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12 Years Later, David Kelly is Back on the Radio

Peter Schwartz
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Fifteen years ago, David Kelly arrived in Tucson for a role with Learfield IMG College on radio broadcasts for the University of Arizona. Three years later, Kelly transitioned to television for a sports reporter/anchor role at FOX 11 and would eventually move on to KOVA-TV. 

12 years later, Kelly was thinking about his next opportunity…

A move to another market?

A return to radio?

Whatever it was going to be, Kelly was ready for a change.

“You never know in this industry,” said Kelly who has been named Program Director and afternoon host for Wildcats Radio 1290, a role he will commence on Monday June 12th with his show to be heard weekdays from 4pm to 6pm.

For Kelly, it’s kind of a full-circle moment.

“You get to that point where the next step for me is to kind of leave and be in a director’s type of role whether that be TV or radio,” said Kelly. “This opportunity came about and obviously with it being the flagship of the Arizona Wildcats, it was something that was right in my wheelhouse. I went after it and here we are.”

Kelly is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

As his time with KOVA winds down, Kelly will soon be meeting with the Wildcats Radio staff and begin the process of formatting the radio station. In the past, Wildcats Radio has had several different sounds, but Kelly has a feeling of how he would like to see it take shape under his leadership.

If you’re a Wildcats fan, you’re going to love this.

“I think the way I want to do it is I want to take it back to a community radio type of style,” said Kelly. “I think we’re going to be heavy U of A, maybe heavier U of A than they’ve been. A lot of the hosts have pretty much focused on the two big sports football and men’s basketball but I want to expand that.”

Over the course of his television career in Tucson, Kelly has paid close attention to all sports at the University of Arizona and has covered everything including men’s tennis, women’s volleyball and also swimming.

He wants to make sure that all of the U of A teams are part of the radio station’s DNA.

“That’s one of the things that helped me in this position is the University knows that I’m going to be at all the events,” said Kelly. “You’re going to see me at everything.”

Not only will Kelly make sure that all U of A programs are covered, but he also wants to make sure that the other events in the Tucson area get some publicity. Whether it’s high school student-athletes, golf tournaments or auto racing, Kelly is going to make sure that Wildcats Radio is going to be a sports destination for all fans in the area.

“I want to touch everything in this community sports-wise,” said Kelly.

Kelly spent more than two decades working in radio before he moved over to television and now his challenge is to quickly recapture that feel and experience that he had on the radio side.

In his new role, he’s going to have to do that in a couple of different ways because not only is he going to be the boss but he’s also going to be the talent.

“That’s going to be interesting,” said Kelly. “I’ve always kind of been one of the underlings. The last time I worked in radio was in Cleveland at WTAM and so I’ve only worked in that role as an ancillary piece. Now it’s going to be different from that respect. I haven’tworked in radio since 2005 so I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of formatting and all of that.”

In his two sports media “lives,” Kelly has enjoyed plenty of experiences and success in both radio and television. In his time working in Tucson, Kelly has established himself in the community as a trusted voice when it comes to the University of Arizona.

He’s also shown a commitment to everything else going on in town and that’s where he has a unique edge going into this position at Wildcats Radio.

It doesn’t matter if it’s television or radio because Kelly seems to have his finger on the pulse of what works.

“I think the commonality is being out and being present and letting people see you and getting that station brand out there,” said Kelly. “It’s letting folks know we’re here for you and we want to tell your stories and we want to be making sure that people know about your events.” 

University of Arizona fans, as well as all sports fans in the Tucson area, are all familiar with the work of David Kelly on the television side. And now, they’re going to have the opportunity to see him put his fingerprints on Wildcats Radio 1290 and have that radio station truly be the community’s radio station.

Fred Toucher: No One From Toucher & Rich But Mike Lockhart Has Reached Out To Me

BSM Staff
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98.5 The Sports Hub host Fred Toucher continues to be on the sidelines dealing with a vocal issue, and Toucher feels like he’s been forgotten by his co-workers.

