power trip morning show text line

BSM Writers

Success at kfan warrants greater national attention for the power trip morning show.

“I’ll never take it for granted. I wake up at four o’clock every morning going, this is the greatest job of all time and I’m lucky to be doing it.”

Share this:

It has to be funny. This is the winning philosophy of the Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN FM 100.3 in Minneapolis. With double-digit ratings in their back pocket, you can’t argue with the approach. Their success speaks for itself.

There are three main hosts — Chris Hawkey, Cory Cove, and Meatsauce [Paul Lambert] — as well as a rotation of about 15 people that join the show every week. Cory describes the show as having a “big kind of Howard Stern feel with nonsense and stupidity and really bad improv and crap like that.” If you have any sense of humor at all, it’s impossible not to laugh along with these guys.

For well over a decade, Cory, Hawk, and Sauce have prepped separately before shows. This way the jokes are fresh and the reactions are genuine. They refuse to pretend something is funny. Hawkey says, “If you’re hearing something for the second time, you’re pretending that it was as funny as it was the first time. I think these two guys are hilarious. When I laugh at them, it’s a genuine laugh. I think that’s important.”

These guys are all funny and smart. Sure, they tell sophomoric jokes, but at the same time, they’re also thinking about maintaining profitability. They’re a work-hard, play-hard bunch. They’ve found ways to avoid the fun stuff getting in the way of the serious stuff and vice versa. Like I said, funny and smart. Enjoy!

Brian Noe: How long have you guys known each other?

Hawkey: We all met through the show. Cory became an intern at the radio station. Purely by luck when it came to me because he didn’t want to be a part of the Power Trip Morning Show .

In fact, I believe Cory you’ve said a bunch of times, you were never awake to hear the show and you wanted to be a part of the PA and Dubay Show , which was everybody’s favorite show at the time. That opportunity was no longer available, so they offered you the Power Trip Morning Show and you were like, I guess I’ll give that a try.

Cove: That’s true. The show started 22 years ago and I missed the first like four months. And Chris is right, I was a college kid at the time, so I had never been up that early to hear it. I didn’t even know the show that I was starting to intern for. I had no idea who Chris Hawkey was, or at the time Mike Morris was when the show started.

That was kind of feet to the fire and I met them the first day I interned. Now 22 years later, Chris and I have been here the whole time and Sauce joined, I don’t know what it was, six or seven years after that. The three of us have been together for 15+ years, give or take.

Hawkey: It’s interesting too because Sauce came on board, and he had been a board op at a couple of different radio stations. I remember meeting you during Vikings broadcasts because you would come in and hang out and help anyway you could, and basically you’d go out and get the pizza. That’s how you got to the nickname Meatsauce, right?

Meatsauce: Yeah, my whole gig was to get food during the Vikings games. And my whole bit was like, if I can’t bring them food like a normal person, if I screw that up, why would they want me around the radio station? And yeah, that’s how I got the nickname Meatsauce. I think that was ‘06 or ‘07. So yeah, I’ve had that nickname for almost 18 years.

Noe: Wow, man. Some people wouldn’t roll with a nickname like that. Why did you choose to just roll with it?

Meatsauce: Oh, I don’t know, I think it’s kind of endearing. I love the nickname. Cory has gone away from the one he had when he first started. I just love it. I don’t know, man, I just like the way it sounds. A lot of people call me that who I’ve known for like 30 years. My dad calls me that, which is weird.

I just love the nickname. I think the nickname has helped immensely. It’s a morning show nickname. It’s an idiot’s nickname. It’s a frat guy’s nickname that’ll smash beers with his head and has been there for 10 years but has nowhere else to go kind of a nickname.

Noe: [Laughs] What’s one of your favorite bits from over the years that you thought was hilarious?

Meatsauce: One of my favorites, and it’s not really like a bit, bit, but I mostly am there to get Chris Hawkey to hick laugh like he did when he was a kid. We had a moment recently where I just almost pissed my pants. He made a Crackhead Bob reference from the Howard Stern Show , and I nearly fell out of my chair laughing about it. It’s stuff like that.

We joke all the time like it’s radio for five people, where there’s sometimes too many inside jokes. But every once in a while, there’ll be one that’ll just catch me right between the eyes. I think when the show is the funniest is when we’re all laughing together at something. That’s when I think it’s the most fun. These guys literally make me laugh like every 10 minutes.

Cove: It’s kind of what I said earlier about just bad improv. That’s what we pride ourselves on doing. We’ve joked over the years that 90% of our show is waiting for one of us to f–k up so the other two can bury that person for making a mistake. It’s like, if somebody says something ridiculous or wrong or stupid, it’s how many jokes can we make off of that one screw-up that can fill up the next three-and-a-half hours.

