Taylor Made Job For Colts

What should have been a simple announcement about the Indianapolis Colts radio broadcasts moving forward was ruined for all concerned, primarily due to speculation.

Although the Colts announced that Matt Taylor will remain as the team's radio play-by-play voice for next season, which removed the "interim" tag he had throughout the past season, his glory was overshadowed.

Taylor took over the play-by-play in August following the retirement announcement of 79 year old long time Colts voice Bob Lamey. Although the retirement announcement was unexpected since it took place during training camp, some attributed the change to a reported incident of Lamey, who was not on the air, possibly using a racial slur while sharing a story from years earlier.

Both Lamey and team stated that it was a retirement announcement and that it was not due to any incident. Yet, because of the speculation, Lamey did not get his proper recognition.

Along with having called the Colts games for years, Lamey spent years calling games for the most important teams in Indianapolis. Few remember his early days as "Hockey Bob Lamey" when he called the Indianapolis Racers games in the World Hockey Association. Even fewer recall that it was those same Racers that had a star rookie with them by the name of Wayne Gretzky.

After the Racers folded (and Gretzky wound up in Edmonton), Lamey soon after found his way to calling the Pacers games, switching from "Hockey Bob" to "Roundball Robert".

We would like to think that after more than 40 years of high profile sportscasting that Lamey would have been given a proper sendoff, no matter how or when he announced his retirement. And, that Matt Taylor would have his big moment and not have it overshadowed because of speculation about an incident which was not on the air - or even in social media. The Colts games continue to air locally on WFNI 107.5 and 1070.


Those that question the need for Los Angeles to have two NFL teams, let alone one, love the story that the L.A. market TV ratings for both the NFC and AFC Championship Game telecasts last Sunday (1/20) were comparable. Keep in mind that the Rams were in the first game of the day, and that technically neither was a prime time telecast in Los Angeles. The Patriots vs. Chiefs game ended shortly after 7 PM Pacific time.

It's a rare circumstance when having a local NFL team in an important game has little to no impact on the ratings. The Saints vs. Rams telecast wound up as the lowest rated "early window" conference championship game since 2013 at the national level. The Patriots vs. Chiefs thriller had a 26% audience increase over the "late" telecast of one year ago.


On the NHL side, it was actually no surprise that NBC stayed with its originally scheduled telecast of Washington at Chicago for its Sunday national telecast (on 1/20), despite the teams being at almost the opposite end of the standings. NBC Sports Network, which again this season is showing an extensive schedule of NHL telecasts, had Capitals telecasts this season in each of its top four highest rated telecasts.

While the Caps are Stanley Cup Champions, the Blackhawks may not make the playoffs for what would be a second consecutive season. Yet, four of the next five highest rated NBCSN telecasts so far this season involved the Blackhawks, which continues to have a large national following.


The holiday period Nielsen radio ratings were released this week. Although it is considered to be the least important of all of the monthly ratings, there were a few interesting trends from the big markets.

In Boston, WBZ-FM Sports Hub showed a .5 increase, moving from fifth to third in overall audience.

As the flagship station of the Patriots, the January ratings are likely to soar. WEEI-FM, on the other hand, dropped by .7 during the holiday period, falling to #11 overall and failing to finish in the top 10 overall for the first time in many months.

Without any of the New York teams going anywhere, both WFAN and WEPN dropped during this book, while in Chicago both WSCR and WMVP showed increases as the Bears went to the post-season.

This is something we have been pointing out for years. As much as most sports stations push their on-air talent, it is more often the teams and the local sports scene that drive the audience.

Los Angeles and Houston sports radio stayed in trend, however, despite each market having NFL teams heading for the post-season during this ratings period. KSPN 710, despite being the flagship station of the Rams, dropped from #26 to #27 overall in the market. It is worth noting that KLAC 570, the Chargers flagship, did show a nice overall audience increase. In Houston, KILT 610, the Texans flagship station, showed a half-point increase in the ratings. Yet, once again, none of Houston's three sports stations cracked the top 20 overall.


DALLAS: The December ratings showed that KRLD-FM The Fan moved up to #14 overall, passing up KTCK The Ticket which suffered its third consecutive ratings drop. KTCK 96.7 and 1310 are celebrating the station's 25 year anniversary this weekend with a series of big event live broadcasts.

Venues include Texas Motor Speedway and the Plano Events Center, with special guests including Troy Aikman and Jay Novacek.


WASHINGTON D.C.: WJFK-FM 106.7 The Fan has announced a long-term extension of "The Sports Junkies" morning show as it finishes its 23rd year on the air. The station also revealed that it will soon be announcing a syndication of this show to affiliates within the Mid-Atlantic region. While we understand and appreciate the success of "Junkies", other markets may not take to the D.C. talk nearly as much. More importantly, the D.C. market is not likely to accept lengthy discussion about teams not specific to the D.C. area. This could turn into one of those radio "Your mileage may vary" situations once this happens.