One of the great things about my current job is that it gives me the opportunity to interact with people in the sports radio business that are younger than I am. We’re fortunate to have a core of youthful and talented professionals at ESPN 1000 that work both in front of the mic and behind it. Our production crew for White Sox Baseball are about a generation or two younger than me, but we all share the common bond of having a true passion for sports and sports media.
One question that I’ve asked all of them was, “Who did you listen to that really made you want to get into this line of work?”
Among ALL of them, one name consistently came up: Dan Le Batard.
When I heard this, it really made me think. What was it about The Dan Le Batard Show that really hit home with my younger colleagues?
I never met Dan or his team but having worked in Miami as a direct competitor of his for three years, I’m familiar with his program and its talented cast of characters. Certainly, the show was VERY different from standard sports-talk fare and very unapologetic about being so. More than anything else, the program came off as being REAL by pointing out that so many other programs were not.
The best thing Le Batard did was MOCK how disingenuous sports media has become. It was a hallmark of his show. His entire team did a masterful job lampooning the “gasbags” of sports-talk and very few people (even ones at his former network) were spared. All comedy aside, there was (and is) true relevance to his schtick.
The sports media landscape (and media landscape in general) is littered with disingenuous nonsense.
When I watch or listen to a sports show these days, there is a real lack of altruism going on. Much of what is being presented are hot takes, manufactured debate and panel shows where everyone tries to one-up each other in the hopes of a sound bite going viral. Too many programs have become overly formulaic to the point of becoming predictable. Its nauseating.
I grew up during (what I always considered) the heyday of SportsCenter on ESPN. The era when the program was hosted by the likes of Dan Patrick, Keith Olbermann, Stuart Scott, Linda Cohn, Charley Steiner, Robin Roberts, and Craig Kilborn. This was always must watch television for me. Why? Because you could tell that the people hosting the show were GENUINELY having a good time. There was a formula, but it was letting the talent do the highlights and sports news of the day while being permitted to be themselves. Every one of the anchors had a unique sense of humor and they were allowed to inject that into their content.
I remember when Jon Stewart made his infamous 2004 appearance on the CNN “debate” show Crossfire. Anyone that remembers that program remembers that it was one of the first cable TV shows with the formulaic approach of putting hosts of opposing viewpoints on the air and have them spit “hot takes” at each other. Well, Stewart saw right through the entire concept and made a point to appear on the show to make his feelings known. It was so hilarious and yet so relevant to the fake tropes I see developed in media every day. Every now and then, I hop on YouTube and re-watch it just for fun.
Stewart, who at the time, was the host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, appeared on Crossfire and wasted no time in tearing into hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala and quickly managed to turn their own studio audience against them.
“To do a debate would be great,” Stewart lectured. “But that’s like saying pro wrestling is a show about athletic competition. Now, this is theatre. It’s obvious. You’re doing theatre instead of doing debate. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.”
CNN cancelled the show a short time after Stewart’s appearance. Unfortunately, almost two decades later, not much has changed.
Early on in my career as a Program Director, we had a former professional athlete as one of our hosts. He was an interesting person, had a great sense of humor and was always gregarious around the office. However, when the mic would go on, he would, at times, be too stiff. He clearly was trying to play a character on his show in an effort to be taken seriously.
So, one day I pulled him aside for a chat. I told him that the only thing that was holding him back was himself. The guy that laughs and makes jokes in the break room, the guy that randomly walks into my office and tells me crazy stories every day, the guy that has me laughing every time we go out for drinks…. THAT is the guy I wanted him to be on his show. That’s what he was missing. To this day, he tells me that’s the best advice that he’s ever been given.
As content curators, we need to do a better job of allowing talent to be genuine. We’ve allowed research and analytics to force hosts to be too formulaic. We’ve made likes and re-tweets into currency and it’s cultivated an entire generation of people whose goal it is to create clickbait. Creating great content is an art, not a science. It starts with finding people who are entertaining and enlightening and allowing them to be themselves.
Ryan Maguire is a columnist for BSM, and a longtime sports and news radio program director. He has managed KIRO-FM in Seattle, WQAM in Miami, 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, 610 Sports in Kansas City, and 105.7/1250 The Fan in Milwaukee. Presently, Ryan serves as the Executive Producer of Chicago White Sox baseball on ESPN 1000 in Chicago. Originally from Michigan, Ryan still holds out hope that the Detroit Lions will one day deliver a Super Bowl title. He can be reached on Twitter @RMaguire1701.
