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Revision as of 04:29, 8 April 2007 by Number87 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Colin Cowherd (born January 6, 1964) is an American sports radio personality. He is currently the host of The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio and host of the television program Missing Link on ESPN Classic.
Career
In 1985 Cowherd began his broadcast career as the play-by-play voice for the Pacific Coast League's Las Vegas Stars. He eventually became sports director at KVBC-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was named Nevada's Sportscaster of the Year five times. He also served as sports anchor at WTVT-TV in Tampa, Florida. He moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1996, where he spent nearly eight years at KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8, working as a sports anchor and hosting the 30-minute 'A guy's take on baseball' program. In 2001, The Herd moved from an afternoon time slot on all-sports radio KFXX to the morning drive time.
ESPN Radio
In 2004, Cowherd was selected to replace Tony Kornheiser for the late morning time slot on ESPN Radio.
His show, The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a syndicated talk radio show broadcast on ESPN Radio affiliates throughout the U.S. and online at ESPNRadio.com. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with popular analysts and sports figures.
Controversy
In November 2005, Cowherd was criticized for his treatment of the death of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) wrestler Eddie Guerrero. Cowherd used the phrase "who cares" in regards to Guerrero's death, saying it was not newsworthy. Wresting and fans of the WWE (referred to on the show as "Mouth Breathers & Booger Eaters") are often targets of comedic rants. Colin was also 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. Due to the large volume of complaints from Guerrero fans, Cowherd was publicly reprimanded by ESPN ombudsman George Solomon and ESPN Radio general manager Bruce Gilbert. As a direct response to Guerrero's death, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced the implementation of drug testing for WWE wrestlers, which began in March 2006.
In March 2006, Cowherd was criticized for using content from a University of Michigan fan blog without crediting it. Colin then labeled the creators of the website "whiners" in an e-mail and claimed they would never get credit. Credit was later given and an apology was issued on-air. This incident was named in one of the Chicago Sports Review's ten greatest sports blog stories.
On April 5 2007, Cowherd directed his listeners to visit www.thebiglead.com, a moderately popular sports blog. Cowherd exhorted his listeners to "blow up" the website by all visiting it at the same time. The massive increase in visitors caused the site to be knocked offline for over three days. The following is an uncopyrighted transcript of Cowherd's words on the date in question:
"We occasionally, once a week…we’ll mention a website, our listeners will flee to it, and we’ll shut it down. We feel bad about this, we don’t mean to do it. It usually forces that young guy or young gal to buy more bandwidth and can be expensive. I don’t know that…but wouldn’t it be great if every day we gave out a new, young website and blew it up? If I told my audience every day–just one that’s annoying–and we could give it to them, and our audience would blow it up?
I want everyone to go to it as fast as you possibly can. When I say go, go….it’s three words. THE BIG LEAD dot com. THE. BIG. LEAD. DOT. COM. Go now.”'
http://deadspin.com/sports/espn/this-hurts-us-more-than-it-hurts-you-colin-249956.php
Awards
- Nevada's Sportscaster of the Year five times
- Sports Illustrated's 2005 Radio Personality of the year.
References