Final results: your favorite hosts at KNBR and 95.7 FM “The Game”

Bay Area Sports Guy November 09, 2012

The first two Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria contest posts this week asked the readers to choose their favorite host at KNBR and 95.7 FM “The Game.” The readers have spoken, and a lot of you told us that you’re switching over to KNBR 1050 from noon-to-3.

Bay Area Stats Guy ran the numbers and came up with a couple graphs to show how the hosts fared in these popularity contests.

Favorite host: KNBR

Damon Bruce was the clear winner. Tom Tolbert came in second, with Brian Murphy and Gary Radnich in a tie for third.

Favorite Host: The Game

The results here didn’t surprise me at all. Chris Townsend gets plenty of love in the comments, especially from hardcore A’s fans. Dan Dibley came in a relatively close second, with Greg Papa finishing third. An interesting connection between all three: they all used to be heard regularly on KNBR.

And the winning commenters are…

A big congratulations to “BD” and “The Sports Leader,” the two winners randomly drawn who will each receive a Pizza Party for 10 from Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria!

We received 300 comments in all, which made choosing a winner a pretty long process. If you’re curious how those names were chosen, I generated the winners by entering each person into Text Mechanic’s ”Random Line Picker.”

Thank you all for playing, it was fun to read all the responses. I knew a lot of you had some strong opinions about local sports talk radio, and you sure didn’t disappoint.

About the Author

Otherwise known as Steve Berman (no, not the guy from the Eminem skits), BASG started Bay Area Sports Guy in January of 2008 with the help of his then-girlfriend (now wife). Since then he's covered college football for CSN Bay Area, gained media access to the Giants, Warriors and 49ers, and built Bay Area Sports Guy into the No. 1 independent Bay Area sports blog. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

36 comments

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Car

This is a good blog message, I will keep the post in my mind. If you can add more video and piucerts can be much better. Because they help much clear understanding. thanks Cavalieri.

Manish

And Elena's Aunt invited Katherine INSIDE!!! ARGH!omg I love Damon. But I love stfaen too argh I feel like Bella! hahahaha It was such a cliffhanger! What happens when she looks in the kitchen? Pretty weird seeing yourself if katherine is there?

Slam

I can find fault with everyone, including D Bruce; but it's pretty clear from this poll that he is by far #1. Damon Bruce is the King

formerKNBRemployee

my vote for Sam Spear was not counted??? What am I a republican voter in Ohio??? OUTRAGE! Btw... I'm sure Radnich is THRILLED to be tied with Murph... actually he probably won't ever know... cause it was written on a blog.

Fitz's Future Unemployment Check

I'm sure he'll reference it when he rips bloggers next time.

Murray

This must have been a pretty small sample size. Damon Bruce is totally overrated.

Tyce Fields

While I like D-Bruce, I ranked him #2 just because I connect so well with Murph. I think this poll shows Damon is most popular with the cross section of fans that are also BASG followers/readers. The Arbitron ratings tell a different story. I'm willing to bet Fitz and Brooks rate higher than Damon, and Radnich too. Give Damon 5 More years and he'll be the lead dog on KNBR 12-3 or off to a bigger station than 1050.

Eric

I love that people are always writing D Bruce off, yet as it shows, he is by FAR the most popular host on the air, and his opinion matter. Equally great, is the fact that the two most popular hosts on the Game are..what? KNBR castoffs. All you who 'disliked' the posts heckling the Game but supporting KNBR. KNBR always will bet the top dog, and the Game will be off the air in two years.

It would be a shame if the Game went off the air. I do like having more sports options in the Bay Area. It's not the station that's the problem, but merely the poor programming choices of Barrett. Dumping Lund, bellboy, and dropping the all the gimmick segments would be a good start. And I think we can all agree that Townsend with Bucher this week has just continued to prove that bellboy needs to get the boot... again.

