Cincinnati may not be New York or Boston or L.A., but it's still a huge sports town with the likes of the Reds, Bengals, a ton of local college teams, and even the Kelly Cup champion Cincinnati Cyclones in the area. WCKY 1530 Homer: The Sports Animal is the only real sports talk radio station in the area, but there only needs to be one when 1530 is that good.
1530 Homer, the "official home of the Bengals," has a great on-air lineup of talk show hosts during the week, and of course they cover some great games on the weekends, including the Bengals during football season. The on-air talent begins on your morning drive to work with "The Cut Man," Alan Cutler, a long-time Bengals Radio Network host, who is then followed from 9:00 a.m. to Noon by Mo Egger. The Sports Animal then goes national by playing Fox's nationally syndicated program, The Jim Rome Show. From 3-6 and then "reloaded" from 6-7 is Lance McAlister, while Fox broadcasts again take over from 7:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. Paid programming until the morning...sorry insomniacs.
Now I can't say that I listen to sports radio all the time as I usually prefer jamming to music, but 1530 is great. I've never caught Alan Cutler during the morning, but he's really good when he covers the Bengals before and after games. Mo Egger, meanwhile, is good too and can relate not only to sports fans, but also to the younger generation too with his "hip" interests and personality. Jim Rome from 12-3 is always a winner because, as he would probably say about himself, he is "that good." Lance McAlister, meanwhile, is just awesome. He says he has the best job in the world: getting paid to talk about the teams he grew up with. Lance really knows and understands his local and national sports and has great topics he likes to discuss with listeners, as opposed to simply rambling. The phrase "long time listener" really applies to the Lance McAlister Show as people have listened to him for years. If you don't have the chance to catch him on air too often, he runs a great blog too (as do the other hosts) with any and everything you'd want to know about Cincinnati and national sports, all of the stats you could want and more, and sometimes just great links.
If you're a sports lover headed to work in the morning and it's too early to blast your Rihanna CD, definitely turn your radio to 1530 AM. Even better, wind down the day with a dose of the Lance McAlister Show and you won't be disappointed. read more