The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 2

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

In the second installment of the Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Dan, Stu and Mike Ryan take us through the era of the show between 2007-2010. A wild period for the show, the episode begins with an executive calling Stugotz from a tree in Texas. That marked the end of Primetime Media Group, and Stugotz discusses how he kept the station alive by orchestrating the takeover of 790 The Ticket by Lincoln Financial Media. You'll here from who the crew credits as the show's savior, Dennis Collins, about why 790 was an attractive investment. Then, the crew talks about Roy joining the show, the show's pursuit of taking down Hank Goldberg in the ratings and how live events became such a big part of growing the show's audience. You'll hear from former executive producer, Mark Hochman, about the legendary Wanny McStache's and Jai-Alai events. Also, the show goes viral for the first time as they invade Randy Moller's Panthers' broadcasts with his iconic goal calls. Finally, Hoch decides to take on more power by becoming Program Director at 790, and the cracks begin to show as we look toward Episode 3. Stick around for the Supercut from this time period which includes some of the show's most hilarious and iconic moments including the Joan Rivers hangup, the Julio Franco story and Dan and Stu's legendary call of a Marlins game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We continue to get a little nostalgic and misty, this time in episode two about the era from 2007 to 2010. It had a lot of turmoil in it and a lot of creativity in it. You've got Mike Ryan in over his head fighting with program directors. You've got Roy joining the show You've got a primetime media group ownership change. There's a lot of turmoil You've got Hawk accruing power and you've got the radio wars Escalating because the incumbent realizes it's a little scared and now puts all its power into trying to nuke us so I hope you enjoy this nostalgia as much as we do. Episode 2 here as we cover a variety of errors this is 2007 through 2010 what I like to call when the owner of the station called stugots

from a tree while helicopters flew overhead trying to arrest him. Spoiler alert! Ten Lebertot copters flew overhead trying to arrest him. Spoiler alert. Tan LeBatard. Apparently she bet him that he could stay awake at the stoplight when drinking and driving during sprint training. Stoogats. If you're having sex with my wife, text me, 74965.

20 mediocre years. Are you Jewish? I am not. I am. Then shut up. Then you don't know what you're talking about. Can we get any clearer? This is the oral history of the Tan Levitard show with Stu Gatz.

It's a pretty damn good setup there, Dan, but Stu Gatz, as Dan mentioned, we can't ignore what's happening with Joel at the time and with Primetime Media Group. While the show feels like it's starting to really gain some traction, the business side of Prime Time Media Group is falling apart and you had a front row seat. It's falling apart, Joel got into some trouble, he was in Texas and he calls me one night. Dan just kinda told you the ending of the story,

but he's in trouble, he's running through the woods, the cops are looking for him, this is the owner of our radio station. It's at night, it's late at night. It's at night. I wanna be clear, this is the owner of our radio station. It's at night, it's late at night. It's at night. I wanna be clear, this is your account of the situation, some of this stuff is a matter of public record. No, I was not there to see him actually run

through the woods, no, I was not there to see him actually climb a tree, no, I was not there when he pulled out a phone and called me from said tree, but that's what happened. Yeah, that is what happened. I mean, he called me from a tree. That's right, after asking me to work for free. And he said there were helicopters swooping around

with big lights looking for me. Now, time has passed and we are laughing about this, but some of the stuff that was surrounding Joel was very, very serious, and this was a very uncertain time. We might be skipping a little ahead here in the timeline, but we're here now. So let's cover the end of primetime media group first How does that come to be is it already dying prior to this brush with the law that Joel has yeah?

We hung on I think you know probably six months longer than we should have to be honest with you Let's say I was hired in 2007, and I wasn't paid until halfway into the year, so that was a pretty big red So those are the six months. That's how we survive by not paying people. Yes, that's what we decided to do. Correct me if I'm wrong, Stu Gutz, because I can't remember the time exactly. But during this time is when I'm turning on my local television and our real estate offices are being raided by the feds.

Is it during this time? Yeah. You forgot about that. So for people, we probably should explain this. Joel was a real estate mogul. His family was. He had an office downstairs Our office was on the 10th floor

We leased the studios and the and the radio station from Waxey 790 the ticket but Joel Yes, this is right around the time where the feds raided Joel's real estate office. Kurt Murphy was sitting there He had a big office in the corner huge office It's like out of a movie Because I happen to be in in that real estate office when they walked in. And it's like Murphy's seeing all these feds approaching him and in very slow motion. And Murphy's just sitting there wondering what the hell he did, we did someone did

have been so many things. It could have been him. We had no idea. been him. We had no idea. We don't know what the feds are looking for. They stayed there long enough. They're gonna find something. They're gonna find something. And luckily they weren't looking for me. And I was relieved. They let me go upstairs. And I have no idea what transpired in that office after that other than the feds raided the entire office, took a bunch of files out because that's what feds do. I don't think anyone was arrested that day, but it certainly wasn't a good day for the company. We should tell people that perhaps they know this, but even going back to the very early stages of radio having a great deal of power, it's an extraordinarily shitty business and has been since static first crackled over your lines on AM radio. For you as a management person here, Suga, your power by this point in the prime time experience had kind of dwindled and you were more focusing on talent.

You still were part of that overall executive group, but towards the end of prime time, correct me if I'm wrong, the day in and day out operations from a management standpoint, that stuff had kind of started to subside? Completely. You know, I sensed that we were, this wasn't gonna last much longer.

And I shifted my focus, and there was nothing I could do to save it. Joel had told me, like, this is not gonna last much longer. Were you sharing this information with Dan, or did Dan know? No, I'm learning this now. He had a good poker face.

I did not know that he was as scared as he was. Oh, he was terrified, yeah. And so I shifted my focus, because perhaps some of the business stuff we made some mistakes No question about it. The part that we nailed was the programming like the product was really really good That's the hard part by the way the hard part is having something that's good that has audience They got the hard part, right? Yeah, God's got the hard part, right? Cuz Stu gots has a good ear for what's good Yeah It was me and you know and and Allison and Mark Hockman

and a bunch of people who helped along with selecting that talent. And so I was so proud of the lineup. I didn't want it to go away. And I shifted my focus back towards, I think it was Jefferson Pilot at the time, who owned 790 The Ticket. And I started talking to Dennis Collins

about whether or not this is something that he would want to continue. And Dennis at the time was the market manager of those stations for Jefferson. Dennis Collins, former senior vice president, general manager of Lincoln Financial Media's three radio stations in South Florida. Let me set the stage. When prime time, Joel Feinberg and the group approached me, we were making seven figures net profit on the 790 frequency. For an AM station that's unbelievable. So I get approached by Primetime. I don't know who the heck Joel Feinberg is. I don't know any of the

people. I think I might have known John Weiner somehow, some way. He might be the only one. So I had several meetings with Joel Feinberg and basically told them look here's the deal. If you want to continue conversation, we need a seven figure big money deposit into an escrow account in favor of Lincoln Financial Media to show your sincerity, to go through with this, because I'm not going to blow up what I've got unless I have a pretty good idea that what you got is real.

Shocking, it was shocking. He did it, a seven figure down payment, if you will, in our escrow account, untouchable by him, in our favor. Done. And that was the deal. I thought the lineup that John Weiner and Joel Feinberg were putting together was pretty exceptional, especially when I heard that Levitard was going to be part of it. I mean, I had read Dan Levitard's column for years, had high respect for the guy, couldn't believe he was going to do radio. I thought it was a well done radio station. Great personalities, Joe Rose, Dan Lebatard, and others. I was very impressed with what

you guys set up, what Primetime set up. I was very happy with it. And of course, as the lease payments were coming in, I was even more happy because we were actually netting more money off of that with just one client rather than 40. So it was a win-win for us and it was good programming. It was compelling programming and so I said if this thing ever dies, I was talking to the corporate muckety-mucks over in North Carolina and said look guys I intend to keep this going. So if there is a default, expect me to keep it going. I ultimately decided that because again, I liked the sound of the radio station. It was a compelling radio station.

I liked particularly the Levitard show. In my opinion, it's what radio should be. It wasn't some boring sports show about stats and figures. Yeah, you occasionally talk about that, but you never knew what you were gonna get on the Levitard Show. It was always a surprise, and it was a good surprise. As I sensed this thing was gonna go under, I shifted my focus to Dennis,

because he had told me over time how big of a fan he was of Dan's, of our show, and really the entire station. And so we started having those conversations, and to his credit, Dennis was thrilled. Like like he wanted to keep this thing going and Dennis Was exactly what we needed well I think he might have been the best leader that we ever had just an old-timey radio guy who really had an appreciation For how hard it was to get the audience to do something different and he was a listener

He was somebody who was a Miami listener Which is a different kind of thing right Because we would expand and become a national show when the internet exploded. But this is an old-timey radio person who's like, that's a special thing. I can tell, I've listened to a lot of radio for 40 years. They have something, an ingredients and some chemicals there that work together.

I'm in agreement. I think Dennis Collins is really influential. Maybe the show doesn't survive without Dennis Collins. And he was a good man. Maybe it would have been a cutthroat back in his day, but he was approaching retirement age. He was a very kind person. That cluster of stations,

the management there was uncommonly kind. Decent, yes. For radio. He was a very decent person. But the business aspects of what was happening here was, I sure as shit wasn't getting paid, which means Primetime wasn't paying the lease agreement. So they default on their payment in Waxie, 790. It reverts back to who owns the signal, happening here was I sure as shit wasn't getting paid, which means Prime Time wasn't paying the lease agreement.

So they default on their payment in Waxie, 790. It reverts back to who owns the signal, which in this case is Lincoln Financial. Yeah, and I'm feeling all of that. Like there are people working for me, people who have worked for us, their families, like I'm feeling a lot of that stuff. And so that's why my focus kind of shifted to,

okay, Joel's done, like he doesn't want to do this anymore. I care about all these people, we have a good product, they all have jobs, granted they're not getting paid on time or not getting paid at all. Let me get this back to a place where it's stable, where there's a radio vet like Dennis who will take care of this if he indeed loves the product the way he says he does, but that was all weighing on me.

A, that we had failed, from a business standpoint, that we had failed, that was weighing on me. B, just all the people that were working and had worked very, very hard to help put that station together, that was weighing on me to the point where I was like, I wanna try to save these people's jobs, I wanna try to save what it is we're doing.

You hit it well, man. I have no idea until you're saying this right now that you were afraid of all of that. I was terrified, yeah, I was. But in 2007, I remember, I was promised a million times that I was gonna get hired, It wasn't happening for me. We had a holiday party that I think, I had seen the holiday parties get worse and worse.

That's how you know. Yeah, yeah. Throughout that time. There had to have been some signs. I think that there was a moment there, Dan, where you started paying bonuses out of your own pocket. You don't have to get in full detail there, but I imagine that was a bit of a sign for you.

