If you look around the news/talk radio genre today, you’ll see plenty of former sports radio hosts and talent littered throughout the format.
The largest show in the news/talk radio format from a national standpoint — The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show — features a former sports talk radio host in Travis. At 77 WABC in New York, the morning show is helmed by Sid Rosenberg, a former sports talk radio host. Similarly, 1210 WPHT in Philadelphia’s morning show is helmed by Nick Kayal, who worked in sports radio in Atlanta and Nashville in addition to his time in the City of Brotherly Love.
700 WLW in Cincinnati just added former FOX Sports and Major League Baseball broadcaster Thom Brennaman as its new morning host. Elsewhere, KDKA Radio afternoon drive host Colin Dunlap moved from sister station 93.7 The Fan to take over the news/talk afternoon show. Gee Scott Sr. at KIRO Newsradio in Seattle previously hosted on sister station Seattle Sports 710. KCMO Talk Radio Program Director and morning host Pete Mundo — who was recently elevated to Vice President of News/Talk at Cumulus Media — is a former sports talk radio host.
Even in the digital space, hosts like Jason Whitlock — who worked at ESPN, FS1, and OutKick after a stellar career as a sports newspaper columnist before joining Glenn Beck’s The Blaze — helm politically-focused programming.
And that’s just the surface of those now finding themselves in the news/talk radio format.
In recent years, many news/talk radio program directors and brand managers have lamented the lack of proving grounds for new hosts, as many of the top talents in the format hit or inch closer to retirement ages.
But, clearly, the sports media industry has proven to be a place where those leaders can mine for the next talk radio stars.
Mundo told Barrett Media that he believes sports media has “absolutely” been an underutilized lane for talent development and scouting in the news/talk radio medium.
“Sports talk is basically a breeding ground for news/talk because I think there’s a lot of folks like myself that are waking up to the fact that there is not a bench in news/talk and there’s an oversaturation in sports talk,” Mundo stated. “So as long as you’re not forcing it — you have to do what you’re passionate about — but if your passion is at all leaning towards news or equal between news and sports, I would be leaning heavily into the news/talk side because it’s an aging format that desperately needs you.
“It did not do a good job over the last 20 years developing any kind of a bench and there’s so many guys trying to break through in sports and there’s not enough jobs for them. That’s just a fact. So I’m always looking at the sports side. And let’s be honest: the sports talk sound is a younger sound because there are a lot more younger people doing it. If you can take that sound and transition it into news/talk, that’s your next generation right there.”
The move is a logical one. Many aspects of sports talk radio translate naturally to other spoken word formats. Despite the changes in topics and subjects, the formatics are largely the same, leading to those shifting from one genre to the other to do so relatively seamlessly.
Sid Rosenberg noted that he wasn’t the first to go from sports to news, pointing to people like former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann — who had previously worked for sports outlets like ESPN before shifting his focus to politics — as someone who accomplished the feat first. He felt it was a natural shift for him.
“It was simple,” Rosenberg said of the move. “It’s easy because it’s the same thing. We replace the team that we love with the politician that we love or replace a team that we hate. I’m a Mets fan, and hate the Yankees. So now, you hate President Trump with the same fervor, the same passion that you hate the Islanders or the Yankees or the Jets. It’s the same thing. You go out of your way to protect your teams and your politicians, and at the same, you’ll find every excuse to bash them.
“So even though the stakes are much bigger than what I’m doing now, the truth is that, in terms of approach, whether it’s a team, a player or a politician, they’re eerily similar.”
Nick Kayal agreed with Rosenberg, sharing that he thinks the formats are so similar it made for a smooth transition for him when he joined 1210 WPHT in 2022.
“If those talents have the passion to do it — if they have the beliefs, values, ideologies, whatever you wanna call it — if you’re anywhere right of center on the political spectrum and you have a passion for it and you think you have something to say, and you can’t say it in sports or you can’t share it on social media because of cancel culture, (then news/talk radio is for you),” said Kayal.
