Listening to Dave Lee...

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...ask Sid about Big Ten media day made me cringe. Hey, isn't he the play by play voice who should have a clue about what's going on in the conference. It's long overdue that Learfield replaces this bozo with someone informed/credible or we will continue to be looked upon as a rinky-dink program compared to our neighbors to the east/south.

Go Gophs!
 

What are you talking about? He is a MASTER of Big Ten play-by-play.

My favorite is how he learns a new football team, and then goes with that all the time. He says the word "slot" more than any other football media guy or coach I've ever heard combined.

"2nd & 7, Weber back to pass.....it's dropped!"
 

The arrangement between Learfield and Lee (WCCO-CBS) is a relic of a close relationship between CCO and the U. It goes back to Halsey Hall doing Gopher Football Broadcasts, then Paul Giel became the Sports Director at WCCO. Then the Ray Christensen years and Paul Giel was the Athletic Director. It would seem that cement still holds the deal together.

But why Dave Lee? He is a drive time guy. He neither has the time, nor the inclination to spend the time to know what is what with the Gophers. He relies on Dave Mona and 39 for that. But what slays me is the advertisers, those loyal Gophers supporters Federated, Washburn McGrivey, Land O Lakes how can they tolerate listeners screaming at the radio while their ad plays. I gave up listiening to Dave Lee, because it changed me into raving lunatic. What???? That can't Be. Decker to Weber? What? Third and three from the 35, Weber back, he throws and its caught at the 40. That will bring up 4th down. I just cann't listen anymore.

I have heard it, Learfield has heard it, maybe Joel can claim he hasn't. But its agonizing to listen to. If we are winning he uses his stumbling phoney inflections. And he takes losing to a level close to cruel and unusual.

And finally, as my father in law used to say, if you wonder why something is the way it is, its because its just the way somebody wants it. In this case, I just cannot figure out who that is.
 

That rant goes down as one of my top-5 favorites, auric@heart. Listening to him & the Gophers losing is the worst thing possible. If I had national secrets that the government wanted me to spill the beans, all the interrogators would need to do is put on some audio of Dave Lee calling a game with the Gophers losing & I'd give them whatever they wanted.

And I've always thought that the marketing of Washburn-McGreavy is brilliant. "This is Ray Christiansen for Washburn-McGreavy Funeral Chapels.....after you jam a drawer full of forks & knives into your brain from listening to the play-by-play, consider Washburn-McGreavy to handle everything necessary...."
 

Third and three from the 35, Weber back, he throws and its caught at the 40. That will bring up 4th down. I just cann't listen anymore.
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That's classic Dave Lee. You have to listen to reactions from the fans to figure out what was going on, they seem to know better than he does. People doing radio coverage for 9-man games out in the sticks can get it right. Score, down, and yards to go. Check. Pass or run. Was the pass complete, and if so how many yards was it, and did they get enough for the first down. These are the basics of calling a football game that even announcers at the lowest level get.

The thing is, Dave Lee sounds like a sportscaster, so long as you don't listen to the actual words he says. It's like he's doing color, and forgets we can't see. They would have at least 100 resumes on their desk if they were to look for someone new. And these people would stuff their brains till they nearly burst to that they could do the best job calling the games that they could.
 


Dave lee is the worst!

It drives me crazy that he pronounces kwarter as corder. The corderback in the first corder etc. I wish those English-only right-wingers would go after Mr. Lee.
 

auric@heart said:
The arrangement between Learfield and Lee (WCCO-CBS) is a relic of a close relationship between CCO and the U. It goes back to Halsey Hall doing Gopher Football Broadcasts, then Paul Giel became the Sports Director at WCCO. Then the Ray Christensen years and Paul Giel was the Athletic Director. It would seem that cement still holds the deal together.

But why Dave Lee? He is a drive time guy. He neither has the time, nor the inclination to spend the time to know what is what with the Gophers. He relies on Dave Mona and 39 for that. But what slays me is the advertisers, those loyal Gophers supporters Federated, Washburn McGrivey, Land O Lakes how can they tolerate listeners screaming at the radio while their ad plays. I gave up listiening to Dave Lee, because it changed me into raving lunatic. What???? That can't Be. Decker to Weber? What? Third and three from the 35, Weber back, he throws and its caught at the 40. That will bring up 4th down. I just cann't listen anymore.

I have heard it, Learfield has heard it, maybe Joel can claim he hasn't. But its agonizing to listen to. If we are winning he uses his stumbling phoney inflections. And he takes losing to a level close to cruel and unusual.

