Speaker 1: Kabooms.
Speaker 2: If you thought four hours a day, twelve hundred minutes
Speaker 2: a week was enough, think again. He's the last remnants
Speaker 2: of the Old Republic, a soul fashion of fairness. He
Speaker 2: treats crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the
Speaker 2: rich pill poppers in the penthouse. Wow, it's the clearing
Speaker 2: house of hot takes. Break free for something special. The
Speaker 2: Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now.
Speaker 3: In the air eywhere, and a very good Friday to you.
Speaker 3: It is as you know, it's Black Friday, and the
Speaker 3: normally good podcast hosts would not do a podcast on
Speaker 3: Black Friday or this weekend. But hey, I love the
Speaker 3: sound of my own voice, and I know there are
Speaker 3: people that are looking for content because there's a lot
Speaker 3: of really bad content this weekend. So tadda. Here we
Speaker 3: are the Friday edition of The Fifth Hour. Happy Black Friday.
Speaker 3: There is an NFL game later today, the Raiders and
Speaker 3: the Cans City Chiefs at my holy Land Arrowhead Stadium
Speaker 3: in Kansas City. So I thought we would do something
Speaker 3: a little different here and we would go into the
Speaker 3: Fox Sports Radio Alumni Association. I hear the sound I
Speaker 3: recognize right there now, a new member, one of our
Speaker 3: new I will soon be a member of this I'm
Speaker 3: sure at some point the Fox Sports Radio Alumni Association.
Speaker 3: You know him, you love him, maybe I hate him,
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: But he's back. Ryan Finley. There he is. Look Ryan Finley. Unbelievable.
Speaker 4: I never thought you'd have me on your podcast, Ben
Speaker 4: never thought, but I guess it took an iHeartMedia layoff
Speaker 4: to get that opportunity. And I can't wait. Well, now
Speaker 4: you're part of the club, Brian. You weren't really part
Speaker 4: of the club. I tried, that's trew. I explained to you.
Speaker 3: I've been fired many times in radio and been laid
Speaker 3: off in radio, and you're not really in the business
Speaker 3: until that is, so now welcome.
Speaker 1: It's like you're bar mitzvah. You're part of the You're.
Speaker 3: Part of the group now and that and ferg Dog
Speaker 3: paid ten thousand dollars for this, So I hope it's.
Speaker 1: I hope it's with your.
Speaker 3: But no, in all seriousness, but I know I was
Speaker 3: very bummed out, obviously with Eddie and you and several
Speaker 3: other people who were let go. It is a tough
Speaker 3: time for everyone, and uh, I did reach out to you,
Speaker 3: and I hope things are going all right for you
Speaker 3: since all this went down back, you know, not that
Speaker 3: long ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, things are going pretty well. I got the phone
Speaker 4: call while I was flying back from a tennis trip,
Speaker 4: and it felt like I just nailed the week out,
Speaker 4: a great week of tennis broadcasting. And then I get
Speaker 4: the call and I'm like, uh oh, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we know it. You didn't think you were getting
Speaker 1: a promotion.
Speaker 4: You didn't believe, no, Well, I honestly what I thought
Speaker 4: initially was is because I borrowed a Comrex to do
Speaker 4: postgame brewin talk football while I was in Michigan for
Speaker 4: this tennis broadcast. So I thought I was getting a
Speaker 4: call to say, hey, we need that Comrex back asap,
Speaker 4: and I would have just been like, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 5: Flying home right now. I'm in the airport.
Speaker 4: I was literally sitting in the terminal of Middland, Michigan
Speaker 4: or just thereafter.
Speaker 5: It was right nextplor to Middland, Michigan, somewhere in Michigan, some.
Speaker 4: Random so some some Well it's technically Saginaw, but it's
Speaker 4: so small there were litterally there are literally four gates
Speaker 4: inside this airport, and I just had the greatest week,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, just I'm on a high and I'm
Speaker 4: about to get on the airplane and I get this call.
Speaker 5: But it's life.
Speaker 4: It happens, and I will always cherish my time with you.
Speaker 1: Oh well, not with me. I don't know that's for
Speaker 1: I would say with the company. I don't know that
Speaker 1: with me.
Speaker 3: But I I did not obviously, I get let go
Speaker 3: this time. But I did have a similar experience. I
Speaker 3: was in Kansas City meeting listeners, had a great time.
Speaker 1: I had a wonderful experience.
Speaker 3: I flew back, I took the first flight out Monday
Speaker 3: morning from Kansas City.
Speaker 1: I get into LA I go to sleep. I don't
Speaker 1: even know where I am.
Speaker 3: I wake up and there's all these text messages, and
Speaker 3: usually that means either somebody died or somebody got let go.
