John Beilein Radio Show

On Monday Night, I attended the John Beilein Radio Show with the rest of my Sports Media Class, and I came away impressed with the show as a whole.

The show is held every Monday Night at Pizza House in Ann Arbor, which provided an excellent atmosphere. Pizza House is a step up from other conventional venues such as Applebees in terms of quality, and has a number of flat screen TVs throughout the dining area, all of which were playing the Michigan/Northwestern game from a few nights before, which I thought was a nice touch. The one issue I had is that the show was tucked away upstairs (which, admittedly, had a nice feel to it) instead of downstairs in front of a window, which would create much more exposure for the show. I'm sure that the fans who regularly attend the show are thrilled with the venue, as it gives the show a very personable feel and quaint feel, which is exactly what you want your interaction with a coach to be like as a fan. But as it is, someone walking by Pizza House during the show has no idea that John Beilein's Radio Show is going on. If someone could just glance inside the window and see John Beilein interacting with the crowd and breaking down basketball, it would greatly increase the exposure for the show. As it is, the only exposure I get to the John Beilein show is when I look at mgoblue.com, which to their credit, puts it on as a lead story the day of taping. But if it was in a more visible place, like Good-Time Charlies, I think there would be a lot more buzz about it on campus.

A reason why I would like to see the show get more publicity is I thought the quality of the show was excellent. The host, Doug Karsch, had a very good repure with Beilein; they both looked comfortable working with eachother, and Karsch seemed to ask the questions that I, as a Michigan fan, would like to hear answered. The majority of the show was Karsch and Beilein talking about the previous games, getting into future matchups, etc, but this was supplemented nicely with a balance of questions from the audience and a call-in. The questions from the audience showed how personable Beilein is. His interaction with the crowd was great, and he did a great job answering people's questions. His response trying to explain the pregame ritual was priceless. One thing I'd like to hear a little more of is call-in's, as there was only one the entire show. If IMG put out an advertisment that anyone who calls into the show gets a free ticket to the next game, I think that would serve as a good motivating tool to get more quality calls in.