For parts of four decades, Dan McNeil has been stirring up Chicago sports radio. In this three-part Q&A, McNeil (aka Danny Mac, Mac, Dan or Danny) discusses the shows he has hosted and career decisions he has made along the way. For me, Dan has been a radio mentor since the mid 90’s when I produced The Heavy Fuel Crew show which Dan hosted with Terry Boers.
In part one, we cover his current show McNeil and Parkins, his Dan McNeil: Unsupervised podcast, and his time co-hosting an FM morning show on Chicago classic rocker, The Drive.
McNeil and Parkins (March 2018-Present)
Matt Fishman: What was your reaction to getting the call to return to The Score Full-Time in afternoons?
Dan McNeil: I was delighted by the opportunity because it was with Parkins, because I thought it was an approach that really had never been attempted with that much disparity in age between two partners. As I think about it it’s like-how did it take so long for somebody to get that idea. Let’s cover a lot of demos. Have a guy who was born in 1986 with a guy who was born when JFK was in office.
He (Parkins) checks a lot of boxes for me on things that I’m interested in and things that I’m not interested in. I don’t have to do a whole lot of college and pro basketball. Number one, it’s not a college town unless there’s a good local team. I don’t mind following the Bulls but NBA stuff when we get to the Finals, he’ll watch all that shit. So if there’s a percentage of our audience that wants it, he’ll cover it and I’ll take care of hockey that he doesn’t want to watch. That’s a good counterbalance for the show.
We like a ton of the same movies that have been made in the last 20 years. He’s a devout sports wagerer and pot smoker which reminds me a lot of me at his age. A lot of his attitudes reflect how I looked at things when I was in my late 20s and early 30s. He’s very driven!
Fish: As a real inside radio question–you’ve always been the A-host or Driver of the show? What went into the decision to let Parkins “drive” the show?
Mac: It’s a little bit different being the 2-guard. It’s not as much work. Sometimes I have to work harder at staying dialed-in because he’ll stay with something longer than I probably would have. That doesn’t happen a lot but it does happen. I actually tried to play 2-guard in the short-lived FM thing I did with Pete McMurray so I got a little taste of it there.
I’ve done enough perfect, eloquent teases and given the telephone number with my gorgeous pipes (said sarcastically) so many times that I don’t mind. Let him do some of the f***ing heavy lifting. He’s going to be doing this for 25 years and I’m on the 16th tee box. I’m almost done with this. That’s fine to spend more time in the 2-guard role. I expend less energy and I go hard to the f***ing basket when I decide to take the ball.
Fish: What’s your favorite thing about this show?
Mac: I love afternoons. I always have felt most comfortable in afternoons. I’ve always favored having the morning and the midday to work my way up to that. I think my personality is probably best absorbed at the end of the day.
I used to joke–Adam Delevitt(PD at ESPN 1000) asked us “what do you think your calling is in life?” Mine is I take people home from work. I’m not gonna be the smartest guy on sports talk radio. I’m not necessarily going to be the most informed or well read but they’re gonna have fun and they’re gonna feel like they had a friend on the ride home with them.
Fish: I feel like that’s a key to your long standing appeal, is being a listener’s friend for the ride home.
Mac: It’s a very intimate medium. It’s the most personal. That’s something that makes my stomach turn about the evolution of our business when our images are shot out there on Facebook, the station’s video stream and podcasting. “Oh I’ll get to it later!” is the thought. No, I’m doing this for you now. We’re having drinks now!! You don’t get to my podcast later. I’m doing this now. This is our time together.
Dan McNeil Unsupervised (Podcast: September 2017-March 2018)
Fish: Great way to transition to your podcast– Dan McNeil: Unsupervised What was it like doing a podcast as opposed to a daily radio show?
Mac: I had to sharpen my tools. I hadn’t been on the air in a little while. I had thought for a while that I was done with radio and radio was also done with me. But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and I was starting to look into how I could monetize (the podcast) and it’s a very difficult proposition.
