Two familiar names in local sports media — Greg Pogue and Joe Dubin — will return to the radio airwaves Monday when they revive the “Greg Pogue and Big Joe Show” on WNSR 560-AM/95.9-FM.
The show, which originally was on mornings on The Game 2 (94.9-FM), will air weekdays from 9-11 a.m.
It was discontinued last March when Dubin, whose roots are in television sports, was hired as a reporter for WSMV-4 to replace Rudy Kalis, who moved from sports to anchor the NBC affiliate’s morning news show.
“I get texts, I get tweets, I get emails and people who call me all the time telling me they miss us on the radio,” said Dubin, a Nashville native and Emmy-award winning reporter who got his start in TV with WKRN-2. “Why, I don’t know. I truly don’t know. But Greg came to me about three weeks ago and said, ‘Lets try to get back together.’ ”
Dubin was all for it. His only issue was getting an OK from Channel 4 brass. They liked the exposure that having Dubin on the radio would mean for the TV station, so they gave him the thumbs-up.
The chemistry between the two veteran journalists, who don’t take themselves too seriously but bring a wealth of local sports knowledge to the table, was something that Pogue felt was worth rekindling.
“Joe and I are as good a team as I’ve ever worked with,” said Pogue, who spent 24 years as a sports writer for the Nashville Banner and executive sports editor of the Daily News Journal. “We get each other. We like each other and we hate each other, so that’s important. We’re almost like brothers. We’ll hug one minute and fight the next. We’ll fight, but if you’re going to fight him, you’re going to have to fight me too.”
It is a homecoming for Pogue, who served as co-host of an afternoon sports talk show at WNSR along with Bill King for several years in the 1990s and then spent many years doing mornings at the station.
Pogue and Dubin have never lost their passion for high school sports, but have also spent much of their careers covering college and professional teams.
“We’re obviously going to talk about local topics — Titans, Predators, colleges, high schools,” Pogue said. “Whatever we talk about, we want to have fun. … We’ll even talk about social topics, music, whatever. We’re not putting ourselves in a box. Whatever we feel is best to talk about that day, that’s what we’ll talk about.”
Charlie Saunier will produce the show and join the conversation when the Predators are the topic. He hosts “Predneck Nation Pregame Show” on the station.
Radio provides Dubin, a social media zealot, another platform to show his wacky personality.
“I have the greatest job in the world at Channel 4 and once the bosses said, ‘You’re good to go on the radio,’ I was like, ‘This is great!’ ” Dubin said. “If there is something going on, Greg knows that Channel 4 is my priority above everything else. If there’s something going on, I have to go do that. If not and it’s in that time slot, I’ll be on the radio because I love it.”
The station’s new early lineup also includes the “Bill King Show” (7-9 a.m.), which returned to the station in May, and the syndicated “Jim Rome Show” (11 a.m.-2 p.m.).
Credit to The Tennessean who originally published this article.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
