The Major League Baseball postseason is in full swing, and there’s a good chance baseball fans are going to catch some or all of a game on the radio.
Katz Radio Group published its Sound Answers study, which surveyed 800 MLB fans nationwide last week, and found that the overwhelming majority of respondents who follow the sport, teams, and players feel that radio broadcasts are a good way to catch the game on the go. 91% to be specific.
Additionally, 87% of respondents felt that the local radio broadcasters of the teams they support do a great job calling the game.
76% said they listen to broadcasts on the radio at least once a week or more.
Of the 800 fans surveyed, 42% said they’d call themselves a big fan of baseball. And of that 42%, 59% said they listened to games on the radio. 40% said they attended one game or more in person, and of those 40%, 57% were MLB radio listeners.
Over half the respondents (51%) said they watched a game at a bar or restaurant, and 69% of those fans were MLB radio listeners.
“Radio is available on-the-go, reaching fans where and when TV cannot,” the report stated. “And regardless of where they are, they don’t seem to feel like they are missing out on the experience, as listeners overwhelmingly acknowledge that their favorite team’s radio announcing crew does a great job calling the game.
There’s a ton of insight in the report about how those who tune in to baseball on the radio are way more likely to be engaged with brands who advertise on those game broadcasts.
“Play-by-play listeners are engaged with all aspects of the MLB, including the advertisers they hear on-air during games,” the report stated. “Radio is a homerun for advertisers throughout the regular season and postseason, delivering loyal and active MLB fans across the country. Reaching consumers on the go, where TV cannot, radio offers new opportunities for brands to connect with receptive MLB fans.”
Syndicated radio host Dan Bongino knows he’s an acquired taste and is not afraid to tell you that. Bongino is a former Secret Service agent who signed a deal to host a show distributed by Westwood One. During the pandemic, he almost quit his show because the company was firing talent for not complying with vaccine mandates.
During his podcast on Monday, Bongino talked about the ongoing conflict in Israel. He emphasized that he didn’t change his opinion on specific issues and that his show isn’t for “mass market consumption.” Bongino also spoke about some violent acts being carried out and shared on social media.
“There’s no way any rational person on planet Earth could look at that and give me a reason why that should have happened,” he said. “Whatever side you fall on, I think I’ve been abundantly clear after this weekend where I stand. There’s no justification for this; if you’re looking for one, this will never be the show for you.”
Bongino added that a moment of clarity must be directed toward people in his listening/viewing audience to let them know what his show stands for and what it’s all about.
“This show is never going to be for everyone, and I understand that. I’m not meant for mass market consumption. I’m not Taylor Swift music, I don’t play both sides of any fence. I have clear positions and clear beliefs,” he added.
In April, Dan Bongino left Fox News after the two sides could not agree on a new deal. Bongino hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the U.S. and is syndicated on hundreds of radio stations daily from noon to 3 PM.
At our 2023 BNM Summit last month, Erick Erickson was part of our Talking With Talent session, which included Chad Benson and Tony Katz and was hosted by BNM’s Andy Bloom. Following the first day of events, we talked at the BNM Summit Social about the idea of writing a guest column. Erick had a few ideas and opinions he was passionate about, and having been a believer in using our platforms to feature people who possess an ability to inform, entertain, and challenge media professionals, I was more than happy to publish the content if he was willing to write it.
Well, low and behold, he did. And it’s a fantastic piece. I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading it. If you are an accomplished personality, programmer, executive, advertising professional or owner of a group looking to utilize our platform to tackle a topic or issue, get in touch by email. I can be reached at Jason@BarrettNewsMedia.com.
But enough about me. Here’s a column that’ll make you think courtesy of nationally syndicated talk radio host, Erick Erickson. Enjoy!
— Jason Barrett, President and Founder of Barrett News Media
Over two years after Rush Limbaugh’s death, too much talk radio has descended into a bad impression of Rush. It has become iterative, repetitive, predicable, and boring. Listeners have little excuse to tune in every day because they know exactly the topics, the takes, and the voices of the interlopers competing for their attention with their friend, the host.
