Sports Radio News
Andy Johnson: Listeners Love Our YouTube Stream Because They See We’re Annoyed By Our Producer
“I love how you’re making this my fault for you guys not being able to tell time.”

Published
1 month agoon
By
BSM Staff
Several sports radio shows in recent years have added a video component to the program. In Portland, 1080 The Fan has added a YouTube feed of Dirt & Sprague, featuring Andy Johnson — better known as “Dirt” — and Brandon Sprague, giving listeners a firsthand look into the studio throughout the course of the show.
The station has received praise for the addition, with audience members expressing how it was unique to be able to see show producer Jason Swygard trying to get his hosts to go to break on time.
“I had a feeling that this would happen,” Andy Johnson said, “and here we are today on November 1st, and we have a listener saying one of their favorite parts of our show is watching Swag try to get us to break on the live stream because now they can see either how annoyed of us he is or how annoying from our perspective he is.”
Swygard, who is nicknamed “Swag” on the program, previously produced Primetime with Isaac and Suke before joining the morning show, which was in middays at the time. Johnson described how listeners timestamped the segment where he was visibly seen waving his arms trying to get the show to break.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Andy Johnson responded to listeners with GIFs of a Monsters Inc. character waving their arms and an inflatable tube man drifting in the wind, presumably aggrandizing Swygard’s gesticulations.
“I love how you’re making this my fault for you guys not being able to tell time,” Swygard said. “That’s what I love that’s going on here.”
Johnson was surprised that Swygard took the discourse personally and wondered how he was making anything his fault. Recapitulating the point that Sprague had just made on the air, he stated that he said that listeners are either enjoying watching him trying to get them to wrap a segment or seeing him be annoyed at them for continuing anyway.
“I’ve always said this about him off the air to people who listen to the show from time to time and chime in on thoughts,” Sprague said. “I say, ‘In the moment, it’s annoying to me, but really in reality, I think when he’s most upset is probably when our boss is giving him nine other things that he needs to try to get done.’… It doesn’t actually do anything to his job if we’re three minutes over the clock. Nothing happens – like, literally nothing happens.”
The listeners of the show are ostensibly enjoying watching Swygard work as the “clock monster,” as named by Sprague on the air, leading Johnson to suggest that the program needs to find a way to maximize the potential of this phenomenon.
“I think we now need to get Swag an airline sponsorship; like, ‘Swag, brought to you by Alaska Airlines,’ and then we give him the light-up things that you land the planes with, and then he’s got those in there,” Johnson said. “Like the runway lights.”
“He’s not that guy,” Sprague replied. “He’s the air traffic controller.”
Sports Radio News
KNBR’s Brian Murphy Speaks for First Time After Paul McCaffrey Laid Off
“Paulie Mac is my guy, will forever be my guy. The best thing I could ever wish anyone is that you get to work with someone as loyal, energetic, funny, consistent as the guy his Jersey buddies call ‘Smack’.”

Published
1 day agoon
December 1, 2023By
BSM Staff
Earlier this week, KNBR underwent a round of layoffs, affecting a pair of programs on the Bay Area sports station, including the departure of longtime morning host Paul McCaffrey. His longtime partner — Brian Murphy — has taken to X to share his thoughts.
In a thread to X, Murphy shared his admiration for McCaffrey, whom he hosted Murph and Mac with for 18 years.
“Paulie Mac is my guy, will forever be my guy. The best thing I could ever wish anyone is that you get to work with someone as loyal, energetic, funny, consistent as the guy his Jersey buddies call ‘Smack’,” wrote Murphy. “So much love.”
Well. So many thoughts, but let’s go with three for now:
— Brian Murphy (@knbrmurph) December 1, 2023
— Paulie Mac is my guy, will forever be my guy. The best thing I could ever wish anyone is that you get to work with someone as loyal, energetic, funny, consistent as the guy his Jersey buddies call “Smack”. So much love. pic.twitter.com/DMTgIjl52U
He then shared that everything listeners and fans of the program have shared on social media has been read by the duo, and thanked them for the outpouring of love and support.
Finally, Murphy addressed his future. Fill-in host Dieter Kurtenbach shared on Thursday he did not have a definitive answer about Murphy’s future with the Cumulus-owned station.
However, Brian Murphy has shared he will return to the airwaves on Monday morning.
“I’ll be back Monday morning on KNBR with our guy Markus (Waterboy) Boucher,” Murphy wrote. “Come on. It’s Niners-Eagles. Wouldn’t miss it. As Paulie Mac’s board itself would say: The show goes on.”
3) I’ll be back Monday morning on KNBR with our guy Markus (Waterboy) Boucher. @MarkusBoucher Come on. It’s Niners-Eagles. Wouldn’t miss it. As Paulie Mac’s board itself would say: The show goes on. pic.twitter.com/0p4IRTUAPd
— Brian Murphy (@knbrmurph) December 1, 2023
Sports Radio News
Mike Mulligan: Sports Radio is More Difficult Than Other Formats Think
He shared that he has worked with people on morning shows that he has seen come to a station fully hungover who play music and proceed to sit on the couch.

