After a long run in Washington, DC, Steve Czaban made the move in May 2019 to host the morning show on 97.3 The Game in Milwaukee. Being part of the Milwaukee/Wisconsin market was nothing new to Czaban as he held down a 30 to 45-minute feature on “Bob and Brian”, the number one FM show in the market for almost a quarter of a century.
The show became so successful that Czaban signed a contract extension in April of 2022 and the show continues to soar.
“The show has gone great,” said Czaban. “We’re double the nearest sports radio competitor in town and we’re top five in the target demographic of men 25-54. I really have been loving it. It’s the best group of guys and just vibe that I’ve had a sports radio station pretty much in my career. It’s been a very good situation for me.”
It’s not easy for a talk show host to transition to another market because you really have to have intimate knowledge on the teams, the players, and the fans in a town in order to have a fighting chance to be successful. When Czaban made the move from DC to Milwaukee, the experience of dabbling in the market certainly helped him to talk about everything Packers, Bucks, Brewers, and Wisconsin sports, but it’s not something that comes easy.
In fact, he wonders how other people can do it.
“I didn’t go into it cold,” said Czaban. “I think if anyone in our business goes into a market cold, I don’t know how you do it because you just have to have a certain base of historic knowledge of this player, this team, this game, this moment and this incident to call upon to at least be fluent in the language of the local sports market.”
So, in order to have that fluency in a new market, you have to literally channel your inner Rodney Dangerfield and go “Back to School” and that means doing your homework to get you ready for your new gig. You don’t just bag your bags, move to a new city, turn on the microphone, and talk about the teams in town without knowing what you’re talking about.
Steve Czaban says there is a textbook for what to do, but it’s certainly a challenge.
“The advice would be if you’re a host and you’re entering a new market and you don’t really have any connection or history, then I would absolutely do a cram session,” said Czaban. “Every night, flashcards, reading everything, watching YouTube highlights, and at least for the first six months if now a year, make sure to tread lightly because there’s a good chance you’re going to walk into a rake if you start talking about ‘They should never have traded so and so’, well, there’s more to it.”
Czaban has spent his career trying to help young talent break into the industry and grow. He’s had a knack for bringing new people along and educating them on the business and the highs and lows that come with it.
Sort of like a head coach developing quality assists who go on to become head coaches themselves.
“I don’t know what kind of a coaching tree I have,” said Czaban. “But I do make sure to try to explain to the younger people around me like my producers and what not because I’ve seen so much in the industry. I’ve seen some really messed up stuff but I’ve seen good stuff as well and I’ve seen good stories. I just try to lend that perspective of having been in the circus for 30-plus years.”
Many of those years were spent as a host in Washington DC, Czaban certainly spent a lot of time talking about Washington Redskins/Football Team/Commanders owner Dan Snyder had his part in the fall of the once-proud franchise. He still has his finger on the pulse of what’s going on in DC and how the sale of the team from Snyder to a group owned by Josh Harris had an effect on sports radio in Washington
Czaban says the sale and the fan reaction had a huge positive impact.
“They definitely had a surge,” said Czaban. “I was very happy for everybody still on the air doing sports radio day to day at seeing the bad man run out of town who wrecked the franchise, lost the team, name, logo, and soon-to-be history that he was finally gone. I think it was definitely good but now with the Commanders being so bad, there’s hope with a new owner but there’s a lot of cleaning out that has to be done first. I think the guys on sports radio are going to be very busy this next year or two.”
Transitioning to full-time hosting duties in Milwaukee a few years ago, Czaban saw the Aaron Rodgers era with the Packers wind down. After the Packers traded Rodgers to the Jets this past off-season, the keys to the offense were transferred over to Jordan Love. While there were some growing pains inside Lambeau Field at the start of the season, the Packers have rebounded.
Not everyone in town thought it was going to happen and some host’s patience ran thin…but not Czaban. He had gone through too many lost seasons in Washington to realize that you just can’t throw in the towel until a season is done.
“There were guys on my show and on other shows (when the Packers were) at 2-5 they were like ‘Season is over, they’re going nowhere’ and they were even talking about draft position,” said Czaban. “I was the only guy saying whoa the season can be over when it’s over. We have all the time in the world for that but it’s not over now. Now, I kind of look pretty smart.”
Steve Czaban also looks very intelligent for being able to do something that not many people in the sports radio industry can do. He was successful in one market for a very long time and has made the transition to a new market and is, once again, having success with a tremendous sports talk show.
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.
