The Kevin Sheehan Show - Chase, Nigel, and Walken

Episode Date: June 9, 2021

Kevin opened today with the amazing run of individual performances from the NBA Playoffs. He played the Chase Young answers from yesterday's press conference as to why he didn't post for any of the OTA days and reacted. Then, Marc Sterne (aka Nigel) joined the show for some Tony Kornheiser Show reminiscing and a lot more.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Chean Show. Here's Kevin. On the show today, a good friend of mine, Mark Stern, aka Nigel from the Tony Kornheiser's show. Mark also produced Tom and me, our show The Sports Fix,

for seven and a half years at 980. He's doing a new podcast, which he'll tell us all about, but we'll also reminisce a little bit about working together over the years, some really good stories to come from my conversation with Mark. If you remember his Christopher Walk-in impersonation, he did it on the Sports Fix, our show for several years during football season. It was actually nearly 10 years ago that him doing that impersonation created a national news story. You may or may not remember it.

Some of you probably don't. Most of you probably don't. We will cover that. and more a little bit later on in the show. The latest on Skins' minicamp day two coming up. You'll also hear exactly what Chase Young said yesterday with the questions included on why he wasn't at OTAs. That's coming up in about five minutes.

To start, Donovan Mitchell last night for the Utah Jazz, scored 45 points in Utah's one day. 12-109 win over the Clippers in game one of the Western Conference semifinals. This is a series that I'm very much into because my favorite player and all of team sports, Kauai Leonard, I'm rooting for him to lead the Clippers to the NBA finals and win a title. That's what I'm rooting for right now more than anything in sports because there are actual games and there are meaningful games going on while our favorite sport, the NFL, is just holding minicamp. Anyway, Anyway, Donovan Mitchell last night went for 45 points in the game last night, and with it,

became the 15th player already in these playoffs to go for 40 or more in a game. How unique is that? Well, the last two years, there were 13 and 11, respectively, in terms of 40-plus point performances in the postseason. that was in the entirety of the postseason. This year, through just around and a half of the postseason, 15 players have scored 40 or more points. I've said many times over the last week and a half, two weeks, that I am enjoying the NBA playoffs. I think the performances individually, some of the team performances and the intensity of these games have been fabulous. Last night, Donovan Mitchell's 45 is only ranked as the sixth best scoring performance of the playoffs through the first round and a half.

Damian Lillard had 55 in double overtime in that unbelievable performance in game against Denver last week. Jason Tatum went for 50 in a loss to Brooklyn. Devin Booker and John Morant both have 47-point games in the postseason. Luca Donchich had 46 Sunday in game 7 against the Clippers. Leonard had 45 Friday night in game 6 against the Mavs. Mitchell had 45 last night. Luca also had 44 against the Clippers and 42 against the Clippers. Kevin Durant had 42 against the Celtics.

Lillard had 42 against the Nuggets. Hardens had 41. Kauai's had 41. Mbid had 40 last night. And Tatum also had a... 40-point game. That's amazing. 15 individual performances. So far, we're not even through halfway of the second round yet, and we've already had 15 individual performances of 40-plus points. Last year, again, 13 in total throughout the playoffs, 11 the year before. Every round,

right through the NBA finals. Something has happened. in the NBA with the ability to score that we haven't seen. The games are high-scoring games. They're entertaining games. The truth of the matter is, even the best of defenders in the NBA, they can't stay in front of the best players. You cannot guard Kevin Durant with the best defender in the game. It's very difficult to guard right now somebody like Kyrie Irving or Jason Tatum or Lillard or Leonard or Hardin. It's almost impossible. Donchich, nearly impossible. If they want to get 40 or 50, they'll get 40 or 50. By the way, the NBA MVP is Denver Center Nicola Yokic, the first center to win the MVP award since 2000 when Shaq won it.

and the first second round pick in NBA history to become an MVP. I thought that was interesting. He does not have a 40-point performance yet. He does have two 38-point performances in the playoffs. Joel Embed had 40 last night, 13 rebounds and 35 minutes, as the Sixers evened up their series with the Hawks. The NBA playoffs are great, I'm telling you. If you don't, if you think somehow the NBA is not for you, but you're a basketball fan,

you're the one that's missing out. I did read after the show yesterday some stories, if not like rumors, about Christopps Porzingis coming to Washington. I would not want that. I wouldn't count on that either. I think really the next piece of news as it relates to the Wizards is Scott Brooks, and then it'll be Bradley Beale. I think those are the pieces of news that are coming on the team.

Certainly the Brooks News, they deep dive into everything. They take a lot of time. There's a lot of research. There's a lot of consensus building in that organization. But I would think that that is coming soon. All right. Mini camp today. I was about to say training camp.

Mini camp today. What happened? This is based on a lot of the beat reporters that I follow. JP and Ben and John and Sam and all the guys and Nikki as well, all the people that are out there following it. The piece of news that came out of mini camp today is that John Allen said that he and the team are continuing to work on a new deal but has nothing, he has nothing to report as of now in terms of anything being finalized. I've mentioned a couple of months back. I expected them to get a deal done with John before training camp, worst case before week one of the NFL season.

There are discussions going on. Doesn't mean that it will happen, but I think it will. I think more likely than not it will happen. By the way, Curtis Samuel missed a second straight day of minicamp. So did Jimmy Morland. Bostic, I think, missed. J.D. McKissick as well. And there was some news related to vaccinations, if you're interested in this. Rivera said that nearly 50% of the players are vaccinated. He says they've brought in an expert to discuss

the situation and hopes they eventually reach herd immunity to open up more together in terms of opportunities to spend more time together. There was Montez sweat talking about the vaccine. And his comments were as follows. He said about the team bringing in vaccine experts to speak to the players, quote, I'm not a fan of it at all. I won't get vaccinated until I get more facts. I haven't caught COVID yet, so I don't see me treating COVID until I actually get COVID, closed quote. That's an interesting perspective for sure.

he'll treat the COVID when he gets the COVID and he's not going to get vaccinated until he gets more facts. Well, that's smart. You shouldn't get vaccinated until you've researched it and you've got a lot of information. Not everybody takes things on blind faith. I went in and got vaccinated pretty much the moment that I thought, you know, everybody in my life that was much older had been vaccinated and it was available. And I trusted the CDC.

and I trust a lot of what I have read about the vaccinations. But I am all for those people that want to get more information and to come to a conclusion on their own. Anyway, all right, Chase Young yesterday spoke to the media, and that happened while we were doing the podcast, but we didn't have all of the sound. And what I wanted to do today is I actually wanted you to hear the beat reporters press conference with Chase Young yesterday.

Because I think a lot of you have this sense that this isn't really newsworthy, that there's no reason not to believe that he's in great shape and apparently he is. There's no reason to think he isn't doing the work. That's not that big of a deal. That he was the only player out of 90 players to miss all six of the OTA days. and that it really doesn't matter what the reasons were. Well, I disagree with that. I think because he's a team captain,

and he is not only a self-anointed, but also a team-enointed, and coaching staff-anointed leader of this culture change out in Ashburn, I think it is important to find out why he felt that he didn't need to be at a voluntary event, but that 89 others decided that they would, volunteer and show up and he was the only one that didn't. I think it's interesting at the very least. And I wanted you to hear exactly the way the questions were posed and how he answered them. And then afterwards, I will tell you a little bit about what I've learned about the comments from

yesterday as well. This was Chase Young. You'll hear Scott Abraham from Channel 7 kick off the questioning. And then Heather McDonough, my friend from Channel 4. throws in a question or two, and then you'll hear John Kime, of course, from ESPN, finish it up. Over the last couple of weeks, it was voluntary OTAs, and I'm just curious, was it a hard decision for you not to come to these voluntary OTAs, and if you don't mind sharing, why weren't you able to make it? I've been in and out phase one and two. You know, this off season, I have a lot of stuff going on.

