For 14 years, Tony Rizzo has entertained audiences with The Really Big Show on ESPN Cleveland and for decades, he’s been a sports media star in The Land.
“A star who draws attention and brings it every day on-air, but he’s also a great team player,” newly appointed ESPN Cleveland PD Matt Fishman said of the 59-year old Rizzo. “The great thing about Tony is that he cares about everyone here. He knows everybody on the team and their families, whether they’re in sales, marketing or an intern.”
Creativity, a willingness to adapt, build and grow a community has seen ESPN Cleveland’s midday show morph from what started as Rizz On The Radio into The Really Big Show we hear today. It has the sound of a drive time radio show, with characters, bits and intricacies, but because of Rizzo’s TV schedule, it launched and has remained in middays since 2007.
“If we had this conversation 15 years ago, I would have said we need RBS in afternoon drive,” Fishman said. “But with the app, smart speakers, our TheLandOnDemand.com website, people find what they want to listen to no matter what time of day it is.”
The Really Big Show wasn’t the plan in 2007 when Good Karma hired Rizzo and paired him with Aaron Goldhammer, a radio producer from Wisconsin. But that’s because the plan was not to be contrived by the traditional sports talk format.
“The biggest stroke of luck in my career is that I got a chance to work with Rizz,” Goldhammer told me.
The best depiction of Rizzo as one of Cleveland’s premier sports voices came from Ohio native and ESPN NBA Insider Brian Windhorst.
“For years when Rizzo hosted the Browns postgame show, no matter where I was in the country I always turned on my ESPN App and wanted to hear what he had to say. Sometimes I turned it on too early and just waited until he came on the air,” Windhorst said. “As someone who doesn’t live in Ohio anymore, only really follows the Browns out of morbid curiosity than actual fandom and works in the sports business where I turn down 5-10 radio shows a day, that I made that a priority is the best thing I can say about Tony and his influence.”
Before I spoke with Rizzo, I kept hearing how he doesn’t do interviews and I was even met with surprise that he agreed to do this one. Usually, it’s easy to find past interviews featuring on-air personalities because let’s face it – many radio hosts enjoy talking about themselves. I told Rizzo this at the start of our conversation and he admitted with a chuckle, that he doesn’t do many interviews.
Brandon Contes: I tuned into the show the other day and within seconds, I hear you telling a story from FOX 8, when you had to do a last minute interview with who you thought was an assistant football coach for Ohio State, but a couple questions in, you found out he was actually the new basketball coach.
Tony Rizzo: It was Thad Motta [Laughs].
BC: I don’t want to make the same mistake with you, so can I have some background?
TR: I’m a native Clevelander, I went to school here at Ohio University and started my career in 1986. I was lucky, my dad was a broadcast Hall-of-Famer in Northeast Ohio – Jack Reynolds.
He did radio and TV locally and then went to work for Vince McMahon and the WWF in the ‘80s, so we were big sports fans and had a broadcasting background growing up. He worked with Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura, I was able to hang out with Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. I had a really charmed childhood and it prepared me for this business.
BC: Did you know you wanted to be a sportscaster and follow in your dad’s footsteps from a young age?
TR: I didn’t. I actually went to Ohio State to be a dentist, but that lasted two semesters before I came home and realized my calling was broadcasting.
BC: Were you a big wrestling fan?
TR: I was a huge wrestling fan, but my biggest passion was the Browns. My dad grew up in the ‘50s when the Browns ruled the NFL. We were born and raised Browns, Cavs and Indians fans. One of my first childhood memories was going to the old Cleveland Stadium and watching the Indians at five or six years old.
BC: Your broadcasting career started in 1986, was that TV or radio?
TR: I started with an AM station called WBBG as the overnight board op. At that time, the FM affiliate was WMJI and they hired John Lanigan, a big star in Cleveland who replaced Don Imus here in the ‘70s. They didn’t do a lot of sports, but they did news every half hour. The Browns were expected to be good in ’86, so that summer I said ‘let me go get you guys some interviews.’
Lanigan’s news director, John Webster wasn’t sure about it, but he ended up sending me to Browns training camp at Lakeland Community College. They used the sound on-air and I finagled my way on the show. I worked for free for a year, getting sound for the Browns and doing a couple of sportscasts, but that’s how I broke into this business. My dad helped me a lot, but I also owe Lanigan plenty. He taught me how to sell, how to be entertaining, informative and I can’t compliment him enough.
