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What a run baseball has been on lately. Viewership numbers have been up, mainly due to the major markets of New York (both teams) and Los Angeles being in the mix, but also because of some of the excitement happening and the stars of the game shining. When two of those stars, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees hit back-to-back home runs in Game 3 of the ALCS, it sure felt like the Cleveland Guardians were about to go down three games to none. Then, magic happened as Jhonkensy Noel crushed a game-tying two-run homer to send the game to extra innings where David Fry hit a walk off home run to cut the Yankees lead in the series to two games to one. I had to hear what that sounded like the next day on Cleveland sports talk radio, so I eavesdropped on The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima on 92.3 The Fan.
Carman has been with the station since its inception in 2011 when he hosted a Friday night football show and other weekend programming. In July 2015, Carman replaced Chuck Booms and moved into the morning drive slot with Kevin Kiley. That changed in February 2016 when Kiley and the station parted ways. Anthony Lima worked on an interim basis with Carman and then was named the permanent co-host in May 2016.
Carman has also done play-by-play, national work for what was then CBS Sports Radio, and he is a sports anchor on evening newscasts on Fox 8 News, a position he took on in 2022.
Andy Roth, who was the Program Director for the station at the time, said he wanted a local morning show led by two Ohio natives with a passion for Cleveland sports and they have delivered that and more over the last eight and a half years. The show has finished either No. 1 or No. 2 each year since 2017 in the Barrett Sports Media Top 20 Mid-Market Sports Radio Morning Show rankings.
There are fun shows to do and then there was this one, which had to be one of the most fun shows the hosts have ever done.
They kicked it off with audio clips from TBS and Brian Anderson’s calls of the Yankees home runs, followed by an abrupt music change for the Guardians home runs, culminating in Anderson exclaiming, “Fry to left field, it is a walk off home run, David Fry lights up the Cleveland night!”
The hosts were clapping and yelling and Carman declared, “We’re back in the series!” And from there, the hosts and anyone who interacted with them just simply let their emotions out and went an hour straight just simply winding down and talking about the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.
Carman summed it up when he said, “What a night! I went from feeling as bad as I’ve ever felt during a Cleveland sporting event….to one of the greatest things that I’ve ever seen at a Cleveland sporting event…I’ve sat there and seen a lot of crap and I can’t believe what I saw last night.” Later, Carman would say to the audience, “I hope you remember it forever. I know I will.”
There was plenty of analysis as well going on as the two would bounce back and forth between being fans who just witnessed one of the great wins of all time to being hosts who needed to also talk about what it means and what may or may not happen next.
Additionally, there was another major local sports topic as the City of Cleveland announced the Cleveland Browns would be leaving their stadium in the city of Cleveland and moving to a domed stadium in Brook Park, Ohio starting with the 2029 season. On any other day this would have been the top story and talked about most of the show.
I was impressed with how Carman handled it early in the show. In a complete veteran move, he would simply slip in every now and then a quick acknowledgement of the headline and then give the actual time or minutes until the time they were going to address it.
The hosts went back and forth giving some of their takes on the baseball game and the night itself from their vantage point as well as mixing in calls from listeners and getting their version from wherever they were watching the game. If you read my recent column on why I think sports stations need to take phone calls and you disagreed, go back and listen to this show and hear the emotion from the callers. When you hear a lifelong Cleveland baseball fan call in from Pennsylvania, who drove to the game with his son and then drove back after two hours of sleep to get to work it gives you chills and reminds you what sports and fandom is all about. Carman did a great job mixing in the right number of calls throughout the show.
They talked about the game from every angle imaginable. They talked about how neither team had really played their best baseball in the series and certainly the Guardians had won this game without playing their best. Lima said he was ready to talk about how boring the series had been wondering where the big moments and heroes were.
As they eventually shifted to Browns discussion, they again handled something well that can be pretty difficult. This is a political issue as most stadium situations become and you have to be careful how opinionated you get. So, in those cases it is best to present as much fact and sound from others and that is what they did hear. They played audio from the Cleveland Mayor, talked about how this is business and that for the most part everyone is going to get what they wanted whether they realize it now or not.
Later in the show, they would talk with the Mayor of Brook Park to get his side of the story. They also talked with their Browns insider, Daryl Ruiter.
As they presented the info, they went to the phones and one of the callers probably spoke for most of the city when he said, “I don’t think anyone woke up today wanting anyone to talk about the Browns, what have they done to deserve any airtime?” Carman then explained, “People are mad, they are mad at the Browns,” and he would later compare the environment around the Browns to that of a prison.
As the Browns flagship station, they have to talk about the team even though they are 1-5 and have a terrible situation at quarterback with millions invested in Deshaun Watson who is not meeting expectations to say the least. In fact, the topic became what happens if the Browns want to introduce the offense at the game because the very popular Nick Chubb is returning after working his way back from a major injury. That would mean they would have to introduce Watson which would undoubtedly get a very negative reaction.
Later in the show, Browns color analyst Nathan Zegura joined the show and wisely they talked about the Guardians at the beginning. He brought up the idea that perhaps the Browns can feed off the excitement from the Guardians after seeing you can beat the odds as the Browns would need to do in order to turn their season around. As a reminder, this show took place on Friday which was prior to the Yankees winning the next two games and ending the Guardians season.
In a rather funny ‘FML’ segment, which they say stands for ‘Fix My Life,’ they got into a beef Carman was having with the morning team at WFAN in New York. Both stations are owned by Audacy but that didn’t stop Jerry Recco from saying, in response to a Carman social post making fun of something they did on the air, “Get a life. Go enjoy your lousy life in Cleveland and complain about Cleveland sports. Leave me alone I don’t give a crap about you, I don’t know who you are, I don’t want to know who you are, eff off, leave me alone.”
Carman laughed it off and said he could respond but he already got what he was looking for knowing that he got Recco mad. Lima used the opportunity for some of his classic sarcasm as he went back at Recco and the New Yorkers.
It fit the show well. Listening to Carman and Lima was a great way to start a Friday morning, and I had no rooting interest in the game or series whatsoever. They were quick witted and fun, had more energy than they knew what to do with, had good use of audio clips and guests to support various topics and made a pretty long show feel like it went by in no time at all.
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.
