Gearing up to complete a 10K race often requires athletes to devise a strong gameplan that accounts for geographic terrain, environmental factors and other variables that could impact the final time. Runners who successfully cruise through the 6.2-mile haul usually spend time training and visualizing the contest in advance, and subsequently crossing the finish line can evoke feelings of accomplishment and progression. A mindset that can be adopted by challengers looking to subjugate associated intimidation involves splitting the heat into different portions, allowing participants to hone their focus on reaching benchmarks and potential acme. Those competing in team sports can equip similar methodologies during weight-lifting sessions, practices and games that diminish the occasional imponderability of realizing certain outcomes.
Deviating from most standard alignments around the country, 670 The Score broadcasts its weekday morning drive program for five hours. As a result, many sports fans in the Chicago metropolitan area can hear the latest news, information and opinions throughout their commutes and early workdays. Over the last several years, the audience has grown accustomed to David Haugh, a preeminent sports journalist and personality who has prevailed through a business facing generational headwinds.
Haugh joined the station in 2018 teaming with Mike Mulligan in morning drive. Their show has established itself as a popular offering within the marketplace. Balancing tradition, and innovation, the duo has been able to strike a resonant chord and cut through.
“This is where I feel like being a former athlete is really beneficial because there are times where you understand that it’s going to be a slog or it’s going to be a long day,” Haugh said. “You have to have the discipline to look at it not as a five-hour show, but as five one-hour shows – or if it’s five one-hour shows, then it’s three segments per hour. You know what matters? The next segment.”
Haugh retains the mindset of an athlete and prevents submission by refusing to forsake any broadcast time, venerating the platform he has the chance to occupy. Understanding the importance of audience expansion and brand affinity, he hypothesizes that some consumers may hear 20 minutes of the show, evincing a necessity to inform, entertain and concomitantly garner further patronage. Rather than broadcasting in a torpid, apathetic state, Haugh remains energized and is committed to executing the role with the verve and expertise that it merits.
“[You] don’t at 9:20 decide that that’s the segment you’re going to relax because it might be the only segment somebody hears,” Haugh explained. “That’s not the impression you want to leave for yourself, and that’s certainly not the impression you want to leave for your station, so you just have to kind of remind yourself on a regular basis that you’re invested for the whole time and you’re not there just to perform when you feel like you’re up to performing.”
Possessing a keen ability to delineate between essential and extraneous, Haugh can accurately discern salient topics and discussions that will appeal to the listeners. Quantitative data and qualitative observations play into these decisions, which tend to suggest that the Chicago Bears draw significant interest in the locale. Monday editions of the show during the NFL season are pseudonymously referred to as ‘Bear Mondays,’ emphasizing that a majority of discussion is based on the team and its recent results.
“What you do is you just have to understand the metrics, you balance it into, again, what’s being fair, and you don’t want to be so rigidly devoted to a certain team or a certain cause that you ignore some of the other realities and what people are talking about or ignore good stories because they’re not big on the metrics,” Haugh said. “It’s a balancing act, but I think that you do want to make sure you have fun along the way, so you don’t take things too seriously, and you certainly don’t want to take yourself too seriously.”
Haugh believes that he brings a measured approach to the daypart and regards that he is both purposeful and slightly sarcastic at times. Although he does not feel rigid in his hosting routine, he continues to work on embracing the flexibility to vacillate between different points of conversation. Haugh, who was a journalist at the Chicago Tribune for 17 years, feels that some aspects of his identity as a writer have translated to the airwaves, but that there exists a dichotomy in terms of message delivery. For the decade he penned its In the Wake of the News column, he surmises having to write 800 words a day, enabling latitude to meander or exhibit verbosity.
“Radio is a little bit different because I think that you have to get to the point,” Haugh said. “You’ve got a 12-minute segment or a 6-minute segment and you’ve got three callers on hold and a guest coming up, [so] you have to get to the point.”
Even though Haugh was granted the ability to opine and editorialize with the Chicago Tribune, he refused to abandon journalistic tenets. Being afforded the liberty to be critical required he have factual evidence to support contentions and maintain a professional approach, abstaining from rendering opprobrium personal in nature. In the end, Haugh ultimately sought to tell stories and speak for those who did not have a voice in certain situations, eliciting authenticity and certitude in his discourse.
“As a columnist, I never wanted to stop being a reporter, and that sometimes involves asking questions or chasing information that isn’t always easy or pleasant, but I do think that it was worth it,” Haugh said. “That’s the thing you want to be, and the other thing that you want to always remember is as you are kind of reporting or approaching it as a reporter [is] that you’re fair.”
Before joining 670 The Score in 2018, Haugh balanced his writing with co-hosting a local sports show, Kap & Haugh, that aired on WGN Plus and Comcast SportsNet Chicago. The radio program, which he co-hosted with David Kaplan, discussed the latest developments in sports around the marketplace from the perspective of two columnists. Even though it was an ephemeral venture, it accentuated the proliferation of multiplatform appeal and versatility as facets of the newspaper industry faced economic and technological impediments.
