Blog #9: Good, Old Fashioned Sports Talk Radio

Jeff Schwartz

Blog #9: Good, Old Fashioned Sports Talk Radio

July 12, 2010

In a world where The Evil Four Letter Network dominates every area of professional and collegiate sports, it’s rare to find a talking head with their own voice. I’m not talking about the tone, rate, and pitch of the speaker; I’m talking about non-homogenized and corporate opinions of the host. There is no opinion these days that seems to have its own voice. You’ve got Mike & Mike in the Morning who speak, nothing but the Evil Four Letter agenda from 6AM to 10AM on syndicated affiliates all across the country. Former Sports Center anchor Scott VanPelt hosts a show that is extremely pedestrian. The same can be said for Chris Myers who is most famous for ruining former Boise State Running Back Ian Johnson’s proposal to his girlfriend, Chrissy Popadics after the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. That brings me to Colin Cowherd. Oh man, Cowherd is awful. His voice makes me want to get stung by a hoard of bees. How this man has secured not only a nationally syndicated sports talk radio show on the “World Wide Leader” but also a television show on “The Deuce,” is one of life’s greatest mysteries. All of these shows promote the national agenda that Not ESPN does not promote or approve of.

This article isn’t about any of the previously mentioned “sports radio journalists.” This commentary is about good sports talk radio. When I think back to good sports talk radio I think of names like the late “Professor” Geoff Sindelar. Sindelar may have passed away, but the way he conducted himself on air will live on forever. “That sucked canal water” and “Horse Manure” were two phrases WKNR’s Sindelar would use on air to describe baseball players like Jhonny Peralta rather often. Sindelar was painfully honest and made for the best radio of my lifetime. He was an expert on sports memorabilia and knew enough to even host seminars on collecting baseball cards. My dad took me to see one as a nine year old and it was really informative. Sindelar’s unique voice was also something that made me want to tune in. I rooted for him to run bad callers off the air and rant about them. To this day, it’s why I enjoy guys like Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda so much. Both men have carried over Geoff Sindelar’s best antics and mixed them into their current free thinking shtick’s. Sindelar’s number one catch phrase was shouted most often on air, when a caller would mention a piece of their collection, “Good Item.” That he was.

Maybe Petros Papadakis is most known for his time as a running back for the University of Southern California Trojan football team during the late 1990’s. Maybe Matt “Money” Smith is more known for being the Pre and Post-Game Show host of the Los Angeles Lakers. But when their powers combine they form the Petros and Money Show on KLAC 570 AM in Los Angeles, California. The show is also syndicated nationally via Fox Sports Radio. PMS as the show is politely dubbed is a smorgasbord of sports talk with a little bit of not-sports mixed in at the end of the show with the appropriately entitled “Not Sports Report.”

The best part of Petros and Money is the music. Producer "The Debonair" David Vassegh has the best selection of music in radio. The variety of music ranges from Manu Chao to Eric B. and Rakim’s Microphone Fiend which kicks off hour number three each night. The music on the show changes depending on the day of the week as well. Each day has a name, like “Win Forever Wednesday” or “Crunchy Groove Thursday.” It’s fresh talk and information with no bias, every single day.

Without a doubt the most preposterously entertaining part of the show occurs at two separate times with two separate characters. Vance Finance the alter ego of Matt “Money” Smith pops in every Tuesday to dispense the most pertinent and fascinating financial advice there is to distribute. Vance Finance is allegedly a wealthy real estate tycoon, whose real job is as an investment banker. His passion is football, and he loves to distribute gambling advice during the college and professional seasons.

In storyline the cousin of Vance Finance is Lance Romance who is a self-titled ladies man, living in Newport Beach. He drives a red Mazda Miata with spinning 24-inch rims. In reality, it’s really Petros Papadakis giving relationship and love-life advice to the listeners who call in. Both Vance and Lance really separate the show from the other so called sports talk shows that seem to just focus on self-gratification.

“Only teams win! Only teams win!” shouts John Papadakis father of Petros when he joins the Petros and Money Show each Friday. Papadakis is the charismatic owner of the old Papadakis Taverna in San Pedro, California and a former USC football player. Mr. Papadakis joins the show each week to argue with Petros on various football related topics even in the off season. Petros’ father is a charismatic older Greek gentleman who is famous for his speech to USC where he yelled “Only teams win!” It’s a popular drop in on the show, and has helped contribute by making the show the most entertaining show in radio with nothing else even close.

The bottom line in all of this is sports talk radio is the most valuable commodity in sports. It’s more important than newspaper writers, and certainly more important than any program ESPN offers their audience on one of their sixty eight networks. This is a direct line to the people of the city in which these shows occur. There is absolutely no reason not to enjoy the show hosts I mentioned in the later paragraphs. After all, unlike ESPN, they actually do seem interested in what the people have to say.