When the topic of best NFL analyst comes up, there are usual suspects: Cris Collinsworth, Troy Aikman, and Tony Romo usually lead the list. If Colin Dunlap on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh had his way, CBS analyst Trent Green would get mentioned more often.
During The Fan Morning Show Monday, Dunlap pointed out Green — who worked the Steelers and Ravens game with Kevin Harlan Sunday — deserves more credit for his work.
“CBS has their crews. We know who their number one crew is,” Dunlap said. “Now, the second crew — they don’t really want you to say it’s the second crew or third crew. It’s all kind of muddied in who not the first crew is. I think Trent Green is really good. We’ve had him on our show a bunch before. I think he’s very analytical, I think he doesn’t try to guess plays; he just tells you what’s going on.
“Trent Green is a guy that when you start to rattle off who are the great color commentators in football…Trent Green is a guy that never really rises to the top. He’s always there. He’s a really good slice of pizza. But you never list him among the best. He’s just always that standby that gets you to a place…He’s not mentioned at the top enough. He’s super good.”
“I totally agree with you,” co-host Dorin Dickerson said. “Trent Green has done a fantastic job.”
Noah’s final episode hosting the show aired last Thursday, and Stern said he made a mistake in departing before positing if he was asked to leave.
“Trevor Noah’s last Daily Show premiered on Thursday,” Stern said. “I think he should have stayed with it. Maybe they threw him out.”
After co-host Robin Quivers noted that Noah — like other television hosts — are now reliant on social media staffs to push their content to viewers, Stern said that might be true but the ratings still weren’t good.
“I don’t know if he’d left or they kind of nudged him out because I guess, the ratings weren’t that strong. But, I don’t know which it is. I like the guy. I think he’s a nice guy. We had him on the show, but I would’ve advised him to stay at the Daily Show.”
Last week, Mike Francesa said the opportunity to do an alternate broadcast with his former partner Chris “Mad Dog” Russo would be a “home run” if someone wanted to pair the legendary duo together. Monday, WFAN morning host Gregg Giannotti reacted to that comment from Francesa.
During the final hour of Boomer & Gio, the topic came up with Giannotti noting that Francesa has a firm belief that he could do many things well, but pondered where the motivation for the former WFAN host to insert himself into the conversation came from.
“You know where this stems from? He’s probably just so jealous of the fact that Michael Kay has his own alternate broadcast on ESPN,” Giannotti said. “He’s probably like ‘Oh, this is terrible with A-Rod’, and A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez) was Mike’s buddy, too. So he’s probably thinking ‘Why not me? Why him?'”
After mentioning that Francesa once said he do a good job managing the New York Yankees, Giannotti continued his criticism of the the Sports Pope.
“He probably thinks he could work on the International Space Station,” Giannotti said before beginning a Francesa impersonation. “‘They’d never ask me. Like, I know SpaceX would never come to me and ask — and I know they have defunded NASA and all that — but back in the day I had a good relationship with NASA, and they could have sent me up there years ago, before my knee replacement. But they never would have done it.
“They never would have called me to do that but I woulda been great at it. You put me in a zero gravity environment, and then give me the tools to fix that spaceship? I can do it. You put me and Dog up there? Whatever problem you have up there — you gotta worry about the debris floating around up there. You gotta worry about the debris. Meteorites and certain Russian satellites, but I’d be great at it.'”
Former WBT host John Hancock partnered with the station to collect 800 bicycles for children during last week’s event.
It was the 29th year Hancock has collected bikes for children in the Charlotte area, with more than 2,000 kids receiving bikes at Christmas in the past three years. In total, the event has resulted in 20,000 bikes as well as food, clothing, and other gifts given to children in the area.
In just a four-hour span, WBT and WBTV collected 579 bicycles at the studios shared by the two entities. More than 200 more bicycles were added to the total over the weekend after other donations rolled in. Volunteers from the stations, Frito Lay, and Charlotte’s Kids First of the Carolina’s were on hand loaded more than two Frito Lay semi-trailers with bicycles to the the charity’s storefront for distribution in the coming weeks.
“What an energetic night filled with good, positive, uplifting people,” said Hancock following the event. “I truly am humbled by the efforts of so many. Think of the stories we created.”
