Joe D & Jacobs Need a reality check

[FDNY99]

Hartford Sports Takes Another Hit With Loss Of Joe D And Gresh

As much as Gresh was a buffoon on this show...Joe D and Jacobs need a reality check. To me the main reason why this show wasn't renewed isn't because they couldn't find another co-host for Joe...it's because his arrogant attitude has grown old with UConn fans. Dibble doesn't seem to have any issues.....

 

[CardiffGiant]

Not sure I agree. I have talked about this show with other Uconn fans, and Gresh was the one who turned people off. He loved to hear himself speak and it was obvious that he did not care about this market at all. It was a better show when he was not there.

 

[junglehusky]

The arrogance was by design. Jacobs was correct in stating Gresh was a provocateur. It just didn't translate to ratings. Now if they had set it up to be complimentary of UConn ratings still would not have been good enough. Let's be honest - the ratings would be improved if UConn football and bball were winning, ranked, and in a power conference. And they'd be solid if CT has a pro sports team. Don't overthink this.

 

[shizzle787]

Not sure I agree. I have talked about this show with other UConn fans, and Gresh was the one who turned people off. He loved to hear himself speak and it was obvious that he did not care about this market at all. It was a better show when he was not there.

Agree. I don't mind Joe D. Gresh was the one who was loud and would call everyone an idiot.

 

[CTMike]

Gresh wasn't enjoyable to listen to in the least... if I knew there was an important topic, I'd tune in and it was insufferable. So I stopped tuning in. He didn't come across as knowledgeable or genuine and people can spot that immediately. Huge turn off. I also think they are right that AM radio as the delivery mechanism is a big challenge these days.

I was a Dibble listener for a good stretch - like the show - I've just moved on to podcasts and other things.

 

[CardiffGiant]

Gresh wasn't enjoyable to listen to in the least... if I knew there was an important topic, I'd tune in and it was insufferable. So I stopped tuning in. He didn't come across as knowledgeable or genuine and people can spot that immediately. Huge turn off.

Completely agree with this. It was an act for Gresh for sure. Impossible to listen to. Jacobs also makes much of being between the FAN and WEEI as a reason for the demise of this show. That is a cop out. Maybe 10 years ago that would fly, but not now. Francesa's show is nowhere near what it was with the Mad Dog, and the current lineup at WEEI does not match the popularity of the Big Show. IMO people are looking for an alternative to those shows in this market. This pairing did not work, but it doesn't mean it wouldn't work here.

 

[UConnDan97]

I liked the show and didn't have quite the allergic reaction to Gresh that others had.

Butt the biggest problem about the show was made by WTIC, not the hosts. And that problem is playing 7 minutes worth of traffic and commercials in order to hear 4 minutes of sports talk. That's why people turned away. Hell, even I would turn away during important topics to go hear WFAN or something else because I didn't want to hear 5 minutes of "Sharky" I a friggin helicopter.

Most of us have been driving the same route at the same time for years. We know what the traffic is like on those roads. We don't need a friggin reminder every five minutes. What we need is some sports talk to forget that we are in the traffic, just like the people in New York do...

 

[coachcap]

What drove me psycho about the show was when either Joe D. or Gresh were interviewing guests. More often than not, when asking the guest a topical question they would lead into it with an their own opinion, thereby trying to slant the guest's answer. It always seemed that they were trying to pat themselves on the back, not actually glean any insight on the topic.

 

[huskymedic]

What drove me psycho about the show was when either Joe D. or Gresh were interviewing guests. More often than not, when asking the guest a topical question they would lead into it with an their own opinion, thereby trying to slant the guest's answer. It always seemed that they were trying to pat themselves on the back, not actually glean any insight on the topic.

... and the thought that they think they covered Big12 expansion good is laughable.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I don't think the AM signal/transmission is an issue at all.

If anything XM and digital media centers on cars makes it easier to switch between AM, FM and Sat radio.

No one has to scan or move a dial to fine tune. You preset it once and it's a push of a button away.

I would imagine the constant outdated news, weather and traffic updated get very annoying.

Local radio is beholden to commercials and sponsors so that isn't going away.

I listen XM almost exclusively now.

Any time a commercial comes on I instantly switch to another channel.

 

[coachcap]

... and the thought that they think they covered Big12 expansion good is laughable.

Plus, they tried to turn almost every topic into a yuk fest. (Rants on Dunkin Donuts Park construction excepted)

 

[uconnphil2016]

Previously mentioned, but AM kills ratings--it's proven, especially in sports talk. Weei is a great example. Didn't switch over to fm quickly enough and sports hub did, so weeis ratings tanked. The incessant traffic and news report interruptions don't help--can't get in a groove. Was a decent show as far as local stuff is tconcerned. Better than dibble IMO. They did talk too much NYC and Boston pro sports talk and you're never going to appeal to anyone when doing that. For instance, I love Boston sports, but why would I listen to them talk some Boston and then also have to sit through NY talk when I can just listen to Weei? Should have focused more heavily on uconn imo

 

[Chin Diesel]

Also interesting Joe Did basically admitted they were trolling UComn football fans last season.

When a talk show host says they couldn't get any phone calls they're basically admitting they try inflammatory comments to stir traffic.

 

[CL82]

They made a decision to be inflammatory in the hopes of generating traffic and listener among fans. It was a poor decision.

Know your market.

 

[Excalibur]

Normally you can rely on the callers to say the inflammatory stuff . . .

