Earlier this week, Talkers Magazine — the "leading trade publication serving the talk radio industry in America" — unveiled their rankings of the 100 Most Important Sports Talk Radio Hosts in America. Coming in the 66-spot, ahead of such household names a JT "The Brick," Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, and Steve "Homer" True was our very own "Regular" Jim Traber.
Here's what they wrote about the ultimate yardbird:
Yep, that's it. No fancy write-up that includes references to breaking in baseball mitts, turkey soup recipes or incessant debates as to whether or not Tiger Woods is back. All we get is a dated picture of Regular Jim Traber looking like the pompous, arrogant, pathetic big fella that he really is.
What's sad about this is that Regular Jim seemed excited and proud when talking about the achievement on his radio show radio. I think he called it an "honor" or something. He didn't seem to understand that the list was thrown together in five minutes by a deaf robot with the clear intent of getting sports jocks to talk about it and bloggers to criticize it. Seriously, go look at the thing. It's nothing but a random sampling of 100 sports talk hosts across the country. Talker's Magazine doesn't even attempt to explain, justify or rationalize any of their picks. They don't publish any ratings data or audience size. It's just "Here you go, take our word" for it.
For an example of a very accurate, well-written and credible media ranking, I'd suggest taking a look at this Sports Media Power List put together by Sports Illustrated media columnist Richard Dietsch. Here's a sample of one from a month and a half ago:
8. The Lost Ogle.com and Jalen Rose, web heroes:
A word of advice for Skip Bayless, the cacophonous leader of ESPN2's morning Gong Show: If you are going to brag about going Pete Maravich on teams in high school, it's probably better if that's accurate, especially when you've made a lot of cash blasting athletes for being frauds. Showing Woodward and Bernstein initiative, The Lost Ogle.com, an Oklahoma-City based website, did the legwork to discover the truth about Bayless's high school career. Rose, an ESPN NBA analyst who did indeed star at Southwestern High in Detroit, then delivered the knockout shot, which you can relive here.
Well, that's odd. We were praised along with Jalen Rose in a column by one of the most respected sports media critics. Cool!
Anyway, I guess we'll take the high road and congratulate Regular Jim Traber on this non-achievement achievement. It's something he can put on his resume along with getting kicked in the face by a Japanese baseball player, being the gluttonous face of Mazzio's and having a cool cardboard cutout.
