Kerber and Vitale … are excruciating

[STL fan in MN]

I like Kerbs. He seems like a good dude and he has a very good voice. A voice meant for television or radio. But he’s usually pretty behind the play. But it’s when he gets off topic or drawn into Vitale’s weird tangents that it goes sideways. Maybe he’d be better with a better color you.

Vitale…again, like him as a person but he just can NOT stay focused. I can only assume he has ADHD to the max. He’s like an excited puppy that gets easily distracted by squirrels and every thought, conversation or experience he’s ever had in his life is a squirrel. His tangents are weird and beyond distracting. They extremely detract from the broadcast and it makes the overall product really quite bad. Last night was the first time this season I'd heard the 2 of them together as I’d watched the away feed all the other games so far.

I will simply hope they get better. The Blues and FanDual aren’t going to change it now. It is what it is. At least for this season at a minimum. So I can only hope they get some coaching, some constructive criticism and they get better.

[dhsux]

As many of us said, they made the wrong choice on who to keep.

Beyond the finger to tradition, beyond what was really the right thing to do, they made the wrong choice on talent.

[noted]

This is brutal. This endless inane self involved cleverness instead of what’s happening on the ice. This is a pathetic downgrade.

What’s done is done but the new ones they’ve chosen deserve to get rough feedback.

I like Kerber and Joey a lot. I think people just like to complain...

[Pierre McGuire]

I guess I’ve been spoiled by great announcers…I just don’t see how anybody could actually enjoy Kerber. He’s the absolute worst PBP guy in Blues history.

[britishblue]

As many of us said, they made the wrong choice on who to keep.

Beyond the finger to tradition, beyond what was really the right thing to do, they made the wrong choice on talent.

$$$$$

Panger and Kelly would, I imagine, cost many multiples of what Kerber and Vitale cost.

[ZouMiz2424]

It was hard to listen to the game last night, I really don't know what the Blues were thinking with this decision. Why didn't they keep Kelly and have him do the radio too?

[STL fan in MN]

As many of us said, they made the wrong choice on who to keep.

Beyond the finger to tradition, beyond what was really the right thing to do, they made the wrong choice on talent.

$$$$$

Panger and Kelly would, I imagine, cost many multiples of what Kerber and Vitale cost.

I am admittedly not an expert on the salaries of sports broadcasters but I’d be surprised if it was many multiples.

A national guy for a big sport like football I can see getting paid millions. But a regional guy for hockey? How much can a top guy like Kelly even command? I’d be curious to know how much he made vs how much Kerbs is making. Or even Rivers vs Vitale in cost. That couldn’t have been much different I don’t think. Not that Rivers was good but he’s quite a bit better than Vitale unfortunately.

[Kilokaai]

omg, 1st world problems all over this thread! If I am watching the game I do not need a sec by sec diatribe. I really never listen to the games on the radio. Center Ice is my friend so Kerbs was never a thing for me.

Hockey itself is a 1st world issue/game to begin with?

I mean I can look away when they do the pp dance.

The product is dated and lame. There’s ways to make it more engaging

What is the obsession with hating on the powerplay dance? So weird, who cares honestly.

I think it's goofy but you (bleep) well better bet I'm gonna do it at the game. Don't take yourself so seriously life's too short.

[STL fan in MN]

It was hard to listen to the game last night, I really don't know what the Blues were thinking with this decision. Why didn't they keep Kelly and have him do the radio too?

I doubt we’ll ever know the full behind the scenes story. The easy guess would be money. But to me, it seems short sighted. A misread of the situation IMO. Zimmerman and Chapman aren’t longtime STLers or longtime hockey people. I think they misread how the fans would react and how much better Kelly is.

Maybe they asked Kelly if he’d want to do a simulcast and he said no. I’ve heard nothing about that so my guess is they didn’t even approach Kelly on that (he seemed pretty caught off guard when he was told they weren’t going to bring him back) but we also don’t know for sure. We just don’t know all the details and likely never will.

But yes, I’d much prefer Kelly just do the simulcast. And as bland as Rivers was, he at least stayed on task and provided decent color.

Rivers is still on staff with FanDual so maybe he finds his way back to the booth if the brass eventually come to the conclusion that Vitale just won’t cut it. Or maybe Pronger could be the color guy someday.

Or Vitale greatly improves with some coaching. Idk. It’s not the end of the world but the broadcast last night was just BAD.

[callitwhatyouwant]

Oh for the days of JK and Panger! Sometimes we don't realize how good we have it!

I think we all realized how good we had it. The broadcast was a point of pride for Blues fans amongst other fan bases because you had good broadcasters who catered to the Blues without being homers. Go flip on an avalanche broadcast. Some of the most excruciatingly bad stuff. I'm not even talking about against the Blues, just in general. It's like relishing in smelling your own farts.

[theograce]

omg, 1st world problems all over this thread! If I am watching the game I do not need a sec by sec diatribe. I really never listen to the games on the radio. Center Ice is my friend so Kerbs was never a thing for me.

Hockey itself is a 1st world issue/game to begin with?

I mean I can look away when they do the pp dance.

The product is dated and lame. There’s ways to make it more engaging

What is the obsession with hating on the powerplay dance? So weird, who cares honestly.

