Ever power-tripping Redskins owner Daniel Snyder likes to have so much control of everything around him that he recently bought WTEM, the most powerful sports talk radio station in Washington D.C. Snyder changed it around and turned it into ESPN 980, ostensibly to control the perception of his team and hamper the criticism. That still hasn’t stopped local icon host Steve Czaban from taking Snyder to task, despite remaining as a host on 980. Well Snyder sure is taking some lengths to make the station more Redskins friendly, handing the team’s Vice President of Football Operations, Vinny Cerato, a two hour show twice a week.
Some of the hosts at the station think the whole idea is a joke and have already expressed their thoughts on the matter. Cerrato seems to be pretty pumped about the opportunity to reach out to the fans. As for me, though I know it’s not uncommon for team employees to host a weekly show, I can’t help but think this is a way for Snyder to attempt to control the media. If he wants open lines of communication to the team, there are many other ways to achieve it with the fans. Why not just have a one hour show a week instead of two hours twice a week? Do the radio hosts get a chance to act as team vice presidents a few days a week, too? Seems like an awful lot of time for a person with a seemingly important job title to be giving up to chat on the radio … just my opinion.
