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Brandon Tatum Launches Fundraiser For Children With Incarcerated Parents

BNM Staff
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In a recent podcast, Salem Radio host Brandon Tatum shared his appreciation for prison fellowship. Tatum acknowledged that if he hadn’t pursued a career in law enforcement, his life might have taken a different turn. Before gaining fame as a multimedia personality, Tatum served as a police officer in Tucson, Arizona.

The Officer Tatum Show host has advocated for the Prison Fellowship Angel Tree campaign. This initiative provides a haven for children whose parents are incarcerated by sending them to summer camps where they can enjoy nature, form new friendships, and take a break from their daily struggles.

“We’ve done campaigns in the past with Prison Fellowship, and they’ve all been tremendously well done,” said Tatum. “People have been blessed, and you guys have been a blessing to those in need.”

Brandon Tatum decided to pursue a career in law enforcement in Tucson, Arizona, after going undrafted in the NFL Draft. Tatum gained recognition in early 2016 when a video of him at a campaign rally for presidential candidate Donald Trump went viral.

“I have a passion for Prison Fellowship, I have family members in prison, and I know the impact incarceration has on your family,” said Tatum. “I understand the need and the mission that God has called us to do the best we can to rehabilitate, reintroduce, and revive people that may have made a mistake. Prison Fellowship is helping their children have this incredible experience at summer camp.”

Tatum said the Prison Fellow campaign officially launches on Monday, May 15. For more information, you can visit Brandon Tatum’s official website.  

Toucher & Rich Both Deserve A Little Empathy

Garrett Searight
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Fred Toucher returned to 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich Thursday morning, and I can’t tell you how excited that news made me. There are not many, if any, local sports radio hosts I enjoy listening to more than Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb. The duo never lacks comedy or creativity, and listening to their show is always enjoyable.

Almost always enjoyable.

Toucher, who you likely know has been struggling with vocal issues, returned to the show, but Shertenlieb was absent. Originally, messaging from the Hub was that Shertenlieb was out sick…and if you believe that, I’ve got some oceanfront property in Arizona. Reportedly, Shertenlieb only told bosses he was sick after finding out Toucher would return Thursday. The duo were not reunited on Friday, either. He’s scheduled to be back today, while Toucher is scheduled to be off.

You see, while he was out, Toucher caused a bit of a stir on social media by alleging that neither Shertenlieb nor Jon Wallach had reached out to him after a “cancer scare”. Subsequently, Toucher has explained that he was eventually told by doctors that he did not have cancer, but did have leukoplakia, which is a condition exacerbated by smoking.

Understandably so, Shertenlieb wasn’t there when Toucher returned. In an incredibly public move, Toucher had alerted the world that people he is close with — at least professionally — had left him out to dry. By making that declaration Fred Toucher makes Shertenlieb and Wallach look crass, self-centered, and frankly fake.

During his return, Toucher admitted that Shertenlieb had reached out, and had tried to use his connections at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to expedite Toucher’s diagnosis. Toucher eventually said he had spoken to both Shertenlieb and Wallach and called his tweets “a stupid thing to do”.

I don’t blame Rich Shertenlieb one bit for not being there when Toucher returned. I would find it incredibly difficult to sit down in the same room as someone — who was supposed to be on my team — that had blasted me publicly and made me look like I had left a friend going through a medical crisis out in the cold. To cut to the point, that’s shitty. It’s a shitty thing of Toucher to have done, even if it was true. And maybe his admission was trying to help Shertenblieb and Wallach save a little face.

Luckily for the duo, it appears Toucher is aware of why Shertenlieb might be slightly angered by the situation, alluding to reports in the Boston Globe about the likelihood of a spat between the pair, and gave a full-on apology. Some people stink at apologies. Fred Toucher doesn’t appear to be one of them.

