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The Goal Is Still in Focus For Andrés Cantor

“I understand that I am very, very lucky and blessed to have a job in something that I love to do. Not many people have that luxury.”

Derek Futterman

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Every four years, FIFA holds its World Cup tournament. Last year’s men’s tournament was held in Qatar and received high levels of viewership and engagement across the board, with the final game alone reaching 1.5 billion viewers worldwide. Andrés Cantor is tasked with bringing a large faction of those viewers a preponderance of the action throughout the tournament, something he has been doing since the early 90s.

With each game he announces, Cantor ensures he is providing his audience with an effusive, dynamic show of knowledge and passion, encapsulating the adrenaline of the showcase event and communicating it en masse.

“It’s 64 Super Bowls rolled into one month,” Cantor said. “If we get hyped here once a year with one Super Bowl, just imagine 64 of them in 28-29 days. That is the magic and the beauty of the World Cup; it has a worldwide appeal in every corner of the globe.”

Throughout his years working in sports media, Cantor has narrated and witnessed an interminable number of seminal moments in the history of the sport. Equipped with bilingual versatility and a goal call that penetrates cultural boundaries, he immerses himself and his audience in each match and looks forward to watching the next generation of illustrious soccer players take center stage. Calling the sport, however, was not Cantor’s modus operandi from the time he was young; instead, he wanted to be on the field playing the game imbued in every fiber of his being from a young age.

“I always say that most, if not all, sports reporters; anchors, etc. are frustrated athletes in their own sport that they cover,” Cantor expressed. “I would have given my life to play one minute of professional soccer somewhere. Since I couldn’t, I decided to do the next best thing, which is [to] call the games that I would have loved to play.”

To Cantor, working as a journalist was the means through which he would be able to be involved with professional soccer, and it was a career choice made difficult by assimilating to a new culture. Cantor grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and moved to the United States when he was a teenager and experienced various challenges in enduring a cultural shift. The culture he was used to involved going to watch his favorite soccer team (Boca Juniors) play on the weekends and then taking the field himself on weekends from dusk until dawn.

Although soccer is the No. 1 sport in terms of popularity around the world, it is not so in the United States; after all, the technical name of the sport is “fútbol” but it is referred to as “soccer” to prevent confusion with American football. The word itself is somewhat homonymic in that sense, as the only aspect of American football that involves one’s foot is in kicking field goals, points after touchdowns (PATs), punting, or kickoffs.

Additionally, Cantor faced the arduous task of learning a new language, something that was accentuated when he was determining how to go about calling games in English. He grew up the son of two parents – his mother, Alicia, a psychologist of Romanian descent; his father, David, a gastroenterologist of Argentinian descent; and his father’s parents fled Poland during the country’s occupation by the Nazis.

His parents made the decision to leave Argentina after growing frustrated with the government before the eventual coup d’état in 1976. The family found its way to San Marino, Calif., where his father worked at Huntington Memorial Hospital and his mother established her own psychology practice. Experiencing aspects of multiple cultures, in essence, was routine for Cantor; however, the change in lifestyle made him feel very much displaced early on. Through hard work and perseverance though, he was able to face this adversity and triumph, eventually becoming fully bilingual and adopting a sense of belonging.

“I was pretty miserable the first couple of years – first and foremost because I didn’t speak the language and I was coming from a totally different culture,” Cantor said. “….I went to school and it was fairly tough, but then over the years obviously once I started learning the language and being more used to the culture – like pretty much most immigrants, I became pretty acculturated and now I can probably say that I feel as much an American as I do an Argentinian.”

After graduating from San Marino High School, Cantor remained in the area by matriculating at the University of Southern California where he studied journalism. Although he was learning about the industry and receiving chances to hone his craft in the classroom, Cantor worked professionally as a correspondent for Editorial Atlántida, an influential magazine publisher in Argentina. El Grafíco, a prominent Argentinian sports magazine. Based out of Los Angeles, he wrote sports stories for the publication, along with covering boxing matches in Las Vegas, Nev.

Some of his assignments included following Diego Maradona, widely regarded as the world’s top soccer player at the time, and attending the 1982 and 1986 FIFA World Cup tournaments in Spain and Mexico, respectively – the latter of which Maradona led Argentina to a championship. Through it all, he worked hand in hand with editor, and eventual magazine director, Ernesto Cherquis Bialo, who started at the outlet himself as an intern in 1963. Cantor also covered select events alongside him, including the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles, Calif., all while gaining exposure, credibility, and unparalleled industry wherewithal.

