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No Vaccine, No Sports in 2020

“BSM Media guest columnist Jay Mariotti says leagues and networks should practice common sense and stop the mad rush to resume events.”

Jay Mariotti

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With a sigh, I will humor these madmen. I’ll actually pause to consider their outrageous idea, which must come from watching too many dystopian movies. Me, I’m thinking about how to get off the planet, but let’s assume hundreds of baseball players would abandon families amid our apocalyptic anguish, isolate like lab rats for months in the Arizona desert and embrace a bleak, twilight-zone, coronavirus-sheltered existence.

They’d play in spectator-less ballparks, immediately return to antiseptic quarters and do little else, trying to salvage an inconsequential major-league season by sleeping, bathing, eating, drinking (frequently) and testing for the virus in quarantined lockdown while having contact only with teammates and team personnel. Gee, owners even could sell naming rights to their vast bubble of TV studios. The Purell Dome? The Hydroxychloroquine Hut?

The Donald J. Trump Supertent?

Trump needs to show the results of the outbreak in early fall – EDPro

And somehow, they would ignore the overwhelming pall: that Covid-19 is a vile and unshakeable monster, capable of boomeranging in bigger and more destructive waves with no vaccine near. And the impossible challenge: that maintaining social-distancing inside such a bubble is impractical. And the chilling peril: that players would return home and risk spreading the virus to loved ones and others when, so far, only one percent of the U.S. population has been tested. And finally, the bare, inconvenient truth: that restarting sports inevitably will lead to deaths.

Got it? Play ball!

I’d prefer, though, not to dabble in absurd desperation from sports leagues prioritizing lost billions over common pandemic sense. If it’s not safe for fans to watch events in person, why it it safe for athletes to proceed? Rather than risk more lives and waste scarce medical resources best utilized inside hospitals during a DEADLY GLOBAL CRISIS, for God sakes, I would like the gasping, heaving, $200 billion sports industry — and the TV rightsholders panting like starving dogs — to shut down indefinitely. You know, start saying “if’’ and not “when’’ about the resumption of games. It’s becoming a sport in itself: the persistent rush to kickstart the sports economy vs. the sensibility and decency of waiting until, oh, I don’t know, people stop dying? The crisis is far from over, but every time a smidgen of hope surfaces, leagues are in our faces with new contingency plans. Insensitive … galling … pick the word.

Don Surber: Gavin Newsom is the new Democrat heartthrob

Let’s hope one robust example of resistance leads to a surge of sanity. Some 2,800 miles from a chaotic, mixed-message-fraught White House, a voice of reason emerged when Gavin Newsom, governor of California, pressured ESPN to shut down the brazen Ultimate Fighting Championship. Yes, a network desperate for eyeballs, revenues and tourniquets had been all-in for a pay-per-view show, UFC 249, at a California casino resort on tribal land. ESPN didn’t see much wrong with the event … until Newsom did. Targeting ESPN’s parent, California-based DIsney Company, and UFC bossman Dana White — the most delusional of the sports entrepreneurs — Newsom triggered a cancellation after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), in a statement, accused UFC of defying the state’s shelter-in-place order.

“This event would involve dozens of individuals flying to California and driving to a casino for a purpose no one can honestly claim is essential,’’ wrote Feinstein, adding, “… at best, this event ties up medical resources and sends a message that shelter-in-place orders can be flouted. At worst, participants and support staff could carry the virus back to their home communities and increase its spread.’’

Said a whimpering White, who had vowed to stage his freak show on ESPN+: “Today, we got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney, and the highest level at ESPN. The powers-that-be there asked me to stand down and not do this event.’’ White says he’ll now promote events on a private island outside the U.S., expecting ESPN to air the fights. He thinks coronavirus is someone else’s problem, in oddball lockstep with WWE’s Vince McMahon, who is resuming three live, fan-less shows this week on Fox and USA Network despite the recent positive test of an an-air, non-ring-performing employee.

Dana White: 'UFC 249' will be on ESPN at Tachi Palace Casino ...

As for ESPN? “Nobody wants to see sports return more than we do,’’ the network said in a statement, “but we didn’t feel this was the right time for a variety of reasons.’’

