There are two central themes to David Kaplan – both his life and his broadcasting career. The guy is an absolute bulldog, and he has unrelenting passion for the city of Chicago and the teams he grew up loving. That’s who he is.
Kaplan clawed his way to become an assistant basketball coach at Northern Illinois in his early twenties. That led to him being a scout for the Indiana Pacers and Seattle SuperSonics. There aren’t many hosts that have done full-time radio for 30 years and also coached college hoops and scouted for NBA teams. Many people would have to live two, maybe even three lives to check both boxes.
Toss in the fact that Kaplan wrote a column for the Chicago Tribune for two years, and also completed 25 seasons as the host of Chicago Cubs pre and postgame whether it was radio or TV. I think we’re up to at least four lifetimes by now. Kaplan currently hosts a morning show on ESPN 1000 with Jonathan Hood. He also completed his 4th annual Walk As One Chicago last week to benefit Bernie’s Book Bank. Moderation is for cowards.
Kap tells a hilarious story about how he broke in to TV. It’s one of my favorite broadcasting stories ever. He also talks about the close relationship he had with his late mother, and shares an epic story of sweating out Game 7 of the 2016 World Series before he went on the air to recap the craziness. Enjoy!
Brian Noe: How do you like being on mornings now that you’re with JHood?
David Kaplan: I love being on mornings. I’ve been blessed to work with some amazing people. [Tom] Waddle and I did 10 years together at WGN. I worked with David Haugh, who actually works mornings now on the Score. I loved working with both those guys. Jonathan and I though have something super special that we’ve created. I always wanted to do mornings. I got into radio and that first day I had to do morning drive on WGN.
I had to do the sports for the late Bob Collins. This guy had been No. 1 for 52 straight ratings periods. He was the biggest of the big in the history of Chicago. I did the sports and it was the most listened to show in Chicago. I would call my mom after every game, show, TV, radio, I mean every day. My dad died 23 years ago, so my brother and I would always check in on my mom. She was my biggest fan and my biggest sounding board. She’d be like, I didn’t like the suit you wore today, or I loved this. We had this special relationship.
I remember the first time I did mornings, I’m like who would want to get up at 3:30, 4 o’clock in the morning? My mom said, don’t ever say that again. Mornings is the big leagues. If you ever get to do mornings, that means you’ve made it. In this market, are you kidding? Everybody listens to the radio in the morning. And I never forgot that. When I got this opportunity, Mike Thomas said, what do you think about going to mornings? In, sign me up. I always was a morning person after that. I love the energy of the morning and driving in and seeing the skyline of my hometown of this amazing sports city.
BN: At one point in your career you did a daily TV show, a daily radio show, you wrote a column for the Chicago Tribune, and you did the Cubs pre and postgame shows all at the same time. What was that like for you juggling all of those things?
DK: It was craziness. You get up in the morning, and back then I wasn’t doing the morning show, my show was a little later in the day. So I’d go work out and then get to the radio station, and then go from the radio station to do the TV show Sports Talk Live. When I got married to my wife, she was all-in. My wife gets who I am and what I do. I always tell my kids, the single most important decision you make is who your partner is because here it is on Tuesday night. I’m going to do two reKAPs on my YouTube channel. I left the house this morning at quarter to five. It’s sports non-stop.
We had dinner, the games are on. She’s all-in. I can’t stress to you enough that my wife, Mindy, has been a huge key to my life. She understands what this business is all about and she supports the schedule, the wacky happenings and me 100%. My wife’s father was a coach. My wife is an executive with Lou Malnati’s Pizza.
Our column was called “Around Town.” I did it with Fred Mitchell, Hall of Fame writer. The phone would ring, hey man, just letting you know we saw Mark Grace, or Patrick Kane, or Anthony Rizzo at this restaurant and we would put these different nuggets in. I would write the column, I would do the TV show, I’d go get something to eat. I would host Cubs pregame, then host Cubs postgame, then get home many nights at 11:30, 12 o’clock, get up in the morning and crank it right back up and do it all again. I would not trade those moments for anything. There were days where you’re tired, but man, I’m getting paid to talk sports. How blessed am I?
