The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Infobox Radio Show
name = The Herd with Colin Cowherd


image_size = N/A
format = Sports talk
runtime = 3 hours
4 hours on West Coast
starring = Colin Cowherd
country = USA
home_station = ESPN Radio (2004-)
ESPNU (2008-)
first_aired = March 29 2004
last_aired = present
website = [http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=theherd The Herd with Colin Cowherd]

The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd and broadcast on ESPN Radio from Bristol, Connecticut. The show is heard Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. ET until 1 p.m. ET on most ESPN Radio stations not airing a different locally produced program. On some West Coast radio stations, the show cuts into the last hour of "Mike and Mike in the Morning" and runs for four hours, from 6 a.m. PT to 10 a.m. PT. Segments of the show are archived into the ESPN Radio Daily Podcast. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with sports analysts and sports figures. Starting August 25, 2008, "The Herd" started its TV simulcast on the ESPNU cable TV channel.

Cowherd is joined on-air by producers Amanda Gifford and Vince Kates and board operator David Fisch. Fisch was an All-American high school swimmer, according to his mom. "ESPN Radio SportsCenter" updates during the show are performed by Dan Davis.

History

"The Herd" got its start as an afternoon show, later moved to morning drive time, on KFXX (AM) "The Fan", a sports radio station in Portland, Oregon.

egments

*The Mysterious First Hour (also known as the "West Coast Hour"). This segment can be heard on select West Coast stations from 6am-7am PT. For non-West Coast listeners, it can be accessed through the show's archive on ESPN Insider.
*Spanning The Globe - Cowherd does short interviews with sports reporters, broadcasters and sports personalities from around the world. The segment airs daily at approximately 10:28am ET. In April 2006, Cowherd started performing a weekly version of this segment on "SportsCenter". (Usually the second segment of the show, originally the radio version was done twice a show)
*Daily Football Fix - a year-round daily feature dedicated to football: college football, the NFL Draft and the NFL.
*Wheel of Genius - a weekly segment on Fridays where Cowherd will give his picks for that weekend's up-coming college football games. Formerly known as The Players' Club
*Finding Football - a daily segment, usually near the end of the show, where Colin gives his opinion on what is the best football-oriented programming on TV that upcoming evening. Formerly known as Me Tube

Podcasts

*The Thundering Herd The ninth most popular ESPN podcast on Itunes.

Regular Guests

* Mel Kiper- Especially during the lead up to the NFL Draft.
* Trey Wingo and Mark Schlereth
* Eric Allen
* Peter King
* Peter Gammons

Guest Hosts

The regular fill-ins for Cowherd are Doug Gottlieb from The Pulse, Erik Kuselias, and John Kincade, an Atlanta-area sports television and radio personality who hosts his own Sunday morning show on ESPN Radio.

Controversies

*Eddie Guerrero's Death - In November 2005, Cowherd was criticized by former ESPN ombudsman, George Solomon for his treatment of the death of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Colin was quoted as saying "he passed away doing steroids", implying that Guerrero's death had been caused by steroid use. According to Dr. Kathryn Berg, the assistant chief medical examiner for Hennepin County in Minnesota, the autopsy showed that Guerrero died from a hardening and narrowing of the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. He had an enlarged heart and other enlarged organs related to a history of anabolic steroid use.cite web | last = Solomon | first = George | title = Radio aims to be provocative, fair | publisher = ESPN | date = December 27, 2005 | url = http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=solomon_george&id=2272113 | accessdate = 2007-07-13 ]

*Using Un-attributed Material - In March 2006, Cowherd was criticized for using a joke on his show that was posted on the "M Zone", a University of Michigan fan blog without crediting it. [cite web | last = Solomon | first = George | title = Vitale still signature face, voice of ESPN hoops | publisher = ESPN.com | url = http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=solomon_george&id=2396135 | date = April 6, 2006 ] Cowherd later apologized on-air and gave the M Zone full credit for the material. The M Zone response: "He was very cool about everything. This incident is now resolved and over."

*"The Herd" Knocks Blog Offline - On April 5 2007, listeners of The Herd knocked The Big Lead blog site offline. Cowherd directed his listeners to access the web site home page simultaneously which resulted in a massive increase in traffic. The blog site's servers were not capable of handling so many users at one time so the site was knocked off-line for approximately 96 hours. ESPN's new Ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber wrote an article sharing her (negative) opinion of Cowherd's actions. Schreiber contacted Traug Keller, a Senior Vice President at ESPN Radio, and Keller indicated that Cowherd would face no disciplinary action for the stunt, because there had been no policy against such a tactic at the time. To prevent this from happening again, Keller instituted a zero tolerance policy of such activities in the future. [cite web | last = Schreiber | first = Le Anne | title = Cowherd's 'attack' on blog: 'Zero tolerance' | publisher = ESPN | date = April 8, 2007 | url = http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?id=2830113 | accessdate = 2007-07-13]

*Sean Taylor's Murder - Cowherd was criticized for comments made regarding the circumstances surrounding Sean Taylor's death. On November 28, 2007, one day after Taylor's home invasion murder, Cowherd claimed that Taylor's past had brought this upon himself, and that Redskins fans who mourned him were not "grown ups." Cowherd stated about Taylor's turnaround;"Well, yeah, just because you clean the rug doesn't mean you got everything out. Sometimes you've got stains, stuff so deep it never ever leaves." Taylor's death was later found to be the result of a botched robbery, and the robbers hadn't known Taylor was home when they entered. [cite web | last = Schreiber | first = Le Anne | title = Proportion, perspective missing ingredients in news coverage | publisher = ESPN | date = December 11, 2007 | url = http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=3148853 | accessdate = 2007-12-13]

New Contract

In early 2008, Cowherd signed a new 4-year contract to remain with ESPN radio. On air, Cowherd attributed his longevity at ESPN to the fans of his show, claiming he did the show for his fans, and not his critics or those in ESPN management.

Awards

On December 19, 2005, "Sports Illustrated" named Cowherd "Radio Personality of the Year". Cowherd was lauded by columnist Richard Deitch for providing "an engaging mix of entertainment, information, and reportage. [cite web | last = Deitch | first= Richard | title = 2005 Media Awards | publisher = Sports Illustrated | date = December 19, 2007 | url = http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/richard_deitsch/12/19/media.circus/index.html | accessdate = 2007-07-13]

External links

* [http://espnradio.espn.go.com/espnradio/show?showId=theherd ESPN Radio Show page]
* [http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/index ESPN Radio]

References