However, I can easily sympathize with Toucher. He appeared to be very stressed out during a team when he had clear voice issues. Truth be told, at its worst, the show would have sounded better if you replaced Fred’s voice with a cement mixer. I don’t make my living off of virtually one body part, but I can’t imagine how stressful a scenario would be when my professional future was on the line, I wasn’t getting any answers, and my problem wasn’t getting any better.

Simultaneously, Toucher has been trying to quit smoking, which is admirable as hell. He claims he picked up the habit when he was 11. So, while knowing that you’re voice sounds like absolute hell, being scared that you might have cancer, and also trying to stop one of the more addicting habits you can have, Toucher said some things that he now wishes he didn’t. That’s understandable!

We all say and do things we regret. It appears, at least publicly, Fred Toucher is doing the right things to rectify those wrongs.

This isn’t a “Is this the end of Toucher & Rich” column? Because I don’t think it is. Sometimes, the chemistry is just right. And the chemistry has been right for a long time. That time together can be both a benefit and a hindrance to pushing past problems. I’m sure things are contentious behind the scenes. Why wouldn’t they be? Some large accusations have been thrown about, and some insanely stressful situations have been encountered since the calendar flipped to 2023. There are large and talented personalities on each side of the coin.

There are bound to be issues. Both sides, at least in their own minds, have reason to be angry at the other. One felt slighted and left behind by a colleague at one of his most stressful moments. In return, he let the world know he felt he had been slighted and left behind by a colleague at one of his most stressful moments, and that colleague, at least on the surface, has — understandably — failed to receive that well.

But I hope Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenblieb can work past those differences. I’m certainly not ready to see one of the format’s best shows come to a close, and I hope they aren’t, either.

Ryan Porth Bet on Himself and It’s Paying Off at 670 The Score

Peter Schwartz
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Ryan Porth Bet on Himself and It’s Paying Off at 670 The Score

In January of 2022, Ryan Porth was finishing up a run as Program Director of 102.5 The Game in Nashville and had a baby on the way as he embarked on a new adventure. Porth relocated to Chicago to become Assistant Brand Manager at 670 The Score and the move has certainly paid off for him.

Just 14 months after joining The Score, Porth has been elevated to Program Director.

“I’m super-excited to be able to lend an even bigger helping hand and helping The Score continue to move forward across all platforms,” said Porth. “It’s an ever-evolving sports media business. We’re not just radio. We’re audio, we’re video and we’re a little bit of everything.”

Porth assumes the day-to-day programming responsibilities and will continue to report to Mitch Rosen who is also getting a promotion from Program Director to Vice-President and Brand Manager. The duo has enjoyed a terrific working relationship thus far and now that will continue with bigger roles as The Score continues to flourish. 

“Ryan has shown great leadership and tremendous skills at The Score since joining our team,” said Rosen. “His knowledge with all platforms including the digital aspects of our brand has been extremely helpful, and I look forward to his growth with The Score brand.”

Upon Porth’s arrival in Chicago, Rosen became a mentor to him as he adjusted to life, both professionally and personally, in a new market. 

“I had only known one job in one city, which was my role with 102.5 The Game in Nashville, and also became a first-time dad six weeks after I started (at The Score),” said Porth. “He could not have been more supportive and understanding through that.”

It didn’t take long for Porth to realize that the sports scene in Chicago was a bit different than it was in Nashville. 

In Nashville, there are two major professional teams in the Titans and Predators along with Nashville SC in Major League Soccer. In Chicago, you have the major sports teams the Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox and Blackhawks along with the Chicago Fire of MLS. 

That’s a lot of teams with a lot to discuss and suits Porth just fine.

“Coming from Nashville, a completely different pace with the sports market,” said Porth. “Coming here, I pinch myself everyday that I get the opportunity to work in a sports city like this. There’s something going on here all the time which, as a die-hard sports fan, I think is pretty dang cool.”

These days, a radio station isn’t solely about radio anymore.

A successful station, whether it’s sports or any other format, has to be able to change with the times and that includes many different components like podcasts, social media and video.

