A new report from Borrell Associates and the Radio Advertising Bureau shows digital advertising revenue from radio companies grew 6.8% in 2023, topping $1.9 billion.
That nearly $2 billion figure represented 21% of total advertising revenue for the radio industry, with the average market collecting $2 million in digital revenue. Projections from Borrell Associates push digital ad revenues past the $2 billion mark in 2024, with the industry seeing double-digit growth in the sector.
“What’s most impressive is that radio came out fighting for digital dollars when the pandemic hit and hasn’t let up for a second,” said Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates. “The fact that they’ve stolen market share from competing media for the past four years is remarkable. They’re not quite owning the digital space yet, but they are well on their way.”
“While broadcast continues to be the core of radio’s revenue, greater interest in digital by advertisers creates an opportunity for radio to super-serve its local clients,” added RAB President and CEO Erica Farber, according to InsideRadio. “Comprehensive understanding of digital services and acumen can create both professional and revenue opportunities for radio marketing professionals.”
After weeks of speculation, it’s official — JJ Redick will join the top ESPN broadcast team for “marquee” regular season and playoff games, as well as the Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA Finals. The trio will be joined by longtime sideline analyst Lisa Salters, who will complete the quartet.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to sit alongside legends like Mike and Doris and call the game that I absolutely love,” Redick said. “I consider it a privilege and a great responsibility to document the NBA and its history.”
Redick will make his debut alongside the existing trio on the Feb. 24 edition of NBA Saturday Primetimewhen the Boston Celtics take on the New York Knicks. He replaces Doc Rivers, who ESPN hired to shake up its top broadcast team, then left to coach the Milwaukee Bucks. Redick was originally part of the second team for ESPN alongside Ryan Ruocco and Richard Jefferson, but there’s been no word on whether Redick will be replaced on that team.
“JJ Redick is one of the most versatile and knowledgeable analysts covering the NBA. He watches every NBA game and studies all aspects of the key players and teams across the league,” said David Roberts, ESPN head of event and studio production. “That commitment will only enhance our first-class presentation, which includes hall-of-fame broadcasters and teammates Mike Breen and Doris Burke, along with courtside reporter Lisa Salters. This lead team will entertain and inform fans at the highest level.”
After serving over 15 years as the Senior Vice President & General Manager of play-by-play sports and West Coast entertainment production for Compass Media Networks, Michelle Salvatore has resigned from the Company. She is looking to pursue an entrepreneurial opportunity outside of media. Michelle will continue working through the Spring and advise the company on a transition plan.
“Back in Spring of 2009, during the chaos and sleepless nights involved in launching this national media company, the media gods sent me an angel in the form of Michelle Salvatore,” said Peter Kosann, CEO/Founder of Compass Media Networks. “Michelle faced down every challenge, worked tirelessly and with good cheer, and set a gold standard of excellence for not only Compass Media Networks, but our industry.”
Under her guidance, Compass Media Networks has broadcast 1,500+ live, play-by-play, major sporting events. Included among them were college men’s basketball and football (including the Big Ten Tournament and the Big Ten Championship Game), NFL 1pm and 4pm Sunday Doubleheaders, Major League Baseball regular season games and complete coverage of the Dallas Cowboys and Las Vegas Raiders.
“Michelle has been one of the most important people in my career,” said Kevin Burkhardt, lead play-by-play voice for FOX Sports. “She believed in me from the start, and gave me opportunities to call college football and Dallas Cowboys games for Compass Media Networks. She produced me and made me better. I would not be where I am today without her.”
“Working at Compass Media Networks literally changed my life for the better,” said Salvatore. “I was able to travel the globe, producing games throughout the United States, Latin America and Europe, and had the chance to work with incredibly talented, passionate, and kind people. I am forever grateful to my dear friends at Compass Media Networks.”
Sports radio rules the roost in the Northeast. The passionate fan bases of lifelong residents spur the most popular stations to victories not just with men, but across all formats in the market. Nowhere is that more true than Boston, where 98.5 The Sports Hub has opened up a formidable lead on all challengers.