That’s how we win more so than arguing about who the Vikings quarterback should be, or some Dallas Cowboys reference. It’s let’s see if we can make the four or five or six people in the room laugh and hopefully, there are tens of thousands of people in the Twin Cities that are laughing too. That’s kind of the goal.

Hawkey: I always tell people that my job is to try to make my friends laugh every morning. We’ve mentioned it a lot lately, we talk about radio for five people because there’s so many inside jokes. But I think the underappreciated part of that is the fifth person is the listening audience. Most of them have been listening for so long that they get our inside jokes. And if they don’t, my gosh, I’ll tell you, the emails and the tweets and all that, it goes crazy. People want to know what the inside joke is.

We could go on and on about the radio improv. I think that is the key. We always also talk to each other about how we finish a segment. Something hilarious has just happened, but we have to do the next segment. We can’t sit around and say, wow, that was really great. I’ve already moved on to what we’re going to do next. I know the other guys have as well.

I feel like that’s one of the things that I have failed at in our careers is keeping tabs on the really, really good things because you always have to be thinking about what’s next. That’s also kind of what improv is all about, moving on to what you think is going to work next or what happens by chance next. I love that aspect of it.

Noe: Your ratings are unbelievable . Do you feel any pressure to maintain the level that you guys have reached?

Meatsauce: Before I started, and Cory brought it up, about the Tom Barnard thing where he was crushing this market. And what did they tell you guys? They’d be happy with a three-share? So there is pressure to it because this magical carpet that we get to ride for three-and-a-half hours a day is wonderful. The pressure for that not to end is daily. The pressure of everything else that goes with the high ratings is always there.

I seek it out every week. It’s not something we ignore. It’s something that I look forward to good or bad every week. And it’s something that we’ve all earned. Mostly those two, but we’ve all earned those ratings over the years. We’ve worked really hard at it to get to that point. So the pressure once you get there, you can’t just go, well, that was great, and then just pull off the gas. I think you always have to keep your foot on the gas.

Hawkey: Yeah, the answer for me is twofold. I try not to worry about that too much because there’s two schools of thought. If something’s working and the ratings are huge, then keep doing what you’re doing. But that leads to staleness and never trying anything and never changing anything. I would rather operate as if the ratings are great, and we just need to continue to strive.

Our bosses, specifically Chad Abbott, has been wonderful from the very beginning about not putting that kind of pressure on us. I can remember sitting in [Gregg] Swedberg’s office when he said, if you guys ever get a three share to start, we’ll be really happy. We passed that pretty quickly. I feel really good about that. The only time I ever worry too much about ratings is when I’m told I have to. And those are the worst times for me.

Here’s the bottom line, I’m going to try to do the best radio show I can do every day whether we have a 50 share or a three share. Honestly, I am. I don’t see myself working any harder when the ratings are down than I do when the ratings are up. The good thing about knowing the ratings, especially when they start to falter, is that it does remind you from time to time, hey, you know what?

Maybe it is time to shake things up, maybe you need to kick in the afterburners a little bit, or maybe you’ve gotten complacent. So I do pay attention. I do care. I hope we’re number one every show for the rest of our lives, but I try not to let that be my overall factor in whether or not I do a good radio show. I want to succeed because I love to succeed with these guys.

Noe: With double-digit ratings, you guys are on the same level as The Sports Hub, The Ticket. I hear about them all the time. What’s it like when you don’t get that same attention?

Cove: Yeah, it’s frustrating. We had an After Party podcast a couple of years ago. Not just our normal podcast numbers, which are also insane. Our Power Trip repurposed podcast is one of the biggest iHeart podcasts in the country on any medium. Our numbers are crazy. But we did an After Party podcast; it was 40 minutes of just basically our show but on steroids. Same kind of stuff. We would just wing it, swearing, it was much dirtier.

We were getting like a million downloads a month. We were getting crazy numbers. Then we were told by a couple of people in the podcast world that we were too big for our market, but we weren’t well enough known for the country. That we were kind of stuck in no man’s land, that our numbers were too big for our market and they didn’t know how to sell us. National advertisers were like, we’ve never heard of these guys. Local advertisers were like, we can’t afford those guys.

So our podcast, honestly over the last three years, faded away. We just quit it six months ago because we couldn’t get anybody to pay for what it was worth, so we just said eff it then. We’re not wasting our time chasing this imaginary goal. That’s a long-winded way of saying it’s been frustrating to be in flyover country putting up numbers that are national level and not getting more recognition.

The pressure that frustrates me the most is the pressure to maintain profitability. I know how big our fan base is, and I know how big our reach is. But as you know, how flawed the ratings systems are currently, and as we’re slowly fading away from that and getting more towards downloads, more trackable numbers, I feel the pressure more as an industry to maintain profitability.

