Unbiased Analysis of Houston's Sports Radio Talk Shows


I am a big sports talk show guy. This story started in the late 80s, in San Diego, when I was in grad school. I used to debug and run computer programs all night with the radio on. That's how I got introduced to sports radio (and to Jim Rome). I didn't have to pay a lot of attention --the topics are never that important, thus, you don't need to listen carefully-- and they kept a voice in the computer lab during those long hours. As time went by, I listened to good shows, bad shows, and a lot of mediocre shows. Two of my all-time favorites in sports radio: 1) the late Chet Forte, an excellent sport talk show host: funny, opinionated, with a lot of sports stories; and 2) the legendary Bob Kemp, who left Sporting News Radio (then, One-on-One Sports) to go to live with his family in Arizona -a loss for the sports fan across the USA, a gain for the Phoenix sports fan.

Anyway, in the internet you can find "best 10"/"best 100" lists and rankings of almost everything; but very little discussion of sports radio talk shows hosts. After years of listening experience, I feel confident I can give my two cents on the subject. There are four stations in Houston dedicated to Sports Radio. I mainly listen to two of them: 610 AM and 790 AM. Below, you can read my opinion of the shows I have listened in the local stations.

KILT-AM, Sports Radio 610
The Shows:
  • Marc Vandermeer & John Lopez (Morning Show): Marc Vandermeer --a decent play-by-play guy-- is friendly, seems like a good guy to have a beer, but bad sports talk show host. A guy with no opinions about sports (amazingly, he has opinions about other topics, like smusic and movies!). John Lopez likes the show to have "themes." John Lopez knows sports, but he is a homer, unfortunately. He can say strange things to defend a home team or a home player. His on-air (vague) comment about Craig Biggio chances to be a first-ballot HOF says it all: "Biggio has some better numbers than Joe Morgan," implying than Biggio was not worse that Joe Morgan. Shame on you, Mr. Lopez, you are a baseball man!

  • Rich Lord & Josh Innes (Afternoon Show): Rich Lord is a decent host, with informed opinions. He has a friendly attitude. But, he tends to mention details of a player or a team that are extreme ("Joe Doe very good pitcher, but with a 16.4 ERA in post-season;" it does not matter that the post-season was only 1 2/3 innings) to start arguing with a caller or the co-host. John Innes does a good job keeping Rich Lord extreme comments in line. Sometimes the conversation turns into locker room commentary, where Rich Lord indulges in macho comments. With the exception of these sexist rants, a decent show. Unfortunately, it is opposite to the great Charlie Pallilo.

  • Barry Warner & Shaun Bijani, The Odd Couple (Night Show): Barry Warner is the key to this fun show. Informed, opinionated with a lot of stories. Shaun Bijani plays off Barry Warner. Overall, another easy to listen show.


    ESPN 790, Sports Talk
    The Shows:
  • Matt Jackson, Adam Wexler and Lance Zierlein, The Big Show (Morning Show) : The show sounds like one high school kid (Matt) and one college kid talking (Adam). During the show, you hear a lot of inflammatory statements, mainly from Matt Jackson. In general, they are opinionated, but with a few good points. I have to admit, however, that sometimes they are very funny. One of the very few shows in Houston that makes irreverent comments towards --i.e., they don't consistently suck up to-- the athletic programs of the University of Texas and Texas A&M. Lance Zierlein was added to the Matt & Adam show. I am not a big fan of this addition, it has lost some of the nice Matt & Adam banter. Also, Lance talks about other issues -his life, women, etc.-, which are not interesting. But, overall, this show is another easy to listen show.

  • Mighty Gwinn (Morning Show, some guest hosts in another 790 shows): Opinionated, but not necessarily informed. He talks like a fan when talking to callers. Mr. Gwinn, you are a journalist! To listen to fans talk, I go to a sports bar. Weak show.

