“On my bucket list was a World Cup soccer game and seeing a game show,” Brian Shactman says.
“I graduated from college in 1994, and my buddy’s mom had a place in Southern California, so we went out there to work” Shactman explained. “We went on the last day of taping for The Price is Right. We were out drinking for most of the night before, but we sobered up and went to Television City at like five in the morning.”
Shactman said when you entered the studios, you were greeted by the producers of the show. They ask you a single question.
“I’m guessing they put you in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ pile,” Shactman said. “When they asked me a follow-up question, I knew it was ‘on’. When the producer came out before the show, we locked eyes and I knew I was going to be a contestant. Mine was the fourth name called.”
Johnny, tell him what he’s won.
“I won a refrigerator, which I sold. I won a cabinet, which I gave to my brother for his wedding. And I got two recliner chairs. I gave one to my buddy, and I had the other one until 2014 when my wife told me it was time to part with them. It was the chair or her.”
Shactman has done so much television since the game show appearance, it’s hard to believe there was a time he was nervous in front of the camera. “Here I was with Bob Barker. I used to skip school to watch him. It was surreal. The studio is a lot smaller than you’d think. It felt like I was on a sitcom.”
Shactman is no slouch in the education department. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy, and later Amherst College.
“Amherst is very different today than it was in the early 90s,” Shactman says. “It’s a liberal arts college in New England. Very politically correct. But it was small. Our student body was about the same size as one class in a bigger college. There were a lot of smart people around all the time. It was rather humbling. Many have gone on to do some great things. The captain of our hockey team went on to become a surgeon. I wasn’t used to not being one of the smartest guys in the room.”
All Shactman did growing up was play sports. His mom wanted him to diversify a bit.
“I think my mom started freaking out and began taking me to museums. I was so focused on hockey in high school, even though I wasn’t as good as I thought I was.”
The family loved the Red Sox, though Shactman never went to games as a kid. His first professional games were at the Boston Garden in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, where he remembers watching the Bruins and a classic Celtics- Sixers playoff game.
“Once the Red Sox won the Series in 2004, things changed for me,” said Shactman, who still has season tickets but only goes to a few a year now. “I saw the team win three more World Series, but it’s not the same for me anymore. Some of the grittiness is gone. I like to cheer, but now people look at you like you have three heads. I still like to take my kids to some games though.”
His one time love of the game and team rubbed off on his wife. But not right away.
“When I met my wife, Jess Matzkin, she was working in education. I’d go to bed at 9 pm, and she would start watching the Red Sox games as background noise. Then she started to get to know the players. In the 2004 ALCS, we went to Game 3 together (where the Sox were routed by the Yankees), and we had two tickets to Game 4. I couldn’t go, and she couldn’t find anyone to go with her. Finally, after the fifth or sixth ask, Jess got someone to go. And it was one of the greatest games ever.”
His first job was teaching at The Taft School, a prep school in Connecticut. Then he went back to coach hockey at his alma mater, Amherst College.
“(After that) I didn’t think I wanted to coach anymore, so I enrolled in graduate school to study English Literature. By my third day in graduate school, I realized that wasn’t for me. Then I started covering sports.”
Then a chance meeting with a producer at ESPN.com sparked what became a globetrotting television and radio career at ESPN, NBC Connecticut, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC10 Boston and NECN.
Shactman currently is the host of Brian & Company from 5:30-9 am on WTIC NewsTalk 1080 in Connecticut.
“I was on TV in Boston when my wife took a job in Connecticut at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, so I was commuting back and forth. I didn’t want to do TV in Connecticut again. This opportunity at WTIC just came my way.” His biggest break was back in 2013 when he took over as regular host of Way Too Early on MSNBC when Willie Geist had moved on to the Today Show.
Why is Willie Geist so likable?
