In the span of just a few days, the Boston sports scene bid farewell to a truly dynamic broadcasting duo – two of the region’s most recognizable, beloved, and revered voices.
After 43 years, Mike Gorman is stepping down as the lead play-by-play announcer for the Boston Celtics on NBC Sports Boston. Similarly, after a nearly two decade run, Jack Edwards is leaving his post as Boston Bruins’ play-by-play announcer on NESN. Both men will end their runs after the Celtics’ and Bruins’ local playoff telecasts.
These two Boston icons could not be more diverse in personas – the staid, understated, and even-keeled Gorman, and the brash, feisty, and hot-tempered Edwards. While both of these men have forever planted their flags firmly in Boston media soil, their respective reaches went beyond New England.
Gorman, 76, is a Dorchester, MA native. He began his career at WNBH in New Bedford, MA. He also worked for WPRI in Providence, RI, the PRISM Network, and for NBC covering the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
The multi-Emmy award winner was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004 and received the 2021 Curt Gowdy Award and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
Edwards, 67, was born in Evanston, IL and raised in Durham, NH. The University of New Hampshire grad got his first media gig as a morning news producer and reporter at WGIR-AM Radio in Manchester, NH.
He also worked at WMUR-TV in Manchester, WJAR-TV in Providence, WCVB, WHDH, and WRKO radio in Boston, ESPN, and ABC. He did play-by-play for 2002 World Cup and 1995-2002 Little League World Series and won a 1991 Emmy for Sports Reporting at ESPN.
Gorman was essentially the first ever TV voice of Big East Conference college basketball. Handpicked by Commissioner Dave Gavitt, his smooth tones signaled the dawn of one of the most successful and memorable college hoops conferences in the history of the game.
In the early 1980s it was Gorman‘s voice that became synonymous with amazing players like Patrick Ewing of Georgetown, Chris Mullin of St. Johns, Pearl Washington of Syracuse, Ed Pinckney of Villanova, and many others. Edwards, meanwhile, was an excellent SportsCenter anchor at ESPN fitting into the clever, slick, and sarcastic style of people like Rich Eisen, Kenny Mayne, Stuart Scott, and Craig Kilborn.
In their Boston broadcast booths, both men fostered unmistakable catchphrases that set them apart from the crowd. Gorman’s signature “Got it!” when a Celtics’ player hit a big shot will reverberate in Beantown forever, while Edwards’ “in your face” and “juicy rebound” will elicit smiles for years to come.
More than just broadcasters, Gorman and Edwards were as Boston as a lack of parking and bar hopping on Boylston Street. They were not just welcomed into viewers’ living rooms. They were actually a part of the living room, like a time-worn recliner or a coffee table ingrained with bottom of the glass stains.
Both men also enjoyed epic runs with longtime color analysts. Most recently, Gorman was working with Brian Scalabrine, but for 39 years, he cultivated one of sports’ longest running broadcast teams alongside Basketball Hall of Famer Tom Heinsohn who passed away in 2020.
Heinsohn was as demonstrative, loud, and boisterous as Gorman is serene, tranquil, and halcyon. Still, the pair flourished together. Gorman tells a story of how he had prepared voluminous game notes for his first broadcast with Heinsohn. Before the opening tip, Heinsohn grabbed the notes, tore them up, and threw them into the Boston garden ether. As Gorman relates, Heinsohn wanted the pair to talk about what they saw on the court, not on a piece of paper.
Edwards’ NESN partner, former NHL player Andy Brickley, is one of the best hockey color analysts not only in Boston, but on the national scene as well. The pair worked in smooth synchronicity like a center and winger on the ice. Edwards was unafraid to criticize, bristle, and chastise opposing players while Brickley reeled things in knowing the game inside, outside, over, under, through, and any other preposition you can choose.
Like any good play-by-play and color analyst team, Gorman and Heinsohn and Edwards and Brickley complemented each other tremendously. Use whatever comparison you want, the Yin and Yang, words and music, or peanut butter and jelly. Although with Edwards, there may have been a little bit of Fluffernutter in there as well.
Many would say that it is easier to create a lasting broadcast presence locally than nationally. I beg to differ. In fact, it is even more difficult especially in four sport, hardscrabble, gritty, and often pessimistic cities like Boston, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia.
Both Edwards and Gorman had pretty impressive predecessors. Men like Bob Wilson, Fred Cusick, Dale Arnold, and others graced the Boston Garden calling Bruins games. Similarly, the likes of Len Berman, Roger Twibell, Bob Cousy, Glenn Ordway, and others called Celtics hoops over the years.
It takes longevity, work, talent, and time to create the legends that are Mike Gorman and Jack Edwards. I had the pleasure of interviewing both men on a number of occasions over the years and talking to them off air was no different than listening to them on air.
Gorman is the epitome of class and cooperation – extremely conversational and wonderful in sharing an open exchange of thoughts. Edwards is a bit more of a wild child – ultra candid, unapologetic, and willing to go places others would not dare tread.
Gorman perfectly balanced his role as narrator, pace setter, and straight man for the explosive personalities of Heinsohn and Scalabrine. I once asked him about his style and he answered, “I try to be non-intrusive, hopefully adding to the viewing experience without interrupting it. A little humor every now and then helps, and knowing when to be quiet is all important. Play-by-play is supposed to be spontaneous, not planned.”