Ryan Porth is all in.

“People want a visual of what they’re listening to,” said Porth. “That has been the case for a long time but now there’s all sorts of great technology that sports radio stations and radio stations in general are taking advantage of. It’s super-important nowadays to have that video component and if you don’t, you’re behind the eight-ball.”

Ryan Porth and The Score has been a marriage made in heaven in Chicago and it hasn’t taken him long to move up the corporate ladder. He went through a big life change less than a year and a half ago and now it looks like it was a change that will continue to pay big dividends, both for him and his family and for sports fans in Chicago. 

Phyllis in Mulga: The Best Caller in Sports Radio History

Demetri Ravanos
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Phyllis in Mulga: The Best Caller in Sports Radio History

It feels weird to start a column about the impact a single person made on sports radio with a Mt. Rushmore comparison. The practice is played out and wholly unoriginal, but if you are going to contextualize what “Phyllis in Mulga” was to The Paul Finebaum Show audience, you need to turn to one of our strangest national monuments. 

Who is on the Mt. Rushmore of sports radio callers? Honestly, I do not know or care. What I know is that if there is such a Mt. Rushmore, to properly credit Phyllis, who passed away last week, you would have to carve her face on the moon.

Phyllis Chapple-Perkins wasn’t the most frequent caller to the show but she made an impression. Finebaum told me that he remembers her first phone call to the show in 1993.

“I said something critical of Gene Stallings,” he said. “What got her was he had helped her son and they were friends. Then, we got to know each other. She still screamed and hollered but we became close friends.”

In hindsight, it seems appropriate that it was defending a championship winning football coach at Alabama that put her on Finebaum’s radar in the first place. It was the very same thing that made her name known to people across the country 21 years later.

We’ll call it “The Cow Turd Call.” Phyllis could not let Colin Cowherd’s insistence that Nick Saban’s dynasty at Alabama was beginning to crumble following the 2014 season, when the team finished 12-2, stand. 

She was on the phone in the next segment to deliver a rant that spread like wildfire. It didn’t just go viral on YouTube and other social media platforms. This call popped up on SportsCenter, Pardon the Interruption, and dozens of other shows across the ESPN networks.

First of all, hey Cow Turd [ESPN’s Colin Cowherd], you better shut your freakin’ mouth. You understand me, you little weasel? Let’s have a bowl game of our own, we could call it the Cow Turd Bowl….

Alabama won 12 games, Paul. They won the SEC Championship, that was a great feat. I don’t care what anybody thinks. Cow Turd or anybody else, I don’t care what they think. Alabama was good this year! Alabama played their hearts out. They won 12 freakin’ games. You can’t take that away from them Paul. My God, yes, they aren’t going to vie for the national championship. They lost last night, but I’m proud. I’m proud of every single game they won this year…. A few games cannot make the SEC look bad. You hear me Cow Turd?

“Phyllis from Mulga” on the Paul Finebaum show 1/3/2015

That call is all some people know about The Paul Finebaum Show. Case in point, a prominent figure in the sports media has talked about the call several times on air. When I asked if they wanted to participate in this little tribute, I was told that it didn’t feel right. That call was all they knew about Phyllis in Mulga. Her voice and disgust with Colin Cowherd had brought this person tremendous joy, but to say that they knew where she stood in the pantheon of Finebaum callers would be a lie.

To Finebaum though, that isn’t even the most memorable moment involving Phyllis. Paul says that actually came in 1999.

“She had used a profane word in a sentence and it upset a lot of people. So we suspended her. People didn’t like that either,” he explained in an email. “So we decided to have a trial. We billed it as trial of century. She had a former US attorney representing her. We had another attorney on the other side prosecuting. I was judge. I ruled that she had violated policy and we gave her a lifetime ban. The next day I overturned it to time served.”

Matt Fishman led the charge to get Finebaum on a national platform. He brought the show to SiriusXM in 2010. While Phyllis’s name was not mentioned specifically, Fish told me that she was a good representative of what he found attractive about the show.

