BSM Writers

Sweeny Murti Combined His Passions at WFAN

Published

1 year ago

January 23, 2023

From the time he was young, Sweeny Murti had a penchant for baseball and, by the time he was in junior high school, radio. He was able to find a way to combine his two passions by working in sports media, reporting on the New York Yankees on WFAN for the last 22 seasons as the station’s official beat reporter.

Murti, 52, announced his departure from the radio station last Friday, officially ending a chapter of his career as he seeks to figure out just what comes next. Sports radio, though, was never Murti’s goal because it is something that was nonexistent until later in his teenage years – although he was covering sports for his high school on its radio station WMSS-FM.

Murti learned the game of baseball by listening to Philadelphia Phillies games and had a profound amount of respect for the team broadcasters, including Harry Kalas, Andy Musser, Chris Wheeler, and Richie Ashburn. He later had an opportunity to work with the organization as a pregame and postgame show host in 1999, sparking his interest to aim to report on baseball regularly for WFAN. Getting to New York – the largest media market in the United States – took persistence and hard work, staying grounded in the day-to-day while continuously improving his craft and advocating his interests to executives.

“I listened to Phillies games growing up on radio and the announcers were just as big [of] people to me as the players,” Murti said. “Those were the guys that were in my house every night.”

Murti joined his junior high school radio station at the age of 12 and gained interest in broadcasting sports. He subsequently began to work with sports director John Wilsbach. Through his time at the radio station, Wilsbach knew Murti’s older brother (who was also working at the broadcast outlet) and helped mentor Murti, teaching him how to broadcast games by letting him shadow various sporting events.

By the time he was in ninth grade, Murti was the station’s sports director and was regularly broadcasting high school football and basketball games. He recognized the palpability of pursuing a career in sports media at this point and, consequently, matriculated at Penn State University to study broadcast journalism.

Unlike many college students seeking to work in media though, Murti’s involvement with campus media outlets, specifically in radio, was minimal. Because of his relationship with Wilsbach, he became connected with Scott Geesey, a talk show host on 1390 WRSC-AM.

Through Geesey, Murti began to converse with that outlet’s sports director Jerry Fisher, the son of legendary Penn State Nittany Lions’ football broadcaster and associate athletic director Fran Fisher. After just one meeting with Fisher, Murti was hired as a part-time assistant, giving him exposure to a professional radio station in his freshman year of college.

“I did a lot of scoreboard updates and a lot of production shifts and DJ shifts,” Murti said. “By that fall, I was doing Friday night high school football scoreboard shows and covering some games, and working on our massive Saturday football coverage on pregame and postgame shows for Penn State football…. We spent a lot of our time talking about sports, and I spent a lot of it thinking about talking about sports and how it was going to translate into my radio career.”

In the summer before his senior year, Murti relocated to New York and worked as an intern at WFAN, the inaugural radio station in the sports talk format that had just launched four years earlier. Over the nearly three months, he worked from the outlet’s Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens and demonstrated a strong work ethic.

In his mind, everyone at the station had an immense base of knowledge when it came to sports and displaying your own expertise would not impress the personnel. Although he was interning at a growing media outlet with hosts including Mike Francesa, Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, Don Imus, and Steve Somers, Murti remained optimistic there would be an on-air role for him one day and quickly adjusted to life in “the Big Apple.”

“It’s a pretty big leap and I’d never spent more than a couple of days in New York; now I’m spending the whole summer in New York,” Murti said. “I wasn’t overwhelmed; I knew I’d already been doing a lot of things in radio so this was [at] a much bigger scale, obviously. I was comfortable and I think I was confident in what I could do.”

Following this experience, Murti returned to Penn State University for his senior year with a new perspective on sports radio. Once he graduated, he began working as a reporter at WHP 580 and as a sports anchor at the Radio PA Network. Before he returned to New York as a full-time producer at WFAN exactly one year later in 1993, he received a valuable piece of advice from news director Bill Richardson. It reminded Murti of a principle critical to the success of athletes, managers and reporters alike and continues to guide him to this day.