The station has been well-represented at past BSM Summits. Fred Toucher, Mike Felger, Rick Radzik and former PD Mike Thomas have all taken the stage in the past to talk about why what works at the Hub has worked so well for so long.
Mary Menna will make her first appearance at the event this year. The market manager for Beasley Media Group’s Boston cluster was instrumental in bringing the station into the company’s portfolio when CBS Radio merged with what was then Entercom.
“I’m really excited to be there this year,” she says. “I always had a lobbying event in D.C. that overlapped with this event and luckily, this year both have moved their dates. It’s great!”
The last time the BSM Summit was in New York was 2022. Menna’s station was well-represented. PD Rick Radzik won the Mark Chernoff Award. Felger & Mazz won the Mike & the Mad Dog Award, plus Mike Felger joined Fred Toucher on stage to talk about the station’s success in Boston.
Those honors were in addition to the way 98.5 The Sports Hub has dominated the BSM Top 20 over the years. The latest polls had the station on top in surveys of Major Market Stations, Afternoon Shows and Mid Day Shows.
You might expect someone leading a brand like The Sports Hub would come to the BSM Summit ready to play the expert. That isn’t Menna though. She will be on stage to answer questions as part of a panel, but it’s the time out of the spotlight that she will value the most.
“I’m really excited to see what you guys do and what you present and to learn from others in the field,” she says. “I’m not an expert in the sports arena, as you very well know, but I surrounded myself with people who are and who are the best at what they do, and so I’m really lucky to have them. So I really always am ready to learn from others.”
Menna will look for that expertise from her fellow market leaders, from executives at some of the biggest companies in the radio industry and other leaders. But she isn’t going in with tunnel vision. She is the epitome of a social creature.
“Like people always say, I don’t know what I don’t know, right?”
She will have a conversation with anyone that wants to talk to her. She will ask questions, listen to their stories and think about what it could mean for her market. Is there a promotion that failed because it was missing an element that 98.5 The Sports Hub can deliver? Is there a programming or sales strategy that has shown promise in a smaller market that could be a game changer for her? She is open to the very real possibility that there is.
Menna also knows that there aren’t a lot of one-for-one comparisons to her situation. That open mind matters because Beasley’s approach to sports radio is so different.
They aren’t trying to be the standard for sports radio across the country. Beasley operates two brands in two major markets – The Sports Hub in Boston and 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia. In some ways, Menna may have more in common with independent operators than with someone running a cluster for Audacy or iHeart.
“We are not in 150 markets as a company,” she says. “And so where we are, we have quality brands and great markets that we’re in. So we try to make those brands really great where we are and not spread ourselves too thin.”
Attendees of the 2024 BSM Summit will get to hear more about that philosophy. Not only will Menna be on stage, so will her friend and boss Caroline Beasley. Menna says Beasley is “a wonderful speaker” and thinks the audience will leave better off for hearing her thoughts on our industry.
Cash flow is the problem everyone at every company in every industry is trying to solve. Radio is no different. Menna says in sports radio, it’s especially important to talk about with one another.
“Our sponsorship fees are pretty hefty. Play by play is not necessarily a money maker. And, we are live and local for so many hours of the day, and talent costs a lot of money.”
Sports talk may be the format best built for a future where live, local radio is less and less ubiquitous, but not every company is rushing to turn on “The Fan” or “The Game.” It’s easily the most expensive format to run and Menna has seen the challenges that come with that grow as the advertising market changes. She hopes sharing her station’s story will be useful for other attendees.
“Certainly if less money is coming in and costs are rising, that’s the problem, right? We found that in the last few years, there isn’t a lot of agency availability. Sports is always an expensive opportunity. It doesn’t necessarily work on an agency cost per point basis. With those agency types of business really diminishing, we’ve had to create new opportunities with new clients and do a lot more direct business in order to keep the lights on.
“Luckily, we have such a great property in Boston that we have been able to do that because The Sports Hub really works, and it works for advertisers of all shapes and sizes. They get a return on their investment and they stay with us for a long time, and we build upon that success. If we just waited for agency avails to be able to fund the operation, it would look like a different operation.”
