Vaguely OT: Sam Webb rips Valenti and Foster a new one
So someone called into the morning show, after having listened to the two latter guys show yesterday. And apparently they were going to town on the whole Turner thing (can't say, didn't listen). And someone called in to defend our honor, and brought up Sam Webb. Who the hosts supposedly downgraded for being a slappy (toe-sucker was the phrase used), and the station's signal strength (which is bad...but really?!).
So Sam just tears apart the duo, and is particularly cruel towards Foster. Not unnecessarily, just particularly. If you're sick of those two, it's a lot of fun to listen to. :-) (Though who knows if this is a start of a back and forth between shows).
Anyway, now the podcasts are up, for you to listen to for yourself. Sam said he had to go listen to the other station's podcasts, to respond more, but since the show is almost up, it'll probably be tomorrow.
But for today's fun-
9a - Sam responds to attack on Detroit sports radio 081210
http://www.wtka.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.podcasts_sel&id=6805
9b - Sam responds to attack on Detroit sports radio 081210
http://www.wtka.com/index.php?fuseaction=home.podcasts_sel&id=6806
Enjoy!
August 12th, 2010 at 9:49 AM ^
HAHAHAHAHAHA Go Sam Webb!!!!!!!
August 12th, 2010 at 9:50 AM ^
was in this thread. I can't listen to either on the radio, but it's good to see people standing up for Michigan
August 12th, 2010 at 9:51 AM ^
But I also think that this is allowed to build up listenership to the afternoon show.
I find it interesting - even given the fact that it might be intentional.
August 12th, 2010 at 9:55 AM ^
Valenti and Sam are on two different stations. Don't think its intentional.
August 12th, 2010 at 9:59 AM ^
but couldn't.
I knew better. My bad.
My point was that it helps build listers on both shows. Sam for Michigan fans, and Valenti for the MSU base. If there is a crossover to hear the other side (and hate them for it) all the better.
+1 for the correction.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:06 AM ^
(during the writers strike, all 3 were on the air and bored)
August 12th, 2010 at 9:52 AM ^
Some problems are better to just walk away from.
August 12th, 2010 at 9:58 AM ^
I think he enjoys that...
August 12th, 2010 at 10:48 AM ^
an Ohio State shirt he's wearing?
August 12th, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^
The attack on Foster was pretty hard core, but pretty accurate if you ask me. I was especially amused by him saying Foster spent time "bouncing on Mike's lap" and had to wait for Mike to tell him what his opinion was. So funny, so true...
August 12th, 2010 at 9:58 AM ^
There are few people I have less respect for than Mike Valenti. The guy is a joke. He's a cynic to the core when it comes to Detroit sports, and he has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to anything Michigan.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:50 AM ^
Is he a cynic or is he a realist?
I'll admit, I don't get nearly as annoyed with Valenti as most do (though sometimes he'll piss me off). But really, he's almost always right (on non-Michigan matters).
The tigers suck and he stuck to his guns while the team fraudulently stayed in the hunt of the worst division in baseball. Just one example. He also doesn't sugar coat anything about the city of Detroit, which is refreshing.
Yeah, with UM news he's off-base. Neither have any connection to the University which results in sensationalistic views.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:50 AM ^
actually he's horribly uninformed in a variety of sports topics and just yells until the other person stops talking. the show screens calls for informed listeners and never lets them through. there's a reason that valenti "is so mad" that so many "stupid people" call into the show, yet you never hear anything else. by letting dumbasses through, valenti continues to be all knowing. as has been said on here and i've heard, anytime someone brings in any element of research or thorough knowledge on the topic, he straw mans one word of it to death and cuts the call.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:54 AM ^
So is that his fault? Most people on the air there are idiots - but I bet most people in metro-Detroit are idiots. Most are not as educated about Michigan as we are here. 99% aren't. They cater to the majority and they have the biggest sports radio show in metro-Detroit. So they get a lot of garbage.
I know I'm going to get negged to oblivion (yes breaking the first rule of MGoBlog here) for having an opinion that the majority disagrees with.
But I listen to them everyday. Their show is obviously aimed at the "Headline Reader" fan. It is obviously aimed to rile up callers. Call a spade a spade. If you haven't figured that out and are looking for Valenti and Foster to provide deep analysis, then you're blind.