I was giving a program director their cash and asking him not to tell anybody where the bonuses were coming from just because I thought people should be getting bonuses outside of our station I just saw people with kids and I'd heard that some people weren't being paid on time and stuff and I made the mistake of giving a gambling degenerate the foolproof way of taking cash and betting it on blackjack which is here's a bunch of cash don't tell anyone where it came from and I didn't learn until many years later hey did you get those bonuses ever and the answer was no we did not get those bonuses. And that's when I realized that my plan of anonymity

hadn't worked the way I intended. I did not get the sense of prime time employees being mistreated. Maybe I missed that signal. Maybe it didn't come to me. I don't have a good solid memory of that. What I became aware of was that our lease payments weren't being made.

And Joel and I had some very interesting conversations. I wish I had audio tape of those conversations. Wow I had some very interesting conversations. I wish I had audio tape of those conversations. Wow. Those were some interesting conversations. The bottom line is I got my attorneys involved and we pulled the plug. And of course we kept the large escrow account as damages for, and that was the agreement, as for reneging on the agreement. Of course, Joel was fighting and kicking. He claimed he owned 790, the ticket, the agreement. Of course Joel was fighting and kicking. He claimed he owned 790 the ticket, the logo. We fought him on that. We fought him on a bunch of different things and I don't remember what they were right now but we finally got it squared away. That was a big job because we had to absorb, I don't know

how many people it was now, a lot. We had to put all those folks that were on primetime's payroll on our payroll and I give give credit to Alina Gonzalez and our HR team. They had to work overtime to make sure that nothing skipped a beat, that people got their paychecks on time, they got the right amount. That was a crazy feat. We operated those stations like family. So we already knew the primetime people, they were in our building 24- seven. And so they felt like family, even though we weren't paying them. So I hope from my viewpoint, I thought it was a pretty seamless transition. I don't know of any big problems. I'm sure some primetime people could tell me some things that maybe didn't go as well as planned. But I hope they felt comfortable. We welcomed them. We wanted to do this and I'm glad we did. Yeah, I don't want to name names here either, but out of respect for whatever this person's

made out of their lives as well. But my experience with this person too, and how shady the radio business could be, I got brought on February of 2007. I just turned 21 years old. My first guest, by the way, the first guest I ever booked, my main job was taking over for Andy King. First guest I ever booked was Tim main job was taking over for Andy King. First guest I ever booked was Tim Hardaway. And he had a national controversy. That was your guest, huh? That was my very first guest.

And you were a truly terrible guest booker. Awful, awful because I think you know like generally the cut of my jib and you have to be built a certain way. You have to be me. You have to really like sales and not care how you come off. You have to be tenacious. Some people are really good at it.

I at the time was a better person than salesperson. And that's why I really struggled with that. Also, I was 21 years old. I didn't know how to be super organized. I didn't know how to maximize that. I got better with it over time by really being ridden by Dan and by Hawk and by Yusu, because you guys saw where I was failing, but I was 21 years old. I was thrown into a job that you guys had really good guests and I didn't have any network. That stuff takes time. But in 2007,

I was hired. I didn't get my very first paycheck till July. I was 21, really grateful for the opportunity. Knew one day that I'd be made whole. And also I worked for Michael Yormark's Florida Panthers as an intern. So I kind of got used to never being paid and working really, really hard over there. But my experience with this program director was he was still around and this was after Lincoln Financial assumed it. But this one program director, I was asked in a pinch the night before, hey, we have a Halloween Horror Nights promotion in Orlando. Can you go over there and do some silly hits into the main show? Dan hated all that. I just had the funny voice modulator and it worked. I invoiced my expenses and I put it in and I didn't see any of those expenses reimbursed for eight months

And I finally started asking what happened to this and I deduced that my expense report was put in by the program Director under his name. I was just never seeing that that money but a lot of this radio was different back then and that's what How do you play? That's what made Dennis Collins such a different individual because I likened sports radio to a tree branch with a bunch of ants on it Everybody wanted to do what we were doing. Everybody, you work in sports, that's the dream. And the industry and the people around it did a hell of a job in trying to shake that branch until like one person was hanging on for dear life. I luckily made it but I barely did. Dan

paid me out of his own pocket during that holiday party knowing all the broken promises that I had had. That's why Dennis Collins was such a welcome life boat and it really allowed us to really make a further mark inside the market and start competing with the likes of QAM. I mean, we had the backing of a company that had endless amounts of money. It was no longer this rogue radio station, which I liked, by the way, I liked it when we were rogue and it felt like the wild, wild west of radio. It really did. I mean, Sid Rosenberg was at our station.

Yeah. You were also also kinda having a difficult time keeping pace with those primetime guys because they could party. I was, and I was the GM and I had to do afternoons with Dan and God, did we party. Do you remember me in that sad parking lot after one of the shows asking you if you had a cocaine problem?

I do remember that, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh wait, during all this, we didn't cover it in the first era, but I kinda wanna revisit. This is some of my nose. Didn't you almost fight OJ McDuffie in that parking lot? I think he did, yeah. Yeah, yeah, he was furious.

OJ McDuffie was furious. OJ McDuffie. Let's be honest, OJ was gonna fight Dan. Yes, that's correct. I wasn't gonna do any fighting. I was gonna do a whole lot of succumbing, yes. But OJ McDuffie, who when fighting with defensive tackle, 320 pound defensive tackle, Darrell Gardner,

went out to his car in the Dolphins parking lot and got his gun, was mad about something I'd said about him on air because we were always wacky. And OJ McDuffie was used to what sports radio was supposed to be. And then there was us mocking everything. And yes, he was very angry with me. And I was scared.

And oddly, I wasn't angry when you asked me if I had a cocaine problem. No, you just denied it. And I still don't know if it's true or not. I don't remember why I asked you. There had to be a reason why I asked you. You certainly had a look to you those days. I looked like cocaine, yes.

You looked like cocaine. But with Dennis Collins, with Lincoln Financial, came a sturdiness to everything that we were doing. And generally, everybody slowed down. But Mike, I knew if Dennis wanted to keep this thing, Dennis was a very measured man, a great businessman and as Dan pointed out, a great leader. He would not have taken the station. I was so happy when he did.

He would not have taken that station over unless A, he loved it and B, he thought he could make money with it. Well, I also assumed, Stu Gonson, you'd know this better than I would. I also assumed that Dennis Collins understood because so many mistakes had been made that he was getting a deal that he was going to be able to get all of that cheaper and self sustained. And so he realized that this wouldn't be very hard to invest in because at least in one example he wasn't paying his afternoon host very much.

No, we had and he had a great sales staff. And so we had a sales staff. He had a sales staff that sold the entire cluster of stations. They all had great relationships He loved the product. We had a great lineup you take away what we were paying You know in terms of lease on an annual basis the Dolphins are no longer on the radio station Team deals are starting to be shaped differently where you don't have to pay a lot of money to get some of the teams on the radio station. Your deal with the Dolphins was so bad, everyone realized that this is not sustainable for the industry. It did wonders for our station, but there was no way to make money at the price we were

paying for that particular product. Dennis didn't have that burden, and so he just said, hey, this is a great lineup. I got four great shows. We could sell this thing and make money, and they did. One person that I want to highlight that was around all this stuff. You mentioned the Hollywood offices that were rated at that time. There was a sales intern by the name of Roy Bellamy. Now I first met Roy at some live events and I thought Roy was working with the station because he would just put his laptop down and sit down as if he was with you guys and you guys would all treat him as such. And I went through like five events, not knowing that Roy wasn't actually employed. Stu, you actually gave him an internship. What are your first memories of Roy?

Because around the time that Lincoln Financial comes aboard, Roy becomes a full-fledged board op and a part of our show. Roy wanted to work for us. Like that was it. And he was relentless. Like he kept walking into our business offices. Like he would show up and he would come

through the front door. At the time, I think Amanda Lipman into our business offices. Like he would show up and he would come through the front door. At the time, I think Amanda Lipman was our receptionist. She developed a great relationship with Roy. She kept telling me how passionate this guy is and how badly he wanted this. And then I got around to talking to Roy and I felt the same thing. And so I wanted to try to do something for him because the guy's showing up. I sensed right there that Roy was not going to stop up until I gave him something and the only something I had At that time was an unpaid internship that he took with a smile, and I think it's worked out

Okay, he kept showing up at quarterdecks at car dealerships whenever we were slumming around in the gutter pipes of what sports Radio was back then and we'd have six people at an outing where we were making it try to sound like there were 600 people there. Roy was always there when he did not work for us. He would just show up. Around November of 2004, I was watching Heat Game, right? When the Heat players went to the foul line, there would be advertisements on the Redmond Board and I saw that there was a new radio station down here, ESPN 790. I was like, okay, we got ESPN radio station here now. And then I really started listening when I found out that one of my favorite comedians, Frank Caliendo, was gonna be on Radio Row.

I think it was in Jacksonville. It was for the Dan LeBretard show. So I was like, oh, I gotta listen to this here. So I listened and yeah, this is a really funny show. Around that time I was in college. I was a longshoreman trying to pay for college at the time. So I listened to the show and I started emailing the show, you know, stuff like athletes that can know plants,

you know, like tree Rollins and Brandon Flowers and that sort of thing. I guess the guys really liked those emails. Found out that they started doing remotes and I went to the remotes and finally got to meet everybody there. You know, everybody was really nice to me. And while I was in college,

I got up the courage to ask Dan, hey, can I interview you to talk about how sports media and the internet coexisted? You started relationship between the show. And I finally decided, you know what? Maybe I should ask for a job. So I went to the office in Hollywood, it was presidential circle at the time, right?

I was gonna walk into the office and ask for like a job application and as I was walking in, Stu Gotz was walking out. I said, hey, Stu Gotz! And Stu Gotz looked and was like, big smile on his face, like, Roy, what's going on? Big hug. Hey, what you doing here? Asked, well, I was gonna come up and ask for a job application. He said, oh, don't worry buddy I'll fit you in somewhere and became an intern for the Sid Rosenberg show. Came in during the morning and then after that drove over back to the office and was an office assistant.

Eventually interned for the big show and eventually became associate producer and then producer for ESPN and the rest is history. Roy used to be one of our super listeners, but he wasn't like super effervescent. He would come to events and lurk more than anything. He would lurk. It was unsettling at the beginning because we really didn't know him and he wasn't very talkative.

But I will tell you this, when we would go out, the first events that we would do, Dan and Stugatz were the stars. And then I was the cleanup team. When Dan and Stugatz left, there were banners on the wall. I would take them down so that we could use them again. So I would take the banners down. There would probably be a PA system.

And so I would put together the PA system and put it in a travel case. And I would take all this stuff back to my car. And several times we had done some events. Roy would watch us do the event. He'd be listening on his headphones. And when the event was over and everyone would leave, the listeners would leave, Danitz Dugats would leave,

it would literally be me and maybe a promotions person or two just cleaning everything up. And Roy would dutifully clean everything up with me, wouldn't leave my side, and then he would walk all the stuff to my car, a lot of the equipment was heavy. Didn't say a word, We rarely shared a word. I would say thank you very much.