When Edwards took over full-time duties as the Bruins’ TV voice on NESN in 2007, I asked him the same question, and he replied, “The model play-by-play guy is very vanilla. I’m a Heath bar crunch sundae. I am good at getting the facts, but I always try to convey something on another level, and that has gotten me into a lot of hot water. I am intense. My job is to identify the drama in a game and relate it to the viewer.”
Amen to both. Edwards’ perch high above rink side and Gorman’s courtside seat will be filled by young broadcasters who will stake their claims and establish their legacies, but they will never be Mike Gorman or Jack Edwards, two men whose styles, while different, were similarly captivating.
And while they will no longer sidle up to the microphone or slap on the headset, their echoes live. Old broadcasters never truly go away. Their voices remain in the sports’ consciousness, like a Larry Bird jump shot, a Bobby Orr goal, or remnants of cigar smoke wafting through the Boston Garden rafters.
As the sun takes its respite on the East Coast, Mark DeRosa is wide awake and locked in on the slate of Major League Baseball games across the country. There are usually no more than 15 games occurring on a given night, and he makes sure to select two or three contests on which to place extra emphasis and scrutinize ahead of MLB Central the next morning.
Once the clock strikes around 10 p.m. EST, he is on the phone with members of the production team at MLB Network to share his observations and deliberate potential topics. In addition to preparing for conversations with MLB Central co-hosts Lauren Shehadi and Robert Flores for the next morning, he also works to compile a nuanced, precise breakdown. Reaching the final product that airs on television in front of the display in Studio 21, however, takes collaboration and synergy from several different departments.
The breakdowns DeRosa presents are not always centered on clear highlights, but rather the granular details that affect causation with the potential to shift an outcome. In combining quantitative and qualitative means of study, he has established a reputation as a sharp baseball luminary with a production mindset.
“I always feel like my breakdowns and my analysis to be deeper than what you’re going to get in a highlight package,” DeRosa said. “There might be a pitch in the fourth inning that didn’t get called. There might be a stolen base in the fifth inning that no one saw that doesn’t show up necessarily in the box scores or plays that don’t show up necessarily in the box scores that I know have massive effects on the way the manager manages the rest of the game [and] the way the players attack the rest of the inning, so that’s how I try and approach it.”
DeRosa played college baseball at the University of Pennsylvania before embarking on a 15-year MLB career. The journey across the big leagues took him to various organizations, including the Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers and Chicago Cubs, and firmly entrenched at a confluence of varying approaches tailored towards a common broad end goal. Communicating with perennial All-Star sluggers such as Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols and Michael Young added and refined his philosophy on hitting. DeRosa aims to convey these esoteric principles to viewers of MLB Central as he dissects the game.
“I just try and take you inside the mind of the great players,” DeRosa said. “I was a role player for a long time in my career, and I sat on the bench and had a firsthand experience with Hall of Fame pitchers and Hall of Fame managers and just kind of picked their brains throughout the course of the early parts of my career to try and formulate a plan and understand what they were thinking.”
When MLB Network revealed that it was going to be debuting a daily morning show on its airwaves, DeRosa was not sure how the logistics of such an endeavor were going to work. Matt Vasgersian had experience in the timeslot working as a co-host on Hot Stove during the offseason, which in turn allowed DeRosa to feel that he could stick to his baseball analysis in its early stages.
“When that red light’s on, I’m no different than when it comes off,” DeRosa said. “Everyone who’s ever played with me knows that. My heart’s in the right place; I’m not jealous; I’m proud of my career.”
Lauren Shehadi Rises Through the Ranks
From the onset of MLB Central, DeRosa has worked alongside Lauren Shehadi and observed her deft knowledge and professionalism. Shehadi remembers being present at Oriole Park at Camden Yards when Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking the historic games-played streak of Lou Gehrig. A 20-minute standing ovation and significance of the feat catalyzed her to find a way to stay around the sport in perpetuity.
In order to pursue her dream, Shehadi attended the University of Florida and immediately began to hone her craft. While attending school, she worked as an overnight editor at Suncoast News Network and also had production responsibilities, including listing birthdays and the winning lottery numbers. During her formative years in the business, she accidentally gave the wrong person a $250 lottery winning, an aberration that caused her to think she was not cut out for the role. Despite the blunder, Shehadi persisted and worked with the outlet’s sports director to create content for her demo reel, which she then sent to hundreds of broadcast outlets around the country.
“It’s so interesting because I was a waitress when I was young, and I always feel like you need to be a waitress to understand how to be a good guest at a restaurant,” Shehadi said. “You have to know what that waitress or waiter is doing and what they’re going through to understand how to be a kind guest at a restaurant. I feel the same way in television production.”
Working as a co-host on MLB Central is a role Shehadi considers a labor of love, but it took repetitions and a willingness to improve to be considered for such an opportunity. Despite being nervous to relocate to Minot, N.D. to begin her job at KXMC-TV, the outlet’s news director, Jim Olson, turned out to be an invaluable mentor. He helped her inject personality into the newscast while keeping the stories focused on the subject matter.
As a weekend sports anchor and weekday sports reporter, Shehadi would travel to capture footage from local sporting events and bring it back to the station. There was one instance when she carried her camera into Saskatchewan, Canada to film a junior varsity ice hockey game and then drove back, always ensuring her station wagon was fueled.
