If you look up ‘Veteran Sports Radio Hosts’ in a dictionary, there is, or at least should be, a picture of Nick Cellini and Chris Dimino. The two midday hosts at 680 The Fan in Atlanta have been at this for decades.
When some hosts get older, they tend to slow down, and you can tell they prepare less and they’re just collecting a check until someone taps them on the shoulder and retires them. Not these guys. As I eavesdropped in on an episode last week of Cellini and Dimino, I heard two veteran sports radio hosts still very much at the top of their game.
Nick, of course, followed in his brother Vince’s footsteps into the business and has worked on both the content and business ends of media in both radio and television. Dimino is a caller-turned-host who is a virtual encyclopedia of sports history.
The pair first worked together, along with Steak Shapiro, as part of the lineup at 790 The Zone, before being teamed up again with Dickey Broadcasting. In late July 2022, the duo announced they had signed four-year contract extensions, giving them at least a year and half still to go on those agreements.
Cellini and Dimino is one of those shows where I will simply say, if you want to hear how sports radio is supposed to sound, give this show a listen. Atlanta fans are fortunate to get not only the insights of two people who have been around the Atlanta sports market since Bill Clinton first took the oval office, but also their guest list.
As a great example of this, the episode I tuned into featured a visit with MLB Network analyst Mark DeRosa who spent the beginning of his career playing for the Braves. DeRosa is someone I have heard interviewed many times and he is always good, but with Cellini and Dimino he was just a bit better than usual.
One of the reasons for this was the questions being asked by the hosts and the other reason is because DeRosa was so comfortable and relaxed with them, he gave great answers. Whether they were talking about the posters he had on his wall as a kid (Don Mattingly and Farrah Fawcett) or breaking down what the Braves still need to do in the offseason, it was a conversation you enjoyed listening to, so much so you didn’t want it to end.
Atlanta had just hosted the college football championship game the previous night, so the hosts talked about Ohio State’s win and how Notre Dame played, with one of the main topics being the Irish going for a field goal when they were down by 16 points. Cellini and Dimino disagreed on the decision Irish head coach Marcus Freeman made, but both hosts defended their points well.
Dimino made a great point after they had played some sound from Freeman about that very decision. It would have been a 4th down and 9 and Freeman basically said he wasn’t confident in his offense getting the 9 yards in that situation. For Dimino, that was all he needed to hear. “We don’t need to wonder, the coach just told you the reasons for the decision.” Disagreement over.
Another topic from the game was about the emotions shown by ESPN broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit. Dimino said it was “strange” that after the game itself, Herbstreit was the second highest topic trending on X. Dimino agreed with those who think if the broadcasters are allegedly impartial, then you can’t have it both ways and it isn’t right to get emotional on national television about a game you are calling, or perhaps you shouldn’t have been calling that game and shouldn’t do broadcasts involving that team.
In wrapping up the college football talk and the breakdown of the night before, Cellini said, “This is going to be how it is now,” as he referenced Ohio State’s run and the losses they suffered along the way. Which may have not been an overly provocative statement, but as they went to break, that statement made me think for the first time that this IS how it will most likely be in college football. We may never see an undefeated college football team ever again, and if we do, they will have gone through a gauntlet to get there.
There were an impressive number of sponsored elements to the show including an ‘X Platform Question of the Day’ and solid segments such as ‘The Drive into the Red Zone’ where they caught you up on all of the latest news with the Falcons and the rest of the NFL.
Unlike most big cities, that ‘rest of the NFL’ part is important in Atlanta, where the population more than tripled in what seemed like no time. The point being many of the listeners are not from Atlanta and want more of the national perspective. With hosts like Cellini and Dimino, who aren’t originally from the area either, they understand the balance and have the knowledge to cover both the local and national stories.
I liked how they mixed in some gambling talk as they looked ahead to the NFL conference championship games. One future many missed out on was the Washington Commanders who had a 6.5 win total before the season and found themselves one game away from the Super Bowl. Cellini and Dimino talked about the difference Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels has made and how quickly things can change when the right player is brought in at that position.
The show makes you really think as a sports fan, but there were also some gems added in that made you laugh. As they talked about the NFC Championship, Dimino asked how banged up Jalen Hurts could be if the line is moving in favor of making the Eagles an even larger favorite. He then drops a great old school reference and says, “I don’t know if he’s on meds or if he’s being given the ‘Miyagi-treatment’ but moving 1.5 points means there are some people who still don’t believe in Washington and are thinking you can’t go to a Super Bowl with a rookie quarterback for a team and an organization that was 4-13.”
Later, when talking about the crowd at the college football game the night before, both hosts pointed out the only unifying part of the game came when one of the officials was announced as being from the SEC and all of fans booed. Domino would later add about the game being played at the home of the Falcons, “We saw something we don’t see that much there, asses in seats and people being excited about it.”
Cellini attended the game and is from Ohio, so he had a rooting interest in it. Like any ‘brothers’ would do, Dimino knew Cellini was feeling good about the win but didn’t want to him to get too high and mighty about it. At one point Dimino said, “This is you feeling good, celebrating like you played last night, that’s all.”
Both hosts did hit a bit of a wall, but the great part was they acknowledged it because like most people, they had been up late watching the game and taking in the aftermath. “I didn’t get a lot of sleep, man, I know you didn’t either – we’ll drag each other across the line,” Dimino told Cellini.
Another highlight was a ‘BTG’ segment which stands for ‘Beyond the Goatee’, a sponsored segment where Dimino riffs on all kinds of topics. In this case there were music topics relating to the remake of the song Africa by Weezer and a Whitesnake remake. Other topics included whether or not someone should be arrested for charging $400 to park to attend the Ohio State-Notre Dame game, Cowboy movies, Funko Pops being made based on old John Hughes movies and more.
Cellini and Dimino delivers solid, smart and fun sports talk radio. Just as Nick Cellini and Chris Dimino have done for many, many years.
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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.
