The Press Box - John Jastremski on WFAN, Working the Overnight Shift, and Radio vs. Podcasting

Episode Date: August 26, 2022

Bryan is joined by The Ringer’s John Jastremski to discuss his career in radio. They reflect on Jastremski’s start working the overnight shift at WFAN, discuss the dynamic of covering all New York teams, and touch on the differences between radio and podcasting. Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: John Jastremski Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Call me sentimental, but to me, the most joyful moment in sports is the soccer goal. And when that goal happens at the World Cup, well, it's pretty good. I'm Brian Phillips. With the 2022 Men's World Cup approaching, I'm making a podcast called 22 goals on the Ringer Podcast Network. It's about 22 of the most fire emoji goals in the history of the tournament. We're going to have so much fun. Hello, media consumers.

Welcome to Press Box. Curtis of the ringer here along with producer Erica Servantes. We are in the little pocket between the summertime and football season. So I want to do something fun today and bring on my ringer colleague and my friend John Jostremski, aka J.J. Now J.J's Cliff Notes bio goes like this. He was a radio host at New York City's WFAN, a big guy, an up-and-coming guy who came to the ringer last year to host podcasts like New York, New York, and the ringer gambling show. But trust me, that does not do JJ justice, because this summer I had the chance to go to Peter Lugar's Steakhouse in Brooklyn with him. And let me tell you something. This was like the Copa Cabana scene in Goodfellas,

except we went through the front door. The door opens up. The guy at the stand is happy to see us. We get a great table. We have a fantastic experience. And, you know, there are ways to measure success in New York radio, but getting that kind of reception of Peter Lugar, it's got to be top five. JJ and I talked about a number of things, including how he got his first job in radio through a talent search,

much like recent guest Rebecca Lowe. We talked about him covering this week's Subway series, and he offered a power ranking of the team's New Yorkers most want to talk about on the radio. Here's John Jostrimski. All right, JJ, you grew up on Staten Island. When did you first get the idea of working in sports radio? So I think for many kids growing up in the boroughs or on the outskirts of the boroughs,

you know, you want to be Yankee. Like I wanted to be center field. I wanted to be Bernie Williams or Paul Neal or Derek Jeter. But you come to a realization probably when you're like maybe it's 11, 12, 13 years old, like, holy smokes. I am not anywhere close to being a professional athlete. So you kind of like pivot from, hey, I love sports. I love this.

I love that to, well, how can I have a life in which I do something that's kind of close to that? So I found sports radio. I found Mike and a Mad Dog. I found WFAN and Brian in many ways. The rest is they say in the business is history. What was it about sports radio in particular that appealed to you? For me, it was the connection that you had with the fan. The idea that you could debate, well, who's the better shortstop?

Jeter or Garcia-Para or is it, you know, Clemens and Piazza going back to that whole brouhaha in 2000. Like that sort of back and forth give and take, I always found appealing. Like, I went to Syracuse. I never really had any interest in doing play by play. And look, I have a very different. sounding kind of voice. You know, I'm not going to have the, the beautiful pipes of Joe Buck or of Al, although Al's got a little bit of a New York twang and a little New York accent, which I love, and I'm glad that he hasn't dropped it. But you know, like a, like a Brian Anderson or like these

guys who have these unbelievable, like perfect accents that come out of central casting, I don't have that. I never had any desire to change my voice. I love Brian that people who are outside out of New York, they actually think that I am putting on a voice, like that this is out of character. I'm like, no, no, no, you haven't spent any time around me. Like, this is what you hear, what you see is what you get. So for me, that platform of being able to be opinionated, have something to say, react, and kind of do your thing. I was like, this is, this is a dream come true.

So pause on your voice for a second. How do you, how would you describe your voice? very New York, loud, in your face, twang, man. That's it. We like coffee, we eat hot dogs. You know the deal, man. Like, we don't sugar-coded around here. And, like, there are folks, like, I feel like the folks who live in Manhattan,

they don't have much of an accent. But if you live in Brooklyn, you live in Staten Island, you live in Queens, like, you kind of develop that twang. And I always used to get a kick out of when I was at college. So you go to Syracuse, great school, you know, great melting pot of folks coming from like all over the country. So I'm sure there were a lot of guys and gals who had never heard a voice like mine before. So like, you know, you'd notice it maybe in the elevator or just walking around campus. I always used to get really annoyed.