In a pair of tweets over the weekend, Toucher indicated that in the three weeks that he’s been absent from Toucher & Rich, he has heard little or nothing at all from Rich Shertenlieb and Jon Wallach. Producer Mike Lockhart is the only one he says he has spoken with.

https://twitter.com/FredToucher/status/1652469675677081602?s=20
https://twitter.com/FredToucher/status/1652467155693084673?s=20

The specifics of what Toucher is dealing with haven’t been revealed, but Fred said on April 10 when he announced he would be taking a leave of absence that “it is possible a listener saved my life” by getting him in touch with the doctor he’s seeing to get his voice and throat issue resolved. So you know whatever the problem is, it is certainly serious. But Toucher noted that the doctor told him he could fix his problems and that he would eventually be back.

Days before that, Toucher joked that his bosses at Beasley Media, which owns 98.5 The Sports Hub, seemed to use his problems as leverage in recent contract talks.

“However, I will say that if you’re ever negotiating a contract and have anything sketchy going on, they will use that against you,” Toucher said. “Is it freaky for me? Yeah, a little bit. This is what I do for a living, so it’s a little freaky.”

Legendary Cardinals Broadcaster Mike Shannon Dies at 83

BSM Staff
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The St. Louis Cardinals are mourning the loss of one of their own. World Series champion and longtime Cards broadcaster Mike Shannon passed away Saturday at the age of 83.

Shannon played nine seasons with the Cardinals from 1962-70, appearing in three World Series in 1964, 1967 and 1968. The Cards won it all in ’64 and ’67. Shannon hit home runs in all three WS appearances.

Mike Shannon was probably more well-known for his voice. He joined the Cardinals’ radio booth as an analyst for the 1972 season, and he’d stay in that role until his retirement in 2021.

“Mike’s unique connection to Cardinals fans and his teammates was reflected in his unbridled passion for the game, the Cardinals, and the St. Louis community,” Cardinals owner and CEO Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement. “On behalf of the entire Cardinals organization, we share our condolences with Mike’s family and friends, and his many fans.”

Shannon played an impactful role in the lives of many in baseball media. Longtime broadcaster Mike Claiborne said Shannon’s kindness and tender heart extended to everyone he met.

“He’s probably had more impact on my life outside of anybody other than my parents,” Claiborne told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He was St. Louis for all the good in St. Louis. He cared about people. And he was a guy who could run with any class or group of people, and that is what made him special.”

Others in St. Louis media who had the pleasure of meeting or knowing Shannon reflected on his passing.

Shannon is survived by his wife Lori, his sons Tim, Michael Jr. and Dan, daughters Patricia, Peg and Erin as well as 18 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Rich Eisen: My Twitter Revenue is Down 98% Since Elon Musk Took Over

BSM Staff
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Don’t count Rich Eisen among the Twitter users who are pleased with Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media giant and changes enacted on the platform including a complete overhaul of the blue verification checkmark.

In an interview with Jimmy Traina of Sports Illustrated for the SI Media Podcast, Eisen said he was able to make a profit off of his Rich Eisen Show Twitter account when the program left DirecTV in 2020.

“So the business was going well,” Eisen said. “I mean I was making revenue through Twitter.”

But now that has all changed for Rich since “Legacy verified” accounts not subscribed to Twitter Blue lost their checkmarks in April.

“I don’t even look at the ledger of what’s coming in from Twitter anymore. It is so minuscule,” he said. “It’s down 98%.”

Twitter has since rolled out “Verified Organizations” which is similar to Twitter Blue and introduces gold or gray checkmarks for those organizations. It’s $1,000 per month and an additional $50 per “affiliated account” which adds the blue checkmark and an organization-specific badge next to the checkmark on those accounts.

Eisen said all the new changes have just upended things for him and how he tries to operate his business.

“When I say he eviscerated the ad market for people like me and small business owners like me, it’s understating it,” he said. “So forget the blue checkmark.”

Rich Eisen is far from the first sports media professional to complain that Twitter is a less fun, less effective way to market his content now. Mike Greenberg has said simply that it “sucks”. Doug Gottlieb called verification on the platform “worthless”. Don La Greca says he doesn’t trust it. Joe Ovies says radio professionals should be using their efforts elsewhere.

Viewership For 1st Round of NFL Draft Up Across All Platforms

BSM Staff
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The 2023 NFL Draft has come and gone, and viewership numbers for the weekend are starting to come in.

According to the NFL, the first round on Thursday night saw an increase in viewership year over year. An average audience of 11.4 million tuned in for the first round across ESPN, ABC, ESPN Deportes and NFL Network.