Published
1 day agoon
December 1, 2023By
BSM Staff
On Friday morning’s edition of Mully & Haugh on 670 The Score in Chicago, co-host Mike Mulligan outlined the difference with music radio that hosts are not continuously talking to the audience, instead taking mic breaks and then interspersing commentary with different songs.
Filling in for David Haugh on Friday’s edition of the program was Gabe Ramirez, who used to work in the format with B96 as the host of its morning show. Mulligan’s assertion about the differences between the two formats resulted in a conversation about the differences between the grenres, with Ramirez explaining the difficulties that music radio hosts face on the air.
“The music station’s still creating content,” Ramirez said. “You get to have a guest – since I am going to defend my music stations – you get to have a guest and toss them a softball question and listen to them rant for five minutes.”
Mulligan disagreed with this perspective, conveying that he does not feel their program provides guests with easy questions. Additionally, he shared that he has worked with people on morning shows that he has seen come to a station fully hungover who play music and proceed to sit on the couch.
“As a former sportswriter, we sit around and we talk about sports,” Mulligan said. “We talk about the sports we cover and we talk about other sports.”
“You have to talk about Justin Fields seven days in a row,” Ramirez replied. “As a morning show for music, you have to come up with new content every day.”
Rather than taking umbrage towards the response, Mike Mulligan explained that the key to effectively performing his job is being able to discuss important stories of the day even when they are not the headlines. Furthermore, he expounded on the commitment that it takes to watch the amount of sporting events and to be properly informed on the action so he is able to take the air.
“That I will agree with,” Ramirez said. “I’ve told people this – they ask me, ‘What’s the biggest difference?’ The prep, without question, is way more difficult in sports radio because everyone that’s listening to you already knows the answers and you have to be equally if not more informed in all of those things.”
Sports Radio News
Minnesota Twins Set to Tab Cory Provus as New TV Voice, Kris Atteberry as Lead Radio Announcer
Provus has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Twins since 2012.

Published
1 day agoon
December 1, 2023By
BSM Staff
After Dick Bremer exited the Minnesota Twins TV booth in October, the search began for his replacement. The MLB franchise didn’t have to look far, though.
Twins radio voice Cory Provus is reportedly set to become the new TV play-by-play broadcaster for the club, according to a report from Dan Hayes of The Athletic.
Provus has been the radio voice of the Minnesota Twins since 2012. Many immediately tabbed him as the club’s replacement for Bremer, who retired after 40 seasons as the lead television voice of the American League club. Before joining the team in 2012, Provus worked for the Milwaukee Brewers as the number two broadcaster after spending two seasons as the radio pregame host for the Chicago Cubs.
Meanwhile, Kris Atteberry has been signaled as the person set to replace Provus inside the franchise’s radio booth. He has served as the pregame and postgame host for the Minnesota Twins Radio Network since 2007. Atteberry joined the club after spending five years calling games for the then-Independent St. Paul Saints from 2002-2006.
While the television and radio broadcast crews appear set, questions remain about where the team will televise its games in 2024. The club’s contract with Bally Sports North has reportedly expired, and it has yet to sign an agreement with the bankruptcy-laden RSN, or with a local over-the-air television station.