Stephen A. Smith has been ESPN’s top dog for over a decade, and during his next contract negotiations, he plans to be paid like it — whether it’s ESPN or someone else signing the checks.
OutKick’s Clay Travis recently sat down with Stephen A. Smith and discussed a variety of media topics, including the latter’s next paycheck. Travis said that he hopes the price of top media personalities continues to rise, and asked Smith if it was important to him that he was the highest-paid talent at ESPN. Stephen A. did not mince words in his response.
“Yes. I’m not stuttering,” Stephen A. said. “Hell, yes, that’s absolutely true. I’ve mastered my own business in the world of sports television. Clay Travis, I’ve been number one for 12 years. April 1st will mark 12 consecutive years I’ve been number one. Not only have I been number one every year, I’ve been number one every week in every month of every year for the last 12 years. You don’t get to say that about too many people.
“I look at whether it’s Pat McAfee as Mike Greenberg, Scott Van Pelt, it’s Troy Aikman, it’s Joe Buck, it’s Kirk Herbstreit. The list goes on and on. I’m so honored to have the colleagues that I have that I work with at ESPN every day. And at the end of the day, it would be nice for one day for this man to stand before everyone and be like, this is not I’m number one and this says I’m number one.”
Notably, Stephen A. mentions Joe Buck and Troy Aikman by name there because the Monday Night Football hosts are currently the only two ESPN talents that make more than Smith.
According to figures provided by TheSpun, Stephen A. makes $12 million per year, while Buck and Aikman make $15 million and $18 million per year, respectively.
However, Stephen A.’s value is much better for ESPN, as while the MNF duo only does one show with sporadic appearances across the network, Smith is everywhere. He does First Take, he has his own show, he covers the NBA on NBA Countdown, he hosts an alternate NBA telecast, he does appearances for other ESPN programs, and even finds time to guest star on ABC’s General Hospital. Smith knows he’s valuable to ESPN and Disney, but knows he’s set himself up for a life outside of them both should it come to that point.
“I’ve got my own YouTube channel,” Smith said. “I’ve got my own show. It’s not even just a podcast. It’s a show with a fully loaded television studio. That’s what I built for myself, that could go linear or digital. The list goes on and on. I’m doing all of these things. I’m not doing all of that to be in second place. I’m not doing all of that to look up at somebody else to see that they’re making more than me when I’m producing superior ratings and revenue. No, I’m not doing that. And I’m not apologizing to anybody for it.”
Stephen A. Smith finished his answer with poignant words for Disney and ESPN.
“Again, I’ve got great relationships and what have you, but this is a business and Disney has a right to run its business the way it sees fit. ESPN does as well. But if they do, so do I. I hope that we’re able to work it out. I’m confident that we will, because I’m incredibly happy there. We’ll see.”
ESPN has unveiled a new alternate presentation for its coverage of the NBA in tandem with Hartbeat and Omaha Productions. Award-winning actor and comedian Kevin Hart will host the broadcast, titled NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart, which will also feature the Plastic Cup Boyz, Joey Wells, Will Horton and Na’im Lynn. These programs will be focused on how Hart and his friends watch the NBA and feature discussion and debate. Moreover, there will be special guest appearances from top athletes and celebrities.
The program will make its debut in tandem with the NBA In-Season Tournament Championship Game at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN2 and the ESPN app. Concurrently, the traditional broadcast of the contest begins at the same time and features the network’s new lead broadcast team of Mike Breen, Doris Burke and Doc Rivers, and is set to air on ABC.
Throughout the NBA season, seven episodes of NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart will air in accordance with marquee games on ESPN platforms. At the moment, the other broadcasts of this alternate presentation that have been announced will take place on Friday, Jan. 5 and Wednesday, April 10, both on ESPN2 at 7:30 PM ET.
Hart founded Hartbeat, the global multi-platform media company that seeks to create entertaining content intersecting between comedy and culture. The entity is involved in creating the award-winning digital talk show Cold As Balls, along with the Olympic Highlights show featuring Hart and award-winning rap artist Snoop Dogg.