And then, you know, as radio guys are want to do, can I get you a T-shirt? Can I get you a concert ticket, something because he was just helping out of the goodness of his art. And and it was like, no. And then he would move on to his next gig, which would be our next gig. We would see him there. Then a while later, I come to find out from Stugats that he has hired Roy. Roy is now on the payroll but he's working in the office. We had separation the studios where we work miles away from the office which

was in Hollywood and Stugatz hired Roy to work in the office but we really kind of needed him around the studio because he was willing to do just about anything. After a while he became one of my assistants at the radio station. And again, it was a little awkward because he was not a good talker and he was really tightly wound. Every radio crew needs a Roy, a guy who comes in, he does his job and he leaves. Now it sounds strange to say every radio group needs a guy who doesn't talk, but you need one guy who walks in does his job And then gets the hell out of there

I do want to highlight that this show has always had a heart and yet typically people don't make it in an audio Medium when they don't talk but you guys Recognize how deeply Roy cared about you guys in uncommon ways and it's a really wonderful thing that maybe not your first in sync Cuz you met him a couple of times but after he kept showing up was like, how do we take care of this guy? What can we find for him? You guys found a role for him and he got put on the show as the board up. And I do want to commend you guys because you guys have always had that heart. Dan paid money out of his own pocket to help pay for my gas when I was struggling and being lied to. You guys are very unique in that way. And that's why I've always stayed with the show. I've always had opportunities

to leave. And my guiding light was I know've always stayed with the show. I've always had opportunities to leave. And my guiding light was, I know how rotten this industry can be. I highlighted some of those experiences. You guys were uncommonly kind. Well, I appreciate that. I think one of the things that gives both me and Dan an immense amount of pride is that,

Mike, you were a listener to the show. Roy just kept showing up. Like he wanted it so badly. Hawk was his friend. It made me so happy to hire his best friend at the time to be his executive producer. Billy was a listener of the show. I think we both take a great amount of pride.

Like, I didn't care that maybe you didn't have the experience that you probably should have had for a position like that, but we would figure it out together, right? Oh, but it can be something that we take pride in, but I also would say that there's some calculation in give me people who care care deeply care the right way and Will figure it out with enough reps

So when you care enough to keep showing up time and again and you care about this thing the way we care about it And then that feeling Extends to an audience that notices and connects with the different characters in different places. I don't know where and how people connect with Roy, but there are many people in our audience that connect with what Roy represents, not just because he's been with us forever, but maybe they are more timid personalities that are careful about when they speak and their brain power works more on sound than it does on talking, that they care about how things sound. I don't know where and how people connect with Roy.

I just know we have a room filled with a lot of people that allow a lot of different connection points. I realize where Roy's strengths were pretty early on in that this guy actually has a pretty good ear. Very good, yeah. And being able to not nail down the sonic profile of this show, our cadence, how we edit, how we keep everything tight. Roy was hugely influential.

And this RSS feed that you're listening to right now, it was essentially curated by Roy Bellamy. Saved by me many times. Saved by you many times. Well we'll get to that. But where we are in the timeline now is we're rounding into football season of 07. We're starting to get assurances from Lincoln Financial that we don't have to worry about our jobs anymore. We can worry about the mission at hand which is taking down Hank Goldberg, which was Dan's initial mission statement. He wanted to put a hurdle on 560. I think we were at a quarter deck, actually,

when the books came out. It was a Friday show. We were. And the news had broke that 790 in the afternoons and Dan LeBattard in Sugata's time slot had finally taken down Hank Goldberg. That was immense for this show and a crowning achievement. How'd you experience it?

I was super proud because I knew it meant a lot to him. I knew it meant a lot to us, the station. It meant a lot for billing. I want people to think about this. Hank Goldberg had been on the air for like 25 years. Mike and the Mad Dog were on the air for a similar amount of time, right? It took Michael Kay like 15 years to finally win one book against Mike Francesa and Ruzo had the lead. Dan and I did that in three years when I got

the book and they were like, oh my God, you guys beat Hank. I couldn't believe it. I remember running over to you and telling you and telling Hawk, man, I'm still getting goosebumps. Like that was a big moment for us to beat Hank Goldberg. Oh, when we beat Hank Goldberg in the ratings, that was like angels singing because we knew we were putting out better programming, but all Miami sports listeners knew was Hank Goldberg. And Dan put his mind to it. When he really started to embrace what we were going to do with his

show, he knew that one of the targets he was gunning for was Hank Goldberg. Hank Goldberg reigns supreme. The show was just too creative. Hank was taking phone calls and going through his Rolodex and bringing on Beano Cook, you know, all the old timer P-dex them, all the old timer sports prognosticators. And the programming that Dan and Stu Gotz were putting out was just better. You never know because the rating system is antiquated.

All of a sudden the ratings proved it out. Yeah, more people are listening to Dan. More people are listening to Stu Gotz. That was a great moment. Not that Dan needed, you know, some sort of legitimacy, but there was certainly a sense of legitimacy. And there was this feeling that, yeah, the torch is being passed right now. Hank's show was the standard bearer, but there's a new one in town

and it's probably gonna last for a while. That was just a great moment. That was a great feeling in radio because that's looking at the scoreboard and saying, look, we won. We can tell you till we're blue in the face that our show is better, but here's the scoreboard that says yes,

the audience agrees. What I remember about all of that because I cannot explain to the audience agrees. What I remember about all of that, because I cannot explain to the audience. I'm emotional thinking about that. Well, I produced his show, left his show, started his station, believed in him, and he beat him in three years. It was crazy. Yeah. But you have to understand how bad this person was to me. It wasn't it was, but it wasn't just on air.

It's not just stealing my columns for seven years and making weeks of content out of me. It wasn't, it wasn't, but it wasn't just on air, Stu Gutz. It's not just stealing my columns for seven years and making weeks of content out of me and what I was writing. He actively tried to impede my path to ESPN because he was the guy in Miami who represented Miami for ESPN. Everything I was, was a threat to establishment because he could see that I was already working at ESPN and he talked to the executives in charge in a way that tried to sabotage me as I was there. So to defeat him when the goal was to simply get in the game with a voice that was comparable, it was, you know, seismic for me beyond just the superficiality of winning one thing. This was 10 years in the

making. At this point in time, Neil Rogers was still doing a show on WQAM. WQAM, its identity was basically that they were top dog. They'd take it on all challengers and they would always kill those challengers. They're now faced with the fact that they have these legends on their radio station that aren't top guys anymore. So they start actively counter programming you guys. And the decision is made somewhere about this place in the timeline that they were going to partner up Jim Mandich and Hank Goldberg for something called the power hour specifically designed to beat you guys. Cause you were only airing four to seven

at the time to let's really get the audience in a three o'clock hour and try to win the day with the two biggest local sports radio legends on the market. So Jim Show was one to three, Hank was on four to seven, they combined for three to four to come after us and I remember laughing at that. I just I remember feeling so good about us and our show and ourselves I'm like I don't care if they put Neil Rogers in afternoon drive, they can put anyone in afternoon drive. They're not gonna do better than what we're gonna do because I had felt that good about the chemistry of the show and he was in a much more relaxed place

and was really finding his groove. You laughed it off, but it worked. So much so that 790 counter-programmed their counter-programmed and our show expanded from a three hour show to a four hour show. So Dan, now you're in the middle of a radio war. Yeah, you won that one book, but WQAM had counter punches and won books and you guys were going back and forth for a little bit.

You see Jim Mandich and Hank Goldberg partner up to try to seize on that three to four o'clock hour. You guys are making moves. How are you experiencing this? I didn't laugh at it the way that Stu Gottz did, but I noticed the change in tenor from they spent a lot of time either ignoring us or laughing at us for three years. And so the symbolism of that moment where they're putting together a power hour and our counter to that is, you know what I'm going to do? We're going to celebrate Jim Mandich's 1972 perfect season

by going to the Kentucky Fried Chicken right next door to WQAM and broadcasting live from there We're gonna have a parade for Jim Mandich the Kentucky Fried Chicken is going to flood while we're there because it's raining so much How you feeling about the parade Dan? It couldn't be any better The only way it would be better is if it were lightning in a way that was killing people Go Dolphins killing people. Go dolphins. They're still perfect. The weather's slightly imperfect. This is really perfect weather for us. If you think about it, if you think about it,

we could use some hail, locusts, locusts would be good. Frogs, apocalyptic frogs falling from the sky would be nice. That macaroni and cheese in the buffet looks awfully sad. This is not the top of radio, but we're going to compete with them right next door to them. And we're going to make fun of it while also understanding that we're in a fight and you're trying to punch us. And are you going to be able to hit the target that's trying to laugh, even if it's not as

confident as Stu gots was at the time, because I was not feeling the stability that Stugatz was there. I was laughing because their idea to challenge us, to combat, first off, the fact that they actually sat there and thought about how to combat what it is we were doing, I was flattered by that. What rhymes with our? What rhymes with our? I wanna take a moment.

It's what I would've called it, to be honest. I wanna take a moment to acknowledge Jim Mandich, because Hank Goldberg was a tough opponent. He was mean. He was mean to you. You have experience. He was mean to me. Yes. Introducing for him. Yep. Jim Mandich was a different dude in all of this. And it's so us. A great miscalculation was made, not just by broadcasting from the KFC on 441 that was flooding, but also Jim Mandich wasn't in the studio that day. He just wasn't. He was off. But to his credit, he signed a bunch of autographs and he had someone walk down a bunch of

autographs for us. Successful event, Jim Mandich people. His people have dropped off Jim Mandich autograph photos. This is just a success beyond our belief. I remember for that broadcast, I went to Florida Christian, my high school. I was still young at the times I was just a couple years removed from high school and I'm like, hey, can I borrow a bunch of equipment from the marching band? I'll bring it back tomorrow. I promise and my music department So we get there we get interns and listeners and we're just banging away. It's so pathetic Wait, this is so interesting though

because we took great delight in beating Hank Goldberg because Hank was was mean to me, and he was mean to Dan, and I was a witness at a front row seat to see just how mean he was to Dan. We took a great amount of pride in that. We love Jim Mandich. I didn't like taking down Jim Mandich. We had no problem with Jim Mandich. You like taking down everybody. Well, that's true. You like it less than taking down Hank Goldberg. I love taking down Hank. That was a great story. I didn't like as much taking down Jim Mandich out of respect. That's all.

He never said anything bad about us. Ever. My problem with QAM was Neil Rogers and Hank Goldberg and the way they talked about Miami and the Miami Herald and ethnic Miami. Neil Rogers' show at this time evolved to Joss Ratings talk and it was sad. Yeah. As Arbitron moved away from the diary system evolved to Joss ratings talk and it was said as Arbitron moved away from the diary system and to get more representative data it still was flawed in that

the sample was small and it spoke for so many. The data that you were getting was irrefutable. It was actually marking the time and he went from like 15 shares to two shares. Like it was when they moved from the book to the to the PPM. can make an argument that the change that arbitron made essentially not only ended his career But ended his life like he was so obsessed with that stuff hank more so than he let on on the air But it was around the time and our show has a very checkered history when it comes to sales activations But you guys start having ambition you do the gym mandich parade you do something called the wani Mcstaches you start doing highlight events and you realize that if we get the right partners, we can do these activations that will help grow the show.

