Live Audio Wrestling
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| Other names | Fight Network Radio |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sports talk |
| Running time | 60 minutes (until Fall 2000) 120 minutes (Fall 2000-present) 180 minutes (special Wrestlemania editions) |
| Country | Canada |
| Languages | English |
| Home station | Virtually Canadian (May 1997 - Fall 1998) The Fan 590 (Fall 1998 - Fall 2000)[1] Talk 640/Mojo Radio/AM640 (Fall 2000 - January 2005) CFRB (January 2005 - July 2006) Fight Network Radio (July 2006 - January 2009) Sirius Satellite Radio on channel 98/158 - Hardcore Sports Radio/The Score Satellite Radio (January 2009 - August 2011) Fight Network online (September 2011 - October 2011) TSN Radio 1050 (October 2011 - present) [2] |
| Starring | Notorious T.I.D. Chris Tidwell (1997-1999) Big Daddy Donnie Abreu (1997-2000) Gentleman Jeff Marek (1997-2003) Trish Stratus (1999) Dan The Mouth Lovranski (2000-present) Jason Agnew (2003-present) |
| Creators | Jeff Marek |
| Producers | Dan Lovranski (1998-2000) John Pollock (2005-present) |
| Recording studio | Toronto, Ontario |
| Air dates | since May 13, 1997 |
| Audio format | Monaural sound (May 1997 - January 2009, October 2011-present) Stereophonic sound (January 2009 - October 2011) |
| Ending theme | I fought the law by Bobby Fuller |
| Website | http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com |
| Podcast | http://lawradio.podbean.com |
Live Audio Wrestling (The LAW), is a radio show, syndicated on conventional radio and previously broadcast on satellite radio and as a podcast, based out of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is owned by Fight Network. The show is broadcast live at 12:00am (ET) on Monday mornings (although advertised as Sunday evenings), on TSN Radio 1050. The format of The LAW is a call in radio show. Opinions are expressed by hosts The Mouth Dan Lovranski, Jason Agnew and producer John Pollock focusing on the Mixed Martial Arts and Pro Wrestling world.
Every week since the winter of 1999, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has joined the show. The segment, which airs at the mid-point of the show, focuses on the major themes and issues of the week.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Beginning: Virtually Canadian
Live Audio Wrestling started in May 1997 as an internet radio show available in Canada, on Virtually Canadian. The first guest of The LAW was Faarooq. The show aired online for a year and a half before moving to The Fan 590 in Toronto.
[edit] Move to CJCL
Initially, the show's broadcast was only available as alternate programming during Toronto Raptor games, as The Fan 590 was not permitted by the NBA to broadcast basketball games on the internet. In an effort to obtain studio time, the show would be taped at 3:00am. However, due to the overwhelming support of listeners, within a few months the show moved onto The Fan 590's conventional airwaves and into their permanent schedule, airing on Sunday evenings from 1:00am–3:00am (although the show would be constantly pre-empted for coverage and post-game coverage of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and NHL playoff games). In the fall of 1999, the show expanded with a Saturday afternoon edition, from 5:00pm–6:30pm.
[edit] Move to CFYI
The LAW aired on The Fan 590 until September 2000 when it moved to rival station Talk 640 as a companion to the station's recently acquired radio broadcasts of Toronto Maple Leafs games. The Sunday broadcast was moved from to 11:00pm. In April 2001, CFYI changed the station's format to Mojo Radio - Talk Radio For Guys, and The LAW 's Saturday afternoon edition was dropped. The show remained in the 11pm Sunday time slot when CFYI was again re-branded as AM 640 - Toronto Radio.
[edit] The Fight Network buys majority interest in The LAW
In January 2005, The Fight Network purchased a majority stake in The LAW and in February of that same year they announced that they had secured an agreement with Broadcast News for national distribution the program, via Fight Network Radio.
[edit] Move to CFRB
In July 2006, The LAW moved its base station to Newstalk CFRB in Toronto and retained its 11pm time-slot. In the fall of 2006, Live Audio Wrestling announced that in the future, the show would begin to air a simulcast of the show on The Fight Network, however the announcement never came to fruition.
[edit] Live Audio Xtra
Starting in the winter of 2007, John Pollock began to host an extended, online edition of The LAW called Live Audio Xtra. The segment is available to those who listen to the archived edition of the show on The LAW website, as an add-on to the original radio production. Shortly after its launch, Dan Lovranski began to co-host the segment, answering e-mail questions. Starting with the January 20th 2008 edition, Live Audio Xtra began to take call-in questions from listeners who were unable to get on the air during the radio portion of the program. This segment of the show was discontinued for a brief period of time, but returned to The LAW in 2011.