BN: How did you initially break into TV?
DK: I got a phone call one day. It’s snowing like crazy out in Chicago. My phone rings and it’s some guy. He said, “hey, have you ever done television? I know you were a coach and a scout. Our analyst got snowed in. We have a game, DePaul is playing. They’re No. 1 in the country. DePaul is playing in two hours, have you ever done television?” I’d never done anything but watch television. I said, “well, I’ve done a ton of TV”. “You have? Can you do this game?” “Absolutely.”
My dad was a DePaul grad. We had season tickets, I knew everything about that program. I coached against them. Boom, I go to do the game. The guy who hired me, I get done, he said, “why am I flying a guy from LA here to do these games? You’re based right here. That was great. I’ll pay you.” I think it was $800 a game. I got 10 more of them. That’s double what I was making coaching in college. I said, done, I’m in. That was 1987 when I did my first game. Here we are in 2023 and my career has gone to levels I never thought it would.
BN: What made you say, oh yeah, I’ve done TV?
DK: Because I was taught a long time ago, act like you’ve been there before, and if they open the door a crack, you kick that son of a bitch in. That’s it.
BN: Being the grinder that you are whether it’s coaching or your broadcasting career, where does that hunger come from where you just want more and more?
DK: My dad was a workaholic. My brother is a grinder. He’s brilliant. An eye surgeon, trained at the Mayo Clinic. But we all take after my mom and dad, especially my mom. My mom never wanted to hear any complaints about anything.
We go to the doctor, “you got to get a flu shot.” “I don’t want to get a shot!” “Stop, knock it off. Get your shot and move on.”
That was my mom. Any obstacle that was in our path, find a way around, grind it. Don’t ever complain. Don’t blame anybody else. Personal responsibility. And if you want something, go get it. Go get it. Just try to be different. Don’t ever have an obstacle that prevents you from finding a way to do the job and just keep grinding.
BN: You mentioned that you used to talk to your mom after each show. When your mom passed, what was that like for you when you’re still doing shows, and she’s no longer here?
DK: Yeah, that was brutal. She died in December of ‘20 of Alzheimer’s and lung cancer. But the lung cancer we didn’t know about until 20 days before she died.
Alzheimer’s was brutal. Brutal. You could see it start to go downhill. I would still call her after every show, but it wasn’t the same. She was really struggling at the end. I got to hold her hand; my brother and I were there when she died.
There were many times, not so much now because she’s been gone almost three years, but it still happens, where I’ll get done and, “wow, we just had a great show,” or “oh my God, you’re not going to believe I broke this story” or “this guest came on”. I want to call and tell her and I obviously can’t. That was an adjustment period. It was. I’m also a guy who went through a divorce and I have a special needs son. So between those, work became a respite where you dive into your job.
BN: Do you think having so much to do and staying busy has helped you get through some of those tough times?
DK: A hundred percent. I’m a totally different person, I’ve been married 19 years to my wife. She has three sons. They’re my stepsons, but I was there at the parent-teacher conferences. I came into their life at a very young age. They’ve been amazing to my son, Brett. So I have Nick 33, Alex 31 and Garret 30. Everything that they’ve brought to our lives and vice versa, it’s just been amazing. I think it’s really helped me gain a different perspective on my life.
Family is so vitally important to me. Having Brett’s situation, he has what’s called Fragile X syndrome. He’s 29 and works two jobs. He’s an amazing sports fan with an incredible memory. My other three boys were all athletes. Garret played four years of college football on the offensive line. We’d all go to the games and cheer him on. It was amazing. Nick was the captain of the basketball team and Alex was on the basketball team. It just all fed into what I do. They love sports and it’s been a blessing in my life.