And like I'd be playful about it, but I'd be like, what the hell is that? When someone would say to me, are you from Boston? look at him, I'd be like, I'd be like, dude, come on, man. No, no. So there you go. Graduate from Syracuse 2010. And how do you get to the mighty WFAN from there? So that's a great pathway for, I think, a lot of young broadcasters out there.

Because they ask me this question all the time. They're like, you know, you went to Syracuse, you worked at the two radio stations there. You put your time in. You did a lot of shows. you made your mark. Not to say I thought I was hot shit, Brian, because that's not it at all. But I was fairly confident that like out of Syracuse being good at what I do,

I was going to get a job. I didn't think I'd start at WFAM, but I was like, oh, I'm going to get a job right out of college. Well, I graduate in May of 2010. It's June no job. It's July no job. It's August, September, no job. I'm sending stuff out.

You'd maybe get a response back. from one out of 10 or two out of the 10 of the tapes and the emails and the stuff that you would put together and you would send. Like, it was a finalist for a job in Boise, Idaho. I mean, I can't imagine me living or working in Boise, Idaho. But, you know, didn't get that one. There was a job up in Buffalo, New York. Andy Roth, who I think is a terrific program director.

He's in Cleveland now. He got back to me. He was very, like, passionate. He loved my stuff. He said, you're really good. talent, but this is an update job. And quite frankly, you're just to New York. I got to go in a different direction.

So I'm wondering, I'm like, damn, it's October. What am I going to do? How am I going to get a job? So for like two or three months, I was folding shirts. I was doing announcements at the NBA store. You want to talk about bringing you down, man. Going from college, peak six overtime Syracuse, NCAA tournament games, happy hour, 350 pictures at Chucks.

Like, you go from that to getting up at like 7.30 in the morning to work in the NBA store. I'm like going into work for a month. I'm like, what am I doing with my life? This is a disaster. Thankfully, you know, two, three months go by. Then I started doing some part-time freelance work. Did a little Lysbury Park Press. The little patch, like just writing.

And I had no idea what I was doing. But it was in sports. It was high school. I could hang out there. to Jersey Shore and hang with the friends for some extracurricular activities after the fact. So that was kind of cool. So why do I bring all of this up? Okay. So WFAN has this like dream job contest where it's like called fantasy phenom. They give someone who ever wins a one year contract for a two hour show at one to three in the morning, which in radio terms is like a

wasteland. Nobody's listening. Good promotion, whatever. But I said, you know what, screw it. I'm going to go out for it. They go have like five auditions at shopping malls. You do like a two minute rent. I did that. They cut it down to 50. Then it's five groups of 10. Bars all over the city did that. We'll Q&A. And I made it to the finals. So at the very at the very least, Brian, I'm like, okay, I'm in the finals. It's a baray, big place down the Jersey Shore. It's on the radio station. Mike is hosting it. It's on yes. I said at the very least, I have a demo tape,

and I have a two-hour show Christmas week guaranteed. Little did I know. And go down there, knock it out of the park, and win the damn thing. Pretty crazy. Now, what was your original two-minute rant that gets you to the semi-final? I roasted A.J. Burnett,

who was a hero for the Yankees in the 2009 World Series, but completely fell apart. fell apart for them in the playoffs, was awful in the 2011 year, had issues with Posada. It was just very frustrating. So I just remember killing him. And I do remember, I don't know why there's dawns on me now, million dollar arm, five cent head. And I kind of like closed my rent with that.

And people tell me that to this day. Like I didn't even remember it. Somebody actually mentioned it to me a few weeks ago. And I was like, wow, that was a pretty memorable line. That's good. I was like, I wish I actually put planning into that and really like thought it through or whatnot. It just, you know, kind of came to me. That's how I roll.

That's what I do. But yeah, that was the big claim to fame down at Borai. Now, with Francesa, were you nervous going on? This is the guy who you grew up listening to your radio idol. Are you shaking when you go on with him? To be honest, not really. No, I was, if anything, Brian, I was more nervous. looking out at the crowd of Jersey Shorefolk,

who maybe were having a few libations over the course of a five, five and a half hour a day, very steamy at Bar A. And when you get up to the stage, you know, Mike is the best. He's very, you know, Don Corleone, very mafia.

