Eugene/Corvallis loses another local sports radio show

This is a cliche, but we lost one of the good guys in local sports radio this past week. Steve Tannen, former host of SportsTalk on KPNW, has been cut after 10 years.

It's not like we have a lot of options in the local sports radio market down here in the mid-valley. There's the Joe Beaver Show on 1240 AM, and we can get Portland's KFXX Primetime at night usually (Big Suke and Issac Ropp). After that, it was pretty much Steve Tannen and his Sportstalk. Local radio has really taken a hit lately. The Herd went national, and what happened to the Saturday morning show on KFXX?

It's sad and similar to what's happening across all radio. Radio is becoming more homogenized and national. Music radio is just bad these days. Especially when I can find 100's of podcasts that have much newer and better stuff. I guess I'll have to wait for a good local sports podcast to show up. Anyone?

Steve was a Duck, but he respected the Beavers and would give them props all the time. He had a good balanced show and didn't get caught up trying to shock people or stir up bad blood. I enjoyed listening to him and Nate in the afternoons and I hope he makes it back on air in the near future.

KPNW pulls the plug on Tannen’s ‘Sports Talk’ in favor of Savage - Eugene Register-Guard

“To me, it wasn’t just a show,” Tannen said Wednesday. “I put my heart and soul into that. It was kind of a part of who I am."

SportsTalk silenced from airwaves - fans have loud reaction - KVAL

Former Bio on KPNW:

Steve kind of keeps an eye on the world of sports in order to fake his way through KPNW's SportsTalk. He's on a never ending mission to convince people that it's not logical to be a Duck fan and root for any team from Seattle. He and his wife Kathy are animal nuts with 2 dogs, 3 cats and Kathy runs a dog walking business. They're also lunatic Oregon football fans who have attended every home game in their section 11 seats since the start of the 1995 season. Go Ducks, Yankees and Jets!

Oregon State Beavers Finally Have Respect

Oregon State has been the Rodney Dangerfield of the Pac-10 for quite a while. We don't get no respect.

In football our pre-season ranking nearly always is much lower than our final position. Not to mention that our recruiting classes rank low every year for no good reason other than that we are the Beavers.

Last year after winning a National Title in baseball we were ranked pretty low in the Top 25 all year. Even after a scorching hot start, nobody would give us respect.

In baseball, times have changed my friends. This week we are ranked #22 in the Baseball America Top 25 despite a bad start by our recent standards. We were 5-5 and 0-3 vs. Top 25 teams at the time of the ranking. Hey, I'll take that. I'd say that ranking is respect for what we've done.

That said, I think we will be a good team this year. If the defense can become stellar again and the pitching comes around then we will be great again. That huge 22 run effort was big and if that translates to more hitting, then it could be a really great season. The Beavs are young so we may not know how good this team is until Pac-10 play gets going.

Go Beavs!