“Paul is amazing at orchestrating the conversations and making these ‘characters’ feel special,” he told me. “When The Paul Finebaum Show went national on SiriusXM, it was important for me to not try to change the show. We took the show for exactly what it sounded like. How unique it was. So, the “characters” are a big part of the show. Sorry to see some of them pass throughout the years. Phyllis was one of the best. She will definitely be missed.”

Greg Sankey, commissioner of the SEC, echoed the same sentiments. When I asked about Phyllis, he said that she was part of what the conference value about Finebaum and his show.

“Paul has created a unique community of callers to his show that provides information and entertainment I believe is unlike any other daily talk show on television [and radio].  He has a group of regular callers that create their own persona through their on-air relationship with Paul.  And then there is another population of first-time callers who dial in from all over the country, proving the national interest in SEC sports. The callers to Paul’s show provide a very unique daily experience.”

Tim Brando spent years making appearances on The Paul Finebaum Show. All of those iconic voices – Phyllis, Legend, I-Man, Tammy – have all let him have it a time or two. 

“At times Paul’s callers were so effective & impactful ya thought he grabbed them out of central casting,” he told me in a text. “Phyllis, like Tammy, who tragically died a couple of years ago, was of that ilk. She has no filter, but a huge heart!”

The aforementioned Tammy was killed in a car crash in 2018. Her calls about Auburn were as synonymous with the show as Phyllis’s about Alabama.

Laura Rutledge attended her funeral along with Finebaum, who spoke at that affair, and will likely speak at Phyllis’s memorial too. Rutledge said that her time on the SEC Network and working so closely with Finebaum during her stint hosting SEC Nation, gave her a deep appreciation for his audience.

“Phyllis was the quintessential Finebaum caller,” she told me. “Full of personality, passion and fandom she was everything that has made the show great for all these years. What a fantastic woman. She will be dearly missed.”

Maybe you had to actually be in Alabama to really get to know Phyllis. She was invited on shows by Cari Champion and Jemele Hill after her Cow Turd call went viral, but it was the voices in her home area that had the pleasure of getting to know her.

Ryan Haney, who has been the program director of JOX 94.5 since long before it was on the FM dial, told me that the Phyllis he knew wasn’t all that different from the one we heard on the radio. He also couldn’t help but point out that she always created great radio!

“Phyllis was as authentic as it gets. Her calls were as genuine as the person she was. It didn’t matter who cheered for, when Phyllis called – you stopped, you listened and you even learned something new.”

In the sports radio world, the only person that knew Phyllis Chapple-Perkins as well as Paul Finebaum was Pat Smith. Now the co-host of 3 Man Front on JOX 94.5, Smith served as the director of The Paul Finebaum Radio Network. He is responsible for getting the show on in places like Tallassee, Albertville, Eutaw and a bunch of other small towns you’ve never heard of if you haven’t spent significant time in the state.

Smith mourns Phyllis, but he also mourns for all of the people that lost her. Chief amongst them are her immediate family, but her influence spread far and wide, both thanks to the radio show and thanks to her inclination for helping whenever and however she could.

“Many will remember her devotion to Alabama Football, but I’ll forever think of her as the woman who provided comfort to her area when it was struck by devastating tornadoes,” Smith told me. “Phyllis was genuine and that intensity for all things Alabama was incredible. No matter where Paul and I went nationally, folks knew of Phyllis and her love for the Tide. She was always gracious to travel with us statewide and do anything for us and the show. She was the original who all others after, tried to emulate. It was a privilege to have known Phyllis on and off air for over 25 years.”

The people that knew Phyllis Chapple-Perkins got to appreciate both sides of her and each was just as authentic as the other. Smith said that when a gift showed up in the nursery for he and his wife when their first child was born in 1998, he was touched, but not surprised to learn it was from Phyllis. 