“You had to fill up your sole tank of gas because it was that cold,” Shehadi recalled. “If your car stalled out, you’d die of hypothermia, so you had to have full gas wherever you went. You had to be aware [and] you had to plug in your car at night.”
As Shehadi became more experienced in the industry, she cultivated versatility and built her skillset across different platforms of dissemination. While working for CBS Sports as a contributor to its website and college sports network, she learned how to convey information in a compendious manner and express her opinions.
From there, Shehadi secured an audition for MLB Network and perceived that she did not know as much about the game as was necessary. Because of this, she safeguarded against oblivion and studied every player, manager and ballpark around the league. In developing this erudition, she also combatted initial apprehension about speaking while listening to a talkback feed in her ear during a show.
“Why is Freddie Freeman so good at the plate? Because he’s able to slow the moment down,” Shehadi said, “and I think as broadcasters, that’s what you try to do. I think in my early years at MLB Network, I wasn’t able to [do that], and I work on it every day still.”
Courtesy of MLB Network
Displaying propensity and intelligence for baseball is not only achieved by accruing knowledge, but also a cognizance of when to ask questions. Shehadi considers herself a casual baseball fan and contributes to an environment that encourages open conversation and dialogue.
When former first baseman Carlos Peña referenced high-probability swings during his analysis, she thought she knew what it meant but was not entirely certain. Since she played softball and studied the game, she assumed that there could be someone watching from afar who may not know as well. As a result, she decided to ask Peña to confirm what entailed the concept he was discussing.
“I was just literally crossing my fingers in hopes that I wouldn’t end up on YouTube where it’s, ‘See, this girl that hosts a baseball show doesn’t know what this is,’ and he said, ‘You know, it’s a good question,’” Shehadi recalled. “I thought, ‘Okay.’ He said, ‘The bat stays through the zone [for] a longer time,’ which is what I thought it was. But you don’t always know, and the beauty of our show is that he can answer that question and someone at home learned something that day.”
Akin to DeRosa, Shehadi watches several baseball games simultaneously every night using her phone and television. Once the new day commences, she views Quick Pitch to see the rest of the action, reads articles on the league website and studies the network’s research packet. At the same time, she considers the discussions and perceptions made about players, some of whom come into the studio for live appearances.
Robert Flores’ Road to the Show
When Matt Vasgersian became the new play-by-play announcer for Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, the MLB Network morning program named Robert Flores as the new co-host of the show. Flores, who formerly worked at ESPN, had been employed by MLB Network since 2016 hosting a variety of programming. DeRosa stated that he has brought a different element to the show through his love of the Houston Astros, leverage of social media and humorous witticisms.
“I feel like Robert Flores kind of ties it all in a bow with his ability to host and his one-liners, and I just think [MLB Central] gives the fan at home everything they would need with a smile on their face,” DeRosa said. “They laugh, they learn and they can enjoy a nice breakfast and a cup of coffee and enjoy the visuals.”
Flores began his career while at the University of Houston, working as an associate producer within the KHOU sports department. From the beginning, he could ascertain the speed of the newsroom and adapted his workflow to fit in the breaking-news environment. Being amongst industry professionals within a top-10 marketplace prepared him to transition to Monroe, La. out of school with limited resources in a smaller locale.
From there, Flores moved to Waco, Texas to serve as the sports director for KWTX-TV where he was responsible for managing personalities under a departmental aegis. He worked in the same role later in Austin, Texas at KEYE-TV while also continuing to garner repetitions as a reporter. The experiences within his formative years in the industry helped shape him into a professional with the sagacity and foresight to plan ahead and optimize a roster of on-air personalities and production personnel.
“It’s managing people from it’s simplest things like scheduling to the more complicated, intrapersonal and taking into considerations what others’ needs and what their wants are as well and trying to kind of fit it all under the same direction of what you want your sports department to be and things like that, so it was a great experience,” Flores said. “Again, I met so many great people along the way and so many that I’m still friendly with and keep in touch with every now and then.”
Flores endured challenges within the industry when he lost his job in 2004 and ended up being out of work for six months. Four years earlier, he had lost his father and was trying to combat the trauma associated with both outcomes.
As he continued the job search, Flores began to think about alternatives and considered exploring the real estate and insurance industries. He remembers asking his wife if he should change career paths, and she urged him to give the process more time and remain patient. Everything changed when his agent called to deliver the news that ESPN was interested in hiring him for a job on the network, and he was able to inform his son minutes later when he arrived home from school.
While Flores enjoyed his time anchoring SportsCenter and contributing to other programming at ESPN, the era was different in that social media was not embedded within the fabric of modern society. Although he joined MLB Network in 2015 and was known by its viewers across programming, there existed a risk that moving to MLB Central could cause him to suffer from imposter syndrome. After all, Flores was expecting harsh criticism upon his debut on the show; however, he entered the role unfazed and focused on delivering for the audience.
“In today’s society especially, I think fans are more apt to not like something, and I get it,” Flores said. “Matt Vasgersian was very popular [and] remains very popular with our fanbase… and I know there was some skepticism about me joining the show. I saw all of the, ‘Where’s Matty V?’ tweets and, ‘This guy stinks,’ and, ‘Get him off,’ and I understood it.”
