How Matt Abbatacola Reunited With Dan Bernstein on Unfiltered

The departure of Dan Bernstein from Chicago’s 670 The Score in March came as a shock to many in the sports radio industry. He served thirty years with the Chicago sports radio brand, including 17 on the highly successful Boers & Bernstein program alongside Terry Boers. Following his leave from the radio station, many debated what Bernstein’s next steps would be. Would he return on a crosstown rival or leave the industry altogether? Instead, he made a phone call to Matt Abbatacola. His former producer at 670 The Score, and asked about interest in creating a podcast together.

“I got a call from [Dan] Bernstein. He reached out to me and said, ‘I’m thinking of the idea of getting together a podcast. Is that something you’d be interested in doing?’” said Abbatacola. “I told Dan I’d absolutely be interested in doing something with you. I may have an avenue to do this.”

What Bernstein wasn’t aware of is that Abbatacola had met earlier in the day with John Goforth, the senior vice president and general manager of podcasts with Hubbard Radio. As luck would have it, the timing couldn’t have been better for both Bernstein and Abbatacola. Several months later, 312 Sports was born with both Bernstein and Abbatacola serving as its flagship podcast.

“When he [Bernstein] called me, you got to believe doing something together in media was the furthest thing from my mind. I thought he was just calling to catch up,” explained Abbatacola. “We had texted since everything had gone down [at 670 The Score]. I thought he just wanted to talk or needed someone to listen. When he sprung that on me, I was blown away.”

Abbatacola’s Departure From the Score

Abbatacola has his own story of departure with 670 The Score in Chicago. He served as the executive producer of the Boers & Bernstein Show from 2003 until the show’s finale in January 2017 following the retirement of Boers. Four months later, Abbatacola made his own decision to leave 670 The Score after being moved to an update anchor role and away from producing afternoon drive.

“It was a mix of a few things. Getting passed over for multiple hosting opportunities. That was the final one that happened,” explained Abbatacola. “At that moment I was done. I needed out, and didn’t know what the journey would look like. I needed to get out and get to a point where I was just a guy on a team doing a task and that was it.”

Abbatacola left media altogether to work on himself. He chose to completely tune out of anything sports-related for some time. Abbatacola said that he didn’t understand at the time that he needed to allow space to mourn the loss of the Boers & Bernstein program. It was a fixture of his daily life for over a decade. Without it he found himself in search of recognizing who he was.

He kept in contact with some of his contemporaries over the years. Abbatacola took on several sales positions with different companies over the past eight years. After being laid off from a position in January, thoughts began to surface about potentially finding a place in digital media.

“I always missed it,” said Abbatacola. “I had an opportunity to reevaluate where things are in life. It was something I always wanted to do. When it was kind of forced upon me to find something different to do, I started pursuing avenues of getting back into media.”

Creating ‘Dan Bernstein: Unfiltered’

Abbatacola found a post on LinkedIn from Goforth in March about a new podcast network being formed in the Chicago area. Leaning on his relationship with Goforth from working together at 670 The Score, Abbatacola arranged a meeting to pitch an idea for a podcast. Little did he know that Goforth already had an idea of his own.

“John [Goforth] went into that meeting with his own agenda about connecting me and Dan [Bernstein] with a podcast,” said Abbatacola. “After Dan called me, less than a week later the three of us got together with Keith Lawless [Hubbard Radio Market President].”

In August, Dan Bernstein: Unfiltered debuted with Abbatacola serving as his executive producer once again. The podcast became the flagship program for the new 312 Sports banner of Hubbard Broadcasting in Chicago, alongside a separate Chicago Bears–themed podcast called Forward Progress.

In crafting how the debut episode would be produced, Abbatacola and Bernstein agreed not to rehearse or script what was to be said. They leaned on a raw and uncut discussion about the happenings of the past six months for Bernstein, as well as the journey of Abbatacola since his departure from 670 The Score.

“There was no hesitation. There was no concern or fear of being honest and transparent. It’s not that we knew that we needed to be [transparent], we wanted to be,” explained Abbatacola. “There was talk about some practice runs and recording some things. It was like, absolutely not. The easiest part of getting 312 Sports off the ground is the actual content.”

Abbatacola credits Goforth with the concept and vision for the Unfiltered podcast. The goal is that whatever Dan Bernstein wants to share with the audience, he can. With no concerns about vision and content, Abbatacola said the transition to working together again was very easy.

“We haven’t had much interaction together since 2017. I didn’t have a ton of fill-in time with Dan [Bernstein] after Boers left,” noted Abbatacola. “From the first episode, it feels like we haven’t missed a beat. It’s very natural. We’re very comfortable together. We trust and support each other.”

With any new thing in life, there are challenges and an education surrounding it. Abbatacola says that while the content part is easy, the elements outside of cracking the microphone have proven to be the biggest challenge—especially in the all-digital world of content where everyone has a voice.

“Putting yourself out there and saying I know what I’m doing is good. I believe what I’m doing. I’m not going to care what people say about it,” said Abbatacola of his biggest challenge so far. “The biggest thing is not getting caught up in that world. That was a problem. Not on the same level as maybe other people experience. Making sure that I stick to that for myself is more important than anything.”

With 312 Sports, Matt Abbatacola is approaching the opportunity with a fresh perspective—reflective of mistakes of the past, but with newfound energy and excitement for what the future may become. Alongside Dan Bernstein, the duo has already made an imprint with hundreds of thousands of views and downloads in just the first couple of weeks.

For Abbatacola, it’s more than that. The encouragement and support he’s received from his family and friends have helped reinforce his decision to try again. After some time away, the reunion with Dan Bernstein at 312 Sports already feels like a moment of being in the right place at the right time.

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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.