The single-best social media post I’ve seen this year from a sports radio station is pinned at the top of ESPN 1000’s Twitter page. If you haven’t seen it for yourself, go check out what the folks in Chicago did to announce their station will be the home for the Bears starting in 2023. It’s fantastic work that celebrates a huge opportunity for ESPN 1000. Carmen DeFalco realizes the significance of the new deal his station just inked for the Bears, but for him, it’s a little deeper than just that.
He was the kid growing up in the Chicago area that was enamored with sports. DeFalco had a pretty good idea early on he wouldn’t be playing shortstop for the Cubs or White Sox, so he turned his interest and attention to sports radio.
“100 percent,” laughed DeFalco. “I was an average athlete, who was undersized and young for my grade. I had no chance, basically. Right around that time, I started high school in 1990, The Score goes on the air and sports radio finally came to Chicago. I start listening and all of a sudden it feels like there’s an avenue and a path to follow, where I was just this sports obsessed kid that loved it. I loved the talk radio format anyway, I loved listening with my dad to Kevin Matthews and to Johnny B and Steve Dahl. I dug the format anyway, and then the sports angle came into it and I saw my future.”
It’s a fun thought for DeFalco to think about what that sports-crazed kid would think about his current situation. He’s a host in his hometown with a former Bears player that gets to talk about the teams he grew up rooting for. Starting next year, he’ll get to do it on the flagship of the Bears. It doesn’t get much cooler than that.
“It’s huge for the station,” said DeFalco. “If you would have told me this five years ago I just don’t know how I would have believed it, for a lot of different reasons. It’s fabulous it’s happening and to have the most popular team in town associated with us now, the most popular sport, the one people want to talk about most, I said earlier in the week, we never get a phone call that says you guys talk too much football. Never. To be partners with the Bears moving forward is tremendous.”
But a new relationship with the Bears could be interesting for the hosts at ESPN 1000. Meaning, do the expectations of the hosts change when talking about the Bears? And what direct benefits will the hosts see when the station becomes the flagship?
“That’s a good question,” said DeFalco. “I don’t really know and maybe we’ll find out more as we get into next season. It could be where we have a little more access to some guests and some players. Jurko and I don’t do a ton of guests. We have a pretty quick show, we’re only on for, if you throw out the crosstalk with Waddle and Silvy, it’s only two quick hours for us. We don’t like to do a whole lot of guests because of that. But at the same time, a recurring Bears guest we would totally be open to that.”
The one thing DeFalco isn’t concerned with is Bears management being upset if he has to be critical of the team on the air. Unfortunately, not every host at a flagship station in the country can feel the same security. However, DeFalco says the staff has been told their content won’t be directed by the team.
“In terms of content and how much it changes the show, I don’t think too much,” said DeFalco. “We talk a lot about the Bears and NFL anyway and we’ve been promised that we will not be approached by management at any point to say we’re being too hard on them for this or that. We can feel free to speak our minds freely, which we always have. That’s great and totally reassuring for all of us. They don’t want us getting personal, but that’s the case with or without a rights deal.”
Like most shows in an NFL market, Bears content has always been the focal point for DeFalco. Heck, his co-host John “Jurko” Jurkovic was a 10-year NFL veteran. The duo was in Dallas in late October for the Bears game against the Cowboys. DeFalco was welcomed to DFW by a packed crowd at a Twin Peaks they were broadcasting from. 80 percent of the patrons were Bears fans.
“Whenever we’re out, and we’re out a lot during the football season, there’s a great energy about it that I like,” DeFalco said. “I’ll be honest, it can be a little bit harder to do a show and a bit more distracting, but I like the energy and I like being out. During breaks and before and after the show, we bounce around and mingle with people. It’s nice they come out and see us and support us and the station.
“I was blown away by the live show we had on Friday in Dallas just by us promoting it on the air and saying, hey, if you live in the Dallas area or are going to the game, come by and see us at Twin Peaks in Irving, Texas. It was astonishing and it exceeded my expectations. The Twin Peaks was probably at capacity and it was about 80 percent Bears fans. People heard we were going to do the show down there and it was a sea of blue and orange. It was really cool.”
It’s moments like those that make DeFalco really reflect on how blessed he’s been during his career. He’s been blessed with a great job in a major market, sure, but he’s also been blessed with great co-hosts. That includes Marc “Silvy” Silverman, who he got his first big break with and his current co-host, Jurko.
“It was probably Silvy and I both getting to do stuff together on the weekends when we were young,” said DeFalco, regarding his first big break. “Silvy is a little bit older than me, and has a few more years in the business, but he’s not only a great friend but a mentor to me early on. We just sort of clicked on the air and they kept giving us more and more opportunities to be on other than just Saturday mornings.
“We did nights during the week and that eventually turned into doing mid days together. Things diverged and things played out the way they did, and we went out different ways here, but the two of us doing a weekend show together on Saturday was really the thing that gave our bosses the thought we could do more than just the weekends.
“First, with Jurko, kinda like with me and Silvy, I just feel like we’ve always clicked. Jurko and I have always had the same vibe and we just play off each other nicely. We’re the whole similar in a lot of ways and different in a lot of ways. I think we balance each other out really nicely and he brings some insights that few people can bring. The guy played over 100 games in the NFL and played in a dozen playoff games.
“His style and delivery and willingness to say whatever he feels and to playfully poke fun at everybody and everything. We always joke that nobody is spared from Jurko coming after them. But he does it in a very playful way, which not everyone can pull off.”
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.