Mary Menna may not be a sports radio expert, but she takes the format seriously and has had a lot of success both in ratings and in revenue. Next month in New York, she will share what she knows but is way more interested in what she doesn’t.
Network executives are always looking for that ‘next best thing.’ Whether it be in technology, by using updated graphics packages, or the way a broadcast is presented to the audience. But it seems as though the one thing most are seeking, is talent, especially analysts that played the sport they will broadcast. While most networks already have a top booth assembled, execs are always looking for the ‘up and comer’ who can add some freshness to a broadcast or a booth.
There are in fact, many athletes that could probably excel in the broadcasting industry. Some of them have recently retired, some are still playing, but have the personality and knowledge to carry it off. So, where will these network folks look for these athletes? Some of them are already cutting their teeth on the air on various channels. Many contribute to shows in the studio, even while still active, and others are looking for a second career.
Fans sometimes have a hard time getting to know their favorite players. Media coverage while they are playing doesn’t always tell the full story of the personality possessed by these players. Many of them are ‘tight lipped’ when it comes to being interviewed while they are active, as to not provide bulletin board material, or take away attention from teammates.
I started thinking about current and former players, mainly because of all the news surrounding Jason Kelce and his reported conversations with ESPN, Fox and others in Vegas last week. Kelce is the kind of personality that would be widely accepted in the field. He has had a successful playing career, and if he decides to hang up the cleats, this is the next logical step for him.
Kelce has been given the stage a few times, even during last season. He appeared on an Amazon Prime broadcast in the booth with Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit. It was a Week 10 game in Chicago, featuring two of the worst teams in the league, the Bears and the Panthers. The game sledged along and for whatever reason, Kelce was being interviewed as though it was a meaningless preseason game.
Fans had varying reactions to the appearance. What it demonstrated to me, was his absolute comfort on camera and in a non-player role. Meaning, it wasn’t a locker room interview it was live and beaming out on broadcast television and streaming on the Amazon platform. He was at ease and was really good.
It would be a no-brainer for some network to pick up Kelce and put him in a prominent role. Maybe start him in the studio, to get comfortable with the flow of a show and then move him to the booth. I know some will say that he’s been over saturated already, but come on, it’s hard to deny the likability factor he brings. Somebody needs to get him on the air for their NFL coverage, that is for sure.
Kelce’s future in the NFL is about as muddied as the future of Joey Votto in Major League Baseball. The veteran first baseman spent all 17-years of his big-league career with the Reds. Votto says he wants to play again in 2024, but the Reds are not going to sign him. I really wish he would forgo his playing career for a job in television. He is incredible when given the chance.
Votto’s personality is unbelievable. He was always talking to fans when he was on-deck or even in the field. A man of the people and a man that is really good behind the mic. While rehabbing from a shoulder injury in 2022 Votto did a couple of stints in the Reds’ TV booth, even doing a little play-by-play. Following one of the games he talked to MLB.com about the experience.
Asked whether he’d consider a ‘second career’ Votto responded, “I don’t know. I don’t even want to think about after my career. I want to play and perform and compete. I don’t miss playing poorly, but I do miss playing well. That’s all that’s on my mind. I want to see how long I can do that for.”
Here’s hoping Votto considers this vocation when he’s done with his current one. He’s got what it takes to be really good. Perhaps the most important to current broadcasts, he respects the industry.
“It’s a lot harder than what’s given credit. The amount of research one has to do to be able to speak on so many different players and so many different organizations — because there is always a new matchup — I find it really challenging.” Votto told MLB.com.
Just a couple of days ago, Adam Wainwright, the former Cardinals pitcher signed up for a dual role this season. He’ll be working for Fox and for MLB Network as an analyst. He was also a natural and is able to relay his experience as a high-level pitcher in the Majors to his audience. He’ll be on Fox for about 15 games and all season with MLB Network. Previously, Wainwright joined the booth for postseason coverage in 2020, 2021, and 2023. He is one to watch for future openings on a number one broadcast team.
