Have you ever called a Sports Talk Radio show..

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

We finally got a sports talk radio station here where I live. We used to have one from sometime in the early 90's up until 2000 when it changed over to gospel music. But ClearChannel (even though I hate them to death, I am glad they brought the sports format back) bought the channel and changed it over to Fox Sports Radio.

 

I've been listening to Fox Sports Radio a lot over the last week, and I was thinking about calling one of the shows, specifically Tony Bruno's show (its on in the morning) tommorrow and try to play the game where you try and beat a Vivid Girl at picking 3 football games on sunday....That would be easy, and I'd get some free videos!(but lets just stray away from that point since its not the right folder..)

[Guest converge241]

I have before WEEI in Boston.

If you disagree too much sometimes they can have that "holier than thou" attitude.

 

Make sure you do the "long time listener" bit

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

lol..Long time listener for the last week..

[Guest Strike Force!]

I've never called into a national show before.

[Guest bob_barron]

I tried to call into WFAN before but you had to be 18.

 

I once called into a sports talk show on TV and almost won a super bowl party for my friend

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Years ago I used to call talk radio stations, local and national, all the time. My highlights...

 

* Got on Rush 8 years ago, *was the first time I called in to a show* and have the tape to prove it...

 

* Frequent caller to Sportsfan Radio network (I think they're no longer around). Used to call J.T. the Brick when he did the overnight there. I have a mixed bag when it comes to him. (He now does Fox Sports Radio and I believe he does a late-night program)

 

> One time I called and he took soundbites and put them in his top-of-the-hour caller montoge. I was listening one night when all of a sudden I hear two separate lines from that call. That montoge stayed that way for quite a while.

 

> The other time I called and said something rather stupid, it was intended as a joke, and he hung up on me and tore me a new one for five minutes afterward.

 

If you want to call, here's some advice...

 

1) Since there's a seven-second delay between what you hear on radio and when it's actually spoken, anticipate when a caller is going to be hung up on in advance. It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it it's really easy to get on.

 

2) When you're on hold, keep listening to the show. Sometimes you may be the last caller in a segment, and if that happens then you have to make your point more concise. A lot of shows have background music that comes on when a break is near. If you make a remark like "I hear the music coming so I'll wrap this up" the host may give you a few extra, precious seconds because he knows you are going to finish your point.

 

3) When he says your name and goes "you're on the air" you'll probably hear a little static-burst, or something of that nature. DON'T SAY "HELLO?" OR "AM I ON?" Just say, if you want, "Hey *name of host*, love the show, first time caller"

 

And don't get mad if the host cuts you off after you make a point or two -- it's business, they have to keep the show moving.

 

4) Sometimes it helps if you do a rough outline of what you want to say. I figure since you're on hold that doing this will just make your presentation better. And don't be thrown off if the host changes the subject at you.

 

5) Don't swear or say anthing stupid because the host will just cut you off and your remarks will get erased by the delay -- i don't understand why people do this.

 

Anyway, that's all the advice I can think of from the top of my head. Hope it helps.

 

Oh, and if you can, record your first call -- there's always something special about the first one...

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"If you disagree too much sometimes they can have that "holier than thou" attitude."

 

Yeah, I forgot to mention this part. Whenever I called I never really "disagreed" with the host -- although I told one guy to lighten up regarding John Rocker since I was getting sick of hearing how he was the anit-christ. Most of my calls were about random observations of current events.

 

But if you are calling for the sole purpose of disagreeing with the host, be ready to back up your opinion, and get prepared to be upstaged -- it's the host's program after all and they ALWAYS get the last word...

[Guest treble charged]

I tried to call into WFAN before but you had to be 18.

You should have pretended to be Doris, the old lady.

[Guest cartman]

Ya know for the last 3 years since I started listening to WEEI alot I have been tempted to call in MANY times but never got enough balls to do it. I dont know why but for some reason it intimidates me.

 

So if you WEEI listeners every hear from "Eric in a car" calling Ordway's show between 4-4:30 you know I finally got over my fear.

