Houston has seen a lot of change over the past 14 months. James Harden was traded in January 2020, Carlos Correa signed with the Twins in free agency this week, and Deshaun Watson is heading to Cleveland. You could argue the three-biggest faces in the Houston sports scene from just 18 months ago are no longer in town.
Change has also taken place at ESPN Houston in 2021. Most notably with the daily lineup. Joel Blank has been a long-time voice on the station and was admittedly nervous when he found out he was getting a new co-host. But he also knows that change is inevitable in radio. As changes were happening on his show, and during other time slots around him, Blank embraced the new future at the station.
“I think like anything in life, change gets people on their heels a little bit and they start questioning everything,” said Blank. “But I think overall what we’ve seen is that we’ve got a really, really good group of people that have all found their niche. Everyone is in the right spot and we all truly get along.
“In the past, shows were kind of an island. Every show was their own thing and there was no overriding theme for the station and no marketing targeted to our demographic. It was basically, hey, you have your time slot, you do your thing. Now, we have everyone on the same page and everybody has each other’s backs and it’s been really fun to see the development of the shows and the new talent.”
When Blank was told his new co-host would be Jeremy Branham, he was very familiar with the name but the two didn’t really know each other on a personal level. That was the immediate hurdle for The Killer Bs, who are on the air weekdays from noon to 3 on ESPN Houston. But the two experienced broadcasters figured it out. And maybe even quicker than most people would have guessed.
“I think it’s going better than I could have ever anticipated because I was apprehensive,” Blank said. “Not because Jeremy wasn’t good, but because we didn’t know each other. We lived in parallel universes where we were both doing sports and working for teams, but we rarely crossed paths. Suddenly, we were thrown together and told, hey, make this work. So for that reason alone, you have doubts on how quickly it’s going to come together and what kind of chemistry you’re going to have. It’s just been everything I could have wished for. For a long time on our station, combativeness is what everybody came here for. Now it’s taking a turn to where we can have a passionate discussion but in the next segment we can be on the same page and talking about a totally different topic.”
It’s incredibly comforting for a new host at the station to be welcomed by someone who’s been a longtime voice. Blank has made it a point to be friendly to all the talent on the team.
“Joel has been through a ton when it comes to changes he has dealt with since the pandemic hit,” said Cody Stoots, co-host of The Wheelhouse at ESPN Houston. “One thing I know about Joel is if you have his back, Joel has your back. He will go to bat for his people, even when some of them are new to him. Joel’s passion for his teammates is fun to experience, especially when he’s comfortable enough with you to start giving you a hard time!”
“Joel does a great job at bringing true passion and unfiltered opinions to every show he hosts,” said Jake Asman, co-host of The Wheelhouse on ESPN Houston. “You can tell that he truly cares about the subject matter and doesn’t fake anything to his audience. It’s been great to work with Joel and be his teammate the last four years.”
It seems like all the major storylines that have come out of Houston the past two years have included some level of controversy. Sure, the Astros made a run at another World Series title last year, but the national storyline seemed to still be about the cheating scandal that rocked baseball. Then, there were the uncomfortable conversations about Deshaun Watson and all of the allegations against him.
Those times are behind Houston sports fans. Especially when it comes to Watson and the Texans. For the first time in a while, it seems like the overall conversation can move toward football and building the roster back up. But even with that being said, Blank wasn’t complaining about consistently discussing all the drama with the Astros and Texans.
“It’s certainly been a good time to do sports radio in Houston, because there have been so many topics that carried you through what our normal dead times are,” Blank said. “I think from a Texans perspective, I’ve said this all along, the Deshaun Watson situation was a black cloud that until he was traded, wouldn’t go away. But every black cloud provides shade and that shade is Jack Easterby. He’s still there and people are still bothered by it. I think it’s opened people’s minds that the rebuild can finally start. You can take a deep breath now and say, let’s just concentrate on football.”
Houston is a major market. The city has an NFL, NBA and MLB team, amongst other sports entities. But at ESPN Houston, there’s probably more of a different vibe on the sales side than what you would experience at other sports radio stations in large markets. The station believes in relationships with clients. Not that most major market radio stations don’t, but Blank was told when he joined the station his personal relationships with clients would go a long way towards his success.
“Lance Zierlein, who does our morning show, gave me some advice when I left the Rockets and I came to do sports radio,” Blank said. “He said, you’re going to absolutely kill it, but the one thing you have to know when it comes to clients is, you have to treat them like they’re your friend and you have to develop a relationship so that you are friends. Because friends have a hard time saying no and walking away from friends. So therefore, the better relationship you can develop, and the more you can carry the torch for your friends, the more your friends will stay by your side through thick and thin.
“He’s been so spot on with that. So many of my clients are my friends and so many of my friends come back to me and say, hey, we’re seeing results because you speak from the heart and believe in us, therefore your listeners believe in you, and we’re seeing them come through the doors.”
The Killer Bs have a catchy new slogan when it comes to the Texans. “Embrace the Suck”. At some point, it feels like Blank and Branham will eventually put that on a t-shirt. That’s the main storyline moving forward: the after-effects of the Watson trade and what the franchise does moving forward.
What’s not a major storyline is another deep NCAA Tournament run from the Houston Cougars. Thursday night, UH will take on No. 1 seed Arizona to move on to the Elite 8. No, the Cougars aren’t a blueblood hoops program, but they’re one of the more successful programs in the past five years, which includes a trip to last year’s Final Four. Yet, another run isn’t moving the needle much in the Houston market.
“It’s crazy. Kelvin Sampson and I go way back,” Blank said. “We worked together for the Rockets. Jeremy is the play-by-play voice of the Cougars. It’s almost frustrating because Jeremy and I are both basketball guys at heart but the city’s just not that fired up about college basketball. It never has been. I think when the Cougars make these runs, they’re kind of blips. The number 1 story for us has been Deshaun Watson and the 1B story is Carlos Correa.”
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