I went into it with the idea that when I get to half a million downloads I’ll start knocking on advertisers doors. About three months into it, the Score thing started and that quelled my interest. But I had to have some sort of digital presence for a lot of newbies to sports radio. If they didn’t listen to me at The Drive and weren’t Score listeners back in June of 2014 when I last was there, they didn’t know who the fuck I was. So anything was good. That was to get the tools sharp more than anything. I didn’t make a dime on it.
Fish: In 1992 you’re competing with all the other Chicago radio stations. In 2019 you are also competing with satellite radio, streaming services, podcasts, with anything anyone can get on their phone. How does traditional radio beat that back and stay as relevant as it has always been?
Mac: There’s always gonna be a need for live and local. There’s no doubt that there are far more places where you can get content. But in big cities where sports are a huge part of a city’s culture there’s always going to be a place for live/local radio. You augment it by podcasting your own stuff and joining all the other technology opportunities.
I have felt for many years that if a radio station is doing it right that station is as integral a part of the city’s sports culture as the teams they follow. I felt that the “Mac, Jurko, and Harry” show had that sort of a feel. That we were almost a team in town. I felt that way at the Score in the 90s with the Monsters and Terry and me. Technology never will have the opportunity to abolish it completely. It has watered it down enormously but (radio) will always be there.
The Drive Morning Show (March 2015-June 2016)
Fish: Can you recall your excitement going into the start of that show–getting to be part of a rock station and a co-host on a truly “guy” morning show?
Mac: In 2014 when I did my last year at The Score with (Matt) Spiegel the sports landscape, other than the Hawks, was really shitty. Already for several years I had been wanting to do something different just to see if I could do it. The sports were so negative I started having that itch. At the end of my deal with no offer out there I said I’m going to look for something different. The Score made me a more than generous offer and I said no.
Then the opportunity with The Drive and Greg Solk came up. I think Greg is one of the best programmers I have ever worked for. I thought The Drive had a sparkling reputation. I thought it was a much classier presentation of that genre of music (Classic Rock/Classic Hits) than The Loop had been doing. So I jumped at it.
It wound up being a financial disaster. The money I didn’t make between the end of my run at The Score, the disparity in income, because The Score offered me an opportunity to come back again before The Drive actually hired me. The decision cost me more than seven figures of income and in 17 months (the show) was blown up.
What I didn’t know about FM life is that it’s not very organic and a lot of people who do it choose to do it in a very canned and contrived manner and that’s not how I’ve ever worked. It was the right idea but the execution of it was not good and it failed conclusively!
Fish: Despite the seven figure financial difference, do you have any regret about trying it? It seems like something you would have regretted not trying.
Mac: Not at all. I reconnected with some amazing people like Greg Solk, Bob Stroud, Kathy Voltmer, I enjoyed Pete’s company (co-host McMurray). The first programmer I had there, Curtiss Johnson, is one of my favorite programmers I’ve ever had. We became fast friends. I loved working for Curtiss.
Then after a year he got fired and the guy who replaced him is the biggest c**s***er I’ve ever worked for. (Dan then spelled out the word for me). His name is Rob Cressman as in penis. He’s just a pariah. He’s an interloper.
He had no knowledge of Chicago. He came in here not having any regard for the backgrounds of the personalities or what skins we had on the wall. Barking out cookie-cutter Program Director thoughts. He wanted us to stay around (at the station) until one in the afternoon. I said, “You know what? I don’t have tomorrow’s news. There’s no reason to be here. We can correspond via email or text if we need to.”
In part two of my Q&A with Dan McNeil we discuss his second tour of duty at The Score, going across to ESPN 1000 and his struggles with mental health issues.
Matt Fishman is a former columnist for BSM. The current PD of ESPN Cleveland has a lengthy resume in sports radio programming. His career stops include SiriusXM, 670 The Score in Chicago, and 610 Sports in Kansas City. You can follow him on Twitter @FatMishman20 or you can email him at FishmanSolutions@gmail.com.