In the five years that Flores has been part of the show, he has let his personality flourish and shared different ways he interacts with the game, including through playing MLB The Show video game series. Playing the simulation game over the years has helped him become more familiar with major-league rosters and prospects, granting him additional context and a different lens through which to talk about the league.
“To be fair, I do like to shoehorn dropping my Twitch handle and my Facebook page where I do my video game streams,” Flores explicated, “but I think it’s kind of looked at as kind of if I can get a joking eye roll from Lauren or from someone that says, ‘Hey, way to make the ‘reference’ to your gaming channel,’ I think it’s part of my charm, and I say that tongue-in-cheek.”
The Morning Commute
The composition of MLB Central as a studio show contrasts many of its counterparts in that it utilizes more hosts than analysts. Shehadi and Flores both view their role to serve as point guards to set up DeRosa for success in disseminating his opinions and insights.
“I think for me, the beauty of what we do is the fact now that the chemistry between the three of us is so strong,” DeRosa said. “I honestly know how to get Robert going, I know how to get Lauren going and vice-versa that I think the people at home – although I’m the former player that’s going to give the opinion – I still think that they’ve built this relationship at home with the three of us.”
The show also champions diversity and inclusivity, inspiring the next generation and trying to serve as role models. Flores is of Mexican-American descent and is honored when aspiring professionals reach out to share their gratitude for his work and how he represents what is possible. As a woman in the industry, Shehadi is aware of the misogyny and intransigence that can be faced, but she knows that there is respect for her work and that she belongs. Everyone on MLB Central is accepting of one another and attributes part of its success to strong chemistry.
Studio 21 is somewhat like Grand Central Station, especially since it houses multiple studio programs in addition to MLB Central, some of which include MLB Now and Quick Pitch. For Shehadi and DeRosa, it is one of their destinations on the travel itinerary, which involves both of them taking multiple flights per week.
Every week following the Tuesday morning show, Shehadi flies to Atlanta, Ga. to host studio coverage for MLB on TBS with Curtis Granderson, Pedro Martínez and Jimmy Rollins. Whereas MLB Central will focus on all 30 teams, MLB on TBS studio coverage primarily discusses teams featured within its Tuesday night doubleheader on its Pregame and Closer editions of the show. While Shehadi is in the TNT Sports studio, she is watching every game around the league and feels the most prepared for MLB Central the following morning. The key through it all is endurance and stamina, but she does not take the multifaceted role for granted.
“I feel so blessed to be able to do it, and it’s not lost on me that I get to host both,” Shehadi said, “so I just pray for no delayed flights and pray that I get everywhere on time.”
Similar to taking an extended road trip as an MLB player, DeRosa flies to the New York metropolitan area every week to be in studio for MLB Network. After the Friday morning show though, he boards a flight to return home to spend time with his family and coach his son’s baseball team. While he is away for the weekend, he still remains connected to the show by reviewing previous episodes and finding areas where he can improve, akin to a baseball player reviewing film.
“I like it when we go off-script occasionally – when we’re laughing; when things get a little funny at times and then we’re able to rein it in,” DeRosa said. “So I think for me, the idea of a good show to be honest with you is if I can get the people behind the cameras to start laughing, I usually think we’re doing something right.”
Flores believes that DeRosa is one of the most talented studio analysts in sports television and does not receive as much credit as he deserves in this regard. In formulating and constructing his breakdowns with the understanding of what will stand out to viewers with fluctuating interest levels and aptitude towards the sport, DeRosa tries to appeal to everyone. Last spring, he served as the manager of Team USA during the World Baseball Classic and had a chance to foster deeper relationships with several star players such as Mike Trout, Paul Goldschmidt and Mookie Betts. In turn, he discovered more about their personalities and work ethic.
“I thought Paul Goldschmidt – he is, he’s a silent assassin – but when I gave my first meeting the first day we met as a group, as soon as I finished, he asked me if he could address the team,” DeRosa recalled. “I did not expect that, so I walked away with a completely different mindset of [who] Paul Goldschmidt was.”
Beyond the Box Score
DeRosa, Shehadi and Flores provide authentic commentary about the topics at hand within a casual environment geared towards viewers with varying levels of proficiency and experience in baseball. The program attempts to spotlight as many different MLB teams as possible on the show and recognize the parity and emerging young talent within the game; however, there are signature teams discussed more often because of recent success. While MLB Central is situated in the mornings, the segments and topics are not proprietary to that daypart and could effectively function in different areas of the schedule.
“I think there’s a very fine line walking the three kinds of tenants if you will of informing and providing context and entertaining,” Flores said. “I think you’ve kind of got to be very careful not to do one more of the other, but I really think that our show is portable, I really do.”
Although MLB Central does not implement live callers from consumers akin to sports talk radio, it still finds ways to interact with the audience and impart sentiments of conviviality and revelry. Whether it be through poll questions or replies to a segment earlier in the program, there is a recognition and respect for consumers watching across multiple platforms.
“We have a bunch of really great viewers who have been with us for almost a decade, and we constantly highlight them on X,” Shehadi said. “We constantly put their tweets on the screen, and some of them we disagree with all the time.”
DeRosa, Shehadi and Flores hosted their 750th episode of MLB Central last summer and all remain committed to the program. Everyone leaves their ego at the door and approaches the show in a manner resembling a player arriving at the ballpark for a game.