JJ Redick also cashed in, when Doc Rivers decided to return to coaching. Redick, the former Duke star and 15-year NBA player was elevated from the 2nd team to the number one broadcast with Mike Breen and Doris Burke. Redick had been an analyst on ESPN’s NBA studio shows since joining the network in 2021. His personality and insight made him an instant ‘riser’ in the business. Redick has a unique gift in his ability to first, really analyze the game and second, to present that analysis in a way that fans understand. Redick may not give up that seat anytime soon. He was a terrific hire.
Another NBA guy to keep an eye on is Richard Jefferson. I think he’s primed for an even bigger role at ESPN. Jefferson has burst onto the scene at ESPN as one of their best analysts. He brings some comedic value to the set with him, but it doesn’t get in the way of his basketball knowledge. The information is fair and accurate even when talking about former teammates.
In NHL circles the name Olczyk carries a lot of weight. Particularly with Eddie Olczyk who has been the top NHL analyst for decades. But there’s another Olczyk out there, that is showing his stuff as an NHL analyst and that’s Nick Olczyk, Edzo’s son. Nick had a stint filling in on television and radio for the Chicago Blackhawks, and under less-than-ideal circumstances, acquitted himself quite nicely.
Nick moved on to the Seattle Kraken where he’s part of their radio and television broadcasts. Nick worked his way up the ladder, first with the Indy Fuel (ECHL) where he showed how much he belonged at the next level. A tireless worker and perfectionist, Olczyk is only scratching the surface of what he can and will become. Keep an eye on him.
Now how about some guys that are currently playing. I wrote about a couple of MLB guys about a year ago. To revisit, I’d love to see Carlos Correa join the ranks of the broadcasting field when he’s done playing. Correa has done stints on TBS during the playoffs and does not seem like a ‘fish out of water’ at all. He’s smooth on camera and did a great job in his limited time. Jazz Chisholm is another slam dunk to join the field if he wants. Bubbling over with personality, the flashy infielder did a solid job in a stint with MLB Network last year.
How cool would it be to see Anthony Rizzo and Freddie Freeman join a network together when they’re both done playing? “Freddie, Frederick!”
George Kittle would be another guy that is seemingly a good fit for broadcasting when he’s done playing. He is bursting with personality and he’s a damn good player too. He really gets it, just judging by the way he handles his media responsibilities.
There are so many others, it’s hard to name them all. I like the fact that this younger generation of player, is much more media savvy than previous ones. Podcasts, Tik Tok, IG, X and Facebook live seem to be preparing these players for a second career, it’s kind of exciting to watch.
If there’s a future for broadcast radio, maybe we’re going about it the wrong way.
Last week, with Bell Media jettisoning 45 stations across Canada and proclaiming that radio is “not a viable business anymore,” you’d assume that radio’s even deader than we thought it already was. A major broadcaster selling off almost half of its stations isn’t a good sign, is it?
Maybe it is, and maybe it’s a way to extend the lifespan of the medium. Hear me out: Radio as practiced by the consolidators, largely operated on a national level, has fallen victim to private equity (no growth, no future), ad agency aversion (no digital, no buys), you know the story. We’ve also seen success stories, and they tend to involve smaller operators whose businesses are local, local, local — local programming, sold to local clients by local sales staffs, often without a ratings printout in sight. And we know that many of the station clusters owned by the major operators would be profitable if not for their pressing debt.
So…taking radio out of the hands of debt-laden companies and putting it in the hands of local operators who don’t rely on national sales or programming might extend the lifespan of radio as a viable medium. The Bell selloff has stations in smaller markets heading to smaller groups, and depending on what the prices are, there might be a way to restore what radio used to be – smaller operations needing to rake in fewer dollars to cover expenses and make a tidy profit rather than having to kick in a lot of cash to service massive debt.
Or maybe not. Maybe the new operators will experience the same issues the big guys have been battling, A Bell official was quoted by the Canadian Press as saying radio “is a business that is going in the wrong direction.”