That figure was an 11% increase versus the first round of the 2022 draft. But it was slightly lower than the 12.52 million for the 2021 draft. The 2020 draft, which was conducted remotely due to the COVID pandemic, averaged 15.27 million in round one. It should be noted that in 2020, the NFL Draft was one of the first live sporting events after shutdowns and quarantines began in the United States.

Viewership in 2023 for ABC was up 8%, on ESPN it was up 26%. NFL Network’s viewership saw a decrease. An average of 1.6 million on Thursday night was 12% lower than the year before.

But overall, the draft won out as the most-watched program on TV on Thursday, beating out Young Sheldon on CBS.

96.1 The Zone Flips Away From Sports

BSM Staff
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Lexington sports station 96.1 The Zone has flipped from sports to Americana music and rebranded as 96.1 The Hound.

The station featured the FOX Sports Radio lineup since it debuted in August 2021. The station did offer a local afternoon show when longtime sports radio programmer Terry Ford helped found the station. However, he departed the station to join 107.5 The Game in Columbia, SC in November of that year.

The Clarity Communications station labels the new format as Kentucky-centric music.

The Lexington market remains served by ESPN Sports Radio 1300 and 92.5.

White Sox Hold Pregame Ceremony To Honor Rays Broadcaster Dave Wills

BSM Staff
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Dave Wills passed away suddenly last month. The play-by-play voice of the Tampa Bay Rays was 58 years old.

With the Rays on the Southside of Chicago this week, the White Sox took a moment before their game on Thursday to pay tribute to Wills.

The video board at Guaranteed Rate Field showed footage of Wills during his tenure with the White Sox. Gene Honda, the public address announcer acknowledged Dave Wills’s time with both teams as well as his loved ones.

Chicago was Wills’s hometown. He had 20 family members in a suite on Thursday including his son and his sister. Nearly 40 more friends were in the stands.

Andy Freed, who was partnered with Dave Wills on the Rays’ radio broadcasts, took to social media to show off a special gift left for him by the White Sox. The team put white roses and an assortment of photos of Wills and other memorabilia in the visiting radio booth.

“One of the joys of working with Dave was being with him for his homecomings to his beloved Chicago,” Freed told the Tampa Bay Times. “It seemed like he knew everyone. (Thursday), like so many days the last few weeks, was emotional. I took some time to walk to many of the spots he’d show me. Experiencing Chicago without him for the first time, the silence was deafening.”

Bally Sports Arizona Threatens Legal Action Over New Phoenix Suns TV Deal

BSM Staff
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Bally Sports Arizona Threatens Legal Action Over New Phoenix Suns TV Deal

Early this morning, the Phoenix Suns announced plans to move its television broadcasts away from Bally Sports Arizona and partner with local stations. Now, the cable channel is threatening legal action.

In a statement released after the new deal was announced, Bally Sports Arizona and parent company Diamond Sports Group accused the franchise of breaking its current contract.

“The Phoenix Suns breached our contract and violated bankruptcy law, and Diamond Sports Group will pursue all remedies against any parties that attempt to exercise control over our property interests while we reorganize,” according to a statement given to AZCentral.com. This is an improper effort by the Suns to change their broadcasting partner without permitting Diamond to exercise our contractual rights.”

According to reports, Bally Sports Arizona’s contract with the club features a clause that allows it to match any offer the franchise receives for its local television rights. However, the team maintains that is not true.

“Diamond’s position is totally inaccurate,” Phoenix Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein said. “We are moving forward with this deal and could not be more excited about what it means for our fans and our future.”

Both the Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury will partner with Gray Television stations in Phoenix, Tucson, and Yuma to increase the television distribution of the franchise throughout the state. The deal announced this morning is a five-year contract for the Suns and a two-year deal for the Mercury.

Laura Rutledge: Advice From Tom Rinaldi Helped Me Cover Backstage of NFL Draft

BSM Staff
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ABC and ESPN’s NFL Draft coverage is slightly different, with the “human interest story” aspect playing a much larger role on ABC. NFL Live host Laura Rutledge said she asked for advice from legendary reporter Tom Rinaldi on the best way to cover some of the stories of NFL Draft prospects.