So he goes, hey, kid, how you doing? You know, like gave me the shake, you know, the big smile, the whole deal. But I look at at this crowd. And I didn't even, you know, you don't even grasp how many people listening or how many people are watching. But when you see out in the crowd, it's like, holy shit, there are a whole lot of people watching me right now, and I better not suck.

Now, sports radio is very tough industry. You got a lot of people who are producers and board ops and everything else who are waiting for their shot at getting on the air. How did people at the station react to you coming in the way you did? You know, I was very mindful of that. And I can say to this day, some of my best friends are guys who are off air, who are now making their marks, some on television, others in gambling spaces, others still who are at the radio station. And they're, you know, we have a group chat. We talk basically every day. They're some of my best, best friends.

But I was very mindful of that dynamic. I really was because I get it. Like, I would have been AOK starting my career, producing shows, putting the grind in. Like I was, had the Syracuse degree, I was ready to do it. I was given this lifeline. But, you know, for me, and those guys would be able to speak to it better than I can. My thought was, let's go in there and let's show my ball. And I think if you go in, even if you got your start via a contest, you start your show,

you hit the ground running. You got a feel, you got a pulse, you got a presence. about you, your work speaks for itself. So, listen, that contest was a life-changing opportunity for me. Like, I have thought about it a lot, Brian, like, what would my life be like if I didn't win the contest? And maybe I get in the radio, maybe I'm a college professor somewhere, maybe I'm a lawyer, maybe I'm coaching. I don't know. But I knew once I got the shot, I was going to be, not to sound conceded, but I was like, I get the shot. I'm going to make the most of this shot.

That's what I like about sports radio. Most people on it are completely self-created. At some point, they were given a chance to be in front of a microphone and either they were good or they suck. That's it. And, you know, it's funny you mention that because I would love to, like, there are so many young broadcasters that reach out for advice. And I love helping them out. And I'll give them little pointers here, little pointers there.

you can critique some stuff to some degree. But I kind of equate it to the SATs, man. Like you can try to study for the SATs, but like you're either going to do well or you're not. Like there's just an element of that. Like if you're a good broadcaster, some of it is you can't teach it. You know, like you could go to every broadcasting seminar.

You could try to listen to any of the best that do it. But you have to have like a presence about. you in New York, you can't fake it. You got to have a knowledge about you. You got to be opinionated. You got to be interesting. And if you're not, well, then you're not going to have a gig for a long period of time. That's for sure.

All right. You're hosting 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. That's your shift. What do you do from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. on the fan? So it started out how I'm doing that shift once a week. And I worked for the legendary Mark Chernoff. And at the time, Eric Spitz, who now is over at Sirius XM, he was very instrumental in, like, my early days at the radio station. So, like, my first show, I thought it was horrible, like, horrible.

Because I was, like, so amped up. I had to think about it for, like, a month. Then you get on the, on the mic, and you like, and I did some solar radio at Syracuse. But, like, two hours fly when you mix in updates and commercials. So I, like, felt like I had so much more. to say, and I didn't get to it because it was such a short amount of time. And when they sent me feedback and it was positive, I'm like, did they listen to the same show I just listened to?

I hated it. And maybe they had low expectations. I don't know. But I noticed over that year, they kept giving me more and more work. Like they would say, hey, we got a couple of days. Can you do these days? Thanksgiving holiday. Can you do these days?

Christmas. And I, Brian, at that point, my career, I, said yes to everything. It did not matter what was going on in my life. If I, when you're working one or two days a week and you're giving another lifeline to be on the air, you take it. And I get annoyed. I'll be honest, when I see some of these younger broadcasters who come up who have a sense of entitlement about them. And I tell us to kids all the time. I go, listen, you want to get in this business. Know you're working Thanksgiving. No you work in Christmas. No, you're going to have to pay your dues and work some weekends until you don't have to do those things anymore. And if that's a

problem for you, then go get a nine to five desk job and do what you want to do and enjoy happy hour and enjoy Christmas and do whatever you want to do. But I get annoyed when I see some young broadcasters trying to cut corners when it comes to that sort of stuff. But for me, take every shift, kept getting more shifts. And by the end of that first year, they didn't have like a set place for me in a five-day week lineup where, listen, at the time, Boomer and Craig were doing fantastic ratings. Mike by himself, solo was the king of radio. Joe and Evan, who were two personal friends of mine, did a fabulous midday show. And I'm like, all right, I'm young, I'm 23. I'm lucky enough I can live at home with my parents. Let's grind in New York, man. Better than going

