When Dan Patrick returned home after announcing he would be retiring from his national radio program, his wife was perplexed. Patrick had not informed her in advance of the news, and she was suddenly being bombarded by others wondering if what he had said was true. He then clarified that he would leave his show at the end of 2027. That’s when he recognized that he had neglected to disclose one piece of pivotal information.
Patrick inked a four-year contract extension with iHeartMedia’s Premiere Networks and NBC Sports in what is expected to be the final deal of his broadcast career. Patrick and his “Danettes” will continue with The Dan Patrick Show, which is carried on over 400 radio stations across the United States, remaining an enduring entity among the countless ephemeral.
It is rare for sports media personalities to get to retire on their own accord. Oftentimes, they are pushed out by younger, more affordable talent and always subject to adaptations in the marketplace. Evidence enough is the deluge of layoffs occurring across media this year alone, including at Warner Bros. Discovery, The Athletic and ESPN.
Patrick, of course, worked at the “Mothership” for 14 years. He was the face of the sports institution at arguably the height of its popularity. He left ESPN in 2007 and began to operate his show independently, a move that was somewhat unprecedented at the time. Patrick utilized shrewd foresight and incessant determination in moving on while always remaining eager for a new challenge. Maintaining those characteristics and continuing to be able to give consumers his best was of paramount importance when pondering over the denouement of his storied career.
“I think I had to draw a line in the sand to just say, ‘I’m going to have an exit strategy,’” Patrick explained. “I wanted to be able to call my own shot, and by then I’ll be 71, and that’s really old in this business. I don’t feel that way, but there are days that you’ve got to have energy. It’s three hours and it’s live, and there’s so many other things that I want to do.”
From the beginning, Patrick made sacrifices to become one of the most accomplished professionals in the business. Now over four decades since the beginnings of his career, he has an end destination in sight and will enjoy the next few years until it is time to finish the show for good.
“I just don’t want to go out and not be at my best when I’m done,” Patrick expressed. “There’d be nothing better than when I say goodbye, I’m saying goodbye and I still feel like I’m at the top of my game or at least somewhere on that totem pole.”
While he was in school, Patrick was a broadcaster on WUDR, the University of Dayton’s student-run radio station, and received early exposure to the music format. At the time, sports media was a narrowly-defined career path, and in order to stand out, he needed to be both informative and entertaining without emitting banality. Patrick was permitted to sit courtside at the school’s basketball home games, during which he would call play-by-play into a tape recorder. He would then bring the tape back to the school’s sports information director Gene Schill, who would review his account and offer feedback.
“I had no advice – zero – I had no idea what I was doing,” Patrick emphasized. “I just knew I was going to do this [and] I think I was too naïve to go, ‘Yeah, sure.’”
Patrick cherishes the imagery hosts can cultivate on the radio. That is why the medium appeals to him so much. Radio offers listeners the opportunity to make their voices heard by interacting with the program as it happens through texts, emails, social media posts and phone calls. Early on, he and his colleagues were embedded within a marketplace bereft of enough specialized outlets, evincing a conspicuous opportunity for those with the wherewithal and prudence to forecast the media ecosystem.
“Being blessed with a good voice to be able to do it [is] just something that I always appreciated,” Patrick said. “I appreciate those who are able to communicate and touch somebody, get them to react [and] have a visceral reaction to something. Not everybody can do that obviously, but those who do it on a high level; consistent level – I have great admiration for them.”
In 1983, Patrick began working with CNN as a sports reporter after perambulating its Atlanta headquarters on an unyielding pursuit for a job. The role afforded him the chance to attend marquee sporting events. Whether it was the NBA Finals, World Series or Olympic Games, he could be found on-site compiling storylines to present for the air.
Although he was away from radio, Patrick was discovering new ways to communicate with an audience and building up an essential body of work. Nearly six years later, Patrick had been hired by ESPN, fulfilling a lifelong dream to host SportsCenter. While Patrick co-hosted the program with a variety of different partners, his time on the air with Keith Olbermann is most prominent. Ironically enough, Patrick was the reporter to replace Olbermann at CNN’s New York bureau when he moved to Boston to anchor sports on WCVB-TV. Hosting the program with an incisive sarcasm and astute effervescence, the duo effectively revolutionized sports television.