I did five different shoots for five different things. So I just been having a lot going on. And, you know, I'm communicating with my coaches. And, you know, I'm ready to rock. I came out today. I was playing fast. So I feel good. You know, the biggest thing was just communicating with Coach Ron and they're Rio.

And as long as I'm locked them, they know I'm working. Thanks, Chase. Hey, Chase, Heather McDonough, NBC4. Kind of going off that, how nice was it to know that, you're talking to Ron, you're talking to Jack? and they're not holding anything against you and how comfortable after this year with them do you feel in that relationship

that you can have that open communication? It feels good. I love my coaches, and my coaches know I'm going to work. You know, they know I'm not going just, you know, lay down and relax, you know, and be lazy. So, you know, I'm a worker. Oh, man.

And coach know that, so, you know, I'm going to come ready. And you had a lot of opportunities off the field this offseason we saw you on. on family feud. Can you just kind of take us, you know, through some of them, maybe the,

I had an underarmament shoot. That's going to be coming out. That's pretty big. Had a shoot with eBay for watches. And as you said, I did family feud as well. So, yeah, that's just three things that I did in those years.

Just how cool is it to have those opportunities at such a young age? And what did you take away from each of those? I'm blessed. I don't take any opportunity for granted. You know, I say my praise and, you know, I'm just blessed to be it. John Kahn.

Hey, Chase, when you're working out, when you have those things going on, how are, what kind of things you're doing to get your workouts and to make sure you're, you seem to be a guy who's kind of obsessed with working out. So how do you go about getting all that in? Yeah, man, you know, throughout them shoots and things like that, I would have to work out that morning. And the shooting was probably, I work at that morning and shoots. A lot of them would like to start at 10 with 9.

but I would have to go 10 because my workouts and stuff like that. And they would really go 10 to 6. So I'll probably work out at like 6, 37, then pop up at the shoot at 10 and then I'll be on set from like 10 to 6. So that's like a day. So there it was from yesterday, Chase Young answering media questions. I wanted to play that whole thing because I think some of you never get to hear it or hear the questions.

and how they're answered. You know, context is everything. He mentioned that he was busy with the five different shoots, the five different things. He mentioned Under Armour, eBay, doing an eBay watch ad, and the family feud appearance as well. He also went through his daily routine that included, you know, the workouts when he was, you know, on set from 10 to 6, and he was getting his workouts in earlier. A couple of things just to clear up because sometimes the timing of these things when you're listening to a press conference aren't exactly clear. The team told me, the Washington football team told me that the family feud thing was from a few months back. So that did not impact the OTAs at all. They told me that for phase three, phase three for them is the OTA days, the three and three from the last two weeks, that he was in my.

Miami for the first week of OTA days, training on his own and decided not to come. There was no media or endorsement opportunity for him there during the first week. He just decided to skip the OTAs and train in Miami. And then during the second week, last week, he was shooting a commercial for Under Armour, up in the area somewhere, while also simultaneously working out with a trainer. Now, I learned that Under Armors commercial shoots, if anybody's interested, they usually last a day, maybe a day and a half. And if the athlete wants to move or change the day, they move or change that day.

They pretty much oblige the athletes request in terms of timing. I was told that by somebody in the know as far as Under Armour commercial shoots. So there is the why, or at least, you know, an explanation as to why he missed the OTA days. I've got three or four things here to follow up, and then we're going to move on and we're going to talk to Mark Stern. Number one is this, and this is just repeating again for those that are slow and or hard of hearing. I do not think this will affect his play on the field next year or any year. I expect him to be one of the best defensive players in the game in short order. And if he isn't, I'll be surprised.

However, I am disappointed that as a leader and captain on this team, he was the only one out of 90 who didn't post at all, not even for one day. I think true leaders don't need to be told when and how to lead by some CBA. Now, I would never, ever want him to pass on big endorsement opportunities. Never. I don't want to take money out of the man's pocket or have an opinion that takes money out of the man's pocket. He should be doing these things. This is a short career that NFL players have.

They should be maximizing on all of these opportunities. I don't have a problem with any of that. Okay? I am just disappointed that he didn't figure out a way because clearly during the first week there was away. And I think even during the second week of OTAs, there may have been a way for him to post for at least one day. That's all, disappointed. Devastated? No. Disappointed? Yes. Do I think it's going to affect anything about the kind of player? He becomes next year or beyond? I do not. I'll also add that I think the coaches, or at least some of them, were disappointed. too. They'll never say it, so therefore I can never prove to you that they feel that way. But I know for sure

that while this wasn't the end of the world to any of them either, and none of them think that it's going to impact the kind of player he has, they still would have preferred that their best player and one of their team leaders and captains have shown up for one day, just one, versus appearing to be too busy with personal matters to show up when 89 out of 90 players, him being the only exception, including by the way other team leaders and team captains who also probably would have preferred to have been somewhere else during the last two weeks, they showed up. They deemed it important enough to show up. I would tell you definitively that I know that if they were able to say what they wanted to say on this matter, they would have preferred.

he had made the effort to show up for at least a day or two. He had that opportunity. Let me make one other thing perfectly clear to those of you who think, you know, this is some sort of an example of the media overreacting or being overly negative about this situation. I'll speak for myself on this one. I'm not and have not been overly reactive or overly negative to Chase Young missing six OTA days. I've been, in my opinion, appropriately reactive and appropriately critical. This is a two on an issue scale of one to ten, all right? Issues, you know, 10, really big deals, one, no big deal at all. This is a two for me. It's not a one, but it's far from a 10.

What many of you have tried to do is what much of our world seems to do these days. They exaggerate when the truth will do. This market is not a tough media market, people. Chase Young, for this particular issue in Philly or New York, it would have been more of like a six or a seven or an eight on the scale of one to ten. This media market is less critical of its sports teams than most on the East Coast. Now, it's more constructively critical than some, but most East Coast markets are much tougher than this media market. There are a lot. There are a lot of cheerleaders in this market.

I'm not saying that it's totally unique. You just don't get that in a lot of other markets, specifically in the Northeast. I'm not a cheerleader. There are plenty of other blogs and podcasts and radio shows where you can get that. I'm a fan, a big fan, long fan. I want them to win, but after the last 20 years, I definitely have my antenna up. And so should you. You know, there's a saying about leadership, and I'll probably botch this. There are two kinds of leaders, those who are interested in the flock and those who are interested in the fleece. I'm not a mark. You can find a podcast segment from somebody else or a blog or something written who thinks that this is 100% okay that he didn't show up for any of the OTA days.

And then they'll list all of the moments over this first grand year of his career where he exemplified leadership. You can find that. That's not going to be me. I'm a fan of the team, and I'm a fan of him. I think he's going to be great. But I don't want to get fleeced. Remember this happened in 2012. I am not suggesting it. the same thing. I don't even think it's close to the same thing. I like him a lot as a player. I'm excited that he's on my team, but he hasn't proven anything yet. If anyone, including Chase, were to ask me, and they probably wouldn't, if I think he should have been there for at least one of the OTA days, my answer is now and forever, and it would require little to no thought before answering,

yes, you should show up. But they're voluntary. No, not for you, they're not. You're a leader, they're trying to create a new culture, your captain, 89 other guys are likely to show up. You can't be the only one that doesn't. That's all. Mark Stern will be our guest right after these words from these sponsors. This is something that has actually been on my list of things to do for a long time on the podcast. And it wasn't my idea this time because Mark Stern called me and said, I'd love to come on the podcast to talk about my podcast that I'm doing, which we are going to talk about. But you have been, for those of you who don't know who Mark is, most of you do.