Omaha Productions, which was founded by Peyton Manning, has contributed to various ESPN alternate broadcasts in the past, including the NBA in Stephen A’s World and Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, colloquially known as the “ManningCast.”
More dates for NBA Unplugged with Kevin Hart will be announced as the NBA season continues. Additionally, all of these broadcasts will be available to watch on the ESPN app.
Barrett News Media has learned that the station’s top programming boss has been let go as part of cost-cutting measures by the company.
Gress began programming New Jersey 101.5 in January 2018 after 14 years of leading CBS Radio’s classic hits station WOGL in Philadelphia. In 2020, she added programming duties at station WPST, a CHR station.
Her other prior stops include urban formatted Power 99 and smooth jazz WJJZ in Philadelphia, and Q105 in Tampa, among others.
Under her leadership, New Jersey 101.5 finished the Trenton spring ratings period with a 7.9 share in the 6+ demographic, 2nd overall among all local stations. The dominant talk brand featuring Bill Spadea, Deminski and Doyle, and Dennis and Judi also delivered a 5.2 share in the Middlesex-Summerset-Union market.
WBAP has announced that Carla Marion will join the station’s morning show in 2024.
In a post to X, the station announced that Marion will join longtime hosts Ernie Brown and Hal Jay in January.
#NewsTalk820WBAP welcomes back Carla Marion starting in Jan 2024 as part of Ernie, Carla and Hal Jay on WBAP's Morning News, Weekdays 5am till 9. pic.twitter.com/6gD0Uqoyls
Marion has a history in the Dallas radio market. She worked at all-news KRLD as a morning news anchor before being part of widespread CBS Radio layoffs in 2008 while on maternity leave. She subsequently joined WBAP as a news anchor and reporter in 2009 before departing the station in 2013.
She joins the Cumulus radio station after serving as a Communications and Media Specialist for the McKinney, TX Police Department.
In a post to Facebook, Marion shared that she was “extremely honored to have been asked to once again be part of this legendary team of broadcasters. I will absolutely miss everyone at the incredible McKinney Police Department who have been so supportive of me over these last six years. Y’all took a risk on hiring a civilian and I hope I represented you well. It was an honor to work among so many real life heroes.”
WBAP’s Morning News is heard from 5-9 AM each weekday morning on the Cumulus-owned station.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly is set to co-moderate the fourth Republican presidential debate on NewsNation Wednesday. Ahead of the debate, Kelly has shared her opinions on credibility, and how Fox News has seen a hit in that department.
“That was a serious reputational wound that they took in connection with those [Dominion and Smartmatic false voter fraud] stories – up and down the line, in connection with all of those stories. They haven’t recovered from it,” Kelly told Semafor’s Max Tani. “Their audience isn’t what it used to be — in comparison to MSNBC and CNN, it’s fine. But their reputation in the industry hasn’t recovered. And I don’t know that it will.”
Kelly has been critical of her former employer in many aspects since she departed Fox News in 2017. She was a vocal critic of the network after it removed Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
As she prepares to moderate Wednesday’s event alongside NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas and Washington Free Beacon’s Eliana Johnson, Megyn Kelly was critical of moderators of the previous debate, especially NBC’s Kristen Welker.
“I know how to do it, and it’s frustrating for me to watch others do it and not have my own try at it,” she said. “They had this opportunity certainly at the last debate, and the one before that as well, but they just didn’t take it. Huge frustration of mine watching the earlier debates, especially the NBC one. This is not an interview. This is not a chance for Kristen Welker to ask a question of the candidate and hear whatever answers are interesting to her. No one cares. They can watch Meet the Press for that. We need to watch them debate each other so we can see what the differences are.”
KUGN 590 in Eugene, Oregon has announced a new daily lineup under the direction of new Program Director Jerry Petuck, who took over in October.
The station will continue to air the syndicated Armstrong & Getty in morning drive. The Chris Plante Show will now reduce from its full three-hour show to airing from 10 AM-Noon.
