The two most important time slots for sports talk radio are in the morning and afternoon when people are driving to and from work. As much as podcasts, digital music, and streaming have taken ears away from radio, people still tune in when they鈥檙e in the car.
That makes the morning and afternoon drive time slots key battlegrounds when Sportsnet 650 launches in September, as they aim to steer the listening audience away from TSN 1040.
Sportsnet recently announced that Scott Rintoul and Andrew Walker will host the afternoon drive show on Sportsnet 650. Rintoul is a known commodity in Vancouver, having hosted several shows on TSN 1040 and done play-by-play for the BC Lions. He鈥檚 about as local as it gets: he played football at UBC, studied broadcast journalism at BCIT, and worked on the much-loved Sports Page on CHEK-TV.
Walker, on the other hand, is an unknown on the west coast and comes with the stigma of working in Toronto for the last four years, though he and Rintoul are quick to say that he is not 鈥渁 Toronto guy.鈥� Instead, he grew up in Saskatchewan and spent years working in Alberta before getting a job on The FAN 590 in Toronto.
Curious to know more, peered into Walker鈥檚 Twitter history to see what Vancouver鈥檚 newest sports talk host thought about his new digs. It didn鈥檛 go well and it led to some more digging.
Essentially, everyone dug up a starter pack of ways to upset Canucks fans.
Cheering for the Bruins in 2011:
Snide remarks about Vancouver鈥檚 lack of championships:
Defending Duncan Keith after because he could understand 鈥渨hy he was hot":
Defending the length of Duncan Keith鈥檚 suspension for a hit that took Daniel Sedin out of the lineup for 12 games and since which Daniel has never quite been the same player:
Two years removed from 2011 final, he still hates the Canucks, but loves Kesler:
And, just for fun, he takes a shot at hockey analytics with the ever-so-edgy 鈥渕athletes鈥� burn:
But you鈥檙e right, Walker, the Penguins missed Brandon Sutter a lot, particularly at their two Stanley Cup parades. It would have been nice to have him there.
Let鈥檚 be clear: none of these tweets are all that egregious, though I will argue until I鈥檓 blue in the face that Keith deserved much longer than a 5-game suspension. He didn鈥檛 call the Sedins 鈥渟isters鈥� or say anything else particularly offensive.
It鈥檚 hard to swallow, however, a guy who repeatedly said he doesn鈥檛 like the Canucks coming to 麻豆传媒映画to host a show that will frequently be a lead-in to Canucks games. It鈥檚 completely understandable why some people would be upset.
Walker has said that and he鈥檚 not wrong, but it鈥檚 also not wrong for fans to want to listen to someone who doesn鈥檛 actively dislike their favourite team.
It doesn鈥檛 help that Walker is from 鈥渙ut east鈥� rather than being a local hire, even if he鈥檚 not 鈥渁 Toronto guy."
National media plays to the largest media market and, like it or not, that鈥檚 Toronto. For 麻豆传媒映画sports fans, they mostly don鈥檛 like it. Toronto-centric stories are repeatedly given top billing on sports highlight shows and the Leafs are almost always on Hockey Night in Canada.
Hockey pundits in the east frequently betray a lack of knowledge of hockey on the west coast, likely because they would have to stay up past midnight to watch the Canucks play.
I recall loving Doug Gilmour as a kid. Why? Sure, he was a great player, but why did I latch on to him? It was mainly because the only hockey I got to watch was on Hockey Night in Canada and, week after week, it always featured a Leafs game, along with an intermission Coach鈥檚 Corner where Don Cherry would repeatedly extol the virtues of Gilmour.
It鈥檚 completely understandable why 麻豆传媒映画sports fans would grow resentful of seeing their local team get short shrift. In essence, the reason Walker has been targeted by vitriol is because he鈥檚 stepping into a predetermined role as the 鈥渙ut east鈥� antagonist. Quite unintentionally, he鈥檚 suddenly the face of what many 麻豆传媒映画fans resent.
But Walker isn鈥檛 鈥渁 Toronto guy鈥� and from what I hear, he鈥檚 a very good sports talk radio host. And he鈥檒l be paired with a very knowledgeable local guy in Rintoul. The show could and should be good.
All of this is to say, be careful what you say on Twitter, but don鈥檛 be too hard on Walker, either. I鈥檓 sure if I got hired by a Boston-based website, Bruins fans would dig up all sorts of terrible things I have said about the Bruins on Twitter.
Of course, a Boston-based website probably wouldn鈥檛 hire me in the first place.
听
