Colin Dunlap is the kid who grew up about five miles away from Three Rivers Stadium and took the city bus there on a regular basis to see his beloved Steelers and Pirates.
He’s the guy that went to Fox Chapel Area High School.
He’s the guy that had an eye on being in public relations before eventually embarked on a career in the print media.
He wasn’t supposed to get into radio, but he’s now the guy who is hosting The Fan Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh with Chris Mack and Dorin Dickerson from 6:00-10:00 AM.
“It’s never lost on me that I’m just a regular guy who happens to have the job that a lot of people see as a dream job in our city,” said Dunlap. “That’s not lost on me and it’s not lost on me that Pittsburgh, not unlike many northeast towns, is that the only thing they demand is authenticity.”
The morning show recently grew from a duo to a trio when Dunlap and his co-host Chris Mack were joined by former NFL player Dorin Dickerson. The addition of Dickerson has added another dimension to the program.
“Everybody in our city knows Dorin Dickerson as a football player, an All-American at Pittsburgh, and an NFL tight end,” said Dunlap. “I don’t think anybody understood until he came aboard how funny he was and how much personality he has. He’s absolutely hilarious and you can always bank on that football knowledge being there.”
Another huge part of the show is producer Adam Crowley who is really more than just a producer as he very often goes on the air with the guys. If you asked Dunlap, the show wouldn’t be as good as it is without him.
“He is the most talented person I’ve ever worked with,” said Dunlap. “I’m not a radio guy. I didn’t go to school for it. But if someone said who is a natural at radio, I’d say it would be Adam Crowley.”
And you need a quality team to dissect what is happening in Pittsburgh sports these days. The Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates are all in a downward spiral and it was something that Dunlap could see coming a few years ago. In fact, it was something that has been discussed on the air for quite some time.
“Chris Mack and I have pushed this for a couple of years and it’s something that we’ve tried to prepare people for,” said Dunlap. “Malkin/Crosby/Letang are aging out. A Hall of Fame quarterback just walked out the door. And the Pirates never spend any money. So, you know exactly where the teams are right now…they’re in a downturn.”
Dunlap has tried to convey the message to his audience that the good times need to be appreciated when they happen because good things don’t last forever. The city of Pittsburgh experienced a lot of winning in a short amount of time and now, those clubs have fallen on hard times.
“We were able to realize so many things in just a small span of time,” said Dunlap. “Hell, you could live in Jacksonville or you could live somewhere else and you don’t get in a lifetime what we got in a decade.”
Dunlap has been a host on the morning show since January of 2015 when he replaced Gregg Giannotti who left to host the morning show on CBS Sports Radio and is now the co-host of Boomer and Gio on WFAN in New York.
A career in radio was not ultimate goal when Dunlap entered the sports world. He majored in public relations at Eastern Kentucky University before attending graduate school at the University of West Virginia. During graduate school, he did an internship with the Pirates and Dunlap quickly realized that becoming a sports writer was very intriguing to him.
“I got to see how the writers worked and that side of it appealed to me,” said Dunlap. “More than serving them, being them appealed to me. There was a certain spark about deadline. There was less media. There were less outlets. There was a certain different romanticism and respect with being a daily journalist.”
Dunlap would go on to cover the Pirates, college basketball and football, along with prep sports at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
And then came a series of events that would change his life.
It started in February of 2010 when “The Fan” in Pittsburgh went on the air. A year later, Dunlap and his wife welcomed twins into the world but they were born very premature and there were some medical problems.
That led to a career change for Dunlap in more ways than one.
“My wife had a very good job and I could see the state of daily journalism,” said Dunlap. “I just said I could take off and not work and be a stay-at-home dad for a little and work part time a couple of nights here and there in radio because The Fan had kind of put feelers out to see if I wanted to do a couple of shifts and I did and that just grew into moving up.”
Dunlap eventually grew into a full-time role at The Fan hosting the 10:00 PM-2:00 AM show before eventually moving to the 6:00-10:00 PM shift.
He still has some fond memories of the 10:00 PM-2:00 AM show because it was four hours where he didn’t just talk sports…he also served as sort of a head of the family.
“It was incredibly fun,” said Dunlap. “You knew you may have been a beacon for them each night and that was never lost on me. I absolutely loved that 10-2 shift by myself because you just felt like you cultivated some sort of small family that felt they were part of a special club.”
And then came the move to the morning show in 2015 and that presented Dunlap with the challenge of a different type of sports talk radio. The morning show is not just taking calls and postgame reaction to games. There’s an element of entertainment that has to be incorporated into the show and that requires the right mix of discussion along with interaction from the callers.
It was definitely an adjustment.
“The one thing that was the hardest was I had to soften opinions some,” said Dunlap. “Nobody wants to get beat over the head at 7:15 in the morning with the offensive coordinator sucks, run him out of town, and he’s terrible. They can get bits and pieces of that. They don’t want it for four hours.”
When you think about everything you hear mornings on The Fan in Pittsburgh, there’s sports, entertainment and fun.
It’s not a time to take yourself that seriously, kind of like last week when Dunlap took to social media to have the listeners and followers vote on the best items in the radio station’s vending machines.
“The ability to audibly laugh at yourself and just do things on a whim and play off of things you can laugh at,” said Dunlap.
Not a bad radio career for Colin Dunlap, a Pittsburgh guy who wasn’t even supposed to have a career in radio. A lot of sports fans in Pittsburgh are extremely happy that things worked out the way they did.
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
