Former ESPN Radio, TV and interweb fixture Stephen A. Smith returned to the airwaves this month with a daily program on Fox Sports Radio.  Smith’s predecessor, Steve Czaban (above), found out the hard way the only thing worse than being unemployed is having all sorts of spare time to listen to the guy that took your job.

My replacement, Steven A. Smith, certainly has his own, ahem, style. I said, he HAS¦ HIS¦ OWN¦ STYLE! The best thing about him I have realized already, is that when he makes a point, he™ll repeat it for you just in case you missed it.

AND LOUDER!

Which I think we can all agree, helps make any point a little better.

I was listening and wondered: œDidn™t he just say that? Oh, wait. Maybe I hit the œ8-second jump back button my car radio TIVO. Then I realized, I don™t HAVE an in-car radio TIVO, and he DID just say that.

Again.

I remember when I would sometimes wander a bit on a non-sports tangent. I would always get angry text messages about 3-4 minutes into it, imploring me to get back to sports. So usually, at about the 6 minute mark without any sports oxygen, I would realize, I better get back to the sports surface.

Mr. Smith appears to have a much bigger dive tank.

For example, on the Friday before the most glorious four-game orgy of NFL playoff action “ in the meaty tenderloin of the 3-hour show, the 7 a.m. eastern hour “ Mr. Smith spent the first 19 minutes flirting with his two female co-workers on the air.

He also mentioned (several times) how gorgeous another un-known saleswoman in the office was, a woman I am certain will remain unknown to 99.99% of his audience from now until, um, eternity.

He finally got around to some NFL talk a few minutes before the break. Yet sadly, he only offered a half-hearted thought/prediction/hope on a single game (Cowboys v. Vikings). I listened closely. I couldn™t really tell if he was making a prediction, or not.

Then, he asked his two female co-workers what THEY thought about the game! Awesome! I had been waiting to hear their breakdown all morning, so wow, this was gonna be good!

One said she was rooting for the cowboys. The other said¦ well, I forgot.
Then, it was time for a break. Whew. Hard work, a solid segment in the books.