“The advice he left me with was, ‘It’s only radio. If you screw it up, just come back and do it again tomorrow,’” Murti recalled. “I’ve never forgotten it [and] some version of that pops into my head quite often. I think I amended that a little bit to say, ‘Listen, let me just do the job today and I’ll figure out how to do it again tomorrow.’”

Murti always sought to be a voice on the air and was placed out of his element in his role as a producer. Through working with established on-air hosts and reporters, including Steve Somers, Suzyn Waldman, Howie Rose, and Ian Eagle, Murti gained an understanding of the responsibility garnered upon them. In order to succeed in the marketplace, the hosts had to be informative and entertaining to sports fans, overseeing a place where fans could express their emotions and convey their opinions about the teams and players they cared about.

“I learned what kind of preparation it takes [and] what kind of personality it takes,” Murti said. “I was a good on-air personality, I thought, when I was in high school and college. This was just a different world; a different level that I was learning and soaking in.”

While Murti did not feel apprehensive about working in the New York-metropolitan area, he was unsure about producing on a full-time basis, leading him to have several conversations with executive producer Eric Spitz.

Nonetheless, Murti absorbed a large amount of information and picked up on intricacies related to producing and stood out. As a result, he was afforded the opportunity to travel with Spitz and his crew at Westwood One Radio to the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. That experience, quite simply, changed everything, as Murti realized he had the ability to transition from being a producer into a bonafide reporter.

“I got done with those couple of weeks and realized, ‘Wow, I can do what those guys are doing,’” Murti articulated. “It wasn’t, ‘I’m better than that guy.’ I [just] somehow thought this was a different level of something that was higher than me, and after working with them and being around them and helping them do these things, I realized I would be able to do that job just as well as they were because that’s the kind of confidence I had and I knew I’d be prepared for that.”

One year later, Murti joined SportsRadio 94 WIP in Philadelphia to become a full-time sports anchor and had the chance to regularly go on-air. After working at the station for a year, he returned to WFAN and was placed on the air, albeit in a part-time role, doing overnight updates. He also returned to the Summer Olympics in 2000, this time in Sydney, Australia, working with Westwood One Radio as a reporter.

Leading up to the World Series between the New York Mets and New York Yankees in that same year, WFAN reshuffled its midday show. Russ Salzberg and Steve Somers were moved out of the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. slot in exchange for Jody McDonald and Suzyn Waldman. Because of Waldman’s new role hosting middays and doing television work with the Yankees, her role as the station’s beat reporter for the team opened. Since Murti was working overnight shifts, he made sure to stay early into the morning one day to meet with Mark Chernoff, then-program director of WFAN (he would often arrive for work at approximately 6 a.m. each morning).

Once he made his intention known to Chernoff, he scribbled Murti’s name down on a pad of paper and had other people advocating for him to land the job around the station. Around the time of the Christmas party, Murti received the news that he had landed the job – very much representative of his dream role – and prepared for the upcoming spring training in Tampa. Waldman proved to be a vital resource for Murti to learn the role, accessible both by phone and at the ballpark.

“She helped me kind of work through the early stuff,” Murti said. “After a little while, I just tried to figure it out on my own. I wanted to lean on her to get myself going, but I didn’t want to constantly lean on her. I kind of wanted to see how I could figure it out myself at that point. It was great getting to figure it out with her to start and then kind of going off on my own.”

Murti had been on the air from the time he was in high school and was cognizant of his long-term goals. Combining his adoration for baseball and skillset in reporting was his ultimate intent – and he was fortunate that the timing worked out.

“Those jobs were kind of created,” Murti said. “I didn’t know they existed. I can’t tell you that was a goal; I just knew I wanted to be the play-by-play announcer for the Phillies when I was 13 years old. That was my goal but I didn’t go do Minor League Baseball play-by-play when I was 22. I came to FAN and moved on that track.”

Walking into the clubhouse for the first time in Tampa, Murti knew not to expect to immediately foster deep relationships with any of the players and uncover concealed stories. Instead, he focused on the long game, gradually cultivating dialogue and learning the vernacular to become familiar with the team. He expected this role to last much longer than one season and segmented the process by piecemeal.

