Corby Davidson posted to X this morning that he has signed a new five year agreement with The Ticket in Dallas. Davidson is heard weekdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on The Hardlinealong with Bob Sturm and ‘Gen X Davey’ Lane.
Davidson reflects in his post on his journey from intern to where he is today, a span of 30 years, saying he “knew within about 5 seconds (The Ticket is) where I wanted to be.”
About the new extension with The Ticket, Davidson says it will be “ensuring I will begin and end my work life there.”
Davidson and Sturm have been together since early 2020, with Lane coming aboard the show in June of 2022.
Former President Donald Trump has revealed he knows who he will pick for his running mate should he win the Republican nomination for President. Clay Travis has a suggestion on who Trump should choose.
Donald Trump Jr. said Carlson was “on the table” for the Vice Presidency during a recent interview, saying he’d “love to see it happen”.
During The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show Thursday, Travis made no bones about it: he’d like to see former Fox News host Tucker Carlson join Trump on the 2024 Presidential ticket.
“Tucker Carlson, I think he’s the best VP pick,” Travis stated. “I’ve said it, and I’m not wavering on it. If Trump came to me and said ‘Clay, who would you take?’, I would say Tucker.”
Travis continued by saying Carlson has the qualities he’d like to see in a Vice President.
“You need a brawler, you need somebody who can take on the media because you’re going to deal with a rigged media that I think is going to make 2020 look like child’s play,” said Travis. “The stakes, to me, are even more elevated in 2024. I want a barroom brawler.
“Mike Pence is a nice guy. But Mike Pence, I think, would genuinely feel bad if he reamed out a report. I don’t think Tucker Carlson would, and I think that’s necessary. I think you have to turn the camera on to the inquisitors as it were and show how biased they all are.”
Patrick Keane, chief executive officer of the Action Network since 2018, announced that he is stepping down from the role. The sports betting content platform provides analysis, insights and other statistics in order to enhance the consumer experience. While Keane was leading the company, it was acquired by Better Collective in a deal worth $240 million that became official in May 2021. The transaction will officially take effect at the end of January, and there is no resolution on who will take his role.
In an internal email to staff, Keane called the experience of building and growing the Action Network “the most rewarding experience” of his professional career. Keane graduated Trinity College in Hartford with a degree in history and worked at Google as its director of sales strategy and product marketing. Additionally, he was responsible for managing a team overseeing sales strategy, research and analytics at CBS Interactive as its executive vice president and chief marketing officer.
“[When Better Collective] successfully acquired Action in the early summer of 2021, Action´s revenue for the 12 months leading up to the sale had exceeded $20 million, which included several months of full-blown COVID impact,” Marc Pederson, Better Collective North America chief executive officer, said in an email to staffers. “The rapid growth has continued and revenues have more than doubled since then. Patrick leaves behind a high-performing and fast growing organization.”
Before joining the company, Keane worked as the board director and eventual president of Sharethrough, an advertising software used by publishers, advertisers and app developers. He also served on the board of Bleacher Report for two years where he helped raise $32.5 million in Series C and D funding prior to its sale to Time Warner’s Turner division.
Keane’s departure comes two months after sports business reporter Darren Rovell left the company to serve as chief executive officer of Kickstand Cocktails. In his remarks, he conveyed how there is a rapid transition within the sports media business and missed “the dollars and cents reporting” that helped compel him to work in the field.
CBS and YES Network broadcaster Ian Eagle was a guest this week on ‘Evan & Tiki’ with Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber on WFAN to clear up the recent “controversy” he found himself embroiled in.
A video was posted to X of Eagle and “The Czar” Mike Fratello calling a New Jersey Nets-Boston Celtics game where Eagle and Fratello appear to have a bit of a spat.
Many people believed this was a recent event and began commenting about the way Eagle and Fratello spoke to each other. The video, posted by Mink Flow, has over 11.5 million views since being put up Tuesday night.
Unbeknownst to most those weighing in, the clip is from a game in 2011.
“I just wanna say that earlier, you had a very patronizing tone towards me,” Eagle says to Fratello. “I fully understand what a slip-screen is. I’ve been doing the NBA for 18 years. But the way you presented it initially was gobbledygook so, like the audience, I wanted you to come back and explain yourself. You then took a firing line on me, and it was uncalled for.”
