You may have heard recently that Toby Rowland was offered the sideline reporter gig for the Oklahoma City Thunder television broadcasts. After suffering through two years of Jordy Hulbturg, this seemed like good news. Unfortunately, though, it isn’t all good. Apparently KREF GM Mike Holt (pictured above) and his “cool” lamp won’t let Toby out of his contract. From a Mel Bracht story at The Oklahoman:
Sportscaster Toby Rowland says his opportunity to join the Oklahoma City Thunder as the television sideline reporter has been blocked by “The Ref” radio network.
Rowland, a sports reporter/anchor for KWTV-9 and talk show host for KREF-AM 1400, “The Ref,” said KREF management has refused to let him out of the final year of his contract with the radio station to join the Thunder in a full-time capacity with the broadcast team. He said KWTV had agreed to let him out of his final three years of his TV contract.
“I’m crushed,” Rowland said. “It would have been a dream to get to work for an NBA team, especially one here in my hometown. The Thunder seems to be a first-class operation and (team chairman) Clay Bennett — a guy who I’ve had some dealings with — has always been great. It would have been a dream to get to work in that situation.”
I guess you really can’t blame KREF management for wanting to keep Toby around. His morning show is the only thing worth listening to on the station. If they lost Toby, they would probably lose all 37 of their listeners.
However…you can blame KREF management for running the worst sports talk channel in the Oklahoma City market. Other than Toby’s show, the rest of KREF’s line-up is terrible. Listening to Myron Patton talk sports is about as fun as reading the obituaries. KREF even gave Rusty Olsen his own show. I’d rather hear Sally Kern have an orgasm than listen to Rusty Olsen talk sports.
Anyway, hopefully Toby gets everything worked out and we see him this winter reporting on who PJ Carlesimo yelled at during a Thunder timeout or maybe interviewing the annoying lady that yodels when the other team shoots free throws. Maybe he’ll also hook us up with some of The Snarfs. That would be cool.
p.s- We are in no way influenced by the fact that Toby let us play in one of his fantasy football leagues.
p.s.2 - Bob from Cement even created a blog just to chime in on the topic.
If the Thunder want Toby bad enough, they should be able to buy out his KREF contract. Everyone has a price.
Mike Holt knows there is probably a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. Then he can update his tube transistor technology and increase his signal strength north of I-40. As it is right now, I can only hear KREF while on a overpass.
The”Ref” is obviously taking the Pac-10 approach to this issue.
just another example of the man “trying to keep a boy down”
myron patten is alive??????
i think that myron is definitely the easy listening of sports radio, but that isn’t the problem. during his time slot, jox has pat jones and espn radio. on jox’s sister station (i refuse to refer to them any other way) during myron’s time slot, they have mark rogers. now, pat jones and mark rogers are arguably the two best sports talk radio hosts in the market.
what kref needs to do is move myron to rusty’s time slot, because myron is much much better than the other two radio stations at that time.
sorry for the long post.
Toby can’t do both? Are there a lot of 8:30 am games for the Thunder, because I think the season ticket holders may be surprised to learn how many sick days they will be taking from work.
Just announced, ” In there first pre-season trade, the Thunder aquire sideline correspondent Toby Rowland in exchange for that “guy” that masterminded the season ticket holder lottery and seat selection SNAFU. Also included in trade was the entire “logo design team” and un-named sums of $$$$!
That’s what I don’t get, Clark. I understand he’ll have to travel one or two days a week during the season and may not be available for the morning show, but c’mon. Why can’t he do both?
This just makes KREF look like a bunch of a-holes.
It’s a shame, because this means an inevitable end to the best sports talk show in OKC. And, you know if The Sports Animal adds him to the roster down the road, they’re going to screw up his show by having nine other radio guys on at the same time.
TRow in the Morning Show with Lump, Curtis, Steely, Pork, Hump Man, BBJ, Carey Murdock, Doug Gottlieb, Brandon Rush, Matt Myers and James the Marvel!
Beyond that, The Sports Animal is capable of patching a guy on the phone through to do a show, maybe KREF should invest in a phone.
did oklahomarock.com really say that toby rowland has the best sports talk show in okc?? sounds like he is living under a rock.
Toby is very close to the top of the heap when it comes to sports talk in this market…
just a technicality OklahomaRock.com, I dont work on the Animal anymore
I like entertainment with my sports, not sports with my entertainment.
I’ll take that every day over incessant talking about gout, how to break in a baseball glove, “Stupid News” or labeling everything liberal pansyism.
*And I would have said The Big Show on AM 1340 if they weren’t based in Tulsa. But I guess KREF is in Norman. I digress.
I would agree that Toby is near the top of the local hosts. The Fox and ESPN Radio shows (Jim Rome, Dan Patrick, Mike & Mike, et al.) easily beat all the locals combined. Blame it on Stoops and the internet, but the local guys have no “inside” information that you can’t already get on-line.
The “local guys” (can we call them Garanimals?) don’t have any inside information that you can’t already get on-line because they get all their inside information on-line. Or from ESPN. That’s where they get their opinions, too.