The Fan's mornig man Andrew Krystal.ANDREW VAUGHAN
Will Toronto get Andrew Krystal? Can shock plus jock equal ratings success for the Fan 590? Many in the Canadian radio business are eager to find out.
Usual Suspects sat in as an unpaid guest for an hour Thursday to watch the Fan 590's new morning man challenge the rules about sports radio in the essentially conservative Toronto radio market. In the course of that hour, Krystal derided Hamilton as a city where people urinate in the streets, called for the end of the CBC's state funding, condemned Hamilton cops for allowing a riot at a junior football game last week, accused (with a wink) Bob O'Billovich's Tiger-Cats of running up the score on the hapless Argos …
Then he started to warm up.
It was funny. It was rude. It was … different. And the phone lines hummed. Of course, this has been Krystal's repertoire both in Toronto (he previously worked at Mojo Radio) and Halifax. He finds the edge on an issue and then dangles his feet over the precipice. He has aggravated premiers, soldiers, sports heroes and other assorted icons of Canadian society. The Fan has already handled more than a few vitriolic e-mails and phone calls about Krystal.
It is textbook AM radio in the American tradition. But will it fly in Toronto the Good after years of the benign Don Landry/Gord Stellick morning-drive duo? Do sports fans in the city want to wake up to Krystal's mixture of phone calls, bombast and witty innuendo? The Fan has much invested in his success after a long hiring process and failed attempts to attract other hosts for the 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot.
Citing the September ratings, some bloggers are jumping the gun, trying to draw conclusions after one month of ratings against AM 640's talk/sports format. But Krystal had been on the job for only a week when the numbers were taken. It will require a more thorough sampling to get definitive answers.
Many radio hosts affect edge in their approach. They fancy themselves close to the bone. But edge, Krystal believes, comes with a price. Not all the reaction is positive. You can't please everyone. When it comes to paying that price, many in talk radio shrink from the hostility. Krystal does not. Whether the audience hangs with him is yet to be determined.
Brunt set to sign
Fan Findings: Speaking of the Fan 590, Globe and Mail columnist Stephen Brunt looks ready to sign on the line that's dotted again as co-host of Prime Time Sports. There have been rumblings about the future of Bob McCown's other co-pilot, John Shannon. But Usual Suspects has learned that the station will announce in the next few weeks that Shannon is coming back, too.
Glad he Cleared That Up: Analyst (and former NHL coach) Craig MacTavish on TSN explaining that Vancouver Canucks forward Rick Rypien went postal on a Minnesota Wild fan because Rypien's "manhood was threatened." The fan reportedly said, "Way to be professional" to Rypien after he'd brawled with various Wild players and jostled a linesman. You can understand how that would leave an emotional scar.
MacTavish is famous, of course, for the tongue lashing he gave a rude Calgary Flames mascot in 2003.
Foul Balls: Rumours of baseball's death are apparently not exaggerated. The Monday Night Football 30-3 snoozer between Tennessee and Joke-sonville was the lowest rated, least viewed NFL telecast of the 2010 season. Still, with a 6.2 share, it surpassed ratings in the U.S. for Game 3 of the American League Championship Series between the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees (5.2). It also showed major-league baseball's age gap. According to tvbythenumbers.com, the difference between a regular-season NFL contest and a prime-time MLB playoff contest was "even larger among adults 18-49, with MNF (4.2) topping the older-skewing baseball game (2.7)"
Sign Of The Times: Award for most obsequious sign from a baseball fan in a sycophantic role: The San Fran glory hog who held up a sign with (Cody) Ross's name crossed at the O by the word Fox. Miraculously this message was found by the Fox TV crew in the production truck. Because nothing says put me on TV quite like sucking up to a network.