Otis Byrd III

Yeah, I totally agree. As far as 95.7 goes, I'm not sure if they will be off in 2 yrs., but it doesn't look good for them though. I know this will never happen but, it's kind of too bad that 95.7 can't be an extension of KNBR, but they do A's games and even pick up the Raiders and the Sharks too. Yes, they are KNBR's competitor, but it would be great if they could turn that or another FM station to be KNBR's FM affiliate, and be another option to where games and shows can be bounced to instead of 1050, just in case it conflicts with a Giants, Niners, or Warriors game on KNBR, when the A's, Raiders, or Sharks aren't playing. Yeah, this will never happen, but it would be an interesting idea. But yes, I agree that KNBR will always be the top dog. Even though it's nice to have an alternative, it's not a good idea to go up against the more familiar sports station. This would be like if the Clippers or the Nets tried to say that they were better than the Lakers or the Knicks and try to turn Laker fans into Clipper fans, or Knicks fans into Nets fans. LOL. Yeah, that might be a stretch, but it's almost kind of the same thing. You have a new sports station that's trying to compete with a station that's been the only sports station in the Bay Area. Yes, the Clippers and the Nets have been around for a while, but the Clippers are winning now, and the Nets are basically a new franchise now that they moved to Brooklyn.

Eric

Until there is a station with some juice, it will never compete. I live in Santa Cruz, and you can't get 1050, or the Game, while you can get the majority of Bay Area stations. This is true of a lot of the Northern counties as well above the City. The area down to Monterey is packed with sports fans...almost 800,000 people, many of whom have shunned the A's for the Giants because of lack of a radio station. A's attendance also reflects this point, and its been a problem since way before the current ownership. Ditto the Raiders, who only now have a sturdy signal on a different station, evne though we are still in the blackout area. Big signal means staying power in the market, and the Giants are even syndicated with the Monterey ESPN station. Bottom line is that KNBR will always be king, and small time stations, with underwhelming talent and signal strength, will always be clinging to a thread of the market share. If the teams would make sure to sign on with stations that have the wattage to reach people, then the stations will do better, can attract better talent, and will survive the long haul. KNBR hasn't lasted this long as a sports only station by accident. The Game will always be the red headed stepchild (sorry Dibs) of KNBR.

OBIII - The Game might not be off the ait within 2 years, but I would be amazed if the current crop of "hosts" will still be there. Just look at all the changes they've made in one year.

BASG

I sent emails to two people who have commented on this very post that they won the 10-person pizza party, but haven't heard a response back. Maybe I need to pick two more winners...

hmmm... someone using phony email addresses perhaps?

The Sports Leader

I am here. I returned your email around 5:00pm. The Sports Leader.

Fitz's Future Unemployment Check

I promise I'll reply

The Sports Leader

This only affirms what many of us have known for some time. Damon Bruce is the only one at KNBR with intellectual integrity.

While I expected something about the hosts, I'm surprised I didn't see anything in article about all the same complaints that everyone had... weak signal, too many commercials, gimmick segments, etc...

Shirley Ng

The Damon Bruce detractor who thumbed down my vote for him the other day can go suck it! Dbruce is the best and it cannot be denied, from the poll results. And notice I am using my real name and not some stupid alias. Proud of my DBruce fandom. Been listening to sports radio talk hosts for 20 years and it is real obvious who the posers are and who are the real thing.

B.A. Rich

Uh-oh, it's getting real serious.

Fitz's Future Unemployment Check

I actually know a Shirley Ng I wonder if its the same one...

John Sports

Lighten up Francis.

3rdKing

damon bruce is on 1050 cause everyone knows he's the best...and he keeps it real with the Giants, Niners, and the Dodger Basketball team currently in oakland.... damon bruce is a national talent, they just don't know it yet

Otis Byrd III

LOL. Dodger basketball team in Oakland. Yeah, it sucks that Guber also owns part of the Dodgers. Brian Murphy was pissed about that earlier this year. This is all a business to Guber though. He owns more of the Warriors than the Dodgers though I think. I agree that Damon is a national talent. There is something to be said about being one of the voices on video games (NBA 2K and that The Bigs MLB video game), and of course filling in for Jim Rome every once in a while. Today, him and McBride were talking about working together on one of the next 30-for-30's on ESPN. Damon is going to be doing the voiceover for the story, or something like that. They were talking about it earlier. This probably is a big opportunity for the both of them. But yeah I agree, Damon is a national talent. If he ever does go national, hopefully he stays here in the Bay Area. Damon really has come a long way from his Sportsphone days.