I fell into talk radio by accident. A morning show host on my local Cumulus talk station got arrested. I was a CNN political commentator and editor of RedState.com at the time. Ron Frazier, then the head of news for the station — WMAC in Macon, GA — called and asked if I might fill in for a day. One day became three days became three months. I got paid in an expired gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse. But I loved it.
Cox Media Group, thinking I was actually a radio guy, offered me Herman Cain’s job on WSB Radio in Atlanta. Hesitant to take the job, I reached out to my friend Rush Limbaugh who encouraged me to take it, largely by telling me he would never speak to me again if I did not take it. So I did. In less than a year I went from nights to evening drive time where I stayed until after Rush’s death. I now do Noon-3:00 PM on 95.5 WSB and syndicate the show with Compass Media. It is now the longest job I have ever had. 11 years later, and several years after Rush Limbaugh’s death, I have strong thoughts on the medium.
I, too, started by doing an impression of Rush Limbaugh. Thankfully, he freed me from the curse. In talking about my future and national radio, I confided in him that I never wanted to try it because I knew as long as he was around I had no shot at the top. He replied that it did not matter. Whether he were alive or dead, I would never be as good as him, so I should just be myself. It was meant in good humor, but the point was to stop trying to be someone else and just be myself. His second point was that I should stop worrying about saving the world and start trying to build a relationship with the audience.
Too much of talk radio is now too committed to merely rehashing the daily political fights. Hosts have forgotten radio is the most intimate medium. One’s ideas, passions, and expressions must be conveyed with the tone, rhythm, pacing, and sound of voice. There are no facial expressions. As a result, people grow closer to a radio host than a television host. They feel a level of connection that comes through voice.
That is the secret to radio. At a time when so many radio groups and outside voices think radio is over, the reality is a voice can keep people tuning in and connected the way a face on television might not, particularly by focusing on timely, breaking news that will no longer be relevant in a week old podcast. Sure, some may need a twenty-four-hour livestream or a podcast, but many will tune in daily to hear the voice they have become friends with.
That friendship, once built, can step away from the partisan talking points. Talk radio hosts who have not built a connection to their audience spend a lot of time in interviews. That puts the audience in the position of eavesdroppers, not friend. It drags an interloper into the conversation you are having with your friend in the car or office. Likewise, talkers who just regurgitate the standard topics fueling Washington D.C. become repetitive and predictable. They offer nothing the audience cannot get anywhere else. It becomes a boring retransmission of talking points instead of thoughtful, thought-provoking, and entertaining.
There are so many more topics out there than partisan rage. In just the past week, I have spent time with my audience on raising kids in the digital age and how I talk to my kids about using social media. I have talked about the media obsession with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. I have talked about the series of coups in Western Africa and how that will affect American stability. I have explained the problem with high bond yields. I have talked about how we are all going bankrupt $10 a subscription on streaming services replacing cable packages while not being able to find our favorite football games and baseball games to watch.
Life is complex. Talk radio that sounds like everyone else is too simplistic. It devalues the bond between the host and the listener, who eventually will go elsewhere to find something that sounds more unique and relatable. The secret to improving talk radio is to focus on building the relationship between the audience and the host by the host being a real person with a real life who brings the audience deeply into it. Any host who does that becomes both more unpredictable and more compelling, thereby becoming more listenable.
Erick Erickson hosts the Erick Erickson Show, available live or in delay nationwide from Compass Media. Be sure to visit his website or follow him on X at @EWErickson.
Sustainability was never in the mind of Fred Toucher. When he arrived in Boston. in 2006 to start a new afternoon drive program with his former colleague Rich Shertenlieb, they never envisioned it rising to such monumental heights.