to Albuquerque, you know what I mean? Like, I'm going to be far more successful being in my home city knowing the teams having a feel and whatnot. I would have left if the right opportunity came my way, but that was basically my pathway to start, you know, grinding for quite a while at that radio station. What kinds of people call the station in the middle of the night? Oh, it's, it's all over the map. Now, you'll get some wackadoose. You'll get some folks who are waking up to go to their jobs at three or four in the morning. You know, you have a lot of firefighters, a lot of cops, a lot of guys and gals who were up super late at night. So, you know, you really become their comfort food in many ways.

Because, like, you're sitting in the car for six or seven hours. I can't hear Harry Stiles as it was, you know, over and over again. So you really develop that sort of family-like atmosphere with the overnight college. But for me, you know, I never looked at doing the overnight. as hey, I'm on in the overnight. I'm going to let these guys go forever. No, I kind of, if you were a good caller, I gave you time. If you sucked, I, I'd rather talk to myself than talk to a caller who's terrible, you know?

And were they asking about like Yankee game that night, Met game that night kind of stuff, or did the calls go in different directions? For the most part, we would keep it on topic. I can't say that we always kept it on topic. or plenty of times you'd have somebody come off the beaten path. Maybe it's somebody who had one too many cocktails or somebody who just wanted to hear their own voice. And, you know, sometimes with the older caller, I felt like early on in my career, I would always

want to prove to these folks, hey, you're talking to somebody who's 23, 24, but I know the history of the teams. So sometimes spare me the history lesson of the teams. I know what went on. Like, you're not going to lecture me on Mike Torres and Bucky Dent and, you know, whatever the case may be. Because I've known this stuff. I've learned this stuff. It's part of my DNA in fabric or better or worse.

Were you a host that liked arguing with callers? Depended on my mood. You know, sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. You know, I wouldn't force it. But when somebody would be a jerk, we'd put them in their place. I had no problem doing that. I'm loud in general.

I'm not going to let a caller go up. I would always make sure the caller stayed on track. That was always something for me. And I do it now when we do our Spotify live shows. Somebody's getting off the beaten path. I cut them off and I get out of there. Because it's just not enough time. I think about the bigger question of the audience

and not that one individual. You can't think of it that way. Like I think that's a mistake sometimes folks make when they first start, Brian, is that you focused on. the one individual caller they're talking about. The caller is a part of the show. The audience, though, is far more wide-ranging. And in many cases, most of your audience is not calling in.

What was your life like when you're working overnights? It was a grind, man. It was a grind. I think back to when I worked the overnights part-time, where I would do a couple of days a week. So I kind of graduated to that point at FAN, where I was doing the one or three. Then they gave me a Saturday full overnight,

but I was like filling in so much that I would do like three or four overnights a week. So it'd be like overnight, Sunday and a Monday. But then you'd be off Monday and then you'd be like maybe on at 10 o'clock on Tuesday night. So, you know, I'd be with my girlfriend. It'd be like 11 o'clock at night. She's like, hey, we're going to sleep? I'm like, no.

I was like, I was up at 1.30 in the afternoon. I am wired right now. I am not going to sleep. I couldn't fall asleep. or 11 o'clock if you paid me. And I was also a lunatic too at the time because during a baseball season, Brian, I played in a men's league.

So I used to do a radio show from one to six or two to six. I might get like three hours to sleep, roll out of bed, go play baseball, play a baseball game, watch the Yankees and the Mets. They go take a nap. They go back and do an overnight. So it definitely took a few years off of my life. But it's a grind.

Like doing the show, you don't really think about how tired you are, but like the collateral damage of day in and day out of, you know, getting your body kind of ready for that. It's not easy, man. How many baseball games did you feel obligated to watch? I mean, I'm a nutshell, I watch every night. I mean, unless I have, oh, I watch, like right now as we are doing this podcast, I'm watching the MEC game.

It is literally right. I'm multitasking right now and watching a Mets game. But I, you know, like, listen, if you have something going on and you're not, like if I'm on a particular night, I am going to make sure that I am well-versed in what goes on with the game. And look, that's me. Like, to be honest, Brian, I would feel naked if I went on the air and I, like, I'm not, I can't fake it.