Eagle joined Roberts and Barber from Portland where he was getting ready to call that evening’s Blazers-Nets game and said, “I woke up this morning in Portland to about 40 texts. I was told I was trending on X with the likes of ‘Jim Carrey’ and ‘Stock Market Crash,’ those were the three trending topics.”
Very sarcastically, Eagle continued, “I want to first thank ‘Mink Flow’ for puting this out there and allowing a whole new generation of people to think that I had an epic fight with ‘The Czar’ Mike Fratello on Yes. This was…12 years ago. Unfortunately I am hear to tell you – it was a gag. I don’t want to burst any bubbles, but it was a joke. In fact, ‘The Czar,’ at the end of that harangue, high fived me.”
While the two were clearly laughing about the discussion, the humor was missed by many, including Eagle’s own sister who he said called to check on his well-being.
“It was like Andy Kaufmann and Jerry Lawler, this was performance art,” Eagle said.
The conversation did turn serious for a moment as Eagle was asked about this past weekend when his son, Noah, called the Browns-Texans game for NBC while Ian worked the same game on radio for Westwood One.
“This was such a pivitol weekend in my personal life,” Eagle said. “I realized I went to Houston to do the game on radio, my son’s doing the game on TV, which was incredible. He had a better hotel than me, he had a better booth than me and then we took a picture toghether and I realized when I looked at the picture he was wearing better clothes than me.”
Eagle ended with, “I was really impressed and obviously very proud of how he handled himself.”
I’ve never heard a commentator get mad at his partner on live TV like this ???? pic.twitter.com/F6sJS01z53
Vice President of Network Operations Chris Thompson has been promoted to Senior Vice President of News and Programming. He joined the network in October 2020 with 20 years of radio experience. In the new role, Thompson will oversee news, content, and operations for the network.
Additionally, Angela Ingram has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Public Engagement. Like Thompson, Ingram joined the network in October 2020, and previously served as the Director of Local Advocacy and Engagement for BIN.
“Chris and Angela have been integral to the growth and success of the Black Information Network, and these new and expanded roles reflect their leadership. Chris has worked closely with our newsroom since day one and unifying our news and programming operations under his direction will enable us to grow and strengthen our network, podcast, and digital content at a faster pace,” BIN President Tony Coles said.
“I am equally excited about Angela’s new role, which will enable the Black Information Network to work even closer with leaders in government, business, and non-profits to improve our content, coverage, and impact.”
iHeartMedia’s Black Information Network is currently available on AM/FM radio in 34 markets across the nation.
While some analyze last weekend’s Peacock-exclusive NFL playoff game as a sign that we could one day see the Super Bowl only available on pay-per-view, Mike Francesa says don’t count on that anytime soon.
Listener Ryan emailed The Mike Francesa Podcast on Thursday, asking the legendary former WFAN host if that’s where he thought things were headed. NBC reported an audience of 23 million watched the Chiefs beat the Dolphins last Saturday night, the largest streaming audience of any kind in the U.S.
Francesa gave a pretty emphatic no.
“Ab-so-lute-ly not. It will never happen in – I don’t know how old you are, Ryan – it won’t happen in your lifetime, it won’t happen in my lifetime,” Francesa said. “It won’t happen in the unborn’s lifetime.”
“Congress will never allow championship games in America be played on pay TV. That will never happen,” he continued. “They will always be played on free TV, unless there isn’t free TV. That might change the dynamic, but I think we’re still a long, long way from that where there’s no free TV.”
Mike Francesa pivoted to the league, saying that as long as fans continue to buy in, they will continue to move more games to streaming.
“The NFL will continue in any way possible to grab every dollar and squeeze every dollar out of the best fanbase that any sport could ever dream of having,” he said. “They have a hundred million ardent fans. That is insanity. It’s beyond the realm of the league’s comprehension. And it is a golden goose that just keeps on giving.”
He finished his point by saying the NFL puts the fan last. It doesn’t matter how much money is too much.
“And they could care less about you, me or anybody else who is a fan of the sport,” Francesa said.
ESPN’s Rece Davis interviewed Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh one-on-one not long after Michigan won the national championship on January 8, and looking back, he had one regret.
Davis on The College GameDay Podcast this week, gave listeners and co-host Pete Thamel a little behind-the-scenes perspective of the chat.
