I am a longtime Buffalo Sports Fan as well as a longtime listener of local sports talk on WGR 550 and even back in the day on WBEN 930 before WGR became exclusively an all-sports station. Even when WNSA, owned by the now defunct Empire Sports Network, was on the air, it was awesome to listen to with such local sports personalities as Mike Schopp ("Sports Talk for Smart People" or "Sports Talk for Smart-Asses" as one Chuck Dickerson once said lol), Howard Simon, Art Wander, Bob Koshinski, Jim Brinson, and Zig Fracassi. I've had my ups and downs in all my years listening to the local sports talk here in Buffalo. But lately, the past couple of weeks or so I've had some issues with the local sports talk radio, mostly WGR 550. I like WGR but sometimes some of the hosts have a tendency to take a cheap shot at some nationally syndicated radio hosts. I find it a little petty and stupid at times.
Back in June, WGR replaced the nationally syndicated Colin Cowherd with a year-round talk show about the Buffalo Sabres with Kevin Sylvester as host. Nothing personal against Sylvester, but I am not a fan of listening him. I never was a fan of his dating back to the days he was on WGR before he was fired 8 years ago and replaced by current morning show hosts Howard Simon and Jeremy White. Sylvester is pretty corny and has nothing interesting to offer. Then for some stupid reason, they have Andrew Peters co-hosting with him. When I thought Peters couldn't suck at anything worse than he did at hockey, he proved me wrong as listening to him talk is a lot worse. The fact that they have a Sabres show that is all year long to me is a little ridiculous. How much can we talk about the Sabres? I know this is Buffalo but we can only talk so much Sabres. July and August are slow months for hockey and unless we got some major superstar, there's only so much you can talk about. It does not make for good radio. I've listened only a little of the show and its pretty boring.
As for Cowherd, I used to not like him about 4-5 years ago. But I had a problem that I am about to admit to you during that time. I was a very big "homer." I could not think or act straight when listening or talking sports. It was all about the Bills and Sabres and nothing else. No one could ever criticize my teams. But over time, I listened more to Cowherd and I started to think clearly and gained more better perspective and wisdom and learned how to take the emotion out of it. He began to make so much sense. I started to agree more and more because he was usually right about things. He is very smart. I love how Cowherd makes so much sense about certain points. I love how he talks about the business and economic side of sports more than just Xs and Os. That makes for so much more interesting radio and he points out to people and is very blunt about how certain things are good for his show and ratings and others would take him off the air. I owe a lot to Cowherd for showing me the error of my ways in the past about sports and even life in general. Plus he can down right hilarious and not like how the local guys act like 8 year olds. He can be offensive and I am OK with that!! Sure he talks a lot about Lebron or the Patriots or the Yankees and does not talk hockey, but that's OK. Hockey talk can be pretty boring outside of Buffalo as it does not draw the national attention like football and basketball do. Sorry, that's the truth. I don't miss Cowherd because of the ESPN Radio app on my phone and I put that on a while ago so I could listen the full 3 hours of his show instead of the two they played here on WGR. I also like Jim Rome a lot but I like Cowherd more because sometimes Rome's show can too stupid. But Rome himself can damn funny the way he burns on some of his takes.
Some of the local guys take cheap shots at Cowherd even today and I'm like "dude, he's on ESPN and he has a ton more listeners and probably makes more money than you guys combined. Get over it, you sound pathetic." Just because he doesn't talk hockey or Buffalo sports doesn't mean he's worthless. I'm a huge Buffalo guy and Buffalo Sports fan, but even I have my limits when talking about either team especially when they suck like the Bills have for the last 12 years and the Sabres are too hot and cold. I need my break to listen to important stuff around the country. I like the national perspective every now and then, it makes things more interesting. The Bills are more interesting now because of the moves they made, but before it was painful to listen. When the Sabres struggle, they are hard to talk about or listen. But sometimes, the local guys are homers and shills and the way they talk about the sports here does not make for interesting radio.
Sal Capaccio is interesting to listen to from time to time, but I got to admit, him being a homer at times annoys me. When the Bills are not going good, he does the whole "rah rah" thing and its like OK shut up. Howard Simon and Jeremy White are entertaining most of the times, but sometimes they act like little children and it gets annoying. I also don't like how giddy they get like a school girl when they interview someone. It makes them sound lame and it doesn't make for good radio. I don't like this whole training camp thing where they interview mostly anonymous players and I hear the same old thing from every player and how they are all giddy. They sound so small time and that's why Colin is in the big leagues because he talks Yankees, Patriots, Lebron, Tiger Woods, USC, and so on. We are in the minor leagues, a Mickey Mouse organization if you will. I do like Mike Schopp a lot because he's not a homer even though he is born and raised in WNY. He is brilliant and even has a Cowherd like way to his methods with his perspective. He sometimes though tries too hard to prove how smart he is whereas Cowherd is so natural with the way he does things and then you see how brilliant he really is. But Schopp is not like Sal or whoever that says "the Bills are awesome!!" Schopp criticizes both the Bills and Sabres for their management and such. People don't like Schopp, but he make things very interesting and it drives up the ratings. Bulldog is a longtime fan and I like that. But I don't like how he makes no sense and just rambles on nonstop and makes noises instead of words.
Before I go, I like John Murphy's show at night. I always liked Murph and he does things with dignity and class. His interviews with players are first class. He is not a shill and does not get all giddy like a school girl. He treats them like adults and does not treat them any different because they are athletes. Murph is smart and like one of my favorites to listen to, former Bills GM Bill Polian, makes me smarter when I listen to him. I'm sure many of you disagree and would love to hear from you.
