Doug Gottlieb has been hosting his afternoon drive radio program from his office at the University of Green Bay Wisconsin over the last several months. The rationale for being outside of a traditional radio studio is that he is taking on a unique venture within the sports media business in which he needs to balance two distinctive roles. This past May, Gottlieb was named the new head coach of the Green Bay Phoenix Division I men’s basketball team, actualizing an endeavor that he yearned to attain for many years.
In fact, he estimates to have been speaking with athletic directors for Division I head coaching jobs since 2008 and remembers his first genuine interview from the Final Four in San Antonio. The athletic director wanted to hire him for the job but suggested that he should be an assistant for a year. Shortly after the meeting, Gottlieb recognized the benefit to continue covering the college game for a media network instead of being in a pool among 5,000 assistant coaches.
Even though Gottlieb is approaching the new season with palpable excitement and anticipation, he comes without Division I head coaching experience. Over the years, he has been on the sidelines leading Team USA at the Maccabiah Games and runs Branch West Basketball, an Amateur Athletic Union program. His father, Bob Gottlieb, started the youth developmental basketball program and also served as the head coach of the Milwaukee Panthers men’s basketball team.
“Covering college basketball allows me to understand the landscape and learn from some of the best coaches in the country, and then when you’re a solo host, you have to be a great communicator, so everybody understands your thoughts,” Gottlieb said. “Well, that’s coaching, that’s recruiting, that’s selling people on your ideas and your dreams, and I think it kind of all works together.”
The arrangement, although it is being evaluated, is something that he feels benefits the school in the promotion it receives and the listeners receiving candid opinions from someone working as a coach on a daily basis. Moreover, FOX Sports Radio has benefitted in the listenership, evidenced by augmented consumption on radio and increased engagement on YouTube.
Being able to do this comes in maintaining a strong relationship with Don Martin and Scott Shapiro, both of whom oversee the national radio network managed by FOX Sports, Premiere Networks and iHeartMedia. Gottlieb respected everything Martin was doing working locally in Los Angeles on AM 570 LA Sports, and he had the chance to collaborate with Shapiro as a producer when guest hosting Mike & Mike on ESPN Radio.
The Green Bay Phoenix organization secured its first winning record in four seasons last year but has not played in the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament since 1996. As the Phoenix aspire to take part in March Madness, Gottlieb wants his team to exhibit chemistry, cohesiveness and commitment by adopting effective processes. Although there is no universal metric from which to adjudicate the overall success of radio programs, he wants listeners not to realize that there is anything going on outside of the show and discern his energy.
“I have a really, really young, inexperienced team, so I feel like we’re going to be damn good by the end of the year, and we’re building something, because I want to build a program to where I don’t have to, every year, fix it and rebuild it and tinker with it,” Gottlieb said. “I just want to add to [it] every season. With radio, it’s perception based. I just wish there was a scoreboard that [indicated], ‘Hey, we won today. We won the next day.’”
Having been a presence in sports media for over two decades, Gottlieb conveyed an overall advantage in being more familiar to the players. On top of that, he approximates having coached 1,000 games over the last four or five years and avers that the collegiate game more closely resembles AAU basketball than the NBA. That being said, he is cognizant of the inherent difficulties within the transition, but as it pertains to in-game reactions and communications, he feels comfortable and surmises many factors working in his favor.
“This has been a very, very fulfilling first three months, really emotionally fulfilling,” Gottlieb said. “I have no impostor syndrome, nothing. I feel like I was meant to do this, this is completely normal and exactly what I’ve always wanted, and I’m also not a complainer. You can’t say something’s your dream scenario, your dream job, and then you get [and] you’re like, ‘Yeah, well this sucks.’ Okay, but that’s the job.”
The challenge within this new arrangement is finding time for respite to safeguard against fatigue affecting his performance. Following a week in which he felt he outworked himself, he sat down with his basketball staff and radio producer. Gottlieb has an open-door policy in his office, but there were moments when people were entering too much during breaks.
As a result, he informed his staff to let him get through the three-hour show and enter if there is an emergency. Moreover, he and his radio producer altered their schedule to allow for a 30-minute buffer before recording the podcast and hosting the show. At this point, he feels that all parties have reached a destination at which they are satisfied with the overall situation.