You know what I mean? Like, I, that's not me. Somebody would catch me immediately. And listen. there are shows where plenty of hosts, don't watch the games. There's no other way around it. They don't watch.

They find a way to be successful. More power to them. I couldn't do a show that way. Like, I think in the morning it's different. If you're a morning show, you're getting off the beaten path, you're doing a lot of crazy stuff. Like, I don't think a morning show,

it's as big of a must. Now, big games, yes, but like the July Yankees A's game for a morning show, I don't think he's make a break. Where I think if you're on in the afternoon, I think you're playing to that sort of audience. That's my personal take. Put the New York teams in order for me that people want to talk about.

Who's the biggest? Who's the second? Who's third? It's a baseball town. Because the Yankees from 1994 on, 93 on, they haven't had a losing season. So to have the Yankees and their break, ran day in and day out. They gravitate. They generate. The Mets are gigantic. The two biggest

teams in town right now are the Yankees and the Mets. And that's why I think we're poised around here, hopefully, fingers crossed to have a monster October, which is going to be great for New York, New York. It's going to be great for all the stuff I'm doing at S&Y. Just there's a great buzz still in New York City for the baseball. Now, I'll say this. If the Knicks ever got good, I mean, good. They'd be the number one team in town. But because... Really?

I do believe that. Because I'll tell you why, Brian. Everybody can unite around the Knicks. I know the Nets are there. Nobody cares about the Nets. All you need to know about the dynamic in town is Kevin Durant came back. And I'm sure all over the ringer side,

it was number one story. Bill probably did an emergency pod. We did a pod the other night, a live show. We did 35 minutes, 40 minutes of Subway series. And it was a little disclaimer for Kevin Durant after the fact. And that's the audience. That's New York City. The Subway Series was a far bigger story than Kevin Durant on the second basketball team in town coming back after wasting everybody's time for four to six weeks.

So, and understanding that dynamic of working in a city that you're in, I think it's so crucial. And sometimes guys and gals can go to a different market, learn the teams, really become. a part of the market and have great success. Like, buddy him on Dady Parkins, who does his dream job now in Chicago. He's a terrific, terrific talent, really good guy. He had a great run in Kansas City. And he was in Kansas City when the Royals won the World Series and the Chiefs were pretty good.

And I could tell, like, Danny was all in. He was dialed in on what was going on with those teams. And he was successful to that degree. There are plenty of folks, though, who come into different markets. and that's a challenge for them. So I would say Yankees, Mets, Knicks always play. And it would be nice, Brian, actually have a football season with a relevant team. But, you know, neither here nor there.

Yeah, you can't have everything. Somebody explained New York Radio to me like this one time. They say, of course, Yankee fans are interested in Yankee talk. But MET fans are also interested in Yankee talk, especially if the Yankees are doing poorly. Is that basically it? I would say it's more the Mets fan, liking to poke fun at the Yankees when things are not going their way. If that's Arod, if that's the losing streak they just went on over the last couple of weeks.

Because the Yankees have won, now they haven't won in 12, 13 years, but because 27 championships, the Mickey Mantle Damagio teams or the Jeter Mariano late 90s teams, like there are Mets fans who will never get over that and the Yankees can't lose enough for them. And the dynamic in town is fun. I can never understand how anybody can say, oh, I like both teams. No, no, no, no.

You're either a Yankee fan or a Mets fan. There's no liking both teams. And I work at S&Y. I'm fair with the Mets. When the Mets do well, I give them credit. I have no problem giving them credit. It's good for business. When the Mets are doing well,

there's no other way around it. So I'm glad they're going to be in the playoffs this year. You think I'm rooting for them to win the World Series? Hell no. No, that would not make my life particularly pleasant. Were MET fans, the New York fans that hated you the most? No, no, I don't think so. Because I actually think the Mets fan sees me on S&Y all the time

and they identify with you. Like I got, I kid you not, Brian. We're at Yankee Stadium for the Subway Series, where at City Field a month ago for the Subway Series. Yankee Stadium, plenty of people came up, said hello, took a bunch of pictures. Great. I'm leaving city field.

