I've never worked with or met Matt. That is why I can be more objective. You don't think your personal experience colors your ability to evaluate his on-air performance? Really?
If he wasn't any good, he wouldn't be on the air and the network wouldn't have asked him to do sideline reports. He's no Brian Smoller, but he's certainly competent.
The reasons I don't like Walters? Primarily the voice, the reeeeally annoying voice.
Then you're not being objective as you said.
Also, his talk show which provides BY FAR the worst sports analysis and coverage in the area.
That's nonsense. For a small market station he does an impressive job of getting high profile guests for interviews and he does a superior job of covering the regional sports teams. He knows a lot about sports from high school, college to pro.
Between his endless talk about high school sports, his droning on and on about women's b-ball I want to swerve into oncoming traffic whenever he is on the radio.
More evidence that you're not being objective. If you had kids going to school or work in one of the area high schools, you're opinion would probably be much, much different.
I also reeeeallly hate how when he gives his sideline reports his voice and delivery make it sound like the worthless information he gave was an earth shattering proclamation.
Wow, I started this reply thinking you were going to give a fair and objective evaulation. How is it objective to say you 'hate' something??
But feel free to bore us all with heart warming personal experiences like: 'He bought me lunch one day. He took me aside and said I really have potential in broadcast journalism.' They won't make him easier to listen to.
No, my personal experience is that I've worked with wannabes who aren't on the air, who aren't program directors, who aren't sideline reporters for a DI college team and who don't host a daily talk show and weekly pregame show or do coach's shows, etc.