New KJR host rips Ryan Rowland-Smith and Mariners blogger Luke Arkins

Marc James mocked Hyphen’s accent and criticized Arkins for being a snooze on his show

BEND, Ore. - If you haven’t heard about last night’s Twitter exchange featuring Marc James, Ryan Rowland-Smith and Luke Arkins, buckle up.

James was hired three months ago as host of “MJ in the Mid-day” at KJR-FM in the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. time slot that used to be occupied by Jason Puckett, who left the station a year ago to start his own podcast at PuckSports.com.

Rowland-Smith is seen and heard on a regular basis as a Mariners analyst on ROOT Sports. Arkins writes a Substack blog called “Mariners Consigliere, breaking things down with Dan Wilson’s team, typically coming up with stats you won’t find anywhere else.

Arkins was a guest on James’ show Tuesday and later on must have been listening when James agreed with a listener who texted in a comment about Rowland-Smith, calling him marble-mouthed and saying his Australian accent was hard to understand.

James said he can’t understand Smith either, adding: “You have Dave Valle, why don’t you put him in there? You have this Aussie guy. I feel like I’m watching Australian Rules Football.”

James then proceeded to mock Rowland-Smith’s pronunciation of “fastball” and played sound of the M’s analyst calling some four-seamers.

“Fahst-ball, fahst ball,” James said. “Oh my Lord, that’s your color analyst? When the Mariners play the Mets, I’m gonna get (Mets analysts) Keith Hernandez or Ron Darling on the show. They’re the best in the business. I want you to hear Ron Darling. He won’t say ‘fahst-ball.’ Dude, that’s not baseball. ‘Fahst-ball’ is not what I want to hear on my broadcasts. Ohmigod, give me a barf bag. It’s so out of place, I don’t get it.”

Arkins responded on Twitter by saying: “Today Marc James ranted that Ryan Rowland-Smith shouldn’t be a Mariners broadcaster simply because he had an accent. That is offensive, unprofessional and unacceptable. Full disclosure - I was on James’ show today - a mistake I won’t make again.”

That caused James to blast Arkins with a vicious reply, saying: “Luke, you were the Worst Guest I’ve ever had on my show in my entire career. You’re boring AF and you SUCK on the air. I’ll make sure that your Dead on Air is never on my show or any other.”

I sent a direct message to Arkins to get his response to James’ tweet.

“I don’t care. Monday was the nine-month anniversary of Carrie’s passing,” he said. “Nobody’s words are going to hurt my feelings or register as a personal insult. Perhaps I am boring and suck. Wouldn’t surprise me. He could’ve cut the interview with me short or tried to elevate me. He did neither.”

Arkins’ wife, Carrie, died from colon cancer last year.

Rowland-Smith was caught by surprise when he saw the Twitter exchange between James and Arkins.

“Who?” Hyphen said, referring to James. “Honestly never heard of this dude until I did some research over at Deadspin. (Laughing emojis). You gotta do better than that MAAAAIIIITTTTE! (Australian flag and kangaroo emojis)

Rowland Smith was trying to put into writing how he pronounces mate. The Deadspin reference detailed a story from 2017 when James was suspended for a week by New England Sports Network because of angry text messages he sent to a woman who did not want to have drinks with him.

James’ tweet prompted all kinds of comments blasting the new KJR host for criticizing Rowland-Smith and Arkins.

Flash2Wave2: “Hey Marc, here’s a tip, when you’re new to a city and on a radio station struggling for listeners, it’s usually not a great idea to attack people who people in the city like, who do good things for the city. Kick rocks bro.”

Nick Dubya: “Everyone knows Chris Kidd, Ashley (Ryan) and Anders (Hirst) should have gotten the show. You had big shoes to fill and you have failed miserably.”

Rhonda Santis: “You’re not breaking up with me, I’m breaking up with you. Marc James in high school probably.”

Chim Richard: “I’ve listened to KJR since I was a kid and you’re the worst host/show I’ve heard in 30 years.”

Marcus: “Live look at your career (with a GIF of a burning dumpster fire).

Ty Jager: “Only a poor radio host would openly blame their guest for a poor show. You make for a pathetic excuse of a broadcaster if this how you’re publicly acting. What a shame.”

5 Girls Dad: “In my experience, Washingtonians are world-class passive-aggressive and will flat out reject bullies. That’ll fly on the East Coast but not in Seattle.”

True to the Gloom: “You can’t suck at your job and be a dick. Bold strategy Marc.”

Liar Habinsky: “You don’t belong on Seattle sports radio. Damn, what happened to KJR these last few years?”

I texted KJR-FM program director Rich Moore and James for comments but have yet to hear back from them. Not holding my breath on that. This morning on the “Chuck and Buck” show, Chuck Powell, Bucky Jacobsen and Ashley Ryan said that James does not speak for everyone at the station and that Arkins was still welcome on other KJR-FM shows.

Yikes, sounds like there might be some upheaval behind the curtain at KJR-FM, which in full disclosure, is a delightful development to me.

Let’s be honest, if you’ve ever been fired, you’re not exactly rooting for the person who replaces you to do well. It’s nothing against James, exactly, it’s against the higher-ups at KJR who made the decision to fire me and cause Puck to leave too.

I’m such a small man that I’d like those higher-ups to regret what they did and hope that in some way, as a result of their decision, they eventually get shit-canned too.

At any rate, this is definitely a stay-tuned moment in the Seattle sports radio world, and I’ll be shamelessly stuffing my face with popcorn to see how it all works out.