It’s been just over a month since Mark Grote took over 670 The Score’s overnight shift, filling the seat long held by Les Grobstein. (Perhaps in an acknowledgement of Grobstein’s ownership of “Score Overnights,” Grote is doing three shows a week with a cast of rotation hosts taking the other two nights.)
Switching to a schedule of midnight to 5 a.m., working when most are sleeping, is a life-changing adjustment. Some eventually adapt, others never do. And a few are naturally nocturnal. Or they also work an overnight shift, which is why such a bond develops between a radio host and an audience.
Knowing what a major change going to overnights is, Grote’s 670 The Score colleagues, Parkins & Spiegel, checked in on their fellow host to see how he was doing. Grote is doing fine so far, but as you might expect, he’s drinking coffee at a time of day when most of us have switched to less caffeinated beverages.
“I feel great about myself, seeing Matt [Spiegel] staring me in the face, and then being stimulated by the caffeine that is being pumped through my system throughout the day,” said Grote. “So I’m great!”
Noting that Grote was drinking coffee at 4 p.m., Danny Parkins asked if that was the last time he would drink coffee that day, knowing that his air shift would begin eight hours later. Most of us who begin working at, say, 9 a.m., aren’t typically up and drinking coffee at 1 a.m.
Normally, Grote probably would need more coffee to get through his day. But as he explained, Wednesday was his Friday, so to speak. It was Grote’s last night of the work week, so he didn’t need a cup to power him along so much as just feel normal.
Asked why he wouldn’t just skip coffee so he could sleep at a more normal hour, Grote said this is what he called his recovery period.
“Part of the recovery is, I just don’t want to do nothing,” said Grote. “I want to take advantage of not having to be up at midnight and performing a show. So I want to feel normal. There’s a normalcy level that goes along with having the cup of coffee. Because if I don’t, I don’t want to fall asleep at 5 and wake up at 11.”
Grote kind of sounds like someone who needs a nap. But the process of adjusting his biorhythms, circadian rhythms, or whatever you might call a sleep pattern and awake period, is surely complicated. And what works for one might not work for another. Grote might even still be trying to figure it out at this stage.
Parkins and Spiegel certainly sounded grateful they’re not making that adjustment, though they marveled at the feat. Their listeners likely felt much the same way.
Ian Casselberry is a sports media columnist for BSM. He has previously written and edited for Awful Announcing, The Comeback, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation. You can find him on Twitter @iancass or reach him by email at iancass@gmail.com.
