If you’ve ever wondered why some hosts don’t like taking calls from the audience, consider what the reality may be behind the glass. Great shows have great support staffs. If they aren’t taking calls, it may be because the hosts and producers have created something special and vibrant that doesn’t require old school audience participation.
What if that isn’t the case though? What if the host knows he needs another voice, but can’t take calls because he can’t trust the part time board op that runs his show to screen phone calls properly?
Producers add so much to a talk radio show. It isn’t absurd to wonder if they have a bigger influence on a show’s sound than the host does. Unfortunately, we learned this week that big corporations still are unable or unwilling to give producers the credit they deserve.
Adam Sager recently called it quits at iHeart in Houston, where he was the producer of The Sean Salisbury Show. Adam wanted a raise. His bosses said no despite Salisbury going to bat and explaining how important his producer was to the show’s overall success.That is how this industry loses great people.
I asked Adam to write about what sports radio is getting wrong when it comes to producers. Read what he had to say and if you are in Chicago, reach out to have a chat with him. His is the kind of mind that can take a show to the next level.
The year 2020 has been devastating for a lot of businesses due to the pandemic and loss of revenue. It has caused companies to eliminate a lot of positions with mass layoffs and/or furloughing employees. The sports media business has not been spared in this.
Just this week we saw hundreds of hard working employees from ESPN lose their jobs due to a changing landscape in the sports media business. But there is one other thing that is going on especially in the sports radio landscape that I think is a massive mistake by the major companies around the country.
I’ve been in sports radio really since I started interning at 670 The Score in Chicago during the fall of 2012 with Boers and Bernstein. Here’s where I began to learn the most important aspects of a great radio show. First and most obvious, is you must have a great solo host, duo or even a trio in some markets that have chemistry and a willingness to put ego aside. Another aspect of a great radio show is a variety of topics and different ways to attack said topic. The best shows find different angles to approach a subject and make it interesting to the listener. One aspect that can take a good show one day and make it a great show is a perfectly time guest that fits what’s being discussed that day. But the reason I’m writing this piece is what I consider the most overlooked part of a great radio show that has influence on each of the three aspects I mentioned above. That’s a great producer or producers on any given show.
I moved down to Houston to begin my sports radio career on what was then Yahoo Sports Radio where I tried to bring what I learned from Chicago to a national level working with a variety of hosts. It’s not easy going from one host to the next when you’re working a long shift on the weekends or your weekday shift has multiple shows on it daily.
I’ve been very lucky in my time to work with some great, dedicated hosts that have helped me along the way get to where I am as a producer on and off the air. One in particular is Sean Salisbury, who I worked with starting about 5 years ago at Gow Media where I was a the executive producer for a national afternoon show and even did a simulcasted TV/radio show on BEIN network as well as what was then SB Nation Radio. Then when he left and went to iHeart to work on Houston’s Sports Talk 790, I eventually made my way over there to be his executive producer on the morning show because we had such a great working relationship on and off the air, that it was a no brainer. It’s what every great radio show has behind the scenes.
I’ve talked to a lot of program directors, hosts and other producers around this business and they all tell me basically the same thing, great producers can take a good show and make it great with their skills, or they can take a great show and make it elite.
Look at what I consider the best sports radio show in the business, the Dan Patrick Show, Dan has his “Danettes” with Paul Pabst, Todd Fritz, Patrick “Seton” O’Connor and Andrew “McLovin” Perloff. Dan has four great producers that he’s surrounded himself with that he knows he can trust to get the job done in any situation on and off the air. It’s a dynamic that watch almost every day and I strive for with any host I work with. I felt like I was able to establish this with Sean in the almost 5 years of shows we did together.
But there is one problem when it comes to this business for the producers. The high ranking executives in the big companies like ESPN, iHeart, Entercom, etc mostly feel like producers are replaceable at any moment. The second a producer asks for a raise, no matter the amount of responsibility he or she holds for that certain show or shows, most of the time they are shot down or let go. Producers just aren’t valued in this business like they should be and that is a shame.
I listened to Boers and Bernstein through my late teens and early 20’s which then I ended up interning for them, the obvious relationship that Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers had with Matt Abbatacola and Jason Goff was overwhelming coming through the speakers. That culminated in the middle of my internship when Goff got a chance to move to Atlanta to become a host full time. The emotions on his last day from all of them on that show and in the building showed me what a great producer can do for not only the hosts of that show, but the other producers, the other hosts on the station and the program director.
I’m not saying that all executives think like this. But especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, great producers aren’t being valued and are moving on or are being let go when the companies should be fighting like hell to keep them because in a lot of cases, they can be a main cog that keeps a show moving forward.
I know because I recently left The Sean Salisbury Show in Houston to move home due to executives that didn’t work in my building and probably had never even heard the show not valuing my place in the company because they didn’t know everything I did on a day in and day out basis. I’ve heard too many stories that sound exactly like this around the country especially if you work for a large company. It was a personal decision for my family and I to move back to Illinois to be closer to family, but I guarantee that if the company would’ve valued my place on that show, I would still be there. Working on that show was amazing because Sean Salisbury is one of the best hosts a producer could ever hope to work with. I know there are many other hosts that value what a great producer can bring to a show on and off the air as well.
This idea that producers can be replaced or just eliminated if there are multiple people working on the show was put to the test this past week with The Dan LeBatard show on ESPN Radio. A producer on the show, Chris Cote, was laid off during the latest round of ESPN cuts.
Dan, who knew nothing about his producer being let go was said “We were blindsided by him being let go. It’s the greatest disrespect of my professional career that I got no notice, no collaboration.” LeBatard goes on to say “We as a group are just something that somebody can lop off a head, it is just a number on the page, it is not anything human. Corporations don’t tend to be human, and if somebody had talked to me I would’ve pleaded on the idea of humanity.”
The move was widely criticized by fans of Dan LeBatard show and they voiced their displeasure on social media and ESPN support channels. Well, Dan decided to keep his team together by paying Chris’ full salary himself and even giving Chris a raise. This is an incredible gesture by Dan, but it’s also something that not all hosts can do nor is it something that they should have to even consider. This is exactly what I’m pointing out that the executives of these large companies need to realize about producers and behind the scenes people. Fans know who they are and they have a very big impact on the show they’re on.
I just want to reiterate something to all hosts, program directors and especially the executives at these big companies, producers aren’t just board ops or people that answer phones, producers can make a great show elite. There are so many men and women out there that could have a great impact on your station or stations with everything they know how to do behind the scenes and a lot of them, like myself, have an extensive on air experience and can become another avenue to bring in advertising dollars in multiple ways.
I aspire to become a full-time sports radio host in the near future and the one thing I want to find for my show is a producer who I can forge a relationship with exactly like I did with Sean Salisbury. First it becomes a great working relationship, and the ultimate goal is to have the best sports radio show in the country. In the end it, becomes a great friendship with a respect from both sides where everyone is heard. Then when I do find that person, I will do everything in my power to build them up and keep them around as long as I possibly can just like Sean did for me.
I know the pandemic has set things back in the sports media world, but we can’t forget about the importance of the producers not only in sports radio, but in sports television.