“The great thing about it is I have a much clearer sense of schedule now than I even did then just because you get late-minute asks and ads for games when you’re doing radio and TV that you don’t get here, right?,” Gottlieb said. “I have my schedule, I know where I got to be and the only thing that can screw it up is the weather, and I’m more convinced than ever it’s going to work and work for me, work for FOX [and] definitely work for Green Bay.”
As an active head coach, Gottlieb presumes there is more resonance in his statements, but he recognizes that some of his opinions have been the subjects of controversy. Throughout his time on the air, he does not intentionally asseverate points for effect but has seen the impact his commentary can have nonetheless. Part of the reason Gottlieb has flourished at FOX Sports Radio, he hypothesizes, is because the network views the reactions to his statements as a strength.
“I’m not the first one to have said an opinion and not even the first one with the megaphone of media to have an opinion, but people do react to my opinions sometimes more negatively so than others, and I’m okay with that; I’m built for that,” Gottlieb said. “There can be times where it can feel negative and it can be a heavy weight on you, but for the most part, it’s when people stop reacting to interesting, kind of controversial takes if you will – that’s when you’re like, ‘Okay, my time here is done.’”
Following approximately a decade at ESPN where he helped launch its ESPNU vertical, began appearing on SportsCenter and hosted on radio in afternoon drive, Gottlieb moved to CBS Sports in a new, multifaceted role. Bringing his eponymous radio show to the network airwaves, along with partaking in coverage of March Madness and hosting a television show, titled Leadoff, with Allie LaForce provided him a variety of platforms through which to reach an audience. Yet in a position where he intended to have more time at home, taking on myriad enterprises is something he views as probably being a mistake.
“The thing that Scott Van Pelt told me, which is totally true, before I took the job was, ‘Hey, if you’re going to do a radio show and a TV show in the same day and then do something else, your brain will never be off of your shows,’” Gottlieb explained, “and that’s really what happened.”
Despite enjoying his time with CBS Sports, making the move to FOX Sports and FS1 granted him a more optimal schedule and the ability to reunite with former colleagues at ESPN. In addition to his afternoon radio program and basketball analysis, Gottlieb was also supposed to be part of a television show; however, those plans changed when FOX Sports president Jamie Horowitz was fired one month later. As he assimilated into FOX Sports Radio, he felt the trust that Shapiro had extended to him and became comfortable with his role.
“When you have a segment and you’re like, ‘That wasn’t great,’ it’s okay,” Gottlieb said. “He treats me with the proper amount of respect but also tutelage, so he knows he can call me on the carpet and he also knows when he can send me a little bit of tape that he likes, so we have a really kind of great relationship there.”
Gottlieb is introduced twice per show as the head coach of Green Bay, providing the program another avenue of promotion at the national level. As he executes both of these distinctive roles rooted in sports, he tries to stay focused on each day and getting through the first year. Compartmentalizing his jobs is essential in achieving the desired outcome, an understanding of which he attributes to personal growth. At the same time, he stays mindful of current events across professional and collegiate sports, which can make it difficult to disconnect completely. Interwoven in the fabric of these occupations is the ability to communicate, something that is key with his audience and team personnel.
“I do feel like being a communicator as a radio host and as a basketball analyst and even as a TV host, I think that prepares you for it – and also having teenage kids where they kind of explain to you what rizz is, what aura is, what all the current terms are – and you have to do that with your players as well,” Gottlieb said. “So, I think it makes you much more relatable to them because you understand what they’re talking about [and] what they’re going through.”
Gottlieb has been waiting to check off the box of serving as a Division I head coach for many years and is finally receiving the opportunity with a program striving for a championship. Rather than working in the role without serious intent or a will to win, he is approaching the job looking to foster a winning culture under his leadership while garnering persistent victories in radio. While he is ostensibly busier than ever, he is awaiting his first season on the bench as he guides his team towards success and remains an informative and entertaining listen in afternoon drive, driven by external incredulity and internal fervor.
“What motivates me though is also just kind of emotional fulfillment,” Gottlieb said. “It fulfills me, and COVID, personal life stuff, things have been hard, and this is the first time probably in the last four or five years or so that I’ve really felt [that] I got an intentionality with every day I wake up and a purpose, and I feel emotionally and mentally fulfilled.”
Derek Futterman is an associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, email Derek@BarrettMedia.com or find him on X @derekfutterman.
