

The format does seem to work for him, and I think he likes it. Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a lot of fun with it covering the Cards. He calls himself the Chatmeister and his chats 'the tsunami'. lol

Sullivan delivers some good one liners in his chats. Someone asked him if he prefers blue cheese or ranch on wings. He replied 'blue cheese, but sometimes I go commando to save a few bucks.'

I had tuned out months earlier because of the attitude the host. But I took a chance and tuned in to the postgame show after a game at the Ralph last year. The very first caller I heard had an opposing viewpoint to the host and was quickly and loudly drowned out before he could finish making his statement. It was embarrassing to listen to. So that was it for me. Addition by subtraction.

I'm sensing the anger towards Schopp leaving this thread. I'll blame... NEWMAN!!!

When a lot of the news sadly is focused on athletes failings, these kind of columns, for me at least, help balance my view out of the well paid and privileged athlete. Looking at the early lives of certain stars that will go unnamed in all sports who seem to constantly be in trouble, self destructing their short careers; a common thread seems to be that they were intentionally or unintentionally abandoned in some way by one or both of their parents. I haven't had that happen to me, but I would guess they try to harden themselves so much to pretend they don't hurt and they don't care. Trying to prove they don't care is one thing that seems to get them into so much trouble. Another factor is that some have been spoiled since their talent began to manifest in high school and they haven't been held accountable by anyone really since then. No one has told them 'no' in years. Some athletes seem to be trying to make others pay because they can't get back at the parent(s) who left them. Others crave intention and do anything to get it, both on and off the field/court/rink because they never got it from a parent(s) while growing up. I actually believe someone reading the ESPN article might be influenced to make better choices as a parent or as a child. When Mr. Maybin took away Aaron's being on the wrestling team for awhile because of poor grades, he risked his sons rejection of him. But he chose not to give into that fear and spoil his child. He held him accountable. Some parents sadly wouldn't...preferring to be their childs' 'buddy' I guess. Aaron learned a great lesson from that and I think others can to. Although this article certainly has a lot of non-NFL related content in it, Mr. Graham takes care of the football nuts and bolts portion by writing this: "The biggest question about Maybin is whether one great season is enough to project NFL success." I believe Mr. Graham also assumes his readers know that being a well grounded #1 pick doesn't insure success on the field, but it surely is a great weapon against preventing the failures we see so many talented players have. Some sadly are no longer even allowed on the field.

Not to be condescending, but I don't think they personally have a clue how bad the show is. Maybe Schopp does though and so he takes his misery out on the listeners/callers since misery loves company.

I listen to Dan Patrick occasionally take calls. A smart radio host would choose to learn a lot from how a big name like Patrick treats callers. Since Entercom has no problem with their host treating people like he does he gets away with it. I've said it before, but complaining to the shows' advertisers would seem to be the only way to get a positive change to take place. The slower way is what likely will keep happening, more and more people see no improvement from the guy and just don't tune in when he's on.

Why is Schopp still on the air? That's a very popular question it seems. Perhaps Entercom's thinks their dumbing down format is a very bright idea. That combined with maybe they signed Schopp to a long term deal due to being wrongly impressed by his less than impressive subbing on ESPN radio a few years back. We take talk radio here personally and of course to Entercom it's just profit or loss. So we lose.

I agree generally, especially from football and hockey players, its usually teamspeak. Bad interviews I've heard come from most network announcers, they just give the company line, nothing controversial at all. Once in a while you will get a player, obviously very secure in their status, speak their mind. I'm not talking about the diva wide receivers but a guy like Favre. People bash him, but at least its him speaking, not PC teamspeak. I watched a great interview live when Griffey Jr. had his presser when he re-signed with the Mariners. It's probably still up on the MLB and Seattle Times websites. He really spoke his mind about the problems the M's had in the clubhouse last year and what he was going to do about it personally. He also added a good deal of humor as a bonus, even poking fun at the wardrobe of the sacred cow called Ichiro. Reminded me of Torii Hunter's LA Angels press conference. He sat a rally monkey on his shoulder. Very funny guy.

IMO I think if you had local ownership of WGR 55 things would be a lot better.

Thanks. For those of us contacting sponsors we can do this in a pleasant way and still get our point across. Last thing we want to do is be arrogant like the radio host being discussed here. He has the right to broadcast his opinions of sports and the shows listeners/callers; and we certainly have the right to 'broadcast' our opinions of his actions.

Update: I called Satellite Solutions toll free number 888.856.2257 and left them a voicemail message advising them the email address on their website didn't work.. http://www.satellitesolutionsofwny.com/ I also said that due to how their spokesman Mike Schopp treats listeners/callers I no longer listen to WGR. I advised them of this thread and left my name and ph#.

I just sent an email to: info@satellitesolutions.com ...but it came back undelivered. So I called them 3x ..none of the calls went through. I'll try later. I don't listen anymore, but for someone who does, if you post the advertisers I'll send some emails or call them. Change can happen if people want it bad enough to do something about it.