John Granato

Tale of the Tape, "Butchered National Anthem" Category: Alexis Normand vs Frank Drebin

Music is a tough business. Thousands of artists are writing and performing tens of thousands of songs every day for little to no wage, trying to strike it big and gain some degree of relevance. However, in the Darwinian age of the internet, YouTube, iTunes, and a thousand different television chann ... More >>

Geno Smith's Former QB Coach Refutes Scathing Draft Evaluation

Driven largely by back to back classes flush with immediate impact players, expectations have changed for highly drafted rookie quarterbacks in the NFL. Consider that two years ago, six of the top 35 picks were quarterbacks, and already three of them (oddly enough the second three drafted -- Chris ... More >>

Chandler Parsons' Curious Case Of (Ahem) "Food Poisoning"

Twice an hour during my afternoon radio show, longtime Houston reporter extraordinaire David Dalati comes on and gives an update on things going on around the world of sports -- basically, standard sports-flash type stuff with some interview nuggets from David's tireless efforts of the day mixed in. ... More >>

JaMarcus Russell's Quest To Become The First 350-Pound Quarterback Is Full Steam Ahead

My co-host John Granato and I have a standing breakfast bet (which I just now realized will have to be amended to something else at stake because we're moving from mornings to afternoons on 1560 Yahoo! Sports Radio) and it goes like this: True of false: Out of these three quarterbacks -- Tim Tebow, ... More >>

Sports Radio Fantasy Draft: Filling Out the Lineups of Two Local Stations with Talent from the Existing Four

One of the arguments against expansion in pro sports leagues is that it dilutes the talent pool. There are enough great players to fill out the lineups for 30 teams, but are there enough for 32? It's an important factor to consider. On Monday, 1560 KGOW fired Adam Clanton and John Wessling, hosts o ... More >>

Texans-Vikings: New BATTLE-DRINK Bingo Drinking Game Card, Egg Nog Edition

Well, this week's game card should be the final Battle-Drink Bingo card of the 2012 season. Assuming the Texans win this Sunday against the Vikings, that means the final game against the Colts would hold no meaning (possibly for either team), so cobbling together a Battle-Drink centered around the e ... More >>

College Football: Bear Bryant Award Finalists Revealed (Aggies Will Be Happy)

If you're a prominent, successful college football player or coach, it is usually necessary to block out the second week of December. This is when most of the college football awards are handed out, the week after the regular season ends. For many, it's an exhausting, circuitous journey across the n ... More >>

Twitter's Homage to Jeff Van Gundy After Bryan Braman's Touchdown Against the Colts

It's always kind of fun when worlds collide in the professional sports world, when we get crossover of a sports personality commenting on or participating in some way in another professional sport. It's like Reese's peanut butter cups -- "Hey, you dipped your NBA into my NFL!!"..."No, you spilled yo ... More >>

Texans-Packers: ALL NEW BATTLE-DRINK Bingo Drinking Card

The Texans come back this Sunday night to play the Green Bay Packers on the dreaded "short work week," having just played the New York Jets on Monday night. Much like the players having to summon all of their recuperative powers to be near the top of their game on Sunday, so too must you, the weeken ... More >>

Lance Zierlein & Charlie Pallilo Teaming Up? Great News For Local Sports Radio

There are a couple of great sportstalk radio hosts in town, guys who regularly rack up Best Of Houston awards in the relevant categories. Two of the top: Lance Zierlein and Charlie Pallilo. Both are with KBME 790, and both have faced problems that have hampered their styles. Pallilo is a nerdling ... More >>

Boom. Roasted. -- The Monday Morning College Football Roast

Through the first few weeks of the football season, I had been combining my foremost thoughts and remembrances of the weekend that was in football -- Texans, college, and general NFL -- into the ever popular "4 Winners, 4 Losers" post. However, now we've got three weeks of college football in the b ... More >>

Texans-Saints: 4 Winners, 4 Losers (The Trindon Holliday Conundrum Edition)

If you are a sports couch potato (and if you are reading this, chances are that is the case), Saturday night was one of those nights that we probably take for granted all of the technological advances that allow us to consume all of the fare on the sports buffet simultaneously. Picture if you will, ... More >>

Texans-Saints: Five Things To Watch

Every even-numbered year since I got into radio in 2007 (and perhaps even before that, I just wasn't paying attention), the Houston Texans would travel east on I-10 in mid-August (actually, to be more accurate, they probably flew charter) to practice for the entire week against the New Orleans Saint ... More >>