Perhaps it’s too late. Or perhaps what’s “the wrong direction” for a massive telecommunications company with much larger interests in wireless and television (and severely cutting back on its TV operations as well) is a viable business model for companies that keep the debt load low and concentrate on local business in 2024, especially if they can combine radio with effective locally-created digital assets.
(This also opens the door for stations where the audience is older. Agencies aren’t buying 55+, but local clients aren’t locked into that. You might see more stations like John Sebastian’s The WOW Factor or Dick Robinson’s Legends 100.3 here in West Palm, and it would be a boon for talk radio. Just let’s do it on FM. I don’t think you can save AM in the long term, for reasons we’ve discussed here before.)
And the same isn’t true for television. Other than local news, which has diminished for decades, the local element in television is long gone in an era of on-demand, anything-you-want-whenever-you-want-it video choices. The internet is practically infinite and the difficulty of making a local site work has been illustrated time and again, while social media, untethered to any particular location, has sucked advertising and marketing dollars away from everyone. Newspapers… oy.
Even direct mail isn’t what it used to be. Local radio? Also not what it was, but if small market stations are going to effectively be discarded, and someone can pick up stations for a nominal price that can be supported by sending local AEs out on the street with media kits, reasonable rates, and an audience to sell, that’s something.
Now, the critical question? Knowing all this, would you invest in a radio station, and if you would, what would you do with it? How long do you expect radio to remain viable, leaving debt out of the equation for now (imagine everyone just going bankrupt, debt discharged, stations sold on the cheap, back to square one)? I would think there are better investments, but you can say that for all media – I wouldn’t buy a TV station, I wouldn’t pay for a website, I wouldn’t try to rescue a newspaper. The answer may be, as I’ve speculated, some form of public broadcasting rather than reliance on commercial sales. But if you would buy a radio license and do have the money and do have a plan, it would be interesting to see how it would go.
I’ll just stand over here and listen. I got other things to worry about.
Copywriting 101 — The Attention-Grabbing Opener. It is the centerpiece of all commercial copy and also media. You must assault the listener to gain their precious time. If you are doubting me, your talk show, newscast, or podcast can benefit from what I am about to present.
The most effective commercials on radio, TV, or online give you an attention-grabbing opener. Pictures always provide that window that allows viewers to pay attention. On radio, you must make that impact immediately. “The sizzle catches your ears and then the scent of that prime cowboy ribeye delivered to your table is why Bob’s House of Meat is Mud Butte’s place for steak.” The copy makes you feel the sensation of the experience. Great copy allows the listener to picture the experience. Using, “the best place for steaks is Bob’s House of Meat in Mud Butte” is flat and does not give you a reason to pay attention to the commercial.
If you don’t apply an attention-grabbing opener to a news story, you lose the listener. Here is a failing opening… “Police arrested a man after a call to 911 reporting a shoplifter.” Instead, try “Running with an armload of women’s underwear, a man was tackled by the San Antonio Police outside a Walmart on San Pedro Avenue. The Suspect Joe Smith of Fredericksburg was arrested and is held on $10,000 bail.” Tell the story. The most impactful facts create a picture. Your audience will be riveted.
If you are a talk show host, lead with your opinion. “Cameras catching speeders is the type of totalitarian hijinks that Kim Jung Un would be envious of.” This is a hell of a lot better than saying, “There is a bill in the legislature that would ban cameras used by the Department of Transportation to catch speeders. What do you think?” Your opinion is the drama. It is the attention-grabbing opener for your talk show.
It is audio clickbait. I was reading a news website that had a sponsored graphic that showed Fred and Wilma Flintstone that said that if you get 16 of 30 of these right, you have a photographic memory. Ok, if you have a photographic memory, you are getting 30 of 30 right and would be able to recite the credits at the end of each show as well.
We are besieged by messages that are meant to dominate our attention. We have all spent an hour or three scrolling through Facebook. Being honest with yourself, do you understand why you were there so long? It was because you were driven to scroll through dozens of messages that grabbed your interest.
