Axis of Evil - ESPN and Daniel Snyder

Some months ago I wrote about the decline of ESPN. The "world-wide sports leader" has become the "world-wide artificial debate/artificial argument leader" in 90% of its programming (the exception being actual live sporting events). ESPN radio is unlistenable. Un. Listenable. Give me a choice between a Yoko Ono album and 15 minutes of Mike-and-Mike (AKA Dumb and Dumber), and I'll take Yoko every time.

The flip side of Dumb-and-Dumber is Steve Czaban of Fox Sports Radio, whose show is the anti-ESPN format. No artificial debate. No stupid call-in polls. No "who would you rather have on your team?" dopey "question of the day" nonsense. Just a show that's smart, funny, and occasionally a little risque.

The Washington Redskins are owned by midget fan-boy Daniel Snyder. He made his billions during the dot com boom. But since then, he has become the reverse-Midas: everything he touches turns to shit. The Redskins are fast becoming the Arizona Cardinals of the East.

What do these three things (ESPN Radio, Czaban, and Danny-boy) have in common? Czaban's "home" station is WTEM in Washington. He broadcasts both his nationally syndicated morning show and his afternoon local show from the WTEM studios. Danny-boy owns two crap-ass radio stations in town that have just enough signal strength to reach Bethesda. The crap-ass stations were ESPN Radio affiliates. The "were" comes into play with the other shoe dropping: Danny-boy bought WTEM, and the first thing he did upon buying it was to make it the ESPN Radio affiliate for Washington, DC. This means that Czaban's morning show, which was beating Dumb-and-Dumber in the 18-54 demographic by 2-to-1, is off the air in Washington and vicinity, replaced by the unlistenable Golic and Greenberg.

Thank God I have XM Radio!

Czaban is broadcast twice daily on Channel 142, Fox Sports Network, from 6-to-9 Eastern and again from 12-3 Eastern. There's a reason his program is broadcast twice-daily: it's THAT good.

I won't be missing out. But those in the area without XM are hosed. The only other local morning radio program worth listening to is the Junkies on WJFK. Everything else is crap.

Danny-boy's reverse-Midas touch continues. It's only a matter of time before he's effed up WTEM as badly as he's effed up the Redskins.

As for Czaban, you can read his take on the matter here.

Bite me, ESPN. Bite me, Danny-boy. May you both contract an itchy, burning, non-fatal STD.