What the Debut of ‘Wake Up Barstool’ Taught Talent About Preparation

I’ve always believed in the saying that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. It’s guided me my entire career. No one is ever truly lucky without preparing to meet the moment when the opportunity presents itself. In media, preparation is key to a successful broadcast. No talk radio host just leaps on the mic and holds the audience’s attention without some sort of prep. No matter how big or how small, you need to have something to talk about with depth, perspective, and clarity in your presentation. That wasn’t the case on Tuesday with the debut of Wake Up Barstool on FS1.

The new morning program on FS1, a partnership between FOX Sports and Barstool Sports, was a mystery since the announcement of the brands partnering. There was no word on exactly what the program would be or who would be hosting it until a week ago. Big Noon Kickoff cross-promoted the program heavily with Dave Portnoy’s appearances on the Saturday morning college football pregame. Still, there was plenty of mystery surrounding exactly what to expect.

While it’s unfair to judge a book by its cover, the debut episode taught lessons that everyone working in media should adhere to. If you don’t prepare, no amount of luck will save you from how the debut of Wake Up Barstool went on Tuesday.

As someone who has worked on morning shows and programmed stations with local morning talent, I understand the challenges of the daypart: the early wake-up calls, the late nights keeping up with content, and trying to balance an everyday lifestyle with the demands of an early morning commute.

It’s the single hardest daypart to host any type of programming on radio, television, or digital.

Preparation Is Everything

I looked forward to the debut of Wake Up Barstool because I wanted to see something different from the digital content behemoth that hasn’t been seen before. I wrote a column a week ago stating my three objectives for a successful Wake Up Barstool run. The first was to be different and stand out—be something unique to the platform that the show is being distributed on.

The debut fell short on this point in spite the digital views and traffic it recorded.

The show, hosted by Portnoy, Brandon Walker, Rico Bosco, and new Barstool Sports personality Jason Williams, lacked energy and direction, and it seemed as though the talent didn’t know what to talk about or where to go.

Portnoy often asked for the “behind the scenes” to be explained to him live on air—where to look for certain highlights of discussion or even if they could use the highlights to discuss. He also didn’t know how to properly tease into a break, which is something he’s never done on any of his current Barstool-branded podcasts or video shows.

Portnoy took a shot at FS1’s prior morning show, which drew no ratings. He also criticized his own graphics department for not having correct graphics created for cross-promoting other Barstool Sports podcasts.

Then there was a moment where Portnoy referenced a story by CBS News naming the outlet and mis-representing the story itself to fit a Michigan narrative.

It got out of sorts at one point, as Portnoy continued to ask questions about how things ran. Co-host Brandon Walker took a shot at him, saying at least he was at rehearsals all last week.

Who Stood Out

As for the contributions of the co-hosts, Walker stood out as the star of the debut, knowing how to fit time for highlights with short and concise discussion points. He was able to hit on the key major points when topics were identified, which wasn’t all the time.

Bosco was a target for Portnoy for the entire program, with many “inside baseball” Barstool references. If you didn’t know the Barstool brand, you would have found yourself lost in translation with most of the banter between Bosco and Portnoy.

As for Williams, he felt out of place for the entire program. The former NBA standout didn’t add much to the commentary and, in some cases, didn’t know much about the subject matter at all.

If being different and standing out was the goal, the Wake Up Barstool debut lacked in all facets. Say what you will about the success of Breakfast Ball in its short-lived history, but that program only had two days of rehearsals and was executed much more professionally on day one than what Wake Up Barstool put together on Tuesday morning.

The reason for the drastic difference: preparation.

So, how does the Barstool product rebound?

Every Day Is A New Day

The hardest lesson for any broadcaster to learn is how to break the model of what you’ve always known. It will take some time for podcasters to understand how to tease breaks and pay off the tease. There are any number of radio hosts turned podcasters who understand the struggles of unlearning everything you knew to adapt to what you have become.

Portnoy will learn from this debut episode. I don’t expect he’ll be asking the floor director about holding up two fingers going to break or asking on air if they can use highlights for discussion. One would assume there will be more pre-production meetings moving forward. The level of importance the FOX Sports partnership has to the Barstool Sports brand will help this.

Once the first couple of weeks of hosts are done with a few reps, stars will be revealed. Following Big Cat, T-Bob Hebert, Walker, and more get added time on air, there will be lineup changes. This will ensure the best people are being put in the best places to win.

The first episode of Wake Up Barstool left a lot to be desired. It was obvious that preparation wasn’t a focus. It was a swing and a miss, but the effort will improve.

There’s a lot of pride in how Barstool Sports frames its content. They pride themselves on being cutting-edge and ahead of the game, all while staying true to its brand. The good thing about morning programming is that there’s always another day and another opportunity.

If luck will have it, Barstool may indeed wake up.

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John Mamola

John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.