“I think that I had the idea of hoping to get to do this for a while so let’s just take it slow,” he recalled. “Let’s just not try to talk to Derek Jeter, Paul O’Neill and Bernie Williams every day about something that’s going to make me be their confidant.”

Through performing his role, Murti observed the quotidian routines and habits of the great players – and the Yankees, coming off a stretch of four championships in five years, knew how to optimize their play to get results conducive to success. Murti was able to apply some of those lessons to his own craft as a journalist, keeping him focused and motivated to perform.

“The great ones put yesterday behind them very quickly whether they had a great game or a bad game,” Murti said. “That’s probably where watching Jeter up close really mattered because he was so good at that. He would be pissed off if he made outs or [if] they lost a game, but he wasn’t smashing water coolers like Paul O’Neill or throwing things. It was just, ‘Okay, listen, that’s over. Let’s focus on the next one.’”

Murti focused on both the trials and tribulations of the players, but always looked at the macro (team) rather than the micro (individuals). To him, the big picture was most important and taking each result in stride – just as a well-balanced team establishing and maintaining a winning culture aims to do. It helped him create a style – one that transferred from radio to television to writing. Murti endeavored in all three over his time as WFAN’s Yankees beat reporter, a job he exited last week.

Over his time as a reporter, Murti has contributed to programming on MLB Network, YES Network, and SNY among other networks. The production tactics and time constraints in television contrasted with radio – in fact, Murti likened it to being a cog part of a larger system to execute a play in football – and it gave him different methods in which to present his reports.

“The teammate aspect of what I used to do at FAN is definitely something I loved and appreciated,” Murti explained, “but there are a lot more moving parts to television that make you rely on other people’s help to make everything look and sound better.”

He also had the ability to live out his dream doing play-by-play announcing in a Major League Baseball game when filling in for Yankees’ radio voice John Sterling. With Waldman as his color commentator, Murti brought fans the action in the Yankees’ matchup against the Houston Astros as family and friends listened from his hometown. He did not view the assignment, for which he volunteered, as an audition; instead, it was more about embracing and making the most of a unique opportunity.

“I think I brought a lifetime of caring about being on the radio and loving watching baseball,” Murti said. “I think I bring that every night; I hope I brought [it] that night to a degree that satisfied everybody. It was just a thrill beyond belief.”

Whether it was watching the Yankees win the World Series in 2009; writing articles about the team and its players for WFAN’s website; or hosting various podcasts, Murti thoroughly enjoyed his time at the station. Just as the landscape of media has endured rapid evolution and realignment, the role of a beat reporter was analogously shifting – leading to Murti’s departure from WFAN last week.

“We tried for a long time to figure out how to evolve and create the different content that would click,” Murti said. “It just became harder to accomplish, I guess. I’m grateful that it lasted as long as it did.”

The nature of working in radio has drastically adapted amid a marketplace saturated with an overabundance of content and platforms on which to consume it. As a result, radio faces a maelstrom of competition from media outlets and, nowadays, independent creators disseminating their work. Yet it still remains a medium based on a communal aspect, representing and implementing the authentic voice of the fan as an outlet of both catharsis and jubilation.

“Even though a lot is consumed individually through phones now and through social media, to hear the actual voices and the emotions in those voices – good or bad; high or low – it’s still something you can’t duplicate on social media,” Murti said. “You’ve got to come to the radio to be a part of that. That’s something I hope never goes away.”

The greatest compliment Murti could have ever received was a listener remaining in their car to finish hearing one of his reports – and he hopes to continue to be able to fuse baseball and journalism together in whatever his next role may be. Amid a post-WFAN world, he looks to continue bringing viewers the story and create new memories, utilizing his versatility to be an asset to any media brand.

“I enjoy lots of stuff,” Murti said. “I do enjoy writing and I hope I still get to do some of that. I enjoy the TV work; I love interviewing people and getting to tell those stories. It’s a really big thrill turning on a microphone, wherever that is, and telling people what’s happening. I hope I still get to do that.”

Derek Futterman

Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Sports Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on Twitter @derekfutterman.

Up Next

HBO Is Letting Bomani Jones Define Late Night Sports Talk

Don't Miss

FOX or Football? Tom Brady Doesn’t Have an Obvious Choice

BSM Writers

Barrett Sports Media Presents ‘The 2024 NFL Analyst Draft’

“Some selections you’ll agree with, others you won’t, and it’ll likely lead to texts and social media interactions among industry folks.”

