It’s time for 9 News to “Drew” the right thing and sack Soicher

Denver is a great sports media market. With four professional teams, three major college programs, three network television channels, three sports talk radio stations, one tenacious newspaper and two regional cable sports outlets, it’s a place where opportunities abound for talented sportswriters and broadcasters alike. The Mile High City has been a launching pad for the careers of such luminaries as Joel Klatt of Fox Sports, Peter Burns of ESPN’s SEC Network, Lindsay Jones of USA today and Joan Niesen of Sports Illustrated.

The fans of Denver also benefit from multiple outlets competing for their attention. In the television news arena they can get the latest stories and analysis from anchors Vic Lombardi at channel 4, Lionel Bienvenu at channel 7 and, at 9 News, the skillful Mike Klis, the capable Rod Mackey and the lovely and talented Susie Wargin. Sadly, however, viewers of 9 News, which is the area’s top rated affiliate, continue to suffer Drew Soicher in the role of sports anchor.

Soicher is a self-confessed clown and an embarrassment to an otherwise top-notch organization. 9 News features some of the most talented TV personalities in Colorado including Adele Arakawa, Kyle Clark, Mark Koebrich and Kathy Sabine yet the station has not yet seen its way clear to replace the man who is easily the least respected sports journalist not only in this market – but in any.

KPIX TV in San Francisco removed Soicher in 1999 after only eighteen months on the job. An article at SFgate.com by writer Tom FitzGerald explained why: “Soon after he went on the air in January 1998, KPIX started receiving calls, letters and e-mails about him, most of them critical. The Bay Area print media was almost universal in its disdain for Soicher.”  KPIX General Manager Jerry Eaton explained that: “This represents a return to a more traditional approach to sports on our part. As far as the nontraditional approach goes, nobody does it better than Drew. But we felt it wasn’t working.”

The “it” that wasn’t working at KPIX is the same “it” that doesn’t work in Denver – and never has. “It” is Soicher’s clumsy ham-boned routine and his self-indulgent “features” such as “Strange but Drew”, “Drew’s Clues” and “LAPD Drew” along with his tired act of having a sea lion pick football games.

Soicher’s approach isn’t only “non-traditional”; it’s stupid; and his failure to attend events and functions along with his general lack of sports knowledge brings the credibility of the entire 9 News team into question. I was watching the station with my wife on Monday, September 16th after the week one NFL games when Soicher referenced former Broncos’ defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio’s “NFL head coaching debut” the day before. Del Rio, of course, held that title with the Jacksonville Jaguars for nearly a decade prior to his stint in Denver. Now, had any other sports anchor made such a comment I would have chalked it up to a syntax error or a simple slip-up but I actually believed that Drew Soicher didn’t  know where Del Rio had coached in the past because I expect no less from him. He consistently reports scores erroneously and generally reveals his lazy approach to his job.

It’s not Soicher’s ineptitude that has brought the most shame to 9 News, however. It’s his poor sense of humor. Among Broncos fans Soicher is most well known for a Tweet he sent out about team owner Pat Bowlen who, as everybody knows, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease: “So much talk about Alzheimer’s at Broncos training camp, I keep checking my roster to see if that’s a new player on the team.”  Again, had it been nearly anybody else that made the comment it might have been overlooked. But, since it was Soicher that said it, fans went wild with demands that he be removed as sports anchor at 9 News. Yet he continues to work – presumably because the higher-ups at the station like what he provides in terms of his appeal to women and his “q rating”, which is a measure of the popularity and appeal of a personality.

While Soicher might score well with less-savvy sports fans, die-hards can’t stand him. And he can’t stand them. Soicher is notorious for blocking people on Twitter. In fact, he has blocked hundreds of Twitter users who have never even interacted with him. And, according to TwitterAudit.com, over 71% of Soichers “followers” are fakes – bots – drones – added for a fee. Socher is so unpopular on the social media site that a quick search of his name will reveal an account called @FireDrewSoicher, a fan petition to have him removed, angry Tweets from disdainful fans and Tweets from fans correcting him on misreported game scores. Surely these things are available to Soicher’s bosses yet they still continue to allow him to represent their station.

It’s shameful.

Speaking of shameful (and of things 9 News lets him get away with), Soicher’s very own profile page at 9 News’ web site provides some insight as to why he is so reviled.  Consider this out-take:

“Drew attracts haters and trolls at both extremes. For example, Soicher was named “Worst Person in the World” by the fabulously gifted, big-time ESPN star Keith Olbermann, who has earned a vast fortune broadcasting to millions of viewers, and also survived a poorly executed twitter attack from jealous, no-talent, small-time, local radio complete nobody Brandon Krisztal, who pays for his own air time on a station with bad reception and four listeners. Correction: Three. One more person just turned off Mile High Sports Radio while you were reading that paragraph.”

It would seem that he actually prides himself on not being liked. Why else would a network TV sports anchor in a major market make fun of a small-time radio personality like Brandon Krisztal and a tiny community radio station like Mile High Sports in his own station bio? He doesn’t stop there, however. The hatred in his bio continues:

“A pair of struggling freelance newspaper scribes, Dusty Saunders and Joanne Ostrow of the Denver Post, write about Soicher to the point of obsession, although none of their cliché-riddled posts are likely to earn Pulitzer Prize consideration.”

Well, Dusty Saunders and Joanne Ostrow write about Drew Soicher because it’s their job. They each cover media for the Post and they see what the sports fans of Denver see – an incompetent fool occupying a premium position at a highly respected TV station. Each of them probably scratch their heads as many do, wondering how, in a market as with talent and opportunity as Denver, a buffoon like Drew Soicher can keep his job.

On April 1st, 2014, as an April Fool’s Day gag I posted an article at South Stands Denver dot com headlined: “Source: Soicher Out at 9 News”. The piece attracted a jaw-dropping amount of web traffic from hopeful readers not realizing that I hadn’t been serious. Folks were upset that I had teased them like that. For as popular as 9 News must believe Soicher is there is an army of sports fans in Denver that want to see him gone. He’s unfunny, unskillful, rude to viewers via social media and, to many, simply unlikeable. So, as we here at South Stands have before – and as so many others have – we’re calling for 9 News to “Drew” the right thing and sack Soicher.