Following the exit of KHTK’s Carmichael Dave, it seems like sports talk radio in Sacramento is becoming non-existant. In the last couple of years, KHTK, known as 1140 The Fan, has catered to fans less and less as far as having local sports talk, letting go many personalities like Jim Kozimor (twice), The Rise Guys, Mike Lamb, and now Carmichael Dave. The only two local air personalities on The Fan are Don Geronimo (the station’s program director) and Grant Napear.

Geronimo doesn’t do a sports program and I wouldn’t have a problem with him if he wasn’t trying too hard to be funny. He just isn’t and his show isn’t for me. Plus it takes away from KHTK’s sports format. Napear is too much of a Kings apologist. He isn’t reliable for any objective opinion about the team because he is a Kings employee first and foremost.

I didn’t get to listen to Carmichael Dave a whole lot,but when I did, he was great. I would listen to him when he was on late at night several years ago and I did muster enough courage to call in one night when former NBA referee Tim Donaghy had written in a letter to the court that Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers was ordered to be fixed by the officiating crew. He was great to talk to and a funny guy as well. I thought that it was great that a former caller to the station ended up being a host for that same station. Not many fans have a forum like Carmichael Dave and to see that disappear is too bad.

It seems like sports radio in Sacramento is starting to fade away, at least on the local level. We only have one local sports host (Napear) and that’s not enough. I’m not sure how to fix KHTK as a sports station with Geronimo as program director. Maybe their main operative is to cease having a sports format once the Kings leave town and letting Dave go was the beginning of the end of KHTK 1140 The Fan. Sacramento does have another sports station at 1320 (KCTC), but it is mainly ESPN Radio shows on weekdays and one local show on weekends.

Make no mistake, there is an audience for sports talk beyond the Bay Bridge and if people in Sacramento have to turn to KNBR to get it, that’s a shame. Sports radio in this town needs to be saved, and fast!