Guest Post: Radio veteran ranks five greatest sports radio talk shows

If it’s related to sports and goes out over the radio airwaves, Jimmy Shapiro of Sports Radio Interviews is all over that puppy. In just two years, he’s gained the reputation as an iron man of sports blogging, combing sports radio for great nuggets of wisdom, humor and foolishness that would likely otherwise be missed. In today’s guest column, Shapiro runs down the five greatest sports radio programs, and rates the four major sports in terms of media-friendliness. Let’s go, we’re on the air.
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By Jimmy Shapiro
I launched the website Sports Radio Interviews right before the 2009 Super Bowl. I’ve always felt like sports radio was an under-appreciated medium, especially in terms of interviews. For years, newsworthy and controversial statements were made on a daily basis on sports radio, and those statements usually died right then and there. I’ve tried to change that with Sports Radio Interviews. Who is more likely to get better quotes from Steve Nash: five nerdy beat writers (OK, they’re not all nerdy) with bad breath hovering around him at his locker while he’s half naked, or a radio host who will generally have more time to speak to him in a more relaxed setting? Hence, Sports Radio Interviews was hatched.
I could do a 20,000-word column on all my thoughts and little theories on sports radio, but I have a doubleheader in flag football tonight and I need my hands to be as soft as possible (think Wayne Chrebet without the six pack, concussions, and groupies). Plus, no one would read it anyway. So I figured I’d take the cheap and easy route and write a few sports radio-related lists for you.
Top Five Hosts/Shows at Interviewing Athletes/Celebrities:

While this is just one man’s opinion, consider it a very informed one. I promise you, no one listens to more sports radio interviews in a week, month, or year than I do. Plus, I bring athletes and other guests by Super Bowl Radio Row and get to listen to many of these interviews in person. I grew up listening to Howard Stern and envying his interviewing techniques. Not the fact that he brought every interview to the lowest common denominator, but the fact that he could disarm his guests and get them to open up more than any other interviewer could.
I’ve really wanted to do this list for a long time, but honestly didn’t have the guts. I was too worried about ruffling many of my peers’ feathers and hurting feelings. But hell, I’m almost 40 and I need to stop caring about what everyone thinks of me!
While coming up with a top five is not easy, eliminating the majority of hosts was. There are so many guests (take Tim Donaghy for example) that do media tours and can be on 10-15 stations in a day. I’ll listen to these interviews and 12 will sound exactly alike. Same boring questions, nothing hard-hitting, the hosts kiss the guest’s butt, and often the hosts talk too much when they should be letting their guests speak. I understand that each market only hears Tim Donaghy once so it’s unique to them, but I’m always looking for questions and angles that really make you interested in the answer. Plus too many hosts miss obvious follow-up questions.
I also look for hosts who get their guests engaged early in the interview. So many of these athletes/celebrities do cookie-cutter interviews that they’re excited when a host comes up with different questions or has the ability to make them laugh. While athletes/celebrities have a different existence than most people, they still watch TV like us; they still have families like us; and they still like to laugh like us. Laughter is always the best anecdote to a good guest. Unless of course you try too hard and just aren’t funny.
OK, enough intro, here’s the list:
* 1. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz on 790 the Ticket in Miami: While many writers either had jealousy towards radio hosts or tried to make the transition but just didn’t get it, Dan Le Batard (pictured) has made the transition seamlessly. More than any host I’ve listened to, Le Batard and crew just seem like they’re having fun. Whether it’s speaking to Charles Barkley, getting hung up on by Joan Rivers, or playing their favorite game “douche or no douche” with Chipper Jones, their interviews are a must-listen. And with Le Batard’s journalism background, he can ask the tough questions when need be.
* 2. Boomer and Carton (Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton) on WFAN in New York City: No host routinely makes me laugh out loud as much as Craig Carton. He’s outrageous, has no inner voice stopping him from saying inappropriate things, and yet manages to stay likable. You would think the pairing of him and Boomer wouldn’t work, but it does. Unlike many former players who try to make the transition to radio and television, Boomer isn’t afraid to voice his opinion and fight back with Carton. I know its NYC and the biggest market in the country, but I just love how many random celebrities call the show to become a part of the conversation. Most celebrities want to be athletes and most athletes want to be celebrities so it’s great to hear their rapport and random calls they get from the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Ludacris, or even Ralph Macchio.
* 3. The Dan Patrick Show: While it’s very possible that less people are hearing The Dan Patrick Show now than when he was on ESPN Radio, it doesn’t mean the quality of the show is any less. In fact, the show is significantly better now. ESPN is great, the WWL, the center of the sports universe; they even link to many of my blog posts from Sports Radio Interviews, blah, blah, blah. But there are restrictions for any ESPN Radio host. It truly sounds like a huge weight was lifted off DP’s shoulders when he left ESPN Radio, and it comes through on the airwaves. I’m sure he gets 95 percent of the guests he wants and they all know who he is. His interview style is friendly but persistent and he’s a tremendous listener (which is a lost art in radio). I’m sure his background and reputation have much to do with it, but he’s often able to get more out of guests than any other host.