  • Matt Thomas (Noon Show): Another fun host: opinionated and informed. Friendly with callers, but a rational sports commentator. Host a fun game (Believe it!) at the end of the show. A good show.

  • Charlie Pallilo (Afternoon Show): A great, great Houston sports talk show host. Charlie is informed, likes stats, opinionated and friendly. He never places himself above the caller. He does 4 hours by himself. Wow! Should go national, Houston is small for this guy. I wonder how Colin Cowherd has a national show and Charlie Pallilo is stuck in Houston. Those pictures, Colin, worked!

  • Rob Dibble, Fox Sports Tonight : It replaces The Tony Bruno Show, which is unreplaceable. When the conversation turns to baseball, it is good. Otherwise, it's just OK.

  • JT The Brick: JT talks too much about himself, but he makes it up with his amazing energy. He is a fan, talks like a fan, acts like a fan. Some days, the show is lost in irrelevant/weak topics; in general, topics more related to "life" than to sports. But, overall, it's an entertaining show. I'd drop his continuous talk about the army/military, but it seems, it runs in his family.


    Other shows
  • The Jim Rome Show: Great, fun show. Jim is a little bit full of himself. He thinks he has a better sense of humor and interview skills than he actually has, but overall, the guy is unique. The show has been a great company during many days and nights. When Jim Rome started back in XTRA 690, when I was a grad student in San Diego, I used to hate his night show. A couple of months later, I loved the show. KILT-AM 610, in Houston, picked the show up in 1996. Unfortunately, in 2012 they dropped the show. A loss to the Houston sports fan.

  • The Herd with Colin Cowherd: Not an engaging host. The guy has lots of opinions, which should be good, but, unfortunately, few new or interesting ones. Stole style and some takes from Jim Rome (Softball/Baseball guy, for example). Weak show.

  • Dan Patrick Show: Unchecked, Dan Patrick talks too much about himself, life, arts and other non-sports subjects. Unfortunately, he does not excel on these topics. His views on non-sports subjects are commonplace. Moreover, when Dan Patrick engages in social commentary, it's time to change stations. The good stuff of the show comes through the guests, which, in general, are very good.

  • The Tony Bruno Show : Tremendously entertaining show. Tony is opinionated, informed and fun. His sports comments are rational. He can talk to anybody. The banter with the co-hosts is great. I've never understood how this show was removed from 790.

  • The Third Shift on FOX with Jorge Sedano : "George" is another entertaining host. George Sedano is an opinionated, interesting, fun guy on the radio. A little bit of a homer for the Miami teams, but that’s OK. It doesn’t detract from the show. The banter with his co-hosts is fun.

  • John Granato : A homer. Sometimes, the talk is about non-sports topics, and the quality of the show deteriorates tremendously. Every now and then, he tries to be irreverent, but some of the non-sports comments -for some reason, a couple of times, the comments are "tongue-in-cheek" about overweight people, specially women- can be annoying.

  • The David Stein Show: I listened to this show twice. Three words: Terrible sports show. Terrible. If, by mistake, I listen to the David Stein Show, I automatically change stations.


    Boring Shows: The "UT/TAMU/fill the blank with your College of choice," Hour with Coach "fill the blank."

    Radio sports stations have hour shows/half hour shows with college coaches from UT,TAMU,UH, etc. Houston is not Richmond, or Bloomington, or Gainesville. Houston is a big, diversified town, with people from everywhere. We have professional sports! Amazingly, once a week we have to listen to these shows (time to change the dial for me). College coaches repeat the same lines and clichés, over and over. (Maybe, a problem with all sports coaches.) The interviewer never asks a difficult question. Actually, the interviewer never asks an interesting question. All scripted and completely un-spontaneous. These stations can play one of these shows from ten years ago and nobody would notice.

    The CIA should consider using these shows to interrogate suspects. I assume that the stations make a bundle from the sponsors of the shows, milking the alumni's love/support of those schools. I always wonder what the ratings are for these shows.


    Last Updated: August 2006.