Le Basketbawl

My first on-air job was as News Director for a radio station in the Youngstown, Ohio market. When I had a chance to gravitate to sports from news, I jumped at it. I could not wait to report on what I have always referred to as the “Toy Box Of Life.” Little did I realize in 1995, that the toy box was filled with razor blades.

I would like nothing better than to write about nothing other than what goes on on the hard wood, and the transactions that lead to making NBA teams better or worse. The only controversial subjects I would like to have to cover, are whether a coach made the right decision in a games closing seconds. Should Kobe have shot off balance, or pass off to Pau Gasol, or should the Pistons have signed Kwame Brown. If it were up to me those would be the most controversial subjects that I would tackle.

However in the world of sports reporting in the USA in the year 2008, peripheral issues many times become bigger stories than the game itself. We only have to look back as far as last month, when the sports pages, and the sports talk shows were obsessed with Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard. Friday the Indiana Pacers traded Shawne Williams to the Mavericks, mainly due to his off the court antics.

Unfortunately, it is time for me to have to pull out my soapbox again, and rail on a clueless duo who apparently host a radio show in Minneapolis. The offensive pair work for a “Conservative Talk Show Station” KTLK-FM. The younger looking one of the pair Langdon Perry does a morning show from 5:00 am until 7:00 am. The other half of the pair of jokers Chris Baker follows him at 7:00 am and gets twice as long to spew his venom, as he is on until 11:00 am.

I will let you follow the links to their individual blogs, to see their political beliefs, the subjects especially on Baker’s blog are truly laughable. But that is not why I am taking the time to take these two to task, this is a sports website, not a political one. The “Associated Press” has reported that the pair decided last Wednesday morning, to talk about Basketball Hall Of Fame member and former Los Angeles Lakers guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson.

Considering I did not even know these men existed until recently, I must admit I have never heard them on the air. After reading about them I certainly do not have the time in my life to waste listening to them. As I have written before, when I was doing sports talk in Cleveland, I wanted to accomplish three things; to entertain, educate, and inform the listener. I have the same parameters as a listener, at face value I don’t think these men are capable of completing any of these tasks.

However I do know radio formatics, and I would venture a guess that Perry and Baker were engaging in what is known as “cross-talk.” What many radio stations do is bring in the next host for a segment just before the first host’s show is over. The premise behind it is it wets your appetite for what’s coming up after the top of the hour.

According to reports Baker and Perry had just gotten a call which must have emanated from a question that came up on the Presidential debates Tuesday night. Debate moderator asked the two standard bearers whether health care in the USA, is a privilege, a right, or a responsibility. The caller did not believe it was a basic right, Perry somehow got on the issue of living with a disease for a long time “if you just get some basic drugs.”

The following is a transcript according to the report of their on-air conversation;

Baker responded, “Like Magic Johnson?”

Perry replied, “Like Magic with his faked AIDS. Magic faked AIDS.”

Baker said, “You think Magic faked AIDS for sympathy?”

Perry replied, “I’m convinced that Magic faked AIDS.”

“Me too,” Baker said.

KTLK-FM has explained it as the two hosts making “some offhand remarks.” Dictionary.com defines offhand as “without previous thought or preparation.” I think thought is truly the operative word here. How these two still have jobs, after that exchange may be one of the question of the ages.

Johnson who is far more gracious than I am, does not believe the two hosts should be fired. Instead the man who saw his career come to an end at the age of 32 would rather the two educate their audience. Magic in a telephone interview with Associated Press said “We can’t have people out here making false statements and putting out bad information, because this battle is too big when it comes to HIV and AIDS. I poured my life into it and a lot of other people have poured their life into it, into getting out the right information so people can protect themselves and know what HIV and AIDS is all about.”

Langdon and Chris, having AIDS in 1991 was not something you got sympathy for. These people were looked at as pariahs. People were afraid to have any contact with them at all, even shaking hands! There were all sorts of stories that were coming out, that you could get it through a myriad of ways. To even suggest that Magic Johnson faked AIDS to get sympathy is beyond stupid.

Langdon and Chris I will end this by telling you what I used to tell my students at the Ohio Center for Broadcasting. You two possess a very powerful instrument in your hands, it is called a microphone. You can either use it for good or for evil, it’s up to you.