There are millions of websites, 500 TV stations, streaming services, social media, numerous radio stations, satellite radio, and YouTube that are vying for your eyeballs. Are you grabbing the attention of your audience?
I love aircheck sessions. It allows you to evaluate your performance if you are willing to risk admitting the truth. Would the opening grab your attention? Would you turn up the volume? Really? Be truthful. Every moment of your show is a precious commodity. If you are hosting a show, you have been given an immense opportunity and responsibility. You should be honored to be given the opportunity. And you owe it to your Program Director, sales department, and company to perform the very best show that you can do.
You should be doing a daily promo. How is that opening statement? You should always have your promo prepared for the next day’s show before your daily show. Something scintillating that you can put into the show on the following day. You also need a small studio at home.
This past Thursday night, President Biden gave a news conference after a Biden Administration Justice Department Investigator’s damning report on the President’s mental state. Biden gave a news conference which added to the narrative that he is no longer sharp. Biden talked about red and green states, the leader of Egypt was referenced as the President of Mexico. If you are a midday or afternoon host, updating the promo to this breaking news is imperative. The promo that you voiced before leaving the office is now out of date.
You don’t need to spend as much as I did on a microphone, but you can have a terrific-sounding home studio for less than $300. There is nothing worse than hearing an out-of-date show promo after a breaking news event.
Look in the mirror. Ask yourself if you are grabbing the attention of the actual people who love your show. Then think about people who just listen occasionally. Have you asked your PD for a tune-in report? Do you know how long your listeners are consuming your show? You perhaps may be shocked that your listeners are not with you every day. Then, you need to analyze how you can coax people who actually like your show to listen every day.
One of the biggest topics news/talk radio hosts, producers, programmers, and executives talk about is finding the next crop of stars.
Where will they come from? Is it podcasting? Is it local television? Are they currently lawyers or politicians?
All are viable avenues. You can point to each medium as a place where successful talk radio hosts have been discovered.
But, in my opinion, there’s a bigger question at play: how are talk radio hosts manufactured? Can you manufacture a talk radio host? Is it even possible? Do you just have to find the folks who exited their mother’s womb with the gift of gab?
Many want to jump into the format. Whether they be failed politicians, retired politicians, lawyers, performers, or music DJs aging out of their formats or just looking to share their political opinions, there’s still an influx of those looking to become the next Rush Limbaugh.
But is it as simple as some make it appear? Are there those just naturally gifted with the ability to sit down in front of a microphone and produce compelling content? Or can you work at it if you’re not a natural from day one?
I didn’t know the answer to those questions. So I set out to find the answer to the question: Are news/talk radio hosts born or made?
“Yes to both,” 95.5 WSB Director of Content Ken Charles said. “It’s the difference between book smart and street smart. Any good program director — and there’s lots of them in America — can teach the basic fundamentals of doing a talk show. I can hand you the recipe and the guide, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to pull it off,” continued Charles. “That intrinsic, unique, not only look at the world, but ability to do it and say it in a way that’s going to entertain an audience? You either got it or you don’t.”
The longtime programmer then equated the situation to that of a stand-up comedian.
“It’s like, I can write it. I can be funny sitting and talking to my friends. But if I did that same conversation on stage, I could booed and thrown out of the place,” Charles said. “I can be funny, but I can’t do that.”
After asking for a programmer’s opinion on the topic, KFI AM-640 early afternoon host John Kobylt answered the question similarly to Charles, in both theory and with a practical example.
“I think you have to be born with the talent. I could not imagine trying to teach somebody how to do a talk show,” Kobylt stated. “I think there are probably people who do stand-up comedy who would be good talk show hosts.”
Kobylt argued that some of the legends of late-night television transitioned from and utilized the skills they learned in radio.
“I think a lot of the TV talk show hosts, like Johnny Carson and David Letterman, they came out of radio. It came out of great disc jockeys that were forced to think spontaneously, on the air, live, interview people spontaneously when they were very young. And that’s why they were so good. All they had to do is transfer those skills they developed when they were 25 years old and do it behind the desk on television,” said Kobylt.
