OT- Ira at WTKA
Yep. He's still f%#^ing talking about it. Now he's reading a new email. Tuesdays from 9-10 are apparently say something douchy and then argue with listeners day.
Does anybody else feel my pain?
September 24th, 2013 at 10:00 AM ^
I do not feel your pain. If you don't like listening to someone on the radio, turn it off or turn to another station.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:01 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:11 AM ^
It doesn't sound like they're talking about Michigan, so it shouldn't be a problem.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:36 AM ^
Right on. WTKA's advantage in the morning is that they cover Michigan. If they're not talking about Michigan athletics, they're no different than 3-4 other local sports stations. And without Sam, there are better radio personalities than Ira that I can listen to. Glad I wasn't subjected to it.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:21 AM ^
I call that the Mike Valenti approach.
September 24th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^
then you have to be able to deal with critics. Ira struggles with this. I think he's a good guy. I'd imagine I would enjoy having a beer with him. But he's not a great radio personality. Biggest issue is that he's not funny. And that's not a knock. It's just that not everyone is funny. It helps when you're a radio personality that you have a make you laugh factor. Also, his Michigan arrogance makes even a Michigan grad cringe. Again, he wants to bash Sparty or Ohio but he doesn't have the humor to do so it comes off as just arrogance. And he needs to let go of the Phil thing. It's not funny. It's not informative. He's a caller with another opinion. Give him his 30 seconds and leave it at that.
Sam is pretty good and he's the man on recruiting so he makes it worth listening to.
The thing that always makes me quickly scramble for the tuner is caller Brian! OMG can he please take about a year off and not call the show every day with the same lame comments.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:02 AM ^
The show is definatly less fun when Webb/Brian/Clark not in studio. I do turn the dial when it is Ira and MArcus Ray, who I like sometimes, but find hard to take in long periods.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:08 AM ^
Wasn't Ira the one who claimed he could bat .200 if he played in MLB or something like that?
September 24th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
and I've never heard Ira say that. I'd guess he was joking or using hyperbole if he did. He has strong opinions and isn't hesitant to express or defend them, but he's not stupid.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
I think I'm thinking of Ryan Ermanni.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:09 AM ^
When reporting the story about Burleson, he said "Same old Lions" which a listener thought meant that Ira was glad or happy that Burleson was injured in the accident. That was not the case... he was just referring to the long, sad Lions history of bad luck, which accompanies their long, sad history of incompetence.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
well same old lions is pretty much a fact. If the same trend continues for over 50 years you can assume the trend will continue for the time being....
September 24th, 2013 at 7:04 PM ^
While I know that Ira was not wishing Burleson ill or anything like that I do wish he would just stop talking about the lions. He may have just been reporting the Burleson stroy this morning but it didn't come off that way to me immediately either. Maybe that is because 95% of the time he talks about the lions it is to rag on them in some way or make fun of them. Fine your a ravens fan great but don't act like your the smartest man in the room because the rest of us are just dumb lions fans.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:10 AM ^
invariably leads to crappy airtime.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
Yep. There are varying degrees of crappy too.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:17 AM ^
Replace Burleson with [insert detroit athlete here] and your first three sentences seem to be Ira's typical script. He does a nice job running the programming at WTKA but I don't think he is a quality radio personality.
September 24th, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
And manages to create some good events. Though why the hell they can't get the MGoBlog roundtable mic thing figured out so Sam doesn't blast out of the speakers and Brian and Craig are a whisper I don't know.
But on air he's best in small doses. Sam is great, but the guy before Ira was actually better with him. (My wife can't stand his voice on the radio either). And Marcus is no replacement for Sam, because he's not really suited for long airtime filling. He should be great on the BTN in soundbytes and telling stories, without hours of interaction.
Sam has a REALLY good excuse to be gone, but come back soon.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:20 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:23 AM ^
Just have a few toddlers run around you yelling each morning and all you'll want is piece and quiet on your ride into work. Radio off - problem solved.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:39 AM ^
well, if you listened to Ira's interview with Eric Adelson this morning, you WERE listening to toddlers run around and yell.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
*peace*
September 24th, 2013 at 10:26 AM ^
He's a good dude. That being said, that show is struggling without Sam, and finding it difficult to fill air time. Let's be honest, 95% of the reason people listen is the Recruiting Roundup, so when that's not there, people will look for even more of a reason to be overly critical.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:26 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
If Sam isn't there, and Ira is alone, he'll rattle on and on until you can't take it any more. I think the good talk show hosts know when to talk and when to shut up. Ira hasn't learned the latter skill very well yet.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:52 AM ^
Ira has a bad habit of interrupting Sam, who is the reason I'm sure everyone listens. That habit is compounded by his opinion statements, which he nearly always follows with a "that being said" or two so that he really cannot be wrong about anything.
Actually quite maddening just trying to get to the Sam parts sometimes. And no, I do not listen if Sam is not there.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
Yep. Sam makes getting through the endless amount of commercials worth it. I've tried changing the station during commercials, but I sometimes miss the beginning of the recruiting round-up, which was the main reason for listening.