Concurrent with rules changes across Major League Baseball that led to augmented attendance, greater offensive output and a hastened pace of play, MLB Central remains aware of the latest innovations in sports media and looks to continue innovating within the dynamic landscape. Although there is an early wake-up call to arrive at the studio and prepare beforehand, DeRosa, Shehadi and Flores are able to effectuate a morning show of which they are proud and hope to continue for years to come.
“I love what we have both on screen and maybe more importantly what our show unit has off screen,” Flores said. “It’s a very collaborative effort. We have so many talented men and women behind the scenes in our research department; in our control room; from the producer to the director to our assignment desk, [which] plays a vital role in booking guests. It’s just everyone pulling in the same direction. I can honestly say it’s the most enjoyable professional experience I’ve ever had.”
If you have prospects who are open for business between Midnight and 5 am, why not have them make it worthwhile and help them develop an advertising strategy? They might be surprised how inexpensive it can be.
Many companies operate 24/7:
– Convenience stores, gas stations, and truck stops.
– Fast food chains like Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, and McDonalds.
– Hospitals and Emergency Care clinics.
– Hotels, motels, and grocery stores.
– Airports, bus depots, and cabs.
With an effective marketing strategy, “it’s gonna be all right on the night shift.” Here are some insights and tips to give these prospects to help them attract and retain customers to their 24/7 business:
Understand the Night Owl
At night, customers seeking services or products often prioritize convenience, speed, and availability. Sometimes, price isn’t the controlling factor, nor is it even the best quality they seek. Make offers and go to market with these needs to better cater to your target audience and keep them returning for more.
Advertise: Digital Billboards
Digital billboards are great for visibility, especially at night when there’s less competition for attention. Consider strategically placing advertisements along busy freeways or nightlife hotspots to capture the attention of passersby and promote your business’s offerings and operating hours. If you can buy :15 ads on Times Square in NYC for $40, you may be shocked at what you will pay locally for rotating ads from Midnight to 5 am.
Radio Ads on the Cheap
Radio is a powerful medium for reaching customers during the late-night hours. Larry King was America’s most listened-to-talk radio program in the late 80’s. For 16 years, he broadcast live between Midnight and 5:30 am from coast to coast. Select radio stations with programming tailored to your target audience’s preferences and air ads during peak nighttime listening hours. Pop music stations for night clubbers at 2 am or News Talk for late-night drivers wanting to stay engaged. Give incentives to overnight listeners to visit your business NOW. While the audience may only be 10% of the daytime crowd, so are the prices. And let’s face it, if they are driving and listening to the radio, that’s your #1 prospect! Expect rates at most stations under $25 per commercial in major cities and less in other areas. Promote late-night specials, highlighting convenience and speed of service. If you are a hospital, airport, or bus company, brand your business with the overnighters, reminding them you are open when they need you.
Mobile Digital Advertising
Target potential customers in the vicinity of your business during late-night hours. Use geotargeting to deliver ads to mobile phone users in high-traffic areas like concerts, ballgames, or nightlife districts. Drive foot traffic right through your front door. Promote time-sensitive offers or exclusive late-night deals through mobile ads. Don’t expect a price break, though, when purchasing them.
Easily Monitoring KPI’s
Regularly monitor the performance of your efforts and adjust as needed. Your late-night business is probably way less than daytime, and tracking key metrics such as foot traffic, sales, and customer feedback will be easier. If an offer is working on your radio campaign, look into buying more stations and cut back on areas that don’t work. Apply the 70-20-10 rule to your ad budget.
With lower ad costs aimed at the audience who makes staying open late worth it, you can be ringing in the profits on the night shift.
In part two of our conversation, DGH talks about coaching producers and talent of shows with multiple hosts.
DW: How do you coach producers? What do you need them to do for the talent?
DGH: Well, mostly with the work that I do in spoken word I think a producer is strongest when they help pull out your point or the best part of a topic. So you say, ‘Oh, we got to talk about this bridge collapse in Baltimore, man. I don’t really know what I want to say.’ And then the producer says, ‘Well, what pisses you off about it?’ Or, ‘What’s the thing that nobody gets?’ And you go, ‘Well, nobody understands X.’ Then the producer says, ‘That’s what you start with right there. There’s your way in and then you can explain it.’
So, (the producer’s job is) to kind of pull out from you what you really want to say, because sometimes it’s hard to find that on your own when you’re just doing everything in your head. So, your producer says, ‘Ok, that’s where you want to start right there,’ and then does whatever research is necessary to help you back that up or to come up with examples or come up with audio.
DW: What about two or three people shows? How do you get them on the same page consistently, learning to think like each other, and not make those hard left turns in conversations?
DGH: I have to deal with that a lot with shows where there’s more than one person. It’s important to help people in multiple-person shows understand you don’t have to say too much to get a lot of attention. A lot of people in that second chair want to keep talking because they feel like if they don’t talk, they’re going to be invisible. But it doesn’t work that way.
So I spent a lot of my time coaching people I would call the second chair people, but they’re really co-hosts, on how to be engaging in a certain way and how to not make a hard left where then all of a sudden you have the listeners, and worse, your co-host, going ‘What the hell? How do I respond to that?’ That comes up a lot. And in music morning shows, I try to keep them from talking over each other and stuff like that.