And I remember the turnouts at these things blew me away. As someone that would do- Blew us away. I would do call ins from like, we would have Marlins tickets and three people would show up to a Jiffy Lube. People did not turn up in these numbers. When I graduated in 91, I was doing radio events and I was the radio DJ, I was a music DJ.

And I knew what a radio event was. You go out, you have a little tent, maybe a little wheel, you win a key chain or a T-shirt, then four people show up and you're staying in the hot sun for two hours. And Dan was like, no, no, no, you gotta dress these events up. He didn't wanna do, you know, on location events anyway,

but you had to at the beginning there. He was like, hey, dress it up, get people out of here. And so we would invite uncle Luke to come out. I remember we did a movie screening once and Dan got Terrell Owens to show up. We would make special t-shirts and wanted the events dressed up. He didn't want to do these shitty radio events that everyone was so used to doing. That was cool for me because I never would have thought of that and so yeah we would have big prizes, big guest stars and it would feel like it was a special event and it was brilliant because no one did radio events like we did and like QAM they couldn't compete with that. That's really when buzz started to form around the show because people were like

yeah I gotta go see these guys no matter where they are. They're at a sports bar and was like yeah but I just want to go see it because there were crazy things going on. You didn't know who was going to walk up next. You didn't know if Uncle Luke was going to be there. You didn't know if they were going to have tickets for a playoff game. Like big things were going on. That was super cool. Before the event, the audience is largely faceless, right?

This is pre-social media. You're not really meeting the people that you're talking to every day that are having the experience that's so intimate with the specifics of radio. You're my friends inside my head, I don't see you. It's just a different kind of intimacy. So when we would get to places,

I think Frank Caliendo was the first one to notice it. Frank Caliendo's touring and all over the country, it's not just that people are coming to his shows and then asking about our show. He's saying, these are young people. These are people who are not like 700 pounds in tank tops, who are lonely people. These are tastemakers.

These are the people that make things popular. And to this day, one of the more flattering things at our age is that this has been handed down from dads to kids who come up to me, who are now in their 30s and they're still young and they're saying to me some form of, yeah, my dad was laughing. I remember my dad's laughter in the front seat.

I was 12 years old. He handed the show over to me. And so just meeting our audience and putting faces and voices and thoughts to the people who listened to us made it a relationship, made it intimate. I don't know if you'll be flattered by this, but the other day on the train,

I ran into someone who appeared to be older than I was and said, hey man, my dad was a day one fan. Love that. I'm like, wait, you love that? I'm like, wait a second, you're older than me. Like how old, how old is your dad? We have people that weren't even fathers that are now grandfathers

that have handed down this show from generations. But a large part in building the community was doing events in the community. And you guys didn't half ass it when it came to the events. You guys weren't satisfied with a prize wheel. You guys were early on. We had a prize wheel and free tickets. I love a good prize wheel, I mean I do.

But you guys did more ambitious things. And Juanee McSashes was a bit that was built on the show. We would take callers and we'd build out this mythological menu. It was a ridiculous concept. Have a sports bar that honored Dave Wonstadt, the former Dolphins head coach. And you built out this whole great theater of the mind thing and then you actually brought it to life. Do you have any memories of Wanting McSashes? Just how excited we were for that night. I think we had done some events so we knew the audience, we knew the crowd was going to be pretty big just based on previous events and we had really sold this. Like we promoted this on the front end. The dessert, vanilla ice cream with no nuts. No offense with no nuts.

No offense with no nuts. Puntatizers, there were chicken mussashes. Hawk was so excited. It was Hawk in his glory. That's what I remember most. It was Mark Hawkman in all his glory because I'm pretty certain it was Hawk's idea and he's the one who executed it and had all like the tiniest little details, which speaks to how great of a producer he was

because even when we went to promotions, he had to make sure that it was gonna be right for me and Dan. What this show did that nobody else did was you guys would talk out these concepts and you would literally try to bring it to life. Yes. No one would ever think to bring it to life because it's hard to bring things to life.

They would just exist. And our show, while I'm celebrating you guys, our show is kind of known for not following these things through. To actually bring these things to life, you guys gave Hawk so much license and was he kind of tasked with this? Like this is living in my head, Hawk, you bring it to life. Stugat is giving the credit to Hawk there and I'm not interested in

denying Hawk any credit there, but I associate that with the listeners and weeks of buildup, taking calls on what should this menu be? And it wasn't ever just us. It was a creative community that came out and celebrated the idea with us. And we failed any number of times. Connor McDavid billboards, UCF championship. Like a bunch of our shit falls down at the finish line. But we got to those fried chicken mustaches. Oh yeah, we did. And what I remember is what those looked like

in a basket being brought to me. And they looked like chicken fingers. Didn't look anything like mustache. But they were in our imagination mustaches. I was eating Dave Wonstat's mustache. That's right. All of us were. I don't know how we came up with it. I don't recall that.

I do recall mustaches being a big part of the show. Dan was always fascinated with mustaches and we would do so much mustache-related programming. People who would look better with a mustache, people who would look better without a mustache, people who have great mustaches, and we were fascinated with Dave Wonstat's mustache, and Wonstat wasn't doing very good with the Dolphins, we had a lot of fun at Wanny's expense. I know that quarterdeck, they wanted to do an event with us, Dan, you know, did not want to do

just a, hey we show up at the sports bar and talk sports, we want to do something different. I don't remember how Wanny McStashes came to be, but we decided let's turn quarter deck into a Wani McStashes as if it's Dave Wanstead's signature restaurant. And we'll just brand it Wani McStashes and we'll change the menu. And I remember we did a super creative menu. I don't recall any menu item except chicken mustaches, which is still one of my greatest radio accomplishments to date. We had chicken tenders, but they were shaped as mustaches.

I remember Frank, one of the part owners of Quarterdeck, finding these little molds that he said, hey, we can turn the chicken tenders into actual mustaches. This place was packed. Everyone had an amazing time. It was just one of those radio events that came out of the air, on the air, and we pulled it off. Well, to this day, I have a Wani McStash's quarter deck t-shirt.

I wear it to this day. People still mention Wani McStash's. That was a magical time. I don't remember much about the night other than it was completely packed. We sold out of chicken mustaches. And I wish that I would have saved one of the special menus. That was an amazing radio event. You guys found a way to bring close to 2,500 people. Amazing. To Highlight. To just spend a day, an evening with the show, celebrating Highlight.

The first one that we ever did, the bit was, let's just all hang out and watch Highlight. Because you had a months long bit play out on the air where you were talking about all the Highly stuff and explaining this to a whole market. Dan and some friends of ours in college, we would go to Highly, either Miami Highly or Dania Highly. When we were in college it was like fun night to gamble and Highly died. Like it just died. It had no appeal anymore. The whole venue was just sad. I remember just kind of spitballing on the air

that we should bring Hi-Li back. We started talking about Hi-Li, and I believe we had a couple of the Hi-Li legends, Joey specifically, Joey Cornblit, and I went over and had a meeting with the guy who was running Dania Hi-Li. His name was Marty Fleischman, and I went there and I said, you know what?

Our listeners, I don't know if you've ever heard of the Dan Levitard Show, they like what we do. And I think that we could put something together, a Dan Levitard Show night here at Dania Highlight. Now this guy Marty had been pitched by radio and newspaper and magazine salespeople for the last 10 years saying, hey, we're the ones who can bring a crowd back to Dania Highlight.

And it never worked. And Marty said to me, I'll tell you what, you can have a night here. I'm not paying for it. I'm not going to pay you any marketing dollars. You can have a night here. And I said, I bet we'll draw a thousand people. He said, if you draw a thousand people, I will put a plaque of you up on the wall of fame. Fast forward to the first Dan Levitard show night at Highlight. We had dollar beers, dollar hot dogs, you could bet on Highlight. Place was packed. Well over a thousand people.

Many experiencing Highlight for the first time in their lives. It was one of the greatest nights of my life. From wall to wall, packed. All LeBittard show fans. And they all were there because they were in on something special. Everyone felt it because this was a legendary Miami event, South Florida event that had fallen off and there was only one group who could save it and it was the LeBitard show and their listeners because everyone, Hank Goldberg had tried to save it. Four people would come out to his highlight

nights. Jeff DeForest would try to save it. 12 people would come out to his highlight nights. Jeff DeForest would try to save it. 12 people would come out to his highlight nights. There was no such thing as saving Dania Hylia until the LeBotard show made it a bit. It was so great. It became a monthly event. Marty Fleishman came to me after that first one and said, name your price. We have a deal. I'm ready to pay you guys. Fast forward a few months later I get invited to Dania Highlight for what I thought was a meeting. It was actually a ceremony where he put my picture and name on the Dania Highlight wall of fame. Highlight of my life goes my picture and name, Dania Highlight wall of fame, meeting my wife and marrying her, having a son.

In this window of time, you also built Kimbo slice into a local legend. And I don't think you can tell the story of this show and Dan's relationship with local South Florida sports without mentioning Kimbo slice. That is almost what I associate with advent of the internet. What is this dirty secret from Miami streets that exists on a porn site fighting people in the street? Yeah, we brought that locally. We brought it into the country I Kimbo slice and his people thanked me for what our show did for the mythology of that and it couldn't have happened in

Another medium it had to have secrets and shadows and pre-internet and less access And so when we finally got him on the air, it seemed like a seismic achievement this person They've been talking about for months, mythologizing, that person now comes into your life and is someone you can feel and touch. And we did a lot of that stuff, introducing both people from Miami to Miamians, and then bringing those to the country.

It was at this point in time, Suga, it's that ratings still mattered, but the internet was affecting the ratings. Hawk was curating a web show, early days of the podcast, and we all had a very difficult time reconciling the success of the podcast and what it meant for what actually paid the bills. You guys more than me. The ratings.

Dan never cared, to his credit. I never cared. Dan just felt like if people are consuming what it is that we're doing, no matter how they're doing it, we might as well position us for the way of tomorrow. But Mike, I think you were with me. I know Hockman was. When Mark Badein, who worked at the station, showed us the podcast numbers, and I'm like, everyone's in Florida who's listening, right? He's like, no. He said, that's like one of your worst states. They all listen on the radio. He said, everyone's listening. New York, California, Texas. And he showed me the

numbers and we were blown away by it. Like blown away. It was expensive to host. Yes. Because of so many people coming to that RSS feed and so people were doing cost analysis and Lincoln Financial was wondering why are we devoting so many of our resources to something we don't see a dime from? And we were constantly arguing on the merits for that

and Su Gatz, you took credit for saving it. I don't think you actually got around to it. Multiple times, yeah. I don't think you actually got around to it. I always equate it to this for people who don't understand it. It would be like owning a restaurant in your restaurant. You serve the same food at every table. There is one main door into the restaurant.

Anyone who goes in the main door to the restaurant gets counted. And that's how you earn your pay and measure your success. But also there are two side doors. They get you into the same restaurant, you get to hear or eat the same food. But if you walk through those doors, it doesn't count at all. That's the problem we had with salespeople.

