Published October 19, 2006
Sirius Canada’s Hardcore Sports Radio (HSR), a news and information channel produced
by the Score Television Network, will relaunch in January by adding a talk component
which “will include profanity,” according to William Houston of the Toronto GLOBE
& MAIL. HSR Exec Producer Richard Garner said that the goal of the network is
“authenticity, not shock.” Gardner: “It won’t be gratuitous or exploitive. The
hosts will speak the way they would if they were in a bar with their buddies or
just sitting around having a conversation. Nobody says Terrell Owens is a malcontent
or that a game was uneventful. Guys don’t talk that way.” But he added, “There
will be a level of intelligence to the conversation. ... The fact you can drop
an f-bomb here and there doesn’t guarantee success.” Houston notes The Score’s
Steve Kouleas will host a new show called “Hardcore Hockey Talk.” Mike Gentile,
“perhaps the best sports-radio producer in [Canada],” left Bob McCown’s afternoon
drive show at The Fan 590 in Toronto to become supervising producer of HSR, “with
special attention to a new afternoon-drive show.” HSR will also be available through
the U.S. Sirius service (
Toronto
GLOBE & MAIL, 10/19).