It sucks because we’ve been a living, breathing case over the last three years. We gave the world a profitable product and couldn’t find a way to profit off of it correctly. And I’m not trying to throw a sales staff under the bus; I think it’s more of an industry issue. It’s how do you have monster numbers and find a way to keep profiting off of them when advertising is changing?

Meatsauce: It’s the whole station. The station as a whole is a huge deal. We had a comedian on the other day, Paul Mecurio, who writes for Colbert. He was like, do you know how many stations I go to where it’s like, oh, so and so quit, or so and so got fired? I’ve been there since ’06, Cory has been there since ’02.

Hawk’s been there longer, and so on and so forth. This is a monster of a radio station and there’s so much more they could have done with all of it. But I don’t come home and be like, well, you know, I wish we were talked about like that Boston station. But I think the station as a whole and the morning show, yeah, there’s parts of me where it’s like, man, this could have been like a syndicated situation. You never know, but it’s probably long forgotten.

Cove: It’s flyover country, man. I think you nailed it, Brian. This station and this show is never going to get the credit we deserve and that’s fine because we crush in this market. I think all of us are pretty comfortable living with that. We don’t need Marconi’s or national attention. It would just be nice if we could get some advertising dollars on a national level. But in terms of recognition, I don’t think any of the shows on this station truly care.

Noe: What are your goals? What would you like to accomplish, or if you were able to choose something within reason, what would you choose to accomplish?

Cove: I would just say sustainability, honestly. I think the show still has another 10 or 15 years in it. I think as we truly transition to digital, where everybody’s going to be either streaming or podcasting every show, local radio is going to live. People are still going to flip on their cars and still check us out live. I just hope we can continue to hold people for the next 10 or 15 years. After that, I don’t really care.

I’m not at this point, to Sauce’s point, trying to get it to go national. I think we’ve all moved on from the giant podcast dream because that just pissed us off for three years and it wasn’t worth all the stress. When we were absolutely crushing and not getting any advertising dollars out of it. [Laughs] It was just super frustrating. So honestly, I don’t necessarily have a long-term goal outside of just expanding this window as far as possible. I do think we have at least another decade to go but we’ll see.

Meatsauce: I would love to do this for 15 more years. I think that could be great. When I was six years old, this is all I ever wanted to do. I grew up listening to Tom Barnard. I grew up in that era of radio where it was funny, radio was entertainment, morning shows are there when we started this as a distraction. You get a lot of people who work really shitty jobs that they don’t like, and I like being a part of that.

I wanted to do this and I’ve accomplished that. I would like to continue doing what we’re doing in a world where people love it. As long as people like and continue to listen and support what we’re doing, that’s good enough for me, man. Eventually, when Cory and Hawkey move on, I don’t know if they would keep me around or what they would do with me.

Cove: [Laughs]

Meatsauce: But I think 15 years from now, when I’m probably working at a gas station, I’ll just look back on this and be like, that was the best time of my life, man. That’s what I wanted to do as a kid. I got to do that. I cherish every moment of this. I’ll never take it for granted. I wake up at four o’clock every morning going, this is the greatest job of all time and I’m lucky to be doing it.

Brian Noe is a columnist for BSM and an on-air host heard nationwide on FOX Sports Radio’s  Countdown To Kickoff . Previous roles include stops in Portland, OR, Albany, NY and Fresno, CA. You can follow him on Twitter @TheNoeShow or email him at  [email protected] .

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

How to Sell Sports Radio Recruitment Campaigns to 3 Hot Categories

FOX Changed the NFL, and Sports TV as a Whole, 30 Years Ago

You may like

Mike Greenberg: Getting Reads In is ‘The Most Important Part of the Job’

Rob Parker Announces New Launch Date for ‘Sports Rap Radio’ in Detroit

Bill Belichick to Appear in All ‘ManningCast’ Alternate Presentations Next Season

Bob Wischusen is Aiming for the Very Top of Sports Play-by-Play

“I’m sure there are lawyers out there that burn the midnight oil getting ready for a case that don’t want to hear my sob story about having multiple depth charts to study each week.”

On the fourth play of the New York Jets’ regular-season campaign, star quarterback Aaron Rodgers fell down with an apparent injury. Fans within a sold-out MetLife Stadium waited with bated breath about the verdict as the 39-year-old veteran received medical attention on the sidelines. Bob Wischusen, who has been working as the Jets radio play-by-play announcer since 2002, did not jump to conclusions about what had occurred and continued calling the game while remaining attentive to the developing storyline.

In the year prior, quarterback Zach Wilson had suffered an injury during a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles that several social media users deemed a torn ACL. It turned out to be a sprained MCL that caused him to miss the first three games, a lesson in not assuming conjecture or speculation to be incontrovertibly true.

