spmack wrote:
Would it be ok (IMU) if someone makes an *exception and posts this column from The Athletic????
Okay.
Quote:
For at least a month, (redacted) prepared every day for a radio show.
He read, thought about his angles, watched games. All the work the producer-turned-host prided himself on doing before a daily show.
But there was no show.
“I think that was me going through my own cleansing of like not immediately (dealing with) how bad it felt,” he said.
This was back in March and April, when (redacted)’s napalming of the daytime programming at 670 WSCR AM was still smoldering in (redacted)’s head.
Now, it’s mid-September and (redacted) is months removed from the end of a dream job. In a curious turn of events, he once again finds himself walking through the halls of The Score’s studios in the Prudential Building.
That’s where he hosts shows for Sirius XM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio station. He doesn’t have an office and he can’t use the spacious main studio. He plies his trade in the tiny update studio across the hall.
In a way, (redacted) is like the Ghost of Score Past. While he keeps in touch with many of his ex co-workers, some of them, he felt, didn’t know how to handle seeing him again in that context.
“I felt like, especially when I was coming back to do my shows and seeing people, I’m not angry at you,” he said. “But I also won’t be complicit in you feeling better about what happened. You understand? If that makes any sense. I’m not here to ease how things went down for you. This is a wild industry. It’s a crazy business. If you’re OK with it, you were OK with it then. You should be OK with it going forward.”
And yes, (redacted) saw (redacted) in his return to the station, but he said (redacted) didn’t recognize him.
(redacted) is now filling in as a national host at ESPN radio, working on nighttime shows and a college football wrap-up. He’s balancing that with his Sirius work, which also might expand soon. TV work for ESPN and appearances on ESPN 1000 could certainly be in his future. He’s starting an independent podcast, like everyone else, where he can say whatever he wants. He’s still on Twitter and appears on Fox 32 on Sundays, he’s dropped in on ABC’s “Windy City Live.”
His career is moving on, but the past is always just an interview away.
(redacted) has done two podcasts about his situation, one with ESPN’s (redacted) (who, along with (redacted) helped him land at ESPN) and a two-parter with his buddy (redacted). But he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk again. Of course, once he started, he had trouble stopping. (redacted) is blessed with the gift of gab.
“I got nothing to lose, (redacted),” he said as we turned on the recorder. And then he laughed.
It’s been almost six months since (redacted) was booted from his gig hosting afternoons with (redacted) on The Score, one of three on-air casualties of the (redacted) takeover.
(redacted)’s former co-host (redacted), who agreed to a new deal just before Entercom’s merger with CBS Sports Radio, stayed on staff and is now co-hosting a pair of morning shows, with (redacted) and (redacted), on Saturday for the foreseeable future. You might find (redacted) at Cubs games guest wrangling for his old partners, (redacted) and (redacted), the station’s new afternoon team, as well as for (redacted) and (redacted), who have his old time slot.
(redacted), the third incumbent host to be removed for a (redacted) favorite, was out of contract when the hangman arrived. His departure was the most unexpected if you actually thought these changes were about ratings or content. (redacted), along with (redacted), had dominated their morning time slot for a decade, eating (redacted)’s lunch like it was a $5 Subway footlong.
“That’s what let you know it’s not about the listener,” (redacted) said.
(redacted), who has a young son (redacted) with his fianceé (redacted), had about 10 months left on a two-year deal when he was called to a South Loop coffee shop for a meeting with (redacted), the senior vice president and market manager of Entercom’s Chicago operations, and operations director (redacted), a boss who once doubted (redacted) and eventually championed him.
(redacted) already knew what was coming. The meeting was awkward, (redacted) said, as (redacted) started by trying to relate to him about something very personal, a tell that he was tipped off correctly. After the introduction, the first time (redacted) said he had ever really spoken to (redacted), he said it was a blur.