Patrick, however, entered the role still feeling he had to prove himself. While he tried to exude confidence on the air through his pithy and precise approach, Patrick struggled with internal ambivalence about whether or not he deserved to be on the program altogether. Olbermann had a contrasting style, predicated on momentary reaction and flamboyance, and both ultimately helped each other become better at their jobs and propel the broadcast to new heights.
“We called ourselves the ‘Big Show;’ we were mocking ourselves because we didn’t know who was watching,” Patrick explained. “Back then, we weren’t privy to all the information that you have now – the analytics. Keith one night just said, ‘Welcome to the Big Show,’ and I thought it was funny because we weren’t a big show, at least we didn’t know if we were or not.”
Olbermann left ESPN in 1997 after various incidents between him and corporate leadership, breaking up the dynamic duo. As he continued to host SportsCenter, Patrick embarked on a new endeavor by launching his program, The Dan Patrick Show, on ESPN Radio.
From the beginning, Patrick was always an adept interviewer, extrapolating insightful answers from his guests thanks to the knowledge he accumulated through independent study and the seminar held by expert and former investigative reporter John Sawatsky. A majority of ESPN employees have received Sawatsky’s tutelage, learning his principles. For Patrick, the preparation leading up to an interview is indispensable to eliciting a compendious response from the subject, along with actively listening to develop germane follow-ups.
“When you interview, get out of the way – because people will say, ‘Oh, you ask great questions.’ And I go, ‘You know what’s a great question? When you get a great answer,’ because I can ask a question, but if you’re not giving me anything, then it wasn’t a great question,” Patrick said. “The best questions you’ll ever ask – who; why; where; how; when. Make it simple instead of, ‘Let me have a big windup and the pitch,’ and the pitch doesn’t even get to home plate.”
With each interview he has conducted over the years, Patrick wants to strike gold and hear a distinct perspective. Credibility, stature and networking undoubtedly provide an advantage to securing guests and attaining answers, all of which encompass an apogee industry professionals continuously strive to reach and subsequently maintain. As the show spotlights the guest, Patrick is able to express himself within the discussion.
“If I’m interviewing you, you’re the person that I’ve got to get information out of,” Patrick said. “Sometimes you can interview somebody and then you want to give all your thoughts to that person instead of letting them tell you what their thoughts are. My personality comes out whether it’s in the questions I ask, my responses to them or separately where we go off on a tangent with something.”
Exhibiting his genuine self became harder as Patrick wanted to evolve the show. In the first decade of the 21st century, Patrick would have Olbermann on his show in an attempt to rekindle the magic of the ‘Big Show.’ Despite landing prominent guests, traveling across the country to monumental sporting events and growing in notoriety, Patrick has been able to, in his view, more effectively enrich the program away from the network.
“I don’t think I knew how to be a radio host at ESPN because I was still representing ESPN,” Patrick said. “I wanted to make sure that I was being professional, and therefore not taking chances, [and] I kind of was going through the motions of radio making sure I didn’t upset anybody.”
Patrick affirms that the show was subpar in its ESPN tenure because he could not deviate away from the network’s expectations and constraints. He did not feel he was himself on the air. That made him more curious over time about the world beyond Bristol.
“I was the ultimate ESPN employee,” Patrick stated. “I was what corporate wanted, and I didn’t want to color outside the lines. I just wanted to do the right thing, and then I realized [that] I wasn’t having fun after about 14 years. I kind of hit a glass ceiling and I thought, ‘Well, this isn’t my personality,’ but I was almost playing somebody on radio or playing somebody on TV.”
When Patrick officially announced his departure from the “Worldwide Leader” in the summer of 2007, it sent shockwaves around the industry. He was divorcing the preeminent, dominant sports media outlet that many professionals yearn to reach, instead opting to enter an uncertain, ambiguous future. The decision came after Patrick’s wife informed him that by the time the proposed five-year contract extension he was set to ink would expire, all of his children would be out of the house. Her sense of perspective led to him making a prudent decision and running the show independently – the start of one of the greatest challenges of his career.
