Keith Olbermann

I am a big-time Keith Olbermann fan. Have been for the last 20 years. In the late 80's I worked with a disc jockey who went to school with Olbermann, who was, at the time, doing local sports here in Los Angeles for KTLA.

Keith is, how do I say this... unique. His "Countdown" show airing on MSNBC, covers the complete gamut of news, odd goings on, daily absurdities, crazy video, all culminating with his designation of today's "Worst Person in the World." (A title which should be renamed the Bill O'Reilly Memorial.).

I discovered this show about 3 1/2 years ago, at the beginning of the Iraq war, and have been hooked ever since. If Olbermann is away, I can't watch, because no one can carry this show in the same fashion. They can use the same format, the same scripts, but it's hopeless. The best replacement I ever saw was Alison Stewart, who now has her own show, but I digress.

Countdown makes use of music coming out of some it's stories, and early on, when I actually heard Neil Diamond's "I Am, I Said" used as a bumper, I almost died laughing. If you analyze all the music they include over a period of time, you will find someone on staff has quite a knowledge of the last 60 years of pop music.

If I had my way, Countdown would replace Brian Williams and Nightly News on the Big Network.

Olbermann also does one hour a day with Dan Patrick on ESPN Radio. Appointment listening. Patrick is great, I've discovered, but I never listened to him before Keith started doing one hour per week with him on Fridays. I could never remember to turn on the show at that particular time on a Friday, so when they made it a five day a week deal, my life got easier. 2 PM EDT. Two of the sharpest minds in sports media.