The biggest change to the station’s lineup is the move of The Sean Hannity Show. Previously, the show aired from 7-10 PM. Now, it will be heard from 12-3 PM. The Mark Levin Show will continue to be heard from 3-6 PM.
The Ben Shapiro Show, which was previously aired from 1-2 PM, will now be heard from 6-7 PM.
KUGN 590 is the flagship home of the University of Oregon Ducks athletics teams, and the station will now air Duck Insider from sister station 95.3 The Score from 7-8 PM.
In addition to The Ben Shapiro Show, the station will also air the other two syndicated offerings from The Daily Wire, with The Matt Walsh Show airing from 8-9 PM, with the one-hour Michael Knowles Show following from 9-10 PM.
The final College Football Playoff rankings shook up the college football world on Sunday. Undefeated ACC champion Florida State was the first team left out of the 2023 CFP in favor of one-loss SEC champion Alabama. In Cleveland on 92.3 The Fan, host Ken Carman theorized that no matter what the Seminoles did against Louisville in the ACC title game, the playoff committee was always going to keep FSU out of the semifinals. And for good reason.
ESPN, which runs the ACC and SEC Network and owns the vast majority of college bowl games, is in cahoots with the CFP and the SEC to lure Florida State into the same conference as their in-state rivals at Florida.
It’s clear in Carman’s eyes that Florida State is a football-first school, and they deserve to be in a conference that sees the value in football over being a strong basketball conference.
“They left them out, and they wanted to do it cause they want the ACC to break up,” Ken Carman said. “They (the SEC) want them all, and they know Florida State.”
Co-host Anthony Lima said the quarterback situation at FSU was completely different than what Ohio State had in 2014 when Cardale Jones led the Buckeyes through the playoff and to a national championship in place of J. T. Barrett.
Lima said the Seminoles lacked the ability to successfully politick their way into the playoff, because they didn’t have a capable backup quarterback to answer the call against the likes of Michigan or Washington.
“How are you gonna politick?” he asked. “Nobody thinks you’re half as good of a team as you were when you had a star quarterback. That’s a big difference.”
“If they won by 40 against Louisville, they weren’t getting in,” Carman responded. “It was Alabama played the right team at the right time and beat the right team at the right time.”
“I think for a lot of Florida State fans and for a lot of general college football fans, 13-0’s better than 12-1. Don’t give a damn,” he later added. “They should be in and not you. But this is where ESPN gets exactly what they want. And this isn’t anti-ESPN. It’s just the truth of how I see it.
“It’s the beginning of the end of the ACC. Clemson will go with them. Throw in another couple if you want to. Maybe the Big Ten will grab a couple, even though I don’t know how many programs they would actually want. Maybe the Big 12, who is trying to position itself as THE basketball conference, goes and gets more. But hell, they already got 16 teams in the conference. How many more can you take?”
Florida State being left out of the College Football Playoff semifinals brought out plenty of conspiracies and beliefs that ESPN and personalities like Kirk Herbstreit somehow manipulated the rankings.
Herbstreit appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Monday, where Pat joked that Kirk gets to decide who gets in the playoff as well as other awards like the Heisman.
Kirk tried to quell anything floating around that might insinuate he makes any big decisions like that.
“I know you’re kidding, but there’s some people that think you’re serious when it comes to ESPN or me or anybody having any agenda or having anything to do with these teams,” he said. “It’s the committee that ultimately decides what’s going to happen.”
“I don’t have an agenda on anything other than I just want to see the subjective analysis of who the best four teams are,” Herbstreit added.
Kirk Herbstreit continued by saying that some of the loudest voices are misunderstanding what factors into what schools make the final four.
He explained that it was clear that Michigan was one and Washington two. The next group of teams to consider was called a cluster and consisted of programs like Alabama, Texas, Florida State and Georgia. Herbstreit was reading from what the playoff committee has to go off of when it comes to generating a final ranking.