“I had a weird moment,” he said. “I have a baby now. Things are a little bit different. How do you converse about what the next step is, while also how do you keep your honor by not groveling on some weird level? I chose to say I understand everybody’s got a style they like, you know, and they kept explaining what was happening. I was like, ‘Dude, I already know.’”
What was the explanation?
“Just going in a different direction with the format, of people just wanting to hear about sports,” (redacted) said. “I’m like…you know me, Jon. Dawg, there’s people who’s, that’s their hustle, not watching sports and being able to do all the other shit. I think I can do the other stuff, but I’m a sports talk radio host. When the Colin Kaepernick shit was going on, it was only talked about when it was in the news, for me. If somebody wanted to touch on something else, like a caller, Chuck in St. Charles, who started off a different tangent and I handled him like I should’ve handled him. Those things happen.”
(redacted), the plugged-in media columnist for the Daily Herald, first reported (redacted) was going to be sidelined for (redacted)’s return on March 13. Then it was announced that both he and (redacted) were being pushed aside, with (redacted) returning to the station and (redacted) and (redacted) flipping shows.
(redacted) felt worse for (redacted), who saw his co-hosts pair up without him. While (redacted) wrote a long post about his situation, (redacted), aside from a few tweets, mostly kept his feelings internal.
“Even when I found out, my tweets were to wish (redacted) and (redacted) the best of luck,” he said. “I was seething on the inside. It was hard, it was painful. I went through a couple of months of like depression where I was sleeping more than I ever slept before and feeling awful about it, thinking what could I have done differently? I always came up with you were yourself, so nothing. Now I’m at the point where it’s like I don’t miss it because I haven’t really engaged with it.”
He said he’s listened to a few short blocks of daytime Score programming, along with catching his friend (redacted) whenever he can, but has mostly stayed away.
“I tried to sample (redacted) and (redacted) and (redacted) and (redacted),” he said. “It’s just…a couple of things. One, I still feel how I feel about how things went down. Two, I feel like it’s not for me, you know? It’s kind of like hip-hop with some of my friends and they bang on the young kids and I’m like maybe it’s not for you. You know what I mean? We all go through these waves where maybe my time is better.”
(redacted) was (redacted)’s producer before he was his co-host and (redacted) and (redacted) did a special send-off for him in 2012, like two proud parents sending their son into the real world. (redacted) texted (redacted) after these moves, but (redacted) said he didn’t respond. They finally ran into each other when (redacted) was in the studio to host his Sirius show.
“The first time I saw him, he kind of shook his head and said he really troubled by what happened,” he said. “There was nothing really to talk about. It wasn’t an issue of like ‘I forgive you’ because as far as I know he didn’t do anything. If we’ve moved on, we’ve moved on. We didn’t text a whole bunch during the show.”
One thing (redacted) wasn’t pleased with were the angles that were coming out of The Score after his firing. Between insinuations that his move to the afternoon show caused a ratings decline, the perception that he wasn’t talking enough sports and the laughable notion that the station was going to be “hipper and younger” after the moves, (redacted) felt he was getting railroaded on his way out.
The no-context leaks about ratings, and the insinuations, in print and elsewhere, that (redacted) was too much of a — to use an old phrase — “race man” bothered him greatly. He felt like a false narrative was being created to excuse a move that was made because a new boss wanted to mark his territory.
“On one hand I say nothing and get my credibility killed or I say something and I’m the angry brother they depicted anyway,” he said. “So it was hard.”
After months of talking about meeting up, (redacted) and I sat down to chat in a South Loop bar a few hours before the Bears’ home opener.
I wasn’t interested in just rehashing those moves, which I’ve done enough. A new boss is allowed, obviously, to make changes. But I did want to know how (redacted) was doing with this life change. As someone who saw his own career briefly uprooted in 2015, I feel a sense of fellowship.
“I don’t want this to be…it’s not some sob story,” (redacted) said. “I’ve been trying to figure out how to best handle all of this without coming off as one, the sucker who’s going to get pushed over, as two, the angry brother people are worried about, because they won’t get a chance to know me.”
