By: Kevin Pakos for S&E News

In a strange twist the Rattlers, a team that is offering to refund season ticket holders money if the team fails to make the playoffs has gone silent.

There will be no on the radio broadcasts all season long. Instead, the team is going to an internet broadcast with only one play-by-play voice in Craig Grialou. The irony is that if they were on the air they would have increased exposure provided by the internet stream the radio station would provide.

The best chance to fill the stadium and add to the excitement of the new season and the owners bet would have been to have the show on the radio every week. The pre-game and post game wrap was always worth listening to.

Nothing would have been more fun for fans with season tickets then to track the game via radio when the Rattlers traveled. In addition, with only three live TV games and four tape delayed the fans get to see very little of the team.

Gone are the great times that Rattler radio provided with radio people like Kent Derdivanis, Ron Wolfley and Dale Hellestrae. They painted a picture that was better at times then the TV coverage.

Sure, the team invested heavily in KUPD coverage, hoping to grab the entertainment crazy demographics that station would provide. The truth is, many Rattler fans are not in that demographic and will not take the time to find them.

The only other station or radio show that has offered to provide weekly coverage of the team, (that we are aware of), coaches and players is the "Game of the Week" and "Amazing Performances" radio shows heard each week on 1010 AM KXXT. Game of the Week is a Saturday night 8-10 PM weekend sports wrap show that covers all Arizona teams. The Friday 3-4 PM show Amazing Performances has features that showcase the best in sports and entertainment.

Good luck getting too much live info from them, at least in terms of Rattler players, coaches and owners. The team has not responded to any requests to take advantage of the coverage. The show’s producers have been offering time on the shows to promote the team and have received not one response from the Rattlers organization.

With all the good things the team is trying to do, it seems to me that they may have gone too far with the radio coverage. The Rattlers are run by one of the top Arena team owners with Brett Bouchy taking the role of Owner/Operating Partner. He accomplished great things with the Orlando Predators and hopes to reproduce them here.

Even though he has was in Scottsdale when he got involved with the Preds, his entire family now resides in Florida. The sports markets and fans are as different from Phoenix as they are in Sacramento. The learning curve may be too steep. Luring the former fans back and retaining the new ones (not too many in the house on opening night 2008) is going to be tough.

Unless of course the plan is to take advantage of the huge savings accomplished by cleaning house and replacing many former paid staff with free interns. Putting the teams in the end zones and adding more seats was a good idea as well as a good revenue boost.

There may be enough savings in the cuts in radio, staff, player payroll and other areas to outlast the drop in attendance while the fan base is re-invented to match the new demographic vision. If so, then it is simply brilliant. However, in a Major League sports town, going dark, even for a moment may be too much to overcome. Ah, but there is always Sacramento to move to.

The recent stunt pitting a local DJ against some Rattlers on a kickoff return was cute, or not. It kind of reminded me of scene from an old TV show, WKRP in Cincinnati, the episode where the station gave turkeys away, by dropping live ones from a helicopter onto fans. What is next a good old-fashioned farting contest on the radio? If you are going to do theatre on the radio, at least hire some professional writers and make it interesting. However, sometimes crass will Git 'er done.....