Seventeen years later, the morning show continues to attain double-digit listening shares in the city, but its path to sustained success has been anything but prototypical. Although the show currently airs on 98.5 The Sports Hub and duly focuses its conversation around sports, the origins of the program can be traced back to WBCN, a CBS-owned station that broadcast in the free-form rock format.
There was an ostensible stigma in the Boston metropolitan area about listening to WBCN, especially as people began to move out of adolescence and into full-fledged adulthood. During his three years with the station, Toucher remembers encountering several people in their 30s who divulged that their consumption of the programming was of yore because of their age. Incredulous upon learning of such perspectives, he reflects back on the realization and understands that had the platform the show stayed resolute, there is a strong chance the program would have ended.
“I did not think that I would be in Boston for a very long time because I just didn’t think that radio shows lasted that long, and especially at that time, everyone was getting fired and everyone else,” Toucher said. “I can tell you [that] our longevity [is from] moving to the sports format.”
The most recent ratings book is a testament to why executives Mark Hannon and Mike Thomas decided to retain the program despite the transformed genre in 2009. Once the process of reformatting to sports talk was complete – which included a stunting period filled with Boston sports highlights – Toucher conjectured that listeners would no longer need permission per se to consume the program. Even though Shertenlieb vehemently opposed the move to the sports format, Toucher recognized that it was a prime opportunity to broaden the listening audience.
Yet he was in the minority, even during a time when means of disseminating information were significantly attenuated by circumstances of emergent, novel technologies. With all of the negative publicity and lackluster reviews from listeners amid this transitional phase, Toucher and Shertenlieb remained poised to craft an informative and entertaining on-air product that upheld their collective identity and was pertinent for the outlet.
“We had to meet with Mike Thomas every day after the show and kind of formulate with him what the appropriate mix of sports and non-sports [was] and what was going to be our voice in terms of sports because we were never going to be a show that took a lot of calls or said, ‘These are take-driven shows,’ or things like that,” Toucher explained. “That’s not the way that we learned to do radio, and I don’t think I could do that successfully.”
Toucher is a creative luminary who became infatuated by radio from the time he was in middle school. In considering the reason for his preference, he surmised that the unscripted nature and freedom of expression the medium garnered would render it the most enjoyable. Despite being a history major at Rollins College – a liberal arts school – he made it a point to work at the college radio station and try to make a name for himself. Yet the station incorporated various community elements, and those on the staff did not take a liking to Toucher, nor did they encourage him to do anything.
“I realized that when I got out of college,” Toucher said. “I kind of panicked because I couldn’t get a job in radio and I had no idea of how to get a job in radio.”
In an effort to change his scenery, Toucher moved to Atlanta and landed a job at AM 1170, a local country music station where he was able to hone his craft. He hosted an afternoon program and was responsible for signing the station off every night at 7 p.m., doing whatever it took to gain viable experience. The content of these programs were centered on bluegrass, and he would even moderate transactions between listeners swapping their farm animals.
After a year-and-a-half, Toucher was hired by Leslie Fram and Sean Demery to work as a secretary at 99X, a station broadcasting in the alternative rock format. As he paired his receptionist work with fill-in hosting, he brought his unabashed audacity to openly convey his opinions and perspectives, even if they were critical or discerned as presumptuous.
As it stands, Toucher was accustomed to the “shock jock” brand of hosting predicated on candidness and occasional insolence. He blatantly mocked southerners and refused to play specific nu-metal music, stating how he disliked the music on the air. By the time he was promoted to the morning show to work with Jimmy Baron and the aforementioned Fram, he was completely unrestrained and pugnacious when the microphone was live. In fact, Toucher once famously spoiled the ending of a book in the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling.
“They never really committed,” Toucher said of the entity. “It was kind of a hybrid show [where] they never really committed to me, but I was way too out of control at that time; it was for my own good.”
Cumulus Media officially acquired the radio assets of the Susquehanna Pfaltzgraff Company in a transaction worth a reported $1.2 billion in early 2006, leading to widespread change at 99X. Toucher met with John Dickey, who was the co-founder and chief operating officer of Cumulus, and states that he was subject to impudent, rude behavior that ultimately led to the end of his time with the station.