Well, how do we sell these podcasts? Because we only know how to sell ratings. And it's like, well, here are tangible numbers. These are tangible numbers. We could tell you X number of people walked into our restaurant through this door. So how about you put something at this door, something valuable from an advertiser at this door.

That's how you monetize it. And so there was pushback. It became difficult, but there was no putting that genie back in the bottle. As you were starting to realize the proliferation of podcasts was upon us, and it was like either you're on board or you're not. If you're not on board, you're not. If you're not

on board, you're going to be working from way too far behind for too long. So it's something that you have to embrace and just let them figure out how to monetize it later. The show starts really toying with the digital age and our show goes viral for the first time in history. Now we had stories that broke the Tim Hardaway thing happens, but Randy Mueller as our partnerships change, we bring on the Florida Panthers, which I think you know some about that deal. They were paying us to be on our station. They were paying us to be on the station, yes. At the time. Hockey on the radio at the time in South Florida doesn't have much listeners. The

Florida Panthers as a brand had a foot on the way to Hamilton, Ontario. But imagine that shift in play-by-play rights because we started in the first episode, I said the biggest mistake we made was buying the Dolph Hamilton, Ontario. But imagine that shift in play-by-play rights, because we started in the first episode, I said the biggest mistake we made was buying the Dolphins, was getting their games, and then teams started calling us and saying, hey, we'll pay you. The Don Stock Show, and here is FIU football on Florida Panthers hockey. Great tease.

I remember you guys being furious with you there. But the Panthers at the time, that's a weird fit. The Day in Levitard show was Su Gottson and talk hockey at this time. And the Panthers at the time, that's a weird fit. The Dan LeBattard show was Sue Gottson and Toc Hockey at this time. And the Panthers, very different day and age from where they are now as Stanley Cup champions. Back then, no one was talking Panthers. And you guys were leading up to Panthers games, so we'd often have Randy Moeller dialing in sometimes on a coupler. Man, this feels, our show is old, man. We're old. And we figured, how do we actually use this partnership? Because the Panthers were desperate to infiltrate the show and get some of that rug. Who has the idea to do crosstalk?

You hated crosstalk because it's so like cheesy radio. Who gets the idea to bring Randy Moller on and decide, okay, you infiltrate our broadcasts, but now we're going to infiltrate yours. And we start feeding him goal calls that he would actually do in the game broadcast. We eventually make a super cut on YouTube and it blows up on YouTube and that's the first time our show went viral. With Moller, Dan and Stu Gotz weren't going to ask him a whole bunch of hockey questions. First of all, this team wasn't near winning a Stanley Cup. This was a hockey club that was lucky to draw 5,000 people to the arena. So Dan got creative. Moller would come on and Dan decided, you know what? Let's give him funny things to say during the broadcast. So if somebody scores a goal, you shout this out

and it'll be a special message to our listeners. And listeners loved it. I don't know if it was Tracy Morgan or if it was Craig Gass impersonating Tracy Morgan or maybe Frank Caliendo impersonating Tracy Morgan or maybe Frank Kelly Endo impersonating Tracy Morgan. But one of the lines he said was, I draw ding-dongs on people as Tracy Morgan. We gave it to Randy Mohler.

Randy Mohler in an actual Florida Panthers game broadcast a goal and then blurted out, and I draw ding-dongs on people. Scratchens steps in, Farsiches, he scores! Carlos Scratchens! And I draw ding-dongs on people! And that was gold to us. It was one of the most organic radio things

I have ever been involved in. It was so great, but everyone who participated played their role. Moeller was fearless when we would give him the lines. Dan was fearless in pushing Moeller to do more crazier and crazier lines. Like it just worked. And the payoff for the listeners, we couldn't believe it. We would laugh and laugh and laugh.

Like it was the greatest work that radio hosts, producers, a sports broadcaster, and the crowdsourcing of the listeners to the show had ever put together. It was a pop culture phenomenon because there's just movie lines and how ridiculous is this? You hear the goal on the radio, you hear the wonderful horn, and then you hear this announcer just sort of say something nonsensical that, you know, make me a bicycle clown, Vince Vaughn, you know, and wedding crashers, you know, and it doesn't even make any sense. But that's the first time I ever appeared on first take. I had sort of a moral aversion to it, but I went and did it with Randy Moeller just so that

we could talk about the absurdity of those calls. I don't see how you can't laugh at it. I mean, when he's sitting there and he's quoting, you know, Def Leppard or Cuomo D, we're trying to push the envelope. We want him to do a little Humpty Dance, a little I once got busy in a Burger King bathroom, but he draws the line there. I'm not the biggest hip hop fan. My kids love it in that.

These guys, they keep trying to push the hip hop in that. A lot of the stuff that I have said, I have no idea what I'm saying. What you're saying? No, I have no idea what I'm saying or whatever and then of course the the one that he likes I draw ding dongs on people and that was and I draw ding dongs on people correctly go check it out on YouTube it's on YouTube it's all over YouTube when you can grab pop culture stuff and throw it around your show and you can also make the community

feel like it can infiltrate the sporting event. We did this with Terrell Owens and his end zone celebrations. Terrell Owens has been gracious enough to take your suggestions for him to do if he should get into the end zone against the Miami Dolphins. You run to one of the cameras, you point to the dolphin sideline, you act like you're filming the dolphin sideline with a fake camera and cheating.

That's a good one. T.O. that's real good T.O. What percentage of chances is there that you might actually do that one? You guys are kind of thinking a lot, you know, like me, that that was kind of like on my radar. There are a number of places where we've wanted the listener to be looking for the Easter eggs of anticipation, because imagine that you're driving in your car and you don't otherwise have an interest

in a Panther game, but now all of a sudden you're listening and you don't even care about the goal. All you're waiting for is what's he going to say after the goal? Well, will he say it? Yeah, but will he say it? And is this something only that me and the 27 other people who happen to be listening right now are going to get? And the Pathers are bad. Can Radek Dvorak get a goal?

But Mike, this should not be understated to Dan's credit because I think everything that you see today, it's really his vision for how to do the show. And whether it's crosstalk or just a segment or an interview, to Dan's credit, he's going to do it differently. Otherwise, he's not going to do it because you're right, he hated crosstalk. He hated it. I've long maintained that the best producer in the history of audio is Dan. Oh, wow. And he doesn't even know. I don't know if I've ever told you that, but I'm asked that. And Hawk was a great producer, but a lot of what Hawk did was practice and exercise what was living in Dan's head. Whether Dan knew it or not, he'd find ways to push people to get the very best out of them.

Dan, he doesn't know. He just wants something funny there. He is giving people a reason to listen to Florida Panthers games. He's programming an entire station and he's not even really knowing it. Dan is such a high standard. And it was really learning that standard from Hawk who had learned it from Dan because they were so aligned

that it really pushed me to get to the very best of my capabilities. It's funny that you put it that way. I hadn't heard that from you before. Now, I would say that one of the great frustrations that I've had in the building of Metal Art Media as we've added a lot of people is that I've spent the last three and a half years

explaining to so many people things that I've never had to explain to Hawk, Mike, and Stugats. They just learned it because we were doing it together every day and the daily reps of it. It's been a great frustration to have to let everyone in through the curtain and explain to every employee here from the CEO on down, this is what we do and how we do it when it's just been you guys reacting to what it is that you think I have the sensibilities for.

And very often the idea of the way it gets executed isn't the way I imagined it and ends up being funnier or derailing because you've added something to it while trying to keep the laughter going. Yeah, but you're planting those seeds. Mike is right about that. You're planting the seeds and then you have guys like Hawk and Billy and Mike and Chris executing and taking what it is you have planted, and it blossoms into something that's even better

than you could have imagined. But it starts with your ideas and your willingness to take big hacks, even if it means that we're going to strike out. I'm the seed. Everyone else is the fertilizer. Well, I just dance around you, man. Like, I realized how credible you were early on,

and I realized you were perfectionist, you my cock, and I was like, OK, this show is too high brow. Whoever said that was right. Danny the first caller. Danny the first caller, you were right, and I just needed to stay put and just be me. At this point in time, too, I had evolved on the show, my relationship with Dan.

Whether Dan knows it or not, him giving me money for gas when everyone else in the industry is lying to me, I don't wanna let that guy down. And so like the standard is derived from, I don't wanna let Dan down because Dan's a unicorn as a talent, but also a unicorn as a person within the industry that elevated everybody's standard. We were not just motivated by, yeah, we wanted to be QAM,

but we wanted to be the people we needed to be for Dan, for Stu, for Hock. And to this day, I still think that that's a guiding light that everything here is to adhere to Dan's certain standard and everyone's got to kind of do their job to make sure we're upholding that standard. I just don't want to mess it up. That was a big part of it. I remember thinking that often. I didn't understand what we were doing for three years. I didn't understand what we were doing for three years.

I didn't get the show. I feel bad about part of that, though, right? Because it's too exacting and it could be unforgiving. It gets in the way of joy to always be fearing that you might disappoint someone. I don't think that people here would say that they fear me. But if they fear disappointing me, it ends up feeling the same way.

And so the standard is what the standard has been, and we're proud of it. It has been successful, but it's also a little unforgiving. Yeah, we'll get to the episode where I feared you later on, down the line in our story. I'll break some news here. They all fear you. Are we going to get to the episode where

I had to give you a zero tolerance policy, Mike, for yelling at me because of the number of times you were yelling at me? Somebody didn't fear me. Yeah, absolutely. We'll get to all of that. There's some good stuff, but all those problems kind of started for me when I wasn't second in line anymore, when I had to become the producer and we're not there yet either.

But around this time there are two things happening around 2008. You start talking about what's next for the Miami heat and the pie in the sky scenario of, well, maybe one day LeBron comes over here. And we'll dive into the economy of LeBron later on. But right as LeBron joins the Miami Heat, the Miami Heat come to 790 the ticket, in part because of some of the great work they saw that you did with some of your other partners there. Mark Hockman is an influential part in that deal coming together because Mark Hockman becomes program director. He wears two hats at this time. Hock, radio lifer, starts envisioning bigger things for his career. And the early

days is very advantageous for our show. Now our executive producer is a programming director. I had a chat with Dan and some of the other on air folks and he was just beloved by most everyone, particularly Dan. It seemed that Dan had a tremendous amount of confidence in Hawk. And I respect the fact that the people who are being led should have some input into who their leader is. So rather than me imposing a corporate solution and say, here's the corporate program director, here's what we want, I kind of went with the vibes that I got from the 790 people, particularly Levitar, to kind of make that decision.

I don't know if it was the right decision or the wrong decision. I mean, I think it worked. It was better than some of the program directors that had been in there. I can tell you that. Howard Davis, our general manager, Dennis Collins, they had come to me and said, we're going to make a change and we think you'd make a good program director for the radio station. I'd never done that before. And I said, well, I really don't want to take someone's job. That was actually my answer. And they said, look, he's going to be gone as of next week. Whether you take the job or we do a nationwide search, he will not be the program

director after next week. We have to make a change. And so I thought about it. I discussed it with my wife because I knew it was going to add a lot of a change. And so I thought about it. I discussed it with my wife because I knew it was going to add a lot of hours to my day. I talked with Dan. Dan was like, yeah, this will be great for your career and great for the show. I said, okay, I'm going to give it a shot. I didn't know much of what I was doing.

