A newish trend that I’ve just started to take notice of is the rise of TV stations broadcasting talk radio shows. Most of this is done for sports-talk shows, be they local or national. ESPN has at least two, with Mike and Mike and Colin Cowherd clogging up the airwaves. My local TV stations here in Portland broadcast a few, as well, one sports-talk and another right-wing nutjob named Lars Larson.

I simply do not understand this trend. Why do we need to be reminded that the people that we listen to on the radio (not that I listen to any of these people) are kinda slovenly, coffee-swilling blowhards? There’s a reason that the put-down “you have a face for radio” was coined. TV is for the pretty people. Radio is for the people that sound pretty, or at least arresting. I should know, I was on the radio, once upon a time. I’m not saying that everyone I worked with was butt-ugly, but we weren’t all photogenic. We were best suited for talking into a microphone, not into a camera.

So, really, why is this becoming the norm? When I was a kid, Rush Limbaugh had a TV show and that was bad enough. I don’t get it. As a matter of fact, forget the whole “face for radio” thing, this trend is simply stupid. I mean, honestly, is this even necessary? It’s basically the same as listening to the radio, except you get to see the blowhard that’s pontificating in some studio, chugging coffee and shuffling through papers. It’s like broadcasting Tom Brokaw singing in the shower or Anderson Cooper calling his mother in the morning while eating breakfast. It doesn’t add anything to anything.

Can someone please explain this to me?