A familiar voice and a close friend was on the other end of the phone when Beau Bishop answered a call on a random spring day in 2018. At the moment he saw Todd Markiewicz pop on the screen of his phone, he probably thought it was a call from a friend to check in on how he was doing. But Markiewicz was calling with a purpose.
He had heard rumors about a competing station in Columbus trying to talk him back into sports radio. So Markiewicz, the Vice President and Station Manager of 97.1 The Fan, called Bishop with a simple question: What would it take to get him back to The Fan?
Bishop is known today for his successful radio career, but his story begins in Montana where he grew up and also found his first media job at the CBS affiliate in Billings. He later took a job in Tallahassee, where he met his wife.
As things go, she was a Cleveland girl so the couple eventually moved to Ohio to work in Columbus. It was 2007 and Bishop landed at the CBS affiliate in town that was owned by The Dispatch Broadcast Group. The group owned The Columbus Dispatch, along with the television and radio station. It was there, when Bishop really started thinking about sports radio.
“From the moment I got to Columbus, I would look out of the corner of my eye at radio and I just thought ‘Gah, that seems like a lot of fun’,” said Bishop. “In TV, we were so restricted during sportscasts. We had an incredible department and I traveled with Ohio State for three or four years and they treated us awesome. Television certainly had some glamor to it but in the back of my head I always thought the radio guys were having more fun.”
Finally, in 2011, he got his wish when he was asked to do a show with Bobby Carpenter. No, this wasn’t a full-time gig that allowed him to focus solely on sports radio, rather a show once a week with the former Buckeye called The Offseason with Bobby Carpenter. However, management liked what they heard and the journey into a full-time sports radio gig came soon after.
“They must have liked what they heard, because the opportunity came for me to do it on a regular basis on a show called Bishop and Rothman,” said Bishop. “Anthony (Rothman) is still there, he follows our show now. I really enjoyed doing that show and we did it from 2011-2015.”
Bishop was excelling in sports radio. Sure, he cut his teeth on the TV side, but he was a natural at doing sports radio. Plus, he really enjoyed being at The Fan and talking about Ohio State everyday. But then an opportunity came open in the private sector for Bishop to move to Cleveland in his wife’s family business. So for a few years, he pursued another venture in life away from sports radio.
But in the spring of 2018, Bishop felt himself being pulled back in by the sports radio universe. Around the same time, a competitor of The Fan started to try and talk him back into sports radio. Markiewicz caught wind of this and called Bishop.
“Todd had since become the GM at The Fan and he is a dear friend and one of the real bright spots in our industry,” said Bishop. “He got wind that this other station was trying to woo me back and he called me back and said ‘What would it take? I think we need to get the band back together’. I remember having the conversation with him asking, what do you have in mind? He said, well, what do you think about doing something with James Laurinaitis”
Just like his first show in sports radio, Bishop was being pitched on doing a show with a former Buckeye. He loved the idea of teaming up with Laurinaitis for a show, and even covered him at Ohio State during his playing days, but he hadn’t seen him since he left college football. The opportunity to return to a job he was passionate about at a station he loved and a boss he considered a friend was too good to pass up. Shortly after Markiewicz’ phone call, Bishop was back at 97.1 The Fan alongside Laurinaitis.
The duo developed an incredible chemistry together. So much so, Bishop considers Laurinaitis a dear friend. From the spring of 2018 until January of 2022 the two co-hosted a show at The Fan until Laurinaitis left the show to become the Linebackers Coach at Notre Dame under longtime friend and former teammate Marcus Freeman.
The interesting catch is that Bishop was living in northeast Ohio when he was initially offered to come back to The Fan. Meaning, he wasn’t able to be in the studio in Columbus for most shows.
“I had done some TV stuff with the Browns and they said ‘Hey, we have a studio,” said Bishop. “They said ‘If you want, you can do the show from here’. So I did. I did the Columbus show out of the Cleveland Browns facility for three months.”
Soon after that, an opening came open on Cleveland Browns Daily and the team asked Bishop if he would be interested in it. All of a sudden, it felt like he went from no job in radio, to now two different shows throughout the day.
