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Speaker 1: This is Skyline Chile. Since he three to sixty about

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Speaker 1: Cincinnati from Cincinnati, sponsored in part by Skyline Chile's stop

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Speaker 1: by Skyline Chile for a three way or cheeze Cony today.

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Speaker 1: Feeling good, It's Skyline time. This is ESPN fifteen thirty,

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Speaker 1: Cincinnati Sports Station.

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Speaker 2: Hi, Hello, and welcome in to since E three sixty

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Speaker 2: here on ESPN fifteen thirty. My name is Austin Elmore.

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Speaker 2: I am not Tony Pike. You may have noticed yesterday

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Speaker 2: Tony was not with us then, and if you followed

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Speaker 2: Tony on social media, you saw about twenty five to

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Speaker 2: thirty minutes ago Tony made the announcement that he has

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Speaker 2: been laid off by iHeartMedia here in Cincinnati found out yesterday,

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Speaker 2: uh in the morning prior to the show, and I

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Speaker 2: was instructed not to talk about and understandably so and

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Speaker 2: wanted to wait for Tony to decide whenever it was

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Speaker 2: right for him to announce it, and he decided to

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Speaker 2: do that this morning, and thus I have the go

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Speaker 2: ahead to talk about it. I am shocked. I didn't

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Speaker 2: see it coming. I don't think anybody saw it coming.

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Speaker 2: The growth that Tony has had over the last couple

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Speaker 2: of years especially, and I think really finding his voice

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Speaker 2: and seeing his talent come through has been really fun

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Speaker 2: to watch and fun to be a part of. And

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Speaker 2: it makes this a decision that is difficult to understand,

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Speaker 2: not only for him and his family, but for this

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Speaker 2: radio station, for the listeners, for sports fans. He was tremendous.

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Speaker 2: He was valuable. He provided insight and had a unique

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Speaker 2: way of being able to teach the game. I learned

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Speaker 2: so much about football through Tony and will always cherish

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Speaker 2: being able to learn the game from his perspective. I'm

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Speaker 2: heartbroken by this. I'm gutted by it. He's one of

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Speaker 2: my best friends and had turned into an older brother

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Speaker 2: for me, and that dynamic really worked for us on

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Speaker 2: the air. And you know, I started back at iHeart

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Speaker 2: seven years ago, eight years ago almost, and I knew

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Speaker 2: who Tony was, but I didn't really know him. I

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Speaker 2: just knew that I wanted to do sports, and Tony

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Speaker 2: had started working here, and I think he was still

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Speaker 2: trying to figure out what he wanted to do, and

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Speaker 2: he was kind of thrust into this role of being

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Speaker 2: on Sincy three sixty and maybe didn't entirely know what

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Speaker 2: he was doing and wasn't getting a ton of support

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Speaker 2: in doing so, And so when the position came open

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Speaker 2: when his previous producer left, I was really adamant that

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Speaker 2: I wanted to do that, and I wanted to work

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Speaker 2: on a sports show, and I wanted to help Tony.

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Speaker 2: I wanted to be involved with him, and I didn't

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Speaker 2: expect that I would start producing the show and then

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Speaker 2: a year or two later be co hosting the show

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Speaker 2: with him. But he was so generous in allowing me

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Speaker 2: to speak and allowing me to have a voice. He's

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Speaker 2: a huge reason for the growth of me personally over

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Speaker 2: the last several years. It has been a total joy

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Speaker 2: to work with him and to learn from him, and

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Speaker 2: to butt heads with him and to disagree with them

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Speaker 2: and to joke with him. Like every day was a

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Speaker 2: joy to work with him. He would play tricks on

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Speaker 2: me constantly. He just played one on me last week

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Speaker 2: where he taped a picture of an animal flipping me

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Speaker 2: off to the bottom of my mouse and I couldn't

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Speaker 2: figure out why my mouse was working, and I turn

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Speaker 2: it over and here's a picture of an animal flipping

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Speaker 2: me off. He loved to play pranks on me, and

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Speaker 2: it made work fun and it built a relationship and

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Speaker 2: it was an insight into the type of person that

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Speaker 2: he was. And Big Tone and I have been through

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Speaker 2: a lot together over the course of us doing this

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Speaker 2: show together. Each of us had our cars stolen, We've

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Speaker 2: had we've lost family members, We've had a lot of

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Speaker 2: difficult times where it was just me and him in

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Speaker 2: this room talking to each other about everything but sports,

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Speaker 2: about life. He would talk to me about being a

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Speaker 2: father and a husband and we would talk about our issues.

