One of my favorite ongoing series online is Radio Wars from Crossing Broad. I had the pleasure of meeting those guys over the weekend at the Brewmite premiere. I have no interest in trying to duplicate or get involved in the ongoing saga—but here’s my take on the current state of sports talk radio.

There’s been a lot of back-and-forth lately, with 97.5 The Fanatic telling its audience not to let 94 WIP rage-bait them into Jalen Hurts debates. Let’s be real—the Fanatic gets absolutely butt-crushed when it comes to ratings.

In most businesses, I’ve learned that bad-mouthing the competition to sell your own product rarely works. It’s a weak move.

If you’re not familiar with the debate: throughout the summer, on slow news days, hosts would argue whether Hurts is a top 5 QB based on his winning pedigree. Others countered that he’s nowhere near the top ten, citing a laundry list of pocket passers ahead of him. To be fair, most of this chatter didn’t originate from the stations themselves—it was largely a reaction to power rankings, player lists, and magazine features that tend to drop this time of year.

What really rubbed me the wrong way was The Fanatic’s Colarullo—a young, cutting-edge lawyer who’s now been handed the keys to the station. He claimed that people who hadn’t seen a single snap at training camp were asking, “Are you concerned about Jalen Hurts’ training camp performance?” Meanwhile, most of the folks at 94 WIP are at camp every day. Their topics actually resonate across the city and on fan pages like ours—most of which have boots on the ground at camp. Not only did he ask for people to make the switch from the competition, but also from anyone other than him cracking a beer and talking shop.

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So not only is Colarullo bad-mouthing the competition, he’s also trying to poach listeners from social media pages with way bigger followings than his own. That’s a losing game for a show that’s honestly never going to win in the ratings. The parent company keeps cutting talent and forcing the remaining guys to do more with fewer resources. Colarullo should be grateful for the position he’s in—because sooner or later, he’ll be working two dayparts and selling ads.

Good for him to get us talking about the show! 

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