Update April 2015 — In a further display of the Deity’s all – encompassing sense of humor, this blog has made its way to the Common Man Dan Cole himself – a full five years after its’ writing. Just yesterday, Cole took it to task on his progrum. I must admit that it was a fairly humorous listen.
It’s clear that my hopes for KFAN to be overtaken in listener-ship by KSTP have been emphatically dashed. The Fan continues to mold the sporting conversation here in the Twin Cities. Yet I still hold out hope. Perhaps the child-like wonder of baseball will reach into the Common Man’s heart and create within him a new zeal for talking about the Twins – or about anything besides his latest golf outing.
Also – if you enjoy the Fan – I want you to know that I do not begrudge you your joy. Life is short & joy is good. Mazel tov.
The Olympic Opening Ceremonies were a somewhat… unique endeavor, yet there was something unspeakably redemptive that completely saved this week. The folks at AM 1500 KSTP in Minneapolis / Saint Paul announced that they were switching their radio station from news to a sports talk format.
Hardly earth shattering – you say? Fair enough. But! Consider this. There is only one significant sports talk radio station in those Twin Cities at this juncture – AM 1130 KFAN. It is a thoroughly displeasing creature. With the advent of a new rival in its own market, KFAN is sure to suffer. And that prospect engenders within me joy.
A commenter by the name of ‘midnightt‘ on the Minnesota Twins official website had this to say after the news broke:
Best news of the day….KSTP is going to an all sports talk station in affiliation with ESPN. i LOVE IT because I have thought for years that KFAN is the worst sports station in the history of sports….
And normally this website would – of course – hesitate to indulge in hyperbole. But ya, that’s pretty well said.
Radio can still be powerful. Even in the age of video on demand, a great radio host can make a connection with a listener that is truly special. Often, this successful connection will be marked by an ability to make your listener feel you’re talking directly to them – speaking to the things they’re going through and about the things they care about. It’s usually not marked by a dedication to recounting every minute detail of the host’s life. You also frequently see great radio happen when a host is clearly enjoying his/her job and deploying a fairly upbeat demeanor about his/her content and… life in general.
Alas – KFAN has stood firmly as a monument against these principles for some time.
The chief reasons behind my personal dislike for the The Fan stretch back to times spent in wheat fields on the Great Plains – and specifically to a great deal of time I invested in the cab of my dad’s John Deere tractor, plowing those fields as a young Eastern Montanan.
That task really bonds you to your radio. It’s the only thing between you and talking to yourself all day (which can be fun for a while but sort of loses its edge after several hours). Unfortunately, there is not a cornucopia of radio offerings in that portion of the world. You’re left to the companionship of bible teaching, country crooning, elderly rockers, or sports and news talk.
Rush Limbaugh was one of the big highlights of the day. The other real treasure came in the evening, when the tale of the Minnesota Twins’ game was woven across the miles by the venerable John Gordon. Yet it was the intervening afternoon hours of fieldwork that were the tricky parts to fill.
At the time, Bismarck, North Dakota featured an affiliate of KFAN’s radio network on AM 710, which filtered across the prairie to my ears. And it was when I inevitably rested the radio dial in that position that my disappointment was fostered.
My initial glee at finding a station that spoke of Twins baseball soon turned to sadness as KFAN hosts Chad Hartman, “The Common Man” Dan Cole, and Dan Barriero displayed a rather dim view of the team – which was in the midst of a ridiculous run of success that summer that would end with their winning the division crown on the final day of the season.
The Fan’s talkers taunted the team’s lightweight players & miserly ownership. They pilloried the outdated game of baseball – and it’s massive inferiority to the NFL – seemingly on a daily basis. And when things were going too well to deny for the Twins on the field, The Fan was there to remind me that doom and additional failure were lurking just around the bend.
It almost seemed that these gentlemen would rather be somewhere else. In fact, “Common Man” Dan Cole spent most of his show explaining where he’d rather be – the golf course! He was always more than willing to share about his weekend on the links.
And yet, despite these realities, they were still talking about sports. So I would often pull through for an hour or two to bide my time till the Twins’ game. Then I first heard hosts Barriero and Hartman stray from the realm of sport into their political observations.
