In June 2014, Kyle Bailey was at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil amid a crowd of 200,000 people who had traveled to the city to be present for the FIFA World Cup Finals between Germany and Argentina.
Not only was Bailey there to take in the scene surrounding the international football tournament, but he was also conducting research for his master’s thesis in geography as a student at Virginia Tech. The thesis was focused on Rio de Janeiro’s tendency to host large events and use them as catalysts to effectuate political agendas, multifaceted journalism and social activism.
Fast-forward to the present moment when Argentina just captured its first FIFA World Cup tournament title since 1986, and Bailey’s research has somewhat been confirmed in seeing the indelible impact of the accolades earned by superstar Lionel Messi and the country’s national football team. Evidently, it is indicative of the power sports continues to garner in all aspects of modern society.
“When you take a look at what’s going on internationally as opposed to our often-myopic view of U.S. sports, it is eye-opening; there’s no doubt about that,” Bailey said. “….It just kind of transported me back to that [time] and it really does give you a much broader perspective on how the world views sports relative to how we look at things here in the U.S.”
Bailey was raised within a blue-collar working family in Virginia, and the importance of developing and sustaining a stellar work ethic was communicated to him in his formative years. While wanting to work in sports media as a baseball play-by-play announcer differs from his blue-collar background, he had the support of his family so long as he put himself in the best position to succeed in his endeavors.
“The idea of not working hard is a foreign concept to me,” he said. “…[My parents] told me early, ‘If you want to do this, do it, but you’ve got to go at it [with] full force; you can’t be lazy; you’ve got to take every opportunity that comes,’ and I’ve tried to live by that.”
Bailey attended Virginia Tech as an undergraduate student majoring in both geospatial and environmental analysis and with communications. During his time at the school, he participated in various student-run organizations and gained professional experience by interning at ESPN Radio AM 1430 in Blacksburg. While at the station, he did his best to stand out among others to demonstrate his skills and abilities and position himself for a career in sports media.
“Being from the area growing up 10 minutes from Virginia Tech, it wasn’t hard for me to start inserting myself into opportunities because I knew everybody,” Bailey explained. “I just leveraged my familiarity with the place and the people [and] started calling games and hosting shows…. I took a full-load of classes but I was as focused on broadcasting opportunities as I was school.”
After earning his undergraduate degree in 2009, Bailey began his career as an account executive with Clear Channel Media where he worked on the business side of media and contributed to marketing endeavors related to the conglomerate. A few years later, he began hosting The Clubhouse with Kyle Bailey in afternoon drive on Super Sports 101.7 FM in Blacksburg, bringing his conversational hosting style to the air to discuss collegiate and professional sports.
As a radio host in a smaller market, he aimed to go “beyond the box score” in his programming by localizing national stories and including relevant guests who could speak to the locale.
“My approach… is either getting A-list guests or local guests; I don’t really care for much in-between,” he said. “….I want the local TV guy who’s always covering these stories because that’s truly what people come in for and not necessarily the opinions or views of a somewhat obscure… columnist if you know what I mean.”
At the same time, he was hosting studio coverage for Virginia Tech Hokies football and basketball with Dwight Vick and Bimbo Coles, respectively. Hosting pregame shows is about setting the stage for the upcoming matchup, making fans aware of key storylines, breaking news and other information pertaining to the team so they are informed and ready to take in the action.
“It’s all about building up to the moment; building the anticipation and telling those stories in doing so,” Bailey expressed. “That’s what it’s really about, especially on the pregame front.”
Bailey desired to work in sports media to become a play-by-play announcer, but he has been open to any opportunities that have become available throughout his career. In 2013, he was given a chance to do play-by-play with the Virginia High School League Network for which he provided play-by-play for various sports including baseball, basketball and football.
He has worked as a freelance play-by-play announcer as well, being the soundtrack for viewers of events such as Dixie World Series Baseball, NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball and the Division III College Football All-Star Game among others.
“You have to master [the fundamentals] first and foremost before you can ever start to inject any sort of style or flair or even storytelling because you’ve got to start with the score; the time; the possession; what’s at stake; who the players are on the court,” Bailey said. “If you haven’t eaten your vegetables so to speak when you’re doing play-by-play, you’re not going to be very effective.”
