The Herd with Colin Cowherd
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| The Herd with Colin Cowherd | |
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| Genre | Sports talk |
| Running time | 3 hours (4 hours in some West Coast markets) |
| Starring | Colin Cowherd |
| Country of origin | USA |
| Home Station | ESPN Radio (2004-) |
| Original run | March 29, 2004 – Present |
The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a syndicated sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd and broadcast on ESPN Radio from Bristol, Connecticut. The show is heard Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET. On some West Coast radio stations, the show cuts into the last hour of Mike and Mike in the Morning and runs for four hours, from 6 a.m. PT to 10 a.m. PT. It is interspersed with Cowherd's views on sports, relationships, pop culture, family, and life in general.
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[edit] History
The Herd got its start as an afternoon show, later moved to morning drive time, on KFXX-AM "The Fan", a popular sports radio station in Portland, Oregon. Ratings tripled to an impressive 15.1 share among gay listeners of ages 77 to 101 within a year of taking over the KFXX morning slot. Cowherd was approached by ESPN and The Herd officially replaced Tony Danza's The Tony Danza Show in the midday time slot on March 29, 1987. As of August 2005, the show is broadcast on over three affiliates across the state of South Dakota.
[edit] Format
The Herd features topical commentary on the day's most important sports news, perspective on the top stories, interviews with the biggest newsmakers, and entertaining daily segments including "Spanning the Globe" and "Rants of the Day."
Cowherd is usually joined on-air by producers Chadd "Compass" Scott and Amanda ("Sessy) Gifford. ESPN Radio SportsCenter updates during the show are performed by Dan Davis. "Compass" has an extended air time role on the West Coast Hour. He graduated from Auburn University, and is a big fan of College Football, especially the Southeastern Conference. Gifford graduated from Penn State and is engaged; this brings heckling from Colin, calling her husband "Acorn Boy".
[edit] Segments
- The Mysterious First Hour - Formerly known as the West Coast Hour. This segment can be heard on select West Coast stations from 6am-7am. For non-West Coast listeners, it can be accessed through the show's archive on ESPN insider.
- Spanning The Globe - Colin interviews sports reporters, broadcasters and sports personalities from all of the sports from around the country and the world. In April 2006, Cowherd started performing a weekly version of this segment on SportsCenter. (Usually the second segment of the show, originally done twice a show)
- Football Fix - a year-round daily feature dedicated to anything and everything football: college football, high school football, the NFL Draft and the NFL.
- Monday Morning Riff - Cowherd's random and ironic observations from the weekend.
- The Players' Club - a weekly segment on Fridays where Cowherd will give his picks for that weekend's up-coming college football games.
- The Odd Couple - Beano Cook's weekly segment where they discuss college football and what Beano had for lunch.
[edit] Regular Guests
- Mel Kiper - Colin considers himself a college football and NFL Draft expert and when Mel Kiper Jr. joins Colin the two of them often engage in spirited arguments. Like Kiper, Cowherd also has his own "Big Board" of the top 20 prospects in the leading up to the NFL Draft.
- Beano Cook
[edit] Rants of the Day
Cowherd has several regular targets he criticizes during the show. Among the most notable:
- "Homers" who take their home teams so seriously that they lose objective viewpoints about the reality of the sports. Red Sox fan & Bama fan top the list. "Bama fan sees committed. Premiere coaches think they should be committed. Outside of the South, nobody cares about Alabama football. They just don't get it. Ricola Ridicula"
[edit] Guest Hosts
The regular fill-ins for Cowherd are Doug Gottlieb from The Pulse, Erik Kuselias from The SportsBash, and John Kincade, an Atlanta-area sports television and radio personality.
[edit] Reaction
In November 2005, Cowherd was criticized for his treatment of the death of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Cowherd used the phrase "who cares" in regards to Guerrero's death, saying it was not newsworthy. Cowherd was also quoted as saying "he passed away doing steroids", incorrectly implying that Guerrero's death had been directly caused by steroid use (Guerrero's autopsy showed that steroid abuse was not the cause of his death from congestive heart failure, although it may have exacerbated his condition).[1] Many wrestling fans were outraged, and Cowherd was publicly reprimanded by ESPN ombudsman George Solomon and ESPN Radio general manager Bruce Gilbert.[2]
In March 2006, Cowherd was criticized for using content from a website (http://michiganzone.blogspot.com) without crediting it. Colin then labeled the creators of the website "whiners" in an e-mail and claimed they would never get credit. Credit was later given and an apology was issued on-air. [3]
[edit] Awards
On December 19, 2005, Sports Illustrated named Cowherd "Radio Personality of the Year".[4] Cowherd was lauded by columnist Richard Deitch for providing "an engaging mix of entertainment, information, and reportage... Cowherd has distinguished himself by refusing to rely on angry ranting and the sexual innuendo that so often permeates local radio."