“Even people that are so-called experts on social media, they make mistakes, so I didn’t say anything about what we thought the extent of the injury was beyond what we were being told,” Wischusen explained. “I kept my fingers crossed that maybe it wasn’t as bad as people were thinking. Unfortunately, in Aaron Rodgers’ case, it turned out to be the worst-case scenario and that was it.”

As the Jets enter the 2024 season, the team and its fans hope to have Rodgers healthy for a full season and return to the playoffs. For Wischusen though, it will represent an alteration on the airwaves since the Jets agreed to an exclusive, multiyear radio and streaming partnership with iHeartMedia that has made Q104.3, New York’s Classic Rock Station, the flagship radio home of the team.

There is excitement surrounding the endeavor and the possibilities it will bring, but Wischusen also feels somewhat doleful in that games will no longer be on ESPN New York. The Good Karma Brands-owned radio station will no longer be on the FM dial, forsaking its lease of the 98.7 FM signal from Emmis Communications. ESPN New York will continue to be distributed digitally while retaining a presence on 1050 AM.

“I understand from a business standpoint that if the company that buys the radio station decides they want to do away with the signal that basically everyone can clearly hear, well I get why the Jets needed to go in a different direction and be on a radio station that has a signal that they feel kind of clearly reaches their fanbase,” Wischusen said, “so it’ll be different.”

Welcome to @Q1043 and @iHeartRadio to our Jets family… And for all the Jets fans that have been so kind to be worried…Marty and I will still be calling the games…and that you’re all even concerned about that means a lot to us https://t.co/zatAQcUSST — Bob Wischusen (@espnbob) February 28, 2024

Having worked with several hosts at ESPN New York over the years, along with appearing on sports programming and being a loyal listener, the change was an unfortunate occurrence for Wischusen. Nonetheless, he will continue to find the station while remaining curious of the new means of distribution.

“From everything I’ve been told from Jets management, the folks with iHeart and with 104.3 have been awesome so far and are really excited to have us be a part of what they do now,” Wischusen said. “So, I’m looking forward to meeting them because anybody that’s that excited to have us be a part of what they do, it creates enthusiasm for us as well, but there’s certainly a part of me that’s really sad to see the relationship with 98.7 end because [there are] a lot of great people there.”

Landing the coveted local broadcasting job with the Jets was a challenge in and of itself in which Wischusen ultimately reigned victorious. Former Jets executives Bob Parente and Terry Bradway advocated for Wischusen to procure the role ahead of the 2002 season, and he eventually ended up securing the position.

From his inaugural season to the present day, Wischusen has paired with former defensive lineman and color commentator Marty Lyons on the broadcasts. Through their work on the radio, they have developed palpable chemistry and friendship on the airwaves that appeals to listeners.

“We’ll be friends long after we’re no longer calling Jets games together, and that’s the best part of all the fun we’ve had in the booth calling the games and even through the tough years – and there have been plenty of those obviously – we’ve never stopped having fun showing up every week, laughing with the group that we work with and working together,” Wischusen articulated. “So, it says everything that you need to know about him as a person that he’s just that kind of guy. If you don’t like Marty, you’re the problem because everybody likes Marty.”

Outside of Dan Graca assuming responsibility hosting the pregame and postgame show, most of the staff for Jets radio broadcasts has remained the same. There is a cohesiveness and congeniality existent within the broadcasting entity with a widespread commitment to accurately cover the game.

“Since all the NFL is network television, there is no identifiability with a specific voice because it changes potentially every week, so we’re the constant for Jets fans,” Wischusen said, “and we’re really honored that some try to sync the radio broadcast up with the TV because they know us [and] they’ve been listening to us for a long time.”

WFAN had launched late into his time in high school, and he was initially incredulous that people could get paid to watch and discuss sports. When he was in college, he co-hosted Sports Tonight alongside Jon “Boog” Sciambi, Christian Megliola and Joe Tessitore, discussing Boston College athletics and taking calls from listeners. Wischusen ended up interning at WFAN in New York, N.Y. and WEEI in Boston, Ma. where he gained invaluable experience and knowledge about the business. Through recommendations from connections he forged in those endeavors, he ended up earning a job out of school as a producer for Hank Goldberg on WQAM in Miami, Fla.

“I went down there as a producer originally but of course made no mystery of the fact that I wanted to be on the air,” Wischusen said, “and just by being inside the walls of the place and being, when you’re 21-22 years old, a relatively inexpensive alternative, I was given a chance to get on the air.”

Just about set to go…me and @sportsiren and @DickieV at the Garden… its a sellout for Duke v Texas Tech at 7p on ESPN2… pic.twitter.com/1rMM033pwg — Bob Wischusen (@espnbob) December 20, 2018

Initially starting as an off-the-air radio producer, Wischusen was eventually granted more chances to speak on the airwaves, including filling in on weekends or covering an update shift. As a member of the station who exhibited dedication, resilience and an indefatigable work ethic, management chose to grant him an opportunity.