[edit] Move to Satellite Radio
The last episode of the show to air on CFRB was on January 11, 2009. As a result, the show moved from a conventional radio broadcast home in Toronto to Sirius Satellite Radio's Hardcore Sports Radio. CFRB's studios also served as the broadcast studio for the show, so with the move to exclusively being on Sirius the broadcast home has moved as well. The show would continue to bill itself as Fight Network Radio even though the actual network of stations that consisted of Fight Network Radio has dissolved. As a result, the phrase Fight Network Radio became a slogan for The Fight Network and shows which the station broadcasts that do not air on TV. During the show's tenure on satellite radio, the show maintained its Sunday 11pm time-slot. The show remained on Sirius Channel 98 when Hardcore Sports Radio was rebranded in September 2010 as The Score Satellite Radio, and remained after the station was reshuffled on Sirius to Channel 158.
[edit] Review-a-Wai
On September 13, 2009, John Pollock and Wai Ting started hosting their own weekly review podcast, which immediately follows the archived episode of "The LAW". The two primarily review old wrestling Pay-Per-Views from WCW or WWF (now WWE) from the mid- to late- 90s, but have branched out to review wrestling related films, tv shows and specials. They intersperse audio clips from the show(s) they are reviewing; and also respond to feedback after the review. On occasion, they air relevant clips from previous interviews conducted with various wrestling personalities. Notable episodes include October 11's "Heroes of Wrestling (1999) including an interview with Executive Producer Bill Stone" review, January 31's "Exposed - Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets (1998)" review, and May 16's "Final Monday Nitro and Raw is War from that night (2001)" review. In 2010 the show branched out and began reviewing the flagship television shows of the WWE and TNA wrestling(Review-a-Raw and Review-an-Impact, respectively).
[edit] Move to Podcast
With the announcement of Sirius Satellite Radio's Hardcore Sports Radio ceasing operations at the end of August, 2011, The LAW became displaced and was without a broadcast home. As such, the show took to a Podcast format available on the Fight Network website and posted online after 11pm on Sunday evenings. The show maintained its previous format, except for the elimination of call-ins. The last Podcast episode was October 3, 2011.
[edit] Move to CHUM
On October 9, 2011, The LAW debuted on TSN Radio 1050. Due to TSN Radio 1050 airing NFL Sunday Night Football, the show will move an hour later, to a 12:00am start time on Monday mornings.
[edit] Fight Network Radio
Fight Network Radio was a group of conventional radio stations in Canada, partnered via an agreement between The Fight Network and Broadcast News, that aired The LAW. The conventional radio stations on Fight Network Radio at its time of dissolution included:
- The Team 1040 - Vancouver - Note: Live Audio Wrestling airs on a 5 hour tape delay, at 12:00am–2:00am (PT) on Monday Mornings.
- The Team 1260- Edmonton
- CFRB 1010 - Toronto
- The Team 1200 - Ottawa
The show was available nationally in Canada on both nationally licensed satellite distributors, Shaw Direct and Bell TV through the radio streams of Fight Network Radio affiliates:
- Bell TV
- The Team 1200 - Channel 991
- The Fan 960 - Channel 992
- Shaw Direct
- The Team 1040 - Channel 824
In addition, Live Audio Wrestling aired on Sirius Satellite Radio on channel 186 - Hardcore Sports Radio. This station would continue to air Live Audio Wrestling when the show moved from conventional radio. Moreover, some local cable TV providers, including Rogers Cable, offered Fight Network Radio affiliate stations as audio streams via digital cable or cable radio. When the show was on CFRB in the Greater Toronto Area, it was available on Rogers Cable channel 960.
[edit] Live Audio Wrestling
Former affiliates of Live Audio Wrestling include:
- The Fan 590 - Toronto - Note: The LAW aired from the fall 1998 to winter 1999 only on the online radio stream, during internet blackouts of the Toronto Raptors
- Talk 640/Mojo Radio/AM 640 - Toronto
Additionally, Live Audio Wrestling has previously aired on an online radio station, Virtually Canadian.
[edit] Fight Network Radio
Former affiliates of Fight Network Radio also included
[edit] Former Hosts
Former co-hosts of the show include:
- Trish Stratus - 1999
- Notorious T.I.D. Chris Tidwell - 1997-1999
- Big Daddy Donnie Abreu - 1997-2000
- Gentleman Jeff Marek - 1997-2003
[edit] Popularity
The show is ranked #1 in the demographic of male, on talk radio in the Toronto market, in its time slot. In April 2006, The Bureau of Broadcast Measurement released their spring ratings with The LAW ranking #1 among Males 25 - 49 on Sunday nights with an 18.7 share and also scoring a 17.8 share among Males 18 – 34.
[edit] Trivia
Due to the popularity of the show, TSN's Off the Record has had all past and current co-hosts of the radio program, excluding John Pollock, as guest panelists on the program, over the years.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ "The LAW moves to Talk640". Canoe. http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestlingFeatures/thelaw_00sep5.html. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
- ^ "LIVE AUDIO WRESTLING TO DEBUT ON TSN RADIO 1050". TSN. http://tsn.ca/toronto/story/?id=377592. Retrieved 16 October 2011.