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Speaker 2: Just sucks, man, I don't know how else to say it.

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Speaker 2: I owe Tony so much and I'm so thankful for

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Speaker 2: him and giving me an opportunity. And you know, to

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Speaker 2: see him grow and to flourish in a lot of

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Speaker 2: different roles over his time here was awesome. The Tony

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Speaker 2: and Moe Football Show. I mean, if you are a

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Speaker 2: football fan in this town, you had to listen to it.

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Speaker 2: It was so good, so funny. I especially love the

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Speaker 2: pregame shows with him and Ken Brew where they would

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Speaker 2: make fun of Ken and also talk about the game

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Speaker 2: and just all that. Like it was, you had to

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Speaker 2: tune into your radio. You leaned into your radio or

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Speaker 2: into your iHeartRadio app or whatever. It was to listen

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Speaker 2: to what they were going to say and the jokes

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Speaker 2: they were gonna make, or whatever it was. And it's

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Speaker 2: just I don't know entirely what to say. I don't

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Speaker 2: really know how to explain it. But it sucks. And

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Speaker 2: I feel awful for Tony and for his family and

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Speaker 2: obviously his kids, and all the positive momentum that he

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Speaker 2: had been building up over the last couple of years,

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Speaker 2: and to to no longer be a part of things

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Speaker 2: here at iHeart is not going to be easy, and

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Speaker 2: I'm left with more questions than answers. I don't know

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Speaker 2: many of the answers that many of you will ask.

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Speaker 2: Questions wise, these were layoffs that happened all across the country,

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Speaker 2: and there are a lot of people in this business

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Speaker 2: that are hurting over the last couple of days. And

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Speaker 2: Tony wasn't the only one from our market. There were

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Speaker 2: two other people that I have friendships with that aren't

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Speaker 2: here anymore either. It's just difficult, you know, being a

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Speaker 2: human being. There's no other way to say it other

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Speaker 2: than it sucks. And I haven't really allowed myself to

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Speaker 2: think about it or get too emotional about it until now.

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Speaker 2: When you look back on all the different stuff that

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Speaker 2: we did, and there's always this thought of, you know,

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Speaker 2: I have this thought of like it's never gonna last forever,

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Speaker 2: have fun, enjoy it, but you never think it's just

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Speaker 2: gonna stop one day. And that's what it did. From

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Speaker 2: talkbacks to the wig that Tony and I had to

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Speaker 2: wear whether the Reds won ten games in a row

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Speaker 2: or lost ten games in a row, and the wig

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Speaker 2: is still sitting in here in the studio, or the

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Speaker 2: Pickham segments which were absolute comedy, the Hot Ones Challenge

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Speaker 2: where Tony was nearly dying on the air trying to

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Speaker 2: eat hot chicken wings. There's just so many memories, the

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Speaker 2: outings to Augi's where I would be bartending and Tony

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Speaker 2: would be bartending and we'd be finding a way to

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Speaker 2: raise money for some sort of cause. And you know,

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Speaker 2: it really reminds me the first time, first time we

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Speaker 2: did this big Augie's outing, I had lost a bet.

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Speaker 2: I don't even remember. We made all these dumb bets,

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Speaker 2: as you know, and it was like right after my

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Speaker 2: car had been stolen, and Tony, you know, gets me

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Speaker 2: back there behind the bar at Augies and I'm bartending

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Speaker 2: and all this and I didn't know he was going

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Speaker 2: to do this, and the next thing you know, he's

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Speaker 2: making an announcement to everybody at Augie's. Hey, Austin had

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Speaker 2: his car broken into, were taking up you know, funds

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Speaker 2: or an offering basically, And for him to do that

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Speaker 2: for me it was crazy nice and unexpected and he

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Speaker 2: didn't have to do that, and it raised a bunch

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Speaker 2: of money for me in a tough time. That's who

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Speaker 2: Tony Pike is. And I'm not He's not dead. Okay,

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Speaker 2: we're not acting like he's dead. I'm not trying to