Speaker 3: And then I put two and two together, and then
Speaker 3: I had to make some phone calls, and then I
Speaker 3: found out the news about Eddie, and then you and
Speaker 3: some of the other people that were like, oh, so
Speaker 3: it was a back to reality situation. You've got I mean,
Speaker 3: one thing about you, You've always been more prone to
Speaker 3: play by play, Brian.
Speaker 1: I mean, he said, I've known you that that is.
Speaker 3: Your passion, right you You were your mentor, one of
Speaker 3: the people in your life, the great Dick Enberg, right,
Speaker 3: who you were around in San Diego there, and so
Speaker 3: you looked up to him, and so you've kind of
Speaker 3: followed that path, right. So for you, I mean, it
Speaker 3: sucks to lose a gig and all that, but now
Speaker 3: you're more open to to do the tennis stuff and
Speaker 3: all the play by play stuff, right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well said. And I always cherished my time with
Speaker 4: Dick Emberg. He was somebody that, to be honest with you,
Speaker 4: when my mom got remarried in twenty seventeen, she had
Speaker 4: Dick Emberg and the wife of Dick, they both came out.
Speaker 4: It was a destination wedding. There was only like twenty
Speaker 4: five people, and this was about six months before Dick
Speaker 4: passed away. And it was great to be able to
Speaker 4: spend that time with him as a family friend. And
Speaker 4: certainly he has had this incomparable presence in broadcasting. But yeah,
Speaker 4: my goal and my focus, Ben, as you know, is
Speaker 4: versatility is employability. And I know that I've told that
Speaker 4: to you and you've told that to me on your
Speaker 4: show many a time. When I filled in for Eddie
Speaker 4: on the Ben Malors Show, just because of situations like this,
Speaker 4: because of the uncertainty of the business that we live in.
Speaker 4: My goal has always been my focus is to be
Speaker 4: good at as many things as possible so that when
Speaker 4: something like this happens, that I have other things to
Speaker 4: go to that will allow me to continue to pay
Speaker 4: for my rent and all that good stuff. So thankfully,
Speaker 4: I'm in a really good position with you know, UCLA
Speaker 4: and doing a lot of the hosting stuff. So I'm
Speaker 4: still on Fox Sports Radio. I e am five seventy
Speaker 4: for those events. But yeah, you said it. I get
Speaker 4: to do a lot of the live events when it
Speaker 4: comes to the TV side, whether it's beach volleyball or
Speaker 4: tennis or other things as well. So I dearly am
Speaker 4: going to miss the people there and our experiences in
Speaker 4: the fun I honestly, I have to tell you, Ben
Speaker 4: that I got it.
Speaker 5: When I found out that I'd.
Speaker 4: Gotten the opportunity at Fox Sports Radio, I was actually
Speaker 4: on the doorstep of quitting the business.
Speaker 5: This is a crazy story. My sister was getting married.
Speaker 4: This is twenty eighteen, and I was so distraught about
Speaker 4: the rejection that we all deal with all of us
Speaker 4: deal with it. But I was coming to a point
Speaker 4: where I was just about to give up. And so
Speaker 4: the day that I was at my one of my
Speaker 4: lowests and just thinking, all right, this is not for me,
Speaker 4: I got a nice email from Dan, my former boss,
Speaker 4: who said, we have an opportunity potentially for you. Would
Speaker 4: you like to join us. It's a part time this
Speaker 4: and part time that. And I said absolutely. And I
Speaker 4: have to be very grateful for that opportunity for him,
Speaker 4: because if it wasn't for Fox Sports Radio, then I'm
Speaker 4: not doing a lot of this UCLA stuff at five
Speaker 4: seventy and other things. So that was, in a way,
Speaker 4: it was a lift for me. That'll always appreciate.
Speaker 1: Well, that's great.
Speaker 3: What were you going to do if you didn't we
Speaker 3: You're gonna become like a banker. I remember Rob Parker
Speaker 3: tells the story about him.
Speaker 1: Stevehn A Smith.
Speaker 3: Was gonna like he worked at a bank or something
Speaker 3: like that. He was going to get out of the business.
Speaker 3: And then like Rob talked him in, Stephen A Smith
Speaker 3: to stay, stay in the business and not become a
Speaker 3: recluse or something like that. And they leave leave media behind.
Speaker 3: And now Steve and as making, you know, thirty million
Speaker 3: dollars a year or whatever he's making at ESPN. But
Speaker 3: did you have a backup plan? I never had a
Speaker 3: backup plan. Like, if I had back up, I probably
Speaker 3: would have done that, because I you know, it took
Speaker 3: me a while before anybody actually gave me a legitimate gig.
Speaker 3: I did a lot of fill in, a lot of
Speaker 3: waking up, and it was a it was a nightmare.
Speaker 3: I mean I did years a weekend overnight radio and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, those are terrible hours. You can't get any
Speaker 3: relationship going. It's a nightmare. But what was your backup point?