“Conference championship, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition is another thing,” he said. “Comparative outcomes with a common opponent. None of these are weighted more than the other. And the last thing is other relevant factors such as unavailability of key players or coaches that may have affected a team’s performance or likely will affect its postseason performance.”
“That’s where this, to me, that’s what separated these teams,” he said. “You couldn’t put Alabama ahead of Texas, Texas beat Alabama. Based on all of those things I just mentioned, they must’ve said, Texas is gonna go to number three probably because of the head-to-head. And then you got Alabama and Florida State and Georgia.”
When a visitor travels to New York City, the presence of sports is undeniable. There are connections to the games virtually everywhere in the five boroughs, including within Central Park, Times Square and Grand Central Terminal, locations that are synonymous with the effervescent and pulse of the bustling locale. Whenever he is on the air in his home city, Don La Greca pulls no punches. He seeks to convey his passion and appreciation for the metropolis by always being genuine with his audience and seldom timid with what he has to say.
One day when La Greca was in St. Louis to call a matchup between the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues, he observed the rubicund complexion of the city. Concurrent with the St. Louis Cardinals’ appearance in the World Series, the water in the Kiener Plaza fountain was dyed red. Baseball overshadowed hockey, a regular occurrence in the Gateway to the West, something that La Greca knows would never happen in “The Big Apple” due to the vested rooting interests of different fan bases in one city.
“There’s nine professional sports teams – and that’s not counting the soccer teams and the WNBA and all of that – and it always seems like something’s going on [and] there’s so many different directions to go into,” La Greca said. “That just makes New York so special.”
One of the most difficult parts of preparing for an episode of The Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York is trying to determine the best opening topic that will appeal to the audience. On top of that, the program is simulcast to viewers on YES Network and remains a fixture in afternoon drive across multiple platforms. The show has been on the air for over 21 years on ESPN New York, with La Greca’s voice being the first heard on the station when it broadcast on the airwaves on 1050 AM. That has led to a run that he didn’t foresee taking place two decades ago.
Over the last several years, there have been various changes associated with ESPN Radio as a whole. Good Karma Brands purchased the 1050 AM frequency as part of a larger deal with ESPN for some of its local radio properties, and the outlet has been operating 98.7 ESPN under a local marketing agreement (LMA) between ESPN and Emmis Communications. The management structure of the outlet has changed due to these transactions, which was headlined by the departure of longtime station general manager Tim McCarthy.
“We’re not all together like we were before [the pandemic] where I can just walk down the hall and see my boss and see everybody together,” La Greca said, “so there’s that little kind of separation anxiety there, but the connection that I feel – I’ll see them at the suite at [Madison Square] Garden when I stop by – they’re good people; they’re so interested and invested in us doing well.”
Working in afternoon drive grants La Greca, along with co-hosts Michael Kay and Peter Rosenberg, the ability to react to breaking news and preview games that are set to take place that night. La Greca has worked in radio in parts of four decades and does not take his presence in a drive-time slot for granted, cherishing every day he is afforded the opportunity to go on the air.
“It’s where it’s all buzzing,” La Greca said. “I like afternoons better than mornings because I feel like mornings are more recapping the night before and having a little bit more fun; not as serious. I feel like afternoons is when things are happening.”
When the program first took the air in 2002, La Greca affirmed that he was told by ESPN New York management that he was going to be co-hosting with Kay. Conversely, he shared that Kay, the television play-by-play voice of the New York Yankees, was informed that La Greca was back at the ESPN New York studios to take over just in case his line dropped. After the first few days, La Greca became more confused and indignant towards the on-air arrangement before achieving clarity regarding the situation.
“We laughed later about the miscommunication or whatever, and then eventually I started doing updates on his show on a consistent basis,” La Greca said, “and he opened the door for me too because he didn’t have to talk to me; he didn’t have to bring me in. But it was the infancy of the radio station, so the calls weren’t hopping all the time, and he would ask me about this and that.”
