By Leonard Shapiro
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, July 24, 2008 6:03 PM

It's a little early to form any sort of definitive opinion on the changes at the radio station formerly known as WTEM and now being called ESPN-980, or, if you prefer, The Daniel M. Snyder All-Redskins-All-the-Time broadcasting network, available at 980 on the AM dial and also simulcast on game days on a gazillion other stations you can barely pick up.

The new lineup of shows made its debut this past Monday and is heavy on ESPN Radio network programming at the start of the day -- specifically the Mike and Mike show for four hours starting at 6 a.m., followed by professional provocateur Colin Cowherd from 10 to noon.

Starting at that hour, you finally get a locally produced show, hosted by former Redskin Rick "Doc" Walker for two hours, followed by two hours of John Thompson/Al Koken/Brian Mitchell and the, from 4 to 7 p.m., the Sports Reporters, hosted by Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban. In the evenings, we'll get Orioles games and other ESPN game action when baseball winds down.

What we will not get is a three-hour John Riggins Show, at least for now. Riggo had his own gig on the old Red Zebra stations in Snyder's stable, but the plan now is to get him on the air as much as possible during the three local shows, as well as pregame and postgame appearances on Redskins game days.

This may well be the first true full-time job Riggins has ever held, but for the money (six figures) they're paying him, apparently he's going to earn every last nickel of it, at least until his latest contract runs out.

So what's missing in the new lineup?

For starters, Czaban's morning drive show on the Fox Radio Network is burnt toast, for obvious reasons. Fox and ESPN are radio competitors, and that show was doomed the day Snyder spent $24.5 million to buy the old WTEM and two other stations from ClearChannel. And say goodnight, Dan Patrick -- the former ESPN star's relatively new syndicated talk show will no longer be available in the Washington market.

Bruce Gilbert, the general manager of Red Zebra and the man who has orchestrated all the changes at flagship 980, insisted that a Patrick presence could have been maintained, despite speculation that ESPN Radio absolutely prohibits affiliated stations from carrying what had become a rather entertaining show.

"I'm a huge fan of Dan Patrick," said Gilbert, a former executive at ESPN Radio. "We just didn't have room for him. But no one at ESPN ever strong-armed us and said 'You can't have him.' That's a great misconception. They even talked about having him on here in the evening, but we have so much play-by-play, it wasn't going to work. But this was definitely not dictated."

In order to maintain its status as an affiliate, the station obviously must broadcast a certain number of hours of ESPN programming. Gilbert declined to say how many hours, but clearly the two morning shows are fulfilling that obligation. Both Mike and Mike and Cowherd have been heard on 980 before, but when they were taken off the air, there did not seem to be much protest. They were on Snyder's initial $33 million weak-signaled Red Zebra network, but who knew?

Personally, I've never been a huge fan of either show. Mike and Mike (former NFL player Mike Golic and sidekick Mike Greenberg) have decent enough chemistry and seem like swell guys. But they, like many others at ESPN, are not afraid to overpraise the athletes, coaches and team executives they invite on their shows, particularly when it comes to the NFL.

They're also unabashed shills for any and all ESPN television programming. The other day, they spent three minutes on the upcoming Arena Bowl, the title game ESPN -- the official cable broadcaster for the league -- is carrying, with none other than Mike and Mike in the broadcast booth.

No problem here with Arena Football, a sport that gives not-ready-for-prime-time pro football players a chance to keep putting on their shoulder pads for a relative pittance. The indoor sport also generally gets minuscule media coverage save for the cities that have teams. But it's on ESPN, so why not promote it on the radio any chance you get?

Cowherd's show is clearly an acquired taste, one I've never been quite able to acquire. He's a classic know-it-all, rants incessantly and repeats himself about 26 times every hour. The good news here is that the Washington market misses the first hour of his normally three-hour-long show. Some of us could do without the other two. But as long as his ratings hold up -- and apparently they do around the country -- he'll remain a fixture on 980 for the foreseeable future.

I hate the fact that from morning drive until noon, there will be no local host to talk about the local teams, though Gilbert said on mornings following Redskins games, there will be a Redskins follow-up show that will be heavy on fans calling in to celebrate or to vent. That's a start, but the more local the better, and if Gilbert could somehow manage to get Tony Kornheiser's smart show on 980, even better.

Gilbert does have a fabulous reputation in the radio business as an astute programmer and judge of talent, and he said in an interview the other day that "every radio station should be a work in progress. They are always evolving. But does that mean we have a Stage Two plan [for ESPN-980]? No. We hope it lasts as long as it lasts. But the ratings and feedback from our listeners and our advertisers will always be evaluated. That's nothing new here or anywhere else."

There are other factors, at work, as well. All the local on-air hosts work on relatively short-term contracts. Some will be up next year, others the year after, and Red Zebra, the umbrella company that owns ESPN-980, is honoring those deals, one reason there have been so few changes in the local lineup. Gilbert would not specifically discuss when any of those contracts run out, but when they do, that's most likely when moves will be made.

Gilbert also insisted that Snyder, a notorious meddler in all things Redskins, will not be in any way involved in dictating station policy, particularly when it comes to quashing criticism of his team or its reign-of-error owner.

"The best answer is that if we try to become a propaganda machine for the Redskins, it would become so transparent to our listeners, we will fail," he said. "The rope we give them is the rope they've always had. We want our hosts to have opinions, whether it's talking about Dan, the players, decisions they've made. I have told our people, 'We want you to have an opinion, that's what you're paid for. But if you have an opinion, make sure it's based on fact.' We don't want mud-slinging, we don't want them getting down in the dirt. Dan just wants them to be fair.

"He's not involved in the day-to-day operation. If you've listened to Riggo's show, he's been one of the most critical people on the Redskins, and we gave him the opportunity to do it. If we get to the point where people feel that we're not being critical enough, we hope they'll challenge us on it."

Not to worry on that score. We'll definitely be keeping track and staying in touch.

Gilbert said he wanted to clear up another misconception. Contrary to rumors floating around the market that there may be a shake-up in the radio booth during game telecasts, it's just not true, he said. Larry Michael, the Redskins play-by-play voice and chief propagandist as a team vice president, and long-time fixtures Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff once again will be in the booth this season.

Still, there has been rampant speculation that Synder is intrigued by the possibility of pairing veteran ESPN play-by-play man Mike Patrick with Joe Theismann and Riggins in the game-day booth. Clearly, it's a threesome that makes some sense, especially considering both Jurgensen and Huff may not be all that appealing to the team's younger generation of fans. But Gilbert said no way, or at least not now.

"None of those conversations have taken place," he said. "Larry, Sonny and Sam are our broadcast team. Every rumor out there is just that, a complete rumor. They're signed, they're in the booth."

But for how long? Stay tuned.

Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Len.Shapiro@washingtonpost.com.