I'm not remotely interested in these Olympics

[paulwoods13]

If you're seriously talking about Byron MacDonald then my respect for your judgment couldn't get much lower. Yeah, Byron pulled a fair sized boner regarding the Chinese swimmer but one of those every thirty years I can live with. And the fact that what he said was construed by some as racist to Chinese people shows even more how f'ed up our society is.

"Annoying motormouths" don't get invited back time after time after time. They are there because they are good at what they do, aside from a gaff every thirty years or so.

I actually don't care that he made a gaffe -- it happens to the best of them. But Byron just wouldn't shut up. It's as if he thought he was the play-by-play guy rather than doing colour. Elliotte could barely get a word in at times. As for individuals being invited back because they are good, generally that's true. But there's still Rod Black, who is good at many sports, but simply awful at football play by play.

[Argoknot]

I actually don't care that he made a gaffe -- it happens to the best of them. But Byron just wouldn't shut up. It's as if he thought he was the play-by-play guy rather than doing colour. Elliotte could barely get a word in at times. As for individuals being invited back because they are good, generally that's true. But there's still Rod Black, who is good at many sports, but simply awful at football play by play.

Byron MacDonald was part of that stable of excellent colour people CBC had developed over the years: Irene MacDonald (diving), Aldo Roy (weightlifting),

Geoff Gowan (track) to name a few.

Elliotte is a great reporter but he's no PBP guy, not yet at least. Through no fault of his own he was thrown in there, but frankly I'd rather they switch roles with Byron providing most of the commentary and Elliotte the fill. The blend we're looking for here is flowing conversation not encyclopedic knowledge. It doesn't have to be one does PBP and the other does colour. Sometimes they do spill over and you will have a colour guy finish the call instead of disrupting the conversation.

[paulwoods13]

Byron MacDonald was part of that stable of excellent colour people CBC had developed over the years: Irene MacDonald (diving), Aldo Roy (weightlifting),

Geoff Gowan (track) to name a few.

Elliotte is a great reporter but he's no PBP guy, not yet at least. Through no fault of his own he was thrown in there, but frankly I'd rather they switch roles with Byron providing most of the commentary and Elliotte the fill. The blend we're looking for here is flowing conversation not encyclopedic knowledge. It doesn't have to be one does PBP and the other does colour. Sometimes they do spill over and you will have a colour guy finish the call instead of disrupting the conversation.

Gowan is a great example how it is supposed to work. He never stepped over Wittman, and he always brought valuable insights to the discussion. I don't remember what Byron was like in the past, but last week it was as if he decided Friedman was not up to the task so he was going to do 80% of the talking. And all of it at 100 miles an hour.