“Because if you can do radio, I think you can do radio in any format. It’s interesting. I’ve seen how many guys over the years when I was a sports guy think they can do talk radio. Then they do it. In four hours a day, there is a lot of content to fill. But if you can fill content and you can fill up a daypart, I don’t think the subject matter really matters as long as you’re somewhat knowledgeable, you’re passionate, you’er opinionated, and you can be a bit entertaining.”
Rosenberg added that there was a bit of a stigma that accompanied his move from sports talk to news/talk. But he wasn’t afraid of the potential reputation hit that others believed might come with such a move.
“I say this not to come off as a jerk — and certainly not to not to criticize my sports talk colleagues, because a lot of those guys are tremendously talented — but I feel like when people ask me what happened, I say I grew up,” he said with a chuckle. “Or I graduated. Because I still love sports, and I still include sports. Every one of my morning shows at WABC has sports. Every one. and I’ve got guests three or four times a week. So I still love sports.”
He noted that the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 were the tipping point for him, saying that his boss at his sports talk station in South Florida expected him to simply talk about the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and NBA’s Miami Heat rather than talk about the attack.
“I said, ‘I can’t do it, man, I can’t do it,’ because at this point in my life, I’m in my 40s. I’ve got two kids. I’m every bit as worried, if not more worried about the future of this country or the world than about the Dolphins,” he admitted. “I just couldn’t do it. My priorities changed and sports became less important.”
When Colin Dunlap moved from 93.7 The Fan to KDKA in Pittsburgh, he admitted he was worried about how he would be viewed by the audience by coming over from sports to the polarized world of news/talk radio.
“I think that the discerning listener can understand — if they take enough of a sample size and give you enough of a chance of a listen — that, potentially, your opinion hits both sides of the mark if they give you enough time, and then they can’t pigeon hole you in,” he said. “I think that news, current events, and political callers are much more nasty because everybody in Pittsburgh roots for the Steelers. Not everybody in Pittsburgh roots for the governor. Half the people do and half the people don’t.”
He added that he went into the news/talk world by knowing that there would be some apprehension from his audience about whether or not he should be viewed as an authority on the subjects.
“To this day, you’ll still get somebody who says, ‘Stick to sports’ or ‘Go back to sports.’ You’ll never earn, in some people’s eyes, an opinion in a second field,” said Dunlap. “If the inverse would have happened, and I would have started in current events and then gone to sports, they’d say, ‘What does this political hack know about (Pittsburgh Steelers head coach) Mike Tomlin?
“I do think I’ve been welcomed in by the audience, and I think the numbers bear that out,” he concluded.
New 700 WLW host Thom Brennaman believes those moving from sports to news/talk have a natural advantage because of one aspect.
“I think from just a pure being on the air standpoint, if you’re are a sports guy — let’s say you’re a play-by-play guy — you are having to talk without any script, without any teleprompter, without anything, for hours at a time,” he said. “So I think you start off with a slight advantage in that regard.”
Brennaman did add that his shift from sports to news/talk was “forced” on him after his high-profile exit from FOX Sports in 2020 after hot mic incident that involved him being heard using an anti-gay slur.
Despite the shift from sports to news, both hosts we spoke with shared they still enjoy sports. Brennaman will continue his work as a play-by-play broadcaster for The CW after taking over the morning show on 700 WLW.
Rosenberg said there are definitely days he wishes he was only in the sports world, too. He pointed to events like the Super Bowl ass times he wishes he was still in the space.
“I just love the whole week,” he said. “Every time a Super Bowl comes along, I’m like, ‘I kind of wish I was in New Orleans.’ I kind of wish I was in the sports world. If it’s a big World Series game or when the Mets were playing the Dodgers in the NLCS last year, there were mornings I woke up and said, ‘Hey, I kind of wish I was talking more about the Mets.’ So 100% that is the case. But is it often? Absolutely not.”
Other hosts, however, shared that they don’t miss their time in the sports genre due to the ever-evolving news/talk genre.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
