David Lee Rough

I just want to declare all these nice things about former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth first: While I love Van Hagar, too, the Diamond Dave era was the best of the three Van Halen manifestations. I respect Roth for his volunteer work as an emergency medical technician -- one of my high school acquaintances actually helped train him and said he was the most down-to-earth guy. And Roth made a very cool "Sopranos" cameo, to boot. He's a good guy.

All that having been said, his new talk-radio morning show struggles.

Now, I admit to being a voracious Howard Stern consumer. And Stern and his crew have almost always been nice to Roth, and they understand that he's not the enemy in their move to Sirius satellite radio. I even understand the decision by Infinity Broadcasting (now known as CBS Radio) to replace the greatest radio legend of all-time with someone who's never been a consistent radio host before; that way there's no pressure to outperform Stern.

But Roth's show, in its first two days, has been unlistenable. Roth seems to jump from topic to topic without fluidity. His crew, from the parts I heard, was never formally introduced, so for the first couple of hours, it was Roth ranting about his own odd World Trade Center plans and a couple of random interjections from people unknown. Also, I like laughing in the morning; it helps me wake up. No laughs to be found. I genuinely wanted to give Roth a chance (at least until Jan. 9, when Howard goes live on Sirius), but I found myself hitting snooze. Repeatedly.

Since I like Diamond Dave the person, I refrained from using my original blog post title idea: "Might As Well Jump (Off A Bridge)."

Yes, Tuesday and Wednesday were only his first two shows and he'll probably improve in time. But I can't help thinking that Adam Corolla would have been a better choice for the NYC market. Although he's been tabbed as CBS Radio's West Coast solution to the Howard Stern absence, Corolla is funnier and more unpredictable.

Additional frustrating news: the home radio adaptor component to my Sirius S50 portable radio (installed in my car) won't be shipped until Jan. 20, meaning I'm missing about two weeks of Howard's full radio shows. Although the S50 is portable, it's got no built-in satellite receiver; the antenna it comes with is attached to the car. And I don't have the willpower or gasoline to wake up and sit in my car for four hours to listen to the broadcast, so until that part arrives, I'll just be listening to about 40 minutes' worth as I drive to and from work. Meh.

Note: I won't bore you with explanations about my three-week blogging vacation. I was busy and I also didn't want to force the issue with subpar postings. My apologies to all four of you who read this.