As a card carrying member of the right wing conspiracy – hearing these gentlemen declare that President Bush led us into Iraq on false pretenses on a campaign for oil and empire was just a bit too much to stomach. And so my brief time with The Fan met its end.
Here’s hoping that a revamped KSTP can offer a palatable alternative to KFAN, and refresh the airwaves in its wake. The rumblings are that KSTP might be losing some of the local element that’s so key to attracting listeners as they take on some syndicated ESPN programming. Even so, the nature of KFAN is such that it’s challenging to imagine listeners possibly being prohibited from flocking to KSTP in droves – a joyous stamped toward better radio for all.
KFAN is here to stay. Common (unique) and Barriero can carry the station. The rest is just mindless sports talk. I like Ruesse but come on. He will play well to the 50-dead demo. Suchy boy is OK but he ain’t sports. Kfan has carved out a nice niche in the twin cities. They did well by getting rid of Hartman. 6-noon is sufficient for sports, sports, sports.
Common Man is the single greatest single show ever!
KFAN’s morning show is generally unlistenable, and Paul Allen desperately needs a new sidekick to fill the void left by the snowblower Jeff Dubay, but clearly you don’t “get it” when it comes to Common. The whole point of Common’s show is that people take sports way too seriously and there is a lighter side to sports. His views toward the local team are generally negative, yes, but given that the Twins’ 2 WS titles are the only championships in Minnesota professional sports history, can you really say his commentary is inaccurate?
As for this point you made:
“Your teachers mention to you that it is, at times, a positive thing to sound as though you enjoy your job and have a fairly upbeat demeanor about what you’re discussing and… life in general.”
I cannot imagine somebody who fits this description more than Paul Allen. Say what you want about the morons on the morning show, but I think it’s clear they enjoy their job as well.
Dan Barreiro is a true professional. When I’ve been listening to KFAN at work all day, I find his sojourns into the political realm a welcome departure from further discussion of the topics that have been beaten like a dead horse in the shows that precede him. Also, he is able to book A-list guests from the sports world and otherwise that make his show a must-listen. You may disagree with his stances on certain issues, but he is usually at least willing to listen to other viewpoints. If you don’t like inaccurate/spun/one-sided information, why do you enjoy Limbaugh? Rush is an outstanding broadcaster, but just because he says he is right doesn’t make it so.
KFAN is not perfect, but I will never switch the the ugly stepsister that is KSTP.
P.S. If you want to remember how to spell Barreiro’s name, it’s I before E except after C and in Barreiro. I noticed you misspelled his name throughout this diatribe.
I enjoy it when “rubes” dismiss people who don”t like Dan Cole’s radio show by saying “you just don’t get it.” As if people who DO like it are in on some sort of “cosmic joke” that no one else could possibly understand and because they claim to “get it,” they are in some sort of “special fraternity.”
The bad new is, there’s nothing to get. Except the fact that “The Common Man” has the best radio gig in the Twin Cities! Who wouldn’t love being able to put in 3 hours a day talking about … nothing. Too bad the program director has to mess things up by bringing Mark Rosen on to actually talk sports once in a while.
Someone mentioned earlier that Cole is so great because he knows that sports aren’t that important and he treats them that way (I’m paraphrasing). Problem with that argument is, KFAN is “supposed” to be a sports station. Logic would indicate that if a person wanted sports talk, he’d go to KFAN. If he wanted to hear someone prattle on
about things OTHER than sports, he wouldn’t go to a sport station. Right? Now I’m not saying there isn’t room for Dan Cole on Twin Cities radio, but put “sports talkers” on the sport station and Dan on another
“Entertainment” station.
I agree.
I am psyched to hear there are others who behold that truth about Dan Cole, Joe!
Someone mentioned earlier that Cole is so great because he knows that sports aren’t that important and he treats them that way (I’m paraphrasing). Problem with that argument is, KFAN is “supposed” to be a sports station. Logic would indicate that if a person wanted sports talk, he’d go to KFAN. If he wanted to hear someone prattle on
about things OTHER than sports, he wouldn’t go to a sport station. Right? Now I’m not saying there isn’t room for Dan Cole on Twin Cities radio, but put “sports talkers” on the sport station and Dan on another
“Entertainment” station.
