Leitner’s Obnoxious Style Matched by Hamilton’s Jabs

Ted Leitner, like Howard Cosell, is the kind of guy some sports fans just love to hate. On his top-rated KFMB radio sports talk show, “Ted Leitner Padre Talk,” he routinely insults callers, berates players and team officials, and mocks his peers on other radio stations.

On one recent broadcast, a caller chided Leitner for “brushing over” American League scores.

Leitner’s response: “What do you expect? I’m in a National League city.”

Another caller, who accused Leitner of being too opinionated, was bluntly told to tune in some other radio station if he didn’t like Leitner’s style.

“But I ask you, what else is there to listen to in this town?” Leitner said. “The other schlocky talk shows? Are you kidding? What are they going to do--have some ex-NFL official on to take calls?

“Just because the Padres stink, don’t take it out on me.”

Later, in an interview, Leitner explained, “It’s not that I insult people, it’s just that I’m very opinionated and say things occasionally that insult other people’s favorite teams and athletes.

“And that occasionally puts me at odds with my listeners and makes people not like me. But I accept that, as long as they know I’m honest and simply giving my own opinions.”

While other sports talk show hosts, particularly in Los Angeles, tend to be rain-or-shine apologists for the home team, Leitner frequently lashes out at the Padres themselves.

Recently, he said the Padres’ last-place ranking in the National League is “a disgrace, a black mark on this franchise.”

“It’s gotten to the point where I’ve got to beg for calls,” he said. “It’s September, the club’s in the porcelain fixture, and all we’re hearing is this flushing sound.”

“Ted says the things that people are thinking,” said KFMB program director Mark Larson. “He gets everything down to the common language that everybody understands, instead of dealing with the dots, dashes, statistics, and locker-room talk that the other local shows do.”

And now that Lee Hamilton has joined 69 XTRA Gold to host a rival weeknight sports talk show, “San Diego Sportsnight,” Leitner may have finally met his match.

In Phoenix, Hamilton’s reputation for pugnaciousness was such that KTAR-AM once promoted his nightly sportscasts through a series of billboards that depicted a pair of boxing gloves flanking Hamilton’s surly countenance.

After just a few weeks on the San Diego airwaves, Hamilton has proven himself to be every bit as hard-hitting as his notorious competitor.

One caller asked Hamilton what he thought NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle should do about the looming football strike.

“Pete ought to show some guts . . . by grabbing the two guys by the collar, dragging them into a room, and negotiating a settlement,” Hamilton responded.

“It’s about time he quit tap-dancing around the issue.”

Another caller, a woman, accused the Los Angeles Raiders of being “rude and crude because of all the cheap shots they take.”

Hamilton asked her, “If the Chargers were banging on people, would you think they were rude and crude, too?”

When the woman said no, Hamilton sneered, “Well, get back and finish the dishes now,” and hung up the phone.

Despite the similarities in their on-air personas, however, Hamilton said there’s one essential difference between his show and Leitner’s:

“I know what I’m talking about. And the purpose of my show is to give people tons of information they’re not getting anywhere else.

“I plan on talking about everything from the major sports to tennis, golf, and even such philosophical things as drug-testing and homosexuals coaching high school football teams.

“Right now, I’m doing a lot of remote interviews with coaches and players in various football training camps around the country. San Diego is a melting pot, and local sports fans like to keep up with their teams back home.”

(To this, Leitner responded, “For 10 years, the thing to do is start a talk show and start attacking me, but I see that as a compliment. They’re coming into town, looking for the big gun, and it’s me.”)

San Diego radio’s two other sports talk show hosts, KFMB’s Dave Campbell and KVSD’s Jerry Gross, are a lot less volatile than Leitner and Hamilton.

On “Tenth Inning,” Campbell tends to limit conversation to the Padres game preceding his show, while “Jerry Gross Hotline Sports” deals mostly with sports trivia and statistics.

“Basically, Jerry likes to take an objective standpoint,” said KVSD program director Gary McEvoy. “He interviews the top names in sports, and covers all the top stories, but he’s more factual than opinionated.

“And that’s something this town has been lacking for quite some time.”