“He was an asshole,” Toucher avowed. “He said, ‘Everyone hates you. We’re going to put you in a stocking at the mall and do some charity thing. You [have] all these stupid ideas,’ so I wanted to leave. I asked permission if I could leave, and they didn’t care so they bought me out of my contract.”
While he was in Atlanta, Toucher had befriended Shertenlieb and kept in touch once they went their separate ways. Two years later, they auditioned to land a show on CBS Radio and garnered a coveted afternoon drive slot on CBS Radio-owned WBCN. When the station stopped syndicating another national program in the second half of 2008, the duo moved to morning drive and have remained a fixture of the time slot ever since. Over the years, there has been occasional friction and tension between the two co-hosts, but no incident has ever genuinely affected them on the air, nor threatened the fiber of their relationship.
“There’s been times that we’ve butted heads, but nothing that’s made working uncomfortable,” Toucher said, “and nothing that’s made me ever question the future of the show or [if] we were going to continue being a show.”
The key to success in morning drive on an all-sports station in one of the country’s most historic and venerated marketplaces, the duo surmised, was to differentiate itself by bringing a comedic element to the conversation. Rather than solely discussing the events of the previous day and the upcoming schedule, the show spoke about more esoteric, niche topics related to the team and stories surrounding the game to assemble an inimitable program. The conversations with Thomas lasted for about a year-and-a-half before Toucher perceived that the program found and established its voice, something that was helped by the forthcoming stretch of dominance from the local teams.
“When the Bruins won in 2011, I think that helped us immensely because we had the Bruins and WEEI never talked about the Bruins, and we had adopted the Bruins,” Toucher said. “WEEI actively made fun of hockey fans, which in 2011, I think helped us a great deal.”
Two championships by the Boston Red Sox and three by the New England Patriots headlined the remainder of the decade, in addition to sustained winning seasons in the marketplace by nearly all of its local teams. Many sports fans were envious of the locale, but the teams were dominating regional and national sports coverage anyway.
During these times, many shows will welcome players or coaches as guests, but it is a practice that Toucher has tried to stay away from. As a zealous consumer of various sports radio stations, he feels that it is more valuable to have reporters or analysts on the program, affirming that they tend to be more cognizant of how to appeal to an audience and succinctly articulate information and opinion.
“I find 99% of athletes to be a tune-out [and] 99% of coaches to be a tune-out,” Toucher expressed. “Jerry Jones is great – I’m sure there are coaches that are really good, but not many; they’re pretty boring. [Bruce] Cassidy, the Bruins coach, was good, but we couldn’t get him on that often. We got him on twice a year; he was great when he was on.”
Toucher is lauded for his straightforward demeanor and genuine reactions to topics on the air, but in reality, that is the very premise of the show. Show producers Mike Lockhart, Dan O’Brien and Nick Gemelli work with Shertenlieb to research and develop content for the air, while Toucher arrives at the studio to react to what he is presented with throughout the program. His job is rooted in improvisation and remaining alert about local and national sports news, which he does periodically on a daily basis to ensure he is prepared to elicit informed responses.
“We have a loose outline of the show, but I think since we’ve been working together for so long, I don’t know what we’re going to do every quarter-hour,” Toucher said. “I know that Rich is going to have a bit generally, and I know if I want to talk about something that I can feel free to do that and he’ll go along with it, or if he wants to talk about something, I’ll go along with it.”
After each show, the hosts and producers meet to discuss how the program went and begin thinking about the next day. Working in as dynamic and capricious an industry as sports, they remain malleable as the show is occurring in order to provide the most pertinent content to the listening audience. The inherent immediacy of the medium keeps him compelled to continue hosting live programming, along with the desire to remain as the No. 1 program in the market.