BN: Looking forward, you’ve done so much stuff, is there a box that’s unchecked as far as something that you want to experience or do?
DK: I don’t think so. The two boxes I wanted to check, I wanted to do morning drive as a host. I’m doing that with Jonathan and I hope I never have another partner. I want to be with him for the rest of my career, however long that is. I’m not thinking of retiring; I love what I do. And then I wanted to be there the night the Cubs won the World Series.
Some people in this business think you cannot be a fan of the teams you cover. That’s bullshit. That is ridiculous. You get into sports because you love sports and you love players and you love teams. I wanted the Cubs to win, never hid that fact. I wanted to be there the night they won.
I remember when Theo came I thought, oh, shit’s about to get real. We got Theo Epstein? It was like 2014, it’s three years, we still aren’t great. I went up to him and said, dude, I thought you were gonna bring me a championship here, I don’t want to die before it happens. He looked at me, I’ll never forget it, there were people around and he said, “let me give you a tip. I would probably drop some weight if I was you. I would get in the gym, make sure you eat a little healthier, and give me a little more time and we’ll get it done for you.” And they did.
There’s nothing I could cover, the Cubs could win the next 100, and the Bears win the next 100 and I cover all of them, nothing will ever top November 2, 2016. A-hundred-and-eight years of insanity? And I’m the guy on the air as soon as that game ended on NBC Sports Chicago with tears in my eyes? NBC had a camera on me during the game and I did not know it. My crew is all texting each other, how’s Kap doing? Oh, it’s brutal. When Rajai Davis hit the home run, it was insanity.
I remember my partner was Todd Hollandsworth. Todd had played for us, but he played for seven teams. He was a Rookie of the Year in ‘96 with the Dodgers. We’re up 6-3 in the eighth. We are pacing on our set, and he’s much calmer than me. He looked at me and goes, “dude, we got Chapman, he throws 103. We’re up 6-3, would you relax? This is over.”
I turned to him because I’m a diehard fan and every fan empathized with me. I turned to him, I said, “listen here son of a bitch, you played for seven teams. You’re a mercenary. You took our money. You have no idea what any of us who grew up and died with this team is going through.”
He’s laughing at me and I’m furious. I mean, furious. And then the game gets tied. They hit the home run. He didn’t see it. I turned and I go, “it’s tied. What do you say now, asshole?”
He’s like, “what are you talking about? Then he looked up and he heard the scoreboard exploding in Cleveland and went, oh my God, I get it. I totally get it.” Then we came back and won. In my ear, my producer, Jeff Nelson, says “the Cubs just won the effing World Series, we’re on the air in 10, nine, eight….” I turned and I pointed to my dad in the sky. I’ll never forget it. I went, “we did it.” And then we did a four-hour postgame that was like a blur. It’s the greatest possible thing I could ever cover.
BN: Yeah, where do you go from there, right? That’s the pinnacle.
DK: The pinnacle. That was the greatest thing, ever.
BN: What’s the thing that you’re most proud of throughout your career in broadcasting?
DK: I guess the thing that I’m most proud of is that I’m in my hometown. I never wanted to be a guy in New York or LA or wherever. This is the pinnacle.
To be on the air for 30+ years in this town, where I grew up talking sports about the teams I followed as a little kid. That to me is the coolest part of my career. I’m proud to work with Danny Zederman and Mike Thomas. Those are the two biggest influences in broadcasting for me. I’m the most blessed guy in the world to be able to do what I do in my hometown and to have that hometown be the best sports city in the world. I’m Chicago through and through, man.
Brian Noe is a columnist for BSM and an on-air host heard nationwide on FOX Sports Radio’s Countdown To Kickoff. Previous roles include stops in Portland, OR, Albany, NY and Fresno, CA. You can follow him on Twitter @TheNoeShow or email him at bnoe@premierenetworks.com.