On a TV, (redacted) was on ESPN and that got (redacted) thinking about how he respected (redacted)’s work, if not all of his views, and how as a young kid growing up in Evanston, (redacted) would listen to (redacted) in his AM radio-only house. (redacted) didn’t agree with (redacted), but he learned how a radio host worked and built an audience with callers.
Radio became his calling. By his early teens, (redacted), now 37, was a regular caller on The Score, Jason from Evanston. By his early 20s, he was working for the station as a producer and then a part-time host.
(redacted) had to leave Chicago for his first full-time hosting gig at a CBS station in Atlanta in 2012. But his return to the station in February 2015 was heralded as a true Score success story. His mid-day show pairing with (redacted), who lost his co-hosts in (redacted) and (redacted), took a little time to take off, but eventually they meshed quite well.
In early 2017, (redacted) was the choice to replace one of his mentors, (redacted), in the afternoon show alongside (redacted). (redacted) was their producer for many years, so this promotion almost seemed like a graduation. For a station that prided itself on continuity and family, it made sense. It also came with more money. Still, (redacted) was unsure about the jump.
“This has also taught me about trusting my instincts in certain situations,” he said. “The reluctance I had, for a few reasons, about jumping on that show, it beared true. You know. I was worried about just the tail end of the show, (redacted) being sick, and all the things the show was going through, I was worried. I told (redacted) this. There was like a push and pull of, ‘Do this, do this, trust me, do this.’ I was like me and (redacted) were humming. We were cooking. It was hard leaving those guys. In the end I was offered a deal to do that show instead of having both (shows) on the table.”
To be sure, I thought he was a better fit with (redacted). But who can argue with more money?
(redacted) doesn’t use an agent, which I found surprising. That made it less shocking when he told me that he got pushed out of the station without getting the remainder of his contract.
“The move to keep me off the air so they can void my deal is something I didn’t see coming,” he said. “I should still be getting paid through February, but that’s neither here nor there.”
In the early stories it was insinuated that (redacted) could do weekend shows, with (redacted) mentioning the possibility of some night shows with (redacted). But (redacted) told me he was offered a very low rate to do these shows, a number he figured they knew he’d turn down. So after a month, they voided his deal. (This is probably why radio hosts should have agents.)
“All these deals are pretty much 30-, 60- or 90-day deals,” (redacted) said. “They just have the specter of two years around them. With cause, without cause. So 30, 60 or 90 days, they can keep you off the air and tell you all right, we’re done here. Give you 30 days, 60 days or 90 days worth of your money.”
(redacted) got 30 days and that was it. He said he talked to a lawyer and an agent who told him to take legal action, but he decided to move on.
(redacted) said he and (redacted) had no relationship before he was fired. (redacted), like others still at The Score, isn’t sure (redacted) really listened to any of the shows even after he started his job.
If he did, he might’ve realized that (redacted) is not only talented, but is a necessary voice in Chicago. No one is entitled to a job, but a station should represent its audience.
(redacted) was the only full-time daytime host in the city who is black. (redacted) is one of the rotating co-hosts on (redacted)’s mid-day show on ESPN 1000. (redacted), who hosts at night both locally and nationally for ESPN Radio, is a regular fill-in at the station. (redacted), who had a daytime show in the past, has his popular nighttime show. Former football player (redacted) is doing fill-in work at The Score and other ex-jocks show up from time to time.
With three shows apiece on the two stations, there are only a dozen or so daytime spots available in the third-largest market in the country. Diversity is sorely lacking.
“I felt like I was finally the one, especially with timing, because Jiggs ((redacted), the former Score host) and (redacted) (former host) and (redacted) and (redacted), those are the guys who came before me,” (redacted) said. “But I was the first hip-hop baby. I was the first baby who was like, ‘Yo, this is what it is. This is how I feel about things, this is the shit I don’t align myself with.’ I feel like a lot of people are cause hustlers who just jump on some shit for the moment. I’ve never been that dude. I’m quick to call out bullshit, I don’t care if you’re black or white. If you rock with me, you rock with me. If you don’t, I don’t need it. I feel like I had finally gotten to the point where I proved so many people right who believed in me and proven so many people wrong who didn’t believe in me, it was time for me to be myself.”
