Carrington Harrison is someone I used to listen to just about every day when I was the General Sales Manager for Audacy in Kansas City and oversaw sales for 610 Sports and the Kansas City Royals radio broadcasts. Harrison, who has also hosted nationally with Infinity Sports Network and SiriusXM, is one of those people who was just meant to do what he does, which is to entertain and inform audiences with sports as a catalyst for the conversation. Since it had been about five years since I last heard him, I was excited to eavesdrop in on the Wednesday July 3 edition of The Drive on 610 Sports in Kansas City.
One thing about Harrison you will learn as you listen to him, he is a straight shooter. Not much beating around the bush with him. And that goes for serious and not so serious topics such as when he said this Wednesday show was really a Friday as they would be off on Thursday for the 4th of July and on Friday because as Harrison said, “nobody is going to be listening to the radio on Friday.”
With it being a holiday week in July, Harrison and producer Rob Brenton had some strong topics including playing off the Royals game the day before, which had a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay. Harrison asked the audience what the worst kind of game is to attend. The options were the long rain delay game like the day before, the thrilling, close, down to the wire game where your team loses in the end or a game where your team gets absolutely pummeled.
Brenton made a good point when he said that for two of the options, you can leave. However, the gut-wrenching close game loss, that’s the one you have to stick it out and then end up leaving with that horrible feeling.
Both guys ended up agreeing that traveling to see your team play and having them lose may be the worst and Harrison used a fairly recent example of traveling to Manhattan, Kansas to see Mizzou lose 40-12 in football to Kansas State in a driving rain.
Next, Harrison starts a conversation about how baseball really needs to own the holiday weekend much like the NBA used to have with Christmas and the NFL has with Thanksgiving. And while the baseball part could be figured out, the big thing Harrison is suggesting is that we ditch the ‘4th of July’ concept. Instead, he suggests we celebrate Independence Day like we do some other holidays where we choose an observance day.
“I’m going to give you guys a take that is going to sound controversial, but I assure you that it’s not,” Harrison said. “I think we should petition a way for Independence Day to always be on the first Thursday in July…I think it’s time to rebrand the holiday and just call it Independence Day…think that Thursday is, by far and away, the best day for us to have a holiday.”
Carrington goes on to describe the holiday as “Summer’s All-Star Break,” where we celebrate many things we love and said we need to wrap some baseball around the celebrating and that MLB needs to try some things, similar to what the NBA has done with the In-Season Tournament.
The Drive doesn’t stay on any one topic too long, and I also noted and appreciated that Harrison brings topics back for those that might be tuning in for the first time who did not hear the earlier segments.
Harrington set up the next topic by talking about some podcasts he listens to and then played a clip of something Bill Simmons recently said about NBA free agency on his show, specifically about Paul George. After the clip, Harrison said, “We are really unfair to athletes and hold them to one of the most unrealistic job standards.” His point was when most athletes leave college, they get drafted by a team and city they didn’t necessarily want to play for, they don’t get a choice like most people do. Harrison said if you leave somewhere for money or if you chase championships with a top team or if you stay loyal and don’t win, you get criticized whatever you choose.
At 3:15 p.m. Harrison does an NFL thought of the day feature. I love quick hits like these, such great opportunities for a client, especially when it is done daily at the same time. This feature talked about an ESPN 2025 NFL Mock Draft from Matt Miller. Harrison reviewed some of the names and threw out the topic of which of the three quarterbacks – Georgia’s Carson Beck, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders or Texas’ Quinn Ewers, is most likely to fall out of the top 10.
Harrington made a good point when he said, “Sanders has to go to the Raiders. If you are the Raiders, you have been waiting for this kind of prospect, this kind of player, this kind of buzz…You gotta go get Shedeur if you’re the Las Vegas Raiders, that’s one of your kind of prospects. Play with a little bit of flash, you’re in Sin City…”
Royals General Manager JJ Picollo had been a guest of the 610 Sports midday show, Cody & Gold, and Harrison played some of the audio of the conversation and mentioned where the listeners could find the full interview had they not heard it earlier.
Harrison and Brenton were having a lot of fun and moved around from topics such as whether or not Katy Perry’s Firework or Miley Cyrus’ Party In The USA was a better song, whether Hard Knocks had turned into the new Law & Order where it has several different versions and why the running back position can be where a team is cheap if the rest of the offense is solid.
When a topic was discussed, Harrison would go back to the main topics and continued to give his thoughts on what the worst type of game to attend is and also gave feedback on what was coming from the text line. Harrison was blown away that people had stayed through the long rain delay the night before but gave the Royals credit for giving ticket vouchers to those fans who stayed. Harrison was rather funny when he said the vouchers weren’t enough and that each fan should get to have a ten-minute conversation with the owner of the team for waiting out that long of a delay, “for a Tuesday regular season game against the Tampa Bay Rays,” Harrison said. “You know the thing about baseball is that there’s another game tomorrow and probably one the next day. There’s 162 regular season games.”
Harrison went back to the holiday discussion as well and the more he talked about it the more he hammered home his point that the first Thursday in July every year should be the day chosen to observe Independence Day. With most people off on Friday as well it makes for something great to look forward to every summer.
The Drive with Carrington Harrison is something many in Kansas City look forward to each afternoon. The host and producer have strong chemistry and Harrison will make you think and laugh. And no matter the topic, you will hear the passion in Carrington Harrison’s voice that lets you know he is doing what he is supposed to be doing and loving it.
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.