Such as: Newsom called top Disney honchos, including executive chairman Bob Iger, and urged them to stop the lunacy. If he wants to be President of the United States someday, and not just a bro-dude governor, Newsom must curry the favor of powerful folk. Which is why I’m gobsmacked that he body-slammed two entertainment behemoths — Disney, which is paying $1.5 billion to UFC in a five-year deal, and Endeavor, which owns UFC. it takes balls to tell Iger, King of Hollywood and Disneyland, to purge a big-revenue fight card in California. But Disney had reason to be concerned about optics: The home of Mickey Mouse and family fun was charging a whopping $64.99, with 17 million Americans out of work, for a social-distancing mockery — fighters sweating and pouncing on each other in Octagon warfare. It constituted a major health risk while defying all logic and pandemic sensitivity. Oh, and it was happening as Disney stock climbed, thanks to the Disney+ streaming service that eclipsed 50 million subscribers, easing the pain of ESPN’s virus-driven troubles.

Of course, do realize President Trump is a UFC guy, White is a Trump guy, and California is the furthest thing from a Trump state. Call it an agenda move, but Newsom knew it was the proper call regardless of political fallout. So he angered some millennial and Gen Z types who can’t blow off cabin-fever smoke this Saturday night. Advice, lads: Read a good book.

Hallelujah. Now, If Trump only would send the same message to other short-sighted sports leagues.

Stand. Down.

Coronavirus: NBA looking at 25-day return-to-basketball plan once ...

The concerns raised by Feinstein apply to the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NBA, the NHL and others hellbent on playing. Of prime concern: the risk of transmission is palpable, even in The Bubble. Yet the NBA, trying to avert $1 billion in losses, wants to sequester playoff teams within the medically sealed grounds of a Las Vegas casino/hotel/arena complex. They’d administer rapid-response blood testing before games, hoping to create amnesia about the league’s March coronavirus outbreak — at least 15 persons from eight teams have tested positive, and probably many more — in a sport requiring athletes to grapple and spray sweat droplets on every possession. Has the NBA forgotten Covid-19 Night in Detroit, when Rudy Gobert battled Christian Wood more than 60 times in halfcourt situations, often just a few steps from Donovan Mitchell? All three tested positive, soon joined by a TV camera operator in a medically induced coma, and Mitchell is said to still resent Gobert, though it’s guesswork to say which player had the virus first.

And the NFL’s videoconference draft, like an ignorant surfer in a tsunami, is locked and loaded for three networks, including ESPN and ABC. The league, which at least is using the event to benefit Covid-19 relief efforts, hopes it’s a prelude to a full regular season — fan-less, if necessary — despite the inherent danger of players tackling, spitting and spreading sweat and dirt on every play. Never mind that the league’s very own chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, tells the league’s very own website: “As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport. Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”

The dreamers are marching on anyway, embracing wacky scenarios that aim to circumvent dark realities. All the while, they ignore a mammoth, all-encompassing question hovering above the contagion confusion: Does America even WANT sports to return under such bizarre, force-fed circumstances?

LUP | News Maker

The league and network lords say a resumption of sports would provide a spiritual lift for a wounded and numb American psyche, give us something to do, save our souls. But is that really true, or just a pile of God-complex bunk that overstates the importance of sports amid a pandemic while masking the true reason for the rush to return ASAP: They’re losing their asses financially, the owners and the networks, quietly fearful that a lost 2020 could lead to an industry crash — and a massive sports recession and reckoning in a nation overwhelmed by jobless claims and radically changing priorities. Cord-cutting is a universal calamity, with cable subscribers indignant over being charged the usual sports fees when live games aren’t being played. Many customers can’t afford the $100-plus monthly bills, especially with the cheaper advent of Quibi among plentiful streaming options, which explains why ESPN, Fox Sports and the regional networks are alarmed about possibly losing an entire year of live sports — a doomsday sequence that could cause leagues to lose fortunes in media payments. Include the gambling industry in that pot of anxiety, with the industry’s grand plan to legalize wagering now in the tank, reduced to junkies betting on Belarus soccer, Russian ping-pong, virtual NASCAR and an NBA 2K Players Only event, where, natch, a video-game scandal broke out when inside knowledge about an upset in a pre-taped ESPN event — Derrick Jones Jr. over virus-hit Kevin Durant — leaked to gamblers who put lopsided action on Jones.

Thus, fueled by Trump’s declaration that live games should return “sooner than later’’ as he considers lifting stay-at-home orders in the “biggest decision I’ll ever make,’’ we hear the in-house drumbeat for sports as the national save-all. Not sending kids back to schools. Not returning worshippers to churches and synagogues. Not a gradual resuscitation of essential businesses to help a gut-bombed economy. Nope, sports — where many in the industry are wealthy or at least comfortable in navigating the most horrific health crisis of our time. Why devote resources and supplies to The Bubble when they are desperately needed by health-care frontliners?  Why move forward with sports pipedreams when health experts have categorized the virus as seasonal, meaning the great curve could flatten, only to explode again in the autumn and abruptly burst The Bubble? Or, maybe the virus doesn’t recede at all, staying with us indefinitely.