Another part of his correspondent role was covering entertainment for the magazine Gente, affording him experience in an area where he did not have as much experience. In fact, he had the chance to interview economist Milton Friedman, actor Laurence Tureaud — better known as “Mr. T” — and author Ray Bradbury. Cantor was frequently on the road to report on and cover pertinent events, growing accustomed to eloquent storytelling through the written word.

“I was very, very fortunate that while I was being taught how to become a journalist, I was on the road doing all of this,” he said. “I guess that was a double whammy for my career – going to school and, at the same time, practicing exactly what they were teaching me.”

The repeated cycle of instruction and implementation set Cantor apart from other prospective journalists, giving him an inherent advantage upon his graduation. While his work was not primarily focused on soccer, he maintained his alacrity for the sport throughout his time in college and consumed games on the radio. From the time he was young, the commentator whom he most frequently listened to was José Maria Muñoz; in fact, Cantor recalls that Muñoz, at one point, had a 90% share of the radio audience in Argentina. Listening to him call the games inspired Cantor to work to find his voice and develop a style to call his own, amalgamating tradition and innovation.

“It was a very different style of doing play-by-play back in the day,” Cantor said of Muñoz. “My friends [and I] would go out and play soccer and we would repeat phrases that he used in his radio broadcasts.”

Combined with his experience as a writer, Cantor utilized his passion and knowledge of soccer to land an audition with Univision in 1987. At that point, he had never entered a television studio and knew he was taking a risk shifting his career at 23 years old; nonetheless, it was a chance to focus on soccer on a full time basis. Cantor was expeditiously hired in the first quarter of that year and covered myriad events leading up to his first FIFA World Cup on television in 1990, including the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The early repetitions allowed him to gain a foothold as a play-by-play announcer and communicate with a large viewing audience.

“I guess I had already found my voice as a play-by-play announcer and just kept on growing professionally year by year,” Cantor said. “There’s not, obviously, one broadcast where 30+ years later, you don’t get goosebumps when you’re at a big event. Now, it’s obviously a little bit easier than it was way back in the day.”

In his early days of calling the FIFA World Cup, Cantor quickly rose to prominence when his elongated goal call caught the attention of sports fans and media consumers around the United States. Following the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Cantor was invited to appear on a variety of talk shows, including The Late Show with David Letterman and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. This all took place during a time before social media; therefore, becoming “viral,” as it is oft-referred, was ostensibly harder to achieve.

Cantor was the only play-by-play announcer for Univision, meaning he was calling all of the tournament’s matches from mid-June to mid-July, and it is a remarkable feat of which he remains unsure as to just how he pulled off.

“I literally was exhausted, and I had five or six different outlets at our studios that came to interview me because of the success of the World Cup broadcasts we were having,” Cantor elucidated. “We put Univision on the map, literally. We were blowing away our competition, which I believe was ABC, and everybody was talking about Univision’s coverage and everyone was talking about my style.”

The style Cantor exudes on each broadcast renders him unique among the paradigmatic role play-by-play announcers execute. While he is usually paired with an analyst when calling soccer games, Cantor interprets the game and expresses his opinions, challenging his partner to expand his viewpoints and broaden the scope of what is being discussed.

“I’m very passionate about every single game that I do,” Cantor said. “I cannot make them better if they’re not good games, but I try to have people on the edge of their seats while they’re watching the television.”

When he was working with Univision, Cantor was calling games in Spanish, and it remains the primary language in which he commentates. Whereas he is able to express his thoughts both in Spanish and English, Cantor was brought on by NBC Sports to broadcast soccer games at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in English – an effort by the network to capture the exaltation he brought to the broadcasts of the FIFA World Cup.

Initially, Cantor was processing his thoughts about the game in Spanish and translating them in real-time to be spoken in English, a burdensome task wherefore following the game became less facile. Because of this, he started thinking about the game in English, omitting the translation, and settled in.

“When you do play-by-play in Spanish, your mind is going so fast because I need to be seeing the action [while] anticipating the next play [and] where the ball is going to go,” Cantor said. “I can’t be caught off guard, so I have to have a 360-degree [view] of what is going on.”

During that same year, Cantor left Univision to work with Telemundo, a network owned by Sony and Liberty Media. It should be noted that the network was subsequently purchased by NBC (before the merger that created “NBCUniversal”) in October 2001, and is currently part of NBC Sports’ Telemundo Deportes headquartered in Miami.

The transition was made easier because of the fact that Univision had moved on from many of its prominent on-air talent, and Cantor was essentially the last of them to make the move to Telemundo. He was offered the chance to remain at Univision, but made a prudential decision in transitioning, albeit taking a risk in joining an entity that did not have rights to the FIFA World Cup. While Telemundo did not broadcast the tournament until 2018, Cantor continued calling the games on Fútbol de Primera, a radio network created by Cantor and Alejandro Gutman in 1989.