One aspect of many sports radio programs that Toucher tends to stray away from, however, is taking live phone calls. The show takes very few calls from its listeners, instead opting to highlight those who participate in Paul Finebaum’s eponymous afternoon program on the SEC Network as part of a recurring bit.
“If you tune in to a Finebaum show, it’s like a whole world – he’s got his own universe,” Toucher said. “Callers are yelling at each other – they’re referencing things [that] I have no idea what they’re talking about; inner-show stuff – it’s its own living entity. It’s got its own thing happening.”
Toucher used to welcome callers onto his nighttime program on 99X in Atlanta, citing that it was the best time to implement listeners because they are oftentimes “coming out of the woodwork.” He remembers doing comedy based on what the people had to say, many of whom he states were drunk, high, and stupid, and thoroughly enjoyed hearing their perspectives. Morning drive evokes a different approach to broadcasting for Toucher, one that is not as conducive to caller-driven discussion and subsequent conversation.
“Mornings [are] a terrible time to take phone calls,” Toucher said. “People aren’t in the mood.”
The Toucher & Rich show continues to garner double-digit shares over the last several quarters, catalyzing sports talk radio to become a staple of the marketplace. Toucher’s goal is to remain in the No. 1 ranking in the marketplace, including among the coveted demographic of men ages 25 to 54, and does not scrutinize over the size of the share as much as he used to. In reality, the number has become so large that Toucher estimates removing a few portable people meters (PPMs) could have a large influence on the breadth of the share.
“I can’t sit down and guarantee, ‘Hey everyone, we’re going to have a 24-share every time we crack the mics,’ so that doesn’t bother me,” Toucher said. “Right now, and since our station has been on the air, sports talk radio has dominated in Boston, but that was not always the case. There’s a lot of shows in non-sports formats that dominated this market, so it’s a fairly recent thing that WEEI and us have been getting this much of a chunk.”
While WEEI may be the most conspicuous source of competition, there are a deluge of other platforms on which to disseminate content that threaten the viability of the program. Boston has various regional sports networks, such as NESN and NBC Sports Boston, along with regional podcasts and live programs on social media. Moreover, there is national sports talk radio and television to contend with, the latter of which is a frequent point of discussion on their program. Toucher has never truly considered working in television as opposed to radio, and over the years, he has adopted a staunch belief that personalities are more effective on audio platforms.
“I think that radio is just a better product,” Toucher opined. “For talking about sports, I think radio is a tremendously better product because you’re not bogged down with graphics and scripts and all that; you have more freedom.”
While Toucher works to consume several different sources of sports media coverage, he understands the trials and tribulations required to reach such a point. When he had to take a five-week leave of absence from his program earlier in the year to receive treatment for leukoplakia, a throat condition that was affecting his vocal cords, he was worried and feared a future where he would be unable to express himself on the air. Toucher has yet to undergo surgery to try and treat the issue and is still trying to get over the resentment he feels from enduring that difficult stretch.
“I was scared for my career,” Toucher said. “I was told there was a good possibility that I had cancer, [and] I still don’t know; there’s still a chance that I have cancer.”
One month later, Toucher wrote an alarming series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, the first of which asked his followers if they ever wished to die. A later post read, “I want to die baby,” which occurred as he had a relapse after working to overcome an alcohol addiction that forced him to miss time on the air in 2020.
As Toucher was facing uncertainty with his vocal cords, he was also facing divorce and thus lived alone without his children, hardships that engendered a sense of foreboding. Upon his relapse, he quickly admitted himself to a detoxification facility where he spent five days to ensure he was stable, and addressed his absence once he returned on the air.
“It wasn’t something that I was like, ‘You know what? If I’m open with this, it’s going to be so good for people,’” Toucher explained. “It was a necessity; I didn’t have any other options. I couldn’t lie [because] I was going to get found out. All my shit is out there, so I was going to get found out.”