During the 2015 season, Bailey worked as the director of broadcast and communications for the Pulaski Yankees, who were the Appalachian League affiliate of the New York Yankees until 2020. Aside from following the team as its play-by-play announcer for all regular and postseason home games broadcast to various media outlets, he had a plethora of other responsibilities – including creating audio production, formatting pregame and postgame shows and writing scripts.
“You understand pretty quickly what it takes to pull off a successful broadcast at any level,” he affirmed. “Especially at the minor league level where, much like the organization itself, it’s all hands on deck; everybody’s chipping in and doing something that’s not necessarily a part of their job description – the broadcast is no different.”
A few years earlier, Bailey had helped pioneer Friday Football Early Edition, a high school football pregame show syndicated across the state of Virginia, co-hosting the program with WDBJ7 sports director Travis Wells. Working with Three Daughters Media, he would put together that show while traveling across the state to different college football venues to work in his role with Virginia Tech on Saturdays. It was a stressful period with very little downtime; nonetheless, the relationships and on-air repetitions he gained from those experiences made it worthwhile.
“It was built off kind of an institutional TV show called Friday Football Extra and we decided, ‘Hey, let’s do the early edition with the pregame show,’” he said. “….Unfortunately, that show ended not because it wasn’t popular or successful but for sales reasons and some other business-type reasons that were beyond our control. That was one of those things that I was low-key pretty proud of that we were able to pull that off as well as we did.”
In order to continue his movement into the industry, Bailey realized in early 2016 that it was time to relocate to a larger market within the area, hence why he landed in Charleston, SC. His work ethic and endurance paid dividends during that time when he would often clock in 16 hour days working in three different roles simultaneously.
In the mornings, Bailey would wake up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the studios in time to host a morning drive show titled Bailey & Bradford. The show was initially broadcast on Sports Radio 1450; however in October 2016, it moved to The Zone 98.5 FM/1340 AM. Hosting in the mornings differed from his previous role in afternoon drive since he would often have the first reaction to the events that took place the night before.
“You are expected to be a human alarm clock for your listeners,” Bailey said. “You’ve got to bring energy and you’re quite often simply reacting.”
Once the show concluded at 9 a.m., Bailey would change into a suit and tie where he would meet with executives working in sales and advertising in order to try to sell them on Kirkman Broadcasting. As an account executive, his job was to attract advertisers and collaborate with other departments to increase aggregate revenue.
After he completed those responsibilities, there would be days where he would go to a basketball arena to call Citadel Bulldogs basketball games as a fill-in announcer where he would continue to hone his announcing skills.
All-in-all, it was quite a grind but it was an undertaking that helped propel him to work in Charlotte starting the next year, bringing back The Clubhouse with Kyle Bailey in afternoon drive.
“There’s a lot of repackaging going on by the time you get to the afternoon – and that’s in addition to my own opinions; my own perspectives and guests,” Bailey said. “If you’re able to successfully incorporate all of that, you’ll look up and a three or four hour show is going to be over pretty quickly.”
Today, Bailey is with WFNZ hosting the same show he created from 2011 to 2016, albeit in a much larger marketplace with two professional sports teams and a host of collegiate athletics to cover. Despite switching locations, the show follows a similar style to his previous program; that is, conversational where listeners are invited to call in and pertinent guests are featured to enhance or pose new angles of discussion.
“The idea that I wouldn’t take phone calls from invested Panthers and Hornets fans; Tar Heels fans; NC State fans; [and] NASCAR fans is just such a foreign concept for me,” Bailey said, “and I love not only talking with listeners but getting to know them so well that I know who’s on the line ready to talk to me before I even bring them up or we continue a conversation [from the] last time they called in. WFNZ has been around for a long time before me; it’ll be around for a long time after me. I think it’s important for me to treat this as a community-city platform everybody’s invested in.”
Bailey works with Radio One Regional Vice President Marsha Landess and Program Director Jeff Rickard and is grateful for their leadership in the industry. Over the years, there have been times where Bailey has felt as if he was being guided by less than adequate people in the industry – but in his current role, he understands everything being done is in the station’s best interest.
“These are two people who not only care about our success, but have shown a genuine care factor in not just me but in our staff as people and they treat us accordingly,” Bailey said. “They’re invested in our success [and] they’ve shown us that.”