Two independent studies suggest the industry plea isn’t resonating anyway. In a Ketchum Sports poll, only 21 percent of U.S. sports fans want games to resume without fans, opposed to 45 percent who think sports should resume only when fans can attend games and 17 percent who favor a total shutdown. And a poll conducted by the Seton Hall University business school found that 72 percent of respondents won’t attend sports events without a vaccine. No wonder the sports world is in a panic — it could be 18 months, or longer, before a vaccine is made available to the masses. What the league and networks have ignored, in this mad blitz to resume, is that packed stadiums and arenas are vital to a fan’s experience — in person or on TV. LeBron James says fans provide his foremost motivation, home and away, reiterating on a podcast, “Having a game without fans — what is the word ‘sport’ without ‘fan’?” There’s no excitement. There’s no crying. There’s no joy. There’s no back-and-forth.’’ You don’t hear movie and music stars clamoring to come back with live content to soothe the country. The Burning Man festival wisely canceled its stoner-fest in late August. Why must sports act like a religious experience? Are some owners and athletes so deluded by wealth and power that they think they can slay the coronavirus?

Mark Cuban Predicts the Economy Will Make a Slow Recovery After ...

“People need something to rally around right now. People need sports,” said Mark Cuban, now merely a “Shark Tank’’ host with his Dallas Mavericks on pause. “We need something to cheer for, something to get excited about, and there’s nothing better than our sports teams to do it.’’

How appropriate that Cuban spoke on a CNBC special, “Markets In Turmoil.’’ Because red ink blinds even multi-billionaires. The virus continues to spread, hotspots popping up like a whack-a-mole game. New York is an unspeakable death zone, its hospitals still overrun with chaos. Outside, we wear masks that aren’t sufficient when clammy runners pass inches away. Inside, we’re either going to die of self-exile, boredom or too much Netflix. But does that mean the resumption of sports will invigorate us and provide a sweeping blueprint for returning to work? It all seems hurried and backwards for the wrong reasons, as if sports is central to the American consciousness when, in crisis, it should be reduced to rightful frivolity.

There hasn’t been enough discussion about the most important issue. Will athletes be safe within The Bubble? Will they want to take the risks? Are we to foolishly assume every player and staffer on dozens of sports teams, through weeks or months of Quarantine Ball, will continue to test negative? As much as 40 percent of the U.S. population might be asymptomatic virus carriers. Can’t the leagues do the math? As Sills said, there will be positive tests; see Japan, where a planned resumption of baseball stalled, and officials say the Tokyo Olympics might be a no-go in 2021. It’s absurd to focus on introducing robot umpires when scrutiny should be on the response if even one person becomes sick in The Bubble. MLB might want to trudge on and test everyone, day after day, which would be onerous when dealing with players, managers, coaches, trainers and staffers from 30 franchises, along with hotel employees, cooks, groundskeepers, clubhouse attendants and limited media. Wouldn’t everything have to shut down at once? Wouldn’t everyone have to evacuate the Purell Dome and return home, where they’d have to self-quarantine for weeks? Do you honestly think megastars such as James and Mike Trout would jeopardize everything they’ve amassed for one season in The Bubble? Or two Bubbles, if MLB went forward with another realignment plan: ditch the American and National Leagues and play Quarantine Ball in two states, Arizona and Florida.

Boras Corporation (@borascorp) | Twitter

The baseball owners can’t help but push that explosive envelope, when the coronavirus is as serious as a frozen corpse in a parking lot. Superagent Scott Boras has no doubt fans would devour the televised offerings, even if baseball’s ratings have plummeted for years. “It gives them a sense of a return to some normalcy. You talk to a psychologist about it and they say it’s really good for a culture to have sport and to have a focus like that, where for a few hours a day they can take their minds off the difficult reality of the virus,’’ he said.

Isn’t it fascinating how everyone is playing doctor? Instead of talking to a psychologist, hear out New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said: “I would love to see sports back to help with cabin fever. But this is not about hopes and dreams and aspirations and what you would like to see. This is an enemy that we have underestimated from Day 1, and we have paid the price dearly.’’

Want more hard-core realism? Sports faces a future that might not include many fans in seats and business people in suites. Call it the Petri Dish Effect — who wants to wear masks or submit to forehead scans, or risk getting sick in a bathroom or hot-dog line, or sanitize hands every 10 minutes, when the virus will dominate everyday life for the foreseeable future? Expect distancing beyond six feet, forcing stadiums and arenas to monitor entrances and corridors and reconfigure seating sections; imagine the Los Angeles Rams having to rip out seats in the new, privately financed, $6 billion SoFi Stadium? Gamblers and fantasy players won’t care, but purists — and they count — will bemoan the lost atmosphere. And can you believe Trump might bribe “fans in arenas’’ with tax breaks if they attend events? Uh, yeah, I can believe it.