“Thats the way she was, but make no mistake,” Smith said. “She was ready to pounce on anyone who disrespected her Tide.”

Why Radio Cume Matters

Dr. Ed Cohen
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Why Radio Cume Matters

I believe in cume estimates and if you’re programming or talent, you should, too. Perhaps someone, somewhere, has been bonused on cume, but yeah, if you have a bonus plan, cume probably isn’t part of it. And I can hear the DOS or GSM saying “I don’t/can’t sell cume.” 

Nonetheless, you ignore cume at your own peril, so read on and try to understand my reasons for why cume deserves far more attention than it gets.

When investment professionals make decisions about investments, they consider where the economy is going. In other words, they look for leading indicators. Cume is a leading indicator of where your station, show, or network is headed. 

Cume (or cumulative audience) is the number of different people who tuned in for a specified amount of time. In radio, it’s one-quarter hour in the daypart, which can be just five minutes, and in a later column, I’ll explain why five minutes may not be five minutes. Average quarter hour (AQH) estimates are driven by longer listening from a much smaller number of individuals, or more specifically, the panelists or diary keepers who represent that group of individuals. 

Think of cume as people sampling your content. They know who you are and maybe they don’t spend as much time with your station or show as you’d like, but they’re still showing up. In an era when there is precious little — if any — money for promotion, you’re talking to these people. It costs nothing to tell them on your air and/or stream about how wonderful your station or content is and do your best to convince them that listening longer is worth their valuable time. 

Track the cume in your key demos as much as you can. I’ve seen too many instances when a station’s cume has been falling while the AQH held steady or even grew. The GM, the OM, and the PD were all happy and the talent was oblivious, as always. 

However, the “Spidey sense” said that the station was heading for a fall because fewer people were tuning in. Most of the time, I was right. In those cases, the recommendation was to look for ways to increase sampling and create some short-term buzz.

Another reason is that cume is a more solid measure from a survey standpoint because it’s simply far less volatile, especially in the PPM world. How many program directors are geniuses one month and failures the next because one household that loved your station left the panel?  Or perhaps a family went on vacation for a week and didn’t listen. Doesn’t matter why, but in the world of cume, everyone is equal. 

The strongest P1 panelist or diary keeper is no better than that one quarter-hour per week participant which means a much smoother trend than you’ll generally see with AQH. Cume measures also hold up better when you “slice and dice” the data. PPM samples are far too small (we’ll save that discussion for a future column) and we all have a tendency to tear them apart because, as someone once said, 6+ is a family reunion and not a worthwhile measure except for bragging rights. 

If you’re going to tear into the data, and you should, track the cume in the tight age spreads that are the subdivisions of your key demo and take the AQH estimates with a grain of salt.  The same goes for diary markets with respect to tracking cume.

In PPM markets, you have a lot of flexibility to track the estimates, especially if you use the PPM Analysis Tool (AT). It’s not the friendliest piece of software you’ll ever run across, but you can do just about anything with it. During my time at Cumulus, I’d arrange training sessions for interested PDs on how to use AT. At one point, Nielsen Audio put together a set of short lessons to teach the tricks of the software. Learn it, use it, and you’ll thank me later. I used it extensively and it was often instrumental in either coaxing a PD off the ledge or in some cases, prompting one to find out whether the windows on the building’s upper floors were locked.

I believe in cume to the extent that long ago, I owned an English Springer Spaniel named Cume. You can see Cume here in a piece I wrote for Arbitron around 2000. While your success may be determined by AQH, take some time and check the cume.

Ben Mintz: ‘Don’t Blame Dave Portnoy, Big Cat, Erika Nardini For What Happened To Me’

BSM Staff
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Former Barstool Sports contributor Ben Mintz harbors no ill-will toward leadership over his recent firing from the Penn Entertainment-owned company.

Mintz, known by his nickname “Mintzy,” was terminated on May 3 after he read a racial slur in song lyrics on a Barstool live stream.

