I doubt anyone here is shocked. http://www.wbir.com/story/sports/2014/07/21/tennessee-sports-radio-going-off-the-air/12960413/
Surprised they made it 4 years tbh. I can't remember the last time I listened, but Swain was about the only one that was worth a damn. And that was only after Rucker left.
One time Swain's cohost, I guess it was Rucker, went on this rant about some article that named the top 5 UT wide receivers and declined to include Swain. Guy went off for like five minutes and then asked Swain what he thought. "I mean, I might be top 10, maybe."
I may be in the minority here but I liked Ainge when there was actual football to keep him focused. Hadn't listened to any of the rest of them in forever.
Did they fire him, or could they just not afford him? It took me awhile to get used to Basilio. But his show is much better than I gave it credit for the first few times I tried to listen. Just takes time I guess. Plus the commercials are funny as hell. He's really the only decent choice left. 3HL is ok, but I get the Finebaum vibe from that show, and end up changing the station pretty quickly.
from what I remember it all started with the cattleman saying stuff about Ainge. Ainge then interrupts Tony's show to tell Tony no one else on the station would have cattleman call in. Tony replies saying that's fine, but don't tell me who can and can't call in to my show. If I'm not mistaken not even a week later Tony announces that JayBay has basically fired him.
he's a good dude...was at one of the World Cup listener watch parties, and he was going around talking to everybody, and at one point standing in a chair giving away soccer balls and t-shirts and stuff, and Hat says "Can you imagine Dearstone standing in a chair doing that right now?" and of course the answer is no
Local sports radio has gone down hill the last several years, where you get five minutes of talking followed by 10 minutes of "news" "weather" and commercials. And more commercials. And finally more commercials. I am sad to see TSR go, as I enjoyed Ainge in the morning during football season and Swain was not bad, either, but went off the air too soon for me to listen on the way home. During the whole Gruden Incident, I think the station outgrew itself, and wonder if that was their downfall? Or the local market just cannot support two stations?
I don't even mean this as a dig, but purely a statement of fact: I have never heard a single person say that they liked Sports Animal. I've heard people say its "tolerable" or "not that bad", but even those are the vast minority. Knoxville is begging for a legitimate second option in local sports talk, IMO. On the rare occasions that I do listen, if hearing the hosts themselves doesn't force me to turn satellite / podcasts on, then the first caller inevitably will. I haven't listened to more than 3 minutes of TSR, total, since Tony B left. I do wonder where Hooker lands - are there any remaining local media outlets that he hasn't already done / left? I wonder if Swain gets a gig somewhere? Ainge? Like I said in a post a few weeks ago, Ainge may be an ok color guy, but he's nowhere near to being a lead.