“Eric Spitz when he was at [W]FAN was [the] one that told me, ‘Internships in our business are like med school for a doctor or law school for a lawyer,’” Wischusen recalled. “They are that important to then becoming someone who’s just inside the walls of a place, getting your first entry-level job and now you’re in it.”

A few years later, Wischusen made it back to New York City and WFAN where he was hired as a reporter and update host. Returning to his home locale, he did not feel pressure to perform and possessed humility and credence that he would be able to thrive. It undoubtedly helped that he was familiar with the sports teams and had interned at the station, granting him a better understanding of what topics would resonate with the listeners.

“There might be other markets where you can get by, but if you’re in New York City and you’re on the air and you say something about one of those teams that turns out to be wrong, you are called out about it by the fans of that team immediately,” Wischusen said. “So, there is, I’m sure, a pressure for some, but I don’t know. I’ve always been relatively confident in my own opinion and the work that I’ve put in to know it, and so I always had a belief that if I was given a chance to get on the air and do it, I would be successful at it.”

Wischusen ended up leaving WFAN in 2001 after he had not been considered for a regular talk show shift amid a changing weekday lineup. Utilizing the experience he had both hosting and calling sports for the Comcast Network, he was hired by MSG Networks and served in a multifaceted role. Wischusen was the host of shows on FOX SportsNet New York, including the Regional Sports Report and Talk of Our Town , along with calling select sporting events. At the same time, he continued to host the Jets pregame and postgame show, a role he had started a few years earlier.

Wischusen realized his dream upon being named the team’s play-by-play announcer and has not looked back since. In fact, he has added more responsibilities and leveraged his versatility to gain additional opportunities in the business. Through it all, he tries to execute his responsibilities and essentially scores a soundtrack for the action without coining distinct phraseology.

Upon joining ESPN in 2005, Wischusen was granted the opportunity to broadcast a wide array of sports as a play-by-play announcer, including college football, baseball and golf. From the onset of his time with the network, he was frequently on the road and assimilated into serving as an announcer on these national broadcasts. During the football season, he balances both collegiate games on television – primarily working alongside Robert Griffin III and Kris Budden – along with his Jets radio responsibilities.

“Nobody wants to hear me complain about my job,” Wischusen said. “I’m sure there are lawyers out there that burn the midnight oil getting ready for a case that don’t want to hear my sob story about having multiple depth charts to study each week. I do what I have to do to be prepared for the games that I have.”

As Wischusen continued to merit additional assignments and multiplatform endeavors at ESPN, something that remained consistent was the fact that the network did not have media rights to the National Hockey League. It was a void that he was not sure would be filled after ESPN did not renew its deal following a league-wide lockout that canceled the 2004-05 NHL season. The potential for a reunion between ESPN and the NHL slowly became more palpable, and Wischusen knew that he would want to be a part of it.

With a keen interest in and knowledge of the sport, Wischusen entered a trailer during a PGA Tour event and met with ESPN executive Mike McQuade, who he discovered would be overseeing coverage if the network was able to close a deal. In a conversation that lasted approximately 20 seconds, he expressed interest in the NHL on ESPN and was informed that he would definitely be a part of it.

“If you know Mike McQuade, that’s a classic Mike McQuade meeting,” Wischusen said. “It’s like, ‘Okay, good meeting, thanks. We bonded; I really enjoyed our time together.’ Mike is allergic to B.S., as zero politics as it gets. He has no interest in who you eat lunch with or playing favorites. He just knows who he wants to have on stuff, and he immediately said, ‘Yeah, I want you to be a part of hockey,’ and that was it – that was really my entire interview process at ESPN.”

Moving back into hockey, however, presented a dichotomy to what Wischusen saw when he was filling in on radio broadcasts of New York Rangers games nearly two decades earlier. The hastened speed of the sport, heightened athleticism and size of the ice surface all resembled contrasts to what he had remembered. It required an adjustment for Wischusen to execute a successful broadcast that affected different stages of the job.

“There was a time where back then if I was a little unsure of a player or wanted to throw a bullet point [or] a stat out, I could look down at my chart, maybe gather some information and then go back to the ice and continue to call the game,” Wischusen said. “You can’t do that now. If you take your eyes off of the ice now, you may never catch back up, and all of a sudden, the puck’s in the net and you missed it.”

A textbook tip from Steven Lorentz on this one! 💪 #StanleyCup 🇺🇸:  @espn  ➡️  https://t.co/Pp9X7OGP3W 🇨🇦:  @Sportsnet  or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️  https://t.co/sEijvXhbA1 pic.twitter.com/2TtxGsWslv — NHL (@NHL) May 9, 2024

The frenetic, expeditious pace of the game on ice renders it essential that the broadcast team keeps up with the action. It requires a shrewd, deft knowledge of the teams, players and personnel, along with the ability to contextualize in real time and demarcate other conversation.