Obviously, the big question with Harbaugh after the national title game was what does his coaching future hold. Harbaugh has already interviewed for two NFL head coaching vacancies with the Chargers and Falcons.
Davis said his gut instinct said Harbaugh was leaving, but he didn’t get an inkling either way when the two sat down.
“It wasn’t like he walked in there going, ‘I’ve done my job, and now I can’t wait to get back to the NFL,'” Davis said. “He was pretty much quintessential Harbaugh in terms of the way he answered it.”
Rece Davis told Thamel that he needed to come up with creative ways to ask Harbaugh about whether he would stay at Michigan or take another job elsewhere. He knew the coach wouldn’t answer definitively if he flat-out asked, “Are you leaving?”
“You know if you asked that, that direct, and it make you feel like a tough guy,” he said. “But you’re not getting anything. So I tried to find some ways to get to it.”
“He was very cordial and friendly and knew the questions were coming,” Davis added. “He was really good about it.”
But of the creative ways Rece could’ve asked the question, he said there was one that just slipped his mind.
“There’s always a question that you left on the table, and this was just a miss by me,” he said.
“I thought, the follow-up question that I missed – and I regret – what would it take to get you to leave Michigan?” Davis added. “That’s a pretty basic question that I missed, and I wish I had asked it that way.”
Still, Rece Davis felt like had he asked the question like that, Harbaugh wouldn’t have budged.
“I do take solace in this, Pete. Knowing Jim as you and I do, I would’ve gotten the same answer to that question had I asked it, that I had gotten with some of the others,” he said. “Which also would’ve been very similar to the answer that I would’ve gotten if I had said, ‘Jim what do you think about the move from horse-drawn carriages to modes of transportation by horseless carriage?’ It all would’ve been similar, but I do wish I had asked it. I wish I had asked it that way.”
The 2023 digital numbers are in for OutKick, and the outlet saw expansive growth in several key areas.
The company drew a monthly average of 7.2 million total multiplatform unique visitors for last year, up 65% compared to 2022, according to Comscore.
OutKick also experienced a 15% increase in total multiplatform views versus Q3 2023, with 73 million total multiplatform views.
“2023 was a tremendous year for OutKick,” founder Clay Travis said. “We’ve added new shows, top-tier talent, and most importantly continued to generate engaging content with a roster that’s unfiltered and fearless.”
For the year, OutKick saw 341 million total multiplatform views and 368 million total multiplatform minutes.
On social media, the company saw a 119% year-over-year increase in engagement on Facebook, X, and Instagram with 13.8 million social actions.
OutKick video content on Facebook, X, and YouTube had over 1 billion views, up 987% versus 2022 according to Shareablee.
Although there are many different types of interviews a reporter may conduct depending on a given situation, the importance of preparation carries through. Andrea Kremer has studied interviewing throughout her stellar journalistic career and employs various principles of the craft on a daily basis. Moreover, she teaches a graduate course at Boston University in which she teaches the art of interviewing and, as a result, scrutinizes her own proclivities in the process.
While Kremer values being prepared and has garnered a reputation of being a relentless, determined reporter, she also knows how to convey empathy and actively listen. Within many occurrences, journalists compile scrupulous notes and utilize them to form effective, compendious questions. Continuously analyzing the notes throughout the conversation, however, can cause a conversation to become trifling or futile due to sacrificing a level of focus.
“The objective is to hear from the subject,” Kremer explained, “and the shorter and tighter you can ask your question and get out of the way and let them speak, and then you kind of come in and do the heavy lifting with, ‘What do you mean by that?’ I call it peeling back the onion – get back details; keep them in the moment; let them express how they really think about something [and] take it past the superficial.”
When Kremer conducted an interview with Cincinnati Reds infielder Pete Rose, he observed that she did not glimpse at her notes once despite having them at the table. During this conversation, they served as a security blanket and resource if absolutely necessary. Leading up to a different interview, Kremer asked her boss at ESPN, John Walsh, if there was anything missing. In reply, he stated that she would know the subject of the conversation better than they know themselves, an epigrammatic remark underscoring the preceding nuance.
Combining her acumen with affability were innate characteristics Kremer worked to develop throughout her youth, even though she had no clear picture about a career in sports media. There was a paucity of women in the business at the time, and she does not remember any bonafide role models in the space. In fact, her penchant for sports was something she regarded as an anomaly.