Newstalk KBOI in Boise and the United States Marine Corp reserve broke records during “Idaho’s Largest Toy Drive” last week.
More than 15,000 toys were donated and over $45,000 cash donations were dropped off over the 12-day Toys for Tots Fundraiser.
“In a year marked by inflation, seeing the Boise community come through to take care of the kids so they can experience joy this Christmas is very heartwarming,” KBOI Program Director Nate Shelman said. “KBOI Radio considers it an honor to help the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve accomplish their mission with Toys For Tots in Boise.”
In total, the community collected four and a half semi-trailers full of toys for children in Idaho, Eastern Oregon, and Northern Nevada.
CNN has announced the second season of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? will begin early in 2023.
The 10-week season will begin airing on HBO Max on January 6th, 2023 and the best portions of the interviews will air on CNN beginning on Sunday, January 8th.
“I’ve loved bringing both HBO Max and CNN audiences these honest, timely conversations in the first season of our show,” Wallace said in a statement. “Our guests have made news, offered surprising revelations, been their authentic selves and shared touching anecdotes, really allowing people to get to know them. It’s been so much fun to get a chance to reinvent the wheel in collaboration with two storied brands, and I’m thrilled that the show has been resonating so strongly with our viewers.”
Wallace concluded the first season of the show — that featured interviews with the likes of Mark Cuban, Judd Apatow, Alex Rodriguez, and Shania Twain — with interviews of Quentin Tarantino, Billy Porter, and Kara Swisher.
According to a release from CNN, season two will “continue to feature guests across the spectrum of news, sports, entertainment, art and culture.”
The summer racing series owned by racing legend Tony Stewart was launched in 2021 in conjunction with CBS to air in primetime on Saturdays, featuring former racing stars of NASCAR, IndyCar, and other series on short-tracks around the country. The series is tailor-made for TV, working within a two-hour television window with breaks in the action covered by feature segments on the competitors.
On ESPN, the series will be used to revive the Thursday Night Thunder branding the network used for previous motorsports programming.
“Thursday Night Thunder is where guys like me, who were just starting our careers in USAC, got the chance to make a name for ourselves because of its presence on ESPN,” Stewart said. “It’s great to see Thursday Night Thunder return, but to also be a part of it all over again with SRX.”
The addition of SRX is an expansion of motorsports programming for the worldwide leader. ESPN currently airs the entire F1 schedule, and has previously aired NASCAR, CART, IndyCar, and USAC events.
“SRX has been an impressive property in its first two seasons and has produced competitive and exciting action,” said ESPN President of Programming and Original Content Burke Magnus. “We look forward to bringing live racing back to summertime Thursday nights on ESPN with SRX.”
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the BNM Top 20 presented by Steve Stone Voiceovers. This series runs a total of seven days, and it is designed to recognize the News/Talk radio format’s top shows, hosts, brands and programmers for the 2022 calendar year. To make sure you stay informed on each day’s results please bookmark our website, follow BNM on Twitter at @BNMStaff, visit us on Facebook at Barrett News Media or sign up for our daily newsletter, ‘The Rundown‘ by clicking here. The support is greatly appreciated.
The seven categories examined during the course of the next week and a half will include the industry’s top national shows and original digital shows, as well as the best morning, midday and afternoon shows, and the best stations and programmers in both Major (#1-#20) and Mid-Sized (#21-Below) markets. We separate large and mid-sized cities since the opportunities and challenges are different between the two. Not included in our lists are NPR brands and shows. Maybe down the line we’ll change that or add an extra category but for now, terrestrial outlets are our focus.
As a whole, the News/Talk radio format is offered on more than two thousand stations. Only the country format is larger in size. We try our best to make sure the top shows, hosts, programmers and brands are listed for voting consideration and allow room for our voters to add a nominee if for some reason they’re not listed on our document.
As you review these results, please keep in mind that they represent the collective opinions of forty four industry programmers and executives. I want to thank each and every individual who took the time to participate in our voting process. Altogether we had representation from fifteen companies and thirty six different cities, which was excellent.
As it pertains to the voting, here are a few things to be aware of.