I got mob. My esteemed producer, Stefan Anderson, will tell you this. We're going up the corridor to go from the field level seats up to the press box to go do our live show. I had MET fans like coming up to me in droves for goodness sake. So I actually think my relationship with the Mets fan is really good. Now, I've tweaked them from time to time. But I would say, you know, who actually brings out a lot of animosity,

the hockey fan, when you don't talk about their team enough. there's like a little bit of a Napoleonic complex with the hockey fan where it's either you don't talk about the teams enough or when you start to do the hockey talk, which we did during the playoffs, oh, now you're doing hockey. Oh, now all of a sudden you're a hockey expert. So like the hockey fan is a very, very interesting character.

So you mentioned the fans recognizing you at the field, coming up to you at the field. What are the other best perks of being a notable, sports radio host in New York City. Man, I never really thought about that. Oh, come on. I've been to Peter Lugar with you. You've absolutely thought about that.

No, I mean, it's just like, you're just a part of the fabric of town. You know what I mean? Like, it's nice known folk. I mean, listen, I don't have to, for you, for anybody out there, when you feel like you're a part of a community and like people see it,

and they're like, hey, what's going on with the Mets? Hey, what's going on with the Yankees? That's cool. Like, I think that's a perk. Like, it could be weird at times. Like, I'm walking on the street and somebody's like, hey, what's going on with the angst? I'm like, do I know you?

Oh, JJ, there we go. Like, it clicks that you're, you know, media personality. I would just say more than anything, though, Brian, the people that I've gotten to meet, like, you get geeked out. And I don't as much anymore with athletes. Like, there are very few athletes. Like, if they come on the podcast or I meet them in person, I'm going to be geeked out. Like Aaron Judge could be right in front of me.

He's the man. He's the MVP of the American League. I'm not going to be starstruck. If I was in front of Don Mattingly right now, I'd be like, holy shit, that's Don Mattingly. Like, that's like the guy I idolized when I was a kid. So, like, I'm doing TV today with Terry Collins. And Terry Collins is the man. He is such a gentleman.

He's just telling stories. You know, that's the sort of perk I love. Like a guy like that who has, you know, been in baseball for 40 or 50 years. you know, we're just in the newsroom shooting the shit. Like, we're at a bar and he's just telling you about this guy and that guy and this game and that game. So if there's something that kind of geeks me out, that kind of geeks me out. What kind of radio did you like best, being a solo act or being on with a co-host? Depends on a co-host.

I grew up doing shows at Syracuse, mostly, with a co-host. So, like, when I was doing radio, I did maybe five solo shows. before I started at FAN. And the way it works, as you know, is when you're working late night, or you're working in the evening, you're not working with anybody. You are, you are the guy, you are the gal,

you have to fill, you have to carry that time. When I could work with someone that could match me, right? Like, and I'm not saying that everybody can't, because I'm a lunatic. I understand that. I'm a little high, high energy. I'm not saying you got to match my energy, but if you could match it with wit or sports knowledge or, you know,

be a good foe, it could work. Like I love doing shows by myself. Like that's what I grew up with. But some of the best and most fun radio I ever did, I worked with Evan Roberts for a couple weeks. Awesome. Like the Yankee, the Mets fan, the Jet, the Dolphin fan. Like you have that internal conflict.

Or I did, when you did shows with Mike, it was always, you knew Mike was here and you were there and you had to kind of just like get a word in. But like for me, when he had me in studio, I, you know, I was deferential for sure. But if you just sit there silent, you're not going to say a damn word. So you kind of got to like interject and get in there.

So I like doing both. It depended on my mood. It obviously depended on the co-host. But I had no. problem doing either. You just needed a yen to your yang, somebody it was equal to you in some way or another. It would be a counterway to you. Yeah, I would say so. And not only that, Brian, I, when I look at a two-person show in any format, like you got to feel like it's a show you believe in. You got to feel like it's a show that you think can absolutely work. I'm sorry. And if you don't, if you don't have that

mindset as a talent, then you need to question it. Because to say, oh, I I just, I got to trust my boss or I got to trust. You know, man, like, you know if a show is just doomed from the get-go. And at the end of the day, they may say, hey, make it work, try it, whatever. Well, if it fails, they're still going to be sitting in their cush job. Are they not? You're going to, you as the talent are going to be on the chopping block if it fell. So you got to be smart about those decisions.

You really do. You came to the ringer last year and started potting full time. What's different about doing a podcast as opposed to radio? So the idea that I can make my own hours around the games is like the most amazing, fantastic concept ever. Like it's something you don't think about when you're working in radio because it's pretty simple, Brian. You're on the schedule five days a week.