While in high school, Kremer was a member of the Philadelphia Civic Ballet and contributed to the group while attending college at the University of Pennsylvania. Balancing her dance commitments with a triple minor in English, sociology and anthropology required focus and dedication. Because of her schedule, she would be unable to make certain Eagles games and ended up listening to the action on her Walkman.
Upon taking a leave of absence from law school at Fordham University after one year, Kremer applied her acumen of the humanities to writing dance and theater reviews for The Main Line Chronicle based in Ardmore, Pa. Because she enjoyed sports, the publication would occasionally let her write a sports story, and the first interview she ever conducted came after Dick Vermeil resigned as head coach of the Eagles.
Once the sports editor left the newspaper, she was appointed to the role and had to give up ballet in the process. Part of the role entailed her physically laying out the newspaper with an Exact-o-Knife to determine article placement. From there, she helped transform coverage of local sports from a broadsheet to a separate pullout titled SportsWeek Magazine. One of the stories she wrote centered on NFL Films, the production arm of the National Football League.
“When I was done interviewing the guy who would become my boss, he says to me, ‘Oh, would you like a tour?,’ and I’m sort of trying to play it very cool. ‘Yeah sure – I’m doing you a favor,’” Kremer recalled. “I’m walking around and my mind is getting blown by walking around NFL Films. When he walked me to the car when I was leaving, he said, ‘You’re just the person that we want to hire – somebody who knows how to write and really knows football.’”
Upon informing her mother of his emblematic statement, she compelled her to apply for a job at the outlet. Kremer wanted to wait until the completion of the 1984 Olympics to consider other roles though since she had interviews and coverage planned beforehand. After displaying an indefatigable work ethic that left her sick with mononucleosis while watching the Olympics from home, she remembered her experience at NFL Films and decided to try for the job.
“Like a semi-idiot, I apply right at the beginning of the football season – it doesn’t occur to me everything’s going to be done,” Kremer said. “But sometimes lightning is in a bottle because right at the time, NFL Films had started to produce rock videos, and so a lot of their producers were being moved over to do the videos, and they had an opening to produce for football.”
Following an interview and proficiency examination, Kremer was hired exactly one week later and started learning about television production. Entering broadcast television as a writer and producer helped bolster her skillset, allowing her to more effectively transition to doing on-camera reports three years later for This is the NFL.
Kremer served as her own producer, a recommendation she made to executive Steve Sabol in order to better facilitate her transition into the role. Previous experience performing in front of an audience also rendered her more comfortable overall and permitted her to compartmentalize the multitudinous array of responsibilities she possessed.
“Ballet gave me the discipline – it’s just that simple,” Kremer said. “That was hugely important to all that I was doing then and of course all the juggling that I continued to do throughout my career.”
ESPN demonstrated interest in hiring Kremer as its first female correspondent in 1989, and she originally operated out of Chicago, Ill. where she filed reports for programs such as Sunday NFL Countdown and SportsCenter. While she covered plenty of live games across various leagues, she fastidiously worked on longform, enterprise reporting that spanned beyond the final score. Conversations about her joining the network came from a lunch she had with executives John Walsh and Steve Anderson while at Super Bowl XXIII in Miami, Fla.
“To this day, I tell [John] Walsh – I said, ‘I’m the best draft pick you ever made,’ because what do you do with a draft pick? You project, right? They may be really good, but you’ve got to project how they’re going to be at the next level,” Kremer articulated. “Here I am at NFL Films essentially working for house organ; working for a league, and now I’m going to be a real journalist.”
Recent reports have indicated that The Walt Disney Company is in advanced discussions with the NFL that would have the league sign on as a minority stakeholder of ESPN. As part of the deal, the NFL Media portfolio of brands would reportedly be placed under the control of Disney. The NFL accounted for 93 of the top-100 most-watched television programs last year, according to data from Nielsen Media Research, and reportedly earns more than $12 billion per year on its media rights alone. ESPN serves as the home of Monday Night Football, which recently attained its most-viewed season since 2000 placing games across broadcast (ABC), cable (ESPN/ESPN2) and digital platforms (ESPN+/Hulu).
