Oh well. Whatever. Nevermind.
DCRTV.com has a little more info on the status of TK’s show what with Washington Post Radio going under:
DCRTV hears there’s a good possibility that without the Washington Post’s name on the station, the intensely loyal Kornheiser will end up elsewhere, perhaps at XM/Sirius satellite radio or return to Clear Channel’s SportsTalk 980, WTEM. Bonneville would give Kornheiser the 10 AM to noon slot on the talk outlet if he returns…..
As I rarely drive, I hardly ever listen to the radio. Frankly normal radio sucks anyway so I wouldn’t listen much even if I was driving. I say this to introduce the news that Washington Post Radio is shutting down at the end of September. I can’t say I’ve ever really listened to it, so I won’t judge its quality but I do remember the hype when it launched 17 months ago.
Really the only thing I care about is the status of Tony Kornheiser Show. I’ve listened off and on (off since he’s been gone) through the internet broadcast and more recently through the podcasts. He’s all about Monday Night Football now and that won’t end for several months. Maybe he’ll go back to Sportstalk 980, though that seems unlikely. Probably won’t be any news on that front till after the season ends anyway.
Huh, lots of news surrounding two of D.C.'s priemere sports figures of late. Wednesday we learned TK Stackmoney is coming back to radio (finally) and today word breaks that Michael Wilbon, TK's partner in crime, has inked a 4 year, $8 million deal with ESPN. Thats some serious loot. Harry Jaffe in the Washingtonian:
After Mike Wilbon cut his new four-year deal with Disney for just under $8 million—which will pump up his presence on Disney-owned ESPN and ABC—he approached Washington Post chairman Don Graham and executive editor Len Downie and offered to resign as Post sports columnist.
“I don’t know if you want me in this capacity,” he told them.
Both said they wanted to keep their star sportswriter in the Post fold. But there might less of Wilbon on the sports pages, and more of him on the washingtonpost.com site.
Says Wilbon: “I might write columns for the Web. I might have a blog. I might do something with Tony [Kornheiser] on the Web. I’ll do whatever Don Graham and Len Downie want me to do. ESPN did not create the Wilbon-and-Kornheiser brand. The Post did.”
But that brand is certainly getting a lot bigger on television. Wilbon and Kornheiser have been co-hosting Pardon the Interruption, ESPN’s popular talk show, for five years. Under his new contract, Wilbon will appear with Dan Patrick and Mark Jackson on ABC’s studio team broadcasting NBA games. He’ll also do analysis of some NFL games.
Post sports editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz says Wilbon’s relationship with the Post will not change, but there’s no question he will have less presence in the newspaper.
“I never had a set number on my columns,” Wilbon says. “But the number of columns in the Post will be reduced. I’m not going to write two to three a week.”
Now on the one hand it sucks that Wilbon will be less of a presence in the paper (though hopefully more online?) but its kinda cool seeing these two guys I grew up reading make the big time. There's some local pride there in seeing TK and Wilbon do well. And with the amount of money these guys are raking in you can certainly say they are doing well.
Huh, apparently Tony Kornheiser is fielding offers to come back and do a local radio show. The Post says he's gotten offers to return to 980 or be on the Post's newish radio station. Dan Synder's Red Zebra thing is apparently involved as well. I don't know how this works with him doing another season of Monday Night Football as I thought the whole point of him stopping the show was because he wouldn't have enough time to do radio with his already busy tv schedule. I supposed he could do the spring/summer with MNF off the air.
Let me just say that if Tony does come back I want the show to be just like it was when he left but thats probably impossible. Andy Pollie is at 980 and I believe Nigel is over on Red Zebra. I've listened to Tony on the radio since the beginning (what, 1992 or so?) and the show was at its peak at the end. Hell, during the glory days of my extended summer vacation after graduating college I used to listen to all four hours of the show, even though it was really only two hours of live stuff and then the first two hours repeated again. Thats how dedicated of a fan I was/am. Here's hoping TK comes back in all his orange gloriousness but that he brings the old crew back with him. Lets face it, his show stinks.