The modern media landscape can be presented in stark contrast to what it looked like one decade ago when Bailey was just starting as an afternoon drive host in Blacksburg, Va. The growth of digital platforms have provided consumers new ways to find and listen to content and significantly expanded its reach. Additionally, it has rendered the Nielsen ratings less reliable in terms of determining the success of a radio show, making the jobs of those inside the building more comprehensive in terms of extrapolating best practices to appeal to a broad audience.
“We got [data] back last month… that [said] our podcast [downloads] had jumped 26% which is a massive number,” Bailey said. “I think we had a little over 100,000 unique tap-ins to the stream which was really, really encouraging and great news to get, but it also just reminded me that whatever the cume number says; whatever the traditional Nielsen ratings number says – as important as that still is to traditional radio – our digital presence is more important than ever.”
Although there is 730 The Game ESPN Charlotte located just down the street and WBCN Fox Sports Radio Charlotte in the area as well, WFNZ is the only fully-staffed sports radio station in the city and it has traditionally dominated in the ratings. Being in a market where there is ostensibly a lack of competition, at least in the sports radio format, does not foster complacency in the mindset of Bailey though, as the actions of those entities have no effect on what he is trying to do. Instead, he focuses on himself and his own job so he can serve his listeners.
“I’m here to entertain the people who tune in every day; to be informative; to be entertaining; and to give them a reason to listen to me,” Bailey said. “….My obligation is to the people who tune in and listen to me every day to give them the best of what we possibly can and I pay absolutely no attention to what’s going on down the street.”
On the side, Bailey is hosting a podcast with Roman Harper called Bailey & Harper in which they delve into topics beyond sports, effectively creating a portal through which consumers can get a look into quotidian conversations between friends. They created the podcast after developing a following when working in radio together and seek to cultivate a product they look back on fondly when their careers end.
“Roman and I entered into this little venture of ours understanding that we were likely never going to pull Joe Rogan-types of numbers,” Bailey said, “but we had a loyal group of people who discovered us together on the radio a couple of years ago and were willing to follow us to a podcast so we do it for them.”
Akin to what he did in Blacksburg, Bailey is hosting game day studio coverage for the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Hornets, the latter for which the station is the flagship home. Pregame coverage centers around telling the story of the matchup and what is to come and while there is certainly an element of analyzing the game within postgame shows, part of the program that simply cannot be overlooked is implementing fans into the show and hearing their reactions to wins, losses and events associated with them, such as decisions, injuries or narratives.
“You’re taking live phone calls from elated fans or disappointed fans or angry fans right after a game is over,” Bailey said of postgame shows. “It’s very different but in some ways postgame is just as much fun [as pregame].”
Aside from hosting studio coverage, Bailey has also had the opportunity to fill-in as the radio play-by-play announcer for the Charlotte Hornets. His first instance being placed in that role took place last season when the team flew him in to Washington, D.C. to announce a game against the Washington Wizards.
“I just went into it going back and focusing on some old broadcasts and listening to some of my favorite guys in the week leading up [to] just refresh myself,” Bailey said. “My only focus in the game was to make sure I did the fundamentals and let the other stuff happen as it happens. For not having done a game in five years, I walked away from it pretty pleased.”
Bailey compared his start in the industry to Colin Cowherd since they both began in the business looking to become play-by-play announcers in baseball but found chances to start working in talk radio and decided to take the opportunity. He hopes more moments of being able to contribute his voice to live sporting events and depict the action for viewers and listeners alike are ahead in his future as he looks to assimilate into a larger role in play-by-play announcing; however, he wants to do it in tandem as a sports talk radio host.
“I’ve always wanted to do both,” Bailey expressed. “One without the other would be boring to me. I want to call games and host a show because they both scratch an itch that I want to scratch…. Doing some fill-in work for the Hornets and things like that has been just confirmation that that’s really where I want to be.”
While many people are apprehensive towards taking on new opportunities, Kyle Bailey normalized saying ‘Yes’ from a young age. He recognizes how any chance – even a small one – could manifest into something larger down the road within a competitive industry. Being versatile and informed in subject matters other than sports also lends itself to the ability to expand in areas outside of sports media, augmenting the amount of openings available.
“Be well-rounded,” Bailey said. “It’s not about how many box scores you memorize; it’s not how many rosters you memorize. Do you understand politics? Do you understand news? Do you read things that aren’t sports-related? Some of the most compelling conversations that you’ll have on air may very well have nothing to do with sports…. Have a broad spectrum of interests and things that you know and understand.”