“Now you may have ESPN, which has some terrific journalists there if they’re allowed to really do their job, and you have to wonder if that’s the case if they’re going to be in partnership with an actual league that they’re supposed to cover,” Kremer said. “I just shake my head at how that would work.”
Prognosticating what the future of objective, unfettered journalism could look like amid consolidation and augmented content is considered by many people to be an arduous task. There are signs though that point to its endangerment, such as a record number of layoffs in media last year and emphasis on abbreviated storytelling that can lack necessary context.
“I’m not naïve to the economics of it,” Kremer added. “The economics – it may be a great deal for both, but from a journalistic standpoint, how can anybody just not wince and kind of put your hands up [and say], ‘Oh my gosh, what’s happening here?’”
As means of instant gratification rise in prominence within the media ecosystem, long-form storytelling that examines an issue in-depth are at risk of becoming extinct. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, the Emmy award-winning investigative series on HBO, was canceled after 29 years, but it made an immeasurable impact in many different facets of the industry.
“Without getting political in any way, I don’t care what genre you’re in – sports; politics; whatever – it’s still about speaking truth to power and having accountability, and I hope I’m not becoming a dinosaur in feeling that way, but I have to,” Kremer said. “I have to think that there’s still going to be room for this and it’s just not going to go away.”
During her 17 years as a correspondent for the program, Kremer traveled around the world to report on various different stories related to sports. The final report she filed with the show involved Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, who discussed his struggles with addiction, a DUI arrest and his experiences in rehabilitation. A recent police report revealed that Irsay had been found unresponsive in his home last month and was struggling to breathe, something that may seem prescient because of the timing just after the interview.
“I did a story again on marijuana use in the NFL and legalized sports betting before it became legalized here,” Kremer said. “We did all these stories, and the number of stories the correspondents have done where six months later; a year later; whatever it is and we had it first – we were looking into these issues well before they came into the rest of the mainstream media. It’s really kind of amazing, and just the ability to delve into these things and to really, really, really take your time to tell the best story.”
Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay is grateful to be alive after years of addiction nearly destroyed him. In his first in-depth interview, Irsay details his painful journey with our @Andrea_Kremer. The new episode of #RealSports streams tomorrow, only on @streamonmax. pic.twitter.com/TQ2Tq2Vcle
Sideline reporters within a live football broadcast enhance the overall storytelling surrounding the game at hand by rapidly delineating information to the audience. In the week leading up to a game, they often have conversations with players, coaches and other team personnel to provide context and garner additional information. Kremer worked in this role for Sunday Night Football during its first five seasons on NBC, but it was a job that she was not sure she wanted to take. Although Kremer would get to work with play-by-play announcer Al Michaels and analyst John Madden, both of whom moved from ABC/ESPN to NBC, she had never done sideline reporting in the past and informed her agent of such.
“He said, quoting Dick Ebersol, ‘Dick wants the best reporter and he thinks you’re the best reporter,’” Kremer recalled. “What it also enabled me to do was to work with the Olympics, and that was, I would say the primary reason to take the job.”
Kremer embarked on a six-month period that included assignments that she knows some people never get to do in their careers. In the summer of 2008, she was in Beijing and covered swimmer Michael Phelps as he won eight gold medals. She was then on the sidelines for Sunday Night Football, which led up to NBC’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLIII six months later. The Pittsburgh Steelers sealed the game on a touchdown pass from quarterback Ben Rothlisberger to wide receiver Santonio Holmes in a moment that lives in football lore.
Throughout her career, Kremer stayed true to herself as a journalist and has had a reverence for her colleagues. In the modern media environment though, some on-air talent are establishing themselves independent of a network wherein they have latitude in their discourse and conduct. When Kremer and Hannah Storm had their broadcast of Thursday Night Football canceled by Amazon Prime Video ahead of the 2023 NFL season after five years, she was disappointed but did not have a visceral reaction.
“I can be bitter, but I don’t know where that gets you,” Kremer explained. “I can say pretty unequivocally it wasn’t personal to Hannah and me – it’s the business, and this is how things are. A person can get all bent out of shape about it and you can get angry, but I feel that relationships are the key to success in any profession. It’s just that simple.”
Following the cancellation of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Kremer took time to reflect on how she feels about the profession at this point in her career. Asking herself questions pertaining to her own motivation, work ethic and skill level, she was able to retain her sanguinity despite the disappointment yielded from the outcome.