But the hard part comes with the payoff because when they’re doing a bit or they’re doing a benchmark, I want everybody laughing and smiling as the song starts, and as soon as everybody’s laughing and smiling, get the hell out and start the song. What happens is, especially if there’s more than two people, they one-up each other, right?
So somebody has the perfect out where they should hit the song and then the other person goes ‘Oh, no, no, no,’ and then they say something that causes the first person to try to beat that and before you know it you’ve got four punchlines, each one worse than the one before. Start the song, get the hell out, and prepare for your next bit.
DW: This is great stuff. What would you add or how would you summarize all of this for radio talents and the people who coach them?
DGH: I have three things. The first is you have to be consistent and regular. So if you’re gonna tell me to do this differently, you better show up in a week to remind me because all of us on the radio get stuck in habits and in a comfort zone, right?
So I’ll do what you say today and maybe tomorrow, and by the next day, maybe half. And then by the day after that, by Friday, I’m not doing it at all. So you better show up on Friday to say, ‘Hey, I heard you on Monday, man, you sounded great!’ Then help me break bad habits and set new ones, because we all are creatures of habit when we’re on the radio.
Second thing I would say is: be as specific as possible. It was never helpful to me when someone would say ‘Great show.’ Yeah. Ok, thanks, but that doesn’t mean anything to me.
But, when the market manager or PD says, ‘Yesterday when you interviewed that guy and you asked him this question, oh my god that was fantastic!’ As a talent with ego, I’m assuming he heard the entire show, even though he’s commenting on one thing. But that one thing is much more valuable than just ‘Hey, great show’. And then the third thing I would say is Joe Crummey. I don’t know if you know the name Joe Crummey.
DW: Yes, we’ve never met but we’ve become online friends. I love his work.
DGH: When I was first PD (at KFI), Joe Crummey said something key that I think about all the time when I’m working with talent and from when I was on the radio. He said, ‘When you’re on the radio, you walk a plank every single day and you just hope to God that you don’t fall off.
‘Because, unlike television, unlike Jon Stewart or Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert, we don’t have a writer’s room of 22 people sitting behind us thinking of every brilliant word we’re gonna say. You have to mostly do it yourself and mostly do it right off the top of your head. And if you’re on the radio three hours a day, five days a week, you are coming up with 15 hours of original content every week, walking a plank, not making a fool of yourself, not humiliating yourself, and not losing your train of thought.
It’s tough to create that much original content and to keep your train of thought and not humiliate yourself.’
DW: And to do it with no real-time feedback from the audience.
DGH: Right, exactly. You have no idea how it’s landing. That was one of the most valuable things anybody has ever said to me in this business. And to this day, I think about that. When I work with talk show hosts who are on the hook for hours without anything to hide behind, no songs, maybe a newscast at the top of the hour, but not much else I always think, ‘Man, you are walking a plank and it’s all original content.’
I really respect that, I really respect the talent necessary to be able to do what we do without humiliating ourselves, without getting sued, without getting fired, and with our toes dangling off the end of that plank for hours a day, every single day.
For many, we all can fall into a groove of trying to be something we’re not. And the audience is bound to sniff you out as inauthentic. The older radio guy wants to seem hip when discussing social media and refers to his account as “Face-Chat” and “You-Book.” Oops. The younger guy wants to pretend he knows everything about the 1980 election, including the myth that Ronald Reagan came from 10 points down in late October to beat Jimmy Carter. You can read about it here.
I bring this up in the wake of last week’s breaking news story surrounding the death of O.J. Simpson. Social media exploded with reactions and hysterical memes, while talk radio re-lived “The Trial of the Century.”
As someone who was six years old during the White Bronco chase and seven years old as the trial unfolded, I have little memory of the trial itself. I remember it, but the day-to-day details are meaningless. As someone interested in historical events, I’ve read plenty about it and watched documentaries, but I wasn’t there. My only memory of it is watching O.J. on the news in my parents’ kitchen.
So, the day after O.J.’s death was announced, I had minimal anecdotal stories to share. And if you’re a younger host, there’s no reason to be embarrassed by this. After all, it was 30 years ago at this point. Now, someone over 55 might think it was 20 years ago, but my dad, pushing 70, believes 1978 was 30 years ago. It was over 45. So, I rest my case. Time is a blur. You have nothing to be ashamed of.
But at the same time, don’t pretend to be something you’re not.
I spent Friday morning discussing how infatuated I was diving deep into YouTube archives, finding old local TV clips in Los Angeles from the Rodney King riots, mentioning New York Times articles I stumbled upon during the trial in 1995, and weaving that into the content of the day. My approach was to be the authority on the topic since that’s the job, but not pretend that I lived through it in any meaningful way.
That’s when I tapped into guests. Gregg Jarrett from Fox News covered the trial for Court TV. His stories were outstanding. On a whim, I reached out to Randy Cross, a former 49ers player who spent two seasons as a teammate with O.J., and he shared insights that only he could share.
Then, we worked from our local angle, with a great story from former Kansas City sports anchor Frank Boal, who talked about the Bruno Magli shoes that were a centerpiece in the trial. Coincidentally, a photo was used from when O.J. Simpson was on Monday Night Football broadcasting a game at Arrowhead Stadium where he was wearing… you guessed it, Bruno Magli shoes.