I think it's goofy but you (drat) well better bet I'm gonna do it at the game. Don't take yourself so seriously life's too short.

Yeah I’m shaking about it. It consumes me.

[Backesdraft]

Oh for the days of JK and Panger! Sometimes we don't realize how good we have it!

I think we all realized how good we had it. The broadcast was a point of pride for Blues fans amongst other fan bases because you had good broadcasters who catered to the Blues without being homers. Go flip on an avalanche broadcast. Some of the most excruciatingly bad stuff. I'm not even talking about against the Blues, just in general. It's like relishing in smelling your own farts.

I agree on the Avs broadcast. It’s unbearable. Fan of the Avs or not, I’m not sure how you’d stomach such blatant homerism.

Jim Fox was and is also brutal. I’m not surprised they snatched up JK.

[DawgDad]

This is brutal. This endless inane self involved cleverness instead of what’s happening on the ice. This is a pathetic downgrade.

What’s done is done but the new ones they’ve chosen deserve to get rough feedback.

I like Kerber and Joey a lot. I think people just like to complain...

No sale. Most everyone posting here has heard them do a broadcast before. I'm not looking forward to this, they have already destroyed their credibility with me. The out-of-pocket cost to me (reportedly $209 for NHL Center Ice, plus $119.99 for ESPN+) has gone up and the quality of the broadcasts I'm paying for will drop significantly. This promises to be an exciting season on the ice, we fans deserve FAR better consideration and treatment and as a paying customer I have a right to speak up.

[Kilokaai]

omg, 1st world problems all over this thread! If I am watching the game I do not need a sec by sec diatribe. I really never listen to the games on the radio. Center Ice is my friend so Kerbs was never a thing for me.

Hockey itself is a 1st world issue/game to begin with?

I mean I can look away when they do the pp dance.

The product is dated and lame. There’s ways to make it more engaging

What is the obsession with hating on the powerplay dance? So weird, who cares honestly.

I think it's goofy but you (drat) well better bet I'm gonna do it at the game. Don't take yourself so seriously life's too short.

Yeah I’m shaking about it. It consumes me.

I would guess over the last few years if you had the ability to search for "powerplay dance" 90% or more of the mentions are from your account(s). Odd that you bring it up so much as someone who has such a small/non-existent physical presence at Enterprise.

To get back to the topic at hand, sorry everyone...I can't say I am enjoying the simulcast experiment so far. I am glad I am watching it on TV so I can see the action but the rants make me feel like there are people around who aren't paying attention to the game which is frustrating. I hope that gets cleaned up some, I like Joey more than others but I can understand the negative sentiment about him being too ADD.

[JoshInFenton]

my two cents:

Don't get the hate for kerber. While he is no JK, i don't dislike his play by play at all. i've had no problem listening to him, and when it was Kerber and Chase on the radio i actually loved listening to the radio feed of the game because you had opinions with few pulled punches, but the tangents were pretty limited in time.

Vitale is only ever useful in the games we had last year early where we were losing 5-0 or 6-0. If it's bad and you can aim him at stories about his playing day and some of the shenanigans that were happening in the locker room or on the ice, it's a good time and you get to hear things that you'd only maybe have heard him talk about once or twice, and it wasn't stories you had heard from the former blues players who usually had the same pool of stories to choose from. But he goes on for a long time on those, and when the game is in a meaningful state thats not good enough. And then there are the random tangents that don't do much to reminisce that if he did once every couple of games then fine, but it's always kinda been 2 to 3 times a game on a good day and 5-6 on a bad. I'm not sure if it's because he isn't a rink rat for prospects or what, but it's been BRUTAL in the preseason. Think i'd rather have him in the studio doing the pregame and postgame.

Kerber and someone with more knowledge about the talent on the ice than i have would be much easier to listen to, and i'd complain a lot less about it.

[STL fan in MN]

my two cents:

Don't get the hate for kerber. While he is no JK, i don't dislike his play by play at all. i've had no problem listening to him, and when it was Kerber and Chase on the radio i actually loved listening to the radio feed of the game because you had opinions with few pulled punches, but the tangents were pretty limited in time.

Vitale is only ever useful in the games we had last year early where we were losing 5-0 or 6-0. If it's bad and you can aim him at stories about his playing day and some of the shenanigans that were happening in the locker room or on the ice, it's a good time and you get to hear things that you'd only maybe have heard him talk about once or twice, and it wasn't stories you had heard from the former blues players who usually had the same pool of stories to choose from. But he goes on for a long time on those, and when the game is in a meaningful state thats not good enough. And then there are the random tangents that don't do much to reminisce that if he did once every couple of games then fine, but it's always kinda been 2 to 3 times a game on a good day and 5-6 on a bad. I'm not sure if it's because he isn't a rink rat for prospects or what, but it's been BRUTAL in the preseason. Think i'd rather have him in the studio doing the pregame and postgame.

Kerber and someone with more knowledge about the talent on the ice than i have would be much easier to listen to, and i'd complain a lot less about it.

I generally agree about Kerbs and agree he’d likely be much better with a better color guy but my main complaint for him would be how he pretty easily gets sucked into Vitale’s tangents and offshoots and actively participates in them and the broadcast sounds more like a zany bro hockey podcast more than a game broadcast. He could do a much better job of staying on task and curbing Vitale’s zaniness IMO.