...or Two Co-Hosts and a Microphone
Should a guy be paid $600,000 a year to talk about sports, booze and flatulence on the public airwaves? Probably not, but I am gonna miss Dangerous Dan McNeil host…pardon me, former host of ESPN 1000’s Afternoon Saloon.
Did I always agree with his views on the games people play?
No.
Do I think his opinions outside the realms of sports, esp. music and movies were worth a damn?
Hell no.
Do I think he sometimes went way the fuck out of his way to agitate guests, his co-hosts and the Chicago sports radio listening audience?
Yes…and I’m not ashamed to admit that is what I liked best about him.
I hate seeing these Danny Mac pieces that also mention Mike North. Yeah yeah yeah, North had a big morning drive sports show for years, but he always struck me as someone acting like he was from Chicago. McNeil proudly admits he calls the dumbest state in the Union home. He doesn't have to pretend to be from anywhere, he just needs to talk his shit and guys like me will listen.
Mac's love of hockey, even in the darkest years for the Blackhawk organ-aye-zation ranged from punk rock to downright poetic. Until this year, if someone on the show talked too much about the Hawks or hockey in general the Hawk horn blew. This is my first year of following hockey somewhat regularly and I have Mac and Harry and their love (and sadness for the long decline) of the sport to thank for that. There must be something to the icy puck and shur-wood (sp. Jeanz? Nikolai Khabibulin? anybody?!) if these guys are so ready to lament the near death of the sport.
Some douchebag once said that most men lead lives of quiet desperation. Dangerous Danny Mac had a mic and he damned well knew how to use it. Unnecessary hullabaloos may not be the hallmark of great broadcasting, but they sure made for entertaining listening during sleepy, cold winter afternoons.
The show goes on with Carmen DeFalco in the driver’s seat. I will listen because where the hell am I going in my life? But I’ll miss the loudmouth bastard that ran the show for 9 years…
…and I hope to shit I don’t run into him at a bar. It could get ugly, cuz I'm an obnoxious piece of crap even without the microphone.
2 comments:
There really is no good afternoon option. Boers and Bernsie is one big in-joke. An hour of condescending sports pseudo-intellectualism. Carmen is ok, but Harry needs someone stronger to reign in his bad comedy.
Hope Mac ends back at WSCR.
Maybe it's time for Danny Mac to spin records. I'd listen to that show, what the hell
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