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Speaker 2: act like he's dead. He's not dead. He's live, he's fine,

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Speaker 2: he's with us. But he's my friend and I'm gonna

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Speaker 2: miss him, and this show and the station are going

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Speaker 2: to miss him. So yeah, Tony, I'm sure you're listening

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Speaker 2: because you can't resist. Thank you, and I appreciate you

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Speaker 2: and owe you so much for what you've done for

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Speaker 2: me and for the radio station and for the show

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Speaker 2: and so many other people over the years. And I

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Speaker 2: hope that the growth that Tony has had over the

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Speaker 2: last couple of years and the just how good he

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Speaker 2: is he is at what he does. I hope that

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Speaker 2: leads to a soft landing soon for him and whoever

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Speaker 2: you know that might be, or wherever that might be,

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Speaker 2: or whatever it is. I hope that it's it's soon,

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Speaker 2: and I know that they're going to get somebody who

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Speaker 2: is really talented and is going to do a great job.

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Speaker 2: I didn't want to go you know, I'm off starting

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Speaker 2: tomorrow through Monday of next week, and I didn't want

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Speaker 2: to go through that period of five days off without

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Speaker 2: at least addressing this news and talking about it. I

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Speaker 2: also understand that there is a a show that has

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Speaker 2: to be done. There are topics that need to be discussed,

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Speaker 2: most notably the fact that the Bengals chose Joe Flacco

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Speaker 2: over Tony Pike, even though Tony was available. That is

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Speaker 2: shocking in and of itself. We'll have to talk about Joe.

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Speaker 2: You We're gonna have guests today. At one o'clock, we'll

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Speaker 2: talk to you on Sharing. At two o'clock, we'll talk

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Speaker 2: to James Rapine. We'll do our typical talkbacks, we'll talk

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Speaker 2: with Mo for quick hits at the end of our show.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna try to make everything as normal as possible.

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Speaker 2: I don't know that anybody wants this to be you know,

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Speaker 2: just I don't know. I don't know how to do this.

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Speaker 2: They don't teach you how to do this. Yeah, so

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Speaker 2: that's it. Tony posted on his h on his Twitter

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Speaker 2: page at Tony Underscore Pike fifteen a announcement basically about everything,

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Speaker 2: and I haven't really I'm talking to Tony like a

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Speaker 2: lot over the last you know, twenty four to forty

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Speaker 2: eight hours, but I don't know that I ever, you know,

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Speaker 2: said everything to him then that I have just tried

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Speaker 2: to articulate over the last thirteen minutes. I don't know

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Speaker 2: if this has been good radio. I don't really care

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Speaker 2: if it's been good radio. I just needed to talk

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Speaker 2: and get it out. And it sucks, man, it sucks.

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Speaker 2: It is the brutal nature of our business. It is

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Speaker 2: not uncommon across the country. But that doesn't make it

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Speaker 2: suck less. And so, as I said earlier, there are

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Speaker 2: a lot more questions than there are answers, a lot

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Speaker 2: of things that I don't know. I have no idea,

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Speaker 2: But for the time being, we'll try to be entertaining

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Speaker 2: and informative and energetic and funny and a helpful distraction

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Speaker 2: from the horrors of the everyday realities of life. That's

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Speaker 2: always my goal in producing a radio show every day

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Speaker 2: to be entertaining, informative, energetic, and funny. Now we all

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Speaker 2: know I'm not all those things all the time, but

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Speaker 2: that's the goal, and we're gonna do our best each

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Speaker 2: and every day to make that happen. So from this

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Speaker 2: point forward, we're gonna try to have a normal show.

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Speaker 2: We're gonna come back, We're gonna have football in the Natty,

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Speaker 2: We'll do our Call of the Day segment, We'll get

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Speaker 2: to John Shearon to talk backs to James and Tomoe

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Speaker 2: and others, and I'm sure Mo will have a lot

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Speaker 2: to say about this later today as well. So for

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Speaker 2: all of you that have listened to this show over

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Speaker 2: the last four years that Tony and I have been

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Speaker 2: together working on it, thank you. Thank you for letting

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Speaker 2: us have so much fun and for building this together

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Speaker 2: over the last several years. Really means a lot, And

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Speaker 2: we're gonna miss Tony. ESPN fifteen thirty. Now your chance

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Speaker 2: to win a thousand