In the summer of 2016, when he still hosted with (redacted), (redacted) got emotional on-air talking about police shootings. When issues that affected black people came up, he could speak on them with authority.
“I still have text messages from my bosses while that stuff was going on,” he said. “‘We were really appreciative of having your voice on our station,’ because let’s face it, this is the first generation of kids who get to tell their story without repercussions. You had a lot of older black journalists and men and women who were always worried about what would happen, employment-wise, if you told the story. For us, our story has always been told by other people and a few who can get held up in that light, like ‘You can be the one who speaks for us.’ I never was the person who thought like that.”
While (redacted) was unafraid to tell his story, the idea that (redacted) didn’t talk sports enough is a silly misconception. As (redacted) said, he grew up in the industry listening to (redacted) and (redacted) talk about their experiences and how it molded their views on sports. He didn’t want a job talking race or social issues. He wanted to talk about the Bulls and the Bears, the Cubs and the White Sox.
But who was representing the black experience in Chicago on air before the sun went down?
“If you feel all I did is talk about race then probably most of your life you’ve never had that conversation with an African-American or person of color,” he said. “You’ve never given a fuck about race and you had to hear about it from me. So, that’s the other thing too. I don’t want to be anybody’s fucking martyr. That’s the wackest shit in the world to me. ‘Now, people can talk about it.’ I feel like the opposite will happen. You’ll see what went down with me and say, ‘Oh shit, I can’t be myself.’ And then you’re going to get the same thoughts you’ve always had.”
(redacted), as you can tell, isn’t shy about his talent.
“It took me awhile to stop being…there’s self-deprecating and there’s false humility,” he said. “I’d rather have true arrogance than false humility any day of week. Because that phony shit, people can see through.
“I’ll put my time up against anybody in the city. When (redacted) on his way out in 2012, he said I was going to be the best host in the city by 2017. He wasn’t wrong. I was as dynamic as any host in this city because there’s a factor of vulnerability and professionalism and respect that I would bring to any microphone I was on.”
(redacted) said he recently had an offer for a full-time gig outside of Chicago, but he passed it up. He didn’t want to get caught up in a similar situation where he swoops in to take someone’s job. He didn’t want to be at the mercy of a new boss in 18 months or two years.
So he’s content to practice his craft and make some money on Sirius (where he hosted during and after his Atlanta stint) and ESPN. Could he start appearing on ESPN 1000 now? It’s possible, but he’s mindful of the people currently working there trying to get their hours as fill-in hosts.
Could he return to The Score one day? It’s possible. This is (redacted)’s third go-round at the station he helped build.
The state of The Score is something that is talked about in media circles. If (redacted) is still around, would he try to lure (redacted) there when his ESPN deal comes up in 2019? How safe is (redacted)? Ratings won’t move too much, and most sports fans will either stay loyal to their shows or continue to toggle back and forth between the stations based on conversations.
“There’s a lot of people there who want to tell me how things are different or how it’s not as fun or these other things,” (redacted) said. “I can’t do shit about that. All know is I came there every day, prepared like none other, had content. None of the meetings we had were about me. These are the kind of things I remember and these are the things I’m comfortable with, finally, and how it went down. Because I know in the end there’s nothing I could have done.”
Whether or not you liked him, you have to admit (redacted) can host a radio show. He is opinionated, informed and funny, live and local. He gets the technical aspects of the business, having come up as a producer, and he knows how to tap into emotions. He liked bantering with callers and interrogating guests.
“I’ve never been afraid of this business,” he said. “I’ve always loved this business. Too many times you learn that you can continue to love it, but there’s going to be some times where this business doesn’t love you back.”
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