Published

11 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Jason Barrett

AB200D50-A1B6-4514-93A6-76415852928B | Barrett Media

Draft fever has returned! As the eyes of the nation turn to the NFL Draft on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, BSM is once again tapping into the week by doing things in a less conventional way. We’ve had PD’s draft talent, talent draft talent, talent draft guests, and reporters draft all-time sports TV shows. We’ve even done a lazy sports radio draft among the BSM staff. While we recognize this is a big week for football fans, we see it as an opportunity to use our creativity to produce content that is interesting, entertaining, and connected to a topical event.

Having said that, this year we decided to do our first NFL Analyst Draft. The rules for this were simple, whether an individual talks football in a TV booth, radio booth, TV studio, or digital platform, if they’re exceptional at explaining the game and sharpening the minds of football fans, they’re eligible to be drafted.

As you review the results, you’ll notice that the draft order is based on the actual NFL Draft. We involved hosts in each NFL city or called upon a talent who has an affinity for the franchise picking in that spot. Some selections you’ll agree with, others you won’t, and it’ll likely lead to texts and social media interactions among industry folks. It may even become on-air content. I thank all 32 participants for making time to be a part of the process, and now present you with the results of BSM’s 2024 NFL Analyst Draft.

Enjoy!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Danny Parkins, 670 The Score: GREG OLSEN, FOX SPORTS
2. Grant Paulsen, 106.7 The Fan: CHARLES DAVIS, CBS SPORTS
3. Andy Gresh, WEEI: TOM BRADY, FOX SPORTS
4. Dave Burns, Arizona Sports: LOUIS RIDDICK, ESPN
5. Rob Parker, Fox Sports Radio: RYAN CLARK, ESPN
6. Shaun Morash, WFAN: TIKI BARBER, CBS SPORTS
7. Dawn Davenport, 104.5 The Zone: JASON MCCOURTY, CBS SPORTS
8. Chris Dimino, 680 The Fan: PHIL SIMMS, CBS SPORTS
9. Marc Silverman, ESPN Chicago: KYLE BRANDT, NFL NETWORK
10. Brandon Tierney, WFAN: ROSS TUCKER, CBS SPORTS/Westwood One
11. Phil Mackey, SKOR North: BRETT KOLLMANN, UNDERDOG
12. Zack Bye, Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan: MARK SCHLERETH, FOX SPORTS
13. Q Myers, ESPN Las Vegas/ESPN Radio: AMBER THEOHARIS, WESTWOOD ONE
14. Matt Moscona, 104.5 ESPN: MARCUS SPEARS, ESPN
15. Andy Sweeney, 107.5/93.5 The Fan: DAN ORLOVSKY, ESPN
16. Bob Stelton, Seattle Sports 710: PEYTON MANNING, OMAHA PRODUCTIONS
17. Mia O’Brien, 1010XL: DANIEL JEREMIAH, NFL NETWORK
18. Mo Egger, ESPN 1530: MINA KIMES, ESPN
19. Allen Sliwa, ESPN Los Angeles: TROY AIKMAN, ESPN
20. Andrew Fillipponi, 93.7 The Fan: BEN ROETHLISBERGER, CHANNEL SEVEN PRODUCTIONS
21. Marc Hochman, WQAM: MICHAEL IRVIN, NFL NETWORK
22. Tyrone Johnson, 97.5 The Fanatic: KIRK HERBSTREIT, PRIME VIDEO
23. Judd Zulgad, SKOR North: NATE BURLESON, CBS SPORTS
24. Gavin Dawson, 105.3 The Fan: TONY ROMO, CBS SPORTS
25. Steve ‘Sparky’ Fifer, 1250AM The Fan: CHAD REUTER, NFL NETWORK
26. Jay Recher, WDAE: BOOGER MCFARLAND, ESPN
27. Jody Oehler, FOX Sports 910: CHRIS SIMMS, NBC SPORTS
28. Maggie Gray, Infinity Sports Network: BOOMER ESIASON, CBS SPORTS
29. Jim Costa, 97.1 The Ticket: MEL KIPER JR., ESPN
30. Ken Weinman, 105.7 The Fan: BRIAN BALDINGER, NFL NETWORK
31. Daryle ‘Guru’ Johnson, 95.7 The Game: CRIS COLLINSWORTH, NBC SPORTS
32. Carrington Harrison, 610 Sports: MICHAEL STRAHAN, FOX SPORTS

