For some strange reason, last March I decided to try something new during my 30-minute commute home from Kenosha to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Instead of listening to the same music, I gave a random ESPN sports podcast a play. Why not? I could just turn it off if I didn’t like it. So I scrolled down my iPhone and picked The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz.
I knew a decent amount about Le Batard and nothing about Stugotz. I knew that Le Batard was a highly respected journalist that also co-hosts a show with his father and Bomani Jones. That was pretty much it. Hitting play that night turned out to be one of the best decisions I made in 2015, and quite possibly, ever. When I first started college in 2011 (I just graduated, so dang I’m getting old), the first place I interned at was a radio station in Milwaukee (ESPN 540). I understood the gist of radio programming and how radio stations operate, but I grew tired of listening to the same repetitive banter every single day about the same stuff everybody else was talking about. I wondered if somebody out there was doing anything different. It drove me away from wanting to pursue something in radio and made me focus on television and online media. And since then, that’s what I’ve done. I’ve hated traditional sports radio ever since. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz is actually everything that I look for in a sports radio show. And I mean everything. It has nothing to do with sports. It's not the hard-hitting, analysis-driven, hot take-filled style of radio programming that’s served on the majority of markets across our country. It has sarcasm and dry humor that only certain people understand. They just had Tom Izzo play Christmas carols with his accordion instead of asking him about college basketball. It’s the comedy I get out of sports that I can't get (most of the time) when I’m covering a game or sitting in a newsroom. Maybe it was fate that led me to playing their podcast that evening. I really don’t know why I did it, but doing so turned out to be the best gift I could’ve received this year. Thank you Dan and Stu for being the show I've searched for like the Holy Grail. I get it.
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Behind the BroadcasterThis blog displays topics that interest me -- including culture, entertainment, music, and life experiences.
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