* 4. The Scott and BR Show (Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray Smith) on XX Sports Radio in SD: Similar to Boomer and Carton, this show consists of an East Coast Jewish guy (a rarity in sports radio) in Scott Kaplan and a former athlete in Billy Ray Smith. When putting together this list, I surprised myself by including two former athletes, as I tend not to enjoy shows with former athletes as hosts or co-hosts. It takes a strong lead with a huge personality like Carton and Kaplan to pull this off. Kaplan gets so entrenched in his interviews. I’ve seen it up close and personal during Super Bowl week on Radio Row. He seems so fascinated with what these athletes/celebrities have to say that you can’t help but be interested too. Surprisingly, I actually find Billy Ray the one who asks the funnier questions.
* 5. Soren Petro on WHB in Kansas City: Soren tugs at the part of me that likes James Lipton on Inside the Actor’s Studio and the good old days of Roy Firestone. He doesn’t know what a short interview is, which often pisses off the people setting up the interviews, but he doesn’t seem to care. He has his questions he wants to ask and he won’t quit till they’re answered. Add that into the follow-up questions he asks and I’m sure many people in Kansas City are stuck in their cars waiting until Soren’s interview ends before they turn off the ignition.
These shows just missed the cut (in no particular order): Mayhem in the AM on 790 the Zone in Atlanta; Mitch in the Morning on KJR in Seattle; The Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio NY; Mason & Ireland on ESPN Radio Los Angeles; Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin on ESPN 980 in DC; Primetime with the Packman on WFNZ in Charlotte; Howard Eskin on WIP in Philly; Mike Missanelli on 97.5 the Fanatic in Philly.
Here’s my other list:
Favorite Athletes to deal with when I was booking sports radio interviews (of the four majors).
When I was still working at sports radio stations, the questions I was most typically asked by people from outside my field were about the locker room and clubhouse. I wish I had typed this up then and printed it out so I didn’t have to answer it anymore. The other questions about the locker room and clubhouses I was always asked was about the, shall we call it “maleness” of the athletes. It’s a tangled web in there you weave. You don’t want to get caught staring in awe of Manute Bol (not that I did as an intern for the Sixers in 1992, just using him as an example), but sometimes when you’re 5-foot-6 and an athlete is 6-foot-10, it’s tough to look at anything else.
* 1. Hockey players: By far the nicest athletes to deal with; guys you would totally want to sit down and have a beer with. They seemingly play their sport for the love of the game more than any other athletes. Women absolutely love hockey players. And I’m talking about regular women, not groupies. That said, going into their locker rooms was dangerous. There truly is not a smellier place in the world than a hockey locker room. I have no doubt any media member can vouch for this.
* 2. Football players: They have a regimented schedule so it’s much easier to find times to book interviews. They don’t sleep all morning, otherwise eliminating possibilities of getting them on the morning show (which for my money, is the most important show on any station and why any top 20 market should have a live and local show in the morning; bigger topic for another column). There are only 16 regular-season games and the players get that each game is an event. Plus more than any other sport, football players like to talk.
* 3. Basketball players: While the players aren’t the most difficult to deal with, setting up basketball interviews can be very challenging. There are only 12-15 players per team. They’re traveling all the time and getting into cities at weird hours. They have crazy nap schedules. Of all the major sports, I’m guessing that fewer basketball players listen to sports radio than any other athletes (that’s a topic for another column, as many players lie when they say they don’t listen to sports radio). Then there is the issue of how many players on a team would you truly want to speak to? Think about the Celtics; maybe eight guys on the team would be interesting to speak to. Now go to a team like the Timberwolves; maybe three or four? Plus, the top guys like LeBron, Carmelo, Kobe, etc. rarely if ever do interviews.
* 4. Baseball players: If I could go lower than fourth, I would. I dreaded going into baseball clubhouses. I would rather sit through a double feature of Steel Magnolias and Fried Green Tomatoes than ever go into an MLB clubhouse again. I would walk into the Mariners clubhouse and honestly feel like I had SARS. The players would constantly give you dirty looks and make you feel unwelcome. It was that way covering the Diamondbacks as well. Granted, not every player is like that, as there were gems like Luis Gonzalez, Curt Schilling, and Jamie Moyer. But the vast majority of baseball players were just jerks. I think one of the reasons they’re so rough around the edges with the press is that unlike football and basketball, these players didn’t have the daily experiences with the press in college that major football and hoops programs did. Another reason is they play so many games and the season is a grind.
While there are many days I miss being directly involved with sports radio, I don’t miss going into locker rooms.
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Jimmy Shapiro, a former sports radio host, program director and executive producer, is the editor/founder of SportsRadioInterviews.com. You can contact him at sportsradiointerviews@gmail.com.