Okay, Mark was, I was fortunate enough to have him as my producer on the Sports Fix with Tommy for seven plus years. Mark and I have been friends for coming up on like 20 years, believe it or not. And Mark is Nigel on the Tony Kornheiser show. I think many of you know that. Some of you don't. And for those of you that didn't, there you go. There's the big reveal. But Mark is one of my very good friends and has been for a long period of time.

He's one of the people I talk to a lot, but not necessarily about sports, usually, about a lot of other things. But Mark is going to be on the podcast today. And we're going to talk about a couple things, including your new podcast and what you're doing with tennis. And we can talk a little bit about tennis because it's been in the news. I actually did yesterday on the podcast yesterday or maybe the day before. I had a reaction to Fed's withdrawal from the French Open so we can get to that. But one of the reasons that I wanted you to come on the podcast is to talk about you. Because I think a lot of people, you know, who have listened to radio in the market,

listen to Tony's show and Tony's podcast, know who. who you are, but they don't really know other than the Nigel character who you are. So I thought we could talk about you if you don't mind to start this little segment. No, I'm happy to and I'm thrilled to be on with you. I'm now sort of mortified that I'm like, hey, Kevin, I need to come on your show. Let me on your show. No, I mean, look, we've both done that for each other over the years several times. whether it's you know, you or somebody that you want on or, or me, you know, being on Tony's show or whatever.

I mean, look, one of the greatest thrills of my professional life in broadcasting was being a significant part of the Tony Kornheiser radio show for many, many years. And every single morning for, you know, 10 years roughly, I would walk into the studio twice during the show to do news with Mark. in there and with Gary in there, with Jeannie in there, and with Tori in there, and everybody else that was in there, Chris and everybody else over the years. And I missed that terribly. That was so much fun to do. And it ended for me when I started doing mornings with Cooley because I could no longer do it anymore. Right. But just weren't those the best days at the station? Oh, absolutely. I mean, listen, I've been incredibly lucky and blessed in my career to get to work with a guy like Tony and then to have so many amazingly cool people, a smart and bright and

talented that are part of that show. And you were such a huge part of what we did, you know. And I mean, I do the news now. And I've done it, you know, here and there throughout the years. And every time I do it, I'm like, yeah, it was Kevin would have. No, that's not true. You know, but it was so much. And then I got to go from that. And like you mentioned, I got to work with you and Tommy for seven plus years on the sports fix. And it was, you know, it was, It was such a great fun show to be part of and to get to work with someone who you respect professionally, but also somebody that you're friends with. I mean, that's just the ideal situation in any kind of professional environment. So, yeah, I look back on those days.

And I miss him for Tony's show right now because we're all doing it remotely. You know, he's over at his house with Michael and I'm in my apartment, you know, zooming with him. And so it's a different feel for it. I still love. Is he not back? I mean, are you guys not back together now? He's fully vaccinated. for crying out loud. And all of you are too. We all are. Yeah. I'm not sure what we're he's a little he's a little

reluctant. I mean anybody that knows Tony. He has a lot of fear in his life. So, um, you know, we've talked about, I think eventually we'll go back in studio, but he's also loved this so much. We might try and do something, you know, out of his house from now on. So, you know, like with everything, things evolve. And this is just sort of a different version of what we're doing in the show right now. But, but as much as I love it and I do love what we're doing. And I'm, I'm, I'm, proud and thrilled that we were able to stay on the air for the entire year through at the lockdown. I know what that meant to people to get some kind of voice out there, some kind of

entertainment to distract them from things that were going on. But I do miss being in studio with that whole crew, like you said, with Gary, with Chris, Jeannie, David, and Tori and the whole gang. It was a routine that we were involved in. And it just, I've said, I've used this line so many times over. the last couple of months anyway as a lot of people on 980 and you and i have had many conversations about our good friends um doc walker and scott lynn and cj and steve zabin and sally and everybody you know um you know that that was a part of the station that's no longer a part of the station

it doesn't feel like the same station anymore um but you know the the days of of coming in when i had a midday show, but coming in early, because Tony's show was always recorded early, and walking into my office and you having, like, you know, a newspaper with a couple of things circled from him that he wanted to do, and then I would add to it. I use this line all the time from my all-time favorite show comedy, anyway, the office when Andy Bernard in the finale says, I wish there was a way that you could tell that you're in the good old days before you leave. them. And we were in the good old days back then. And I love what I'm doing now with the podcast, and I love that I'm able to do with Tommy and Cooley. And you're still producing Tony's podcast,

which, by the way, is one of the most successful podcasts in the world in terms of the audience size, et cetera. And you know, you're still playing the Nigel role, which is fun, but it's just different. You know, it's not the same day that we used to have. Like, you and I spent so much time every day together from like 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. every day. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was a and it was a great day. You know, I mean, and we did have, we had a couple. There were two runs for me, you know, in that radio station that were really just brilliant. And the first was when you came on board with us, when we're over at Brookville Road. Yeah. And it was just those days were the most fun because we just had a huge crew of talented, funny people. And all we worked hard and we laughed and it just had a blast

all day long. And then that second run when you were doing the show back in Rockville and Tony and I were up there. And you're right. Those days were just like getting ready for shows and doing good content, chasing down fun guests and having the most fascinating conversations off mic about everything under the sun. And, you know, listen, it was a, it, It was a great time. And you couldn't have put any better. The Nard Dog had it right, you know? Yeah.

You wish you could recognize the good old days when you're in the middle of them. Yeah. And before you've left them. But the, you know, a couple of things, because I do want a little bit about how you got started and the whole thing and how it evolved with Tony. Because I think, you know, I'm sure you've told this story before. And, but, but, you know, literally, Mark, Tony's studio was a place of refuge for us. after Tony had left. I mean, it was where the show was done, but it's where Mark essentially worked. I mean, Mark had a desk and the whole thing, but Mark was basically hold up in Tony's

studio from 7 a.m. until, you know, you would leave at 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon or whatever it was. And I would say that on 80% of the days, after they had left and before our show, and then after our show, that's where I was. And you and I would be talking about a lot of things, typically of them having to do with sports or the company in which we worked for. But we solved, we thought we were solving a lot of the world's problems. But we were also, let's just say we, management was never super sharp in the radio business. Oh, God, no. No. I mean, I could say a lot of disparaging things.

I won't, but, but yeah, management was always less than impressive. I guess. Yeah. And there were days in which management would come in and they would have conversations with Mark and I and we would be sitting there and they'd say, what do you think about this? And they'd leave and we'd just look at each other and we'd say, did he really just ask that question? He could not, he couldn't have figured that one out on his own. Anyway, how did you? I want to apologize for one thing, which I've never fully apologized for.

