Though the usually prompt expunging of a jettisoned host from a radio website still hasn’t happened as of this writing, Dan Ceasar of STLToday.com is reporting that his fellow columnist Bryan Burwell has been yanked from his own show on the FM sport talk station, 101 ESPN.

Sources said the move was ratings-related and not tied to any other issue, and that Burwell still could be involved in Rams game day programming. It is not known who – or if anyone – will replace Burwell alongside Bob Stelton in the 9-11 a.m weekday slot.

Stelton is expected to be off the show next week as fill-in hosts man the slot before a re-tooled program in unveiled after that.

The midday show has been the shakiest of any of the 101 ESPN shows from the very beginning with the odd hire and pairing of Fox Sports Midwest’s Pat Parris with Byran Burwell. Parris was later let go, leaving Burwell to his own devices with a smattering of co-hosts for a while until they found a “permeant” solution which ended up being out-of-towner Bob Stelton. Now Burwell himself appears to be out and its hardly a surprise. What is a surprise though is that his management doomed him to this fate with an ill-advised show change.

Burwell was always the standard “overbaring voice” that people like to experiment on air with and usually that meant teaming him with someone that tones him down (enter Pat Parris) since he, despite being a nice guy personally in our interactions with him, comes off as overly douchey on the air. It’s tough to tone down the constant name dropping and condescending blather, but that’s the right instinct since Burwell can be counted on to at least get a conversation going despite what you think of his side of the argument.

Recently though, with the pairing of his current partner, Bob Stelton, the direction seemed to have changed. It seemed as though he was being told to amp up his superiority act with joke setups by Stelton about Burwell’s ego and even the show’s imaging (sound bytes and bumpers) reenforcing the role. Bad move. The chances we had to listen to the 9a-11a broadcast were admittedly slim, but we did give it a chance on more than few occasions and to say it was “unlistenable” would be overly nice.

Stelton seems to have some talent though, despite being drug in to this SNL-sketch of a sports show. Hopefully they can go a different direction when the show returns and chill out on the self-inflated importance schtick for a mid-day “everyone just got to work so no one is listening” broadcast.

Maybe 101 ESPN can dust off that JC Corcoran silhouette again!

Bryan Burwell wants you to leave professional athletes alone!  Why?  Because you “fans” are all horrible people! …I mean not all of you, but enough that he feels its ok to blame us all for the bad ones.

I have to laugh when I listen to or read the voice of the outraged fan who now believes that he is entitled to more out of Woods than he has already given. Entitlement doesn’t look good on anyone, and the truth is, too many fans are just as guilty nowadays as the players they often scold for the same behavior.

In Jupiter all week, I have witnessed it firsthand. I have watched impatient fans lining up behind the parking lot gates every morning and afternoon. Most of them are well-mannered and grateful to get an autograph, a photograph or even a handshake. But there are others who are not so nice.

They scream at the players, they scream at the manager. From behind the chain-link fences that ring the practice fields, they jockey for position with all the decorum of a rugby scrum.

So we should give a pass to athletes that are horrible people just because other people are horrible too?  That’s akin to saying “Well yeah the guy murdered 15 infants, but he’s not the first!  …get out of here you little scamp!  Are you free to babysit this weekend?”

We wanted more on this issue, so we prodded Burwell and in turn he sent us this video clip to further his case:

We’re not sure that helped.

via STLToday

I made a quick mention in my Friday night post about 101 ESPN and JC Corcoran that even the shadowy figure in the 101 ESPN banner looks a hell of a lot like JC.  Well if there’s anything that screamed “Photoshop me some more evidence!” this is it right?

Bam:

Would 101 be already making banners but still not ready to make an announcement?  Who knows, but I’ll be dammed if that shadow doesn’t look exactly like JC’s noggin.

101ESPN fired the other, stiffer, less black, half of the widely criticized mid-morning show “Parris and Burwell” the other day.  Did you hear who Pat Parris’ replacement is?  Well, they apparently will work for cheap and be dumb enough to think working with Burwell on a sport radio gig is a “prize”.  Guess what?!  Its you!   …maybe.  Are you drunk enough right now to think this is a good idea?

…as much as Bryan [Burwell] is respected for his straight forward approach, he also loves to laugh, have fun, interact with listeners and debate the world of sports with his colleagues. However there’s one small problem – he’s got nobody to do it with on a daily basis!

So rather than watch Burwell walk around the office like a little boy without his favorite toy, we’ve decided to help him find a brand new partner. In the weeks and months ahead you will hear many different voices and styles on “Burwell and Company” and the search will continue until we have the right person sitting next to Bryan permanently.

Does it seem weird to anyone else this sounds like Pat Parris left on his own?  Because he didn’t.  They fired him.  We aren’t saying we disagree with the move mind you, we’re just saying its odd and kind of insulting the way this was phrased.

What’s with this hooky idea?  Is the plan to have the sillouette sponsored by Baue Funeral Homes?  Plus, now that Parris is out, it finally leaves a chair next to Burwell for his ego, so I can’t imagine he’s cool with idea of filling it with another stiff white guy so quickly.  It seems that WXOS is under the impression that their hype machine is a little bigger than it actually is.  Reality check (its been a while since I’ve given them one, so this is quite the flash back): No one cares.  We’d prefer to just let Bernie’s show take over both time slots and be done with the damn thing.

…on the other hand…Could this be a time-killing idea to get the recently let go JC Corcoran in to the fold?  That’s what our tipster thinks, and we completely agree.  Although Corcoran is now a “consultant” for Emmis, according to Corcoran himself on his long-winded open letter he states his contracts has an out…

I’ll be paid in full through February of 2011 unless I choose to accept a job at another station before then.

The JC and 101 ESPN match is clearly a love connection on both sides which isn’t much of a secret and this kind of BS seems like filler until both sides can get a deal done.  Hell even the damn shadow in the banner below kind of looks like Corcoran!

Ok, so the premise is dumb.  We got that covered, now lets turn our attention to the banner on their site:

In case you can’t see the “tag line” there it reads:

Got what it takes 2 B the new guy? We’re looking 4U!

You see the kids today shorten words to write faster and if you shorten your words you seem hip and cool…and like the last time you opened a book a cartoon bunny popped up out of the page.  I can’t believe that Burwell would allow “writing” like that to go out next to his name!

Let me try to get through to them…

Ur b@nn3r sux & it m@kez u s0und r3t@rded!!!!

The only thing we know 100% (though JC stuff is pretty high) is that until a proper co-host is in place the seat is just going to be a rotation between Brian Stull and the wooden Brian Feldman.  …and you thought you hated the show before!

From 101ESPN.com via our awesome little tipster!