Can't wait for Sam to get back.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:47 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:13 AM ^
Man, that annoys me as well. Often times he’s interrupting to list some supplemental piece of information like the score of a game that happened six years ago. On occasion the interruption is justified or pertinent to the discussion but more often times it’s just disrupting the flow of someone else making a good point or pleasant banter (when MGo roundtable crew is on).
September 24th, 2013 at 3:17 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
Honestly, when I saw that Burleson broke his arm, I too thought "Same old Lions", meaning, holy sh*t, is there a NFL team with worse fu*king luck???
Did the Ford family piss off the owner of a goat, refuse a deal with Satan, wtf?
September 24th, 2013 at 10:41 AM ^
He crashed his car when he tried to prevent a pizza from falling off the passenger seat. It's unfortunate, but in terms of combining boneheadedness and a universe with no sympathy whatsoever, that is about as Lions as it gets.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:53 AM ^
Ira didn't say anything malicious about Burleson, he simply used the common phrase "Same Old Lions" to describe yet another unfortuante twist to the Lions long history of unfortunate twists. Did he get a bit upset when someone insinuated he was exactly like Jim Comparoni (the guy who called for Devin to get his knees blown out during the ND game), hell yeah. I would too. That said, the show obviously misses Sam, but he'll be back soon.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:57 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 12:11 PM ^
He's as devoted to UM sports as it's possible to be, but he's knowledgeable about a wide range of sports and sports issues beyond UM. I also enjoy the fact that he doesn't suffer the fools who call in regularly gladly. And why wouldn't he talk about Maryland? He grew up there, and his family is still there. I enjoy the perspective he brings about the Terps now that they're joining the conference. Yes, he can be combative at times, but that's hardly a unique or disqualifying feature for radio personalities. I think Ira and Sam are a great morning combo, and they beat the hell out of anything WTKA has had on the afternoon by miles.
September 24th, 2013 at 1:30 PM ^
Because he gets half his ideas for topics and 90% of his arguments from the blog. He should pay Brian royalties.
September 24th, 2013 at 3:18 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 3:49 PM ^
I mean not really...but really, when you list Pat Caputo as good at anything the rest all becomes null and void.
September 24th, 2013 at 4:19 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:16 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:29 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:51 AM ^
In August, when the issue of closing main st on football game days was discussed, Mr. Weintraub criticized people who called themselves "citizens" who were opposed to the policy. Mr. Weintraub's point was that a person may be a "resident" of a city but not a "citizen"----which to me implied that the people against the policy must be wrong because they weren't even smart enough to know they were "residents', not "citizens".
I e-mailed the station pointing this out, however, since I share the frustration discussed by other posters in this thread, I [in a not very charitable way] added:
Do I need to add that by far the best portions of the program are when you are not speaking? [Even the commercials are better.] While it must be extremely difficult to be on the radio, or in the public eye, day after day, I still must point out that I find you neither entertaining, nor informative.
Holy cow! Weintraub went off like a rocket. This little gem earned a ten [fifteen?] minute spot on that morning's show where the above was called the e-mail of the month [year?].
Anyway, I suggest that he has watched a lot of sports, but really has not learned as much as one would hope from what he has seen.
September 24th, 2013 at 6:50 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 11:55 AM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^
That ain't sayin' much.
September 24th, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^
Ira is fine (good, actually). Certainly someone starting a thread to complain about something that he misinterpreted is more annoying than a radio host. It's also nice that Ira brings an east coast perspective, given that so many Michigan people come from that region. WTKA is great when doing the local shows. I'd much rather hear talk about Michigan sports than hear Mike Valenti whine about what snacks he doesn't like or some other fat slob talk about his favorite tv shows.
September 24th, 2013 at 12:51 PM ^
I like Ira a lot. My gripe with the show is how they have WAY too many guests, interviews, and phone callers. They do that because they cannot fill the majority of the show with their own stuff. While I absolutely despise the Mike and Mike show (haven't listened to it in about six years), they don't take any calls and don't have nearly as many interviews or guests. The same goes with Jim Rome. I never listen to the segments discussing Olympic sports because I simply don't care about them (and I'm sure 90%+ of the audience doesn't either). That's the only show I know of that discusses M football and basketball at length, so I have to take what I can get. Living in NE Ohio, it's a beautiful thing to have access to radio talk about Michigan that isn't negative like I get here in Ohio.
EDIT: Regarding the phone callers, they're the SAME callers daily and I can't stand any of them. JJ in Linkin Park, Phil the Ignorant Asshole, Don, True Blue Tom, Linda (whom I have not heard call in a long time, thankfully), the guy who fails miserably with his Bob Ufer impersonations, and several others I cannot think of right now.
September 24th, 2013 at 1:44 PM ^
September 24th, 2013 at 2:42 PM ^
but you're badly mistaken in saying that I call daily.