So, let your experts be experts. And don’t try to trick your audience into being something you’re not. Let them share their stories as well. Several California transplants to the KC area shared incredible stories from their lives. Let them be the stars and have their moment, assuming it’s compelling content.
This same strategy can apply to a story that may pre-date your time in the market where you’re hosting your show. Study up, but lean on those who know, let your audience participate if and when appropriate, and don’t be the know-it-all, especially when it’s obvious you can’t be on the same level as some of those listening.
Your audience will thank you for it because you’re being authentic with them, and that’s what they want. If you lose your authenticity, you’re done.
The National Hockey League Board of Governors has approved the relocation of the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City, Utah, establishing a new NHL franchise under the ownership of Smith Entertainment Group. Hockey assets within the Coyotes organization will be transferred to the new team, which will play its games at Delta Center, the home of the Utah Jazz. The Coyotes concluded the 2023-24 NHL season on Wednesday night from Mullet Arena and defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-2. After the game ended, Coyotes studio host Todd Walsh anchored postgame coverage and concluded the broadcast with a heartfelt message to the Coyotes fans on the Scripps Sports broadcast.
Within his prose, Walsh explained what the Coyotes meant to him and the special bond shared among those who consider themselves members of the hockey community. He discussed how people were there for him when he lost his parents and uplifted him in difficult times. To close his message, Walsh stated to viewers that they all “walk together forever as Coyote fans,” advancing a well-known hockey quote, “Win today and we walk together forever,” from Fred Shero, former head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Although the Coyotes were never able to attain a Stanley Cup championship, the organization provided plenty of memorable moments on the ice and developed players who made a lasting impact on the sport. Shane Doan, Dale Hawerchuk, Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk are just some of the players who energized hockey in the desert over the last 26 seasons. Walsh joined Bickley & Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Wednesday to elaborate on his emotions surrounding the situation.
“As I said, I’ve been sort of preparing for this moment, but I never thought it would be when the team was turning out the lights after we were done with our broadcast and leaving town,” Walsh said, “but I just wanted to speak from the heart and I wanted to thank the game and acknowledge briefly somehow, someway the people in it, because if you’ve been around this sport even a minute, I think you start to understand [and] realize that there’s nothing quite like the sport of hockey and the people in it and the great reverence that they have for anyone who puts time into the game.”
Walsh imparted a lesson he learned over the years that states that if you are good to the game, the game will be good back to you. He was able to relate to that on a personal level, and woke up to see the sun rise in the morning to make sure that life would go on after the Coyotes. Co-host Dan Bickley asked Walsh to elaborate on how everything felt for him, especially having been a part of the organization over many years. In response, Walsh explained how people who had not seen each other made eye contact and took time to speak with one another, engaging in similar conversations with several people.
“The first words that one of us would say – it was universal – [were], ‘This didn’t have to happen,’” Walsh said. “That’s what I kept hearing, and then I started to repeat it and that’s how I feel today. I’m not smart enough to talk about finances when you’re getting into the billions of dollars, but I am smart enough to know how things can work and I’ve seen it work, and I’ve seen the due diligence that has been done and has to be done in a situation like this in cultivating a sport, and I’ve seen how it has failed.”
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) April 18, 2024
The interview with Walsh took place before the official announcement of the team’s relocation. This transaction includes a stipulation that Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo has the right to reactivate the franchise if “a new, state-of-the art facility appropriate for an NHL team” is constructed within five years. Nonetheless, the outcome for many hockey fans in Arizona was disappointing, with Walsh describing the environment at Mullet Arena resembling that of a wake.
“My fear all along going into this for the last few years was at some point, someone’s going to walk up to a microphone in front of a bunch of cameras and say, ‘We did everything that we could,’ and I have a feeling we’re going to hear that,” Walsh said. “And I don’t want to hear it from the current ownership, but I feel like we’re going to hear that, and that’s what troubled me.”
The NBA is currently in the penultimate season of its existing national television media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Discovery, collectively worth a reported $24 billion over the eight-year contracts. The league entered into an exclusive negotiating window with both broadcasting partners starting on Saturday, March 9, but is reportedly unlikely to reach a new deal before its expiration on Monday, according to Alex Sherman of CNBC.
Even if no deal ends up being reached by the deadline, both companies are in discussions about new media rights contracts with the NBA, as confirmed by the league. These discussions follow a 2023-24 season that garnered an average of 1.09 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV, which is up 1% over last year and represents the highest average across networks in four years, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. Both networks will begin broadcasting the NBA Playoffs on Saturday, April 20.
“We continue to have productive discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery on a renewal of our media deals,” an NBA spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
Starting next week, the NBA will have the ability to engage in negotiations with other companies interested in the media rights package. As reported by CNBC, Amazon, Apple, YouTube TV, Comcast (NBCUniversal/Peacock) and Netflix have all expressed potential interest through conversations with the league. Numerous reports have indicated that the league is looking to add a streaming element into its next deal and is looking for an increase in rights fees. The NBA could reportedly look to sell games within the In-Season Tournament to a separate media company, potentially adding a fourth partner in the deal.
Warner Bros. Discovery linear network TBS began airing NBA games in 1984, with TNT following four years later. The Walt Disney Company has presented the league since 2002 across ABC and ESPN, which includes broadcasts of the NBA Finals. Both companies are aiming to launch a new joint streaming venture with FOX Corporation in the fall that would grant subscribers access to games and networks from all three companies.