[Guest NoCalMike]

I called a local sports radio show all the time back when I was 16 or so.....I remember talking about the A's and the Riddick Bowe/Andrew Golota fight(first one)

[Guest bob_barron]

I called WOL and Jeff Jarrett yelled at me

[Guest treble charged]

The guy who wrote that thing I posted in General Chat (found here), once called into WCW Live and got mocked by the hosts.

 

You know when Bob Ryder is making fun of you, then you've got problems.

[Guest Kingpk]

I'm very tempted to call the Whiner Line on WEEI, but I don't think I can be that witty.

[Guest AlwaysPissedOff]

I called Nasty Nationwide on Sporting News Radio once, but never made the air because the prick producer said that Heisman talk(especially for southern players like Shaun Alexander at the time) wasn't a topic that day although Nester(the host) had been talking about it all afternoon, so I just hung up.

 

I've been tempted to call The Kevin Wheeler show or Chris Russell, both late night guys, but my little episode with the aforementioned Nasty Nationwide thing kinda discourages me.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"I called Nasty Nationwide on Sporting News Radio once, but never made the air because the prick producer said that Heisman talk(especially for southern players like Shaun Alexander at the time) wasn't a topic that day although Nester(the host) had been talking about it all afternoon, so I just hung up."

 

That's when you lie to the producer and say you want to talk about what the host is currently talking about.

 

Mike Gallagher's call screener SUCKS -- I never got to talk to him and was on hold five different times. Although, when he used to have a chat room, I would always make stupid remarks and a few times he talked about them on the air. Hearing him say my handle (kkktookmybabyaway) on the air was funny to listen to because he didn't know what it meant...

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I noticed one show will cut you off if you say "We" or "us" or anything like that in context of your favorite sports team.

 

Example

Caller:"We really played like crap last night"

 

Host(forget his name..): "Hold up a second, are you a special teams player for the (Team Name)?"

 

Caller: "No, but.." and he gets cut off.

 

I won't call that show, cause I'm guilty of doing that.

[Guest Leena]

I listen to some sports shows on radio, but I'd never call one of them. No offense, but the people who call those shows seem like such losers. The local shows always seem to have unemployed, or old guys rambling on like idiots, and shows like Jim Rome have these weirdos that are on hold for like 2 hours just to spout annoying "smack".

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

I used to send emails into one of our sports talk radio stations when I was listening and had something funny to say.

 

They started doing a show on Friday nights called the 3 stars of the week, in which people would nominate the most asinine sports stories of the week to be one of the top 3...

 

anyway...I started writing emails into that...and they got to be so long that it would take an entire segment to read them. But they always would.

 

Then I got bored with it and came here.

[Guest treble charged]

I've never called into a radio station, but I always used to go on the CNNSI.com Sports Tonight chat, and, every night, my comments would be on the bottom of the screen.

 

I made one that, apparently, everyone in the newsroom thought was funny, and the anchor, Fred Hickman, even read it aloud, and chuckled. It was the night last summer when the Eagles/Ravens pre-season game in Philly was cancelled due to the fucked up turf, and people were talking about that and the Philadelphia sports fan's repuation as being ruthless. I said:

 

"I bet the Philly sports fans will be cheering the day that the Vet is torn down... and secretley hoping that someone is being crushed inside the wreckage."

 

They liked that one.

[Guest Leena]

Online chats are completely different from a call-in show, though. I was an admin for over a year, until CBS shut it down. It was a lot of fun, because you could talk sports with everyone. For a call-in show, you have to wait forever, so you get 30 seconds to spout your opinion until a so-called expert says you're wrong if you don't completely agree with him.

[Guest treble charged]

Yeah, I realize that it is different than actually calling in, but the online chat was is less frustrating, as you don't have to worry about busy signals, having enough time to say what you want, etc.

[Guest NoCalMike]

The funniest thing about WCWLive is that the hosts would try to act like Smarks, yet whenever a caller would call in and try to ask a smark-esque question, the hosts would just ignore the caller or insult him as being a troll or what have you. It was ridiculous. I remember I worked at McDonalds (my first job) and would get home and listen to it everyday right before the Simpsons came on, WOW, those were the days.......Remember the WCWLive chat room on wcw server on IRC?