I knew that I had a way that I wanted the station to sound. I wanted the station to sound more like the Levitard show sounded, but I didn't want to cannibalize the Levitard show sounded, but I didn't want to cannibalize the Levitard show feel and make the station sound exactly like that. So my idea was I can give the station an edge. I can keep the big voice solely for Dan and Stugat's show, but I can give the rest of the station an edge through the imaging. A great imaging director, his name was Jim Cutler. I would send him really unique cutting imaging liners that really took shots at 560 QAM.

We just tightened up the radio station. I wanted the radio station to sound as good as what I thought the Levitard show sounded like. I don't think it complicated anything for the show. My main interest was the show. My main interest was bringing the show's sensibilities and sprinkling it around the rest of the radio station so that you were always going to get some semblance of the Lebatard show attitude. Just like when Stugatz was both. Stugatz happened to be

both at the very beginning and it gave us an element of power and stability most shows don't have. No, it was great. I was telling every other show what not to do, and then Dan was doing the exact things I told them not to do later that afternoon. But this starts changing things about the show. Your executive producer has other duties, and he has to start prioritizing the station. And sometimes you're not the most important thing.

How did you guys experience Hawk's ascension within management? And it would lead to Hawk leaving the show in a roundabout way Did you see the seeds of that as it was playing out? There was some lost focus and there's some general restlessness I would say when people have been doing anything creatively. I've had the habits to God's will tell you this This is how he ended up at the center of negotiating all of our stuff at one point I've had always the habit of throwing the power over my shoulders so that someone else can use it to get what it is that they want.

I'd like for all of us, the dream scenario here in the utopian scenario of metal art media is everyone having the job that they want. It's obviously utopian because it's hard to get to and it hasn't yet been achieved. But I've always wanted people to have the jobs that they want. And in this case, with Hock, he wanted all the jobs the same way Stugatz wanted all the jobs. Like if you can have all the money and all the power, you get to run things. He didn't have any of Stugatz's baggage. No.

Yeah. So he got the job. At two o'clock, I'm done being program director for the day. I put on my executive producer hat and yes, I would have liked to have been EP at nine in the morning, which I usually was, working on bits, writing parody songs, but this was an opportunity for me to grow my radio resume and not give up what I really loved, which was doing the Levitard show. I don't think it complicated things very much. It complicated my life a little bit because it's very easy for Dan to say, yeah, I want you to do that buddy, it's really good for you. And it's another thing when he calls at 11 o'clock in the morning with a great

idea for the show. And I can't take it because I'm having a meeting with a new restaurant in a mall that's offering shrimp and the account executive needs me to meet with her at the shrimp restaurant to talk about how they could incorporate some sort of shrimp element into the George Sadano morning show or something like that. I did have other duties, so I'm sure it was frustrating a bit for Dan. I tried to do my best to, hey, two o'clock, I'm all Dan's from nine till two, I'm the

radio stations and try to make it work. It did work because the ratings went up across the board and everything was humming. I think it was the best the station ever sounded as a whole. He was viewed locally, he was great within the industry and straight up by me. I thought Hawk was a genius and he got a lot of the credit for the show's success. And if you're Dennis Collins, why wouldn't you want to put Hawk in charge of your entire station considering what a great job he had done as EP? Well, you want Hawk to take, you know, what he did with our show

and see if he could sprinkle it across the rest of the lineup and the rest of the radio station. And he seemed like a logical choice at the time. But I think Dan and I kind of both knew where that was headed. Well, these are full-time jobs. They require I don't blame Hawk, by the way. I explain.

No, people can dream. But I explain to the guys around here all the time because they don't have this understanding. Mike, you have it because you started as an unpaid intern. These are and have always been 60 and 80 hour a week jobs and so too is program director. So there's a reason that most people don't do both jobs. And so there was a lack of focus on the thing that to me mattered the most, which was our show. So in the next episode, we'll cover how Hawk actually leaves a program director job and actually just returns to EP full-time briefly before leaving the show. But as I mentioned, on the horizon was the big three, the rants. We'll get into that the next show. And national attention because of the economy of LeBron, that is all coming your way. A tradition

now in this bi-weekly thing that we're doing here is we like to encapsulate the eras that we're talking about by providing a super cut of what we just discussed. So coming up, you'll be hearing Juanie McStash is and that bit play out some of that Jim Mandich parade as well. And some Randy Mueller goal calls to help you feel a little nostalgic. We'll be back with you in two weeks for what was probably the most pivotal off field thing that ever happened to this show, which was LeBron James bringing him and his economy to Miami. And then at that point, you strap a rocket ship.

But once again, I'm in over my head and I let everybody down. Huge changes for our show. But I'm done for two weeks is what you're saying. I don't have to come out here. You don't have to, yeah, they're coming. Well, how about Mike saying we've got a tradition going on this, our second episode that is

bi-weekly. That is tradition doing a lot of work there. I'm not convinced I can get you guys back for another recording session, quite honestly. Hey folks, it's Mike. From defending your favorite team after a bad loss to obsessively checking your fantasy lineups, football fandom is bigger than just Sundays. Miller Lite knows the passion that comes with rooting for your team. Like the debate that sparked in 1975. Great taste versus

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After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions, and that very same day, two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special. Hock, I understand that you are also on location on remote. I am Dan Stugatsen. Hock from

the Dan Leventhal Show. I'm live at Wani McStashes in Boca Raton. And I invite you to join me out here with a great night plan for Monday Night Football here at Wani Mix Stashes. We've got stashed potatoes on the menu here. Certainly you might want to start your evening with the spineless buffalo wings. Perhaps you'd like something Asian and the Wani-Tang soup. Also, maybe you want to get a basket of chicken mustaches for the table. Or perhaps some... You lost it on chicken mustaches!

You lost it on chicken mustaches! That's the visual! Perhaps for dessert you'd like to get some vanilla offense and no nuts. Or some Juanstache-y ice cream. It's hot, it's hot, I will be out at Juan and the Staches all night long for Monday Night Football. For Spook Talk 7.9, here's the ticket. Juanstache theme song, you're on 790 Punching your way down the field Sundays is the only thing you've got Clearing a lane for Travis Miner sure would help a lot

Thankfully you never shaved Which means you can always go where every nose has a mane And the play calling is lame you want to scream where the hell's Ricky did he really board a plane you want to win a December game with Maury you want to go where whiskers flow like really really I mean there's nothing more exciting than pulling up to Wani McStash's home of the world famous chicken mustaches. What are you having? The chicken mustaches? Yeah the chicken mustaches man.

How are they? They're good. They're better than his coaching. Oh here's Brandon Guzio. Brandon Guzio. Mustache yeah, that's a good mustache is man. How are they? Oh, it's Brandon guzio Brandon guzio very negative. What did you order? Desserts desserts I am recommending the vanilla offense-ed with no nuts. Zero, not one nut.

Here comes Booth down the other way. Throws it over the far side, shoots, he scores! Stephen Wise takes the feed from David Booth and puts it top shelf where Mrs. Baller keeps the peanut butter. Here comes Horton. Fakes, shoots, he scores! Nathan Horton's got a huge pair! Here's Campbell and he fans on it. Rebound by Olez. It's a score! Who's your daddy and what does he do? High slot to Horton, turns around back to Stillman. Fire scores!

Oh we're gonna need a bigger boat. Wrist shot right in the shoes, he scores! Say hello to my little friend. Big money deals keep on turning. Carry me home to see my cash. Singing lies back in Miami. Missing Alabama all the while and I look like an ass. Sneak home Alabama. It's about the lies and not

the truth. Sneak home Alabama. Little liar coming home to you. In Tuscaloosa they love the football. It's why they dumped old little Mike Shue. Now Watergate still does not bother my shoe now Watergate still does not bother me but Nick Saban lying that really do so tell the truth sneak home Alabama full of lies leaving Dolphins blue you left that stock with more regalio little shoe that's almost as bad as still having you you run for food so sneak home Alabama, little liar coming home to you. Well 877-202-BAMA is our telephone number and from right here in Tuscaloosa, Jesse has given us a call. Roll Tide, Jesse how are you? Hey, how you doing Coach? Good to hear you. Happy to be seeing you down here with us.

I'm really excited. I just got one question. Who's minding hell while you're away, Satan? What's that? Don't bother to call us back. Coach, I wanna get a little advanced. I didn't hear what he said. Don't think it was one of those things that particularly anybody needed to hear. Oh, okay.

We'll hope that our delay caught him there. Roy's top 10 movies from the 90s.ugots. Are you ready? I'm ready I have number nine locked up. I'm still working on number one. This is very exciting number 10 Roy Jack City I had that one Nino Brown. Remember that god. That was good number nine house party Number nine. House Party. Is that Kid and Play? Yes, very good.

That's where I discovered DirecTV actually. I discovered DirecTV with that movie, with Kid and Play. I was at a friend's house. I'm like, look at this magical satellite that brings in all these movies that I've never seen before. Number eight, Roy. House Party 2. Of course, the sequel. Number seven, Roy. House Party 2. Of course the sequel. Number 7 Roy.

Mo Money. Mo Money yeah. Number 6. Don't be a minister south central while drinking your juice in the hood. Little long winded. Nailed that too. Number 5 Roy. House Stella got a groove back?

I didn't understand that. You didn't understand that? I took a minute to... Who's the hot chick in that movie? Who the hell is she? Bassett. Angela Bassett. Thank you, Stu Gatz. Number four. House Party 3.

There was a third one? There was a third House Party? I think he's lying. I gotta confirm that. Are you making that up or is that real? I gotta check it out. Let me see, I'll tell you. Number three.

Jungle Fever. Are Kitten playing all tell you. Number three. Jungle fever. Are kiddin' play in all of them? Yeah. Number two. White man can't jump. That's the one I had. That's the one I had. What are we on, number one? Yeah, top, here we go.

And Roy's number one favorite movie from the 90s is? Titanic. Roy Roy Roy Roy Roy. I love that. We have a top 10 list from our beloved Roy. This is one of my favorite new segments that we've got here. What are you doing today Roy? Top 10, what are the top 10 items that we're listing today? We got, we actually have two but I'm going with songs. Top 10 songs. Number 10, your 10th favorite

song of all time is? Back in Black by ACDC. Number nine? Proud to be Black by Run DMC. Nine. Proud to be Black by Run DMC. Number eight. Black Water by the Doobie Brothers. Excellent. Excellent choice. The who? The Doobie Brothers.

Number seven. Any Song by the Black Eyed Peas. Any Song by the Black Eyed Peas. Number six. Men in Black by Will Smith. That would also go in your movie category wouldn't it? Although I think you had I'm gonna get you sucka knocking out men in black. Number five. F the Police by NWA. Whoa wait a minute what's that all about? What's that about? Number four. I'm Black and I'm Proud by the James Brown. about number four I'm black and I'm black and I'm proud by the James Brown what was that number four number number three party all the time by Eddie

Murphy did I skip one there do I have the order right there do we get work work we're caught up here number two black hole son by sound garden really I didn't know you were sound garden guy and of course the number one favorite song of Roy's is informal by snow No! No! Are you Jewish? I am not. Then shut up! Then you don't know what you're talking about.

