Show review for 1/5/2012

Click here for a brief summary of the show

Highs: Father Rob's impersonation of Lino praying that sounded like a cross between Thurston Howell III from Gilligan's Island and Judge Smails from Caddyshack. Also good was a quote from a caller talking about Father Rob's McDonald's temptation: "Having a sip of a McDonald's Coke is like fat girl crack."

Lows: The Li-Nie Awards. A normally hilarious segment felt like it was running on half a tank of gas this time around.

Our take: Not bad... but not great, either. At least it kept our interest.

Grade: B-

Show review for 1/4/2012

Click here for a brief summary of the show

Highs: Hearing Father Rob defend his assertion that men have no obligation to give up their seat to a woman was great fun. Almost as much fun: listening to Lino beat his head against a wall after his attempt to help someone gets buried in an avalanche of listener suggestions. But none of those topped What's Father Rob Humming, which is in a class all by itself.

Lows: If we had to pick, we'd say that the opening segment about the Iowa caucuses was a little underwhelming.

Our take: Like a good wine, this show got better as time went along. Still a tad bit flat in parts, but much better than Tuesday's underwhelming performance.

Grade: B+

Show review for 1/3/2012

Starting with the first show of 2012, we are going to post a brief review of each new episode of TCGS, along with a link to the show summary so that you can get filled in on what happened each day in case you weren't able to listen. So without further ado...

Broadcast Date: 1/3/2012
Click here for a brief summary of the show

Highs: A caller from Atlanta trash-talked Father Rob into a $25 bet on the Falcons-Giants game this weekend.

Lows: Most of the second hour. What started out as a promising segment about how people allow external events to get between them and God ended up being a 40-minute snoozefest that had us wondering when they were finally going to play a commercial.

Our take: Some nice moments like the impromptu bet and Father Rob mocking Lino for the way he spent New Year's were overshadowed by too much talk about subjects that were only mildly interesting. For the first show of the year, this one hit the ground with a thud.

Grade: C-

Ryan, We Hardly Knew Ye. And TCGS… Do We Still Know You?

If you didn't catch today's show, you missed Ryan Grant's last day as TCGS assistant producer.

Huh?!

Yep-pers… today was Ryan's last day after gracing the producer's chair for just shy of seven months. The reason: he wants to go back to school. Listening to the show over the past few weeks we couldn't help but notice Ryan's absence from the air, and now that he's leaving the show for good his absence will be felt even stronger. Ryan, we bid you adieu with the same farewell message we did with Lou: good luck and godspeed. You're a class act who left much sooner than we had imagined.

Which brings up the topic of TCGS, and its present and future. We're just off celebrating the fifth anniversary of the show, and this is turning out to be the most topsy-turvy year for TCGS that we've ever seen. On one hand, Father Rob joined the show full time, Lino published his first book to a stellar reception, and two more successful pilgrimages were had by all… all strong high points. Counter that with the loss of three crewmembers (Lou in May, Maureen a month later, and now Ryan), a significant reduction in appearances by Father Jim (from once a week to once in a blue moon), and a decisive shift towards more discussion and less game playing (when's the last time somebody won a prize on the show?)… and the TCGS of today looks very different than it did in January.

What TCGS needs now are some good doses of stability and variety. Part of what made the show so successful was a stable core, both personality- and content-wise. When you tuned in to the show for much of the past five years, you knew what to expect: Lino, Lou, Maureen, Father Rob on Thursdays, Father Jim on Fridays, and lots of chances to win Popeners and other cool prizes you couldn't get just anywhere. Nowadays when you tune in you expect three hours of Lino and Father Rob yakking it up about the topics du jour, and the almost daily promotion of Lino's book… and that's it. Sure, the banter between them has been really good... but how about more than just banter? If we want three hours of nothing but Catholic talk, EWTN Radio is just one channel up the dial. (That should bring in a little hate mail.)

And don't even get us started on today's installment of Boring Catholic Radio. It seems like the last few times they've done BCR Lino and Father Rob have been trying waaaay too hard to sound bad, and the whole thing just felt forced from beginning to end. The best version has been (and always will be) the very first one Lino did in 2007, which was completely off the cuff yet much more believable. Today's version leaned heavily toward the "B" in BCR.

Seriously, though… this is our first blog post in more than two months. Part of it is purely personal: a busy schedule, a demanding job, and a wife and two small kids (with one on the way). But the other part of it is that there hasn't been anything truly worthwhile to post about. The $100 Twitter bet between Father Rob and Lino was the last thing that really snagged our attention… we didn't even have the motivation to post anything about the show's fifth anniversary because it just seemed so underwhelming to us, even though a milestone like that shouldn't be.

So here's hoping that:

1. Ryan's replacement will be another top-notch personality that will make a lasting impression on the show;
2. The show branches out a little from its "all banter, all the time" format; and
3. After a while, the show will settle into a nice comfort zone that makes 4:00-7:00pm ET true appointment radio again.

We now return this blog to its regularly-scheduled program of chirping crickets.