Kentucky governor announces mandatory quarantine for anyone who ...

Until then, the leagues should abandon Quarantine Ball and know this: There is no end game without a cure. Sports used to serve as a meaningful diversion in times of upheaval; I recall urgency as a Chicago columnist, not long after 9/11, to board a near-empty flight to St. Louis for a Cubs-Cardinals game, and later, to chronicle the woe of a heartbroken New York during the World Series. Baseball continued during World War II, and the NFL carried on after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. But Covid-19 is different, elusive, as freakish as errant saliva in the airstream. We wake each day, or in the middle of the night, wondering if someone we know has died or been hospitalized, or if a simple sneeze means the worst.

It’s hard to imagine any sporting event erasing those fears, even for a few hours. And if that game is played inside a quiet, airtight blob in the hinterlands, well, that’s as weird as pandemic life itself.

 Jay Mariotti, called “the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ is the host of “Unmuted,’’ a frequent podcast about sports and life (Apple, Podbean, etc.). He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and radio host. As a Los Angeles resident, he gravitated by osmosis to movie projects. He appears Wednesday nights on The Dino Costa Show, a segment billed as “The Rawest Hour in Sports Broadcasting.’’

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Kim Mulkey Now Has Everyone Anticipating Washington Post Story

I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it.

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photo of LSU women's college basketball coach Kim Mulkey
Credit: Dailymail.co.uk

The Washington Post, you might’ve heard, has a story coming out about controversial LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. The reason you might’ve heard is because Kim Mulkey told you. The Tigers coach read a fiery prepared statement just before her team started the Women’s NCAA Tournament. In the statement, Mulkey threatened to sue The Post for defamation before the first word was even published.

Now, I’ve never run a public relations firm but that did not seem like a good idea. The Washington Post story on Mulkey is one of the bigger stories in sports right now and nobody even knows what’s in it. The reason the story, apparently unflattering to Mulkey, is even on anyone’s radar screen is Mulkey herself.

It all started with an innocuous social media post by Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde right in the middle of the most anticipated two days in sports, the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. On his X account, Forde posted: “Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc.”

You know what generally will go unnoticed at 4:00 on the first Friday of the NCAA Tournament? A post on X about a women’s basketball coach. But don’t tell Mulkey, she saw Forde’s post and decided to fight fire with nuclear weaponry. The result: the average person like me now is really interested in what has Mulkey so incensed. By “average person like me” I mean that I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it. Maybe:

“LSU Women’s Coach Discovers Ark of the Covenant”

Or:

“Mulkey Reveals True JFK Assassin(s)”

Perhaps:

“Famed Women’s Basketball Coach Reveals the Mystery Behind Slow Drivers in the Left Lane”

Literally any of those catch my attention more than whatever will likely be the Washington Post headline about Mulkey. But now Mulkey is “Mad as Hell and is not going to take this anymore” so I now have an interest I would never before have had in this story. It has been fascinating to watch the online speculation about the subject of the article and all we really know, as of now, is that it will be written by Kent Babb. This is a dream come true for Babb; he writes an article that is, presumably, not flattering about Kim Mulkey and, before it is even published, she gives the article the greatest commercial anyone could give it. Babb couldn’t have entered into a business agreement with Mulkey and had this turn out better for him.

For those who don’t follow Babb, he is a former NFL reporter who now is an award-winning writer for the Washington Post. In his 14 years with The Post, he has written sports features and authored a couple of books. One of those sports features stories was a deep dive into what he viewed as a large inequity in the level of pay for LSU head football coach Brian Kelly and his LSU players. It is this piece Mulkey described as a “hit piece” and, based on that piece, referred to Babb as a “sleazy reporter.” Babb, and many others, resented the fact his story was labeled as a hit piece. In fact, Babb essentially confirmed he was the author Mulkey was referencing when he shared the original article on X with the comment: “Hit piece?”

Whether a printed piece or a recorded interview, I can’t imagine a better promotion for it than the subject of the interview threatening a libel/slander lawsuit, especially before it is even released. That simply screams “This piece is salacious!!” Also, libel and slander suits get settled all the time, right? Of course they don’t, they seem to never even get filed. That little thing called discovery is a scary thing for most public figures.