“I feel that I’m still at the top of my game, and more than that, I’m still challenged,” Kremer said. “I’m still learning, and I still want to get better.”
Kremer continues to appear on the CBS Sports Network original program We Need To Talk, now in the midst of its 10th year on the air. The program analyzes the world of sports from the perspective of women, and it includes many respected, accomplished professionals such as Tracy Wolfson, Lesley Visser and Amy Trask. Various athletes also contribute to the monthly program, including Renee Montgomery, Swin Cash and Lisa Leslie. The show derived from an idea that there needed to be a show similar to The View for women discussing sports.
“There is a tremendous esprit de corps with all the women, and that just makes it extra fun – it really does – to work with people that you genuinely like,” Kremer said. “I think that we’re not just out there screaming. I think we have really thoughtful commentary [and] informed opinions.”
While there were no examples for Kremer in sports media when she was younger, she has secured a different reality for women interested in building careers in the industry. Whether it is through her storytelling or power to penetrate boundaries and achieve unprecedented success, she is cognizant of the impact she has had on people. Through her vast experience and dedication to the job, she was able to embark on a journey that catalyzed progress and inspired countless aspiring professionals.
“Right before our first Amazon game, I got an email from a guy,” Kremer said. “…He basically says, ‘Good luck to you women. Know that when young girls wake up Friday morning, they’re going to know that an entirely new dream is possible,’ and Hannah and I look at each other like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ That’s pretty powerful – that’s pretty powerful.”
Kremer is one of three women who has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, attaining the honor as the recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award in 2018. The award is granted to a media member for outstanding contributions to the sport through modicums of communication. She will soon receive another accolade as the only woman to be inducted as a member of the Class of 2024 into the National Sports Media Association’s Hall of Fame. Kremer greatly values being able to share the distinction with her family, affirming that they helped make her career possible.
“It’s like what I said in my Pro Football Hall of Fame speech to my son,” Kremer explained. “I said, ‘I always told you that mom goes away because she has to, not because she wants to, and hopefully you realize that me being away was worthwhile to an extent.’”
As a pioneer in the industry and an inspiration to journalists everywhere, Kremer hopes people realize that the honor spans beyond a mere popularity contest. Additionally, it is meaningful for her to accept the award and praise while she continues to work on a variety of projects with entities such as NFL Network and CBS Sports, all of which are geared towards candid reporting and unfeigned journalism.
“It’s just a reflection on my work, and that’s what I hope resonates for young journalists,” Kremer said. “Today they call it ‘building your brand.’ I never thought about building my brand, but I built a brand and I didn’t even know it – as somebody who takes journalism seriously. And it’s not like I set out to do that – that’s for darn sure – but that’s what happens.”
Women in sports media have had to fight through many uphill battles over the years and still face levels of unwarranted criticism because of their gender. The poise and strength of women in the space spans far beyond the misogynistic commentary and impugning rhetoric perpetuated on a daily basis, and Kremer is honored to have played a part therein.
As Kremer and countless other women continue to shatter the proverbial glass ceiling and eradicate stereotypes, they have firmly placed a doorstop at the foyer of opportunity. Despite many attempts to slam it shut, the door is simply not moving, cemented into the ground and kept accessible to all.
“When I was a kid, there was nobody I could look up to and say, ‘I want to do what she does. I want to be what she is,’” Kremer conveyed. “Now hopefully, myself and so many other women out there are in a position where young girls can say, ‘I want to do what she does. I want to be who she is.’”
From the Penthouse to the Dog House to God’s House, KDWN host Steve Sanchez believes he has the #1 radio show in Las Vegas because of God.
“I’m on a mission from God. You know, I really feel that I do, and not in a religious aspect,” Sanchez told Barrett News Media over a Zoom call. “I’m not against religion. I think there are beautiful religions around the world. But religions are man-made, man-made doctrine, man-made rituals, and traditions. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m just more a relationship guy.”
He later added, “I’m a believer in Christ. I was saved, I saw where my life was, and I see where it is now. Only God. That’s it. Only God. Because there’s no other explanation. There’s no other explanation of who I used to be to who I am today. And so that’s why that stays very important and is really a fundamental core for me.”