You're either on after the Yankee games. You're on in the afternoon. You're on at two in the morning. And no matter what's happening, that's your time to be on. for me to be able to craft out of schedule, hey, Subway Series is this week. Let's make sure we have stuff going on Monday and Tuesday. We'll take Wednesday off.

It's a dead day. Nobody's plan. I don't have to fill an hour or four or five hours of content because there's not going to be as much demand for that particular type of content. So like that has been just so refreshing for me on so many different fronts. I was concerned about losing listener interaction.

It was maybe the only concern I had, quite frankly, about coming to a ringer. I was like, well, how am I going to make that work? I'm good with people, I'm good with the fans, and between voicemails that we take on the pod, and then I use Spotify Live. I know some pods, it doesn't work as well. For me, it works great because we can post them.

I go on live. I interact with calls basically like it's the old days at FAN, except they use a lot more foul language and they say whatever they want. And I take whoever I want. But that has been so cool for me that like whenever I want to do that, I can say, hey, after Tuesday Night's Subway Series, I'm going to go live for 45 minutes. I'm going to take 15 to 20 calls.

We'll maybe take the 10 best. We'll post it as a pod and away you go. And I don't think it loses anything. You may have a couple hundred people in there. But your listeners who maybe were at the game or they're sleeping or whatever, you still, you have something that has staying power, but you still are able to like scratch that itch of being able to interact with people. Because like for me, I love doing interviews.

We've had great guests on the podcast, but I never wanted to lose that. Because for me, that in my opinion is where I'm at my very best. He's talking to Mad Dog Russo at the Super Bowl this year where you and I both were. and he said the same thing about the scheduling. He said the hard thing about radio is 4 o'clock, Wednesday, that's your shift you've got to be there. And you've got to make it happen. And if you feel like crap, you've got to make it happen.

And if you feel great, you've got to make it happen. If everything's happening, you're doing it. And if nothing's happening, you're doing it. And that's the biggest difference with podcasting, which is that podcasting, there's at least a little more theoretical freedom that you can kind of play around with your, you know, move to where the news is. 100%.

I mean, I think about when I had to do five days a week in like mid-February, five hours, there's nothing going on. The basketball team stinks. The Yankees and the Mets are a week or two away from spring training. You're like, what am I? You would literally go into a show saying, what am I going to do? And you make it work. Like, you would think of creative things to bring up.

Callers would help. You'd piggyback off ideas. not the most fun time to be doing those type of shows. There's no doubt. Like, I thought about February this year. I was like, February was a heck of a lot easier in podcast land than it was when I was in radio land saying, geez, I got to do 25 hours a week of content when it's done going on. This is where we need the Knicks to be good. This is the whole point about good basketball in New York City. That would solve the February problem. Oh, it would dramatically. Maybe Donovan Mitchell could help with that process in a couple weeks. That'd be nice.

John Dostromski, aka JJ. Thanks for coming on the press box. Thanks, Brian. It's time for the second weekly edition of David Chewmaker guesses, the strained pun headline. Yeah. Monday's headline about episode one of House of the Dragon was Bad Air Day. Great pun. Does it diminish the pun at all if you could use the same pun for every article about the show. Like every episode's recap could probably be bad air day.

The beginning of Game of Thrones all the way to the spinoff. Yes. Was bad air day. That's sort of the point. Today's headline, David, comes from the Twitter account MLB trade rumors. It's about Elvis Andrews leaving the Oakland A's. Elvis Andrews left the Oakland A's and is now signed with the Chicago White Sox. but leaving the A's is what's important here.

What was MLB trade rumors, strained pun headline? Elvis has left the building. Elvis has left the... Do you remember where the A's play? Oakland, the Bay Area. Generally correct, but the stadium they play in? Where do they play? The Oakland.

Athletics. known as the Oakland. Athletics? Oh, no, the Oakland. I have no idea. I don't know where the Oakland days play. The Elvis has left the Coliseum. Oh, yeah, okay.

Elvis has left the Coliseum. But yeah, okay, that's great. Elvis has left the Coliseum. Now is the Ring Central Coliseum. Love a lot of good memories there, Ringscent. And when I was looking this up today, we're already on like second generation office headlines. SB Nation's headline is,

Elvis Andrews has entered the building. Of course. So we will never run out of variations. Shoemaker and I are back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.