Jason Barrett

Jason Barrett is the owner and operator of Barrett Sports Media. Prior to launching BSM he served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He has also produced national shows for ESPN Radio including GameNight and the Dan Patrick Show. You can find him on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or reach him by email at [email protected].

BSM Writers

Industry Guest Column: Howard Balzer Recalls the First NFL Draft on ESPN

We didn’t even have a production meeting before the telecast and I’m not sure I even knew who else would be on with me until my arrival in Connecticut.

Published

17 hours ago

April 25, 2024

BSM Staff

Graphic for an Industry Guest Column with Howard Balzer

Screengrab Credit: The Athletic (L-R Vince Papale, Howard Balzer, Bob Ley and Upton Bell)

Howard Balzer is beginning his 49th year covering pro football and currently covers the Arizona Cardinals for cardswire.usatoday.com. He has been a Hall of Fame selector for 20 years and is co-host of the weekly Pro Football Hall of Fame show on Sirius/XM NFL Radio. You can follow Howard on X @HBalzer721. Howard was an analyst on the first nine NFL Draft shows on ESPN and shares some memories for today’s guest column:

The call came to my desk at The Sporting News in St. Louis several weeks before the 1980 NFL Draft.

I had been with the publication for two years and had started writing a weekly NFL notebook (even in the offseason) the year before. That was a leap for the venerable Baseball Bible at the time, but I convinced then-managing editor Lowell Reidenbaugh that we should expand our coverage of the NFL.

But a bigger leap was what ESPN wanted to do.

The decision to televise the draft had been made in February of that year amid a certain level of skepticism. In fact, when ESPN president Chet Simmons first approached Pete Rozelle with the idea, the commissioner wondered, “Why would you want to do that? Who the heck would want to watch the NFL Draft?”

Eventually, the league’s vice president of broadcasting, Val Pinchbeck, convinced Rozelle it would be a good idea.

So it was that about six months after ESPN had launched in September 1979, the call from a producer at the network came.

ESPN was quickly figuring out all the nuts and bolts of the broadcast, and the question to me from the producer was whether they could use our mock draft on the show.

I assured him that was fine, but then explained the pitfalls. Not only was the mock draft finalized 11 days before the Tuesday draft, but once it invariably blew up in the early part of the first round, it might not be very useful.

Having some experience on St. Louis radio, my bold suggestion was that we coordinate a phone hookup, and they could bring me on at different times to discuss what had happened and what could be coming next.

Not a bad idea, I was told, and they said they’d get back to me. Which they did with the shocking (to me) question, “How would you like to come to Bristol, and be on the broadcast?”

We didn’t even have a production meeting before the telecast and I’m not sure I even knew who else would be on with me until my arrival in Connecticut. That turned out to be host Bob Ley, former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Vince Papale and Upton Bell, a former Patriots general manager and son of former NFL commissioner Bert Bell.

As can be seen from the featured image, the four of us were seated around a coffee table with papers strewn about and newspapers visible on the floor.

We just talked when they came to us from New York where host George Grande was with former NFL general manager Joe Thomas.

Ley told The Athletic on the draft’s 40th anniversary, “When we got off the air I think everybody realized not only did we survive, but that was pretty damn good. While you’d never want to be a prisoner of your reviews, they were positive and I think even the most hardened and objective of us would say we hit a nerve and seemed to have done OK.”

Most significant was the decision to run it back in 1981.

Who knew that now, 44 years later, the draft would be must-see TV, telecast on three networks and would have cities bidding to host it every year.

As executive producer Bill Fitts told The Athletic, “There’s no possible way I could have imagined it would turn into this. I wasn’t even sure we would make Year Two.”

There certainly were seminal moments along the way as more highlights of players from their college career were available and talent was sent to different venues to report.