“On a Tuesday night in February, the crowd is on the edge of their seat a lot of times because it’s 2-2 in the third period and just the game is such an exciting product,” Wischusen said. “And now you add obviously the playoffs and the significance of the games that we get to call now, and it’s that times 100.”

Throughout the game, Wischusen will ask his analyst for their thoughts on the broadcast and how to improve. In the high-pressure situations, he leans on his experience and does not overthink it, concentrating on accurately and succinctly documenting the moment. Once the game has concluded, he does not engage in an excess amount of listening or watching replays; rather, he will select a segment from the contest to review his performance.

Contemporaneous to that is carrying respect of the local audience and an ability to convey comprehensive knowledge both discernible and recondite. Wischusen hopes that the assemblage of previous work and sustained excellence leads to a chance to call a seminal event, such as the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup Final.

“I’ve just never been given that opportunity yet, so I hope at some point during my career, a decision maker kind of taps me on the shoulder and says, ‘Now it’s your turn’ and I get that call, and hopefully I’m prepared for it when it happens,” Wischusen said. “I still have career ambition.”

Although Wischusen does not perceive himself to have reached a career zenith, he understands that the business is competitive and based on performance. There have been moments in his career where he has been disappointed not to receive certain assignments but remains optimistic that his time will come. Even if the yearning represents a destination that cannot be reached though, he is grateful for the career he has had and focused on the next game.

“If tomorrow I ended my broadcast career, look at the friends that I’ve made and look at the places I’ve been and the atmospheres I’ve been a part of and the games I’ve had a chance to watch in person and be in the middle of,” Wischusen said. “If my career ended immediately, I still have been incredibly lucky, and I try not to lose sight of that even when you’re aspiring to try to move up the ladder and do bigger and better.”

Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Sports Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on Twitter @derekfutterman.

Radio and Podcast Advertising for Road Trippers

3 out of 4 people listen to the car AM/FM radio each week, and 1/3 of adults listen to podcasts each week.

Summer calls for trips to family reunions, visits to distant kids, baseball games, and amusement park adventures. But it also signals a surge in road trips, making local tire dealerships gear up for travelers needing to ensure their vehicles are road trip ready. With a focus on pre-trip services through local radio and timely discounted maintenance packages or in-house credit via podcast ads, your local tire shop can become the pit stop every Clark Griswold needs. 3 out of 4 people listen to the car AM/FM radio each week, and 1/3 of adults listen to podcasts each week. Here’s how to craft a winning radio and podcast advertising strategy for your local tire shop this summer:

Local Radio Ads: Pre-Trip Services

For tire dealerships already running local radio ads, it’s essential to fine-tune the ad copy to appeal to road trippers. Given the cost-prohibitive nature of airfare for many families, station wagon roadies, ala Griswold, are becoming increasingly common. By offering pre-trip inspection specials, your local tire shop can capture the attention of local commuters and travelers, emphasizing the importance of checking tire pressure, tread wear, and fluid levels. Picture Clark Griswold tuning in to his favorite Chicago sports show, dreaming of attending the 2024 Hall of Fame game with the Bears vs. Texans in Canton, and visiting Cedar Point amusement park. A sweet 800-mile round-tripper – and your tire shop being his first pit stop.

Podcast Ads: Discounted Maintenance Packages

Most local radio stations offer podcast ad opportunities, providing an additional reach to travelers. Whether it’s fresh content or replays of local shows and interviews, podcasts offer a way for travelers to stay connected to their favorite local content while on the road. By leveraging host-read podcast ads, you can target listeners actively planning their return home and the maintenance their vehicles may require. Consider employing a host-read podcast ad to promote bundled maintenance packages, including inspections, tire rotations, fluid checks, and a car wash coupon. Long car trips often unearth unexpected maintenance needs or engine light alerts – making these packages a lifesaver. Or promote in-store credit options for cash poor road trippers. Always try to hire a radio on-air personality endorser for super power ad results.

Reaching Road Trippers at Every Stage

Tire shops effectively engage road trippers by combining local radio and podcast ads at various planning stages. While radio ads capture the attention of local commuters and travelers, stressing the importance of pre-trip inspections and maintenance, podcast ads travel with listeners, offering them discounted maintenance packages or financial relief for unexpected repairs after a vacation. Now that’s a 1-2 punch!

Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at [email protected] or find him on LinkedIn.

Abby Labar is a Quick Hit on MLB Network’s ‘Quick Pitch’

It is by far the best baseball highlight show on television and the newest incarnation with Labar as host is a huge reason.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the newest star at MLB Network. Her name is Abby Labar and in just over a month, she has made the popular highlight show Quick Pitch her very own. This is no small feat given the roster of previous hosts including the talented likes of Siera Santos, Kelly Nash, Keiana Martin, Heidi Watney and others.

