By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
May 10, 2016
We broke a story earlier today when I announced on Twitter that Detroit Sports 105.1 finally did the inevitable and fired program director Dave Shore after 14 months of lousy ratings.
The question now becomes this ….
Who will replace Shore and attempt to improve the numbers at the city’s (distant) number two sports talker?
Here are three possibilities in alphabetical order:
Kevin Graham (WEEI – Boston, Brand Manager)
The one trait that all three of the potential candidates share is a connection to this area. You’d think that after the Shore and Jason Dixon debacles Greater Media would put a priority on bringing in someone familiar with Southeastern Michigan.
Earlier this century, Graham was the program director at WXYT. This was at AM1270, before CBS Radio moved the all-sports channel to FM at 97.1.
Graham and I attended the same high school and both experienced the tutelage of the legend “Big” Dave Albery. I am guessing Big Dave is only taking credit for Graham at this point.
So Graham definitely knows the market, but one would ask why he would leave WEEI (a major sports talk player in this country and home of the Boston Red Sox) for 105.1.
Well, I believe Graham’s daughter(s) still live in the area and that could be a draw.
One major negative regarding Graham’s candidacy is his history in Detroit. Back at 1270 he was suspended for impropriety involving a female intern. My sources indicate that this incident eventually caused his departure from the market at his wife’s request They ended up in Utah where, I guess, there are no cute female interns.
Allegedly.
If 105.1 does hire Graham, he already has the Matt Dery hot girl photo op down to a science. This is his Twitter avatar:
On a positive note, the ladies look a little too old to be interns.
Gregg Henson (WPBG/970ESPN -Director of Programming/Sports Content Director)
One of the godfathers of Detroit sports talk radio, his name is always mentioned whenever there is an opening at 105.1. The former program director and on-air talent at both WDFN and WXYT-AM (at 97.1 before their flip to sports a decade ago) obviously has the local bonafides.
The question since Henson left town and did a victory tour of the continental US (Philadelphia, Dallas, Austin, Fort Wayne, Pittsburgh … am I missing anything?) is did 3-G napalm every bridge in town when exiting Detroit?
Henson was a lightning rod in this market and had endless battles with management over the direction of whatever station he was in control of. Mostly because the local teams did not enjoy the honest takes emanating from either 1130 or 1270 when Henson was boss.
They wanted cheerleading and not epic Sunday takedowns by Art Regner after the latest Bubbles the Lion loss.
The Lions and Bill Keenist tried to get Henson fired. Repeatedly. Denise Ilitch was successful in getting him moved from 1270 to 97.1 (away from the Tigers broadcast rights). Before her brother Game of Thrones’d her, eliminating her from the family business.
Would Greater Media be willing to get in the mud with Henson and finally go after 97.1’s throat? I am not sure why this would be an issue since nobody ever accused Drew Lane, Mike Clark or a dude named “Chuck the Freak” of being priests or morally superior beings.
Henson seems to be the logical choice and would be extremely motivated to take down his former employer down the dial.
No hire would bring more of a buzz than Henson and it would appear Greater Media just has to decide if he can be a part of their corporate culture.
Finally, it might not help that Henson and I are friends and he has my recommendation.
Well, at least for today. What time is it anyway?
Ryan Maguire (WQAM560 – Miami, Program Director)
I heard rumors that Maguire was a candidate for the gig last February when Shore ended up getting hired so he would be an obvious candidate this time around.
It’s getting close to the time for me to leave for the DSR Podcast so here is a list of Maguire’s local ties ripped directly from his LinkedIn account:
As you can see, Maguire obviously has Michigan connections and wouldn’t be coming into Detroit blind.
I really don’t know much about Maguire but I have always been a huge fan of WQAM in South Florida.
The station featured the second best radio personality I have heard in my lifetime, Michigan State University “alumni” Neil Rogers. Only Howard Stern ranks ahead of Rogers in my book when it comes to masters of Marconi’s invention.
If you’ve never heard “Uncle Neil” I would implore that you take an Internet dive and discover some of his old programming.
Unfortunately, even with Neil’s MSU past, I don’t think he will be coming north with Maguire to take on fellow Sparty Mike Valenti any time soon.
Rogers passed away in 2010.