At 1:00 p.m. today, the king of "Old Guy Radio," Tony Kornheiser, will step from behind the microphone at ESPN Radio for the last time. His departure has been the cause of much anguish, both on the part of sportswriters (after all, Kornheiser is one of their own), as well as a few of my buddies in the blogosphere, Steve MacLaughlin in particular. The sentiment seems pretty universal -- without Kornheiser, there simply isn't anyone worth listening to on the radio anymore:
Tony Kornheiser has my utmost respect for going out on top and on his own terms rather than be pushed around by "management" or dissed by laughable local programming. I'm sure he's questioned his decision to walk away for a while, but I know he won't be gone a moment longer than the lawyers say he has to be. When Mr. Tony returns to radio in about a year in the D.C. market there will be a whole band of loyal listeners clamoring to tune-in. We're going to have so many things to catch up on.
Then again, it isn't as if Kornheiser is going anywhere. You'll still find him in the pages of the Washington Post, as well as on Pardon The Interruption with his buddy Michael Wilbon. And there's that sitcom with Jason Alexander on CBS that we've heard so much about too. He's still a judge on ESPN's Dream Job, a show that will come back to haunt us again, and again, if the ratings are to be believed.
But I will miss the theme to "Tony's Mailbag." If anyone can find a link to an audio file, let me know.
Something Tony K. said on his show yesterday caught my attention. During his opening monologue, he said he stopped taking phone calls after his one-month suspension from ESPN Radio last year because he feared the callers would say something (i.e., criticize ESPN management) that would get him in more trouble. Given the recent censorship frenzy at the FCC–and yes, it *is* about censorship–we could be nearing the day when a single out-of-line sports radio caller could bring the political establishment crashing down. Remember, the FCC wanted to nail NBC because Bono let out an inadvertent expletive during the Golden Globes telecast. There was no intent to pollute the minds of children, but the FCC is interested in being censors, not putting things in context. If something similar were to happen on a popular sports talk show (and remember, the FCC only targets popular shows), there could be a whole new round of congressional hearings, Clear Channel bashing, etc.
Skip:
It already HAS happened, sort of. A racial epithet from a caller is the reason Clear Channel gave for dropping Howard Stern from its stations.