ESPN is prepared to begin its coverage of the 2024 NBA Playoffs as 16 teams battle to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy as league champions. Various stars from across the Association will participate in the action starting with Round 1 on Friday night, including LeBron James, Jayson Tatum and Nikola Jokić.
Additionally, NBA on ESPN playoffs coverage will mark the postseason debut of the network’s new lead broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, analysts Doris Burke and JJ Redick and reporter Lisa Salters. Redick was originally a member of the secondary broadcast team with Ryan Ruocco, Richard Jefferson and Cassidy Hubbarth, but the departure of Doc Rivers from the lead crew to coach the Milwaukee Bucks led to this change.
Earlier in the year, ESPN Head of Event & Studio Production David Roberts referred to the secondary broadcast team as “the potential making of a succession plan.” With the alteration to the broadcast teams in-season though, he remains optimistic that the network will present a strong playoff performance. Redick brings a different perspective to the lead broadcast crew of a player recently removed from NBA game action who has demonstrated a propensity for analytics and explaining their significance to trends within the game. Outside of his broadcasting work, he exhibits versatility in sports media, appearing on various ESPN programs such as First Take, co-hosting both The Old Man and the Three and Mind the Game podcasts and co-founding ThreeFourTwo Productions.
“Hey, it makes us all look good,” Roberts said of Redick’s versatility. “The fact is that the more versatile you are, the more valuable you are, and JJ Redick and Stephen A. Smith are prime examples of that.”
Smith is a featured commentator and executive producer on First Take, but also engages in a variety of projects outside of the morning show. During the NBA season, he appears in studio or on location for NBA Countdown, hosts his own podcast, titled The Stephen A. Smith Show, and operates his media production company, Mr. SAS Productions.
Smith’s contract with ESPN is reportedly due to expire next year, and he has spoken candidly about his worth on numerous occasions. Additionally, he has stated that he wakes up every morning thinking about how he can make his bosses more money and how to get some of it, a sentiment he elaborated on in his best-selling book, “Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes.”
“Stephen A. loves the NBA, and his commitment to covering the NBA is just simply outstanding,” Roberts said. “He’s unafraid to say what needs to be said. He could care less whether someone is ticked off in the process because he also is an outstanding journalist who will back up his opinions with facts. So when you watch Stephen A., you’re watching a multi-versatile individual who can handle just about anything in broadcasting; in fact, I’ll say he can handle anything in broadcasting.”
Roberts proceeded to explain that a majority of ESPN talent are not “cookie cutter” and approach things in their own way. Earlier in the media conference call, he discussed Malika Andrews, who is in her first season hosting NBA Countdown, and how she brings an “exemplary” work ethic to the program. Roberts also divulged that ratings for NBA Countdown are up 7% year-over-year.
Additionally, he spoke about how studio analyst and color commentator Bob Myers always shows up to every meeting prepared and is an innate winner and team player. As long as the talent are doing things that fit their style and the content objectives of ESPN and The Walt Disney Company, Roberts explained, they are allowed to be their authentic selves on the airwaves.
“That’s the type of versatility we’re looking for,” Roberts said, referencing JJ Redick. “The last thing we want is talent that’s all the same, which amounts to nothing more than elevator music.”
ABC News is losing its Chief Medical Correspondent and co-host of GMA3, Dr. Jennifer Ashton.
When her contract expires in June, Ashton will leave the network to launch a new women’s wellness company, Ajenda, where she will serve as the CEO.
“Sometimes an important message needs the right messenger, and I feel like there is no more critical time in this country for women’s health, and for weight management,” Ashton told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re facing an obesity epidemic, and menopause and perimenopause and women’s health is literally in a spotlight like never before. And I want to be the messenger for those messages.
“And so I’m excited about finally having the opportunity to just devote 100 percent of my time and effort into that, and using the skills that I’ve learned from being at the number one network for 13 years, I think are going to be really vital in that.”
Dr. Jennifer Ashton added that she received the support of ABC News President Kim Godwin and Networks Division leader Debra OConnell.
“They both said to me, ‘Is there anything we can do to change your mind?’ And when I said there really isn’t, because I really feel strongly about doing this, they basically said you know, ‘we’re going to be behind you.’ And I think that’s really unusual in this business in this day,” she said.
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), the $1 million winner-take-all summer event announced a multi-year media rights agreement with FOX Sports to carry games on FOX, FS1, and FS2. As part of the agreement, the network will carry 27 TBT games live on linear television, including three on FOX.
“We are thrilled to make FOX Sports the new home of TBT,” said TBT co-owner and Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul. “The event has experienced tremendous growth these past few years and this agreement will take it to new heights. With a growing number of players I’ve crossed paths within the league committed to play, this summer will be both competitive and entertaining for TBT.”
“We are excited to kick off our second decade of TBT with FOX Sports,” said TBT founder and CEO Jon Mugar. “Across FOX, FS1, and FS2, we will reach more basketball fans than ever before, further cementing TBT as a mainstay on the basketball calendar. This summer will make for our most electrifying tournament yet.”
TBT is a 64-team, single-elimination tournament hosted across eight regionals. All regional events are hosted by an alumni team representing a powerhouse college basketball program.