 

[Skiblets]

Didn't mind them. Gresh is running out of markets to get booted from. Bigger issue is the incessant traffic and weather together every ten minutes. Chopped up their segments too much. In the age of Waze and smart phones people don't need that info every ten

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Didn't mind them. Gresh is running out of markets to get booted from. Bigger issue is the incessant traffic and weather together every ten minutes. Chopped up their segments too much. In the age of Waze and smart phones people don't need that info every ten

The problem is likely that their demographic is not us - it's 55+ year olds that don't use their smart phones for news/traffic/weather. So they continue to serve their demographic without thought to trying to broaden their demo. And the station's programming is sooo Republican that it turns off a Democratic-majority region. Not a good approach to try to appeal to the masses for a 3pm to 6pm drive time show. Fail.

 

[Alum86]

Gresh's voice is annoying. He sounds like Charlie from Sunny in Philadelphia.

 

[ZOOCONN]

Hartford Sports Takes Another Hit With Loss Of Joe D And Gresh

As much as Gresh was a buffoon on this show...Joe D and Jacobs need a reality check. To me the main reason why this show wasn't renewed isn't because they couldn't find another co-host for Joe...it's because his arrogant attitude has grown old with UConn fans. Dibble doesn't seem to have any issues.....

personally I cant stand dibble. he knows baseball but listening to him talk about any other sport is painful, he also knows nothing about college athletics.

 

[whaler11]

I liked the show and didn't have quite the allergic reaction to Gresh that others had.

Butt the biggest problem about the show was made by WTIC, not the hosts. And that problem is playing 7 minutes worth of traffic and commercials in order to hear 4 minutes of sports talk. That's why people turned away. Hell, even I would turn away during important topics to go hear WFAN or something else because I didn't want to hear 5 minutes of "Sharky" I a friggin helicopter.

Most of us have been driving the same route at the same time for years. We know what the traffic is like on those roads. We don't need a friggin reminder every five minutes. What we need is some sports talk to forget that we are in the traffic, just like the people in New York do...

The constant traffic updates have always puzzled me.

They make sense in a place like New York because there are MULTIPLE ways to get places.

In greater Hartford there is one way. You either need 91 N/S, 84 N/S or 2 E.

Telling me there is traffic isn't all that helpful as there isn't anything I can do about it anyway. I sure as shoot don't need a moran in a chopper. The traffic is in the same places every day and generally for the same reasons.

 

[whaler11]

I don't see how these shows here will do anything beyond scrape by.

Boston fans don't want to hear NY and the opposite and there just isn't enough UConn to drive multiple hours every day.

There are dozens of podcasts I'd rather listen to and if I'm going to listen to AM talk it's going to be Mike.

If they have no chance with people like me who can they get?

 

[Skiblets]

The problem is likely that their demographic is not us - it's 55+ year olds that don't use their smart phones for news/traffic/weather. So they continue to serve their demographic without thought to trying to broaden their demo. And the station's programming is sooo Republican that it turns off a Democratic-majority region. Not a good approach to try to appeal to the masses for a 3pm to 6pm drive time show. Fail.

My parents are in their 80s. They use Waze

 

[weyuo]

It was nice listening to sports on TIC from 3 til whenever(sure beats the political diatribe) but personally never liked Joe D and his NY pro sports bias plus his over the top pompous attitude. Gresh? Bleh! Go back to small time RI and blab away about small time college sports and a minor league team. Good Riddance. Would be nice if they could come up with a better, more interesting pair. How about a male and female team this time around.

 

[HuskyDogArt]

Hartford Sports Takes Another Hit With Loss Of Joe D And Gresh

As much as Gresh was a buffoon on this show...Joe D and Jacobs need a reality check. To me the main reason why this show wasn't renewed isn't because they couldn't find another co-host for Joe...it's because his arrogant attitude has grown old with UConn fans. Dibble doesn't seem to have any issues.....

I believe that Sports talk should be on a sports station not a news talk station. In Tampa, WFLA is WTIC here...News talk 24/7...The Sports side is on WDAE...The only sports on WFLA is the Lightning...all the rest is on WDAE...(which is owned by I heart)

 

[UConnDan97]

I don't see how these shows here will do anything beyond scrape by.

Boston fans don't want to hear NY and the opposite and there just isn't enough UConn to drive multiple hours every day.

There are dozens of podcasts I'd rather listen to and if I'm going to listen to AM talk it's going to be Mike.

If they have no chance with people like me who can they get?

I'll respectfully disagree to a degree with that. I think that an AM station in CT could do better than just scrape by, even if the vast majority of content was UCONN related. Here's my formula for success;

1) Cut the traffic update nonsense. Nobody cares. We all know the roads we drive on every day.

2) Get more in-depth coverage of UCONN during the rush hour drive, including finding ways to move the coaches interviews during that time slot rather than later in the evening.

3) Add a recruiting segment for both football and hoops. @huskymedic, @ktuck911 , @Storrs South , @tcf15 and a few others would have me listening for hours!

4) Sprinkle in some "Where are they now" segments with interviews. 20 minutes of Khalid or of Caulley would have me locked in!

So essentially, so a bunch of stuff that they don't currently do, and wipe out the stuff that forces them to cut off our AD mid-sentence after 3 minutes in order to get to "Sharky". If you are going to advertise yourself as the home of the UCONN Huskies, well then actually BE the home of the UCONN Huskies...