In that tiny studio where we're doing Tony show and you would. come in. I had a phase in my life where I was trying to get more protein so I would I would hard-boil eggs and you came into the studio. And you're like look I'm stern I'm just going to tell you this right now. It smells disgusting here. Stop bringing the eggs in. So a couple of things real quickly. Actually I'll save these okay because I want to talk about how what you were like when I first met you versus what you turned out to be. But you how did you I mean you can give a little bit about you grew up you know in in multiple areas and you went to Denison out in lovely um what's the town that Denison's in I was forget

Grandville Ohio Grandville Ohio um and then you got into broadcasting and give everybody sort of the start of broadcasting um everybody knows where you are now but how it all got started and how you ended up doing Tony's show uh I really I wanted to do sports broadcasting for a long time and just to get into the medium and and i'm friends with billy bush because i went to high school with him um and and billy said hey you know i i got an in for you to radio station up in lake one of tusaki new hampshire i he'd work there and he said if you want an interview i can get it for you i went up there i literally said in my interview when a guy's one of my my soon-to-be general manager said why do you think you want to do this do you have any experience i said no i've never

worked in radio but i have one in my car and he still hired me so it was like okay and i I worked there for three and a half years and loved it. You know, it was great. You know, you're making no money, but you love just the job and just broadcasting. It was so much fun. And Billy was doing a morning show down here and said, hey, you want to be my producer. And I wasn't really interested in being a producer. I love being on the air.

But that was my chance to get, you know, into a big market and come back to where I lived, which is, you know, my family was down here in D.C. So I did that for a couple of years and realized that I never wanted to work on a morning show because I don't like getting up at 3.30 in the morning. going to sleep at like 7.30 and kind of burned out on that. And I had always kind of been pestering Todd Cassowary, the manager or the program director for 980. And finally, an opening came up and he said, you want to come on board?

And I did. And I worked with Steve Zaven and Andy Poland for a couple of years on the sports reporters. And then I was kind of shuffled around with some stuff. And I was really a man without a show and thought that I might get blown out because I didn't really have anything that was keeping me at the station. thought they might just try and trim some budget and whack me. And then Tony was just finishing up, I guess he had a non-compete from after doing ESPN national radio.

And he was coming back to do local radio, which you really wanted to do. And I didn't have a show. And Todd said, well, we're going to make you Tony's producer. And I literally said this. And I think I've told Tony this is not going to, you know, he's not going to be furious about this. I said, I don't want that job because if I do that, I'm going to be so terrified about not doing it well. I'll do it so well. It'll be the only job I have for the rest of my career.

Prussian. Yeah. Right. It turned out to be very true. And then Todd just looked at me and he said, well, if you don't take the job, we have no place for you. So I said, well, this sounds like a great opportunity. And then, you know, I'd met Tony before briefly, but we were introduced and started with him. And I don't know how I was doing.

I didn't feel like I was doing all that well. And then the Nigel thing sort of was born in this weird moment. on the show and Tony had didn't know I could do voices and didn't really know my background and that was when he really took a shine to me and I think he I think he literally said to Castleberry after that he said don't ever mess with this guy he's my guy and I don't I want him with me always and and so I've been I've been with Tony I want to say since like oh four it is oh four it's exactly when it was yeah so it's and it's been a great run you know I mean I used to read him you know and Will Bond and boss you know all the time in the post and and and then to get a chance to work with him

You know, it really, you can't draw that kind of stuff up. So even though I haven't gone on to have like the on-air career that I thought I would, you know, it's been a brilliant, it's been a brilliant ride for me. And it's still going strong and it's opened up all kinds of possibilities of doors and introduce me to amazing people. And, you know, so it's not the path I imagined I would have had when I started out on this journey. But no path is like you think it's going to be. And it really has just been magnificent. You know, I so remember those days because I had just, as you know, it was a second professional career for me broadcasting. And I got this opportunity to do some weekend updates on 980 after I had done some play by play.

And, you know, had been introduced to Bennett Zier through a friend of mine. And then met Todd and met CJ. And they said, yeah, you know, if you want to come. in and do some updates on the weekend and came in and did some weekends on a weekend update on the Kentucky Derby weekend with Bram in there hosting on Saturday. And literally within two weeks, the woman who was doing morning updates, Meredith Joseph, Meredith was excellent. We love her. Loved Meredith. She was excellent on the air. She left to go on maternity leave. And Castleberry basically I went in and I said look if nobody wants to do that while she's out I'll do them

and no one did want to do them that early and so he gave it to me and literally a week after I started doing Meredith Joseph's morning updates while she was on maternity leave Tony's show started you know on the station and I was in there doing updates during Tony's Tony's show. And do you remember, do you remember, I remember why he instantly loved you. Because like it was, it wasn't like a gradual process. Immediately he loved you. And the reason why was because you came in throwing high heat saying people fall off cruise ships all the.

Yeah, it was the cruise ship thing. I think you're right. Or weather, one of the two. But then right then there were like three or four stories of people falling off cruise ships. So Tony was like, this guy Kevin knows it. He's awesome. He's gold. We got to have them.

And you immediately became part of the fabric of that show, which was so fun to watch. And it made the show better. It did. Well, I mean, you're awfully kind. It was one of those things. I was giving broadcasting. You know this. I don't know if I've ever shared this with anybody. I was essentially giving broadcasting, you know, like a year.

Like I wanted to do play-by-play or host a sports talk radio show. Why? Well, because I liked listening to it. And I thought I would be good at it. But I was not at that point in my life after being involved in four different startups, technology and internet startups. I was not going to move to Paducah, Kentucky. You know, my family, the kids were super young, they were in schools already. We just weren't going to do that.

So I had a very short window to sort of try to make this work, or I would have just gone back, you know, into some new business. And everything worked out. like I literally did one update on Saturdays during the, I think it was the Derby with Bram, Bram Weinstein. Bram, I think, may have been at, like, he may have been at a track watching the race, but doing update, doing his show from there. And I was back in studio. And I can remember very, I didn't even know what an update was.

And Scott Lynn was a massive help in sort of putting it together. And then I did it for one Saturday and maybe the following Saturday. and that's when Meredith went on maternity leave. I took the gig. Tony came in a week later, and he made me a part of his show almost instantaneously. It was luck. It was very lucky.

I'm glad I was in that spot at the time and that I didn't fumble it completely away. But the bottom line is, if Meredith didn't go on maternity leave and if Tony didn't come in like two weeks later, I probably would never have had what is now like an 18 year, 17 to 18 year career in broadcasting on radio. I probably would have gone because we've known a lot of people who were really good, better

than we were. They just never got the opportunity because it didn't exist. Yeah. No. You know, timing is so much of it. But, you know, luck is the residue of design and hard work. And you put yourself in that position. And then when you got those opportunities, you took advantage of them and you knocked it out of the park.

But I do want to mention that when I first got started and I was doing those early morning updates, they put me in a little cubby right next to Mark. You and I were in the bullpen right next to each other. Now, for those of us that are good friends with Mark and have been, we can say this about him. He's not at first blush the warmest and the cuddliest. and you have to make sure that you're not wasting your time with somebody before you decide to give them the time. And I can remember, like, I'm sitting there trying to make conversation with you and you seem like a good dude. And you're like looking at me going, what is he? Like, how did he get in here?

Like, how is he doing? And but within literally like two weeks, we were best friends. Yeah. But those first two weeks, I remember thinking, this dude is an ass. asshole. I might actually tell him he's an asshole. But one of the things I realized very quickly about Mark is he was definitely very smart. And you know, I've said this about you before. You're one of the smartest friends that I have. And I'm talking about, you know, much beyond what we do here in broadcasting. And we became super fast friends. And I'll remember, I remember this. I remember

the Red Sox being down three nothing. And you coming in. every single day during that fall saying, I got one more game. That's all I'm happy about. Remember that? I do. Just want to see him one more time. Just want to see him one more time. One more time.