Can we get any clearer? No! Then shut up! You don't know what you're talking about. It's very strong! It's all I'm saying. Goodbye! Fake Sammy Davis Jr. serenading you. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Cameron can, Cam Cameron can, cause he's an offensive genius and because he's not Nick

for saving. Fake men without hats, you're on 790 the ticket. You can can if you want to, you can leave your cam behind, well if you can't cam then you can't cam when you can't know Camer mine. Fake tears for fears, you're on 790. Cam, Cam, Cam Camerun, thank God you don't play an accordion. So Cam on, I'm talking to you, so Cam on. Here he is, the single greatest guest in the history of the Tan Levitard show. The wild is not Disney

folks. Ron McGill. Listen I remember after 92 I caught a 20 foot reticulated python on the beach at Matheson Hammock with three full-grown raccoons in its belly. South Florida is a flippin smorgasbord for these snakes. Arrrrrr! Arrrrrr! Arrrrrr! Arrrrrr! It's unbelievable.

It's really funny. Andy and Hawk and Joe and Mike, they've been laughing in the back throughout the entirety of the show and it's not because of anything that we're saying. I'm sure. What are you guys doing back there, Hawk? So you've seen these virtual PC games, you know, where people sit in front of their computers, they put headphones on that have a little microphone attached. These friends have gotten together and you'll hear them talking through their headphones

and they're talking about attacking whatever wizard or warrior they're going after. They are stoked to get in there and do this attack. And one of their friends, apparently a guy named Leroy Jenkins, is sleeping through this entire conversation. And they're in the middle of, alright, let's get it together, we're gonna go in there. And all of a sudden Leroy wakes up, yells out Leroy Jenkins, and just attacks the warriors before they're all ready and they're like, what's going on What's going on? We gotta get stop them stop them. Okay guys These eggs are getting us all trouble in the past

I'll run in first Gather up all the eggs. We can kind of just you know blast them all down with a we I will use intimidating shout to kind of scatter them so we don't have to fight a whole bunch of them at once We're gonna need divine intervention on our mages so we can of course get them down fast because we're bringing all these guys, I mean we'll be in trouble if we don't take them down quick. I think it's a pretty good plan and we should be able to pull it off this time. What do you think Abdul, can you give me a number crunch real quick?

Yeah, give me a sec. I'm coming up with 32.33, uh, repeating of course, percentage of survival. Well, that's a lot better than we usually do. Uh, are we ready guys? Let's do this! LEROOOOO NGAAAGGGEN! Oh my god, he just ran in. Save him!

Oh jeez, stick to the plane! Oh jeez, let's go, let's go! Stick to the fledge, huh? Stick to the plane! Oh jeez, oh f***! I can't move! Am I lagging, guys? I can't move! Oh He shouted his own name, he's an anarchist. K-Roy just wandered through here and says that they've been making, every time they talk about Antoine Walker, they fire off Leroy's name during his show. Because Antoine doesn't listen to anybody, he just, Antoine!

You can totally picture Pat Riley screaming, Antoine doesn't listen to anybody, he just, Antoine! Like you can totally picture Pat Riley screaming, Antoine! He roars! He roars! He roars! So they're planning the attack and he just shouts his own name? You can tell, you can tell how seriously they're taking it.

Stick to the plan, stick to the plan! They mortify him. Jimmy Cepolo, Joe Rose here at the Bar Mitzvah candle lighting ceremony, 888-790-3776. In a moment, Joe and I are going to dance the horror. Should be a lot of fun. It will definitely be a lot of fun. Joe, have you tasted the Manischewitz?

So good. Well, as you know, I'm a wine connoisseur. I have over 1,200 bottles in my personal collection. None are Manischewitz, but for the sake of this paying gig, I'll drink a little Manischewitz tonight. Why not? Let's throw it now to our Bar Mitzvah sideline reporter Nat Moore. Nat Moore is in the middle of all the action.

Nat, Rabbi Shlomo Mendelson is about to perform the hamozhi. Anything to add? Let's see how he does. Yes, let's see how the Rabbi does. And there it is, a perfect slice of the challah. The hamozhi recited and performed to perfection. Would you care for a slice of challah, Joe? Yeah.

Well, Jimmy Sapelo and Joe Rose wrapping it up from the candle lighting ceremony at this wonderful bar mitzvah and we definitely made some good gelt tonight. Joe, you may have had one too many slices of gefilte fish. That goes right through you. Brother, this is desperate. I gotta get outta here. We get this text so often and it makes me laugh every time we get it.

You're still whining about this crap? Snore. Let's see what Mandich is up to. Woo! No, please, text her! No! Once you discover him, what will we do? But we get it all the time, like threats.

Stu Gotts. Yes. True or untrue? That text bothers you. Untrue. What did we learn this week? 888-790-3776, Captain Hawk. What did we learn?

That's good big juicy cheeseburgers of Philly chicken. Mmm. That's good onions Mushrooms It's good Excuse me. Can I have a side order of mm-hmm... can I get some blue cheese with it? I like to dip my thick... in that blue cheese they have there. Hey, oh, you want some pasta and seafood dishes with fresh fish? It's good. So good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There is nothing like a thick Do you go into the nightclub with these Kellogg's products and just drop them on the floor with your face on them? Uh, sorry, I think we have to head to the next interview but sorry, thank you very much for your time. All right, Michael, good talking to you. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I didn't even get to ask what the... What did he call you with the other hand? I know. in Ludacris but no Dolyak. That's funny. That right there is the highlight of my journalistic career right there. We just got blown off by Michael Dolyak. We had Michael Dolyak day just a couple of days ago on the radio station. This is unfathomable.

This is the highlight of my journalism career right there. Michael doliak just completely I mean Mike said to him that's Dan Levitard you're standing in front of a 790 banner he said no when you and Jessica split and she went Romo did you wear that as some sort of badge or were you outraged by that I couldn't have cared less to be honest with you you were just done yeah guys I was I was just, I mean, yeah. We've all been through breakups, right? You move on, you move on with life. I've been happy in a relationship for three years, so the last thing I'm worried about is who she's dating.

Are we irritating you? I'm sorry? Are we irritating you? Are we bothering you with the questions? No, they're great questions, guys. Really insightful. We're not trying to bother you. Would you prefer to talk about the Sing-Off? I thought that's what I was calling it about, but apparently not. You can talk about the Sing-Off. It starts Monday night on NBC.

It culminates with a finale on December 21st. You could talk about that if you like. Cool, yeah, it's a great show. Hopefully you guys will check it out. Hopefully people down in Miami will check it out. Live finale on Monday the 21st. You want to pick some games for us? Yeah, for sure

Alright, go ahead. Let's let's play this overproduced Awfulness here for him because this is you know, it's going really well. So this will fix it So the way this works two guys is you know, if he has a winning week He's gonna come back and I'm sure given the way this has gone so far I'm sure he'd be thrilled to come back next week and pick games the so far I'm sure he'd be thrilled to come back next week and pick games. The uh, the uh, the quotes, the quotes. I think what bothered him is went Romo. That's what I think you did wrong. Like that's not just, that's just not very nice.

Well Dan and I've said this, I, I, I think he, did he just hang up on us? Because I've said this before, if my wife left me and she ended up, you know, with Shaq or Wade or an NFL quarterback, I would wear that as some sort of badge. Did somebody else hang up on our show? Is that what just happened? Oh for the love of God. You have to be bleepin' kidding me. Now we're beefing with a boy band member. He's a rich man. Kevin Gregg. Highest paid Marlin. 3-1 counts. Dude, that's what a badass comes out frothing. Mowed him down. Did you want to point to their dugout did you want to did you want to do with the doubt and and and make fun of the diamond backs now dot on cease to god that's the kind of person who doesn't watch idle bitch

and that's the guy that's the that's a man is a closer that's a man that man closes games that may come to the bases loaded first place team three one count that's a bleep you diamond back i'm a man you go back to your dugout and you watch american idol i don't watch idle i watched porn or not do you watch port what's going on here who's batting your sense in your help in the stock is we don't know what john jay is up in chris volstead's one-on-one

to john john jay is black he is indeed that confirmed marlins leading four to nothing here top of the fourth day lebatardard, Stu Gotts, and Marlins team president Dave and John Jay just grounds out to the shortstop. Over to first to Gaby Sanchez. One away here in the top of the fourth. Again Marlins leading four to nothing in some life. Until the throw is actually made. I think you got to learn that once the ground ball happens Yeah, a lot can still happen prior to the outs. Especially with your guys in the field. Yeah, a lot can still happen prior to the out especially with your guys

All look who's batting here. You look who's batting here Albert Pujols leads the league in a lot of offensive categories including nose hair including attending Glenn Beck rallies Pitch the Pujols a ball outside. Can we talk about Tony LaRusse's? Tattoo he's got a tattoo of what he got a tattoo recently it's about one Albert Pujols what's the tattoo of then I don't know but he lost a bet to his daughter and he got a tattoo late in life he's a surprising sports figure to have a tattoo especially getting it late in life apparently apparently she bet him that he could stay awake at the stoplight

when drinking and driving during spring training Volstack getting ready to deal Glenn Geffner just passed out in the radio booth by the way if someone could come to boot the radio booth and please Take one get noticed. It's easy. Maybe you just ignore him and move on. That's all you do the 3-1 here at the pool house And why not? You got to walk that guy our biggest nightmares come true The scoreboard has gone out What a disaster Matt holiday coming to the plate the La Russa tattoo not the strangest one in sports Scoreboard is back. Thank God strike on the outside corner. The Kenyan Martin also has a couple of tattoos

He's got a rapper's lips tattooed on his neck He's gonna have to have that removed because clearly that relationship didn't last so neither will that tattoo also He's got a Chinese symbol. He thinks means warrior, but Yao Ming is told it means noodles the 01 And that's a shot up the middle there Caught by the left fielder, I'd say his name, but I don't know who your left fielder is that's Morrison That's Morrison. Did you say shot up the middle ladies and gentlemen that was a shot right to left field actually I'm not sure what to away here in the top of the fourth day to away in the top of the fourth day and you would say the

ball that is dealing today right not the strangest tattoo I've seen in sports John Clayton has one on his lower back a tramp stamp by licked at one time that if you could get crazy yes pn christmas party we've lost them full set stop is electric today pop-plot it's like a little foul here's a foul-ball still has a pop-plot movies lately that i think i'm living through one right now. A horror film. And it's pretty good. And you hate

horror films. That's a foul ball. There was a crack in the bat there Stu guys, you gotta describe what happened. Well hey let's not be afraid to pitch in. Team Sport. Now Dan when we met with Edwin before the game he said he would not let Volstack go past 85 pitches today. That was the manager? I know you've been confusing everyone Rodriguez and Ozzy Martinez but that was the manager. Another foul ball. We also met with La Russa and he was barely coherent. That's going to bring up Yadier Molina, one of the Molina brothers. I always get confused which one, I think it's Yadier. I'm pretty sure this is his Indejas brother right here. Molina is a great catcher, he's the best defensive catcher in baseball, everyone says so, Posada says so, McCann says so, Victor Martinez says so, they all say he's the best defensive catcher in baseball.