They are entertainment. I think they're pretty decent entertainment. If I want a better source of mainstream sports talk, I'll listen to Karsch and Anderson, or Caputo for baseball.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:13 AM ^
they are intentionally avoiding intelligent listeners in order to shout sports entertainment and not sports commentary/analysis. valenti does the same "they had a top 15 recruiting class" misinformed bullshit that Decimated Defense destroys, yet will never be heard on the show. he knows absolutely nothing about baseball or hockey and is a NJ transplant that is only in the area because he went to MSU. it doesn't take intelligence to say "the Tigers aren't that good" when they're 4 games out of the lead, up to half a game at the break. the problem is people tune in thinking they ARE getting an informed decision and not the Buttcrack and Big Jim Hour where fart noises and hot chicks are discussed, albeit in a sports format. your argument fails because the same EXACT thing happens in Political radio and people's opinions are formed on that. if anything, it's the bs valenti and foster further by not giving an honest assessment that has caused your damn FreeP problems in the first place bc now the FreeP caters to that audience.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:22 AM ^
is a NJ transplant that is only in the area because he went to MSU.
I'm sorry, but why is that a bad thing? People are leaving Michigan left and right and we are going to bag on a guy that came to one of our major Universities from out of state and actually decided to stay?! How many out-of-state students at Michigan actually stay in the state when they graduate.
You can bash the guy for his views, opinions, and commentary. But why anyone uses the fact that he grew up in a different state as some kind of bad thing is beyond me.
I'm not trying to make this an argument. I just get annoyed by the MGoBlogerati taking up one side and squashing any discorse on a subject - which is the exact problem you're mentioning, but at the sports talk radio level.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:39 AM ^
holy red herring bat man!
August 12th, 2010 at 11:43 AM ^
We agree that Valenti is in the business of spooning up the garbage that the headline-reading Joe Sixpack likes to hear. And, we agee that when ratings are good, the garbage-spooning business is quite a good business.
So we agree.
Of course, while the Detroit Lions, or the Pistons, or some other revenue-sensitive professional sports franchises might need attention-grabbers like Valenti and Foster, Michigan doesn't. Michigan was selling out the Stadium before there ever was a Valenti and Foster, and the demographic consisting of suite lessees, Victors Club members and Alumni Association is not exactly the Valenti/Foster demographic.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:53 AM ^
Michigan was selling out the Stadium before there ever was a Valenti and Foster, and the demographic consisting of suite lessees, Victors Club members and Alumni Association is not exactly the Valenti/Foster demographic.
Exactly. We, the MGoBlog community, are not the target demographic. So why get so upset about things? Yeah, they perpetuate certain myths, but they do so in the grand name of ratings and money. We shouldn't make it anything more than that.
Other than that, it's noise. And, to me, it's entertaining noise.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:21 PM ^
I get the sense that Tom is a fan of Valenti & Foster.
However you do realize that they are the "Colin Cowherd of Detroit sports talk." Doesnt use factual information, just speculation. And we hate them (particularly Valenti) because he simply doesnt have a good show. Look you can criticize Michigan all you want but when you criticize Michigan and then have an excuse for when the same thing happens to MSU, you simply are a homer and wont get any love from me.
Sorry buddy.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:27 PM ^
We aren't the target demographic for the Freep anymore either, but we still get upset. The reason being: Joe Schmo isn't very educated on sports, so he listens to sports talk radio and reads the newspaper. When the newspaper (Freep) and the sports talk radio (Valenti and Foster) don't really present an intelligent argument for anything, Joe Schmo starts to think that what they say is the unquestioned truth. You then get thousands of Joe Schmo's rambling about the same stupid shit that isn't even correct. That is the whole point. Do you know who else perpetuates things in the grand name of ratings and money....the Freep. Do you find the Free Press entertaining to read?
August 12th, 2010 at 2:04 PM ^
No, no, no my friend... There is one very large difference, between the Freep and Sportstalk radio.
Sportstalk radio doesn't do stories. They don't "report." They don't break news. Occasionally, one of the producers will, mid-show, be watching the 'net, and will cue the hosts about some Tweet from some dumb athlete or such. Otherwise, they just regurgitate what is already in the public domain, and they encourage people to argue with them about what it all means. As a matter of fact, from what I have heard about the Wednesday program with Valenti and Foster (I rarely listen to them), they stole most of their original material (reported weights of players, etc.) from MGoBlog!
