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Howard Simon Bids WGR Farewell

“I will never ever forget how much you did you for me and this show today. It is the greatest thing in the world.”

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WGR morning host Howard Simon has officially ended his run on the Buffalo sports radio station.

Simon’s final show concluded this morning, with the longtime host being visited by several prominent Buffalo sports figures.

A host in the city for the last 33 years, Simon has partnered with co-host Jeremy White for the past 18 years on the station’s morning show. The pair joked that they had to think up things that made them angry to avoid getting overly emotional during the show’s final segment.

“People asked me what it was like 18 years ago to be paired with someone I didn’t know and we started together and it was great,” White said. “I always felt like having you — if you liked me — then that meant a lot to everybody else.

“There was a protection that you gave. ‘If Howard likes you, you must have some good in you’…all these people thanking you for how you affected their life, for me, are you the reason I have a house? You might be! It’s tough,” a tearful White continued. “At the end of this, you’re not dead, but I’m gonna feel like the Will Smith in the big empty room. My partner left. I’m happy for you, and I’m sad for me and sad for everybody else. You mean a lot to me.”

“He will never admit this, but I’ll tell you publicly, the last few years? He carried my ass on this show,” Simon said of White. “It was really hard for me to do this show the last couple of years…but you were there for me when I didn’t know what to say.”

Simon concluded the show by thanking the Buffalo sports community.

“My only dream for my life growing up was to be in broadcasting,” Simon said, fighting back tears. “It’s all I ever wanted to do and I didn’t think I’d be able to do it this long.”

The longtime Buffalo host then thanked listeners for their kindness over the last few weeks after he made his impending retirement known.

“I can’t even tell you what it’s meant to me. The tweets, the emails, everything that has happened … since we wrote the article that said I was leaving officially. The response that we have gotten, the tweets, the emails, I knew we had listeners. I see the ratings, I know people are listening. But the way you’ve expressed Jeremy and I, over the last 18 years, have meant to all of you, the impact we’ve had on your lives, has touched my heart. I didn’t think you could do that as a sports talk host, just some nut talking about sports and banging on a table. But everything you all have said to me, you cannot ever have any idea how much it meant that we’ve had that impact on your life. I’m so grateful that you’ve allowed us into your lives.”

In his closing statements, he shared appreciation for the show that the station put together for his final outing.

“It is beyond anything I ever could have imagined. I will never ever forget how much you did you for me and this show today. It is the greatest thing in the world. I love all of you. Thank you very much.”

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown declared Friday, March 3rd as Howard Simon Day in the city.

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Sports Radio News

Doug Gottlieb Details Interviewing For College Basketball Head Coaching Vacancy

“I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb recently interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay and detailed the experience on his podcast.

“I got a chance to talk to (Wisconsin-Green Bay AD) Josh Moon several times during the year after they had made their coaching job available and my approach to how I’ve done these things — and this is not the first time I’ve gone down this path, but this was a different path,” Gottlieb said on his All Ball podcast.

“This is a low-major, mid-major job, and there’s no connection there. I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up. I love doing it and I think there’s a very smart world where if I’m coaching I can still do this podcast and still do it with basketball people all over the country and the world, and it’s kind of like a cheat code.”

He continued by saying that seeing Shaka Smart be successful at Marquette has motivated him to continue to search for the right fit as a college basketball coach.

“That’s what I want to do. And last year when I was coaching in Israel, that also continued to invigorate me…this is something that I would really like to do. It has to be the right thing. It has to be the right AD who hits the right message.”

He continued by saying that a sticking point of negotiations was he wasn’t willing to give up his nationally syndicated radio program for the job. He was willing to take less money for his assistants pool, but also to continue doing his radio show.

Gottlieb did not get the position with the Phoenix, noting that he was a finalist but was never offered the job. The position ultimately went to Wyoming assistant coach Sundance Wicks. Wicks had previous head coaching experience and had worked with Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon at Division II Northern State. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily “all-in” on the job due to the current ages of his children and whether the timing was right to uproot his family to move to Northeastern Wisconsin.

The Fox Sports Radio host does have coaching experience. He has worked as a coach for the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics.

Gottlieb’s father — Bob — was the head men’s basketball coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1975-1980, compiling a 97-91 record.

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Waddle & Silvy: Scott Hanson Told Us to Lose His Number

“We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

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Aaron Rodgers took immense pride in the fact that he told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter to “lose his number” while discussing his future earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy said they’ve experienced similar treatment from guests on their radio show.

While discussing the Rodgers interview with McAfee, the pair admitted that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson once told their producer to stop trying to book him for interviews on the program.

“I believe the presentation was ‘Do me a favor: lose my number after this interview’,” Tom Waddle said. “So he tried to do it politely. Scott Hanson did. Get out of here. That concept is foreign to me. How about ‘Hey, next time you text me, my schedule is full. I can’t do it, but thanks for thinking of me’. ‘Lose my number?’ You ain’t the President, for Christ’s sake. I’m saying that to anyone who would say that. ‘Lose my number?’ We’re all in the communication business. I just don’t know — why be rude like that to people? What does that accomplish? You know what it accomplished? We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

Co-host Mark Silverman then mentioned that the show once tried to book Hansen and NFL Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano together in the same block, with the idea of doing a trivia game to see who the supreme Red Zone host was. Siciliano agreed, but Hansen declined.

The pair also confirmed that an NFL Network personality had told them to lose their number, but couldn’t remember if it was Rich Eisen or not.

Silverman later joked that maybe Hanson was getting a new phone with a new number, and was politely sharing with the producer that he could lose the current phone number because he would share his new number in short order.

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Seth Payne: Aaron Rodgers ‘Makes Gross Inaccuracies’ When Calling Out Media

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations.”

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Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is always mad at the media for the inaccurate things he says they report, but according to Sports Radio 610 morning man Seth Payne, no one is more inaccurate than the quarterback himself.

Friday morning, Payne and his partner Sean Pendergast played audio of Aaron Rodgers responding to a question about a list of players he provided to the Jets demanding they sign. Rodgers called the idea that he would make demands “so stupid” and chastised ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who was the first to report it.

“Now to be clear, Dianna Russini didn’t say demands in her tweet. She said wishlist,” Pendergast clarified.

They also played a clip of Russini responding to Rodgers on NFL Live saying that she stands by her reporting and it is her job to reach out to confirm that it is true.

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations,” Seth Payne said.

He added that if Rodgers is being serious, he is doing some serious nitpicking. He claims that he didn’t give the Jets a list, but that he spoke glowingly about former teammates and told the Jets executives that he met with who he enjoyed playing with during his career.

Payne joked that maybe he wrote down the names in a circle pattern so that it was not a list. Pendergast added that he could have had Fat Head stickers on his wall that he pointed to instead of writing anything at all.

In Payne’s mind, this is a case of Russini catching stray frustration. Neither in her initial tweet nor in any subsequent media appearance did she use the phrase “demands”.

“What he’s actually responding to in that instance is Pat McAfee is the one that described it as a list of demands,” Seth Payne said.

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