BC: Did you listen to a lot of radio growing up in Cleveland? Pete Franklin?
TR: I did, I listened to Pete Franklin, my dad even worked at the same station as him. My dad was a disc jockey there, he also did a movie show for channel 83.
BC: And now your son also followed the same path and is working for ESPN Cleveland?
TR: What a treat for me to have Michael here, we actually got to do an NCAA Tournament game together. We did one of the MAC Championship games down at the Q, and working with my son was one of the biggest thrills of my career.
BC: When did you get started at FOX 8?
TR: I did Lanigan’s show and then went part time to FOX 8 working a show called the Sunday Sports Page. We were fortunate to do very well and won multiple Emmy awards. I also did sports talk around ’93 – ’94 for an AM station, WHK. They called me and said, ‘we have a new sports talk radio format. Do you think you can do it?’
I was young and of course said absolutely, even though I had no idea how to do sports talk. I actually got cassette tapes of Mike and the Mad Dog, I listened and formulated my own show. From there, the format changed and I went to TV full time. I was the sports anchor for FOX 8 from ’97 until 2010, on the 10 o’clock news every day. In 2010 I left to work full time for Good Karma and the show I do now with Aaron. I still do a Sunday night show on FOX 8 called The Rizzo Show, a half hour at 11pm every week.
BC: Do you have a medium preference, TV or radio?
TR: I enjoy both, but I love radio. We do a four hour show every day on the radio and there’s not a whole lot that goes unsaid. When I was on FOX 8 as a sports anchor, you might get three or four minutes a night.
It helps to work for a great company. Good Karma Brands is fantastic. Aaron and I have worked together for 14 years now and he’s not only a great friend, but we’re a team and our show wouldn’t be what it is without Aaron.
BC: Was it always The Really Big Show? Because it’s not just turn the mic on, take calls and go home. There’s a creative and even comedic aspect to the show, did it morph into what it is now?
TR: It did morph into it. In fact we called it Rizzo on the Radio in 2007. It only took about six months until we realized we had something special. I learned this from Lanigan, we use life as content and in today’s COVID-19 world, our show was made for this. A lot of people are scrambling without games, but we’ve always been more than sports and tried to reach a bigger audience.
BC: Did growing up around wrestling impact the way you do a show? Using the audience, using drama, and that’s part of why it’s more than just sports?
TR: Without a doubt. We have drama, some of it we perpetrate, some of it the audience does. Aaron and I both have theatrical backgrounds from college and we play that up on-air all the time. We try to be as real as we can, but I’d be lying to you if I told you every once in a while there’s not a little WWE in our show.
“He makes everything going on, on-air or off-air, all part of the fun of the show,” Goldhammer said. “Even though I was just running the board and producing at the start, he encouraged me to keep the mic close. Because whatever drama was going on with an angry caller trying to get on-air, he wanted that to be part of the show. It helped make me comfortable and understand his vision, that it was an inclusive brand of sports talk.”
TR: The show’s called The Really Big Show and that was originally to poke fun at ourselves because we didn’t think we’d last six months. I was a fan of The Big Show on ESPN so I said ‘let’s call this The Really Big Show,’ and then it turned out to be a really big show! It’s RBS for short and we have characters that call in who we refer to as RBSers, much like Finebaum or Howard Stern have on their shows. And Howard is another show I’ve listened to for a long time. I’ve stolen a lot of things from him and I’m proud of it. We have a saying in radio, nothing is original, everything is stolen from someone.
BC: Like Howard, your show does a great job of building a community. You have listeners that contribute and feel part of the show, you have listeners that love the show and listeners that hate it, but still tune-in.
TR: I need either an A or an F. That’s what I’m after. The people that love Howard listen for an hour, the people that hate Howard listen for three hours.
BC: What about social media’s impact on the industry, because you’ve had interactions with Joe Thomas and Dan Le Batard that can bring attention to the show, but there are negative sides as well.
