LaVar Arrington may be an impact player once again.
When 106.7 The Fan debuted on Monday, the new all-sports station in Fairfax suddenly gave Washington fans some options. ESPN 980 no longer monopolizes despite a mixture of national morning shows and signal that dies at sundown.
Washingtonians will become dial hoppers. Fans likely will listen to which show they prefer without pledging allegance to one station. Sometimes it just comes down to what’s being discussed for the next 10 minutes.
It’s going to be close for now. The old WTEM has an edge in a longtime following and John Thompson faithful. But, The Fan has better hosts and more local content.
The Junkies return to their original roots as the Sports Junkies. They’re local, which is what fans want to hear in the early a.m. over ESPN’s Mike and Mike, a good national show. The Junks should edge ahead.
The Fan’s Mike Wise then faces nationally-syndicated Colin Cowherd and local Kevin Sheehan for two hours each. The new station hopes Wise can recreate his Washington Post predecessor Tony Kornheiser’s radio magic. Fortunately, Wise is facing weak competition. Cowherd is awful so Wise should take those two hours and Sheehan desperately needs a sidekick to balance the matter-of-fact host. Wise versus Sheehan could be a draw.
So the 2-6 p.m. segment before both stations later yield to live events is critical. Sports talk is really about one thing in this town — the Redskins.
Arrington and sidekick Chad Dukes versus Thompson and Doc Walker is the fourth-and-goal manhood check. Thompson wins when it’s basketball season, but it’s football season in this town in any month not named March. That leaves Walker to fend off Arrington.
Doc appeals to those who love the game’s power. But, fans also loved Arrington’s knockout play as a Redskin from 2000-2005. If The Fan is to quickly compete against its established rival, Arrington needs to make some noise.
Arrington’s frankness will do just that. In the opening minutes of his first show, Arrington joked over Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s “mancrush” on quarterback Mark Sanchez, predicted the Redskins wouldn’t make the playoffs and figured Jason Campbell won’t return next season.
Arrington will at least break even against Thompson and beat The Sports Reporters afterwards. These four hours are the ones most worth hearing.
If nothing else, sports talk radio just greatly improved.
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com or e-mail [email protected].
