Bum Rushed

 Twirled the radio dial in the conveyance looking for the local sports talk show one afternoon this week, and the local sports talk show wasn't there. It had simply vanished into the ether (or wherever radio waves go when they vanish), and instead Jim Rome was yapping at me.

This was not an acceptable tradeoff.

It was not acceptable because the local show -- called SportsRush, coming to us live from1380 AM -- was about the only one I regularly listened to, not being a particular fan of most sports talk radio. It kept me plugged into the local/area scene, because as an old sportswriter, old sportswriter-ly habits die hard. Plus the host, Brett Rump, is a friend of mine.

But suddenly it was just gone. Poof. No announcement, no explanation, no nothin'. Just got disappeared the way foreign college students get disappeared these days -- and there instead was Jim Bleeping Rome, whom I frankly despise.

Which means I guess you could call this a personal beef. So be it.

Doesn't mean it's not legit, though.

It's legit because the city where I live, Fort Wayne, is a damn lively sports town, one entirely worthy of two hours in the late afternoon Monday through Friday. We've got one of the iconic minor-league hockey franchises in America here, the Komets of the ECHL. Got one of the best-run, most successful minor-league baseball teams in the country, the TinCaps of the single-A Midwest League.

Over on the southwest side, meanwhile, there's a bonafide college football legend, Kevin Donley, who's brought two national titles to the University of St. Francis. Just east of downtown is Indiana Tech, home to immensely successful track-and-field and women's basketball and hockey programs. And up on the north side, there's Purdue-Fort Wayne, a D-I school whose men's and women's basketball programs are among the best in the Horizon League.

SportsRush gave big chunks of airtime to all of those, plus the Colts and Pacers and IU and Purdue football and basketball and the area high school kids. And now?

 Now 1380's owners, Federated Media, have pulled the plug on all that, without so much as a by-your-leave. Or without the courtesy of giving Rump and SportsRush a farewell broadcast, which any media company with an ounce of class or professionalism would have.

It's probably too much to say that makes Fed Media a total clown car, though there does seem to be a whole lot of greasepoint in its vicinity. Its suits would no doubt argue 1380 still carries area high school football and basketball, so it's unfair to say it has a disdain for local programming. And I suppose it's possible there was a heads-up to the public about the demise of SportsRush, and I just missed it.

Still doesn't change the fact SportsRush got bum Rushed. Still doesn't change the fact 1380 has lost at least one listener, if that at all matters to the clown car.

I mean, Fed Media is now giving us perpetual twit Colin Cowherd and Rome back-to-back. What's the marketing hook for that, Asshats In The Afternoon?

"I like it!" someone in the boardroom would no doubt say.

Yeesh.