Semi-OT Detroit has a new sports radio station

Submitted by Michigan Eaglet on

I didn't see anything posted about this yet, but today at 3 PM, 105.1 officially became a sports news radio station. They become the second FM sports radio in metro detroit and seem to be pretty good from what I can tell. They just had Lloyd Carr on for about 20-30 minutes talking about Michigan, the day Bo hired him, and several other topics. I just thought I'd pass this along to the MGoFaithful.

http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/detroit/index.ssf/2013/08/hear_launch_of_new_detroit_spo.html

http://www.freep.com/article/20130812/ENT03/308120106/Drew-Lane-Detroit-Sports-Radio

Edit: Here is a video about it and they will be Detroit's ESPN affliiate so there will be a ton of live sports game they brodcast and the daily schedule is:

6-10 AM Mike and Mike

10 AM-noon Colin Cowherd

Noon-3 PM Ryan Ermanni and Rico Beard

3-7 PM Drew Lane and Marc Fellhauer

Local Sports updates 3 times an hour,

LSAClassOf2000

August 12th, 2013 at 7:15 PM ^

MLive's Eric Lacy had a short writeup on the launch here - LINK

It included some commentary on the highlights of Drew Lane's debut:

When a caller mentioned other sports stations in Detroit, Lane playfully responded like he didn't know each existed. "Is there another sports station?," Lane said. "Seriously?"

Yes, this alternative will do nicely...

jdon

August 12th, 2013 at 8:14 PM ^

I doubt it wil be much better...

In general this town has Whitney ignorant and easy to inflame sports fans. As a consequence all the local guys basically troll is all day. I am convinced 97.1. Does all the Detroit city news specifically to put Rae's. of people against one another...

Doc Brown

August 13th, 2013 at 8:00 AM ^

I agree. I actually started to like Valenti since he has aged, especially for pro-sports. He is the only one that doesn't buy into the sunshine blowing from the Det News or the Freep about the Lions and the Pistons. 

Of course, he is unlistenable when it comes to college sports when his inner sparty comes out. His sparty schtick is a complete act to drum up mouth breathing callers from both sides of the aisle. That is usually when I switch off to satellite radio. 

Would be nice to have a rational sports show in the afternoon with WTKA airing The Huge Show. I can't stand Bill Simonson. 

MGoBender

August 13th, 2013 at 8:22 AM ^

I'll go one step further.  I don't even get that mad at him when he defends Sparty.  When all the idiot Michigan fans call in and have diahrea of the mouth about the past, I can't blame Valenti for telling them to shut up.

He can go to far, don't get me wrong.  But I think most M fans get annoyed with him because they don't like hearing the sometimes negative truth.

Valenti is quality entertainment.

saveferris

August 13th, 2013 at 7:29 AM ^

There was a time where Valenti was appearing on ESPN with the Colin Cowherd's of the world and seemed poised to make the jump to big time national broadcaster, but it's never happened.  Listening to Valenti now, he sounds like a guy who just loathes his job and is just going through the motions.

BeileinBuddy

August 12th, 2013 at 7:29 PM ^

I tried listening to it on my way home from work today and it was kinda unlistenable. The hosts seemed like they tried too hard to fit "drops" into calls and were snickering like school kids nearly every call. 

Granted they just started Saturday and this could be growing pains until they hit a rhythm and flow, but it was kinda grating today.

West German Judge

August 12th, 2013 at 7:48 PM ^

Good. At the very least this is an alternative from the live four hour long 97.1 game feeds for anyone who doesn't follow Tigers baseball (me) or Pistons basketball (everyone else on this blog).

rederik

August 12th, 2013 at 8:19 PM ^

Excellent! I'm seriously so glad to have a sports talk station to listen to without supporting the ridiculous station that employs the likes of Mike Valenti.

smitty1983

August 12th, 2013 at 8:29 PM ^

Is back on the air and I think mike Wolters is a step up I didn't care for Clarke. Was a funny first day and I love that I don't have to listen to velanti complain for 4 hrs about how Detroit sucks

ckersh74

August 12th, 2013 at 8:33 PM ^

I listened for a few minutes this afternoon on the way home from the office. Drew was going on and on about all the women JFK Jr had put his meat whistle into before dying. I have no idea why, but if he's going to do that for 3-4 hours a day, he's not going to be there long, either. 

artds

August 12th, 2013 at 9:43 PM ^

This. So tired of Foster and Valenti always talking about sparty. No one in Detroit cares about sparty. They couldnt even fill a 65,000 seat stadium when they played at ford field a couple years ago. Here's a huge vacuum that needs to be filled with UM radio coverage in Detroit. The only other place we get it now is listening to WTKA through an iphone app.

JT4104

August 12th, 2013 at 10:07 PM ^

Anything that can force Valenti to actually not troll for calls again is a welcome addition. Will be interesting with Ermanni who is a total homer at all costs, but considering 97.1 is mainly Sparty slurping I can live with it.

CliffSnotes

August 12th, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^

His show is 3-6 pm, and it's mostly Detroit Sports + UM/MSU, but will throw in some Western Michigan University and Grand Rapids Griffins and anything else local to GR. I believe that he broadcasts from the Detroit / Southfield area still, while his producer is live in GR. I listen on iheart radio. But I'll definitely be checking Drew out. I wouldn't be shocked though, to hear that Baligian ends up at 10 am on 105.1.