As Laurence Holmes is entering his 28th year working in sports talk radio, he revealed that his contract with 670 The Score is due to expire in June. Holmes began the dialogue by reflecting on how he had recently attended the BSM Summit in Chicago where he was reminded about station history and concurrently reflected on his time in the business. Regarding conversations with the station about his future, things have gone well thus far, but he admitted that there are decisions he will need to make about what his next steps will look like during a recent episode of the House of L podcast.
Holmes is currently in his first year hosting afternoon drive with Matt Spiegel after several years of being paired with Dan Bernstein. Several months after the lineup change at the station that paired Bernstein with Marshall Harris in middays, the outlet moved on from the longtime sports talk radio host. This occurred shortly after Bernstein had a controversial social media exchange and asked a user if they wanted to fight, which was preceded by another incident where he seemed to take umbrage towards a Barstool Sports personality calling him by his last name.
“This has been the toughest year of my career, and it’s made me think about a lot of things on how I want things to end, and sometimes you don’t get an opportunity to have things end the way that you want,” Holmes said. “Dan is a perfect example of that. Most of the time in our business, people don’t get a last show.
“Sometimes it’s celebrated – very happy that Terry Boers got his last show and got to have all the bouquets of flowers that all of us have wanted to throw in front of him for forever. He got that, but it’s very rare. A lot of times, relationships between talent and network end in acrimony, and you go, ‘Well, when exactly is that going to happen to me?’”
Later in the podcast, Holmes mentioned how he has been bothered by people assuming that he is not supportive of people just because he does not speak publicly about something. From there, he proceeded to speak more about the situation surrounding Bernstein and his rationale for staying silent on the matter.
“I know that when Dan was let go, that people were like, ‘Why didn’t you say anything?,’” Holmes explained. “Part of the reason that I didn’t say anything is because I don’t want Dan tagged with quotes from me. I don’t want him to have to open up Twitter and see, ‘Hey, did you see what Laurence said about Dan?,’ and maybe that’s the wrong strategy, but it was the strategy that I was going with. I didn’t feel like I needed to say anything publicly because I said everything I needed to say to Dan privately, and so we’re good. In fact – well, I’ll keep that to myself until it happens.”
Holmes outlined how it has been upsetting to see himself be painted as the villain, especially since he works hard to try and help people to get to where they hope to go. There are instances, however, where he relates to the Jay-Z line of living long enough to see himself becoming the villain, and he feels that it is a “telltale sign” that it is time for him to go.
“Wherever I’m in the way of someone, they can build their legacy because, clearly, I have outlived my welcome to a lot of people,” Holmes said. “Now for the most part, inside the house, inside The Score, that is not the case, at least from what people tell me that I am still someone that they like and respect and want to have around, but I also understand familiarity breeds contempt, and I’ve taken that into account, and I’m taking that into account and trying to figure out what the next thing is that I want to do or how long I want to do sports radio. Those are all things that are on my mind.”
Holmes voiced that it is terrible to have journalists and other people who know better avoid reaching out and writing what they believe to have happened. In fact, he articulated that not asking him about things going on personally is “bad journalism,” even if it ends up resulting in him declining to comment. Although he knows some of it goes with having the job, he admits that it has caused him not to do as much on social media.
“I’m not convinced that all of these different social media modalities actually push people towards the product,” Holmes said. “I’m not saying that it’s impossible, and I think there’s clearly an economic force inside of the social media platforms that do make it worth it. It’s why I’m interested in what ESPN 1000 is doing where they don’t subscribe to the Nielsen ratings anymore and they’re judging themselves off of the interaction of what’s happening with their social media, what’s happening with YouTube.”
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