Summertime Blues

A quick sampling of my radio station-shifting on an afternoon drive this summer:

1320 KFAN: "The player personnel rating for Jazz draft pick Kosta Koufous is extremely high making this..."

Next.

1280 KZN: "And so the guy in front of me at the Ultimate Fight Night produces a bodily function..."

Okay, let's try again.

700 KALL: "Call us and tell us the Top 5 Sporting Venues you've ever been to. Here's mine..."

Still no football?

KSL 1160: "And Krulosekjlwkjsd Wodkjeneisiski now sports the yellow jersey in the Tour de France after winning Stage 16. And that's your 90-second sports ticker on your home of the Cougars...KSL Newsradio 1160"

That's all I get? Even on the home of the Cougars? Three sports stations and the Cougar flagship station and I can't find anybody talking college football? What is wrong with these people?

As my all-too-common dialogue suggests, my summer commute has been filled with country music, Sean Hannity, and even silence.

Either those stations mentioned above are missing their demographic or I'm on the outside of the demographic circle. And by circle, I mean talking in circles about Brett Favre or Utah Jazz free agency.

Despite low expectations, I still check each station every 10-15 minutes, just in case they've shifted their conversation to college football. Inevitably, I end up with Paul Harvey for..."the REST of the story."

So, you can bet my ears perked up the other day during my daily station-checking ritual. Was Bill Riley really talking about the Mountain West Conference football preseason poll? Sure enough. That night I made it a point to get on the Mountain West Conference's website to see when their annual summer media day would be. July 21-22, 2008. Football talk is right around the corner!

Media day has held an even greater significance for me the last five years. After all of my roommates had graduated from college and moved away from Provo, I took it on myself to write a detailed report of each game, specifically focusing on the atmosphere, subplots, etc. of the game - things you wouldn't read in a game summary on ESPN.com. At least from the feedback I got from those roommates, they loved the updates on that 2002 season. The next year, I started earlier by previewing the Mountain West Conference on its media day. I "published" my picks before the experts did to see how I stacked up.

My audience grew from those three former roommates to about 25-30 people, all of whom found a hefty email in their Inbox each week. Email was my best method of delivery. Until now. Now people's inboxes won't overflow and I can still get my reports out to those that want them. If you like what you read on the blog, keep checking back in. If you don't, I'll never know.

So before next Monday's Media Day, I will be posting my MWC preseason picks. In the meantime, there is a wonderful thing to participate in on the MWC website. They are compiling their "10th Anniversary Team". Click here to vote (be sure to pick the football link - unless you have a good handle on MWC Cross Country runners over the past 10 years). Having voted will give you better perspective when I comment on the nominees for the team in a future post. Plus, it will probably give BYU players a better chance of making the 10th Anniversary Team (read: vote for Cougars whenever possible).