TR: It’s a love hate relationship. There’s good and bad, but when I started doing this stuff in the ‘80s, you had to watch sports on the news to find out any information. Now athletes can go ahead and tell you their plans on Twitter which makes things difficult, but also keeps everyone connected. The one thing I stress to Aaron, that my dad and Lanigan always stressed to me was you have to adapt with the times. I try to stay as current as I can. I have 134K Twitter followers. I don’t tweet a lot, but I do tweet news and during games. Social media is a big part of our show, it changed the industry forever.
BC: The pairing with Aaron is unique. You come from different generations, different areas of the country, you root for different teams – was that relationship smooth from the start?
TR: When I came to work for Craig Karmazin, I told him I want to use someone I worked with at WHK in the ‘90s for the show. He said ‘no, I got this young kid who’s been working his butt off for me in Wisconsin, could you just meet him and tell me what you think?’ I met Aaron at a Cleveland State basketball game and we hit it off. To your point, the dichotomy is great. Aaron is 20 years younger than me. He’s from a different part of the country. That good cop bad cop perspective has worked really well for us.
“We have the kind of relationship where he does not hesitate to tell me if an idea I have is bad,” Goldhammer added. “99 of my ideas might get cut, but if one idea works, then it was successful. It’s absolutely a collaborative effort and we build on each other. Rizzo’s real genius is not just in coming up with the idea, but taking a good idea and turning it ever so slightly to make it great.
We don’t hold anything back with each other, we’re due to get mad and have a screaming fight once every few months. But I think it’s healthy for our relationship because we don’t bottle anything up and having that brutal honesty is so important and even refreshing.”
BC: How was being part of the Draft Day movie, were you and Aaron on set for that?
TR: Ivan Reitman came and directed Aaron and I for five hours one night in Cleveland at our studios! But they elected to use us in a very cool way in the movie, they used us on the radio. At one point in the movie, I’m talking about the Browns GM, played by Kevin Costner, and I said ‘If you get this wrong you will be gone!’ Costner slams his radio shut and you can see 850 AM on the screen. My company went absolutely bananas.
BC: In addition to your media gigs, you also owned a pizza place?
TR: I had a bunch of businesses, I owned limousines, I was always trying to make a buck when my kids were young.
BC: Has that helped in terms of being relatable right now with small business owners during the pandemic?
TR: Absolutely, it’s a great point and it helps me connect with our listeners and advertising partners. I have advertising partners that have been on with me the whole 14 years I’ve been on-air, we pride ourselves on that and I think it helps especially in difficult times like this. You can relate to somebody who’s calling their own shots, paying their own healthcare and trying to keep their own businesses.
BC: At 59 years old, how much is left in the tank?
TR: There are days I’d like to retire and then there are days where I feel like I can go 10 more years. One thing COVID has done, is it’s given Aaron and I a lot of reps doing this show from remote locations. We’ve talked about me maybe moving down to Florida and doing the show from there, but I can’t see myself leaving The Really Big Show any time soon.
“It’s something I don’t want to think of, but always have to keep some names in mind and I have some people on the list, but I’m anxious to not have to go to that list for a long time,” PD Matt Fishman said of having to find Rizzo’s replacement someday. “He’s great on-air, he’s a great teammate and one thing we all miss working from home right now is that he brings as much energy to the office as he does to the show.”
Goldhammer was much less sympathetic when I asked, ‘can you imagine a time having to do the show without Rizzo?’
“Yea. Quote me on that, I’m itching to get rid of him,” Golhammer said with a hearty laugh. “I can imagine doing the show without him because he takes about 20 weeks of vacation a year. They call it in the NBA, ‘load management.’ And I think the key to increasing and maximizing Rizz’s career is just like LeBron and Kawhi. If we play him 48 minutes a night every game, we’re gonna get him closer to retirement. I think we have to do some load management to make sure he’s ready for the playoffs.”
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
Check out the Really Big Show Reddit page! It’s where Rizzo and Douchehammer get all their “creative content”!
This was a Great article!!’ Love Tony Rizzo!!’
He’s a huge part of Cleveland sports.
He’s always positive and I love it when he gets mad at Arron. RBS is a really great show.
LEESE! GET TO THE PANIC ROOM!!!!!!
Great article! Love RBS, born and raised in Berea graduated same year as Rizzy!