And finally, as my father in law used to say, if you wonder why something is the way it is, its because its just the way somebody wants it. In this case, I just cannot figure out who that is.
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Hard to dispute any of that. Lee seems like a perfectly fine North Dakota gentleman. If he must be doing play-by-play it should be for North Dakota, NDSU or Moorhead State baseball, and I have no idea if those programs even exist.

The problem seems to be that everytime they do a survey at WCCO or Lear commissions an independent one, Lee's popularity out distances those of us calling for his removal from Gopher play-by-play. Let him do the pre and post game shows, but get him off the heart of the broadcast.

I've always assumed that the people who like him on his regular job vote for him and those who truly love College Football want him canned.

Just another example of the lack of true College Football fans in the area.:(
 

"The thing is, Dave Lee sounds like a sportscaster"

Not really, he takes the morning drive to stadium with him. Think of it as Morning Show at the Stadium. He is filling air time with banal blather till the next Country Hearth break. Time on the clock, down distance, score are not as important as hitting the break. And the worst thing is when comes back after a commerical with 3 plays in 20 seconds. I challange anyone to figure that out what happened.

The best play by play is precise, unique, insightful, and passionate. He has none of these.

And that is why we suffer. I cannot believe that Leerfield doesn't know, Joel is the other vote he must be adminant to keep Dave. What is the relation between Dave and Joel? Is Dave doing it for free? Is Leerfield obligated to use CBS talent? Has CCO threaten to drop the broadcast?
Where's the I team when we need them.
 

auric@heart said:
"The thing is, Dave Lee sounds like a sportscaster"

Not really, he takes the morning drive to stadium with him.
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Which is why I added " so long as you don't listen to the actual words he says."
 



He is horrible

Dave Lee is the worst play-by-play guy ever. I think that many folks have stopped listening to Gopher games on the radio because he is simply terrible. He can't get the play right, he can't get the score right, he seems completely lost. It is simply amazing that the U and WCCO have left this clown continue the broadcasts. He needs to go learn how to call a game...
 

I remember talking with Ray C.

at one of the Gopher functions and he told me how much prep time he did before each game. You listen to Lee and you can tell he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.It is the old who gives a rats ass and just take the money and run.
 

I have to listen to games in the radio now and then. Sometimes a toddler just has be to taken to the zoo.
 

He's even worse on the state basketball tournament. He has no idea what's happening.
 



Shark sandwich

ruppertflywheel said:
at one of the Gopher functions and he told me how much prep time he did before each game. You listen to Lee and you can tell he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.It is the old who gives a rats ass and just take the money and run.
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"They can't say that" -Nigel Tufnel
 

I would take Sid's kid and his smarminess over Dave Lee

That should tell anyone how bad "Lee" is. I was a fool and purchased the radio and headset last fall, I surely will not make that mistake again. Lee is awful at football and the least knoweldeable in the Big 10. He is big time rinky dink and makes our program sound rinky dink at best.

At least Sid jr. would spend some time analyzing the oppoenent and the Gophers and sound like a professional broadcaster. He has been a jackarse to the Gophers in the past but if he was the play by guy he would put effort into it. Anything is beter than Dave Lee calling games.

Lee pockets the money and laughs all the way to the bank, he could give two sh!ts about Gopher football and you can tell it in his non-chalent attitude in calling the games.
 

Maybe we need a reality show: Minnesota's next Ray Christiansen. People forget how good we had it. We could find an announcer who knows how to do the basics, who knows his stuff and eats Gopher football for breakfast. A good announcer knows where his bread is buttered, it's just part of professionalism. It's their job to know this stuff backwards and forwards. Dave Lee has had plenty of time to learn on the job, and hasn't done it.

The next Ray Christiansen is out there, waiting for this job. It wasn't just random luck that had Ray there all those years, had Ray been like Dave Lee, he wouldn't have been gone and forgotten pretty quickly.
 

It wasn't obvious just how bad Dave is until hearing Ray call even that one series against Air Force. Even without having done it for many years, he was 10x better. Hearing Dave Lee come back on after that was painful. And I like his morning show, FWIW.
 