“Willie in real life is a very confident, witty, accessible guy,” Shactman says. “You never feel like he’s condescending. My wife likes him, too. He’s smart, self-effacing. We used to watch his father Bill Geist when he did his humor pieces on CBS Sunday Morning. Bill’s pieces were always fun. Willie may have gotten some breaks because of his father, but he also worked his way up.”
Shactman said during the Great Recession, Morning Joe came to the forefront and changed TV news.
“It was a show that I wanted to be on,” Shactman says. “A guy who worked on the show was from Hartford. I told him when Erin Burnett, Jim Cramer, or Dylan Ratigan couldn’t do it, to use me. Joe and I are both Red Sox fans so we sort of hit it off.”
At ESPN, he worked on SportsCenter, ESPN.com, and ESPN Radio.
If he had it all to do over again, Shactman actually said he wishes he’d done more acting.
“In high school, I started appearing in plays. Senior year, I was going to be on the lacrosse team, but I knew I wasn’t going to play in college, so I auditioned. I was in two really somber plays, but I loved it. If I had the guts, I would have gone into acting.”
He said so much of his personal identity was as an athlete. Shactman was afraid not to be an athlete.
“That’s why I went to boarding school. I’m glad I took that chance. I loved the way audiences responded. I don’t think I had the range to be a professional, but it was a fantastic experience.”
Reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles made Shactman want to go to boarding school.
“I had to read Moby Dick twice. Once in college and once in graduate school.”
My sympathies.
“If I would sum up my literary leanings, I’d have to say historical fiction and American History. I gravitated to Ivan Doig in graduate school.
Shactman wrote his masters thesis on the American West. He explored immigration in Montana. He looked at the sweeping history of the West and the Mountain Man era.
“It was so dangerous back then,” Shactman said. You could turn the corner and someone could kill you.”
Shactman said violence is and was a part of our fabric in this country.
“We have some horrible things going on in our country right now,” Shactman says. “Looking back, violence has been a huge part of this country’s history.
He’s obsessed with American History, and right now, he’s listening to the Revolutions podcast by Mike Duncan.
“There were 13 colonies that really had nothing in common. It’s amazing they ever united in the first place. It was Thomas Hobbes who said man’s natural state is a state of war. I’m a pacifist, and at war, I’d be dead in a minute.”
He said he’s not extremely social, but does belong to a Dude’s Book Club.
“We’re reading All God’s Children. It’s about how the tradition of Southern violence and racism has long affected and still haunts one black family. The guy was in prison without parole because of his violent actions. They trace his family’s history to show you the foundation of violence in his life.”
Shactman only registered to vote for a party once. He’s an independent and tries to avoid getting into politics on his show. He said it doesn’t go anywhere.
“I tried to get the two silos to talk to each other, and thought it would work. But it didn’t. People only hear what they want to hear. Both sides hated me at the same time. I don’t know, maybe we’re on the back nine as a country.”
Back at the beginning at ESPN, Shactman aspired to be the Peter Gammons of hockey journalism and said there were a few journalists he looked to for inspiration.
“I always admired Brian Williams. He lied and was held accountable. When he took over the evening news though, he was visiting the affiliates and our whole news crew had lunch with him. He’s unnervingly funny and smart. What sold me on him was after the BP oil spill in Louisiana, I watched him start NBC Nightly News, live in person. He was 100 yards away from the camera, and he didn’t have a notepad or teleprompter. But he gave this amazing 45 second opening that was poignant and smart. I remember thinking I could never do what that guy just did. He delivered the goods.”
“I don’t like it when people lie to my face. Look me in the eye and lie. People can be evasive, that’s one thing. But don’t lie to me just because you can. When Roy Williams dressed down Bonnie Bernstein. It was her job to ask the question, and he was so awful to her.”
Roy, shape up. Try to be more like Brian Shactman.
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his new book: Talk To Me – Profiles on News Talkers and Media Leaders From Top 50 Markets, log on to Amazon or shoot Jim an email at jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