No; there is a mighty big difference between the Free Press and sportstalk radio. The Free Press did its own original "reporting," that led to the August 30, 2009 front-page headlined story.
Without the Free Press/Rosenberg story from August of 2009, there would never have been an NCAA investigation of Michigan. Sportstalk radio, be it Valenti, or Foster, or any of the others, can make no such claim.
Sportstalk radio doesn't do that kind of mischief. Those guys are too lazy. They are happy to talk about almost anything on thier programs, be it sports, or scandal, or the best strip clubs. But they aren't going to bother doing the kind of "reporting" that Rosenberg and Snyder did.
Valenti and Foster are, in that respect, just harmless, worthless, non-entities. They are too lazy, and ill-equipped, to actually harm the University and Head Coach Rodriguez. They're not smart enough, and not motivated enough, to do that. Rosenberg, by comparison, was smart enough to know how to do a hit-piece and, in the case of Rich Rodriguez, he was clearly motivated to do so.
August 12th, 2010 at 2:12 PM ^
I fully understand that newspapers and sports talk radio are and always will be very different. I was only making the comparison of how people take information away from them and how both have a large impact on the views of the general public.
August 12th, 2010 at 3:39 PM ^
One of the reasons I take so much time and effort to ridicule the Free Press is that it is a locally influential news source. And it needs to be rebutted. I've made the point here many times; while the Freep's disgraceful biases and errors are well-known to MGoBlog readers, the larger public has no idea. They read, and believe, the Free Press.
You can say the same about Sportstalk radio. But the big difference, as I've said, is that the Freep had just enough respectability to have created an NCAA investigation. Sportstalk radio doesn't have any respectability.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^
and the NJ element is an argument that Detroit/Michigan teams were far from a priority for him and his lack of knowledge on the topic radiates when he makes blanket statements that are either ill conceived or inherently wrong.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:32 AM ^
but I bet most people in metro-Detroit are idiots.But in your 3rd paragraph, you're saying it's a show for idiots by idiots, and we should just accept that crap as good programing. (Though calling out bad analysis as bad analysis is a flaw how...?). Which is contradictory to what you said in your previous post, where you thought they were spot on concerning anything but Michigan. Which is it? Know what they're talking about (-M), or just there to rile people up? Valenti doesn't have any deep insight. He's the white Drew Sharp. Piss on everything, and when things invariably go wrong (because in sports, unless you win it all, every year, you really didn't completely succeed, do you?), say how right you are. That's not "not towing the company line"; that's just being a dick.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:50 AM ^
Well, I grew up in Metro-Detroit. I live in Ann Arbor. I still have to deal with people saying things like "RR is destroying Michigan," so I would say yeah, 99% of the people in Metro-Detroit are idiots when it comes to UM (sorry that wasn't clear before).
"By idiots for idiots" is kinda taking it far. They cater to the mainstream. They cater to the majority. The majority don't read Decimated Defense. The majority don't know MGoBlog exists. The majority don't follow team in much detail. The majority only know that Michigan is Michigan and that there's no excuse for not winning the Big Ten every year. The majority are partially informed.
So they cater to that. I guess that's my point. And really if they start analyzing everything in detail (like they should) they probably lose viewers and eventually their jobs. It's like any other media. It's disgusting and disappointing, but I think it's a media problem, not a personelle problem. I don't bash on Valenti and Foster (well sometimes) for this - they are a cog in the system of popular mainstream media.
I equate it to Cable News. Everyone knows that cable news has destroyed any semblance of a fair and unbiased press. But in order to get a piece of the pie, each network has to cater to a market. Fox News caters to conservatives. If they don't find their market, they die. Valenti and Foster's market is the average, mainstream person because that's the majority.
So when I keep this in mind, I actually think they do what they are trying. And at least they are entertaining at times. Who doesn't love Valenti blowing up?