As La Greca and Kay became more comfortable with one another, he eventually assumed responsibilities as a permanent co-host on the program. Even so, his name has never been included in the title of the show, something that does not affect his relationship with Kay. It does bother him when guests don’t realize the show includes more than just the eponymous co-host.
“Anybody that listens to the show knows what I do and how important my element is to the show, but it does bother me sometimes,” La Greca said. “We all have some sort of an ego where I wish there was a way that my name could be on the show, but at the end of the day it’s never been anything to make me want to leave or make any demands.”
Despite Kay and La Greca not being pleased with adding a third person to the show in 2015, management at ESPN New York informed them that it was going to happen either way. Early on, both co-hosts came to realize that Peter Rosenberg being included was a shrewd decision because of his versatile abilities and the elements he adds to the conversation. Rosenberg continues to co-host Ebro in the Morning on HOT 97 before appearing on The Michael Kay Show in afternoons, equating to seven-and-a-half hours on the air per day across the music and sports formats.
“We were able to build a nice rapport with each other, and I think Michael sensed that we were getting along and it just kind of came together so that when baseball season was over he was able to mesh,” La Greca said. “Michael works very well with people – you can tell with all the different analysts he has on television that he can work with anybody – so once he saw that we had built the chemistry, it was just easy for him to plug himself in.”
There are plenty of different sports to discuss during the course of the calendar year. Over the last decade though, professional football teams in the New York metropolitan area have largely struggled to compete for Super Bowl championships – let alone qualify for the playoffs.
“We kind of all just come to a common ground of what we think will kind of set the tone for the show and go from there,” La Greca said, “but if you look at it in the grand scheme of things, it just feels like any time you talk football, it’s the right direction to move because the phones light up [since] people just love the sport so much.”
La Greca is often associated with on-air rants; in fact, The Michael Kay Show once kept a counter marking the days without one of his verbal tirades. Whether it’s been comments made by Giants offensive tackle Evan Neal or Ed Kranepool being the “forever player” for the Mets, La Greca exhibits fervor and dedication towards the local teams. The rants serve as a visceral catharsis towards what he is feeling inside, and he is able to create a transformation for these sentiments into zealous vernacular for the topics at hand.
“When I rant, I feel like I’m being me,” La Greca said. “I’m giving my opinion on something, and I’m showing you exactly how I feel at that particular moment and I think the listener appreciates it.”
As a radio host, La Greca knows that he is unable to partake in what he refers to as “the game,” which involves instigating disagreement with his co-hosts related to certain topics. In ruminating on his place on the show, he tries to remain genuine to himself and the way he views sports. Exuding self-confidence and a dedication to honesty on the air, La Greca yearns to never waver from his approach and refrains from holding back.
“When people think that my rants are made-up, it bothers me because I lose control of myself,” La Greca said. “I’m like, ‘Geez, you think I’m making this up?’ I wish I had that kind of control because I can’t stop from just laying it all out there and just pouring my heart out in everything that I do.”
While The Michael Kay Show has a legion of loyal listeners and fans, the program has finished consistently behind WFAN in afternoons in the Nielsen ratings. La Greca and his colleagues currently go head-to-head with Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber, but previously competed against Craig Carton and Evan Roberts, and Mike Francesa prior to that. During his time at WFAN, Carton made it no secret that he took pleasure in beating ESPN New York, referring to the outlet as a joke that never took local radio seriously.
In viewing WFAN from afar, La Greca posits that the programs are being generated by the hosts’ interest in teams rather than discussing all the teams. Moreover, there have been instances in his opinion that reveal a deviation from what ESPN New York looks to accomplish within its programming.
“It feels like they’re going after it with the hanging up on Carl Banks and the morning show going after Gary Myers,” La Greca explained. “It just seems like they’re a little bit more aggressive, and if that works for them, that’s great.”
