One simple question is almost always guaranteed to be asked to anyone that walks into a radio station looking for a part-time job. “Do you have any experience?” Whether it’s in the sports radio field, or any other line of work, just about everyone reading this has been asked that at some point or another. Jeff Thurn was no different, as he walked across the street from a Nashville restaurant to WNSR, a local sports radio station in town.
Curiosity had gotten the better of him, as he stared at the station from his seat inside the restaurant, wondering if this was a venture he would enjoy. Never afraid to talk to a stranger, Thurn walked across the street and inside the station to find any opening available. Shortly after arriving, he was asked the same entry-level question that can sometimes decide if a person is either hired or quickly shown the door.
“Oh yeah, tons!” That’s how Thurn answered when asked if he had any experience in radio. In reality, he had never walked into a studio, uttered a word on the air, or even touched any equipment that related to the job. Sure, he had a lot of experience in sports and knew what he was talking about, but he was starting from the bottom in terms of his knowledge of a functioning radio show. Regardless, WNSR needed a producer for their coverage of Tennessee Titans training camp and a face stood before them that was willing to be a part of it. It’s entirely possible the station could have believed Thurn’s claim to experience in the business, because a week later, he was offered the position.
Thurn and his wife were looking to move out of Minnesota. She had aspirations of grad school and he had one year of undergrad remaining. What they were sure of, is that they wanted to be somewhere together that offered a warmer climate. Meeting each other a couple of years earlier at the University of Minnesota, they narrowed down their possible destinations to Orlando, Atlanta and Nashville. As fate would have it, their trip to tour Nashville as their next home came with a job offer for Thurn.
Shortly after, in late July 2009, Thurn was at WNSR working his first sports radio job. After receiving a one-hour tutorial on how to operate the equipment he had never laid his hands on, Thurn was thrust into the middle of all action at the Tennessee Titans training camp. Players he had watched on television were walking by and interacting with him, all because it was part of the job.
Who cares if the limited role only paid slightly above minimum wage? He was in heaven. This was the coolest thing Thurn had ever done.
Some hosts have to wait years for their first big break to happen. For Thurn, it may have only taken two weeks. After one of the hosts of the training camp show fell ill, Thurn grabbed a headset and put himself on the show. Working with Bill King and Joe Biddle at the time, Thurn impressed enough for WNSR to approach him about doing a weekend show. He was offered the opportunity to sell his own advertising for the time slot and make himself profitable to the station.
For the next year, Thurn did his weekend show and flashed potential as an on-air host. After building up a decent clientele, he was bringing in enough money to the station for them to give him a show on weeknights.
Once again, fate was on the side of Thurn and his new show, as Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin resigned from his job and left for USC on the inaugural night of the show. The only evening sports radio show in Nashville, news cameras quickly swarmed to the studio to highlight what a couple of local hosts and callers were saying about the bombshell news. From there, the popularity of the show grew exponentially. People were now aware the show existed, just by the coverage they provided on one of the biggest Tennessee football stories in years. Sometimes, you catch a break. So far, Thurn had already caught a couple.
The night show continued to grow in popularity. So much, that it was voted the best sports radio show in Nashville against competitors in all other time slots. Truly, an impressive and rare feat for a show in the evening hours. Along with the show, Thurn’s popularity began to grow, as well. Bill King, a local radio icon in Nashville took note of this and offered Thurn a job as his producer from Sirius XM. The job offer was a no-brainer, as Thurn quickly accepted, but he also still wanted to do his evening show that had done so well in its time slot. The only issue, was that his show ended at 9:00 p.m. and was required to show up for King’s show at 4:00 a.m. Unless Thurn wanted to live like a zombie, he had to make a choice on which one to give up.
Eventually, the opportunity to be with King and Sirius XM was too great to pass up. He resigned from his evening show at WNSR and pressed on as a full-time producer. During his two years with King, he discovered a love for college football that hasn’t went away since. Though the gig was fun and rewarding, Thurn couldn’t shake the feeling that he wanted to chase the dream of doing his own show again. He soon realized it was the next step he needed to take in his career. After reaching out to several contacts across the country, he was offered a job in Sioux Falls, SD at the ESPN affiliate in town. Oddly enough, that’s where Thurn grew up and went to high school. After going from Minneapolis to Nashville, he now had the opportunity to go back home.
It took a leap of faith to do it, but Thurn arrived at ESPN 99.1 in Sioux Falls in the year 2012, where he’s still at today. Since then, he’s never regretted the move for a second. Though a small market, he’s had the opportunity to cover events such as the Super Bowl, MLB All-Star Game and many other prime time events across the country. Thurn also has the ability to use his own original ideas on the show, a privilege some hosts would be jealous of.