“On that show, which is Good Karma Brands and on ESPN Cleveland, I’m blessed to work with Jason Gibbs, who’s just one of all-time best,” said Bishop. “He’s the producer of the show and the Browns Radio Network. And then Nathan Zegura, who’s become one of my very dear friends. His grace allowed for a lot of this, because he drove the show before I got there.
“When they approached me about doing the show I said, I was concerned about the chemistry of it all. He and I did one show together and I said ‘Oh, this is going to be easy’. He’s the expert on that show. He does the color commentary for the Browns and on that show I’m very much the Ernie Johnson and he’s Shaq, Kenny, Charles, all of them. My job is to steer it and set up his incredible knowledge of the Cleveland Browns.”
Hosting two shows requires a lot from Bishop on a daily basis. From 9:00 to Noon, he’s hosting Bishop and Friends on The Fan. From 1:00 to 3:00, he’s co-hosting Cleveland Browns Daily. It’s a full day with a lot of prep.
“I don’t ever not prep,” said Bishop. “My wife gets on me, she says ‘Can’t you ever turn it off?’ I’m like, no not really. Not when you’re responsible for five hours of content and you’re trying to come up with stuff that’s new and inventive. I don’t ever turn it off and I’m probably on my phone way too much. I just keep a constant running diary of things that are interesting to me.”
The day begins at 6:00 AM when Bishop wakes up and starts prep work for his show in Columbus. It’s been a year this month since Laurinaitis left the show, but they’ve found their new identity.
“What we attempt to do with that show is The Dan Patrick Show of Columbus,” said Bishop. “When James (Laurinaitis) left, we tried to understand there was no way to duplicate the relationship he and I had. He ended up being one of my best friends and we had a chemistry that was unmatched. I said to Todd (Markiewicz), maybe we don’t try to duplicate this, maybe we just go in another direction.
“He and I were talking about possible co-hosts and I said ‘What if we try this model and bet on us?’ There were a couple of producers I had worked with for a long time that are talented, young up and comers in the business and I said ‘I think if I have these two guys, because they’re young and hungry, I think we can do it’. Todd said I believe in you man. If you want to do it, let’s do it.”
Bishop and Friends features Marc Finch and Eric Reiser. Along with his co-hosts at Cleveland Browns Daily, Bishop will be the first to tell you how blessed he is to be surrounded by incredible talent. It’s something he never takes for granted, especially since he has the unique task of co-hosting two different shows in two different cities every weekday.
“My Columbus prep starts at 6:00 AM and I send my guys the rundown around 7:15,” said Bishop. “The prep doesn’t stop there. I continue to prep right up until the show starts at 9:00. We do the show from 9 to noon and then my focus shifts to the Browns.”
Bishop is right where he’s intended to be, which is covering the two-biggest sports entities in all of Ohio. The grind is real, but he wouldn’t change this life for anything. For five hours a day he gets to talk about the Buckeyes and Browns to a state that’s constantly craving content from the local sports teams.
“Columbus and Cleveland are sister cities in every sense,” said Bishop. “The Browns are probably the second biggest thing in Columbus behind Ohio State football and Ohio State football is second to only the Browns in Cleveland. They overlap a lot.”
Bishop takes his daily duties seriously. He has both understanding and deep respect for the way people in Ohio feel about football. It’s just one of the many reasons he comes into each show prepared and ready to give topics and opinions that will best-serve his listener.
“Sports is the warm blanket over the state,” said Bishop. “Whatever is going on in the economy, the weather is dingy. We don’t see the sun for January, February, and most of March. But damn it, if we have our Buckeyes, if we have our Browns, if we have football, that gets us through.
“If you think about the state’s love affair with football it’s probably as unique as any. I say all the time, there could be some states that do Friday night’s better, Buckeye fans would dispute you and fight you to the death on this one, but maybe some do Saturday’s better, there might be states that do Sunday’s better. But there’s not a state that does Friday night lights, Saturday’s at The Shoe, Sunday, whether it’s on the banks of Lake Erie or the Ohio River in Cincinnati better than the state of Ohio. It just loves its football. I take that seriously and I’m so glad to be a part of it.”
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.