August 12th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^
Has to be reading about paint drying on the radio (how's THAT for mixed metaphors?). I don't expect or want them to read Decimated Defense on the radio for a number of reasons. One, I don't have a problem with bias. This site has bias. But what this site does that they don't is argue with facts, and reasoning, and analysis. They don't have to have an analysis show every day that bores the heck out of people. But when one is giving opinions, have ones backed up by fact. Don't get into the details, and minutiae, but do the research so when someone comes up with X on the radio through calls, you have Y or whatever to counter, or talk about. It can work both ways. People have used Decimated Defense as a, uh, defense to argue the talent is so bad, we can't even beat Toledo (when what hit shows is very different). He doesn't have to use facts to defense Michigan. Just don't make attacks based on made up stuff.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
I actually agree with you to some extent. Their show is for entertainment, and has been even more that direction recently. They cut out the fantasy football and hard core analysis stuff because their program director made them (so they say). But, I do think it is unfortunate that a lot of listeners aren't able to make the distinction between entertainment and news and get a lot of misinformation there.
I have a friend who was going on and on about how Lance Berkman and Adam Dunn were bad for the Tigers because they couldn't play the field at all, they literally could only be DH. I asked him where he got that from and he said Mike and Terry were talking about it. I still don't have an explanation about how two people from the National League can't play the field.
Also, Terry Foster is kind of sad on the show. It's unlistenable when Valenti isn't there because Foster knows nothing about sports and just rambles about uninteresting things.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:41 AM ^
That's golden Foster radio there.
Or not.
August 12th, 2010 at 1:31 PM ^
Caputo is horrible across the board. I hope you were joking about trying to listen to him.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:38 AM ^
As he reported that Izzo had just taken away Beilein's last hope for recruiting in Michigan. And then went on to giggle-speak that Brandon would be looking for 2 coaches this fall. He sounded like he was breathless and crying tears of joy. I don't believe he does a schtick to attract listeners. I believe he really gets off on it.
August 13th, 2010 at 12:20 AM ^
I think it's a safe bet that this was no acting job:
http://houserockbuilt.blogspot.com/2006/09/msu-radio-host-melts-fucking-down-on.html
August 12th, 2010 at 10:17 AM ^
BE REAL SON!
August 12th, 2010 at 11:17 AM ^
...a "minstrel show." Damn.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:24 PM ^
Sam was right on both of them.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:05 AM ^
Mike Valenti has no idea what he is talking about most of the time. Same for Pat Caputo when it comes to just about anything.
Mike Valenti's job is to put down what ever the locals like - to get them angry. Terry Foster is pretty pathetic sometimes too.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:16 AM ^
August 12th, 2010 at 10:19 AM ^
is anyone tracking the kid's parents around A2? I mean, where are the stalkers when we need them?
August 12th, 2010 at 10:22 AM ^
to wasting his time on something as unimportant as Valenti and Foster. Valenti and Foster are like old time comedians in the Catskills; they want to be insulted. They want a fight. Their show, such as it is, is all about idiots arguing about unimportant stuff. If nobody's insulting them, then there can't be anybody listening. They live, in order to insult. Their job is to produce controversy.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:02 AM ^
I'd much rather see him be a "rock in the sea."
August 12th, 2010 at 11:13 AM ^
I'm glad Sam took it back to 'em. He's clearly a hard worker who busts his ass to get real information and these guys just spout off w/out any inside sources. I'm glad he called them out for what they are.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:48 AM ^
Kettle, the Pot is on the phone. He's saying you're black.
August 12th, 2010 at 2:11 PM ^
anybody else...
I already addressed, in another post in this thread, the BIG DIFFERENCE between the Free Press, which singlehandedly caused Michigan's NCAA investigation, versus the lazy talkmeisters on radio, who haven't done an original story in their entire miserable lives.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
Caller: Valenti was ripping you for not being objective when it comes to Michigan.
Sam: ...and Mike Valenti is?
August 12th, 2010 at 10:27 AM ^
Valenti and Foster better last week when Darren McCarty was hosting with Foster, McCarty made it much easier to listen to, and seemed to cut down on Foster's stupid comments.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:32 AM ^
I love Big Mac but he lost me when he started spewing sparty propaganda about Forcier and Denard.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:35 AM ^
I think Mac would admit that he is a little out of his jurisdiction when they start talking about college football. And he was probably just trying to echo something he heard Valenti say.
August 12th, 2010 at 11:45 AM ^
Agreed. The entire show is an echo chember for sparty bullshit. Karsch tends to be good around noon and the morning show is alright.
August 12th, 2010 at 10:31 AM ^
Pucker Pucker Pucker!