Barstool founder Dave Portnoy made it very clear in the immediate aftermath of Mintzy’s firing that the decision was entirely on Penn, and that he, Pardon My Take host Dan “Big Cat” Katz, and Barstool CEO Erika Ayers fought to keep Mintz’s job.

Mintz, in an update video posted on his Twitter on Saturday, attested to that.

“Dave, Dan and Erika fought for me tooth and nail,” Mintz said. “Erika was so upset when she FaceTimed me letting me know I getting let go she was almost in tears. It is not any of their faults. I made a very stupid but honest mistake, I paid an enormous consequence for it, but none of this has anything to do with Big Cat, Dave or Erika not fighting as hard as they humanly could for me.”

Portnoy and Big Cat received plenty of backlash from stoolies online claiming they “sold out” in relinquishing a certain level of administrative control since Penn acquired full ownership of Barstool earlier this year. Portnoy said that once the deal went through, people knew that if they crossed certain lines there would be nothing he could do to save them.

Mintz said he leaves Barstool with some great relationships and nothing but good things to say about them, and acknowledged that Penn was the reason he even got hired at Barstool in the first place.

Sportsbooks ‘Gathering Their Breath’ Before California, Florida, Texas Legalize Betting

BSM Staff
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As the sports betting world awaits legalization in Texas, California and Florida, sportsbooks are utilizing their time to learn as much as possible.

Sports betting is currently legal in 33 states and DC. California voters resoundingly rejected Prop 26 and Prop 27 last November, which would’ve legalized mobile betting and in-person betting on tribal lands and at race tracks.

In Florida, there’s a glimmer of hope that betting in the state could resume as early as this year. A DC Court of Appeals panel will issue a ruling at some point in 2023 on a 2021 lawsuit by state casino operators challenging the Florida-Seminole Gaming Compact. But if that doesn’t work out, voters will have to decide, making the earliest betting would go live would be in 2025.

In Texas, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick tweeted over the weekend that a bill that would have put sports betting on the 2023 ballot will not be advancing in the state Senate. The Texas legislature meets every two years, so the next time it comes up for legalization won’t be until 2025.

It’s only been three years since sports betting was decriminalized at the federal level and made a state issue. Putting at least two more years between then and whenever sportsbooks go online in those three important states isn’t viewed as a bad thing.

“I think the operators now are kind of gathering their breath,” Sportradar COO Andrew Bimson told Front Office Sports. “Because the market opened up, and it opened up in a hurry.”

Currently sports betting revenue is at $7.5 billion. It jumped 61% in 2022 when New York legalized. The belief is that Texas would generate close to $2.5 billion in the first year it went legal.

Bob Costas: ‘What Works for a Competitive Edge Does Not Work for Entertainment’

BSM Staff
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Bob Costas isn’t a fan of letting analytics dictate how an NBA game is played. He feels like the shift to prioritizing the 3-pointer is not conducive to entertaining basketball.

In an appearance on The Michael Kay Show on Friday, Costas said MLB is a prime example of how an analytics-driven focus can impact the quality of the game.

“What worked for a competitive edge, or at least arguably that’s what the analytics showed you to do, did not work well for baseball as an entertainment product,” he said. “And I think the same thing is true – I’m not as close to the NBA now as I am to baseball – but in what I’ve observed, it’s not so pleasing to see two teams combine for 80 3-point attempts in a game. Or to see a potential fast break, and the two guys on the wing run to the respective corners instead of finishing off a beautifully-executed fast break.”

Costas added that mid-range jump shots have been minimized, and that’s affected the game as well.

“So a lot of the game’s texture has been reduced,” he said. “A 3-pointer used to be a punctuation and a big deal. But when it’s a matter of course then I think it loses some of its impact.”

MLB has implemented new rules like eliminating the shift and adding a pitch clock. That has produced a positive result in entertainment value, because games now no longer drag on past three and a half hours.

