Sometimes you just know. There are times in life when you just have a feeling that someone is going to be something special. For me, that moment was in 2012 while covering the Super Bowl in New Orleans when a young aspiring broadcaster asked me to stop by and sit down with him for an internet television interview. That young man was CBS Sports Radio’s Zach Gelb who was in high school at the time but sounded like a seasoned pro doing interviews on Radio Row that year.
And now, fast forward to 2023 and Zach has been promoted to afternoon drive hosting on CBS Sports Radio from 3 PM to 6 PM ET.
“I was thrilled,” said Gelb who had been hosting the 6 PM to 10 PM slot. “I was ready for a new opportunity to move up on the network so when all the changes did go down and I knew 3 to 6 was going to be open, I had that in my mindset that I was going to get the job and they went through the search and they thought I was the best person for the job.”
At the age of 29, Zach Gelb has accomplished a lot in sports radio.
After graduating from Temple University in 2016, Gelb was hired as Program Director and host for Fox Sports Radio 920 in New Jersey. From there, he went on to host the Philadelphia Eagles postgame show for 97.5 The Fanatic in 2017 and then a year later joined CBS Sports Radio as their weekend overnight host. In 2019, he made a brief stop at Sirius XM hosting on Mad Dog Radio and NFL Radio before returning to CBS Sports Radio in 2020.
Aside from his new show being one hour less than his evening show, it will be business as usual for Gelb who has maintained the same philosophy of hosting since he started doing this.
“I’ve always approached — regardless of what the time slot is — as if it was the dream job whether it was morning drive or afternoon drive on a major radio station,” said Gelb. “Not much is really going to change in terms of the way that I approach it from an individual perspective.”
Gelb was 8 years old when he first got the itch to be a sports radio host. His father, long-time WFAN producer and salesperson Bob Gelb, took him to work at The Fan in New York one day, and the rest is history. He sat in that day with veteran hosts like Sid Rosenberg, Joe Benigno, and Jody McDonald and would also eventually be around the likes of Mike Francesa, Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, and legendary former WFAN producer Ray Martel, who is now at WCBS 880 in New York.
At first, his father was hesitant to give a thumbs up to Zach getting into sports radio.
“When I told him that I wanted to do this way back, he was like ‘Don’t do it’,” said Gelb. “’Don’t get involved in this business’, and I think that was his way of trying to protect me sometimes from the nasty side of this business and knowing that there could be a stress-free way of living and maybe doing something that could potentially make more money.”
But once Zach Gelb started to get his feet wet, his father realized that he was really good at it so he started to work with him on his craft. Gelb also learned from people like iconic Philadelphia hosts Angelo Cataldi and Howard Eskin along with WFAN’s Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton.
But it was his father who enlightened him about the business side of radio.
“He was a producer and then was a salesperson,” said Gelb. “It really gave me an appreciation to the people behind the scenes. I sometimes know that on-air talent doesn’t always treat the people behind the scenes the right way. That will never be me just because of the way that sometimes I’ve seen behind-the-scenes people get mistreated.”
Gelb has learned about the business from a lot of people along the way and has taken that advice to mold himself into the sports talk show host that he is today. Soaking it all in was something that he learned from former WFAN and CBS Sports Radio Program Director Eric Spitz who is now at Sirius XM.
What did Spitz tell him?
“Radio is like a textbook and it’s free to rent out and it’s free to listen to,” said Gelb. “I’ve learned so much by listening throughout the years that I think sometimes when you tune in to me, you hear a blend of maybe all those people I learned from and listened to but then I put my own creative spin on it.”
And Zach Gelb continues to move up the sports radio ladder at a meteoric pace. The dream started at 8 years old and now he’s residing in a highly sought-after piece of sports radio real estate.
Mission accomplished?
“I would never say mission accomplished this early in my career because I never would want to get complacent,” said Gelb. “Hopefully I still have a long run at this and I don’t take any day for granted.”
The run started as a dream at 8 years old and now it’s a dream come true for Zach Gelb.
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.