Labar has taken her upbeat brand of reporting and humor and totally put her stamp on the production. Labar is new to MLB Network , but not to television. While a student at North Carolina State, she was a bit of a TV sports wunderkind, covering collegiate and professional sports even before she graduated in 2017.

She is a two-time Emmy nominee who has covered the Carolina Hurricanes, ACC football, and worked on various shows on a host of networks. Labar has also experienced the challenges of media fame and is unafraid to share glimpses of her personal life on her social media platforms.

With media ownership changes, personnel shifts, and talent layoffs, there is a revolving door of new faces on network television. Labar is one of these faces, but in this case, it is a welcome change.

Quick Pitch airs each night after MLB games with several reruns into the morning. Its aim is to bring viewers up to date on the complete slate of games with highlights, statistics, news, play by play calls, and player reactions. It is by far the best baseball highlight show on television and the newest incarnation with Labar as host is a huge reason.

Labar does not just present highlights, she performs them. Taking a page from Santos, she goes beyond merely opening the show, introducing the highlights, giving a little commentary, and closing the show. Instead, she has created characters, used props, and presented an overall joyous display of baseball entertainment.

It is obvious that Labar belongs in front of the camera, but she is about far more than fashion and flash. Any host, male or female, can show up to the set, be prepared, look good, and read copy, but this is not Labar’s modus operandi. There is a real exuberance and commitment to everything she does on Quick Pitch , creating a viewing experience for the baseball fan that is inviting, exciting, and delighting.

Beyond the enthusiasm, there is a work ethic to Labar’s efforts. It is always tough when you are the new kid on the block on an established show, but Labar is unshaken by the legacy and hell bent on creating her own.

Let’s keep it real. Quick Pitch is not a host-dependent program. The show quite often opens, goes to break, and returns from break with game highlights. In fact, there are numerous occasions where you don’t see the host for several minutes as one game highlight moves to another.

Moreover, there is an endless chain of graphics, statistics, and sound from the previous day’s games. Still, Labar is making the most of her on-camera minutes and, I believe, garnering more on-screen time because of her sterling performance. As a viewer tuning in, it seems to me that Labar is having a grand old time hosting Quick Pitch .

On recent shows, she has stepped to the plate and took some swings on the MLB Network studio field, offered some dance moves on set, laid down on the studio floor for a highlight intro, did a standup from a makeshift bar, tossed around a basketball, and acted the part of a night club DJ.

She has even tossed good-natured jabs at her fellow MLB network colleagues. Labar recently called out MLB Network anchor Greg Amsinger for being a no-hitter jinx. She showed video of Amsinger spouting that Dodgers’ pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on no-hitter alert before his game vs. the Marlins even started. Miami’s Jazz Chisholm, Jr. proceeded to crush Yamamoto’s first pitch of the game for a home run.

On another recent edition of Quick Pitch , Labar donned glasses and played the role of a teacher calling out members of the Dodgers in class. She repeated pitcher Walker Buehler‘s name several times in the mold of Ben Stein’s memorable teacher role in the film Ferris Bueller‘s Day Off . “Buehler, Buehler, Buehler,” she repeated. It was a funny turn.

Labar recognizes her role as host of Quick Pitch . She does not make many critical comments or bold statements on baseball, but she adeptly presents the highlights and graphics, calling attention to the statistical anomalies and coincidences akin to baseball. She is a host in the utmost sense of the word. Game results might be the reason people are tuning into Quick Pitch , but Labar is the reason they are staying and enjoying the program.

On a recent episode, she was talking about the streaking Minnesota Twins and referenced the 1991 Twins team that won the World Series. In detailing what was going on in 1991, she mentioned that a VCR cost $400. The youthful Labar stopped herself and deadpanned, “Wait, what’s a VCR?”

On the May 4 th edition, Labar wielded a light saber with Star Wars-like music in the background talking about “May the Fourth Be with You” celebrations throughout baseball. Subsequently, she made mention of the Kentucky Derby and closed the show by riding off the set on a makeshift horse.

Listen, a lot of this stuff is a little bit hokey, and I’m sure the producers and Labar work on these comedic routines in production meetings. Still, for the powers-that-be at MLB Network to have the confidence in Labar to deliver the goods says something about her talent. Moreover, for a relative newcomer to be willing to take those chances is refreshing.

With Labar at the helm, Quick Pitch has evolved from a solid baseball highlight show to an unpredictably fun spectacle. The show is still not totally host driven, but all the features, soundbites, graphics, stats, and highlights are enhanced with Labar as the front person.

