I Miss The Same Old Show On My Radio

Driving home from the game tonight was pleasurable for a change. It had nothing to do with traffic, or even the result on the pitch from this evening’s match. No, what made the difference tonight was being able to listen to some football talk radio on the way home. Football talk about the Whitecaps.

Southsiders Director of Events, Massimo Cusano, made another appearance on Team 1040’s Full Time Football Show this evening and it was great to hear the Caps being discussed in such depth and for so long on Vancouver radio once again and with such enthusiasm and passion from Mass and the regular host Mike Martignago.

It is of course a sad rarity and it’s definitely one of the things I miss here on matchdays – decent football coverage on the airwaves. In the UK on a Saturday (or whatever gameday) you can search the dial and find several shows, pre, during and post match.

Having had a couple of jobs that took me driving all over Scotland, sometimes, especially late at night, I just wasn’t in the mood for music and wanted to just zone out to some talk radio. Sport, current affairs, general nonsense. I listened to it all for my sins or mental illness.

Fuck knows why most of the time as it just ended up with me screaming obscenities at my car radio and probably drawing a few worried glances from fellow motorists at lights.

On matchdays though, BBC Five Live and Radio Scotland would get me my football fix on the airwaves, with everything from Danny Baker to fun panel shows, reviews of the weeks news, transfers and talking points, pre match build up, commentaries, post match interviews, reports and analysis and even later post match phone ins, featuring a wide range of overjoyed fans, depressed fans and those somewhere in between who feel they have the cure to all the game’s and their team’s ills. Oh and usually some argumentative bastard that liked the sound of his own voice. I didn’t always phone in though!

After this glut of information and misinformation at my fingertips and eardrums, being a football fan in Vancouver has been a horrible wake up call as to how the sport is treated here by the media.

Several times this season, I’ve been driving home from Swangard and like an idiot who never learns, or someone who finds it too hard to get out of his ways, I start searching the stations on the radio to find some kind of sports show that will hopefully mention the Caps and the game I’ve just been at. I end up sighing and sticking on a CD.

For some away games, I’ve found myself caught up at work or driving home and wanting to find out how the Caps are getting on. I try and find some commentary on the radio. Anywhere on it. Even if it’s in French, that would do. I end up sighing and sticking on a CD.

On most occasions, what I find is Jim “How Long Can I Make This Sentence Last For By Pausing For An Insane Amount Of Times Between Words” Rome or fucking Seattle Mariners baseball. Both can put you to sleep behind the wheel and should contain some kind of health warning.

Now, I get that football is a minority sport in North America. In Canada. And in Vancouver. But baseball? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind baseball. I’ve been to a lot of games over the years and try and check out the Vancouver Canadians at least once each season.

That’s just it though. If it was a Canadians game that was being broadcast I could understand it a little better. Not much, but a little. They’re from the city. They’re from Canada. But when a radio station chooses to air commentary of a match up from a city a couple of hours away, in another country and featuring two American teams, you can’t help but wonder why and what football has to do to get it’s break in the media here.

Now obviously MLS will help, as once something has that shiny “Major League” tag on it the media start salivating like hungry dogs, but it shouldn’t be this way.

The Caps are still deciding on their radio partner for when they move to MLS I believe. What I would have liked to have seen was a radio station stepping up to the plate this season and giving the Caps the blanket coverage they deserve. That station would then get the reward of getting the MLS coverage and the respect of the fans in the process for not just jumping on the bandwagon with the big boys.

Team 1040 is the home of the Canucks. Team 1410, the Lions. Surely someone else could have made a big play here with a view to the wider picture?

I’m not naive enough to expect the phone ins to be jammed with calls talking about the Caps or 7 days a week coverage. I’d have been happy with just gameday coverage, pre, during and post match. The Timbers have this down in Portland and it’s been great listening to it.

We’ll see what next season brings. There’s not going to be any sudden changes this season, we’re way too late for that, and I don’t even think we’ll see seismic shifts next, but there will be more – well there couldn’t really be too much less. It’s disappointing. We still have shows like Full Time though and thank goodness for that. More power to them.

Authored by: Michael McColl

There are 2 comments for this article
  1. Anonymous at 05:03

    Not about the radio show but I tuned in to watch CTV local sports news at 11:30 after every Whitecaps game day because they have had some good coverage of the men, especially last season with the goal-fest we had with Marcus Haber and Charles Gbeke making for something highlights worth broadcasting.

    Therefore, Saturday night I tuned in to watch after the thrill of watching the Whitecaps FC Women's Melissa Tancredi score one of the prettiest goals ever with a bunch of amazing highlights. Including a save by ex-Chelsea Ladies FC keeper, Siobhan Chamberlain, that should have made the plays of the week and never mind the fact that the Whitecaps FC Women just won the Western Conference Championship!

    This will be the sixth time that Vancouver has booked a trip to the 'Final Four' after previous appearances in the W-League's showcase competition in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006. The Whitecaps FC Women won the league title in 2004 and 2006, and were the losing finalists in 2001. Vancouver Whitecaps FC Women's all-time playoff record now stands at 10W-3L-3D.

    I know the men are heading to the MLS next year. I watched hall the interesting highs and lows for the men with the team this year as it has been cut to the bone so that all the young talented players the Whitecaps have developed will get a chance to prove they have the right stuff to play in the MLS next year. I have been one of the most vocal supporters, next to my friend Leslie, for playing more young talented players instead of buying solutions to their problems.

    The highlights from the W-League Western Conference Championship game the Whitecaps FC Women won beating the PALI BLUES, the BEST new team in the league that went unbeaten until this summer when the Whitecaps FC Women beat them in all three matches including the latest game in the fantastic Championship run!

    Waiting…

    Watching…

    Nothing…

    Not a single word!

    WTF!

    Canada has some of the most talented women players in the world of soccer and so many of those great World Cup and Olympic women have sacrificed so much to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC this year. After a few years away and for little or NO money they have just WON the toughest game in years without superstar Kara Lang, who was sidelined with yet another injury, a stress fracture in her foot. She is the one player that has sacrificed more than I can imagine after she helping the Whitecaps become so very popular as a teenager she went on to be arguably the most popular player for the Whitecaps FC before leaving to join the WPS but came back home to the Whitecaps FC to recover from a knee injury.

    Not a word of this makes the LOCAL news.

    If I were the incredibly talented Melissa Tancredi, ever dominating Emily Zurrer, deadly Kaylyn Kyle, mother Martina Franko , Sophie Schmidt, Robin Gayle, Jodi-Ann Robinson, etc., etc., all who gave up something to come play for the Whitecaps FC this year I might make another choice next time!

    Please note women that I appreciated and enjoyed every moment this season. Please come back and play next year as a favour to me? Please. Thank you and good luck in Santa Clarita, California, playing in the W-League semifinals this Thursday, July 29 against the top-seeded Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues in an 8 pm PT start. The W-League championship final is set for next Saturday, July 31, at 7 pm PT.

  2. Krammerhead at 20:52

    The womens team is an amateur team that played a grand total of 10 regular season games this season, and another 3 post season including the final. If the interest in amateur womens soccer was there, they'd be playing professional in WPS and selling out Swangard, and by selling out I mean actually selling tickets, not giving them away in the mens season ticket package.

    If that happened then the coverage would be there.

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