Brian Urlacher is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He spent 13 seasons with the Chicago Bears. However, Urlacher was released in 2013 after what he said was an “insulting” new contract offer. He also described the offer as a “slap in the face.” Sports radio sometimes works the same way, and Darren McKee knows that firsthand.
No matter how much time is spent or success is enjoyed, hosts don’t always receive the red-carpet treatment they seek in the end. They might not even receive an insulting offer; it could just be a pink slip and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Radio stations are going to do whatever they want to do for whatever reasons seem to make sense in the moment. That’s how it goes.
Darren McKee has been a prominent radio host in Denver for a long time. He’s spent the past 24 years of his life in the area. However, DMac learned last month that he was out of a gig at 104.3 The Fan. It might not be fair, but “fair” is considered a four-letter word in radio at times.
DMac isn’t ready to move on from radio just yet. He’s driven. He’s hungry. He just needs an opportunity. As he explores what’s next, he’s keeping a positive attitude about his current situation. A tragic accident involving his brother has given him perspective. He shares some of the details below. DMac is an entertainer as you’ll be able to gather in our conversation. He talks about REO Speedwagon, Forrest Gump, and a viral moment with Nikola Jokic that he helped create. Enjoy!
Brian Noe: Are things good with you? How are you feeling about not being at The Fan anymore?
Darren McKee: Well, it’s like waves. I go through waves. The lowest wave tends to be in the morning. I think it’s because I was just always so excited to go to work. One thing I loved about being at The Fan was just being present with everything going on in Denver sports. That was kind of weird to wake up in the morning and just be like, “Oh, okay, what do I do?”
But then, Brian, progressively through the day, I would just get such great feedback from so many people from so many different ways. Believe it or not, I give out my personal cell phone on the air. I have for years. I have gotten some crazy cool things because of it, like inside information on different stories, but more so than that, it was just like a real personal connection.
I don’t answer my phone if I don’t know who it is, but I text all the time. I’m getting personal, really personal text messages of support. And then, obviously, through social media, there’s a lot of very, very kind things. I don’t think of my career or my time in Denver in retrospect. Seriously, I just think of what do I have to do today? What’s happening today? I’m excited for today. Then you turn around when you put that on pause for a second, and you’re like, damn, I’ve been here for 24 years in Denver. [Laughs]
The messages are like, I used to listen to you in the car with my dad when we were driving to practice and now I have my own kids. I grew up with you. I remember when you were on these other stations, because I was on KBPI for five years and down in Colorado Springs. Then I did talk radio for iHeart for a few years too before The Fan. It’s just incredibly heartwarming. Generally I start a little low, Brian, just to be honest, and then I progressively get in a better mood. You’re talking to me at noon, I’m pretty good right now. [Laughs]
BN: Do those messages motivate you to try to find the next thing in Denver?
DM: Oh, yeah. My motivation level is off the charts. I’m not in the greatest shape in the world. I’m trying to be better, like we all should try, so I love riding my bike. I think I have listened to Roll With The Changes by REO Speedwagon 1,000 times in the past three weeks. It just gets you going. If you ask around, I ride my bike almost everywhere that I can. I’m just very fortunate that I can literally ride my bicycle. I can ride my bike to the Broncos facility, to Coors Field, to Ball Arena, to basically anywhere.
Part of it is physically, right? You don’t want to just sit around and be a lump. Although I’ve had those moments, no doubt. But I really just get out and ride. Like I’m the Forrest Gump of radio talk show hosts. But as I do that on a bicycle, not running, as I do that, Brian, it just gets you going. I’m very, very, very lucky that I have an amazing wife. We just celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary and she is a rock star in my life. And my 23-year-old has his own job. He lives and works in downtown Denver. He’s great. And my 21-year-old is a redshirt junior playing baseball in St. Louis. We’re empty nesters, so we’re in a position to work. We want to work. We’re dying to work. So motivated? Man, I could not be more motivated.
BN: I know you’re a grinder, I know you’re a worker. You have your home there in Denver, but you don’t have your work home. How do you describe that feeling of waiting for the next thing to come along?
DM: Well, I’ve just tried to stay busy. I have a friend, Bob Richards, who’s one of the greatest friends of my life. He owns three small radio stations in Monte Vista and Alamosa, which is like four hours and change, over 200 miles away from downtown Denver. This is a really tiny, small market. But, man, such awesome people. I am accredited for Denver sports through 96.5 The Fox in Monte Vista for now. And you ask about an office? Well, there I am. I’m out at the Broncos, I’m out with the Avalanche, the Nuggets just had Media Day. I (was) at the Broncos last week. There’s the studio, my real workplace is covering teams and being out and doing that.
I know a lot of talk show hosts don’t do that typical reporting sort of stuff, but I’ve always done it, Brian. I’ve always done it because I don’t know how to know the team’s better than to be out there with them. That’s my own personal philosophy. So being able to continue to do that has actually been quite a big deal. But I am definitely looking for regular radio work in Denver. The radio bug has not left me yet. I’m hoping that I get that opportunity someplace. I don’t know yet. I’m hoping.
In the meantime, I have started a podcast. I’m one of those. I’m the podcast people. I’ve got a couple of people who are helping me with it. I didn’t know anything about this stuff from a technical perspective or a podcasting perspective. I am just so ridiculously lucky that there are people that want to work with me for free. On my YouTube channel, “Kill U With Truth,” I’m doing two a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The one in the afternoon I’m doing with Nate Jackson and Chad Brown who were also let go by the radio station. I’m having a fun time doing that.
BN: BSM just put out this article where Altitude topped 104.3 The Fan for the first time in the summer ratings book. What do you think about that?
DM: I would, hmm, how about this? I found it interesting reading. And I’ll probably just leave that there. I found it very interesting.