Toucher infrequently discusses the matter on the air because he does not know if anyone truly cares to be informed on his personal issues. He does feel comfortable talking about the recovery process when prompted and would be open to starting a podcast to discuss his struggles if granted the opportunity in the future. Craig Carton, FS1 morning show host and former WFAN personality, hosts a weekly podcast with Audacy titled Hello, My Name is Craig that discusses matters related to compulsive gambling, something that previously landed him in prison.
“I need to get there personally before I can start telling anyone else what to do,” Toucher said. “But that’s what’s great about the recovery community is that the way people stay sober is [by] helping those who are struggling or helping those that are new to sobriety. That’s kind of how the whole thing works. If I ever got to a place where I could share and help people on a broad basis, that’s the dream; quite frankly, that would be a dream. That means I’ve stayed sober and stuck with it long enough.”
Toucher affirms that even if people do not realize it, they likely know someone that has been in recovery and that there is a need to be transparent about the ordeal for the greater good. At the moment, he does not discern his remarks on the journey as being altruistic in nature; rather, it occurs because of his status as a public figure. Nonetheless, he believes in what he is doing and aspires to be a role model by overcoming encumbrances and concomitant adversity.
“Believe me, you want people in recovery and you want good recovery places because that’s good for everybody,” Toucher said. “People getting off of drugs and alcohol is better for the world, and it’s not a flaw of character to have a problem with drugs or alcohol because they’re designed to cause those problems. That’s why they’re addictive substances.”
Mike Thomas had been the program director of 98.5 The Sports Hub since its inception, but he left the outlet to take a job with ESPN 1000 and currently works for Audacy as its Boston market manager. As a result, longtime assistant program director Rick Radzik was elevated to the lead role, a move which Toucher originally was concerned would lead to meddling with the show. Even though Radzik had never worked in the position before, he expeditiously gained the trust and confidence of Toucher in that he was adept to lead the station forward.
“I think that he’s as good a program director as there is, and he’s not a pushover,” Toucher said of Radzik. “He says what he believes, and I think he handles talent well. The station has thrived under him; in fact, the station has done better than ever with him as the program director.”
Throughout the last several years, many sports media personalities have started podcasts discussing abstruse topics for niche audiences. Unless the podcast is live though, Toucher believes it wouldn’t feel the same as being on the radio. Additionally, consumers can easily tune into an AM or FM signal, whereas podcasts and other digital programming sometimes require strenuous efforts just to discover. Although the basis of the technology may be more than a century old, there is an alluring charm in the tradition that keeps him captivated to come back for more.
Toucher cherishes his spot in the mornings and hopes to be on the air for many years to come. He is working on doing his part in ensuring that the show remains the top-rated morning program in the marketplace and views anything else on the side as a mere windfall. Throughout the five-week stretch that he was off the air, Toucher felt a keen sense of despondency and realized that the show gives him his sense of purpose.
“If I wasn’t on the radio, I’d really miss it,” Toucher said. “I think it would be a hard pill to swallow.”
Monday Night Football voice Joe Buck will step into the host chair for Monday Night Countdown tonight after host Scott Van Pelt announced he’ll miss the program due to losing his voice.
Joining Buck at the desk will be his wife and Monday Night Football feature reporter Michelle Beisner-Buck.
Van Pelt shared that he woke up with “zero voice at all. Just gone. As a result, no trip to Vegas for Monday Night Countdown or Sportscenter”. The longtime ESPN host added that Buck and Beisner-Buck “will be fantastic” handling his duties.
So, we played another fun edition of will Scott’s voice quit before the show ends last night. Unfortunately, I woke up to zero voice at all. Just gone. As a result, no trip to Vegas for Monday Night Countdown or @SportsCenter. @Buck and @MichelleBeisner will be fantastic…
The reported romance between Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and music superstar Taylor Swift has been the talk of both the football and pop culture worlds for more than two weeks. Hubbard Minneapolis capitalized on the trend with a billboard that went viral ahead of Sunday’s game between the Chiefs and Vikings.