1560 The Game Goes Local With Clanton, Wessling in the Afternoons

Since 1560 The Game's parent company Gow Communications purchased Sporting News Radio and eventually partnered with Yahoo to form Yahoo Sporting News Radio, which was, incidentally, not long after our cover story on the rebel independent, a lot of changes were made at the station and we will fully a ... More >>

Texans Rewind: I Found a 2008 NFL Preview Magazine, Man Alive Was the Texans Defense Bad

On our radio show on 1560 The Game this past Monday, John Granato and I were breaking down various aspects of both the Texans 26-13 win over the Panthers and the preseason in general. The topic was the defense, specifically Whitney Mercilus and the various ways that Texans defensive coordinator Wade ... More >>

Houston Texans: My Annual Way Too Early Guess at the 53-Man Roster

On Sunday morning at the Texans' second day of practice of the young preseason, I was hanging out with my co-host John Granato watching the wide receivers go one-on-one against the cornerbacks in pass catching drills when Evan Koch of the Texans media relations team walked by and asked us who we tho ... More >>

Ranking Houston's Sports Radio Personalities

The Houston sports talk landscape is complicated and fascinating. We are blessed with four full-time sports stations, several other sports-themed shows scattered along the dial and one national sports network headquartered right here in the Bayou City. When I ranked the best sports talk shows in Hou ... More >>

Weekend Review: Pacquiao Gets Jobbed, Humberto Quintero Makes "Chinese Eyes", Gary Stevens Humanizes Horses

Every year, it seems like there's one weekend around this time of year where the sports gods decide to remind us that we are heading to that abyss section of the sports calendar, where trying to find actual sports topics to carry blog posts and five hours of radio a day is somewhat daunting. For s ... More >>

NBA Formalwear: Chase Budinger's NBA Socks Worn Under His Suit At Tilman Fertitta's Charity Event

On the evening of May 2, John Granato and I had the opportunity to broadcast a "very special edition" of our show on 1560 The Game live from local restaurant and casino mogul Tilman Fertitta's palatial (Understatement Adjective of the Year, by the way) estate in River Oaks. It was the annual "Gath ... More >>

Ranking The Local Sports Radio Shows From Worst To First

I've been listening to sports radio in the city of Houston a very long time. Too long, probably. While I don't remember much about Edmonds and Martini, I do remember when the only sports radio show in Houston was Sports Beat, which ran evenings on KTRH. Amazing to think that we've gone from one four ... More >>

2012 NFL Draft -- Live Blog

I made an analogy on my radio show this morning on 1560 The Game that the NFL Draft tonight is like Christmas Day for many NFL fans. Air of anticipation, excitement of the unknown, food, it's all there. (My co-host, John Granato, compared it to Hanukkah because it's played out over several days, but ... More >>

Move Over Stagger Lee, Jacoby Jones Has Something Dumber!

A bigger "oops" than Rick Perry​Last Friday, John Granato and I were breaking down the keys to the Texans' playoff game in Baltimore on our radio show on 1560 The Game. For the Texans to win the game, I thought it would be crucial for them to get a big play in the return game from either Danie ... More >>

Texans, Tebow and BCS Titles! This Weekend's 4 Winners and 4 Losers

All right, this is starting to get ridiculous, football gods. First, you knock out Arian Foster for the first three games of the season with a hamstring injury. Then you rob us of Andre Johnson not once but twice with injuries to each hamstring, forcing him to miss most of the season. Then you rip ... More >>

Forecasting the NFL Head Coach Guillotine

Your time here is done.​They call it "Black Monday." It's the day after the NFL regular season ends, when any still-employed head coach whose name has been remotely associated with the words "hot" and "seat" tiptoes cautiously into his office and hopes that there's not a box on his desk to pa ... More >>

NBA Season Win Totals and My Rockets Prediction

Bet the over on wins​Last add on my post from yesterday about Kris Kardashian Humphries re-signing with the Nets: For those of you who think I was a little too hard on Big Humph (and by my count, there were exactly none of you who felt that way), just know that according to results of a rece ... More >>

Sports-Talk 1560 Loses Another Veteran: Lance Zierlein Calls It Quits at The Game

Photo by Jeff BalkeZierlein (left) with his now former co-host John Granato.​In what feels like the dismantling of KGOW 1560 The Game, long-time morning show co-host Lance Zierlein announced via his Houston Chronicle blog that he would be turning in his microphone and leaving the station eff ... More >>

Changing Stations: KGOW's Creative Team Packs Up, Pendergast Goes National

KGOW's now former creative team of Frank Bullington (left) and Chance McClain (right)​If you have listened at all to KGOW 1560 the Game over the last month or two, you may have noticed some changes taking place that represent a distinct shift in the overall vibe of the station. Gone are the od ... More >>