I think we all need to be reminded of the fact that Mr. Lee is an award-winning announcer and we should honor him with 10 seconds of silence. Ok, now that we've got that out of the way I must add that it's obvious, after listening to him on Gophers football, that he must have been passing out $100 bills to everyone at the banquet where his award was voted on. If he's the best we have in Minnesota I may have to puke in my mouth, in fact, I think I just did.
 


howeda7 said:
It wasn't obvious just how bad Dave is until hearing Ray call even that one series against Air Force. Even without having done it for many years, he was 10x better. Hearing Dave Lee come back on after that was painful. And I like his morning show, FWIW.
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Absolutely correct. It was great to hear Ol' Ray back on the air, and it's obvious that he still has it. I'm not joking in the slightest, I think he could come back right now and do a better job. He was really struggling with the speed of basketball, so I'm not sure he could do that anymore (although in his time he was spectacular), but I think with the proper help, he could call a great football game. And Lee is horrible. Just abysmal.
 

strokemonster said:
I think we all need to be reminded of the fact that Mr. Lee is an award-winning announcer and we should honor him with 10 seconds of silence. Ok, now that we've got that out of the way I must add that it's obvious, after listening to him on Gophers football, that he must have been passing out $100 bills to everyone at the banquet where his award was voted on. If he's the best we have in Minnesota I may have to puke in my mouth, in fact, I think I just did.
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These award banquets, have been mocked by Frazier, Mary T Moore, and even a News caster I knew. They are generally set up to award something to someone who works at THE station. THE station has the votes based on news and on air talent, engineers, producers, editors, and some exta votes if they need them. Why? to satisfy the advertisers that they are getting the best bang for their buck. After all Our Guy at THE station won. These are industry banquets, and there are some back room deals as well. If THE station is in negotiation with Talent A, they might throw some or all their votes to Station X and Talent Z. All of a sudden, Talent Z is best overnight host.

Knowing how swarmy these awards is, is enough to make you puke.

But having Dave Lee win the award, and broadcast Gopher Football that is enough to end it all.
 

Listening to Dave Lee is almost as bad as reading this thread every time a new post shows up.

Ugh. But, yeah...it shows that I will read almost anything connected to Gopher's football.
 

Dave Lee

Dave Lee may be a very nice guy but is there really anyone who thinks he is a good football play by play announcer? Obviously, somebody must. Maybe Dave Lee likes sports? However, I don't think he has any idea what is actually going on. This does not seem possible, but as someone mentioned, he is even more brutal, more painful and agonizingly worse doing high school state basketball tournaments.

I think the play by play announcer is or at least could be an important part in people's opinion or impression or perception of the Gopher football program. Dave Lee is not enhancing that image.
 

WCCO not even locally run anymore

From Shooter (about the Twins):

"The fact that a local company, Hubbard Broadcasting, operates 1500 ESPN Twin Cities was a huge factor in the KSTP-AM station retaining Twins broadcasting rights.

WCCO-AM, a long-time former Twins' radio rights holder that tried unsuccessfully to get the Twins back, now is operated out of New York. The Twins prefer to deal with in-state operations."

Sop basically 'CCO doesn't give a crap what listeners think. They pay Dave the extra $2 an hour to do the games and save a ton of dough. I think that MV should start doing the games as a live podcast. I'd even pay for that...
 

highwayman said:
From Shooter (about the Twins):

"The fact that a local company, Hubbard Broadcasting, operates 1500 ESPN Twin Cities was a huge factor in the KSTP-AM station retaining Twins broadcasting rights.

WCCO-AM, a long-time former Twins' radio rights holder that tried unsuccessfully to get the Twins back, now is operated out of New York. The Twins prefer to deal with in-state operations."

Sop basically 'CCO doesn't give a crap what listeners think. They pay Dave the extra $2 an hour to do the games and save a ton of dough. I think that MV should start doing the games as a live podcast. I'd even pay for that...
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You know Wcco doesn't hire the announcers...right?

Its all on Learfield Sports, not WCCO.
 

And Learfield is already paying Mike Grimm to do hoops and FB pre and post game and he did a fine job with the play by play in the spring game.
 


gopherdudepart2 said:
That should tell anyone how bad "Lee" is. I was a fool and purchased the radio and headset last fall, I surely will not make that mistake again. Lee is awful at football and the least knoweldeable in the Big 10. He is big time rinky dink and makes our program sound rinky dink at best.
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Lee was the EXACT reason I didn't purchase one of those radio headsets last year. What an embarassement that guy is. I'd have been thrilled to get one of those headsets if I knew I wouldn't be constantly correcting him while I sit at the game.
 

Gopher Bandanna Guy said:
Lee was the EXACT reason I didn't purchase one of those radio headsets last year. What an embarassement that guy is. I'd have been thrilled to get one of those headsets if I knew I wouldn't be constantly correcting him while I sit at the game.
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Same here. What's sad is that I never realized just how much a good play-by-play guy can add to the enjoyment of listening to games on the radio until living in WI. If the Gophers and Badgers play at different times and if I happen to be on the road during the Badger game, I'll listen to the Wisky game on the radio (anything is better than Top 40 radio). Our hated rivals have a really good play-by-play guy in Matt Lepay. The difference in quality is night and day.
 

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