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Rogers Cadenhead |
Biography of Sports Radio Host Bob Kemp
I'm a huge fan of Bob Kemp, the overnight host on the syndicated radio station Sporting News Radio. Kemp, whose show airs from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern each weekday, talks sports to the exclusion of everything else, unlike a lot of hosts who turn their programs into "guy talk" with musical, political, and social topics.
The only subject on Kemp's show is sports, delivered by a person with a demeanor that is surly on his best day. Sometimes it sounds like the idiocies of the sports world have left him completely despondent -- there are times I believe I can hear Kemp taking a shotgun out of his mouth to respond to a caller, then putting it back in afterwards.
The show is as dry and plain-spoken as radio gets. Some subjects are banned for discussion because they've been talked to death or lend themselves to inane chatter (the current list includes Pete Rose, Dennis Rodman, the College of Charleston, Bowl Championship Series, and Super Bowl 35).
Another anti-stupidity rule is that no caller can mention the word "respect," as in "The Ravens don't get enough respect." Anyone who uses "the R word" is immediately cut off by Aretha Franklin.
I love Kemp with the kind of affection that pre-teen girls feel for Britney Spears. I recently requested an autographed photo, and when it arrives, I plan to display it in an embarrassingly prominent place in my home.
I started listening to his show in the early '90s in Dallas and it followed me to Colorado and Florida. Although my schedule no longer keeps me up in the middle of the night, I recently found Total Recorder, a Windows program that lets me record it for playback in the morning.
Kemp, a former newspaper sportswriter who worked in sports handicapping for a few years, is one of the only people on the air who studies sports. He reads dozens of sports columnists and reporters each week, occasionally bringing on his favorite sources for interviews.
Because he is so well-informed, Kemp is great at ferreting out a caller who doesn't know what he's talking about. Part of the charm of his show is the occasional caller meltdown -- especially if the person says something dumb as a result of being "rah rah" in support of a favorite team. Kemp feasts on that stuff like a shark on chum.
Kemp's show airs from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern on Monday and from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Tuesday through Friday. The call-in number is 1-800-777-2907.
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(Note: This
biography was written before Bob Kemp aired his last show on Sporting News Radio on Feb. 1, 2002.)