Stan

Are Bruce and Kreuger still hosting the pregame 49 show? 'cause Kreuger is constantly launching putdowns at Bruce. "The syndication guy" " "If it's Indiana I constantly here about it from Damon"..and the Lincecum as reliever was a debate over two shows,two stations between the two. And Kruger doesn't life a tongue to help Bruce when Raddy adds his shots at Bruce. Toss in Fitz...and KNBR hosts sure don't invite each over for dinner huh?

Otis Byrd III

Yes, Damon and Krueger are still hosting the 49ers pregame show. They're still friends. They just joke around with each other a lot. Gary and Damon hate/dislike/can't stand each other, but Krueger is still friends with Damon. It's still a shame that they're not doing 49er postgame together anymore. I'm sorry but Rich Wolcoff sucks on 49er postgame. Terrible decision by Cumulus/KNBR/KGO to take Damon off of 49er postgame and put him on 49er pregame. As Damon said in the past, who listens to pregame?!? They're not bad on 49er pregame, but they were great on 49er postgame. I mentioned this before, but it's too bad they don't do 49er postgame from Sam's Chowder House anymore. As far as the rest of the KNBR hosts go, I'm sure they are all friends with each other, I think. I find it weird how when they do the faceoff in between the Gary and Larry Show and the Fitz and Brooks Show, Rod is normally there in studio to talk to Gary and Krueger, while Fitz calls in from the phone sometimes/most of the time. He gets there right before the show most of the time, I guess, or maybe he probably just doesn't want to talk to Gary, one of the two. LOL.

The Sports Leader

I share your sentiments Mr Byrd III. Rich Walcoff comes across so pious. I sometimes wonder if I am listening to a Sunday morning sermon. Complete company man. Will never say a critical word about the 49ers. Walcoff what's the point of hosting a postgame show if all I hear are excuses for a team's shortcomings. He's been at KGO too long.

Stan

Kreuger does have the audacity to rip the Warriors-I give him that. Just a matter of time before KNBR goes into "silence" mode when those two trade blows. Like with Fitz's trollgate of Kawakami's blog a few years ago. If it ever did truly end.

devnull

Were all the up|downvotes factored in at all, or just the comments themselves? Most of the pro-Damon posts I saw seemed to have a majority of downvotes, whereas e.g. pro-Tom posts were mostly upvoted (this is top-o-the-head anecdotal and I'm making no claims to scientific or statistical methods :-) ).

B.A. Rich

I was thinking the same. A lot of down thumbs for Bruce. I'm sure he'll mention this 'contest' on his show. Desperation.

Fitz's Future Unemployment Check

So what you're saying is you went through ton of time and downvoted them?

devnull

Me? Nah, I read through the posts like anybody else. I was just curious if the up|downvotes were factored in, that's all. Don't take it to heart -- you know what ":-)" means, right?

John Sports

Even though i really don't care for Damon Bruce, he does have a huge following. I just wonder why he's not on KNBR instead of 1050.

Paperback Writer

John Sports; Damon WAS on 680, briefly, but for professional reasons had to be removed back onto the triple A station,1050. It iswell documented how immature, egotistical and rude he was, totally unprofessional, he blew it. He is not my cup of java, but is talented and hard-working and will rise here or in another city. Dibley? Not my cup of water, even if stranded in the desert, he works hard and has his fans, but really an acquired taste. - if your taste buds are off. Deserves a job, though. Dibs and DBruce will be sure to take this poll into their next contract negotiations - no?

John Sports

I hear you PW, I hardly ever listen to KNBR anymore. I like the Game more...But it just seems like D.Bruce is very popular and it would be in KNBR's best interest to slot him in on the "Flame thrower" who knows maybe 95.7 will eventually hire him away from KNBR.

End Of the Bench

Because most of us people that vote on here ARE passionate enough about sports to begin with. I don't think Bruce's Victory on here reflects the general populace. If it did, Bruce would be on 12-3 on 680 and Fitz and Brooks would have already been relegated elsewhere.