Before he joined ESPN New York, La Greca worked at WFAN where he provided overnight updates and occasionally contributed within dayparts. Being able to foster the tenacity to discuss sports on the air at such a young age came from always possessing an opinion. Although it bothered a lot of people when he was younger, his friends thought it was cool when he would become enraptured in mini-rants about different topics. For parts of 11 years, La Greca was employed at a pharmacy, which is where he learned of Art Rust Jr. and his sports talk show on ABC.
“I couldn’t believe there was somebody out there with a photographic memory who remembered all these things,” La Greca said. “I was like, ‘I could do that,’ and then the FAN came and it was like a dream come true.”
La Greca majored in communications at Ramapo College, taking six semesters to graduate because of his interminable commitment to the campus radio station. While he was an intern at KROCK, he met Maria Milito, a disk jockey who was married to Pete Walker, the owner of Phone Programs.
The connection helped him land a job with the company in New York City where he would place cassettes into a Marantz deck and load the program into another machine. After some time, La Greca moved to Sports Phone on Long Island where he worked as a supervisor, barely breaking even because of the funds he had to set aside for gas and tolls as part of his lengthy commute.
One day, he was betting on winning a football pool in order to make extra money but ended up losing, prompting him to go home and express his frustration by throwing things in his house. When his father discovered his son in an incensed state, he offered to help get him into the Public Service Enterprise Group, the company where he worked. That opportunity would start at $60,000 a year. La Greca realized then how hard he had been working to succeed in sports media and knew that he had to see his dream through, even if there were no guarantees.
“It wasn’t about the money,” La Greca said. “It was about just wanting to do what I wanted to do for a living, and so he understood that. He never bothered me again, and it really worked out.”
Following this epiphany, La Greca was introduced to Steve Malzberg, a talk show host at WABC. As it turns out, Malzberg was put in charge of hiring at Shadow Sports and helped catalyze La Greca being hired by 1010 WINS. People at WFAN heard him on the air at 1010 WINS and had him move to the all-sports outlet, but La Greca quickly realized that since the station was a desirable place to work, there was little movement. In the end, La Greca helped institute a new sports talk radio outlet upon Malzberg’s recommendation to ESPN management, and he has remained at ESPN New York ever since.
Come next August, ESPN New York will no longer broadcast on 98.7 FM. The station made a business decision, electing not to renew its lease. The Michael Kay Show, which first aired exclusively on 1050 AM, will return to its original radio home, in addition to being accessible through ESPN New York’s app, the YES Network, and other multimedia options. La Greca realizes that it will be strange, but hopes that people will continue to find the program as long as it provides content to suit people’s interests.
“It’s a different world, and I know AM’s a little different than it was back in the day but I also think streaming and podcasts and the app is way bigger than it was,” La Greca said, “so I have all the confidence in the world the audience will follow us wherever we go.”
While La Greca has cherished his time on the afternoon drive program – along with calling games across different sports on ESPN New York, hosting the Game Misconduct podcast and anchoring in-studio pregame and postgame shows – he desires to be a full-time play-by-play announcer, preferably for an NHL team in the New York metropolitan area. Leaving the city, he said, would not be an option unless the offer was very lucrative, prognosticating that he would spend every moment trying to return in that scenario. If the circumstances were right for him though, he would think about taking on the challenge since he feels he has reached his goal on sports talk radio.
“If I ever got offered a play-by-play gig and they said, ‘Listen, you couldn’t do The Michael Kay Show anymore,’ it’d be a tough decision but I think I would maybe move onto the play-by-play because that’s how much I love it and [would] be motivated by it,” La Greca said. “Hopefully I never have to make that decision.”
The final football broadcast for the Pac-12 as we know it generated the highest viewership ever on Friday night for ESPN and its stable of college football.
Oregon and Washington, who will be members of the Big Ten next season, met for the Pac-12 championship in Las Vegas and brought in 9.2 million viewers in its Friday night primetime window on ABC.
The viewership for the game, which had College Football Playoff implications for both teams, was up 47% compared to the 2022 title game between USC and Utah.
The audience for the Huskies victory over the Ducks peaked at 11.1 million viewers from 11:30-11:45 PM Eastern.
