Do we really need simulcasts of sports talk shows?

ESPN2 currently simulcasts not one but TWO of ESPN Radio’s nationally syndicated radio shows, those being Mike and Mike in the Morning and the Scott Van Pelt Show.

As sports talk goes, I guess those are both decent enough shows, I can’t really knock either one (although at times a little Mike and Mike goes a LONG way). But is it necessary to actually watch a radio host sitting behind his microphone?

After paying all that cash to broadcast every major sport in the country, the folks in Bristol must really be looking to cut corners with this move. It’s basically a camera in front of a radio microphone, the production costs on that must be .00007 percent of what a network pays to put on a Super Bowl.

The shot below is another reason why a radio show is better heard and not seen. Van Pelt looks like a freckly, balding, homeless version of Udo Kier…not exactly compelling television. Honestly, they don’t have an old lumberjack competition they can put on instead?

Is that jacket from the Travis Bickle collection?