Costas pointed out that it’s problematic in basketball when a reliance on analytics essentially predicts how games will be played.

Michael Wilbon: If You’ve Never Voted for MVP, You Can’t Criticize Mark Jackson

BSM Staff
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ESPN NBA analyst Mark Jackson faced some backlash online from basketball fans last week when he revealed his NBA MVP ballot was absent Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.

Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid ended up claiming the award, and Jokic finished second in voting. Jackson voted Embiid first, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo second, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum third, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fourth, and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell fifth.

Jackson later apologized to Jokic for leaving him off, and said if he got a do-over he’d have Jokic third behind Embiid and Giannis.

Mark’s ESPN colleague Michael Wilbon defended him in an interview Friday on Waddle & Silvy on ESPN 1000 in Chicago.

Wilbon also cast votes for the MVP. His ballot read: Embiid, Giannis, Jokic, Tatum and Sacramento Kings guard De’Arron Fox fifth.

Wilbon said in the past when he’s voted, and he’s got two decades worth of MVP voting experience, he’d usually bounce his selections off of an ESPN researcher or someone at the Washington Post who’s an NBA fanatic. His sounding board now is his teenage son Matthew.

“Now I run it past my resident fanatic, who I live with, who says to me, ‘Dad you’re going to leave Gilgeous-Alexander off your top-five?'” he said. “And I was like, ‘Oh wow. I know. I forgot. I got De’Arron Fox.”

Wilbon said he considered swapping Fox and Gilgeous-Alexander on his ballot, but decided against it. He added that it’s easy to forget some other players and he empathized with Jackson.

“I believe Mark. If he says he forgot, he forgot,” he said. “Anybody who hasn’t done one of these doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about. I had forgotten.” And I need a safety net, and I have a couple of safety nets so I won’t do that.”

“It’s a bad look, and you feel bad,” Wilbon added. “But it happens.”

Dan Le Batard: Does Audience Know Papí Was Fed Lines on Highly Questionable?

BSM Staff
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Dan Le Batard welcomed Izzy Gutierrez to his South Beach Sessions podcast this week. The show is usually a deep dive into the life and opinions of the guest, but Gutierrez wanted to talk about working with Papí, who Le Batard says Gutierrez “has an unusually good relationship with”.

Gonzalo “Papí” Le Batard, is an immigrant that fled Cuba after Fidel Castro took power. He came to the United States at 12 years old and eventually earned a masters degree in industrial engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

He became an unlikely star while working with his son on ESPN’s Highly Questionable. While Le Batard led the show’s segments, Papí would sit next to him, laughing at viral videos and cracking jokes.

“It’s all anyone wants to talk to me about either,” Le Batard said. “I spent eight years slaving on that show looking at looking for bear videos, bears falling out of trees and landing on a trampoline to entertain the people. And all they want to talk about is my dad.”

He compared it to the way people react when he talks about the frustration of working with Stugotz on The Dan Le Batard Show. All the audience knows is the show. They may not realize how much the personalities carry over into dealing with these people in real life.

Izzy Gutierrez revealed that Papí wore an ear piece and was fed one-liners by the show’s producer, Erik Rydholm. He said that while the rest of the cast was enjoying the videos and reacting to the hi jinx, Papíwas actually working, waiting to deliver his next line.

Dan Le Batard said that might be the first time the audience has heard that not everything the elder Le Batard said was original thoughts off the top of his head.

“I don’t know if they know that he’s being fed lines,” he said to Gutierrez. “I think they think that my father is a 100% authentic personality who was just that clever every single night.” 

Gutierrez countered that as the show went on, Papí began to be a little more spontaneous and deliver zingers off the cuff. Le Batard agreed that was true.

“When he was having a good time, that’s what it was the best,” Gutierrez said. “Like, that’s when it was 1,000% genuine. I loved just the fact that this man is sitting here giggling and doing a job he’s getting paid for that he never once in his life thought he would ever do.”

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