Yeah, I apologize for my abrasive nature. I really wanted a friendship. I think part of it is like, and you know what a fan I am of military history, is like when you're like in a combat platoon and some new guy comes in and you don't want that attached to them because they might step on a landmine in a week. So it's always like this. I don't want to get too close to the new guy. guy and then and you recognize who great people are and like you said very quickly i was like

kevin is just an all-star on this squad and and it's been dude it has been so much fun seeing your path and seeing all the successes that you've had and every challenge that you've had i know you're like you don't want me to brag about you but it really has been fun to watch do you remember by the way meredith when she came back from yes she literally i think she was there for one day and said no i actually i want to be home with my kid that's more important to me at this phase of my life and she was a tremendous broadcaster, but that really cleared the gate for you, because if she'd come back, she was going to, I think, take that slot back. Well, she did. She came back. She took her slot, which she, of course, deserved after being on maternity leave. I was basically out.

I was, Todd had said, look, we actually want you to do some updates on weekends, and we want you to, and they did. They put me right into this role of doing what they called the fifth quarter show. It was the post-post-game show. Right. And so I was starting to do that. The funny thing is, is when I started, I'll never forget, Bennett Zier, who was running Clear Channel at the time, which included the Team 980, said to me, you really want to do this? And I said, yeah. He goes, well, let me just tell you something.

Like, you have to know a lot about sports. Like, you really have to, and you really have to know about the Redskins. Like, that's something that you really have to have passion for. I mean, have you listened to the guys on the air? and I go, yep, I have. I can do this. And, but no, no, no, I got the Eugene Sledge, you know, treatment, you know, until I had fired at a Jap for the first time, I was pretty much ignored and you had your nose up towards me. But those early days were so much fun.

And, of course, we were in that studio with Tony, with the ceiling sort of caving in at times. Oh, my God. I mean, and by the way, you and I, we were the first two people. I was the first person there in the morning because I had early morning updates. So I was in at like 4.45, 5 a.m. And then you would come in shortly thereafter. So we were always the first two people in there. And then there was that producer that I forget his name, but he was obviously troubled.

Nice, nice kid. But you remember who I'm talking about, right? Oh, yes, I do. I'll mention names, but I'm talking about that. But the other thing about that hovel over on Brookville Road in Silver Spring is G. Gordon Liddy did his radio show from that building. And so every single morning, when you and I were in there, literally at, you know, at 6 a.m., there would be this smell of bacon coming from the microwave in the kitchen. And it was the two girls who were his producers. was it Diane?

Diana and her sister, and I can't remember what her sister's name was, but it was Diana. And they were microwaving up G. Gordon Liddy's bacon every morning. And it smelled up the entire offices in studios. It wasn't a bad smell. And there was the occasional conversation with G. Gordon Liddy, like in the kitchen. And he couldn't have been more pleasant. Could have been a nicer guy. Could not have been a nicer guy.

Like one of the most fearsome individuals you ever read about in American history. And he was just, oh, yes, it's wonderful to the secret. And I think you and I would like occasionally start firing some Watergate related questions at him. And he's like, I, oh, good question. Good question. Kevin. I got to get back to the studio, though. And by the way, the bacon smell, much better than the time when Mike Kelly decided to heat up seafood chowder.

Oh, God. And everyone just yelled at him, like, don't ever do this again, man. You just ruin the entire radio station. Didn't Liddy just die? He did just pass away. It was just like two months ago, right? Yeah, yeah, it was very recent. And, you know, we talked about on a Tony show, and it was, you know, he said, listen,

we had this weird opportunity to interact with him. And Tony had both said, listen, he was a lovely guy. He was lovely. Yeah, he could not have been nicer. And it was a bizarre chapter in my broadcast history to sort of have interactions with this guy. But again, you know, you never know who you're going to run into in this kind of career. And he was just a great guy. And, you know, when we did move to Rockville, we didn't want to move to Rockville.

That place in Silver Spring was away from everybody else in corporate. We basically had our own setup there. It was so easy to get in and out of. Now, Rockville ended up being great, too. But I remember Tony's resistance to Rockville. And I'm like, it's going to be fine. By the way, the other thing about Mark, too, not only was he great as Nigel. I very much do remember as you were creating this character in those early days.

And, you know, sort of the debates that you were having about, you know, what it was going to be, what his name was going to be and how much you should do it. And all I remember is just be encouraging you. I'm like, it's phenomenal. You just got to do it. And Mark has been a stand-up comic. Some of you know that. And some of you've seen him.

And he's great. But the other thing that I wanted to say to you, and this is so true, while Mark was definitely an acquired taste for adults, and really, again, the reason being Mark is one of these people, and I have several friends that are this way, that they just don't want to waste any time with people that they don't feel like they should waste time with. That is partly you and your personality, which is fine. And I remember those early days saying, well, basically, fuck him. You know, I don't really care. But, you know, and then somehow we ended up becoming friends.

But what Mark was phenomenal doing is he was great with young people. And all of the interns that came through 980 over the years, including, by the way, my son and a lot of sons and daughters of friends of mine. Remember, we had basically the Sheehan interns for about three straight summers. They're always great kids. Mark could not have been better with young people. And still to this day, there are friends of my son who will ask, how's Mark doing? And because you were great with young people. And you really, I don't think it was, you certainly didn't get paid anymore for doing it.

But for all intents and purposes, you were the managing the intern program, at least those that were in during our portion. the day. Well, it was, it was always, it's always fun, you know, to, to shape a young mind and that and, and, and show them, hey, this is the right way to do things. You know, this is, you know, let me get your mind working right about how you can cover a show and how you prepare for a show. And, you know, it's great. And to see the eagerness and the anticipation from, from the kids always is a great thrill for me. And, and you always brought it, we didn't always have great kids, you know. There were a couple that were, we're not real interested in the

internship. No, and I remember very specifically, I'm not going to name names, but there was a year where it was December 7th, and I asked these two interns what the significance of that day. Neither one of them got it. It was very angry. But the kids you brought through were always terrific. We hit them with a lot of dates, like the significance of, you know, July 14th. Does anybody have any idea with the significance? And they wouldn't even have any clue.

Anyway, I have a feeling a lot of our listeners don't understand the significance of that date either. But, by the way, that may be a trip I'm making this summer for a few days. Oh, really? Back to Old Paris, which my wife loves a lot. And I said, can we just go somewhere and I can be on a beach and play golf? No, we have to go, you know, where we can see museums and cathedrals. I don't know why. I'm past that point of doing that on vacation.

I'm not interested in that as much as I and I wasn't never. I was sort of interested. I was the guy that wasn't interested and then I would get interested when I got to the museum. And I was like, oh, wow, that was really cool. But I would prefer on vacation to play golf or be on a beach. Yeah, you want to recharge the batteries. Yeah.

There's different ways to do that. But listen, I've never been to France. And, you know, I'd love. I mean, there's so many things. You and the vice president. me and Vice President apparently. She apparently has not been to Europe, which I found is a surprise. I've been to England once, but I've never been to France. Well, you're from England.

Well, yeah, technically I am from England, yes, from Birmingham, I think. But, yeah, no, I, you know, every time I watch the French Open over in Roland Garros, and I'm like, man, I got to get over there and see it. You've been to see Wimbledon? Have you been to see Roland? No. No, I've seen the venue, but I've never been there for the actual Open itself. By the way, as a quick aside, because I don't want to forget this, because you'll be able to weigh in on this as well. Tommy and I were in this big argument yesterday on the podcast. He's like, the French opens the equivalent of the PGA. I'm like, no, it is not.