BN: Yeah, I hear you on that. I think it’s interesting about you going and covering these teams, being in person. There are a lot of hosts, like you said, that don’t do that. What would be your general advice to someone in radio that isn’t going to locker rooms and covering the teams in person?
DM: I would say to them, and there may be geographical reasons. If you live an hour away or two hours, not everybody can do it. Let’s just start there. However, if you can do it and you’re not doing it, I would just ask you, is it a job, or is it a hobby? What made you so special? You know so much that you’re not willing to do the work that’s available to you to get better for your audience? That’s what I would say.
It’s a little critical, for sure, because I’ve heard some pretty lame excuses why people don’t make the effort. I think people that just look at, oh, I do my radio show and that’s it. It’s a three-hour day and I go home. Man, I tell you what, first of all, it’s just not me, that’s not my style. I don’t want to say my way’s the right way. There’s tons of more successful radio people than me that have never done what I’ve done, so you clearly don’t have to do it. I just don’t know why your audience would trust you with deeper insight if you don’t do everything you can.
The opportunities that we have to do what we do are pretty cool. I’m not saying you have to go to every game, Brian, I’m not saying something like that. Maybe I should just speak for myself because I’m sounding a little pompous here. For me, it just was the best way to get information to deliver to the audience I was speaking to, and I really don’t know another way to do it. To me, it’s actually not a big deal whatsoever. It’s not. I love it. It gets me the information to share and it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. It’s pretty simple for me.
BN: What’s something you would’ve missed out on if you weren’t going out there in person?
DM: Well, I’ll give you the most fun one recently. I’ve been around the Nuggets, basically, every home game and practices and as much as I possibly could for two years. It’s not like I wasn’t going to Nuggets games prior to that, but for really, really covering the team, for two years. Because of that, I covered the most fascinating athlete in the world, Nikola Jokic.
You fast forward to the NBA Finals and they win. And there’s Jokic, just won, I’m sitting in the front row because I know what I’m going to ask him. They won on a Monday. The parade was scheduled for Thursday. I knew that. And I just had a sinking feeling that Jokic would have no idea about the parade, nor would he want to go to it. [Laughs]
So I said, hey, Nikola, are you looking forward to the parade? I very specifically left out the date of the parade. He turns around to the PR guy and goes, parade? When’s the parade? And the PR guy goes Thursday. He’s like, ugh, I have to go home. It was just so funny. That got a lot of views, I mean, millions of views. And then Thursday, he’s at the parade and he goes, remember when I said I don’t want to stay on parade, I f–king want to stay on parade.
BN: [Laughs]
DM: And the crowd goes nuts. I’m sitting there with my jaw dropped, because I know, in my own little way, I’m connected to this moment forever. The collection of the first video and the reaction, Brian, the last I counted, it was over 20 million views. I’ve never been part of anything sort of like that, even in the slightest way. I was on the air when 9/11 happened at KBPI. You don’t forget stuff like that. But in terms of just covering sports, to be connected to Jokic like that at a championship moment, for me, Brian, was pretty damn cool.
BN: That’s great, man. I’m just thinking about how you keep things positive. You get this news, you’re no longer at The Fan. It’d be like your girlfriend breaking up with you. You might feel a certain way about that. How do you shift things away from those negative feelings to more of a positive mindset?
DM: Well, first of all, I’m going full circular on the bicycle. Ride your bike around and go a little bit slower in life. You’ll see things. When I ride my bike and I’m on bike trails and I’m off the beaten path, off the main roads, there are, Brian, so many people worse off than me. It’s ridiculous. So who am I to feel sorry for myself? I see things because I ride my bike so much that, I don’t know, maybe other people miss. So how do I wake up? I mean, I’m healthy. I’ve got a wonderful wife. I’ve got two incredible boys.
In addition, Brian, I had a serious tragedy in my life. About a year and a half ago, my brother, Dr. Brady McKee, drowned. He had a tragic accident. My brother was unbelievable. He was Director of Radiology at the hospital that he was in. His wife, Andrea McKee, is an oncologist. Together, they were doing incredible research in terms of testing for lung cancer. They were brilliant people. The smartest people I knew.
He had a dock. He lived on a river and he was just working on his boat. The boat started to drift and the current of the river — it was in the spring — he just tried to haul the boat back. He got pulled off the dock and tragedy happened. He drowned. He didn’t pass away right away. It was horrible. He’s in a hospital for a week. They had to make a terrible decision. It was all that sort of stuff.
I think of my brother every day. We’re Irish twins, we’re less than a year apart. I’m June 22, he was June 13. So it’s kind of a combination of a couple of things, Brian. He left behind his gorgeous wife, Andrea, his two sons, which are almost identical in age to my two sons. When you just think about how it is for other people, and to think of my own brother’s family, what they’ve gone through in the past couple of years, what my parents have had to go through seeing one of their children pass away. Both of my parents, thank God, are both alive at 77 and 87 years of age. Sitting around feeling sorry for yourself, that just doesn’t cut the mustard.
I’m beyond lucky. It’s not like I was looking to get fired at all. I have plenty of emotions like I described to you, but one of them isn’t feeling sorry for myself. I have some anger that comes up, but it’s quickly squashed if I just look around and see what I have. So how do I have a positive attitude? My man, the sun came up. There’s good things in life. There’s more good people out there than bad people, no doubt about it. And I have had so much kindness come back to me. I feel lucky.
I hope I get settled on my feet. I can’t wait for my next adventure, but I’m not going to just sit around. I can’t be a hypocrite. If young people ask me, how do I start in this business? I’ve given this advice a million times; I say, just start doing it. How should I do this? I say, just start doing it. And you know what? Why am I any different? Just start doing it.
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.