“I worked second shift for 15 years when all of my kids were born and she really raised them,” Patrick said of his wife. “At some point, you can’t be selfish, and I certainly was when I did SportsCenter.”
Although it may not have been evident from the onset, Patrick’s decision to leave ESPN piqued others’ curiosity to consider doing the same thing. When Patrick returned home the day he declined the contract, his house was empty, leading him to sit on his front porch to mull over the magnitude of what he had just done.
While outside, he was beginning to have some regrets before producer Paul Pabst encouraged him that everything would be fine and turn out great. From that moment on, Patrick would bring his crew to the attic of his Connecticut home, where a makeshift studio was constructed from which the show would emanate.
The first order of business was to find a distribution partner, and Patrick knew that Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, would be the ideal choice. Julie Talbott, who was serving as its executive vice president of affiliate relations at the time, helped bring him on board. From there, he secured The Content Factory for syndication and was canvassing other radio stations to pick up his program. When Patrick spoke to Don Martin, then-program director of KLAC, and got him to agree for the station to carry his show despite having recently hired a new morning crew, he was elated to be in a major market.
“It was humbling, but it was great because it reinvigorated me,” Patrick said. “….I was like, ‘I will not lose,’ and that was my word. I said that to these radio stations, and 17 years later, I’ve lived up to it.”
Patrick was in direct competition with other radio outlets, including ESPN Radio, who had Colin Cowherd on in the same slot at the time. The swift decision he made to depart the network caught the attention of many, and he affirms it was the ideal move for his career. By 2009, his show was on FOX Sports Radio, where it remains a staple of its programming lineup to this day, and it was eventually televised by DIRECTV on AT&T SportsNet.
“I think at the time, ESPN might have been nervous [that] if I did succeed, would others want to follow, but I don’t know how that impacted other people,” Patrick said. “I talk to people currently and formerly at ESPN who had thought about going out on their own, and I would always say to them, ‘Stay at ESPN. It’s a great place to work; it’s a powerful place to work [and it] still sets the tone of sports.’”
Several personalities have since taken Patrick’s lead, using his blueprint to leave a network and operate independently. Despite the number of people that tell him he is an inspiration, Patrick does not listen to other sports programming so he can adequately focus on his own responsibilities and maintain a work-life balance.
“I’m trying to get something from people that are doing it in a different way in a different medium but is applicable to what I do,” Patrick said. “The art of communicating – it is difficult – and there’s certain people who do it really, really well and I admire them.”
Conversely, ESPN inked Pat McAfee to a multiyear, multi-million dollar contract to bring his program, The Pat McAfee Show, to its linear and digital platforms beginning in the fall. McAfee, a former NFL punter, has an affable charisma and represents himself and the show in negotiations. The entertaining, multiplatform production will retain its identity, with McAfee stating on numerous occasions that the only things changing about the show will be where it is available and the amount of expletives used on the air. In the end, the network believes McAfee and other distinguished talents, such as Mike Greenberg and Stephen A. Smith, will help churn a profit in a mercurial business.
“These are talents – it’s hard to find this, and that’s what ESPN found,” Patrick said. “They may not be all in on radio, but they’re all in on personalities, and you get somebody who moves the needle – that’s why you have Stephen A. and that’s why you have Pat.”
Patrick does not host his show alone, as he is always accompanied by four other personalities on the show known collectively as the “Danettes.” Todd Fritz, Patrick O’Connor, Paul Pabst and Marvin Prince make daily contributions to the show in its new memorabilia-filled man cave in addition to performing their production jobs. The group is essentially a sports version of Howard Stern’s show universe. In fact, Patrick looked at the “King of All Media” as inspiration in how to compile a vast range of perspectives on the air.
“They’re the lifeblood of the show,” Patrick said of the Danettes. “I can tap into each one of them separately knowing that I’m going to get something different, and that’s what Howard does with Richard and Sal and Baba Booey. To be able to have those guys that you can bounce things off of; oh definitely the blueprint was Howard.”
