Courtesy Inside Creighton Hoops

(March 17, 2009) Before Matt Perrault came to Omaha to host the Big Show, local radio was radioactive listening for Creighton fans. ESPN 1620 takes great glee in bashing all things not red. KFAB doesn't even bother mentioning anything not red.

It always seemed curious to me why no one with a radio show paid more attention to a team that, at the time, was drawing 10,000 a night to their games and consistently playing in the postseason. Clearly there was a fan base that wasn't being served by local radio.

There's such a fanaticism with all things red in this state that anyone who rocks the boat is going to be a pariah. But having grown up in a state where there was more than one team and thus the coverage was split, I was always curious what the reaction might be if someone came along and rocked the boat.

In April of 2005, we began to find out. Magic 590, the old WOW-AM, switched formats and became a Fox Sports Radio affiliate. It made sense, because they'd had Creighton basketball for years and had the Kansas City Royals contract in the summer. That's nine months of built-in programming. To build around their game coverage, they hired local sports anchor Travis Justice to do a show in the morning, and an east coast transplant from Boston to host the afternoon drive-time show.

From the beginning, Matt Perrault made it clear he wasn't going to do the same kind of show as everyone else. He was going to give Creighton Basketball the sort of coverage their growing fan base was clamoring for. Over the next five years, he'd interview Dana Altman the day after a game, every game. He'd talk to assistant coaches. He'd talk to players. He'd bring recruits on the air the day they signed, often for extended interviews so that fans could learn more about them. He'd bring in national media-types to talk about the Jays. He traveled to MVC Media Day and devoted entire shows to interviewing players and coaches from every team in the league. He traveled to Arch Madness and did special shows from courtside. It was fantastic stuff. I listened almost every day.
Perrault spent a ton of after-hours time building an audience. He hosted pre-and-post game shows, often on weekends, and started a post-game call in show for Jays hoops. He hosted viewing parties at bars for televised road games. He frequently posted on the Jays message board to give fans updates on guests and what time they'd be on. He'd post updates from press row during games. Jays fans ate it up and rewarded him with their ears.

Unfortunately for his local rep, Perrault wasn't content to just give the Jays the coverage a program of their stature deserved. He also spent a lot of time, particularly during the Pederson-Callahan era, refusing to toe the party line on Nebraska Football. This didn't sit well with a lot of folks who were used to local media lap dogs who went around Lincoln sniffing butts and telling them their s*** didn't stink. It was all very amusing. He was rocking the boat, and we were witnessing the result: thousands of pissed off people calling him names and openly calling for his firing.

He'd endeared himself to transplanted Nebraskans that were SPORTS fans, not necessarily Husker fans, that still wanted local sports radio. He talked about other Big XII teams. He talked about Iowa Football. He talked about the NBA, the NFL, MLB. It wasn't Husker Football 24/7/365, and it was awesome.

In his first 18 months, Perrault made lifetime listeners out of Jays fans while simultaneously alienating a good percentage of Husker fans. Unfortunately, there's way more of the latter than the former, so he got consistently hammered in the ratings. He became something of a pariah on Husker message boards, who didn't take kindly to someone in the local media taking such a stance, refusing to drink the kool-aid and daring to tell it like it is. He seemed to thrive on it, ripping deeper and deeper on the Huskers, enjoying the criticism, subscribing to the "all press is good press" theory.

He was the only guy in the local media who told it like it was. Husker fans will disagree, claiming he was biased towards the Jays and a hater of the Huskers. And yeah, he had many moments where he was less than complimentary of the Huskers. Just because no one else had the guts to say it didn't make it untrue. But he generally gave them credit when it was due, particularly this year when Bo Pelini began turning things around. He gave way more coverage to the Big XII as a whole than his main competition, which was wonderfully refreshing to SPORTS fans.

Make no mistake, he also was not afraid to take shots at the Jays when warranted. He upset huge swaths of the fan base for ripping fans that showed up late and left early, for not making enough noise, etc. He openly wondered why certain moves were made. He stirred up discussion, which is never a bad thing, and which is something that had sorely been lacking in this state.

To SPORTS fans, he was a wonderful addition to the local media. To die-hard Husker fans, he was heretical and a divisive figure. Love him or hate him, its a shame that voice is being silenced.

Yes, at the end of March, he's leaving the show. I refuse to speculate on the reasons, but does it really matter? They're replacing his show with Chris Myers' national Fox show out of L.A. That means we're back to the guys on Unsportsmanlike Conduct doing one interview a month with Dana Altman and calling it "Jays Coverage". We're back to Dave Weber mispronouncing players names on TV because he's never been to a game. We're back to scouring the internet for news, trying desperately to fill the void in local coverage.

The next person they hire -- and I hope they hire someone new, because 1620's local show needs competition -- would do well to continue the extensive Jays coverage while toning down the attacks on Husker sports. Someone who talked college hoops -- Jays or Nebraska --- in the winter, without ripping or hating either one, would be a ratings juggernaut and would smash 1620 to pieces or force them to adapt, which are both good outcomes. Does such a person exist? I hope so. While I enjoyed Perrault's show, its probably professional suicide to refuse to toe the Husker Party Line. But I wish the local media would realize its NOT professional suicide to devote serious time to the Jays. There's a lot of us -- not as many as Husker fans, but there's a lot -- whose ears will patronize shows that cover Creighton hoops.

You'll be missed, Matt. I didn't always agree with everything you said, but I appreciated the Jays coverage and always listened. Best of luck in your next job.

You bet.