“I take a totally different approach than the stats and tape that usually goes into prepping for my daily roles,” Rutledge told The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. “What was really helpful was a couple of years ago when I first found out that I would get to do this, I called Tom Rinaldi, who had done it before. We know how great Rinaldi is at every interview, and one of the things he said was, ‘You always want to have a few questions that apply to anything because essentially this is about humanity, and it’s about lives changing and families experiencing these journeys together.’

“He suggested a few questions. One that I love is, ‘What are you most proud of?’ Because I think it’s general enough but it also brings in the real moment, which is the pride. Sometimes the best questions are the shortest and the most succinct, just reacting to how they’re feeling.”

She added that there’s a delicate balance between asking important questions while also making prospects and their families remain at ease.

In a video on Twitter and TikTok, Rutledge — who is 9 months pregnant — shared a behind-the-scenes look at the first day of the NFL Draft.

Pablo Torre: Dan Le Batard ‘Changed My Perspective’ on What Media Career Could Be

BSM Staff
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Pablo Torre: Dan Le Batard ‘Changed My Perspective’ on What Media Career Could Be

Pablo Torre had worked with Dan Le Batard for many years at ESPN, but most recently made the move to join him at Meadowlark Media. While Torre is still doing some work for ESPN, he has also found a place where he enjoys working with the people that he works with.

Torre was a guest on Le Batard’s South Beach Sessions podcast and it was a powerful hour-plus conversation. Torre told Le Batard that he didn’t get what The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz was about until he became a part of the show.

“I didn’t listen to your show before I was on your radio show. I had heard it, I was a guest once or twice. I was shedding the exoskeleton of literary sportswriter. When I came in and realized what the f*** you guys were doing, it changed my perspective on what this job could be. The fact that this moved so quickly, that it’s light, easy, and fun, it literally was not dreamable for my parents that this would actually be more worthwhile than anything that was pain.

“The reason I went from full-time Disney employee who they wanted to do the shows that I was doing. I have nothing bad to say about ESPN on that front. They believed in me. The fact I went from that to working for and with you and giving up healthcare while I have a 3-year-old is nuts. Who could have ever thought that?”

Torre mentioned that one of the reasons he likes working with Le Batard is that he gets to work with people who he loves and that he wanted to be a part of their family.

“In an uncertain future in which we don’t know what icebergs will be remaining, I want to work with people that I love, that seem to have figured something out about how this could be. I wanted to be a part of your family. That was fundamentally the decision that I made. Yes, great, I can do some TV stuff, stay at ESPN, I don’t want to minimize that. That is so important to me. I’m here because I love sports, but that’s not why I’m staying. I’m staying because I love these people. Those feelings are in my naive brain, a better business model than let me serve you sports wherever you can get them with these takes.

“I want to be the neighbor to this house, I don’t want to be off across the country. I want to be a wing to this bizarre estate because so much of the engineering to this business comes from a place of attention, manipulation, and trying to engineer habits and it comes from the artificial and you start the other way. You start from what’s inside and people feel that. I feel that and that’s what drew me to this.”

During the interview, Le Batard did talk about how when he used to write stories, he would know if it was good enough if the story met his standards. He mentioned that when Torre asked him what he is most confident in being better than anyone in the industry.

“It is because if it meets my standard, I know it’s good enough. I give it to editors and I’m like this isn’t going to have to be changed. I’m not going to have to fight you on much. Whenever I was handing something in to one of these people who were at the top of the industry, if it met my standards, I knew it would meet theirs. Mine is a discerning taste when it comes to writing.

“When I know I have written well, that’s the most immune I am to any doubt…I’ve got a pretty good idea when we are speaking into microphones whether I’m giving the audience something that will be objectively interesting to the average person. Nowhere is it more honed than writing.” 

Also, Le Batard revealed about Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser that there aren’t many people that the duo both agree to work with, but that Le Batard and Torre are two of the people that share that rare honor.

“People don’t know this about Kornheiser and Wilbon. They are between them beyond being very different, there are very few people that both of them are willing to work with. I am one and you are one and I just remember after you had written 5-6 articles, telling you because I saw you were on the same path, get out of writing without having to do the noble writing of pouring yourself into the most challenging thing and then judge all the TV and radio people for choosing the cotton candy instead of the crossword puzzle.” 

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