“For just about two years, we really had a show that I think we both were proud of, and we had a great time, and it was one of the most enjoyable parts of my career,” Haugh explained. “Those two years with Kap and doing both things and just really, really trying to help both my writing career at the time enhance the broadcasting portion, and they complemented each other really well.”
A similar setup persisted on 670 The Score upon joining the morning drive program with Mulligan, a former sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times. Haugh was continuing his work with the Chicago Tribune while co-hosting the radio show, which required a lifestyle change that he initially underestimated. Writing about night games and meeting a deadline while having to wake up at 3:15 a.m. to ensure he was fully prepared to host was an arduous task, but he executed it with aplomb for several years before stepping away from the newspaper in 2020.
“I don’t know if you ever get used to it, but you do learn to deal with it, and so the one thing I can say is that I had a great support system and an understanding boss in Mitch Rosen,” Haugh said. “This was something he wanted to do, he had a lot of belief in me, and I was surrounded by some great co-workers.”
Haugh surmises that he and Mulligan both think like experienced sportswriters, and they share an ability to depict the headlines. Readers of traditional newspapers may not be able to finish an entire sports section, making it essential to succinctly communicate the key points and advance the story. In holding similar news sensibilities, Haugh is able to connect with his co-host and contribute to an informative program that has carved a putative niche under this new masthead.
“I think a lot of radio shows can spend a lot of time on things that really don’t matter, and I like to think that hopefully part of our success is rooted in the idea that we tend to understand what does, especially in this market, and every market is specific to have its own kind of idiosyncrasies,” Haugh outlined, “but I think that Mully has been here longer than I have, but I’ve been here a long time, and so that combined experience gives us a sense of what’s important to Chicago sports fans and hopefully helps us keep our eye on the target.”
Two hours of the Mully & Haugh program has been simulcast on the Chicago Sports Network over the last month, providing consumers with another way to consume the show. This new regional sports network, which is owned by Standard Media, the Blackhawks, Bulls and White Sox, is available as a direct-to-consumer channel and also has carriage deals with DIRECTV and FuboTV. Instead of inveighing the platform launching upon the denouement of NBC Sports Chicago, Haugh has embraced the undertaking and considers the value proposition associated with the vertical.
“I think it’s important to us because it professionalizes us even more and expands our reach to people who are now being part of this new Chicago Sports Network, which [is] full of great people over there committed to making people care [and] serving the Chicago sports fans audience,” Haugh said, “and so from a Mully & Haugh perspective, it gives us more credibility because it reaches more people.”
Jason Coyle, the president of Chicago Sports Network and an experienced media executive, reached out to Haugh over the summer and asked him to be part of two new studio programs on the network. Even though Haugh described it as a “really ambitious pitch,” he concurred and has been acclimating to these programs since they began in early October. Throughout the week, he takes part in The Big Pro Football Show alongside Ruthie Polinsky and The Chicago Lead with Brooke Fletcher and Camron Smith where he drives the conversation and extrapolates his insights. Even though some topics overlap with the radio show, it is incumbent on Haugh to offer discerning acumen and avoid exhibiting oblivion.
“I’ve got to know five Chicago sports teams really well, and I would have to do that with or without television,” Haugh said, “so it’s a fairly easy to transition so far and we’re hopeful that the network continues to grow, but it’s possible because there’s some really committed, smart, intelligent people running that station.”
One of the reasons Haugh has explored new possibilities in the media business is his inherent sense of curiosity and his propensity for being challenged. Inquisitive to what will come next and its plausibility motivated to perceive his limitations and shift them far into the periphery. Whereas the duration of his workday can seem overwhelming, Haugh is grateful for these audiovisual platforms and considers his occupation to be satisfying.
“At this stage, I think that for me, success comes in being respected and being fair and being relevant in a sports media market that is not easy to navigate always,” Haugh said. “It can be a tough place to operate, and I want to continue to try to do that.”
As the Mully & Haugh show is nearing the halfway point of its seventh year on the air, Haugh has observed that no one associated with the program has succumbed to complacency or narcissism. On the contrary, everyone associated with the show has maintained attitudes premised on collaboration and congeniality that coalesce into an aggregate product tailored to the interests of the listeners. Everyone associated with the program also recognizes how fortunate they are to take part in the show on an esteemed sports talk radio station with experienced professionals and a dedicated fanbase. Haugh has an unwavering sense of gratitude towards his professional endeavors, and he aspires to deliver for those who have invested in him.
“I hope the Chicago Sports Network takes off and is successful in its own way,” Haugh said. “I want to continue to do the best job possible at The Score and reward a lot of loyalty that’s been shown to me from my bosses, and I think I’d like to ultimately achieve a work-life balance that might be a little bit more in line. [It is] difficult to achieve right now just because of the newness of it, but I’ll get there, and I think that’s everyone’s goal. You want to be able to enjoy the benefits of your work, and so I think I’m going to make that a bigger priority than maybe I have.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
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.