The group’s talk radio station — myTalk 107.1 — showcased a billboard that read “Beat Taylor’s Boyfriend” ahead of the matchup between the Chiefs and Vikings.
Many observers shared their appreciation for the quip, with several national media outlets — including ESPN and The New York Post — taking notice of the billboard.
Commenters on the station’s Facebook page announcing the billboard ranged from congratulation the station for “saying what we’re all thinking” to vowing to never listen to the station again for discussing Taylor Swift in the same breath as the Minnesota Vikings.
Swift’s potential appearance at the matchup was a hot-button issue in Minneapolis last week. Before the game, Vikings radio voice Paul Allen extended an invitation to Swift to appear in the broadcast booth with him. However, Swift was not in attendance as the Chiefs defeated the Vikings.
Growing up in the Bronx, Willie Colon was a New York Giants fan and then would later go on to spend the last three seasons of his career with the New York Jets. He was able to read coverage of the Giants as a kid and then experience firsthand what it was like to handle the media when he was a Jet.
The now co-host of The Carton Show was a guest on TheRyen Russillo Podcastthis week and he said when was with the Jets, he thought the media was more trying to see what he was like off the field rather than talk about what he did on the field.
“I think being on the professional side, playing for the Jets, I realized talking to the media when I had a helmet on, a lot of what I was reading as a kid is what they are still seeking. We know what the tape says, but who are you really? Outside of a holding call or a sack or being able to run the ball, who are you really?”
“There’s a constant pursuit to really find out the DNA of each player that plays in that market because that has more of a ripple effect to the headlines and identity of the franchise,” Colon said.
I realized being around the beat writers when I was with the Jets, they didn’t really care how I was playing. They really just wanted to know who was Willie Colon and what was I like off the field. I feel like there’s always an inside pursuit to try to dissect each player in that locker room.”
Before he was a Jet, Colon spent the first six years of his career with the Pittsburgh Steelers (4th-round draft pick in 2006). He thought the difference between Pittsburgh and New York in terms of media coverage was night and day.
“When I was in Pittsburgh, we never talked about the media. It wasn’t even thought about because there was always a sense that the organization itself, the Rooneys on down, had a hard grasp of what was coming out of that locker room. It was like suppressed. When I was in New York, it seemed like the media was very much a part of our team, which was stressful.”
While Willie Colon loved playing in New York under head coach Rex Ryan at the time, he felt that the media had such a presence in the locker room that it was tough to control.
“We saw them before walkthroughs, we saw them after practice, and we ended up developing this personal relationship with certain beat writers and characters on the staff. There’s no controlling these guys. There’s a whole entity that this team can’t control. They are everywhere,” he continued.
“Rex, who I love, by the way, would bring them up ad nauseam. We have the Bills this week. Why are we talking about the media? They had such a presence in our locker room because they mattered so much to the overall theme of the New York Jets that they had a place on our team and I hated that.”
iHeartMedia Grand Rapids has announced that it will be adding the FOX Sports Radio slate of programming to 96.1 The Game, effective immediately.
The outlet previously carried ESPN Radio-affiliated programming and made the change on Monday morning while retaining two of its local programs. The X’s and Bro’s show airs from 6 to 9 AM, while The Huge Show hosted by Bill Simonson takes place in afternoon drive from 3 to 6 PM, both of which are produced by the Michigan Sports Network. Throughout the rest of the day, listeners can hear hit national programming such as The Dan Patrick Show, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and Covino & Rich among others.
“We’re thrilled to now have the FOX Sports Radio lineup on 96.1 The Game,” Dave Taft, senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia Grand Rapids, said in a statement. “This addition, along with local sports coverage, play-by-play, and the Michigan Sports Network, will continue our position as the broadcast sports leader in West Michigan.”
Listeners will be able to continue tuning in to shows both over the air and through digital platforms. Michigan Sports Network has been working with 96.1 The Game in addition to other outlets across Michigan and northern Ohio since 2021 when the two companies reached a distribution agreement.
