FDH Lounge Show #41: December 17, 2008

The 41^st edition of The Great American Radio Show on Internet television is the second episode since we’ve moved to Wednesdays (7-10 PM EST on SportsTalkNetwork.com) and the first one where we don’t break format! Last week, we brought you the splendor (or was that Splenda?) of the fantasy supergroup draft, a three-hour extravaganza in which The Dignitaries of The FDH Lounge each attempted to compile the ultimate rock band. Tonight, FDH Entertainment Editor Samantha Jones takes her victory lap.

But first, The Dignitaries make their Opening Statements and then we are joined by a returning friend of the show, Fran Stuchbury of the great AFL site ArenaFan.com. He’ll help us navigate the drama of the AFL’s expected shutdown for the 2009 season and what the future holds. Also, Fran pointed us to this excellent Darren Rovell piece on a new football league that is just starting: the United Football League. In this economic climate? Are they nuts? We’ll get Fran’s take from what he’s seen up-close in covering non-NFL professional football.

Then, in the second half of Hour One, we welcome in Scout.com’s Jets Confidential writer Dan Leberfeld for a look at one of the NFL’s most enigmatic teams. Can the Jets rally to make the playoffs? Will the world’s most indecisive retiree come back to play QB next year? We’ll ask Dan.

Before the end of the hour, we welcome in Samantha for a quick recap of last week’s music draft before she and hubby Jason, our Senior Editor and de facto assistant entertainment editor, deliver a breakdown about the music and movie gifts you should be purchasing for loved ones during this holiday season. Then, back by popular demand, we bring you Part II of our music mashups series! Jason and Samm will rate the best of this batch. Which ones are the greatest? Is it “Billie Jean’s Thong?” How about “Every Car You Chase?” Could it be “Sweet Home Grammar?” We’ll all bask in the samples together.

In our final Hour Two segment, we deliver The FDH Lounge Pigskin Report in the form of a debate about a college football playoff. The Lounge has seen a very unpopular opinion voiced about the worthiness of a “plus-one” format and Jason doesn’t like it a bit. The sparks will fly!

Then, in Hour Three, we bring you two former stand-alone FDH programs that are now under The FDH Lounge banner. THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER (9:00-9:30 PM EST) focuses on NFL Week 16 fantasy matchups and how to ensure a championship in your league this weekend.

On THE GOON SQUAD (9:30-10:00 PM EST), we examine the latest FDH NHL power rankings and also the reaction of the infantile Tampa Bay ownership to their verbal beatdown by the great Barry Melrose. Plus, isn’t Brett Hull’s innocent act about Sean Avery wearing a bit thin yet? For all this talk about Sean Avery “getting better,” face it, an emotionally healthy Sean Avery is skating exhibitions with the Hanson brothers. He’s still in the league BECAUSE he’s a train wreck, and judged to be valuable when he’s sufficiently treading the line of sanity.

With last week’s Wednesday debut breaking format, as we reserve the right to do from time to time in The FDH Lounge, where nothing is off-topic, this debut of the permanent Wednesday format – with the “classic Lounge” for the first two hours and the “shows within a show” in the final hour – is going to be very exciting. Tune in for yet another chapter in the history of the most unique broadcast ever created, only on STN.