“NEWS” radio is so dire now that I find even short trips into town are an exercise in channel-surfing.  In the mornings, you can hear the latest North African crisis, a failed and bitter former MP, or a shill at just the push of a button. Or three.
I have avoided Radio Sport since the well-researched and interesting Martin Devlin left, mainly because all their presenters seem to be self-interested voiceboxes.  It’s a sad day when the most knowledgeable presenter on the station is Brendan “I’ve Been Around Since The Ark” Telfer.
But I found myself listening to another news programme having a debate about how Radio Sport had turned a piece about New Zealand tennis number one Marina Erakovic’s new strength programme into whether she was “hot or not”. So I did a bit of research.
On Friday we had this on the execrable morning presenter Tony Veitch’s facebook page : “Radio Sport boys debating the most elligible (sic) sports woman on the planet.. this follows news that Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy have “hooked” up.. the boys though don’t rate Wozniacki... odd.. who would be your no 1.?”
Now I’m as sexist as the next bloke, as all my ex-girlfriends (and my wife) will agree, but even I draw the line somewhere.  If it was a station like The Rock, you’d expect this sort of puerile crap.  But Radio Sport is supposedly a sports radio station.
Doing my blood pressure no good at all, I spent the rest of the week listening.  There was a cursory one-over-lightly of Valerie Adams’ stupendous achievement at winning her third consecutive world championship shot put medal.
The “boys” and their “mates” (the talkback callers) preferred to make jokes around her size, sexuality and so on. Yet when it came to rugby, it was all deadly serious analysis which dominated the airwaves.  That, to them, is the ONLY sport.
Is SBW doing this, doing that, or just doing everyone like a dinner?  Follow the All Blacks around small town NZ on what is essentially a PR fluff exercise and not “real” news.  What do you think about the ITM Cup?
I’ve said before in this column that the old state-run Sports Roundup was a thing of rare genius.  Wall-to-wall sport (when it was on) with none of this “look at the tits on that!” claptrap the awful Veitch and his Radio Sport “maaaaaaaates!” seem to revel in now.
Many a summer I spent working on outside jobs where I wouldn’t listen to anything other than non-stop cricket for eight weeks.  I remember walking home from school in 1983 listening to the British Lions’ midweek matches with a radio pressed against my ear.
Now, it appears entertainment is the primary focus for the airheads of the airwaves.  I challenge anyone to listen to Miles Davis’ afternoon show without wanting to change the channel after 90 seconds.
To gloss over the excellent performance of Adams at the World Champs was inexcusable.  There was no analysis of what happened to Nikki Hamblin – no doubt they had some wit laughing at her fall in the 1500m heats.
Even Nick Willis’ run in the 1500m final was ignored.  I was nowhere near a TV on Saturday night and so flicked on the radio to listen to it, sure Radio Sport would carry something so big (I mean, Sports Roundup used to do it). They had a feed from Fox Sports, where a bunch of raving lunatics spout unintelligible gibberish inbetween advertisements and have no interest in athletics.
Sounds awfully like our so-called sports station, doesn’t it?