In 1981, Paul Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated joined the show and famously said after quarterback Rich Campbell was selected sixth overall by the Packers, “They lied to me. I’ll never talk to them again.

Dr. Z was accustomed to being told the truth during his pre-draft discussions with teams, but all bets were off with it now being televised.

The next year, I was “promoted” to New York and while sitting at our small table, I heard a distinctive voice with a New York accent, say, “Hey Paul, keep your eye on Jeff Bryant. He’s moving up on everybody’s list.”

That voice was the reclusive Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly, who had been rarely seen in public. Late in the broadcast, with his scraggly hair and Notre Dame sweatshirt, he was interviewed on the broadcast. Had Joel been a tad more telegenic, there might never have been a Mel Kiper, who was on for the first time in 1984 from Bristol. Oh, by the way, the relatively unknown Bryant was selected sixth overall by the Seahawks.

My nine years on the broadcast included two years in Bristol, four in New York, one at 49ers headquarters when there was a power outage in the facility that kept us off the air for a while, one at NFL Films and one in Anaheim at Rams headquarters for what was my final appearance in 1988.

My final year (1986) in New York was memorable. I was at a large draft board that had player rankings with Chris Berman, but no one knew who had put the board together. One of Berman’s funny lines came when he commented on mine and Kiper’s hair!

Following the draft, I suggested to Fitts that if they planned to continue with the board, Kiper should be identified as the architect because that was the essence of his expertise.

Sure enough, he was moved from Bristol to New York the next year and Mel’s Big Board was born.

The actual board might not be as big now as it was then, but the draft itself only gets bigger and bigger over three days with two in prime time.

It’s humbling and gratifying to have been there at its birth.

BSM Staff

BSM Writers

Meet the Bettors: Nick Kostos, BetQL Network

“We can please the audience that’s looking for analysis of games that night and we can bring on really great guests.”

Published

17 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Demetri Ravanos

If you read this site with any regularity, you’re familiar with the term “wagertainment.” It’s how everyone that works at BetQL describes the network’s content philosophy. While the idea of making betting content welcoming to all listeners was the plan all along, the term came from Nick Kostos.

He approaches the network’s afternoon show You Better You Bet, with simple goals. He wants to give people information, he wants to make them laugh, and he wants them to come back tomorrow.

Kostos got his first taste of radio at WFAN as an intern. Between then and now, he has called a lot of brands home. He contributed to Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated and SiriusXM. He moved to Florida to be a part of CBS Sports’ digital properties.

In 2018, he noticed the tide shifting and attitudes on his betting content changing. It’s also around the time he met with Mike Dee, Audacy’s President of Sports Programming. He and Nick thought similarly about what gambling content on sports radio and podcasts could be, and he also happened to be starting a new network that would focus on the topic.

The latest conversation in our Meet the Bettors series, presented by Point to Point Marketing, focuses on Kostos. We talk about who brings the best out of him, the surprises that have come along with legalized sports betting, and why regulations are not as helpful as alignment for gamblers.

Demetri Ravanos: The BetQL Network is built around your term, that idea of wagertainment. So how did that come to be the case?

Nick Kostos: I think for me and Mike Dee, it was really like a meshing of our ideas. Now, he loved the wagertainment concept immediately, I think he would say that. So, I don’t think I’m betraying anything to say they really liked the idea.

Now I will be careful to say that I think there is a lot of really good sports betting content out there, my show among that. I think there are a lot of people who do really good work. The idea of wagertainment is there can be really entertaining betting content, and that’s great. And there can be really smart betting content, and that’s great too. But ideally, obviously, you want a combination of the two. You want to be able to educate people and have high-level conversation, and this does not mean that your pick has to win. You can have a great handicap of the game and then the game starts, and someone gets hurt, or the ball bounces a certain way, or the referee makes a bad call.

Smart betting content does not mean that you give out a winner all the time. We’re trying to win, right? We just give you a smart conversation about betting markets and handicapping games combined with a segment that will entertain people. So, you kind of get the best of both worlds to make people laugh and also try to make them smarter about sports, about handicapping the games, etc.