“They had the natural talent in them. But I don’t hear that anymore. Just general entertaining broadcasters aren’t on anymore. I hear goofy guys in the morning talking about reality shows and jukeboxes the rest of the day. The talk shows are almost entirely right-wing lecturing.”
Kobylt said he spent a year in Chicago in the early 1980s and said that many of the “general entertainers” heard in the Windy City at that time went on to become successful talk radio hosts, because they first learned to be entertainers on the radio, rather than strictly talk show hosts.
Similarly, longtime 700 WLW host Bill Cunningham thinks news/talk radio talents can be developed, but that ability needs to be mined from the potential hosts.
“I think you can develop talent but talent has to exist…I gotta have the basic ability and then I have to be given time,” said Cunningham. “At the beginning, I was given nine months or a year ’til the Challenger disaster. And then it took me a year of practice, practice, practice. I was on the air, and I was me. And, you know, you just can’t dive into it and say ‘I’ll try that and see if it works.’
“No, you have to you have to get to swim in that pool for a long time and be a marathon runner. You can’t be a sprinter. At the end of the sprint, you got another 100 meters to go and then you got another hundred, and another hundred. So it’s knowing what you want to say, being part of the community, connecting with large numbers of individuals, turn a phrase, have some good humor, provide some necessary information, and become a personality. That will take years.”
Like most things in the news/talk radio world, there are differing opinions, but the overarching sentiment appears to be, yes, you can make a news/talk host, but the true greats of the industry are born with an innate ability to connect with an audience that can’t be taught.
Verne Lundquist of CBS has announced his 40th Masters this April, will be his final one working for CBS. The 83-year-old Lundquist stopped calling SEC games afer 2016 and had mentioned in recent years his 40th Masters might be his last.
At Augusta, Lundquist is known for his time in the 16th hole tower each April. He also has two of his most famous calls, his “Yes, sir!” for Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and his “In your life have you seen anything like that?” for Tiger Woods in 2005.
Lundquist worked for ABC Sports from 1974 to 1981, CBS Sports from 1982-1995 and TNT from 1995-1997 before returning to CBS in 1998. From 2000-2016 he was the voice of the SEC on CBS. His final football game was the Army-Navy game on December 10, 2016.
Advanced screenings of the upcoming Apple TV documentary on the New England Patriots, ‘The Dynasty’ were sent out and The Greg Hill Show on WEEI discussed it this morning. Produced by Brian Grazer, of A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 fame, and Ron Howard’s Imagine Documentaries, The Dynasty: New England Patriots is set to debut with two episodes on Friday, February 16. In total, it will be a 10-episode series with two episodes dropping each Friday for five weeks.
Jermaine “Wiggy” Wiggins, who played three seasons for the Patriots from 2000-2002, said “The Dynasty series that’s coming out is going to be better than The Last Dance because it’s so long, in the sense you have a 20-year period, plus you sprinkle in a little bit of the Parcells era.”
Producer Chris Curtis then added, “It’s got everybody you wish you understood how they felt about specific things and they are all on the same show discussing it. If they treat the rest of the Patriots dynasty as they treated the Bledsoe benching, it is going to be the best documentary I have ever seen…It is just awesome.”
The hosts all agreed they might be a little biased when it comes to the story of the amazing run the Patriots went on in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era. However, other assessments, including one from Chad Graff of The Athletic, have given similar positive reviews.
A key focus of the documentary is the dynamic between Belichick and Brady and it examines what led Brady to leave the team after a 20-year run. A voiceover in the trailer Apple put out last year says, “These are two titanic figures of the franchise but they are two alphas. A collision was inevitable.”
While Belichick and Brady are clearly the stars of the show, team owner Robert Kraft is also featured heavily. The series goes in chronological order starting with the 2000 season and later hits on topics such as ‘Spygate,’ Aaron Hernandez and ‘Deflategate.’
In his review, The Athletic’s Graff said, “the documentary is gripping and a worthwhile watch, one that reveals how bad things had gotten with the Patriots before Brady’s departure.”
