Roof That Peach

And by very exciting, I mean sort of interesting. In addition to being the latest salvo in the escalating war between TSN and Rogers, the debut of TSN RADIO 1050 in April will also potentially piss off TSN talent who may now be called in during current off-hours to do guest-spot rotations, and only increase the amount of hockey talk on Toronto’s radio airwaves.

While their initial lineup includes a home for Argos football, their other early properties include Euro 2012 soccer and golf. I did not realize golf was still broadcast on the radio in 2011, but it sounds as intense as a coke-filled orgy in Ibiza after six days of no sleep.The former 1050 CHUM will also carry Dan Patrick’s and Jim Rome’s shows, programming that Toronto Sports Media astutely pointed out is nothing more than a niche market in the splintered, half-assed sports town that is the T-dot. However TSN appears to be in this radio thing for the long-haul, and apparently Leaf game rights — currently held by AM 640 — are up for grabs in April. TSN will likely bid a large sum for, and win those rights.

The ultimate result is more endless hockey banter. Does anyone recall the sports media in Toronto, or even Canada, before the birth of what was then called CTV Sports Net in 1998? It wasn’t as mind-numbingly hockey-heavy. That’s partially because our beloved Internet was still in its infancy, there was only one sports TV and one sports radio station, and the Blue Jays were still contending.

And aside from the Jays dissolving from mass-consciousness, something happened along the way. A stark realization among execs that only hockey (specifically Leafs) brought in really, really good broadcast ratings in this market. It’s why what’s now called Rogers Sportsnet has been trying to mirror TSN for 13 years — and in most sensible opinions, failing.

Any hopes of increased basketball or soccer talk on “Sportsnet Radio The FAN 590″ will soon evaporate. But as we know, it’s all a power game. The real interesting angle about this is former TSN president Keith Pelley essentially being at the helm of Sportsnet now.

But then again, what’s local terrestrial radio? Howard Stern gave up on that years ago. If you don’t like it, turn on SIRIUS — or the Internet.

A little background on Hosni Mubarak’s presidency of Egypt. He succeeded Anwar El-Sadat in 1981 after Sadat was murdered by the very military he built in order to fight Israeli troops who invaded the Sinai in the early 1970s. That military later took the Sinai back. Sadat was killed because he committed an apparently unforgivable crime later: Making peace with Israel.

Mubarak has since ran Egypt under something called Emergency Law for three decades (because angry citizens have wanted to kill him), essentially suppressing perhaps the best-educated populace in the Muslim world. And U.S. foreign policy has encouraged this, quite frankly because Uncle Sam needed friends in said Muslim world.

So for those of you who didn’t know, and always wondered where hostility towards the west came from, pay attention now. We’re living it. This isn’t an anti-American argument. It’s the latest history lesson from the Middle East.