Oh, no, it's not. It's not. It is, you know, maybe third, but for Europeans and a lot of the players, it's second behind Wimbledon, maybe even first for the clay quarters. But it is a, you know, it's a big time tournament. But, yeah, these are things we've talked about so many times. you have to get over to that's where you have to go. Mark is definitely a historian on many fronts. I mean, you were a European history major, right?

Well, I was classics. I was a classical civilization major. Okay. But studied all European history. I mean, I've always had a passion for it. And the more I studied, the further back I would go. Now I'm into ancient Egypt. Oh, boy.

That's what I'm fascinated with. So I got like a whole Egyptian trip. I'm trying to plan as well. All right. Well, I'm going to have to get up to snuff on that, and then we can have a conversation about that. I do, before we get to your podcast and what you're doing with the USDA,

working with Tony over the years. Like, is there a show or shows that stand out more than any others over the years? You know what? There is one show, I recall in particular. Well, there's a couple of shows in a couple of moments. First of all, Tony, Tony's unscripted opens on big days when something big would happen. You know, and I'm thinking specifically of when George Steinbrenner passed.

And we were doing the show from his beach house. And I think it had just happened. And I said, who do you want me to call on this? And he just looked at me and he said, you know, he need to call me. I got this. And he did an unscripted open on George Steinbrenner that was just like watching him like do an oral version of his column. And it was there was no I mean there were no real notes he just did this all from his memory and just like this is unbelievable Yeah watch something like this happen and and and just gives you such pride that you're part of that

But you know it's funny because some of the toughest moments that we've dealt with you know as a country Are the best moments of Tony because he rises to that moment and he understands the pulse of that moment almost better than anybody I've ever known and and I and I'm going way back on this but If people remember, there was a horrible shooting at Virginia Tech, you know, maybe about 15 years ago, thing like that. And it was just, Tony just had this really eloquent, heartfelt, open, you know, just thoughtful about what we were dealing with and what was going on. And it's funny because we've done so many brilliant sports shows. And we've done so much, so many funny, silly things.

And but what I love most about Tony is that he rises the occasion of these moments where so many others would fall short because they don't have that gear in them. to talk about those kind of things. And Tony, obviously, who's one of the smartest people you will ever encounter. Those are the kind of moments I actually remember more almost than the sports stuff that we did. I always thought like on big important days, not sports days, but other days, that we had Tony. And then we also had coach Thompson, who was phenomenal in those moments,

you know, especially cultural-related issues. He was so good on those days. One of my favorite moments, and it was also a bit of a, you know, a dicey moment, was the Lance Armstrong thing. Oh. Because I remember when that, I remember what caused all that. I caused it because I did a story during the news about bikers, and it got Tony on a rant about these bikers. and I agged them on saying they're so chesty. I played bicycle by queen to get us into the next second.

I was like, yeah, yeah, this is fun. And he basically, you know, netting it out, said, you know, go out and run all cyclists over. And Lance Armstrong went nuts. And then I believe you can help me out with this, but I believe he reached out to Sally because remember the outrage from this, from biker world. I mean, they wanted Tony's head.

and they didn't want it attached to his body. And I think he reached out to Sally, who had written the book with Lance, and Sally ironed it out and then got Lance to come on the show. Yes, we had a big detente and everything was made nice. But I wonder about that now with the current cancel culture and the frenzied mob on social media. You wonder how that might have played out today.

Right. You know, maybe we don't survive that, you know, because so many people don't survive these sort of frenzy, you know, actions. But, but no, Sally gets full credit and brokering that piece deal with us. Lance was very gracious when he came on with him. He was. And he was not, he didn't for it. My memory is he forgave Tony, but but used it as sort of a pulpit to lecture him as well.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And Tony took the rap on the knuckles, you know, they was like, yeah, okay, I got that coming. That's fine. You know, and everything was good. And we're very careful now. But what we say?

Yeah. We don't want to create that sort of... Well, that and Hannah Storm... Well, the Hannah Storm led to the recording of the show. Is that... Yes. Is that inside baseball that shouldn't be revealed or not? I forget.

I don't... Well, I mean, we're... Whatever. It's a podcast now. But the radio show, because of the Hannah Storm comments, then had to get recorded so that they... So the contents of the show could be reviewed. By the way, you know who reviewed many of those...

early recorded shows on 980 was my very good friend Stanford, Steve, who was working at ESPN at the time. You know, Steve, who's Scott's sidekick on Sports Center. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's great. And he loves you, by the way, and always says to say hello to you. Oh, wow, please. I'm a big fan of his, man. That's crazy. Wow. I do remember, though, he got on one of those roles, and I just sat there, and I go, they are so chesty. They won't stay in their lanes. They're lanes. They're for and he he took off on how he wanted every bicyclist you know I think it was like rock creek park rundown you know remember I remember his line his line's like I'm not saying to hit him but just give him a little tap yeah oh boy that blew up yeah they didn't really like that um there's one

other thing um that I remember very much about mark stern mark was um well who mark is mark is is a stand-up comic. Who would you say your best impersonation? You do impersonations. Who's your best impersonation? Right. Well, Kevin, I remember a long time ago, you and I were discussing something on a ship

with Natalie Wood and Bobby Wagner. For those that can't pick on with it, that's my Christopher Walker impersonation, which may be my one big brush with fame. And you talked me into doing it that day. You remember that? I do. So it's funny because I don't know if you saw Danny Ruiye's impression of Charles Barkley

that blew up into an incredible viral thing that actually ended up making it on to the TNT show. Oh, wow. With Barclay and those guys talking about it. Good for him. It's a great impression. The content's excellent. But a lot of people tweeted me and said, this reminds me of when Nigel, when Stern did, you know, Chris Walker.

Natalie Wood. And to make a long story short, and I'll let you fill in the blanks, Mark would come on every Friday during the football season to do a fantasy football segment as Chris Walken. And we posed Chris Walken as a massive Redskins fan. So, you know, Chris Walken knew me, new Tommy, listened to the station all the time because he was a massive skins fan, knew everything about the game, was always heading to the game and a Winnebago setting up out in FedEx parking lot. But this particular incident, Stern did a Christopher Walken rant on the Natalie Wood disappearance and death, which Christopher Walken was tied to in many ways. And Joe White, who was the longtime sports writer for the Associated Press locally.

God rest of soul, because Joe did pass away, right? I didn't kill him off. I know Joe passed away a couple of years. ago, I think. Yes. Yeah, it was kind of sudden and very sad. Right. It was the late, great Joe. Joe was the nicest guy. Joe happened to have been listening to this segment, thought it was actually Christopher Walken, wrote a story that went out on the Associated Press, where Christopher Walken was revealing details of Natalie Wood's disappearance, and the night that, you know, she, she disappeared off of that, you know, in that boat trip with, you know, Robert Wagner, and I forget who else was on it,

you'll be able to fill in the details here. And the thing went viral. Every single major news network, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, they all picked it up. They were all calling the station to see if they could get the recording of what Walking had said on our show. And it was fake. And we had to tell everybody, no, no, no, no. There was just this dude. And poor Joe, because we felt awful for Joe, Joe just got duped by it.