You make a valid point here. In the end it’s all just about personal tastes. You will never enjoy listening to the Common Man, and I will be upset with KFAN if they fire him. There is really no “truth” either way.
Dan Cole blatantly makes apparent the fact that he isn’t to be taken seriously. He has a dry sense of humor so his approach to EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING is negative and sardonic. If you were real radio critics, you would listen to more than a handful of samplings before you passed judgement. Like all things in life, books can not be judged by their covers. KFAN is a team of personalities brought to balance by a midwest look at sports and news. We arent the most successful, but are certainly very competitative and skeptical.
Although it may be hard for you to accept facts. It is clear as day that KFAN caters to the everyday Minnesota listener. Success is judged by the audience.
Well, its 2013 and KFAN is still here. I, for one, enjoy their programming and think it is head and shoulders above 1500ESPN radio. I’ll take PA any day over Judd Zulgad (who should’ve kept his day job as a beat writer) and Jeff Dubay, who sounds more coked-out now that he’s clean than he did back when he was PA’s sidekick.
Patrick Reusse? Good grief, talk about a relic and an idiot who’s opinions and perception of reality are so dated that his opinions make zero sense to anyone with an understand of the current climate of sports. Dan Cole is funny and as others have pointed out: his bit is 100% tongue in cheek all day every day. I don’t know why so many people don’t get that?! Stop taking yourself too seriously.
Finally – I live in Sioux Falls (and have for most of my life) and I’ve never heard of you, so it sounds like the radio gig is really going nicely for you. KFAN is extremely popular in the Twin Cities – some people get it, some people don’t. You obviously don’t.
Goose Nissley…what an idiot. 2014 and Kfan dominates the twin cities sports world more than Goose’s terrible opinions and predictions dominate the world of morons in Minnesota.
Friend — may I just say that it is truly an honor to hold a completely opposite view from you.
The point remains, KFAN does dominate the twin cities sports world.
Unfortunately for us – KFAN is still here, as is the Common Idiot, whoops, Man, the Power Trip, and Danny B.
As a program director in radio, you sometimes have to make unpopular and tough choices – what Chad Abbott has done is give control of the asylum to the inmates. Instead of realing in Common and Barreiro, he has proven that he is not PD material, and instead is a former morning show producer, nothing more.
PA is the only one who doesn’t stray too far from the Sports Talk realm – but even he can go off track (love line with Valentine). Morning Show is a joke when it comes to sports, Common only talks about his golf game (and uses drops from a dead man way too much) and Barreiro is honestly better when he DOESN’T talk sports – since he was last in a locker room (can’t be bothered to go to one) in the 1990’s.
What Abbott needs to do is change the name of the station from the Fan – to the Talk… The easy course for him and Clear Channel would be to admit that they are not a sports station, but a news / talk station – who happens to have a few sports teams on board, and maybe talks about the “toy department” once in a while. WCCO did it very well in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s – they had Gophers, Twins, Vikings, etc… and were not billing them selves as a SPORTS station – and it worked. They had one Sports segment a day – evenings 6 or 7 – to 9 or 10 – with various hosts – all the other parts of the day only had brief scheduled sports cut ins – notably with hartman and rosen. And of course they had the Sunday morning Dave Mona/ Sid Hartman love fest.
If that were done – change the tag, name and branding KFAN would be better off and people who want sports could go to another station.
The other option for Abbott and the brain wizzards is to lay down the law – fire 5 out of 6 hosts – and find new “SPORTS” talent or develop the talent. Mike Morris actually had talent and knew sports – Ben Leber is the same way. Give Leber the 12-3 slot – no pressure – and fire common. Get rid of the Power trip – with the exceptions of AJ and Meatsauce – and let them talk sports in the morning. Lambert (when not picked on and engaged) is actually listenable. For the PM Drive – Find a new talent who knows and loves sports – of all flavors. Barreiro is so out dated at 60 that is not funny. Get a guy like Perkins (Eric) or similar.
