William Lou Leaving 'The Raptors Show'

[torsport]

I'm was very upset to hear this, but I can't say I'm surprised.

Alex's departure was the first shoe to drop...and usually a sign of things to come. Sure enough, here we are, losing great content featured on one of the largest platforms in our region and country.

What made the Raps show unique was that it was a basketball show...for real! Not basketball content shoved in to a lineup hosted by a generic journalist who didn't really know the sport. Will is a basketball guy, paid his dues covering the team and had a great fusion of fan and journalist. He's been growing in the role and there's an authenticity to his interactions and commentary as someone who loves the sport, and isn't a media grad. (not that there's anything wrong with that - just gives him something different).

I also loved the commitment they had to providing coverage to lesser known movements in Ontario basketball culture, women's basketball, different groups building leagues, etc. I want more of this on the air, not less, and I worry we're going to get Ben Ennis' Raptors show (nothing against Ben...but it's just not the same). It will lose it's authenticity and eventually die and we'll hear "people want more hockey and baseball, that's just how it is in Ontario" - which is crap.

I'll continue to follow Will and consume content he produces. He's turned this old head onto other forms of content where I can listen to intelligent basketball commentary, which I'll continue to prefer if Sportsnet/Fan doesn't get the replacement right.

I hope they promote from the Raps Republic crew, who do great work and have lots of passion for ball and the Raps.

[torsport]

IMO the beginning of the end for Will and Alex was when Blake Murphy joined the show. No disrespect to them but Blake seems to be highly valued by Sportsnet with his Raptors/Jays versatility, and Blake is more knowledgeable about basketball than those 2 combined even while having other commitments with Jays coverage.

My guess is also that Will was pretty much done towing the company line post-We The North era in terms of the direction of the team. Look out for whatever Will and Alex's next pod is to be a way more critical voice in Raptors discourse. I think Will and Alex are going to start leaning way more negative on the BBQ era.

I have to agree. When Blake joined I felt it was a signal. I remember Alex remarking on air once that he sat down with the 'boss' and had to explain 'what had happened to the show his boss loved' - not a good sign.

I really do like Blake, but the Will and Alex dynamic was special. As the team struggled Will and Alex regularly commented that there was no reason to tune in and watch horrible basketball...although true, probably not a great recipe for Sportsnet/Fan 590 longevity, who broadcast the show.

There also didn't seem to be as much interest in Alex and Will exploring other basketball content whether around the league or in the community. The community focused content I thought really dropped off when Blake joined and turned to more G-League. Moving from a 1 hour to 2 hour show also seemed to hurt, especially with a team that was performing so poorly.

[torsport]

Welcome to the Raptors Show with Michael Grange and Dough Smith

Oh god, please no.

[ForeverTFC]

Welcome to the Raptors Show with Michael Grange and Dough Smith

Oh god, please no.

It’s crazy to think Grange went from the best journalist covering the Raptors for the Globe to what he is now.

Though I guess if Doug made it this long, it would be crazy not to follow in his footsteps.

[JL2002]

Welcome to the Raptors Show with Michael Grange and Dough Smith

Oh god, please no.

It’s crazy to think Grange went from the best journalist covering the Raptors for the Globe to what he is now.

Though I guess if Doug made it this long, it would be crazy not to follow in his footsteps.

I'm going to take a guess and say since Masai took over, there's pretty much no leaks to anyone outside of that office at all, hence making Grange moreso reactive to news and most of the time 'guessing' why certain things happens unlike someone like Woj who gets everything from every team pretty much.

LOL at Dough Smith. Unsure if that was intentional.

[Ackshun]

Interesting development. I imagine podcasters who can work on national TV/radio don't want to walk away from this, regardless of pay/slotted time, etc. The exposure to your name and brand is significant.

I didn't really care for the show tbh. I'd remind myself to be thankful that we finally had Raps on the radio, but I wasn't going out of my way to listen. I spend 8-9 hours in the car every week and I probably caught one episode per week. There just wasn't enough substance or entertainment for me. I'd rather listen to NBA radio with Scalabrine and Isola. I also couldn't stand the reaction podcast, but I know some do. I just rather not listen to a grown man rant about the Raptors game for a full hour or whatever it was. Give me 5 minutes...10 minutes tops . Either way, everyone seemed like good dudes but the final product just didn't hit.

I've always enjoyed Blake's writing and thought he was a great addition to the show. Should be interesting to see where this is headed.

[And1Skip]

The Raptors Show is the least rated weekday radio show on the Fan and is always given the worst time-slot (where the least people actually tune into the radio) so they weren't paying him much anyways. That's not a timeslot that a guy like Tim Micallef or any well known sports personality would take on a regular basis. I'm sure most of the target audience listen to Will Lou by downloading the podcast anyway so that really sucks for Will that he doesnt get any of the monetization for that as his show was owned by Sportsnet.