It was such a great impersonation. He got duped by it. And he never called us. to check. Obviously, we would have said, Joe, no, no, no, no, that's Mark. That's Mark doing walking. By the way, a lot of people thought it was walking week in and week out. A lot of people had no idea. And they would walk away from the interview going, God, this is cool that Christopher Walkins, a Redskins fan. Well, remember we would always construct it like, what are you working on Chris? And we'd always have some semi-plausible movie project with stars. And you're like, well,

that seems reasonable. And then he would break into, right, and if you don't have Robert Griffin and you're starting lineup this weekend. You're a moron. And so I remember, so the day that that happened, and we'd be doing the bit for a while, he was in the news because the skipper of the boat that Wagner and Natalie Wooden walking were on, he was coming out with a book and he was talking about it. I think it was like some kind of anniversary for the actual date of it. And you came to me and you said, we got to do this when we do the walking hit today.

And I remember being like, I don't know, man. This feels a little dicey, should we? And sort of like how you always talk Van Pelt into doing his impersonation. Just like, come on, just do it. And I was like, okay. And that was all basically off the top of my head. I forget what it was.

You remember parts of it because there was Zambuca involved. There's a lot of, go ahead. Shouting. Yeah, there was shouting. I remember we were having fun and then shouting in Sambuca. And I went to the forward birth to read a hottie boy's book. And I fell asleep. And when I woke, Natalie was going.

gone. And, and, you know, and then literally right after that, it was like, and Adrian Peterson is going to run circles around the cheap's next weekend. And, and so we just thought, of course, nobody takes this seriously. And then I was walking to the gym like four or five hours later. And I got a call from, I don't know, it's inside edition or something like that. And they're like, oh, Mr. Stern, thank God, I got a hold of you. Do you have the audio for Mr. Walker talking on your show? And I was like, what are you talking about? What's going on? And then I started to realize what was up and as you said it was everywhere and then they started calling it a hoax and it was like it's not a hoax it's a radio bit it's still all over if you google um christopher walkin radio interview natalie wood

uh on 980 there are so many stories that have been written about it it's it's amazing here's one on friday the associated press learned that christopher walking had apparently called into Washington, D.C. Sports Talk Radio show The Sports Fix. By the way, parenthetically, which already doesn't make sense. Close parentheses. To discuss details from that fateful night in 1981. The AP quoted Walken is saying, we had a lot to drink that night. There was Sambuca, there was shouting, and then there was tragedy, and that's all I can

remember. I can't believe it. And, yeah. And the AP had to, and poor Joe had to retract this story. I know. Because a lot of these stories that I'm finding are the retraction from Joe. Yeah. And by the way, that gives me the lifetime opportunity anytime I reference an AP story and says, if they got it right, because sometimes they get it wrong. And legally, I think I'm covered there because they clearly got that wrong. The only time I was nervous in that, Kevin, was when I heard a story report that said, walking had retained an attorney over this matter. And I was like, oh, man. No, I love you, dude. Please don't sue me. I love you. So there, and I don't know if I'm still in there, but I know there was a time in his Wikipedia page where I was included amongst the ranks of people that do great walk-in impersonations, which again is a career highlight. The, I mean, I'm just pulling up, I haven't looked at this in years, but like the LA Times, you know, in the moment off of the other news writing,

Walkin made an appearance on ESPN 980, Washington, D.C., a sports talk radio station, and said about that night, was drinking and shouting on the boat and that he never heard anything until Wood was discovered missing. Quote, we had a lot to drink that night, and then there's the rest of it. And by the way, so here's the full quote from you. We had a lot to drink that night. There was Sambuca, there was shouting, and then there was tragedy. That's all I can remember. And quite frankly, all my attorney right now would want me to say.

That's literally, Kevin, that's one of the. All time great radio moments. I mean, it just, everything was perfect about that. Yeah. Thank you. God rest, Natalie Wood. Yes, God. It's just an angel.

Yeah. Okay. I want to find out about Mark's podcast. We're going to talk a little tennis about the Roger Federer withdrawal. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. More that I just found, Mark, on that day, which, by the way, was November 2011, when you did the Chris Walkin, Natalie Wood thing on our show. There are so many stories.

I don't think I've ever seen all these stories. I think for some reason, maybe Tommy pointed me to some of this stuff years ago. There were columns written about how it happened. This is from the Toronto Star, a story titled, written November 25th, 2011, a story titled News Mangled, radio shows Christopher Walken impersonation fools associated press. And I'll just read from parts of it, including the opening paragraph. The recent news that authorities reopened the investigation into the 1981 death of actress Natalie Wood came as a shock to many. Woods' drowning death occurred while on a yacht with then-husband Robert Wagner, actor Christopher Walken, and the vessel's captain.

It was declared an accident case closed. Then late last week, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department announced that the case was being reopened. With that, there was a big push to get comments from either Wagner or Wall. By the way, is Wagner dead now, too? I think he is. I don't think he's alive. I'm going to check that. I'm going to check that. And if you were to place a bet on which media, this is what's written here. If you were to place a bet on which media outlet was most likely to land the first interview, chances are the ESPN sports radio program, the Tony Kornheiser show, probably wouldn't have been at the top of anyone's list. So they got it wrong. They credited Tony's show. Yet on Thursday, of last week, the show introduced Waukin as a guest. And then they give the quote, we had a lot to drink, Sam Buka, that's all I can remember. That was not good enough for the Associated Press. It wrote a story that began,

actor Christopher Walken says he went to bed on a yacht. He was on with actress Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner 30 years ago and awoke to learn that she had died. Really, Christopher Wauken broke his silence on a sports talk show. The same sports talk show that coincidentally has a guy do a Christopher Walken impersonation every week? Oh, wait a second. And then here you are. The voice on that radio belonged to Mark Stern, a producer at the station, who does the show,

shows regular Walkin bit. It was on our show, not Tony's show. No one seemed confused about the fact that the interview was with Stern as Walking, except for the Associated Press. Its story hit the wires and online before a reporter contacted the agency to inform them about the mistake. The Associated Press has withdrawn, you know, this story, blah, blah, blah. The story quoted Christopher Wood. The Station now knows it was a hoax involving a station employee who was impersonating Wacken.

It's rather disingenuous, this columnist writes, by the way, of the Associated Press to blame it on a hoax when it was just a normal part of the show. Stern also suggested the Associated Press should have been more diligent in its reporting, quote, this is from you. Christopher Walken hasn't spoken about this in 30 years. Did they really think he was going to call into a D.C. sports show to talk about Natalie Wood. And then, by the way, give fantasy football tips. It was absurd. Stern told Access Hollywood. Oh, there you go.

You were on Access Hollywood about this. Yeah, yeah. By the way, you know what else I remember? Was that Billy Bush? That was Billy Bush, yeah. Because he was the one that taught me how to do the impersonation. He did it when we were doing the morning show together. Was that before some of his and Trump's conversations?

Yes, this is long before that. Long before that. But I do remember one small side note of history on that day. The biggest story leading up to that had been the fact that Ashton Coucher and Demi were splitting up. It was a big story that day and then we knocked them off the headlines. So somewhere Ashton and Demi owe me a favor. Well, she was a bit too old for him. I always felt that way.

The, yeah, you know what? This coming November, let's remind. each other, we're going to have to do some sort of 10-year anniversary of this. Oh, absolutely. And maybe we'll do it by trying to pull a legitimate hoax this time and see if anybody falls for it. All right. Tell me about the podcast you're doing. Mark's done a lot of tennis work over the years with the USDA, with the U.S. Open. Tell me about what you're doing with this podcast. Thank you. Yeah, you know what a big tennis fan. I am. I know what a big tennis fan you are. I used to be. Well, used to be. But I can always sit and talk tennis with you, which I love.