Prior to the FOX Sports Radio deal with 96.1 The Game, consumers were able to hear select national programming on Talk Radio 1230 (WTKG-AM), one of the other stations within the iHeartMedia Grand Rapids cluster.
Salem Radio Network host Mike Gallagher has launched a fundraising campaign to raise money for those affected by terrorist attacks in Israel over the weekend.
Gallagher began his show Monday morning by sharing his heartfelt condolences to those in the Middle East nation as terrorist organization Hamas launched an assault Saturday.
“The images are so horrific. Almost impossible to discuss in the air. People are so upset by what we’ve seen during the past 48 hours that I’m confident our audience will step up and help the people of Israel who have been through unspeakable acts of terrorism,” Gallagher continued.
Gallagher is raising funds through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews charity.
“Those who bless Israel, God will bless. Those who curse her, he will curse. This is an enduring promise for everybody,” Mike Gallagher said, “and to know that this Holy land has been desecrated by such terrorism really compels Americans to step up and say ‘How can we help? How can we stand with Israel?’”
In addition to promoting the campaign on his radio show, the group will also be featured on SRN News, TownHall.com, and other local morning shows from Salem Media Group, including Mark Davis in Dallas and Joey Hudson in Greenville, South Carolina.
FOX Sports Films and Religion of Sports have announced a new original documentary about the 2004 American League Championship Series (ALCS) matchup between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, the penultimate series before the latter broke an 86-year championship drought. The film will premiere on Wednesday, Oct. 18 on FS1, which follows live coverage of Game 3 of the ALCS, and features interviews with many key figures who were a part of the proceedings.
FOX Sports studio analysts Álex Rodríguez, Derek Jeter, and David Ortiz were interviewed for the feature, in addition to Kevin Millar, Orlando Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Dave Roberts and Mariano Rivera. Titled The Game That Changed Everything, it is the second documentary that is premiering this year under the network’s multi-year film deal that was announced earlier in the year.
“FOX Sports is thrilled to commemorate one of the most iconic stories in baseball as retold through varying perspectives of some of the best players and sports personalities in Major League Baseball,” Barry Nugent, vice president of development and original programming at FOX Sports, said in a statement. “As FOX is the exclusive home of the ALCS this postseason, we’re excited to present a never-before-seen interpretation of arguably one of the greatest games in ALCS history to reignite fan enthusiasm behind this iconic series.”
With the Yankees ahead three games to zero in the series, the documentary largely focuses on the fourth game of the series that started the unprecedented four-game comeback that garnered Boston a trip to the World Series. The Red Sox ultimately found a way to defeat the Yankees and, in turn, make history as the only team to ever overcome such a deficit in a playoff series.
The film is executive produced by Eric Shanks, Mark Silverman, Charlie Dixon and Barry Nugent from FOX Sports; and Gotham Chopra, Ameeth Sankaran and Victor Buhler at Religion of Sports. It is directed by Liam Hughes, and David Check, Carl Hansen, Ariana Rotstein and Michael Vayder all worked as producers. Additionally, Rita O’Dea is an associate producer on the project.
“Religion of Sports is excited to turn a magnifying glass on one of the most remarkable games in baseball history,” Victor Buhler, senior vice president of production and head of development at Religion of Sports, said in a statement. “The margins between victory and defeat in baseball are so slim: a runner beats a throw by half a second; a hit flies off the barrel of a bat; a ball slips underneath a glove.
“Director Liam Hughes takes us back into the drama of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS and, even though we know the outcome, he has found a new way for us to relive the game. For over eight decades, the Yankees always edged out the Red Sox. But this famous night in October changed that. It was truly a game that changed everything.”
The film will provide viewers with firsthand perspectives on what happened during the fateful fourth game that ended in an unexpected defeat. There will also be various baseball experts featured throughout the presentation, in addition to representatives from the Yankees and Red Sox organizations to break down what impact it has had on their teams in the ensuing years.