Look forward to see what he'll be up to when he does his own thing, but to be successful, he needs to grasp a bigger audience. 53K followers on X isn't cutting it. He even needs to go even bigger than No Dunks as I hate to say it as half of them are Canadian, but No Dunks does not have a large enough following to be making money. It never changes, but the only way to make it relatively big in sports media is to go down to the states (which is what No Dunks did) but get to the Ringer level of popularity.

I mean how much bigger can get they get ? They’re either #1 or #2 on the podcast charts for Basketball in Canada at any given time.

They’re not going to get more radio play or tv audiences because the demographic for the average listener is significantly younger for any Leafs/Jays related shows so yeah, I think it’s the absolute right move to go independent for them.

#1 or #2 podcast for basketball in Canada isn't going to cut it - that's an very small market. Sure they don't know anything else other than Raptors, but if that's the limit they want to stop at, then so be it. I work in high level Finance for over 20 years for multinational companies and Canada is always a rounding error. I remember Visa was my client once when I was working in California, and they considered Canada as immaterial and "out of scope" as a market, which surprised me considering every adult in Canada has a Visa card. Anyways, most sports media persons dream is to work in the US but to do that you would need to expand your content to reach a variety of audiences, which is what No Dunks have been trying to do.

[NinjaBro]

Will Lou read all your comments bashing his buddy Blake Murphy and wasn't going to take it anymore. He addressed it on his latest show.

I agree with Will. Blake is really good at his job, both him and Will. It's not easy to carry a 2 hr broadcast daily. I really wish they took call ins during the show so their bosses could hear the discourse from the fans. It's not fair for Will and Blake to come on every day and try to keep the fans engaged while the product was dumpster juice. They took all the heat.

Don't listen to the haters Blake, I think you are great. My only complaint was when you were doing the Raptors Reasonablist with Koreen, you would force feed a wrestling segment into the show. I remember there were times you even had segments talking NJPW. Now I'm a huge wrestling fan (actually I'm a NJPW fan) so you were speaking to me and I understand the references. But NJPW is a niche of a niche. I could see your show losing the audience when these segments come on. I guess it's fine for a podcast, would not be great for national media.

Looking forward to see what you have in store for us.

We need to trade Siakam for AJ Griffen before it's too late! - PhilBlackson

[Anticon]

IMO the beginning of the end for Will and Alex was when Blake Murphy joined the show. No disrespect to them but Blake seems to be highly valued by Sportsnet with his Raptors/Jays versatility, and Blake is more knowledgeable about basketball than those 2 combined even while having other commitments with Jays coverage.

My guess is also that Will was pretty much done towing the company line post-We The North era in terms of the direction of the team. Look out for whatever Will and Alex's next pod is to be a way more critical voice in Raptors discourse. I think Will and Alex are going to start leaning way more negative on the BBQ era.

I have to agree. When Blake joined I felt it was a signal. I remember Alex remarking on air once that he sat down with the 'boss' and had to explain 'what had happened to the show his boss loved' - not a good sign.

Curious was that after Blake joined or before as pretext for why Blake joined? Presumably someone that was the 'boss' was concerned enough about the show they decided to bring in Blake.

[Badonkadonk]

IMO the beginning of the end for Will and Alex was when Blake Murphy joined the show. No disrespect to them but Blake seems to be highly valued by Sportsnet with his Raptors/Jays versatility, and Blake is more knowledgeable about basketball than those 2 combined even while having other commitments with Jays coverage.

My guess is also that Will was pretty much done towing the company line post-We The North era in terms of the direction of the team. Look out for whatever Will and Alex's next pod is to be a way more critical voice in Raptors discourse. I think Will and Alex are going to start leaning way more negative on the BBQ era.

I have to agree. When Blake joined I felt it was a signal. I remember Alex remarking on air once that he sat down with the 'boss' and had to explain 'what had happened to the show his boss loved' - not a good sign.

Curious was that after Blake joined or before as pretext for why Blake joined? Presumably someone that was the 'boss' was concerned enough about the show they decided to bring in Blake.

I honestly think it was as simple as the actual hoops talk being painful without at least one person who understands what's happening on the court tactically. Will has gotten decent, but I think his strength is relating from a fan's perspective while combining passion and a sense of humor... completely different styles, but kind of reminds me of Dangle (Leafs) in that regard.

Will and Alex was fun at times, but the hoops discussion was dreadful.

[gha4life]

Let's hope they pair Blake up with Sampson, I love hearing those two chat about ball.

God, I hope not. Listening to Sampson is like watching paint dry. Listening to him blather on about watching 1000 pick and rolls over and over is boring as sh$t. He's incapable of making a point and moving on.