#1 – Our executive voters were asked to pick their Top 20 selections for each category based on a few key factors; quality of show (ear test), originality, ability to entertain-inform-connect across multiple platforms, ratings success, clearance (national shows) and industry buzz. Remember, our voters live in different cities, have different tastes, work for different groups, and value certain factors higher than others. This isn’t a perfect system but it’s the best one we’ve been able to create to showcase the industry’s best. Having done this for seven years for the sports talk format, we’re going to stick with it until another approach makes more sense.
#2 – Our executive panel consists of program directors and corporate executives from a number of top broadcasting companies including Audacy, iHeart, Cumulus, Beasley, Hubbard, Good Karma Brands, Cox Media Group, Radio One, Alpha, Bonneville, FOX News Radio, Hearst, Federated Media, Zimmer Communications, and Westwood One. We involve a large number of people in order to receive feedback from all parts of the country, and to avoid the results heavily favoring one company.
#3 – A total of 49 shows were included on our document for voting consideration in the National News/Talk Shows category.
And that now brings us to today’s category – National News/Talk Shows. These programs have the largest reach, are distributed by some of the biggest and best networks in the business, and in some cases, they even broadcast on digital and television outlets. Many that appear on this list are responsible for generating strong ratings and revenue growth and digital impact, and as we kick off the series, it’s my pleasure to announce the first winner of our debut series.
Congratulations is in order for The Sean Hannity Show. Sean’s program received strong support from our voters, picking up thirteen (13) 1st place votes, the most of any program in any category on this year’s BNM Top 20 of 2022. BNM congratulates Sean, his radio team, Julie Talbott and the entire Premiere Networks staff on receiving this year’s top honor, as well as every other show which earned a spot on this year’s list.
Now, here are the full results of “BNM’s Top 20 National News/Talk Shows of 2022!”
Additional Notes:
Sean Hannity finished 71 points in front of Clay & Buck, earning a category high thirteen (13) first place votes. George Noory had the second most first place votes with five (5).
Spots 21-25 were occupied by Guy Benson, Megyn Kelly, Chad Benson, Charlie Kirk and Todd Starnes.
The closest contests saw Ben Shapiro edge George Noory by 2 points, and Michael Berry hold off Guy Benson by 3 points.
Of the 49 shows eligible for consideration this year, thirteen (13) received at least one 1st place vote.
Here is the remaining schedule for the BNM Top 20 of 2022.
Tuesday December 13 = BNM Top 20 Major/Mid Market N/T Radio Morning Shows of 2022
Wednesday December 14 = BNM Top 20 Major/Mid Market N/T Radio Midday Shows of 2022
Thursday December 15 = The Top 20 Major/Mid Market N/T Radio Afternoon Shows of 2022
Friday December 16 = The Top 20 Major/Mid Market N/T Radio Program Directors of 2022
Monday December 19 = The Top 20 Major/Mid Market N/T Radio Stations of 2022
Tuesday December 20 = The Top 20 Original N/T Digital Shows of 2022
A reminder, BNM will have a big announcement following the Top 20 series on Wednesday December 21st. Make sure to visit the website that day to learn what else we’re up to.
Taylor — who rose to prominence at ESPN during her work on College GameDay — joined NBC last year after fallout from a leaked phone call of Rachel Nichols claiming the only reason Taylor had been given a bigger role at the network was due to the color of her skin. Nichols later apologized on-air before she also departed ESPN.
In addition to her work on Football Night in America, Taylor also worked on NBC’s coverage of both the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics.
NBC will be home to the Big Ten’s primetime slate beginning in 2023.
According to the release of the latest Twitter Files, brands of some of the most influential conservative pundits were blacklisted and flagged for alleged misinformation.
What we may never know is what role, if any, Twitter suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story may have played in the 2020 election.
On Friday, “The Five” co-host Jesse Watters discussed the role that censorship plays in American culture and the possible fallout from such actions.
“Let’s look at what the children had to suffer through,” said Watters via Fox News Digital. “If you have a legitimate doctor that’s been at Stanford Medical School and you’re in a pandemic that we haven’t seen in a hundred years and he’s trying to give his opinion, his medical opinion about important information to try to save the lives of children, the mental health of children and that’s being censored.”
Watters said when you run a billion-dollar corporation like Twitter and you align yourself with the government, you’re “poisoning the country and you’re stealing people’s votes.”
“This is the biggest scandal that I’ve ever lived through and no one in the mainstream media is treating it with any respect,” he added.
