Looks like there will finally be a movie about talk radio that isn’t that old Saturday Night Live sketch-gone-movie The Ladies Man. Director, producer and actor Ed Burns has come out with a piece entitled Nice Guy Johnny, about a struggling talk radio host who has to battle his fiancee’s wishes that he give up his dream job to find a better paying job to support their family. The movie, which has almost exclusively used the internet to build hype for its release, like an indie band would do to conserve advertising dollars and gain the eyes of the younger audience, piques my interest as a young journalism student vying to make it in one of the tougher professions that’s in quick decline.
Burns sat down with WSCR sports radio in Chicago to discuss his creation.
“The idea was originally that I wanted to tell a story about a kid that is being asked to give up his dream in order to pursue a more financially responsible career path, which is something that I can relate to when I was starting off making Brothers McMullen. My parents at certain times were like, are you sure you want to do this? ‘What about Cops, you get benefits?’ I have a good buddy of mine who is a sports radio junkie, he just couldn’t believe that was a real job that you could go on the radio, talk sports all day, and somebody would pay you. And I thought that’s the job that this kid should have to give up because if you’re a sports nut, who wouldn’t love that gig?
His fiancee says you’re not making enough money, I want you to go back to New York and take a job with a company that his father is going to set him up with. He comes to New York for the interview, but makes a great mistake by coming into a bar that his uncle owns, who is played by me. I hear that he’s 24 and married and that’s mistake number one. Mistake number two is he’s going to give up a sports radio talk show gig which I also think is the greatest job you can have. I decide I’m gonna spend the weekend and try to derail him. That’s what happens. We head out to the Hamptons and I try to introduce him to some ladies.”
Though I haven’t been an avid sports talk radio listener for awhile because I discovered and learned how to download the genius of Neil Young onto my iTunes, much of my youth was spent huddled in my bed listening to Philadelphia’s 610 WIP, as Glen Macnow, my hero growing up, spouted off about Philadelphia’s sporting scene for hours on end. I was transfixed as I learned all about or why Dallas Cowboys fans living in Philadelphia were ‘no good numbskull dimwit cock-a-roaches’ (thanks Howard Eskin). In fact, much of the dreaming in my youth revolved around someday becoming one of those talk boxes who complained about Donovan McNabb’s accuracy or Andy Reid’s inability to properly put together a competent two-minute drill, or figure out a good situation to call a timeout that can’t be described with the word “wasted.”
The dream to sit in front of a microphone and talk for hours about what I loved most in all of the world was an enticing one, and unfortunately for the industry I don’t know any young folks who take time out of their lives to go out of the way and flip on the old AM radio. Any time I hear the familiar yelpings of Angelo Cataldi and his morning crew it’s because I’m in the company of someone older who has grown up, and continues listening to sports talk radio. Young people get their opinions and news from the Twitter world, PTI and the blog world. If we can’t figure out a way to get the new generation’s ears to focus back on the radio, who knows how real Burns’ movie may get for a lot of talk show hosts around the country.
And though I don’t listen much anymore, the idea that I someday may not be able to flip on a radio and hear the comforting nasal of Glen Macnow blabbing on about the greatest hoagie sandwiches in Philadelphia is a scary one.
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Ed Burns’ Latest Movie Is About A Sports Talk Radio Host [Sports Radio Interviews]
