A couple of years ago, 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh started making moves with its morning show that led them to where they are today. In May of 2022, Adam Crowley was named the producer of the show and in August of 2022, former NFL player Dorin Dickerson, who had worked for the station since 2017, was named a show co-host. About a year later in June 2023, the station announced show hosts Colin Dunlap and Chris Mack were out and Crowley and Dickerson would take over the show. With that version of the show about a year old, I thought it would be a good time to eavesdrop in on The Fan Morning Show.
Crowley and Dickerson are joined on the show by producer and update anchor Nicholas ‘Harry’ Callas and on this particular episode the show was celebrating Callas recently getting a promotion to being a full-time member of the staff. The show was planning a lunch together later in the day and one of the early topics that came up was about who would pay for the meal. The early interaction between the guys about this along with the technical difficulties they were having with Dickerson’s headsets gave you a pretty good indication of what you were in for over the course of the show.
As is the case sometimes with morning shows, sometimes the best stuff has nothing to do with the sports topics of the day, it is just whatever comes out of the hosts mouths when they first crack that microphone.
In this case, while the tech issues were being worked out, the guys hit on whether or not Callas would sweat through his shirt with no undershirt on, Callas’ plans to buy a $4,000 bus, Crowley asking for advice because his five-month-old baby was not sleeping well and whether or not Crowley used the word ‘solstice’ the day before.
For the record, he did use the word, despite being certain that he did not. Callas found the audio from the day before and played it and that is when the audience learned there was a $1,000 wager made on the issue. Turns out Callas was good with just having his lunch paid for that day, so that settled that discussion. Now, the headsets were working and with all of those quick topics out of the way it was time to talk some Pittsburgh sports.
The two hosts have no problems going back and forth on just about any sports topic or the inevitable life topics that come up. Both hosts are in their 30’s and have families while Callas is in his 20’s.
Dickerson’s football career began in western PA. He was a High School All American and Pennsylvania Player of the Year in 2005 at West Allegheny. He then moved on to play for the University of Pittsburgh and was a First-team All American tight end in 2009. Next came an opportunity to perform at the highest level, entering the NFL as a seventh-round draft pick of the Houston Texans in 2010. He also has worked on the Pitt radio team as an analyst and sideline reporter.
Crowley said the day before, Dickerson had posted his offer letters from high school on social media. “You tweeted out all of your offer letters yesterday, and I spent an embarrassing amount of time zooming in on all of these schools that offered you.”
This led to a discussion about Dickerson being recruited by Pete Carroll at USC and by Urban Meyer at Florida. “I will never forget Pete Carroll walking down the hallway…When he walked in, I was like wow,” Dickerson said. Crowley compared Carroll then to Nick Saban coming prior to his retirement. “Pete Carroll at that time transcended college football, he was a giant,” Crowley said.
This is why you want an athlete who has made it to the highest levels on your station. It was fun and insightful to hear Dickerson talk about his recruitment and about his reasoning behind why he chose to go to Pitt. “Best football decision I ever made in my life,” he said. He talked about making the decision that staying local would open doors for him in the future, something that has obviously paid off.
Crowley is passion personified. No matter the subject, it is clear he loves doing his job and trying to entertain and inform his audience. Half the battle sometimes to keeping an audience engaged is the passion with which you speak about the subject. Crowley has that on lock down. It is easy to get caught up in his passionate and aggressive takes at a lot of the topics of the day.
Even as they talk about the Pirates, who have lost about 60% of their games since 2000, Crowley does so with an energy that is infectious. This season, with the team hovering around .500 which puts them in the running for a Wild Card position, and the tremendous starting pitching they have had, there is actual hope, and you can tell the guys are happy they can talk about something different other than which star players the team will trade away next.
Crowley had mentioned a few times that, “It’s just the three of us today. No guests on the show, it is a Friday, and we are just having fun.”
The segments flowed well, and Crowley keeps it moving along. When they finish a segment, they go to a quick headlines report versus a full sports update and that generally led them to a live endorsement ad from one of the hosts.
On this day, the group spent an entire hour doing Pittsburgh Pirates report cards. Four different segments worth of throwing out player names, assigning them a letter grade and debating the merits of whatever grade they were given. If you were tuning in for heavy Pirates talk you got exactly what you were looking for. If you were not, you were out of luck.
There was some strong hockey talk in another segment as the Edmonton Oilers had evened the Stanley Cup Final series with the Florida Panthers at three games apiece after being down three games to none. “Let’s say they come back, and they win this series from down 3-0 to winning this thing, it is gonna be maybe the greatest postseason in the history of sports,” Crowley said. “And it would be the most legendary comeback in that sport’s history because of the guy who spearheaded it.” The hosts also kicked around the idea of Edmonton’s Connor McDavid winning the Conn Smythe trophy as the series MVP even if Edmonton doesn’t win.
A lot of Crowley’s takes are strong, he doesn’t waver on a lot of things while Dickerson seems to weigh both sides of a subject when he speaks. The two have developed really good chemistry and with Callas, sound like the proverbial buddies having a chat about sports.
They just as easily have a great conversation about the possibility of the NFL expanding its schedule to jumping over to which celebrities don’t seem to age and marveling at the likes of Selma Hayek and Marisa Tomei.
Dickerson again adds great perspective with the NFL schedule discussion. He said as a player he would not have been in favor of extending the regular season schedule. However, he did add, “I am ok with it now, I want more football. After the Super Bowl is kind of depressing. It gets more depressing now, because you are itching for it. If you extend it a little bit longer that takes away a little of the wait.”
Crowley added, “From our standpoint, from a talk radio standpoint our hot time of the year gets extended, so I like it. I used to be in the camp of less is more, not I am in the camp of more is more.”
The schedule talk was followed by another good discussion on the lengths of the seasons in other sports. About hockey’s season, Crowley said, “The Oilers and the Panthers will have played, literally, literally, their season is ten months long. From October all the way through June, are you kidding me? It’s absurd, that’s absurd.”
As they wrap up the week, a fun segment they do is called ‘Social Media’s Biggest Loser.’ While Matt Stafford’s wife, who admitted to dating the backup quarterback in college to get back at Stafford, was the winner, the hosts had more to say about another station in another market and what they were talking about.
Referring to a poll question he saw on social media from WIP in Philadelphia, Crowley said, “…We’re entertaining, we are having fun, we are enjoying a Friday. They are getting hot and heavy on Nick Sirianni’s sideline demeanor.”
“They’re just still irked that they got kicked out of the playoffs, they’re still mad about it,” Dickerson added. “Talk about the Phillies or something.”
“Thats right the Phillies are like the best team in baseball…and they gotta ask about Nick Sirianni acting a fool on the sideline? On June 21st? Who cares?”
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
