Time has been standing still as the world wonders – will Michele Tafoya take the noon-3PM slot at WCCO-AM? Or will she not?
David Brauer captures the breathless anticipation:
Thursday, I wrote that Michele Tafoya was “likely” to be named WCCO-AM’s noon-3 p.m. host next week. Today, C.J. casts some doubt on the hiring, noting the Good Neighbor’s announcement had been delayed amid “insider” speculation that money and Tafoya’s Monday Night Football committment are the snags.
That might be right — I’m relying on insiders, too, which is not definitive. However, I have a couple of additional data points that could explain the hold-up.
OK – I lied. The only people who care are local media wonks.
Among the rest of us, the only real question is this: given that Michele Tafoya is a TV personality (and that TV personalities make almost universally terrible talk radio hosts) who is doing yet another mushy general interest show on a mushy general interest station that has in a generation fallen from market dominance to weak also-ran status, is Tafoya’s show going to:
- Smell, and get tubed at the end of Tafoya’s contract.
- Reek to high heaven, and get blitzed for trumped-up cause within a year.
- Suck chunks through a straw and cause the once-great Good Neighbor to “go dark” (which is, for the benefit of all of you leftybloggers, a broadcasting term for “shut off its transmitter for good”, not a racist jape).
Discuss.
Hey, just what we need, another toy department type trying to show that she knows something beyond how to present the box scores.
What could go wrong?
I’ll go with 1, mostly because that time slot isn’t as crucial to a station’s success as what comes before and after.
WCCO this morning keeps promoting their “major annoucment” that is to occur at 3:10 today.
FYI, Tafoya was a radio host at KFAN and a bona fide property before being lifted into television prominence. Anyone listening to her knew she was not long for the ‘Fan and this market. She was clearly someone who loved and was knowledgeable about sports and had a great voice (even as few had any idea what she looked like – when I was first listening I thought she might be black). She did a few years covering the NBA and other sports, building some credibility before MNF. The MNF sideline gig is a gilded trap; you get prominence and a certain amount of celebrity, but given the history of the position it’s easy to automatically dismiss the reporter (especially when there’ precious little to report).
It remains to be seen if Tafoya’s knowledge and experience holds up beyond the sports world and if she can be a generalist with the ability to understand, process and communicate on other issues, but it’s wrong to assume she’s a bimbo du jour. My guess is that she can outclass Don Shelby – whether it’s in a game of HORSE or as a show host.
Night,
I knew Tafoya had come up through the Fan. I don’t listen to much sports radio, but I know she’s got chops in radio and tv sports.
The record of sportscasters coming over to general talk is iffy (Barreiro) to awful (Olberman).
The record of sportscasters coming over to general talk is iffy (Barreiro) to awful (Olberman).
Yep, as the slow-motion trainwreck that is Patrick Reusse’s show continues to demonstrate. If she sticks to sports, she’ll do well.
Last week, I took note of the fact that Minnpost cites MinniSoros spew at least once a day, and wondered “out loud” if there might, as Eric Black puts it, be “some Soros checks” in the MP bank account.
Since then, my comments are evidently persona non gratia.
Scoop? Maybe.