So I've been doing a podcast for the U.S. Open, like during the course of the tournament for the last couple of years. And they've really enjoyed it. Sort of like a daily recap with interviews and scores and highlights. And the USDA really enjoyed it. So a couple of months ago, they came to us and they said, hey, we'd really like to make this a year-round project, which I'm thrilled for the opportunity to do. And so we've launched it. Our first episode was a couple of weeks ago. It's called Courtside, the U.S. Open Podcast.

podcast. And for some reason, I wrote my, my full name in there. So it's with Marcus Stern. Marcus? Yeah, I don't know why I did that. I was feeling very formal. But yeah, and it's, it's basically at this stage, it's a lot of interviews. I talked to tennis analysts. My first show, I spoke with Michael Chang talking about his, you know, great run to win the French Open in 1989. And there's a fascinating conversation he shared with me that he had with Yvonne Lindel, like the year before he beat Lindel in that epic match. in a fourth round. Remember when he was cramping up and he was hitting moonballs and underhand serves to throw Lendel off and he won that and went on to beat Edberg in the in the finals that year.

So it's a really great conversation I have with him. And, you know, listen, I recognize that tennis is not, you know, the number one sport on anybody's calendar right now, but there's some amazing storylines going on. And we really have been living through these last 15 or so years of the greatest era of players that we'll ever see with Jokovic, with Rafa, and with Federer. And to see these three, and it's Serino on the other side who is just, you know, I don't think she's ever going to get to 24, but she really doesn't need to because her place is cemented in history as one of the greatest players to ever play. So, so, yeah, so we, you know, we're going to, when we get to the U.S. Open, it'll be every day during the open. So it'll be like three weeks

of shows every day. But other than that, it's every other week. And I've got an episode that will drop tomorrow then I'm still who's going to be on that one um I've got an analyst Sophie amyok who is over in Paris so we talked about everything that's going on over at the French Open um I talked to Brian Vahili who's an ex player um who's now a board member for USDA and he's got a really interesting courageous story he is he was homosexual but not outed when he was playing it did not come and come out until after who was the player Brian Vahley okay he played at UVA he was a great college player and had some shoulder injuries that really kind of derailed his professional career, never really kind of got where he wanted to go professionally, but has become this great voice for people that are going

through, you know, sexual identity, sexual identity crisis. He's a big, big voice for people that are struggling with that. And then I have our very own Liz Clark, who has written some terrific pieces on everything that's going on with Naomi Osaka right now. You know, so it's courtside, the U.S. Open podcast. All right, you can get it wherever you get a podcast. And I know it'll be good. Mark is a great interviewer and he knows who he should have on these shows and the content that he should be doing. It'll be great. And I'm going to tell you right now, I mean, you and I've had this conversation many times about how tennis has become really niche in the United States, almost as a sport, but it's still wildly popular around the world.

and in many English-speaking countries. So you're going to have some success with this. You definitely are, and it's going to be a podcast where it's going to be a good one for advertisers because of more likely than not the type of audience it will attract. Tennis, always tennis and golf attracts a very upscale, you know, clientele. And so this will be great. I was upset about Fed withdrawing the other day. I thought it was disrespectful to the integrity of the tournament.

I thought it was disrespectful to the fans that had purchased tickets and hopes of seeing him in the fourth round and maybe a quarterfinal match against Djokovic. I understand that he's sort of earned this level of respect from players. And Chris Everett and others said he's earned the right to do it. I don't think he has earned the right to do it. I don't like that he did this at the French Open, that he used it as a tune-up for Wimbledon. What was your take on this?

Yeah, I mean, it really is, it's a false note from Roger who really doesn't have many in his career. And I think if he had thought about this a little bit deeper or more deeply, than he wouldn't have gone about it the same way. But you're right, it comes off looking like he used the French as a tune-up, and then when he was going to really be starting to face some seriously tough opponents, and he had a really tough time with, Kepfer in that final match.

But then you play some Baratini, and then if you go past Baratini, which is no, you know, walk in the park, Bertini is a terrific Claycourt player, a great player in his own right. Then you got Djokovic, you know, and then it's Rafa, you know, so, you know, I think, he's like, oh, I just wanted to test my knee out. It's, I mean, it's the French Open. You kind of want to say, if you're in it, you got to go to, you can't go. If he had said, look, my knee is screaming at me right now, I can't do this anymore, you know, and it's sort of what he was trying to say, I think.

but it really it didn't sit all that well with me and i i'm a huge roger fan and i've seen him do stuff by the way off camera off mike it's the most act acts of just unbelievable generosity he does with fans so you know what kind of guy he really is and um so that that that that kind of disappointed me about the way he he went about all of this yeah i think you know not that i'm advocating dishonesty here but you know a simple i've aggravated an injury um and I can't play, it would have been a non-issue. I think he made it very clear that basically he had no intention of competing for a title here. He had no intention of competing beyond three matches.

And I think that that's, I don't think that's, I mean, we see tennis withdrawals all the time. It's a, you know, it's an individual sport and there are injuries and their injuries sometimes where you're able to finish a match, but you're not able to start the next one because it gets sore. or gets tight or whatever. And that's unfortunate when that happens, especially at majors. But that was, I'm just going to, I'm Roger Federer. I can play three matches here, quit, and then, you know, get ready for Wimbledon. I didn't like that.

And like you said, it's Roger Federer. He brings a lot of extra, you know, weight to the table, you know, in terms of expectations of people wanting to see him play. I mean, it's not. Right. People bought tickets for that fourth round match expecting him to be there. Think about all the tickets that were purchased. Look, they're not struggling to see, you know, it's Roland Garris.

But how many people were excited to see him against Jokovic in a quarter final, you know, on, on center court at the French Open? Yeah, I mean, that's the whole draw thing. Why was I blanking on the center court at French Open? Is it Philippe Chartrier? Philippe Chartier, yeah. What about Suzanne Langland? Which court is that one?

See, I got to go over there and I got to see the court map, you know? I don't know the map at Wimbledon either. I got to get over there. But yeah, you know, you can't just go out there and say, I'm going to do, this is a tune up for me. I mean, there's a grass court circuit. I mean, there's going to be a tournament, you know, going to be a tournament, you know, right after the French that you could tune up with.

And I'm sure he's going to be playing in that. And that's really his better chance to win. That's his probably his best chance to win another major is going to be at Wimbledon. I don't think anybody expected him to contend for a title at the French because that's never been his best. surface and and as long as raff is playing you know who else is going to win but uh you just you like to see somebody say either go out there and and give it your all or like you said i don't want to encourage lying but just say you need you know something happened and you can't go anymore and as

much as you hate to say this you can't continue in the tournament all right um good luck with the podcast again courtside the u.s open podcast you get it anywhere you get a podcast mark is the host of this thing. He's got a lot of experience with a lot of different podcasts. Obviously, Tony's being number one. I wish you the best of luck with it. I know it'll do well. I will talk to you soon. I appreciate the time. Thank you. I appreciate the time more than you can more than you can understand. I really do. I want to give one plug for a third show I do with my pal, actor-comedian, Adam Ferrarra. The Adam Ferrar podcast, nothing but laughs in great wisdom in it. You'll love it. So thank you, Kevin, for it's just great catching up with you, man. I really appreciate it.

We catch up more than just today. Yes, no, we do. But every chance to talk to you. That sounded awfully formal for our conversation. No, I know. I just every chance I get to talk to you, I love it. Okay. And, and.

All right, love you. We'll talk to you later and good luck with it. I'm back tomorrow with Tommy. Have a great day.