Thurn’s story is one that happiness in this business doesn’t have to come from just fame and a huge paycheck. Sure, we should all strive to be better and improve, but sometimes, the situation we’re in is one we take for granted. Jobs in bigger markets for less pay have often come available for Thurn, but he’s happy and his family his happy in a growing market. In his eyes, he’s totally content.
Chasing after big aspirations isn’t a bad thing, but neither is choosing to be happy, either.
You can hear Thurn every weekday on ESPN 99.1 from 3-6 CST.
TM: Whether it’s a certain team or sport, is there one single topic that’s most relevant in Sioux Falls?
JT: I would say that it’s two-fold. When it comes to college football, I would say Nebraska football leads the conversation. We’re actually the Huskers affiliate in the area. So, that’s a big one.
As far as the NFL is concerned, it’s the Vikings and Packers. We’re the Packer affiliate, but I’d probably say there’s more Vikings fans in the area. To have, what some people consider the greatest rivalry in the NFL, is great because you have a true split and get to hear from both sides. If the Vikings are terrible, you hear from more Packers fans and vice versa.
At the end of the day, football drives the bus, I don’t care what part of the country you are. In the middle of the summer, we’re talking football, gearing up for the draft, we’re doing all those kinds of things. We do have a lot of Twins and Timberwolves fans, and we’ll go through those cycles, but football in this market, still drives the needle.
TM: How critical is it to be involved in the community when doing radio in a market like Sioux Falls?
JT: I think it’s huge, the thing about Sioux Falls, it’s crazy, because I grew up and went to high school here, but there was probably around 90,000 people. Now, in the metro area, there’s over 220,000 people. The two health entities, Sanford Health and Avera Health, are in an arms race to have the best sports performance things you can have.
There’s the Sanford Pentagon in town, which sits about 3,200 people. It’s housed college basketball games that have involved Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Colorado, this year it’s Oklahoma State and Nebraska that are playing here. It’s also held preseason games and Division 2 National Championships. At the event center, which seats 12,000 people and was built at the same time as the Pentagon, we’ve hosted Women’s Sweet 16, Regionals for college hockey, big time rodeos, the summer league tournament that draws the most women’s basketball fans for any weekend in the country and other great events. Growing up here, I would have never thought these things would exist around here like a G League team, which allows us to see a number of NBA guys come through here.
It’s crazy to see all the people that come through here, like Kirk Hinrich, Adam Thielen and Bob Knight, who have all recently been through. We’re involved in all of it, which makes it awesome. I host a lot of events for them. Sports Talk in Sioux Falls has really been taken up, not just because of us, but because of the growing community, because people have moved from all over.
Back in the day, you would have a sports talk host in town that would just report what’s going on locally. Now, people can actually voice their opinions about the NFL and everything else. Just in general, the media has grown, the sports community has grown and it’s so unique that we don’t have a team here. It’s totally different than a lot of other markets.
TM: I think it’s awesome you get to travel to as much cool stuff as you do. But about that, where has your station benefitted from branching out from local stories, to sending you to cover the Super Bowl, MLB All-Star Game and other big events?
JT: We still stay true to the local stuff, including a big emphasis on live broadcasts for teams in the area and the regional teams that people care about, the Huskers, Packers, Vikings and Twins. But I’ve noticed, for example, if we post an article on a regional story or national story that involves the NFL, our page clicks will be way more than if we post something on Augustana University, which is a D2 school. That’s just something we’ve noticed, over the years, in terms of interest on the digital side.
On the air, we still have the local coaches on the show every week, it just doesn’t bring up the same sort of conversations, because those schools aren’t Ohio State that have 100,000 people on Saturday that are showing up. Augustana may only have 3,000 people show up to their games, so if you think about that from the perspective of how many people are listening to your show, knowing you’re only getting a percentage of that number, versus all the people that are NFL and MLB fans, I just think for our market it makes more sense to go more towards what people really care about.
One response we get a lot from listeners is that they’re really impressed with the guests we get on our show. They tune in because we hone in questions to national guests that are centered on the regional teams in the area. They get to hear the voices and faces they see on national television talk about their favorite teams. I just think we have a really good mix of national and local content.
TM: What makes your market so unique and special?
JT: First off, I think it’s the melting pot aspect, where we don’t have strong ties to a local team, so, as a radio host, you don’t have to be super biased to the team, because the team might get mad at something you say. In five years, I’ve talked bad about the Packers and Vikings when they’re playing bad and never had anyone call up to say I can’t do the coaches show that week because I said something bad.
I think that happens in a lot of places. You got to be choosy with your words. In general, I think Sioux Falls really is encouraged about its growth. People are all-in with continuing that and it’s just a wonderful community. There’s not that much crime, people love living here, so you’re getting people from all over. People just love to come here and we’re really getting a ton of sports fans from all over. It’s awesome.
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