Blake is great. But he needs someone a little less robotic to balance him out.

Personally I like those deep analysis there's too many hot take shows already out there

[WuTang_OG]

him and that guy with that laugh both sucked

[rage2021]

personality sells in media. you cant be dry.

look at Inside the NBA, talk out of their @SS 90% of the time, ratings darling.

Termine and Johnson on the radio are very successful too..people want to be entertained and wind down..

you can get away with maybe 1 dry/analytics/numbers guy, but never more then 50%. id argue you are better off leaving that part of it off completely from these shows if it is ratings they are after. it is what it is - its what sells.

[NinjaBro]

Let's hope they pair Blake up with Sampson, I love hearing those two chat about ball.

God, I hope not. Listening to Sampson is like watching paint dry. Listening to him blather on about watching 1000 pick and rolls over and over is boring as sh$t. He's incapable of making a point and moving on.

Blake is great. But he needs someone a little less robotic to balance him out.

Personally I like those deep analysis there's too many hot take shows already out there

Great news for you. There's rumors of Samson and Caitlyn Cooper working together on a new show. If you listen carefully you could actually hear Samson climax as Cooper is doing a 20 minute breakdown of the Spain pick and roll. They're talking in each other's language.

Put Samson on with Blake on the radio and it would be instant death for the show.

We need to trade Siakam for AJ Griffen before it's too late! - PhilBlackson

[Merit]

God, I hope not. Listening to Sampson is like watching paint dry. Listening to him blather on about watching 1000 pick and rolls over and over is boring as sh$t. He's incapable of making a point and moving on.

Blake is great. But he needs someone a little less robotic to balance him out.

Personally I like those deep analysis there's too many hot take shows already out there

Great news for you. There's rumors of Samson and Caitlyn Cooper working together on a new show. If you listen carefully you could actually hear Samson climax as Cooper is doing a 20 minute breakdown of the Spain pick and roll. They're talking in each other's language.

Put Samson on with Blake on the radio and it would be instant death for the show.

We need to trade Siakam for AJ Griffen before it's too late! - PhilBlackson

Disagree. You just need to add a third personality who brings the fan experience.

[Smalltown]

Let's hope they pair Blake up with Sampson, I love hearing those two chat about ball.

God, I hope not. Listening to Sampson is like watching paint dry. Listening to him blather on about watching 1000 pick and rolls over and over is boring as sh$t. He's incapable of making a point and moving on.

Blake is great. But he needs someone a little less robotic to balance him out.

Personally I like those deep analysis there's too many hot take shows already out there

I don't have a problem with well-thought-out analysis. The problem is his analysis can usually be summed up in 2 or 3 sentences and doesn't need any further discussion. He just repeats the same thing over and over and over.

"I really like blue. I looked at 10,000 swatches. I determined blue is the best colour. Why is blue the best colour? Because i looked at 10,000 swatches. If you omit 50% of those 10,000 swatches i watched you'd see that I still really like blue. Not only do i like blue - i like baby blue and navy blue and electric blue. I determined that i like blue after looking at 10,000 swatches..."

[djsunyc]

sports radio is about generating emotions and fan interaction. i dont know how you can have a sports radio show without fan call ins. didnt make sense to me.

like others said, you need personalities with strong exteme takes to generate listener response. objective stuff doesn't fly.

[God Squad]

Good. They sucked.

[ChillRelaxDude]

God, I hope not. Listening to Sampson is like watching paint dry. Listening to him blather on about watching 1000 pick and rolls over and over is boring as sh$t. He's incapable of making a point and moving on.

Blake is great. But he needs someone a little less robotic to balance him out.

Personally I like those deep analysis there's too many hot take shows already out there

I don't have a problem with well-thought-out analysis. The problem is his analysis can usually be summed up in 2 or 3 sentences and doesn't need any further discussion. He just repeats the same thing over and over and over.

"I really like blue. I looked at 10,000 swatches. I determined blue is the best colour. Why is blue the best colour? Because i looked at 10,000 swatches. If you omit 50% of those 10,000 swatches i watched you'd see that I still really like blue. Not only do i like blue - i like baby blue and navy blue and electric blue. I determined that i like blue after looking at 10,000 swatches..."

Blake is a robot word machine. Could probably play a drinking game with how often he says DHO.

I don't know if I'll follow Will and Alex, but I definitely won't be tuning in for the Raptors Show.

[C_Money]

sports radio is about generating emotions and fan interaction. i dont know how you can have a sports radio show without fan call ins. didnt make sense to me.

like others said, you need personalities with strong exteme takes to generate listener response. objective stuff doesn't fly.

Disagree. When the fans start calling in is usually when I turn these episodes off. There’s far too many dumbasses out there.