Those are all offensive catchers. That's all, exactly. Right. You have the defensive catcher. I think they're two or three time All-Star Dan, yes. There it is. There one is. Labitar telling you that Molina is an excellent catcher.

The only thing that happened is Volstead just threw a strike one on the inside black fastball. To Benji Molina. To A Molina. A Molina. First and second, two outs. Here's the pitch. That's a ground ball. That's a shot up the middle.

Martinez to first and that's the inning. Is that a broken bat? That's the first bat in days thrown down there that didn't impale somebody. We got a commercial Dan. After three and a half in That's the first bat in days thrown down there that didn't impale somebody. We got a commercial Dan. After three and a half innings, the Marlins four and the Cardinals zero. You're listening to the Marlins radio network. By the way, the first inning was so bad that David Sampson, we were supposed to call three

innings today and David just informed us we'll be calling two. A single up the middle. That's not just a single Stu. That's called the first ever major league hit for Ozzie Martinez The first major league hit for the shortstop we've never heard of it Wait a minute, wait a minute. He got shot five times before he got his first major league hit? He certainly did and they're taking the ball off They're gonna give it to Mike Kozak the assistant trainer who will inscribe it for him

Which I think caps an amazing year for him He was in Jacksonville two days ago when we won the Southern League Championship and here he is getting his major league hit off no less than Chris Carpenter. So a man on first year no out and Logan Morrison comes up the bat then. What's going to happen here David with Rodriguez in all seriousness given that Hanley's got the position locked up for the next decade? Well Edwin Rodriguez is our interim manager. You may mean Ozzie Martinez who's the shortstop. Are you confusing Rodriguez and Martinez? All of these Latin guys are the same to me Samson. There he is Dan Lebatard. Oy vey.

Carpenter deals Some chin music to Gabby Sanchez Chin music normally isn't swung at I got news for you. I was getting chin music in no matter what today. This is radio Stu I was getting my Music in no matter what today. This is radio Stu. I was getting my Shin Music in. Each hero is worth 20 million a year. I am speechless by that contract. I'm hoping that that report is false because there's no chance that at the top of the lineup ... Forget that, there's no chance anybody's worth that. And each hero who's led his team to zero, nothing, I hope you're wrong, Dan.

It's unbelievable. You know what, everybody gets what they deserve and I guess maybe that'll be more luxury tax money and more revenue sharing money they'll have to give. But signing, I'm sure it can't be true. There's no way they gave 20 million a year to Ichiro at his age for five years, there's no way. It is true, this isn't wrong.

It can't be, Dan. It literally, it'll take the sport down, that contract. chiro at his age for five years there's no way it is true this is a long and began it really really don't take the sport down that contract they're right back to the ridiculous contract they can't be your sports out of control well sign each or a twenty million year for five years of the joke it's an excusable it's complete mismanagement it can't be true fake you be brown what would you like to say

to the real you be brown now when you like to say to the real Hubie Brown? Now in your Hubie Brown, is it true? Is it true? Listen, I went to Hooters last week and I saw a commercial on TV, now Hubie Brown, tell me it's true. Is sauce in your mouth better than on your chin? Most of all, you never catch me dead in Hooters, okay? I'm too old for Hooters.

No Hooters? But anyway, look, I really appreciate it. I appreciate the fun. But you know, I can't even answer that. Alright. DJ, that was flawless. Flawless, DJ. Can you remix that, please? Dusty Rhodes, let me hear it. Dusty Rhodes with some old school hip hop.

I'm a violent sneaher. I'm a violent sneaher. I'm a violent sneaherther! I got blocks from the kids on the hill with my mom and my pops! I'm a violent snea-ther! I can't get it down, so get down to your feet and jump around! Oh my god! The King of the Badasses is with us again on 790 The Ticket Underground Legend! Kimbo Slice, Bare Knuckle Fighter! You know him from YouTube and the internet and now, undefeated! He's the Patriots of MMA he cannot be beaten his last fight 19 seconds I know you respect every man who has the courage to fight Kimbo but 19 seconds and he was

tapping out as he hit the floor what was that all about oh it had to be about that uppercut man although I didn't feel the punch you know that right up a couple of hands that's all I can say you know Kimbo curious I've got no fighting skills don't you think that i might be able to last nineteen seconds with you possibly and i was that that's like that question you guys actually all couple months back you're being in a little take but it's been take with the shark but they go free shot

and i'm saying kim well that's a good question i don't know if it is't know it depends on how often you you could you know run how good you can run around that ring. Well but I would be let's let's make it the hypothetical I'm in with Kimo slice I got a lot of space and I'm gonna do the crew the with the wacky crappy spin thing and then I'm gonna run away how long am I gonna last? Oh no man it depends on how quick I can cut you off and land the shot. All right but you'd be but you'd be nice about it you'd let me last 30 seconds just out of. I'll let you go beyond 30 if I can cut you off and land a shot. All right, but you'd be nice about it. You'd let me last 30 seconds just out of...

I'll let you go beyond 30 if I can. All right. It's up to me. All right, out of generosity. Can you envision a circumstance in which Kimbo Slice taps out? What I was gonna say is taps out. Kimbo Slice, we lost him.

This is what we specialize in back after this. How many kids do you have? Before you ask me, next time that you want to know that question, when you have me on your show, say, hey Sean, how are your kids doing? And then you come in and ask me a question. Okay, how are you? I'm pretty sure you're asking me. You're asking me that next time. Thanks. Michael Strahan.

Mike, you're in the news a lot lately because of your divorce and what seems like it's a ridiculous amount of money. If we're going to talk about football, I was told I'm talking about a Pepsi smash and football, because of your divorce and what seems like it's a ridiculous amount of money. If we're gonna talk about football, I was told I'm talking about a Pepsi smash and football, then we can talk about that, but I don't wanna get on it. Just like, I don't talk to the papers about that.

I was just gonna ask if you're tired of talking about it. I guess the answer is yes. I don't talk about it, and you're gonna try to come out of left field and kind of get me with it, but I'm from New York, my friends. I do radio all the time and I'm gonna shut you up before we even go there. Just was gonna ask if you're sick of it apparently

you are Pepsi Smash. You know what you gotta like I was saying ask me about the Pepsi don't go I'm gonna ask don't it doesn't matter what you're gonna ask me I'm telling you what we're gonna talk about. Mike Fritiello. That was a wonderful tap dance you just did there Mike. Thank you. That was a terrible question that you asked me. Hulk Hogan. Wasn't it alleged that gay sex was exchanged for match results? You gotta be kidding me. Where did you get that crap? I thought I read that somewhere. You thought you read that?

Yes. Or you did read it? I thought I read it. I'm sitting here going by 10. Oh, you want to do an interview with me, man. Don't play games, man. That's ridiculous. Uncomfortable Radio.

Stu Gatz, did you know that Steven Seagal has a song out called talk to my ass? No. I'm dead serious. Chewie talk to my ass. I'm shocked that he were able to get rid of shock. But how does Pat Riley get rid of shock? Louis talk to my ass. Yo, Dan. Yeah. All right. Listen, I want to know, what do they,

the physical they do on Shaq, what does that consist of man? They do MRIs, how many doctors they got involved? They talk to his ass. I knew that was coming. I know it. I know it. I know it.

Roger Clemens is in George's box and Roger Clemens is coming back. Oh my goodness gracious. Of all the dramatic things I've ever seen, Roger Clemens standing right in George Steinbreiters box announcing he is back. Roger Clements is a New York Yankee. What are you texting there? We're still on the air. Who are you texting?

Why are you texting in the middle of the show? I was texting, if you must know. I was texting my partner, my fantasy baseball partner, and I was letting him know that our boy, Adam LaRoche, just hit a two-run home run. That can't wait five minutes? Well it's a LaRoche with an exclamation point. That's what I text. Hold on a second.

I wish I was kidding people. Oh no, no Dan. I mean you are an unfathomable dork. I think I had one of the wildest weddings in history. I think I need to send y'all some of my wedding pictures because it was like the biggest fight I ever seen on the screens. It happened at my wedding reception. But why? Among whom? Among my friends, of course, you know I represent the thugs, you know? Right. Of course, my friends and the people we had catering the food,

it was like my friends wanted to eat and they was like on some can't beat them join them type mess. So wait a minute the people catering the food got beaten up by your thug friends? He got mollywhopped. But wait a minute, Trick that's not I mean that's not wedding that's not love what is that? My father-in-law uh one of my best one of my best men and about five people went to jail. Come on. But this was after, right? This was after this. This was, no, this was, no, we never ate at the reception. Nobody ate at the reception. We went to bar and people out of jail.

Did everyone like go to Benningans or something? What happened? After we went, actually, afterwards, it was pretty late. I went and got me some fried shrimp from the shrimp club. It's your wedding. But your father-in-law got involved in the mess? Was he throwing hand-makers? Yeah, he have a mean right hook.

He ended up with a song in the police office. You know, you don't get in between a man that's trying to marry his daughter and his attitude. You will get that right hook and that's what happened fake Highlight song you're on 790 the ticket We got the game I thought this best right here if you're having sex with my wife text me seven four nine six five Oh Ted Ginn Jr., night in the draft, Come be our savior, save Cameron's ass, to the bronze. Please run that kickoff for our touchdown. And I'm a good woman, and we never think about it But I'm a good man, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word,

I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, I'm a man of my word, Mo, you're on 790. Yes, I have a funny and kind of gay story. I don't know if you know that Julio Franco used to play in Mexico City before he was called up by the Braves. See? And so I'm from Mexico City and I was producing the post-game show of the Mexico City Tigers. He was crushing the league at times.

He had like five home runs. That day, he was batting 5.80 something. So I sent this Latino girl to do the interview after the game, because he had a huge game. And she got into the dressing room. And she came out, you know, the Latino skin is kind of light brown. And she came out of the dressing room

whiter than Hubie brown so i said what's wrong and she said no no no please you need to make this interview i can concentrate so i went in with the you know with the microphone and everything and julio franco was the interview naked man it was the biggest monster that i've ever seen, okay? So I concentrate and I said, hey Julio, te molesta si te viste compadre? He means, well, that's the way I roll. If you want the interview, you have to watch me. And I said, oh, I'll watch you and man,

since I'm not gay and since that day, I don't feel sure about myself. What a great story, sir. I don't feel sure about myself Great story sir. Thank you for sharing that What a delightful it really was it was it was delightful it was well told the accent was perfect Yeah, he told him just with the right touch It was a very delicate touch. Yes It was a very delicate touch, yes. A well-told tale. Delightful, better than my Earl Curator story, and has made me a Julio Franco fan for reasons

I'm not certain of. Can you make that a promo? Is it short enough? Or long enough? Is it long enough? Well, now I have to include that joke in the promo. Hey folks, it's Mike. From defending your favorite team after a bad loss to obsessively checking your fantasy

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