That is wagertainment in a nutshell. I think that You Better You Bet, obviously I think this I’m a little biased, but I think that we pull this concept off on a daily basis and do it very well.

DR: So that audience that is looking for wagertainment. Let’s talk about that group of people that maybe, if it were not for the entertainment factor, is not necessarily coming to your show. We have seen the NCAA president say he wants to limit or eliminate prop bets on college games. Various commissioners in the wake of these scandals have said they might revisit the idea of prop bets on their games. How much would that hurt that particular audience when it comes to their interest in betting?

NK: It’s more content for us to talk about, right? I just I feel like the tide is so strong at this point now that I kind of don’t think there’s any stopping it. So yeah, sure, Charlie Baker can say that, and the NCAA can kind of do what they want. Ultimately there’s still going to be a billion things to bet on. So, it’s not something that I really concern myself with.

I think they’re nuts to say they don’t want people betting college props. Look at all the interest in all of Caitlin Clark’s point totals and other women in the women’s college basketball tournament. Let’s say that goes away. There are still a million things you can bet on. There’s still the game itself between Iowa and LSU or Iowa and South Carolina. I mean, I guess it’s something that you don’t want to see happen, but I also don’t think it’s anything close to the end of the world if it does.

DR: Since PAPSA, which state has surprised you the most with how it has taken to sports betting – whether that means anecdotal evidence or in raw numbers?

NK: I think kind of like all of them have done really well. I do radio in a lot of different cities where Audacy has stations and I see where it’s a really big deal.

I know like Ohio was pretty recent to legalize sports betting and it was a really big deal there. Whenever I’ve gone on The Fan in Cleveland, it’s always been “We get asked so many questions about this stuff. People are so interested in it.”

I think that everyone’s kind of going to be really into it. I think it’s going to do really well everywhere.

I live in New York, so when you bring up kind of like the legalization, candidly where my mind goes to is what I can’t bet on. I can’t bet on awards in New York, the way that New York has it is you can’t bet on something that’s a predetermined outcome. Sports writers decide on season awards. So, it’s just a pain for me. Like, if I want to bet Joe Flacco to win NFL Comeback Player of the year. My buddy in Connecticut has to put the bet in for me. It’s ludicrous because I live in a state where sports betting is legalized.

I think it’s going to be everywhere. I think there’s going to be interest for it everywhere. I wish that there was more uniformity in terms of what can I bet on in New York versus anywhere else.

DR: We’ll circle back on some of those radio hits in just a moment, because I do want to ask you about that, but you mentioned that you can’t bet on awards in New York because it is a predetermined outcome. I know you’re a wrestling fan. What did you make of the WWE’s efforts to make betting on their events legal?

NK: Yeah, I think it’s awesome. I love it. As someone that’s been a wrestling fan for his entire life, I just think it adds more excitement to the event.

Now, look there are there are some matches like the main event for Night One of WrestleMania that doesn’t make sense to bet. So you know, it was a tag team match with the Rock and Roman Reigns against Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins. The result was going to determine how the main event for Night Two worked.

DR: Right. Night Two doesn’t work if Roman Reigns doesn’t win Night One.

NK: Correct, so you can have a betting market for it, but there is no price big enough where I would bet Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins because it makes no sense. It’s not real life. If Vince McMahon or Triple H ran the NCAA Tournament, like you would never have Cinderellas happen. It’s not how things go, right? You would never have the number one seed get knocked out early because you would want the number one seed there at the end for drama. But now with pro wrestling, you can control these sorts of things.

I love wrestling, but it is predetermined and that’s okay. So you know, like of course the Rock and Roman Reigns were gonna win. Once you get into matches where there is some doubt though, and look, I felt that Cody was going to win on Sunday night but it wasn’t a guarantee that that was the case. Like if Roman Reigns had won that match, I don’t think anyone would have been super duper shocked and they would have figured out a way for Cody to win eventually. You put a couple bucks on Cody Rhodes.

I mean, think about how much fun that match is to watch when you have no money on it and you’re just enjoying the drama of it. It’s like a regular sporting event, right?