There also is something seriously wrong over there when the sidekicks are as hideous as they are when the “host” is gone. JG is unlistenable, Tennabe isn’t far behind…
my 2 cents worth
Goose, I am sure there is a large number of sports fans in the upper- Midwest that may not like/get the content of kfan. But the fact that they are now broadcasting on FM, and have contracts to broadcast many local teams, I think its fairly safe to say that 1500 sports talk/ ESPN, has not come close to putting a dent into kfan’s listening audience. Personally i find the AM station shows to be too predictable, and boring. I too have spent many hours on a tractor with only the radio to keep me company, and I do think that the variety between sports talk and news, has helped bolster their value to the average listener. An article such as yours, that savages something is more entertaining, than trying to look at something comprehensively, but in this case a follow up statement acknowledging that kfan must be doing something right might be the right approach.
I just recently moved to LA for work, but listen to KFAN on iHEART radio now to keep up to date with the happenings of my “home town” sports teams and to listen to the “personalities” I’ve grown up with.
I found this site in reference to “a former employee who called KFAN the worst…etc ” ( paraphrasing here … ) while listening to the Common Man today . This is awesome !! Goose, do you realize that at this point, the Common Man is keeping you relevant ( albeit fairly ambiguous ), in some respects, for the majority of MN sport talk radio listeners ?
I read your article and of course your opinion is respected, but it does seem like an article written by a person who has difficulties out-side-the-box . Have you ever thought about trying to debate this topic with Common live on his show ? That would be fantastic radio…award worthy I’m sure, and most definitely out-side-the-box . Just a thought ..
Best ,
Connor
Hey Connor!
I appreciate you taking the time to write your thoughtful comment.
It’s been amazing & amusing to me that this piece has continued to generate comments five years after it went up!
I just re-read the blog again this evening, and – I must say – I do stand behind what I wrote to this day. If I had it to craft over again, I do think I’d be a bit less mean about the voiceover guy’s intonations – because life is too short to be mean.
My hopes that 1500 would surpass The Fan in Twin Cities sporting hearts do appear to have been thoroughly dashed. While KSTP does seem to have attracted a substantial audience (myself included), the Fan clearly still dominates the conversation – my circle of sporting friends included. So your contention that I may have difficulty thinking outside the box – at least when it comes to what will succeed in local media and won’t – appears to be meritorious indeed. In any case, I’m glad you enjoy the station, and the more power to you.
I hadn’t been aware that Mr. Cole was referring to this blog! Are you sure this is the piece he was talking about – or are you thinking because of where it showed up on a web search? I’ve never been an employee of the Fan, so that would be a surprise!
Goose –
I was incorrect . ( guy below me is correct on that …he has been saying that forever…thought it was you.. ) They are talking specifically about your blog today though ..
I used to hate common too, but he grew on my in college and now I think he’s about as genius as they come, post-dark star. I completely understand why some people don’t like him, but I just think he’s misunderstood . Also, I apologize for saying ‘you don’t think out side the box’..I don’t know you and that’s unfair .
Also, how many people that listen to Common are on this blog now ? tof2citiesmn, what brought you here to this site…same deal as me ? I find it amusing.
Best,
Connor
probably, a long time ago. But I am in the can’t stand common camp. I get it that a lot of his and Dan b’s stuff are bits. But, if you’re an all sports station, maybe you ought to drop the bit playing more often than not
No problem mate. I’m glad that Mr. Cole gives you joy, and I appreciate your comments. Do I have you to thank for my recent KFAN fame?!
Connor –
Actually Common repeated the story of the “worst sports talk radio” station a few months ago (and probably many times since) and named the name of the person who made the comment. His initials: E.N.
Aha! I would appear to be in the proverbial clear then.
and of course – here we go again… Barriero spending 50 minutes with the fictitious Marty Wexler III – on the eve of the draft. Someone please make it stop. We get it that you think the draft is over blown, over analyzed and doesn’t mean anything DAN, but really? I just wish the advertisers and station management would for once put their foot down on this nonsense and say – “Play it straight – other sports stations do and they do pretty good. “