While the epitome of sports radio’s denotation falls on the responsibility of outlets and is subject to the approval of the audience, Patrick believes that listener engagement is a marker of performance. Since his bifurcation from ESPN, he has secured a steady base of patrons and drawn substantial engagement on numerous platforms.
“Every day’s the Super Bowl – that’s my motto every day – and I want my guys to know that there’s no off day even when you’re working,” Patrick said. “There’s no, ‘We took that segment off,’ or, ‘We didn’t really have much.’”
When Bob Barker retired from hosting The Price Is Right after 35 years on the air, CBS was in the hunt for his successor. While producers ended up hiring Drew Carey for the role, they approached Patrick and gauged his interest about auditioning. Patrick declined the opportunity and wound up signing with NBC Sports to host its marquee Sunday night studio program, Football Night in America.
He ended up remaining there for a decade, with the first two years hosting alongside his former SportsCenter partner Olbermann. Even though the program continued its stretch of being the top sports studio program in the country during Patrick’s tenure, he had never been entirely comfortable with the prospect of hosting on television.
“It’s a lot to do a little,” Patrick said, “whereas radio, it’s three hours and your preparation time; there’s a lot more involved in it and I always felt that there was a bigger payoff because it’s my show. Football Night in America wasn’t my show; SportsCenter wasn’t my show. I think when you attach your name to something, now all of a sudden, you’re what’s driving this.”
Patrick is, obviously, essential to the fabric of his national radio show, but he never wants to be the star. His goal is to showcase what the audience wants from guests instead of what a network feels is an absolute necessity. He looks at Johnny Carson, the legendary former host of The Tonight Show, and recognizes his ability to stand out while making others look even better.
“Your job is to disarm that person because for the most part, they don’t want to [say] too much,” Patrick said. “My goal is to have you relaxed and not realize that you’re on radio and/or TV, and almost to have a conversation and then you get to eavesdrop. That’s the goal every time I’m doing an interview.”
The conversations on Patrick’s program center around life and are hardly contrived, instead being based on current events and topics of intrigue. For example, the recent releases of blockbuster films Barbie and Oppenheimer amid strikes in Hollywood has been frequently making headlines, leading to a discussion about the films on The Dan Patrick Show. There are also moments when the show utilizes drops and other soundbites, some of which are self-deprecating and specifically built for radio.
“It’s three hours where, every day, you’ve got a different road to take and chances are you’re going to come to a fork in the road every day, and then another fork,” Patrick said. “It will eventually lead you back home, but that’s the fun part of it; that’s the journey every single day, whereas at ESPN, I felt like I had to check boxes.”
Upon having a conversation with the college-aged son of a mutual friend who wanted to work in sports media but had no experience, Patrick became inspired to change the way the industry nurtures its future stars. After being directed to Full Sail University, he collaborated to write a sportscasting curriculum with them and launched the Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting.
Located in Winter Park, Fla., students are granted the tools and instruction necessary to launch a career in the industry. The project originally started with five students, all of whom landed media jobs out of school, and Patrick and the school staff remain indebted to the students upon graduation. In fact, he still holds monthly seminars to review demo reels and audition tapes with students who want feedback.
“We learned from ESPN and we wanted you to be able to do everything that they do and then some – to be able to edit; cut highlights; all of those things,” Patrick said. “It’s been the most rewarding thing that I’ve ever done in this business because you’re changing lives – truly changing a life [so] that they can get a job doing this professionally.”
As his career enters its concluding stages, Patrick, his staff and his listeners will reflect back on the perspicuous impact the show has made on sports media while enjoying the remaining time on the air. Retiring, however, is not squarely focused in his purview at the moment – instead staying concentrated on preparing for each program and upholding his scholastic commitment to students at Full Sail University. He has thought about what it is he hopes people say about him when he turns off his microphone for one last time.
“He was a professional – that’s all,” Patrick said. “I understood it; I’m very lucky, and hopefully I did it in a way that is commensurate to what you expect out of a broadcaster; a host; a personality – any of those labels that they give us. ‘He did it the right way.’ Yeah, I think, ‘he did it the right way.’”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
