Confluence of the Underappreciated

Last night, while driving through Ohio on my way home on I-75 from Cincinnati, I tuned into AM 1510 WLAC out of Nashville. I've found before that this radio station comes in regularly after dusk on that stretch of the highway. Last night, it made for one of the best listening experiences I've had in awhile, as they were airing the University of Tennessee women's basketball NCAA tournament semifinal game against LSU. In the process, it brought together two areas of American sports culture that I believe get some attention, but go underappreciated.

First is women's basketball. Certainly, both NCAA women's basketball and the WNBA get some media coverage, but not nearly as much as men's college basketball and the NBA. Meanwhile, I've heard sports talk radio hosts ranging from Jim Rome to Tony Kornheiser to many of the fill-in folks on ESPN radio belittle women's basketball to one degree or another. Yet, at least personally, I find women's basketball to be a more satisfying game than men's basketball. Sometimes I'm not sure that that translates as well as it could as it is covered on television, but listening to it on the radio last night captured the appeal beautifully. I'd like to hear it more ...

And I'll be listening, because the second thing that I believe goes underappreciated is the experience of listening to sports on radio vis-a-vis watching sports on television. I've seen plenty of people publicly acknowledge an affinity for sports on the radio, particularly in reference to baseball, but we live in an age in which television coverage is prioritized over radio coverage. Often, the question one asks is "Did you see ..." not "Did you hear ..." in reference to sports phenomena. I do watch sports on television at times and I can't say that every single sport is more enjoyable on radio. For instance, I follow the Indy Car series and I enjoy that on television more than radio (though I have listened on radio before and it's not unenjoyable; indeed, I could see that affinity changing some day, especially if I had XM satellite radio and listened to the races there). Additionally, I'm not sure how I might handle soccer on the radio (though, as I think about it, perhaps it might work for me). Overall, though, I tend to enjoy mediated sports experiences more when they're on the radio than when they're on television. Again, listening to the Tennessee-LSU game on radio last night just reconfirmed that feeling.

So, here's to more recognition of both women's basketball and sports on radio ...

And BTW, the NCAA women's championship game can be billed as the Clash of the Canda(i)ces ... Candace Parker for Tennessee and Candice Wiggins for Stanford. My rooting interest is for Stanford, who I picked to win it all the last couple years and had losing to North Carolina in my bracket this year. Since I didn't pick them to win it, they'll surely win (I hope anyway). I'm sure this interest goes back to my days at Arizona State a few years ago when the Sun Devils would defeat everybody else in PAC-10 play, but hit a wall against the Cardinal.