As most of you know, the local media (with the exception of myself) have been a bunch of lapdogs for ETSU administration.

There has been ONE exception and it is a poor one. Back in 1996 Bill Meade pushed for George Pitts to be the head basketball coach at ETSU.

That has overrated Pitts in this market to the point Ed DeChellis never got his due here.

Never mind the truly outstanding crop of coaching candidates brought in. Never mind that high school coaches brought into a major college program as head coaches always fail. Never mind ETSU was revived under DeChellis.

Pitts should have been the coach. Didn't you see what he did at Brentwood Academy?

Now, with Pitts at King College the new all-sports radio station has put King's games on the air ahead of ETSU, since it seems WJCW will be kept as off limits as possible to sports.

What are your thoughts here? Smart money says the Bucs basketball will be on an FM next season, but wouldn't the strongest AM signal in the market and being surrounded by sports programming be better than "The Greatest Hits of the '80s!"

The elaborate pre and post game shows may be a thing of the past.

And if ETSU goes off Citadel, then what is the future of Don Helman? And what is the future of discussing ETSU sports on really the only outlet for opinion and discussion of ETSU sports outside of this board?

WJCW has a much stronger signal in Johnson City the WXSM does after the power down. They did the smart thing leaving ETSU (and NASCAR) on WJCW where it might actually be heard after dark.


R

Shaw- The powers that be don't want sports on WJCW anymore.

From what I'm told, it's off the table.

Unfortunate if true.

If ETSU basketball goes to an FM then great. If they leave Citadel then lord help us. We could be hearing Scott Gray with Sandos. I'd almost rather hear Steven Linebarger say "Let's be Honest Jay" another 100,000 times followed by some outlandish comment that is coming out of the mouth of a fan drinking the ETSU kool aid.

I have concerns that this is yet another turn in the downward spiral that has become ETSU athletics.

While signal strength is debatable, we now have the area's sports station (xsm) with a 500 traditional student NAIA school as their flagship offering. Not only must the Bucs compete with the vols for a fan base, it now appears that King's sports programs may become competion also.

As Pitt says, this is a terrible sports area.

I'm not going to bash Linebarger, but this could be VERY interesting.

If ETSU leaves Citadel, will the gloves come off?

Or will silence be the order of the day?

It's not really linebarger bashing, just being a little openly critical since I know he reads the board. Who really cares if they do leave Citadel? With the stigma that's on A.M. (fair or unfair) an FM frequency will make ETSU seem a little more legit.
King is not our competition.... yet.

I don't agree with that "AM stigma."

Music radio? Sure. But talk radio is different.

What WXSM could provide is a signal that I can pick up east of Asheville- a base audience- and also almost unlimited pre and post game programming. WXSM could provide- as the Braves are now- "Buccaneer Programming Throughout the Evening during the winter and spring."

When you want to listen to sports- you listen to the sports radio station. When you are not a part of that sports radio station, you lose a lot of recognition.

Also, I really enjoyed the Bucs Broadcasts this season. You had a lengthy pre-game that was informative and also the post-game which provided fans an opportunity to call up.

I can't see a music station allowing ETSU that much air time.

Furthermore, there are seven hours of talk radio on that station. It shapes sports opinion in the market more than any other outlet.

Once upon a time ETSU was actually a staple of Bill Meade's show. When they didn't hire his hand selected coach- ETSU almost fell off the landscape of his show.

If ETSU was to leave Citadel- that could happen across the board. Helman probably wouldn't do the play-by-play anymore.

ETSU would probably be shunned again.