I am a lifelong diehard sports fan. I’ve been watching sports my entire life. If sports betting went away, I would watch sports and still love it. I’m a sports fan first and foremost, and I think most bettors are sports fans first and foremost. You were able to watch games for a long time without betting, but now you bet. It makes it even more fun and it’s a new added wrinkle to it. I think it’s the same thing with professional wrestling. I really like the idea of doing that.

DR: So when you do those local radio hits, who are some of the hosts that you think bring the best out of you?

NK: Well, first and foremost, I would bring up WFAN in New York with Sal {Licata] and Brandon Tierney. Sal is someone that I’ve known for a really long time, about 20 years. We came up at WFAN together. I interned there when Sal was there, and Brandon’s been really welcoming. I love the conversations that the three of us have on the air about New York sports and betting on football. So, I would say that they definitely stand out.

I love my hit on The Score in Chicago with Mully and Haugh. I think they do a tremendous job.

The Greg Hill Show in Boston, I am on with them Friday mornings during football season. That was really fun because it is a lot of sports betting talk and we’re also able to have a lot of fun with it. It’s more like a variety show, so I’m able to kind of show off a little bit more of my personality as opposed to just like a straight 15 minutes of “here’s the line of the game” and “what’s your analysis of the betting market.” I kind of like to flex some different muscles sometimes and they give me the opportunity to do it. I like all the hits that I do, but those are some that stand out.

DR: So, what is the key in those hits to preventing your time on air from turning into the old school fantasy expert just taking calls over and over again about one dude’s team?

NK: From my perspective, I kind of look at it from what I can control. So, I can give my analysis on what I think someone should do with their show, but ultimately that’s their piece of real estate. I have my real estate four hours every day.

What I can control is no matter what questions are asked, whether they’re good or bad, and just to be clear, like for the vast majority, I think it’s really good, but let’s say I do a radio interview and the questions are not great and really milquetoast where we just kind of go one by one down the games with no personality involved. “Up next the Eagles, a three-point favorite against the Giants, total in the game is 48. What do you think?” Even if that’s the line of questioning, it’s my job to make that palatable for the person listening, to make it entertaining, to make it knowledgeable.

I don’t go into an interview thinking, “Wow, I hope the people ask me…” This is my job. No matter what happens, I have to make sure that my performance is good no matter what I’m given to work with. That’s what I can control. That’s why I get paid when the red light goes on. I have to perform no matter what.

DR: Obviously, there are BetQL affiliates all over the country and most of them carry your show uninterrupted every day. But let’s be real. It’s not ESPN, it’s not CBS Sports Radio, it’s not Fox. So, I would guess there were a lot of people hearing you every day for the first time on the podcast. How much effort do you make to make sure the content works both for people listening live and people listening on that podcast replay?

NK: It’s a really terrific question and something that we have given a lot of thought and consideration to because as the show evolves, obviously and I think I mentioned this, when I did an interview with Peter Schwartz for you guys, I kind of see the show becoming like a television show that also exists on the radio and exists in podcast form. One where we can please all masters, right? We can please the audience that’s looking for analysis of games that night and we can bring on really great guests.

The guests we’ve been able to pull on the show recently have been nothing short of outstanding: 80 plus guests, not only from the world of media, but having like the head coach of Oakland, Greg Kampe, on the day after they beat Kentucky and he comes on the show and says that he hears the Bet MGM sponsored sports betting minutes that I do every day and is like why haven’t I mentioned Oakland? It just kind of just goes to show the reach of the show and candidly, like the power of radio. Radio is still extremely powerful.

So to get back to the original question, we’re always going to have evergreen content because it is a sports betting show, right? We can talk about current matchups and future playoff matchups in a variety of different ways. So, because sports betting is what it is and it’s always kind of looking forward. There’s always something right now, but it will always dovetail and lead into something moving forward.

We never have to really try that hard to make sure that we please the audience. We’ve got their picks that night and also kind of like more of a longer form conversation, so the content doesn’t die right when we go off the air. There’s going to be something there that’s going to matter for the next day, for a week down the road, for three months down the road.

Demetri Ravanos

Demetri Ravanos is the Assistant Content Director for Barrett Sports Media. He hosts the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas. Previous stops include WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC. You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos and reach him by email at [email protected].