I was skeptical as to whether Quick Pitch could maintain its quality, especially with the departure of Santos to MLB Network’s Intentional Talk program, but it is alive, well, and quite possibly better than ever. Santos, Lauren Gardner, and other MLB Network talents still fill in on Quick Pitch , but it has squarely become Labar’s show.

There are a lot of really good young sports personalities out there including Drew Scott, Kendra Andrews, Kayla Burton, and many others. With her creativity and fearlessness, Labar is putting herself not only on this list, but perhaps at the top of it. Quick Pitch is definitely an early season winner, and Labar is the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year.

John Molori is a weekly columnist for Barrett Sports Media. He has previously contributed to ESPNW, Patriots Football Weekly, Golf Content Network, Methuen Life Magazine, and wrote a syndicated Media Blitz column in the New England region, which was published by numerous outlets including The Boston Metro, Providence Journal, Lowell Sun, and the Eagle-Tribune. His career also includes fourteen years in television as a News and Sports Reporter, Host, Producer working for Continental Cablevision, MediaOne, and AT&T. He can be reached on Twitter @MoloriMedia.

Upcoming Events

Barrett media writers.

Barrett Media To Expand Content Into Music, Tech, and Podcasting

Matt Spiegel: White Sox Broadcaster John Schriffen ‘Doesn’t Know Baseball’

97.5 The Fanatic Producer Jennifer Scordo, ESPN SWFL PD Tom Calococci Out as Part of Beasley Media Group Layoffs

Embed podcast

The power trip, hr. 1 - chicken, hr. 2 - loss of ball, hr. 3 - initials game 516, hr. 1 - tommy's idea, hr. 2 - bed of roses, hr. 3 - the rosen, hr. 1 - mother, hr. 2 - heskimo brothers, hr. 3 - rosie will not punch a donkey, hr. 1 - &, information.

• Manage My Cookies

Copyright 2024 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company

Looks like you don't have any active episode

Browse Spreaker Catalogue to discover great new content

Looks like you don't have any episodes in your queue

It's so quiet here...

Time to discover new episodes!

Stream Top Podcasts

Popular podcasts.

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.

Death, Sex & Money

Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Featured Podcasts

The Girlfriends: Our Lost Sister

In Season 1, The Girlfriends told the story of how a group of incredible women came together to bring down one bad ex-boyfriend and seek justice for the murder of Gail Katz. But there’s one part of that story that’s still a mystery. During the investigation into Gail’s case, a torso washed up on Staten Island and was misidentified as Gail. Nobody knows her name or what happened to her after she was ruled out from the case. In Season 2, the amateur ladies detective club are back with a new mission: to uncover the identity of this woman and finally find Our Lost Sister. The Girlfriends: Our Lost Sister is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts. For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio

Ear Hustle is prison slang for eavesdropping, and that’s what listening to the show feels like: a raw, often funny, and always surprising peek into the reality of life inside prison. Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods co-created the show that launched in 2017 while Earlonne was incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, where Nigel was a volunteer teaching photography. Since Earlonne’s release in 2018, the show has expanded to include stories from prisons across the state, including the California Institution for Women, as well as stories about getting out of prison and starting over, post-incarceration. From finding romance, to grappling with a life sentence, to trying to parent via 15-minute phone calls, Ear Hustle stories deliver what This American Life host Ira Glass calls a “"very real” and “untragic” take on prison life. Ear Hustle is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent listener-supported podcasts. Discover audio with vision at radiotopia.fm and learn more about Ear Hustle at earhustlesq.com.

John Solomon Reports

Award-winning investigative journalist John Solomon, who helped unravel the bogus Russia collusion scandal, gives you his exclusive reporting and big newsmaker interviews. To get the unvarnished truth about what’s really going on in Washington, subscribe today to John Solomon Reports. To find out more go to https://justthenews.com

iHeart Podcast Networks .css-1q01m3q{margin:0 0 -2px 0;}

© 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

• Studio Line : 800-320-5326
• Business Line : 952-417-3000
• Advertise With Us : 1-844-AD-HELP-5

Advertising

Iheartradio support.

Having trouble with our iHeartRadio app or website? Please visit help.iheart.com to contact our support team.

Prize Pickup Instructions & Directions

Our offices are currently closed. All contest winners will be contacted via email or telephone. Prize redemption and winner release forms will be completed digitally. *Questions can be directed to the email form.

Website Recruitment Alert

If your organization distributes information about employment opportunities to job seekers or refers job seekers to employers, and would like to receive job vacancy notices for this station, please provide us with the name, mailing address, e-mail address (if applicable), telephone number, fax number, and contact person and identify the category or categories of vacancies for which you would like information specified above to the following person:

To view all current openings, please visit the iHeartMedia jobs page

View our EEO Public File here .

Want to send KFAN FM 100.3 an email? Just use the form below and we'll be in touch!