Steve Sanchez was born in Merced, California to an almond rancher. “[It was a] great, great place to grow up. And then went to college, graduated, moved to San Diego, met my wife, and then 25 years ago, relocated out here to the desert.”
He worked in the financial sector which he called The Penthouse, which sent him to the Dog House. “When you’re younger and you’re making a lot of money, you have a tendency to not discipline yourself. At least I did.” He added, “What we were doing was just spending everything we’d bring in, and yet I was advising clients to do the opposite.”
The now 54-year-old said, “We went from that penthouse living in terms of just making a ton of money and living the dream to facing bad choices, bad investment decisions, and practically losing almost everything. And so during that time, it started putting a strain on our marriage, because communication and finances are two of the biggest things that dissolve a marriage. We decided to say maybe we need to give this God thing a try. We’ve tried everything else.”
Sanchez said he and his wife were invited to a religious marriage retreat, “And it changed our lives. We became born again.” He later added “We’re not religious people. I’m just not a big religious guy, but just a real faithful relationship with Jesus changed our lives, our perspective, our thinking, the way we had money, the way we handled our marriage or life, our children, our business.”
Steve Sanchez also said “[When we] really started just putting everything down and the burdens on to God, as he says to do, our life changed. And not that it doesn’t give us challenges. Yeah, we’re humans, we’re going to have challenges. But it opened up doors of opportunity just like this.”
Soon after, Sanchez’s “Real, Raw, and Relevant” talk show all came about by chance. “Back in 2009, a buddy of mine had a radio show and he said, look, why don’t you just partner with me?” Sanchez said yes, telling BNM, “I came on as a frequent guest host for a financial talk radio show. And so I started doing that with him. And then he, after about a year, said, ‘Look, it’s not something I want to do anymore’ and the station manager said, ‘Look, we really like you. We think you’ve got something to offer for radio, but we would like to offer you a show on the weekends and do more of a talk radio show, not a financial show. Just talk radio.’”
The station’s reasoning for the pivot? “‘When you would come on with your buddy, you would talk a lot about what’s going on in the culture or politics.’ And so that’s what happened,” He added, “I was offered a weekend show on Sundays, that show two years later, is on in 73 markets and syndication on Sunday nights and here we are now.”
Steve Sanchez frames his show not for the left or right but for Americans as a whole. “When you look around today, the country is really divided. Left, right, this, that, and the other. And I got caught into that for a long time. For a lot of years, especially in the early days of radio.”
He added, “Everything has to just be the conservative way, the conservative ways, the way and I’ve learned that that’s not really the case. I’ve learned that even though I’m a conservative in values, there are some things that I’m more libertarian on. And so I started thinking maybe we needed to stop with the label stuff and start talking like Americans. And what did our framers envision for the country? God, family, country.”
Today, Sanchez keeps a few questions in mind when doing a show on KDWN.
“When I’m talking about something politically or culturally [relevant], I always try to go back and say, ‘How does God view this for me?’ And when I hear that, how am I going to present it to the audience? I don’t want to be preachy, because my job is not to be an evangelist and to turn people over to what I believe. My job is just to be authentic with people and say, ‘This is what I believe in. Here’s why’, and I can back it by here’s what our framers and our founders envisioned. Here’s what the Bible — which is my worldview — believes and I tie it in. But I’m very respectful of other’s opinions. And so we may have debates on it. But in this great country, the Constitution affords us to believe what we want to believe.”
Steve Sanchez said he likes to keep his 3-hour format simple. “What we’ve done is what we like to do is in the first hour of the show, we like to open up with something that is culturally appropriate for everybody… Our second hour of the show, that’s more of our political hour. We start talking about politics and, and how politics play a role into what we just talked about in the first hour.”
He then said, “Typically our third hour is let’s let the community get on a soapbox and voice their opinion, and we open up our show for calls. We get more calls than we can handle.”
Of his show structure Steve Sanchez said, “That recipe has worked really well that that recipe is, I think, a recipe for success.”
Another part of Sanchez’s success is because he’s not the normal talk radio guy.
“People relate to that because I think more people are like me, where we’re not [wearing] a suit and tie guy every single day, and those people are forgotten in America. Our job is to kind of remind the establishment and the powers that be that these people who look like me basically have built the country. And we can’t forget them.”