Jeff Van Gundy Says "No Thanks" to Texas A&M

Jeff Van Gundy reacts to having to work with AAU "agents."​It seems like every year, as we head into the "boring phase" of the sports calendar (best known as the point where the Texans' and Rockets' offseason intersects with the Astros' regular season), some stories inevitably pop up to keep t ... More >>

Texans Draft 2011 -- Defensive End Is The New Tight End

Every rose has its thorn, such as Rick Smith​Last night, John Granato, Lance Zierlein and I were doing our annual NFL Draft show from Wild Wing Cafe in Katy. Like most seasons, we didn't have to wait very long for the Texans to make their pick. (Actually to be fair, the last few seasons, we've ... More >>

Game Time

1560AM adds humor to lonely, serious workday.

KGOW'S KAPOW KAPOW

1560AM weaves pop culture, locker-room humor and irreverence into sports-talk radio.

Top Ten Houston Sports Stories in 2010 (Alternate Title: "Here Comes The Prozac")

Brian Cushing will bring a keg and Fear of Tumors to your party​Putting together a "Top 10 Sports Moments" list is not supposed to invoke these feelings of anger and depression. But then again, I live in Houston, so try as I might to make this a list that is uplifting and inspiring, I can't. ... More >>

Game Time: NFL 2010 -- A Journey In Wagering

Betting is fun! If you don't mind losing​The first week of the NFL season is always one of the busiest for me. I've never been an accountant, nor will I ever be an accountant, but I would imagine that the first week of college and NFL football together is how the week of April 15 feels for someon ... More >>

GAME TIME: Houston Texans - Final Practice Report (LIVE from New Orleans)

Sean interviewed former Oiler Spencer Tillman Friday.​As we head into the back end of our trip to New Orleans for Texans-Saints Practicepalooza 2010 (also known as the "realizing there actually can be too much of a good thing" phase of the trip), I'd like to take a minute to wish a very happy thir ... More >>

GAME TIME: Texans Thursday AM Practice Report (LIVE from New Orleans!)

Maybe the Texans can get a little Rebirth in NOLA​While on the surface, this is technically a "business trip" for me, it's really hard to call any trip to New Orleans an out and out "business trip." I mean, I spent fifteen years in the corporate world, where "business" meant mind-numbing meeting ... More >>

Game Time: Texans Wednesday AM Practice Report (LIVE from New Orleans!)

Land of Super Bowl champions​Safe, sound, and functioning on three hours of sleep, I am LIVE in New Orleans at the Saints practice facility in Metarie, LA covering the Texans and the Saints inter-squad practice sessions. For those unaware of the agenda, the Texans spent this morning and will spen ... More >>

Jose Lima, RIP: The Last Colorful Astro Checks Out

Photo courtesy LA DodgersLima, just a few days ago​Jose Lima died of a heart attack at 37 yesterday. He was the rarest of Astro birds in the Drayton McLane era -- someone who actually had personality.Lima pissed off a lot of fans and opponents with his antics, and he famously lost whatever mojo he ... More >>

Game Time: Nomar Retires And Heads To The Place Ballplayers Go to Die.....ESPN

​I've worked several places in my lifetime, most of them in the corporate world. Easily, my favorite place I've worked is with my current employer, 1560 The Game. After watching Nomar Garciaparra's feel-good press conference this week where he announced his retirement on the heels of a one-day c ... More >>

Game Time: Time To Take Over

​I will get the pleasantries out of the way ....My name is Sean Pendergast, and I am a sports talk show host at 1560 The Game.I realize that sentence has the sound and feel of a self-introduction at an AA meeting (and carries with it more similarities than you'd think), but I figure simplicity is ... More >>

The Upstart Sports-Talk Station Is Making Some Strides

Photo by Daniel Kramer​We've been hearing this since 1560 The Game went on the air, but the time is finally coming.Pending one last final approval from the FCC, come some time next month, the station should be broadcasting a booming 15,000-watt signal from Katy that will cover the entire city. Th ... More >>

Getting into The Game with Chance McClain

KGOWTF: Poker on the Radio?

A Call for Calls, or Why I Need My Own Radio Show

And Now, a Word or Three on the Texans

Friends sponsor movie fund-raiser for injured Gulf Coast surfer

Aliens to the Rescue

Sports talk radio stations fight for listeners in Houston

Jock Talk

Ever Lastings Love?

All in a Huff

Best Radio Commercial

Trailer, Wheel & Frame Co.

You've Got Killer Mail

Who's the "Railcar" slayer writing to now? Inside Houston magazine.