Sorting through all of the articles I contributed to Barrett Sports Media in the last year, there were many that stood out. I’m grateful to all of the people in the industry that took time to sit down and have a conversation with me for a piece during the year, but I cut my list down to these five that I enjoyed rereading most.
Four months after his yearlong retirement tour, rumors of Mike Francesa returning to WFAN quickly strengthened in April. Regardless of your feelings on Francesa as a host at this stage of his career or his ability to retire and return as quickly as Brett Favre, what I loved seeing was radio dominate the news. In 2008, when Mike and the Mad Dog split it was on the front and back page of the paper, a decade later after plenty of modernization with how media is consumed, to still see an old medium such as radio be the big story in New York was really cool.
Barstool Sports is often criticized for its frat-like culture with complaints that the platform promotes sexual harassment and online trolling. But in a male-dominated industry, rarely do people talk about the fact that Barstool has a female CEO and women hosting prominent radio shows and podcasts. Rarely do people talk about all the good Barstool promotes. Their ability to say ‘hey, trust me, this person needs help,’ and get people to open up their wallets no questions asked is inspiring. I watched that play out first-hand in September when KFC raised thousands for a close friend of mine.
I listened to Craig Carton every morning for a decade, but I wouldn’t have referred to myself as a Carton fan until his WFAN tenure came to a screeching halt and I realized how much he was a part of my day. I met Carton a few times in recent years, each time he came across genuine and easy to talk to, this conversation was no different. I understand why people would be upset with Craig, but staring at jail-time, yet still being able to continue his energetic, brash style on-air speaks volumes to his radio talent.
“Talking about equal rights is not political. It should be offensive to people on both sides of the aisle to act like advocating for equal rights is a liberal or conservative position.” An inarguable matter of fact statement, but it was one of the thoughts from Nick Wright that led this article to be picked up by Awful Announcing and tweeted out by many including Jemele Hill. Wright’s one of the most talented personalities in the industry and I thoroughly enjoyed the hour I spent with him for this article.
Growing up in the industry, Spike Eskin has radio in his blood, but it’s his own creative drive and passion for radio that led to his success. Spike told me he’s never been an “industry guy,” he doesn’t read or listen to much on the subject, but there are few people I would rather discuss the industry with.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
Former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was widely known for his quick trigger in regard to the employment of anyone involved with his beloved ball club. Nearly everyone involved with the club feared losing their job at one point or another. Nearly everyone, outside of radio voice John Sterling.
Sterling called Steinbrenner “mercurial”, but pointed to a story from the early stages of his tenure as the radio play-by-play announcer of the Yankees, as proof that he was never fearful of losing his job.
“Fifth game of the Seattle playoff series in ’95. Great series. The Yankees lost. I finished my postgame, and came down the stairs,” Sterling reminisced. “The only way to get to the bus was to go through the dugout. Standing on the field, kind of in front of the dugout, was George. And the proverbial steam was coming from his ears. I walked past him and he said ‘Don’t worry. There’ll be changes. Not you and Michael (Kay). You guys are great.’
“That was George, in the moment, telling me how great I was. That was the kind of relationship I had with George.”
The 84-year-old Sterling was asked by the San Francisco hosts about his schedule for the upcoming season. He said he’ll call somewhere in the neighborhood of 130-132 games while joking that the schedule for announcers like Bob Uecker — who won’t be traveling to road games in 2023 — was “a dream”.
Major League Baseball’s Opening Day took place yesterday, with every team in action in the opener for the first time since the 1960s. As fans across the country tuned into their favorite teams, Texas Rangers fans experienced an issue with Bally Sports Southwest. That caught the ire of 105.3 The Fan host RJ Choppy.
Shan & RJ read message after message from listeners saying they were unable to watch the Rangers season opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We need to get to the bottom of this Bally thing,” co-host Shan Shariff said. “This blew up on my social media.”
“My understanding that there’s a streaming problem Bally is having right now?” Choppy said.
“Yesterday, people were unable to watch the game on the app, even if they were connected on their home wifi,” explained co-host Bobby Belt. “Bally was saying — and I assume this has to do with the Diamond Sports collapse — that they don’t have the licensing to stream their games. I think people just expected it to be there because they had the rights with basketball, but they don’t with baseball. So people just showed up expecting to see it, so whenever you try to watch it through the app, you can’t get it.”
Shariff then read several messages from listeners claiming the followed the steps from the Texas Rangers website verbatim to ensure they were properly subscribed to the broadcasts, and that still didn’t solve their issues.
“Baseball has always had odd blackout restrictions,” Choppy added. “Maybe not odd, but they get in the way. I get the MLB Extra Innings package. It’s $120. My son uses it. He’ll go to the app. I went to the app this morning. It’s got a lot of things you can do on it…I can’t watch a Ranger game on it. I have to watch it on my TV at home or the DirecTV Stream on my phone. That worked, but I hate that people can’t watch these games. We don’t care about your problems, Bally. We just wanna watch the games. It’s a mess.”
Bryant Gumbel: League Networks Make Good Sports Journalism ‘Hard to Come By’
“I think any time anybody gets in trouble, they can go to that network and expect a softer landing than they would if they had to face either you or me on a neutral site.”
Bryant Gumbel did not mince words when asked about the state of sports journalism in 2023. He told Dan Patrick that it is “hard to come by.”
Appearing on Patrick’s FOX Sports Radio show on Friday, the HBO Real Sports host said there are too many options for players, coaches, and others in the sports world to tell their version of a story. They can avoid hard questions entirely if they want to.
“Every team now has a television arm,” Gumbel said. “You have the NBA network. You have the MLB network. So, as a result, I think any time anybody gets in trouble, they can go to that network and expect a softer landing than they would if they had to face either you or me on a neutral site.”
Bryant Gumbel is set to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Sports Emmys next month. He told Patrick that between his work in sports and on The Today Show, he has lost count of how many Sports Emmys he’s won.
But Gumbel’s job is getting harder. It isn’t just league networks. He said that social media and outlets like The Players Tribune have made it easy for players to communicate directly with fans.
“It makes it more difficult for those of us who who work in this business to try to elicit honest answers in an honest forum,” he said.