The NCAA Tournament has been very entertaining, and I think the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be terrific. For only the fifth time ever, the top two seeds have advanced to the third round which sets up for a remarkable weekend. For me, I guess it will now include a Washington Post article, not a sentence I’d normally say.

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Ian Eagle Crushing It for CBS As Replacement for Jim Nantz

Eagle continues to be a shining example of what a network play-by-play announcer should be.

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Photo of Ian Eagle and the CBS Sports logo

I’ll admit, it’s been a little strange not hearing Jim Nantz during this year’s NCAA Tournament. Nantz stepped aside to concentrate on golf and the NFL after a long run covering the Final Four. Change is sometimes hard to accept, we are all creatures of habit, and I’m sure it’s a little weird for Nantz himself this time of year. But change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. When it comes to Ian Eagle, not that I’m surprised, so far, so good.

Eagle is no stranger to CBS viewers. He’s been with the network since 1998 calling college basketball games and the NFL through the years. That certainly made the transition a little easier for everyone involved. CBS, the viewers and Eagle himself. Familiarity in these cases doesn’t breed content, it breeds a more comfortable broadcast and an easier handle on the change itself.

For Eagle, one of the other benefits for him was working with familiar folks, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson. Eagle estimates that he and Raftery have called 600 basketball games together, because they were longtime partners on the NBA’s Nets broadcasts. Eagle has also previously worked with Hill in college basketball, the same for Wolfson.

“To do this with Bill, Grant, and Tracy, it really is going to feel very seamless. In many ways, it will feel like we’ve been doing it together for many years,” says Eagle on a conference call before the Big Dance.

It sounds seamless too. It’s not underrated to have a good rapport with the folks that you’re working with. Everyone is trying to get used to a new voice and the idiosyncrasies of a new announcer. It’s much less of a chore, when you know and have worked with your co-workers and partners before.  You know what to expect from them, and they know what to expect from you. That’s good.

I think Eagle is killing it in his new role. You could even tell during the Big Ten Tournament that led up to the “Big Dance” that he was not only ready, he was ready to roll. It’s easy to hear how much he loves doing what he’s doing. That’s the case in all of the sports he calls.

Eagle continues to be a shining example of what a network play-by-play announcer should be. He has the ability to combine his talent with some personality, but never at the expense of the action he’s calling. His broadcasts always hit the mark, as he rises to the occasion when the moment calls for it.

What do I mean by personality? He manages to make us laugh, even in some tense moments of a game. He also manages to articulate our thoughts in some situations, like this example from the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. 

Sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson had a report during the UConn/Northwestern game about the superstitions of Huskies’ coach Dan Hurley. He wears the same red dragon underwear and suit as he did last year. Wolfson said Hurley’s wife travels with a portable washing machine to make sure his clothes stay clean. Leading Eagle to ask the question on all our minds:

“Who has a portable washing machine?! I didn’t even know that existed!”

Also in that game, Eagle had a couple of other great moments. UConn big man Donovan Clingan had a couple of swats on one play.

“Denied! Clingan! Denied! Two for the price of one!” Quick thinking and entertaining at the same time. Later when a ball got pinned between the basket and the backboard, Eagle said, “Oooh! A Brooklyn wedgie!”

Great stuff. None of his ‘ad-libs’ sound like they are forced. It’s within the flow of the action and just seem to come to him. It’s pretty amazing to be that quick on your feet, when you’re trying to make sure to get the call correct above all else. I’m sure we’re all in for many more treats like that along the way from Eagle.

In general, when fans are watching a tournament game, they probably aren’t thinking about the preparation that goes into a broadcast. Especially for a play-by-play announcer. The first weekend network announcers calling a couple of games in the same day. There’s also only a day in between the first and second rounds to prep for teams that you may or may not have seen during the college season.  The turnaround is quick and demanding.  

“It feels like an information avalanche in many ways,” Eagle said recently on 670 The Score. “The fact that I’ve done it for so long would make you think, ‘oh, he’s got it down, he has the system, he found the secret sauce.’ No, it feels the same way every year.”

Eagle says even veteran announcers like himself have to manage stress levels and work efficiently once they know which games they’ll call. “The two or three days leading up to the tournament, I must admit, are probably the most angst-riddled of the year because it’s a little bit out of your control.” Eagle told 670 The Score.

Yes, the stress level is great on the broadcasters, but how about what Clark Kellogg continues to do at the NCAA Tournament and the Final Four? For the 8th year, he’ll join Kevin Kugler and Jim Jackson on Westwood One’s broadcast of the Final Four and Championship Game on radio. At the same time, Kellogg will be a studio analyst for the television coverage. How does he pull it off? Following the pregame show broadcast on TV, Kellogg will make his way courtside to the radio broadcast position to join Kugler and Jackson. Then, he will rejoin TV for halftime before repeating the process in the second half and postgame. 