The radio network offers a wide variety of programming pertaining to soccer and has broadcast a countless number of worldwide soccer events in addition to the World Cup, such as Serie A, the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and games for the Mexican national football team. Its programming, which includes Cantor’s daily show titled Fútbol de Primera, is disseminated to over 100 radio stations across the United States, and Cantor also contributes to the business operations of the entity. Calling games on the radio catalyzed a change in the way Cantor commentates in terms of being able to carry out his role.

“Radio takes an even bigger physical toll on [me] because you have to go into sixth gear,” Cantor said. “On television, I’m in fifth gear – the only reason I’m in fifth gear, not in sixth, is because I have to describe things that I assume people are not watching on radio. It’s lots of fun, but it’s very, very demanding as well.”

As Cantor views the landscape of sports talk radio, he has discerned a notable change in that there is less of an emphasis placed on providing up-to-the-minute scores and news. Cantor’s show initially started as a half-hour informational program broadcast on Sundays to circulate information to listeners.

Today, the audience can effectively discover information through digital platforms; therefore, the focus of the show needed to be shifted to bring people what they could not get anywhere else. As a result, the shows revolve around discussion and verbalization of opinion, distributed across multiple audiovisual outlets through the implementation of effective cross-platform integration.

“It’s funny [and] it’s light,” Cantor said. “We try to be up to speed with the way people are consuming everything nowadays media-wise. We have definitely adapted throughout the years.”

Last year, Argentina won its first World Cup championship since 1986 – and it was an especially fulfilling moment for Cantor who grew up in the country cheering on the team. In the 2014 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil, Argentina lost to Germany in the final game, a particularly difficult moment for those in the country.

Cantor did not believe the team was built to win the tournament in 2018, likening the country’s performance to a “disaster,” but this time around, he felt differently. When the team dropped the opening match to Saudi Arabia, he began to have second thoughts about being enamored with the team and was behind the microphone for a pivotal matchup against Mexico that kept the team’s championship hopes alive.

After defeating Croatia to advance to battle France in the championship game, Cantor was trying to keep his composure and provide his audience with an objective call while observing a moment he had been waiting for; that is, until France tied the contest late in overtime, leading to a penalty shootout. Everything was on the line in Lionel Messi’s final World Cup, and his teammate Gonzalo Montiel buried the goal to secure the victory, leading to jubilation and an impassioned moment for Cantor.

“I came through because I always owe my audience my best call, and that was probably as good as it gets even though I was dying inside,” Cantor said. “This time, I was very happy inside and outside as well. It was 36 years in the making for that magic moment…. You couldn’t write a better script for that World Cup to end the way it ended.”

Cantor will be commentating the FIFA Women’s World Cup, marking the first time in Hispanic television history where all games will be televised on Telemundo and its sister network, Universo, along with NBC’s OTT streaming service, Peacock. The tournament, which will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand, will feature 32 countries as the United States aims to win its third consecutive title.

As women’s sports continue to grow in prestige and viewership around the world, Cantor eagerly anticipates promulgating the stars of the game and doing what he can to catalyze the growth of the sport. The quadrennial action commences on Thursday, July 20, and finishes on Sunday, Aug. 20.

“[It] should be very interesting to see how far the rest of the world has progressed in women’s soccer,” Cantor said. “It is going to be the first time that the World Cup is hosted by two different countries, at least at the women’s level, which is going to be very interesting. We will pay attention to the Latin American teams and Spain – the Spanish-speaking teams that will participate – and obviously Brazil as well to see how far they can get.”

Whether it is being bilingual or being able to perform an assortment of roles at a high level, versatility is a fundamental quality to garner in sports media. Despite being an established veteran in the industry, Cantor looks to learn how to apply new technologies to his work and remain at the forefront of innovation. He advises aspiring professionals with the “goooaaalll” of fostering careers in the ever-competitive niche of sports media to be proactive and find methods to apply what they have learned.

It is essential to have the knowledge and a willingness to learn and improve one’s craft to succeed in the business, and while much of that can be taught, passion is somewhat enigmatic and comes from within. Ultimately, it makes a big difference, and Cantor is grateful to fulfill his through broadcasting.

“I understand that I am very, very lucky and blessed to have a job in something that I love to do,” Cantor said. “Not many people have that luxury; many people just have jobs because they need to have a paycheck at the end of the week and they do something that they don’t like to do.”

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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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