When Sandy Penner sits down to watch a game on television in his Philadelphia area home, the juices are flowing in more ways than one. He’s watching one of his beloved favorite teams so he wants them to win, but sometimes something will happen in a game that will take him back to when he was in the sports radio business.
“Oh God…I say it to my wife all the time sitting and watching the game,” said Penner. “I gotta tell you something if I was on the air, I would be freaking out tomorrow. I’d be ripping them and everything like that. That really just kind of want to let loose thing is still there.”
That loose thing was part of Penner’s past when he was a sports radio host in Albany from 1993 to 1996. Then it was off to CBS Sportsline in Florida from 1996 to 1997 when he arrived at WFNZ in Charlotte. In 2000, Penner moved on to WDAE in Tampa before ultimately returning to WFNZ in 2004.
Penner returned home to the Philadelphia area in 2006, but he really enjoyed calling Charlotte and Tampa home.
“I liked Tampa and Charlotte very much,” said Penner. “They’ve really gotten way bigger as sports cities now than they were when I was there. I still have an affinity for the teams and the people there, even though I’m Philadelphia through and through.”
After doing part time radio work, including WPEN 950AM, late nights on WIP and some shows for Sirius XM NBA Radio, Penner decided it was time for a change and would have to leave the sports radio industry.
“It wasn’t going to be sustainable unless I was going to be able to sustain it full-time,” said Penner, who graduated from the University of Syracuse in 1990.
Penner decided to invest in his own business and opened up a couple of franchise sandwich shops before selling the business in 2019. He then went to work at his current job as a talent acquisition manager at “First Student,” the largest school bus transportation company in North America.
While he’s no longer in sports radio, he does think about it all the time.
“While I’m not listening to it 24 hours a day, I still follow sports very closely and I know what’s going on,” said Penner. “It was a big part of my life and something I thought I would do forever but sometimes things don’t always work out.”
After leaving sports radio, Penner did have thoughts about somehow dipping his toes back into the industry in some way, shape or form. He thought about doing a podcast but wasn’t sure he would have been able to put the right amount of time and effort into it given that he has a full-time job and a family.
With not enough hours in the day, it just wasn’t feasible but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the itch to talk about sports.
“I don’t think it’s something that I’ll ever not think about,” said Penner. “It was a great time of my life, and I really enjoyed it.”
Although he doesn’t listen to sports radio all day long, he does pay close enough attention to the industry to know that the business has evolved. Sports radio is no longer just about turning on the microphone and talking on the radio. The industry has grown to the point where there’s a digital element to working in sports radio and there’s also the aforementioned opportunities that exist for those who want to get in the business by doing a podcast or YouTube show.
In Penner’s mind, the industry has changed and changed for the better because there are now more ways for young broadcasters to break into the business.
“There weren’t that many opportunities when I was moving around,” said Penner. “There was not the ability to paint your own future. You had to go where the job was. With the explosion of the way people can get in touch with you, talk to you all the different platforms. I think it has evolved in a positive way. In a lot of ways, it’s opened up possibilities for people who probably just would have gotten shut out.”
Sandy Penner enjoyed tremendous success in sports radio, and it was only because of circumstances that he left the business. He’s still a huge sports fan and still pays close attention to the sports radio industry. He’s got a lot on his plate these days with a family and a great job, but those sports radio juices continue to flow through his body.
Perhaps, one day, there will be an opportunity for him to get pulled back in.
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.