Working this tournament isn’t easy for these broadcasters. It’s a big stage for sure, but as you’ve read, there’s big pressure that goes along with it. The audience is usually huge, and announcers are constantly put under the microscope. Fans want to make sure that you know their team, pronunciations and all. Stories. Bios. All of it. Cut these folks a little slack, information gathering with little time to do it, isn’t exactly simple. They do a damn good job.

Eagle himself, is doing a tremendous job. The 3-man booth works so well because of his ability to keep it all together. He can set up either Raftery or Hill with a serious basketball question, or deliver a great ‘straight line’ to bring out their personalities. It’s a gift. Eagle has that knack for knowing when to go ‘rogue’ and go for that entertaining line, that seems to fit in perfectly. Speaking of fitting fine, those rather large shoes he had to fill, they’re becoming the perfect size.

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Andrew Salciunas Aims to Thrive in Morning Drive on 97.5 The Fanatic

“We are two radio guys that kind of know what we’re doing.”

Derek Futterman

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Andrew Salciunas
Courtesy: Beasley Media Group

When 97.5 The Fanatic midday host Anthony Gargano agreed to a deal to contribute to PHLY Sports, a local digital venture within ALLCITY Network, he was promptly suspended by Beasley Media Group and subsequently sued for breach of contract. Although the two sides eventually reached a settlement and officially parted ways, the future of the daypart was still in question. In the interim time period, the station granted Andrew Salciunas the opportunity to lead a four-hour solo program with producer Ray Dunne. Salciunas had served as Gargano’s producer in the midday slot and still has a strong relationship with the sports media personality today despite no longer working together.

The onerous aspect of the situation, however, was in recognizing that Salciunas was being afforded a chance to prove himself as a host in the marketplace. In the past, he had filled in when Gargano took vacations, but it was not for an extended period of time. Although he was familiar with the flow of a midday program, achieving a successful, yet sudden assimilation into a regular timeslot without a partner was an invigorating circumstance.

“I knew that it was going to be a learning experience because it’s one thing to host a show on Saturday or it’s one thing to host a weekly podcast and you have a week’s worth of content at your disposal,” Salciunas said. “It’s another thing to [be] hosting every single day and needing to come up with new ideas and new angles and new twists on things, so it was a challenge knowing that I was going to have to do that for however long the process was going to be.”

Salciunas received help from program director Scott Masteller, a sports radio veteran who has helped elevate brands and nurture budding talent. Several months later, Masteller asked Salciunas how he would feel about working with morning program host John Kincade. Salciunas replied by saying that it was something he would be interested in doing, and he later added that he already wakes up early and could easily work in morning drive. Salciunas was somewhat nonplussed when he discovered that Masteller’s intention was to have him anchor the program rather than Kincade, who has been hosting in the daypart since January 2021.

In the weeks and months ensuing, Salciunas and Kincade were involved in meetings to plan the new program, which officially made its debut on 97.5 The Fanatic last week and is titled Kincade & Salciunas. Both hosts knew about the program for roughly two months, and Salciunas is surprised that it was kept a secret for as long as it was. Outside of their scheduled meetings, Salciunas was able to speak with Kincade between their shows since they occurred after the other as well. From the onset, he wanted to make his thoughts about the program clear to ensure a smooth transition amid a quest to inform and entertain the audience.

“The first thing I told John when they told us that this was the plan moving forward was that, ‘This is going to be our show,’” Salciunas recalled. “Yes, I might be the guy running the ins and outs out of commercial breaks. I’m the guy that brings on the guests; I’m the guy that brings on the callers, but this is our show. We both have ideas, we’re both passionate about Philadelphia sports teams, we’re both high-energy people, we’re both opinionated and we’re also respectful of each other.”

While there is natural disagreement between Salciunas and Kincade on a variety of sports topics, they make sure not to fabricate their discussions and engender debate for the sake of the show. Instead of feigning their contrarian discourse, there is a legitimate willingness to be genuine with their audience while continuing to put radio first. Salciunas, Kincade and show producer Connor Thomas all contribute ideas for the program to appeal to the audience and continue building the show as a whole. Thomas also had familiarity in working with Kincade since he served as an associate producer on his previous morning program.

“I’m not a former journalist; he’s not a former professional athlete,” Salciunas said. “We are two radio guys that kind of know what we’re doing. Even though our opinions might differ on sports-related stuff, we see doing radio in a similar way.”

Upon Kincade officially joining 97.5 The Fanatic, he demonstrated his magnanimity and commitment to his colleagues by offering to take all of them out to lunch individually to learn more about them. It was a gesture that surprised Salciunas and something that stuck with him, ultimately helping familiarize themselves with one another and subsequently creating a viable on-air product.

“He’s one of those guys who likes getting to know people, and I think that’s helped a lot,” Salciunas said. “We already had that sort of knowledge of one another [and] we already had that relationship, and because we’re just both so bought in and both so hungry, that’s made it so much easier that we’re willing to do whatever it takes to make the show work.”

Before arriving at 97.5 The Fanatic, Kincade had worked at sports radio both at the local and national levels while also hosting a podcast with Hall of Fame center and Inside the NBA studio analyst Shaquille O’Neal. Bringing him back to his home marketplace and realizing success in the morning daypart was valuable as the sports media ecosystem underwent stretches of change. Transitioning to the new morning show iteration without colleagues Bob Cooney and Pat Egan presented its challenges, but Salciunas has had no qualms that Kincade was invested to win. As a result, the transition has been relatively simple in terms of building palpable chemistry among the on-air team.

“He believes in anybody that he works with,” Salciunas said of Kincade, “and knowing that somebody has worked that long as long as he has in sports radio that he values the young person’s opinion, not just in sports but in terms of radio, that goes a long way.”

There is constant communication between the morning show team leading up to a program outside of typical pre-show meetings and twice-weekly conversations with their boss. Salciunas arrives at the station well before the start of the program and compiles ideas from the previous day into a document, along with ideas from others that come during their commutes. Additionally, they continuously monitor the news cycle and determine what to address on the air while also interviewing special guests throughout the week.

Effectuating a fully prepared show rundown by 6 a.m. EST has been marginally difficult, along with the fact that it can be difficult to book guests on short notice before sunrise. Because of this, the program frequently outlines its guests early in the week and makes adjustments as necessary while maintaining fealty towards conveying their true, authentic personalities.

“I’m a little bit more energetic on the radio because I understand the entertainment portion of doing what we do and having to properly express myself,” Salciunas said. “I’m probably not going to scream at a bar, but when I converse with callers; when I converse with John [or] producers… that’s who I am as a person. There’s just a microphone in front of me.”

When he first started working at 97.5 The Fanatic as an intern, Salciunas did not have a goal of eventually becoming an on-air talent. He was content with his role as a producer, which was borne out of an internship where he worked with Jon Marks and Steve Vassalotti. Both station members served as mentors that he utilized to gain information and advice, a fortuitous outcome after Salciunas impetuously applied for the opening.

While Salciunas was matriculating at Temple University, he needed at least three internship credits in order to qualify for graduation. Reflecting back on his education days, he does not regard himself as the best student and recognized that he needed to intern with the radio station to set himself apart. Honing his focus in sports media took time since he had varied interests in areas such as reporting, podcasting and play-by-play announcing, but he ultimately gravitated towards the sports radio format during his time in Philadelphia.

Salciunas made a favorable impression on those with 97.5 The Fanatic and ended up being hired as an associate producer where he learned more about the format and its programming. Eric Camille, a former executive producer at the station, is someone Salciunas regards as seminal to his professional development.

“He was the guy that hired me out of my internship, and then once I started working, he really helped me,” Salciunas said. “He kind of took me under his wing and helped me out a lot.”

Once Salciunas was hired as a full-time producer, he began to work with Mike Missanelli on his midday program, providing an invaluable learning experience to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the sports media industry. As a veteran host who has captivated Philadelphia sports fans and media consumers at large, Salciunas noticed that collaborating on Missanelli’s program was a different experience than the other shows he had done. Whereas a morning drive show is oftentimes one of the first points of reaction on a given day, Missanelli knew that he would need to approach his daypart differently and adopted a paradigmatic style implementing second-level topics.

“It’s not just going on the air and reacting to an Eagles loss,” Salciunas explained. “It’s reacting to a storyline within an Eagles loss or reacting to a storyline within an Eagles win that may generate conversation. Trying to figure out topics that generate conversation but are not just the, ‘Oh wow, I’m angry they lost today,’ and give out the phone number. It’s [trying] to find topics that make people think and make yourself think and make the audience think.”

When Missanelli left the station, Salciunas began his stint working with Anthony Gargano where he began occasionally hosting select programs. The rationale behind his decision to go behind the microphone was that when the Eagles won a Super Bowl championship, the station needed someone to host from 2 to 5 a.m. Salciunas decided to volunteer for the program, presuming that it sounded fun. From that shift on, he continued his work as a producer while also refining his craft behind the microphone in a major market. It deviated from a philosophy perpetuated by former program director Matt Nahigian of limiting the amount of time producers were on the air, assuming that consumers listened to hear the hosts.

“Now you have to be a producer,” Salciunas affirmed. “You look at both radio stations in Philadelphia – a lot of the hosts now were former producers, and so you learn so much of the craft and then you figure out your own role. You figure out how you handle yourself as a host, so I think producing first before becoming a talk show host should be the way to go moving forward.”

Beasley Media Group’s 97.5 The Fanatic shares the Philadelphia marketplace with Audacy-owned SportsRadio 94WIP, and both stations have had intense battles in the ratings over the years. Salciunas shared that most people between the two stations have worked with their competitors at some point in their careers, and there is an evident respect that exists between the two entities. With both outlets introducing new morning shows within the last two years though, Salciunas understands there is a chance to gain ground on the WIP Morning Show, which finished ahead in the four Nielsen XTrends quarterly ratings books last year.

“Clearly if somebody’s behind a microphone in Philadelphia, everybody’s talented, and we’re going to do whatever we can to try to bridge that gap a little bit, and we’re seeing some good strides already,” Salciunas said. “I think having a new show is a big part of that trying to grab that initial audience, but then it’s holding on to that initial audience.”

Being able to achieve this outcome, however, requires a commitment to showcasing talent and different personalities. Salciunas referenced how there was a point in John Kincade’s stint hosting mornings in the daypart’s previous iteration where he gained ground on his crosstown competitor Angelo Cataldi with WIP. Kincade, of course, used to work with Cataldi’s show as a contributor and received a chance to take the air while with the outlet.

“I’ve seen the turn of tides of ratings over the years for every show [and] every time slot, so there’s always an opportunity, but that means we always have to be on our game; that means we always have to be doing the best show possible,” Salciunas said. “We can’t go in the next day and say, ‘Wow, that show was really good yesterday. Let’s have some fun today; let’s make this a lighthearted show.’ No, we always have to be thinking about, ‘Alright, what can we do next to put on another great entertaining four-hour radio show?’”

Over the last several years, there have been several leadership changes at 97.5 The Fanatic responsible for overseeing the slate of programming and station operations. Scott Masteller currently leads the outlet, someone in whom Salciunas has confidence that he can continue to elevate the standing of the station. In his earlier years working with 97.5 The Fanatic, Salciunas had an innovative spirit but was discouraged from taking steps to align with the multimedia evolution. For example, when he offered to do a podcast several years ago, someone at the station questioned his judgment and the reasoning behind the idea.

“I was told by someone, ‘What’s the point in doing that? We’re a radio station,’ and I knew back then that that was a mistake to say,” Salciunas explained. “You shouldn’t say, ‘We’re a radio station;’ that was years ago, so seeing that bosses and market managers and hosts and producers all realizing, ‘Alright, we have to adapt,’ that excites me.”

Possessing the background as a producer lends shrewd and calculated judgment on how to include members of the audience into the program. While there are still open phone lines for callers to chime in, the program has introduced a text line and also engages with the audience through the live chat functionality of YouTube. Having Thomas as a producer of the show has helped in this area as well, with Salciunas sharing that he has a strong understanding of how to create and optimize content for various platforms of dissemination.

“We have a great YouTube audience where they basically have their own community all of a sudden,” Salciunas said. “They’re constantly talking about the show, and sometimes we grab what they’re saying on that YouTube feed because that’s another area of today’s new media where you have another avenue to communicate with people.”

As Salciunas grows accustomed to the early start on 97.5 The Fanatic and his new colleagues in morning drive, he is filled with enthusiasm and the prospect of possibility. The radio station has been the only outlet by which he has been employed since the start of his media career, and he hopes to work there for as long as possible. National radio and television intrigue him going forward, but his priority centers on thriving in the new role.

“I want to try to get 97.5 The Fanatic – because it starts in the morning – back up in the map; back in the top five of the ratings books – and that’s going to take some time,” Salciunas said. “We’re a new show – we’re going to have to figure each other out.”

Salciunas expressed that the last year-and-a-half has been “hectic” in the midday daypart, but there has also been excitement surrounding the ephemerality as well. Taking the microphone in a major market with a dedicated sports fanbase such as Philadelphia is a privilege he does not take for granted, and he aspires to continue excelling in the marketplace for years to come.

“I just started, so I’m not thinking about the next step just yet,” Salciunas said. “I want this to last for a long time – for a very long time. If I never have to leave, that would be great.”

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