Speaker 4: In many ways, Ben, as I'm listening to talk, I'm
Speaker 4: thinking about, Yeah, I flirted with the idea of just
Speaker 4: being like a bartender or something. But I'm like you,
Speaker 4: generally speaking, I never really had a backup plan. I
Speaker 4: you know, we we have to be determined in this business,
Speaker 4: as you know, and resilient, and I just I mean,
Speaker 4: not to get deep, but to get deep and to
Speaker 4: get heavy for a second. Like when my dad was around.
Speaker 4: My dad had a had a rough illness. He died
Speaker 4: in front of me when I was a kid, and
Speaker 4: he had cancer and but he survived four to five
Speaker 4: more years longer than he was supposed to given the
Speaker 4: doctor's prognosis of him. And why I bring up that
Speaker 4: story is because you know, thankfully, knock on wood, I'm healthy.
Speaker 4: But I got a chance to watch that man overcome
Speaker 4: a lot and to deal with a lot and to
Speaker 4: stay persistent. And I've kind of kept that with me
Speaker 4: in the world of business. And so to your point, Ben,
Speaker 4: I think, in many respects, using my father's legacy and
Speaker 4: that that story and that message that he that he
Speaker 4: showed me firsthand, I really never wanted to do anything
Speaker 4: else in life but this in the end, and so
Speaker 4: that's kind of where I am.
Speaker 3: That's cool, and that's a great tribute to your to
Speaker 3: your pops that you were you're doing that, and I
Speaker 3: I got to you talk about rejection, and uh, you know,
Speaker 3: as man, we get rejected by women all the time. Yes,
Speaker 3: I did, you know, in the dating game and all that.
Speaker 1: It's part of the world. But in the business world,
Speaker 1: you get rejected.
Speaker 3: And I when I first got in, I my original
Speaker 3: plan before I became a talk radio guy, was I
Speaker 3: was going to be a play by play announcer.
Speaker 1: So I had this in my head. I had this
Speaker 1: all mapped out. You know. I saw Vin.
Speaker 3: Scully on TV when I was like, guess, all right,
Speaker 3: I'll do that. That sounds like fun. I get to
Speaker 3: travel with the sports team and be a play by
Speaker 3: play guy.
Speaker 1: So I tried to do that.
Speaker 3: And when I was at saddleback, he did the play
Speaker 3: by play on the basketball and the football whatever. And
Speaker 3: so I made some demo tapes and I you know,
Speaker 3: back then there were these big cassette tape things, and
Speaker 3: I sent them out to every minor league baseball team
Speaker 3: and I'm thinking, I'll get a minor.
Speaker 1: League job and I'll work my web.
Speaker 3: And every one of them, you know, rejected me, have
Speaker 3: rejection letters. So then that that was a blow. And
Speaker 3: then I was like, well and then I did the
Speaker 3: math on that. I started looking up the play by
Speaker 3: play guys and this is a long time, and I
Speaker 3: don't know if it's the same, but these guys even
Speaker 3: in like I remember I was in Indianapolis and the
Speaker 3: Triple A play by play guy had been there for
Speaker 3: like thirty five years doing Triple A Indianapolis Indians games.
Speaker 3: And I was like, what for thirty years? And you know,
Speaker 3: I'm doing the math in my head. I'm like, these jobs,
Speaker 3: you know, And I looked around all the baseball guys
Speaker 3: and at that time, you had Harry Carey was doing
Speaker 3: the Cubs, Alice was with the Phillies, Ernie Harwell was
Speaker 3: with the Tege.
Speaker 1: All these guys were like their seventies, in their eighties,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, you know, at that time, I'm in
Speaker 3: my twenties, and I'm like, oh my god, this is
Speaker 3: another math on. This is not gonna I mean, some
Speaker 3: of these guys are going to check out and you know,
Speaker 3: retire or whatever, but still the next wave and I'm
Speaker 3: not necessarily the next way.
Speaker 1: So I did the math on that.
Speaker 3: So then I went to talk radio, and then I
Speaker 3: started fuzing around with that and I started sending stuff out,
Speaker 3: sent out a bunch of again cassette tapes different radio
Speaker 3: stations I wanted to work at that. I thought, Hey,
Speaker 3: I'm WBN in Buffalo. It's my name, yeahs. And I
Speaker 3: still have a box and I when I was moving,
Speaker 3: I found the box of all the rejection letters. Wow,
Speaker 3: all these radio stations, and the coolest thing is several
Speaker 3: of them I have worked at my show that the
Speaker 3: overnight shows carried on but wow, one of them hired
Speaker 3: me to do wei I got rejected. Yeah, they hired
Speaker 3: me to do some filling stuff years ago, and then
Speaker 3: the Score.
Speaker 1: In Chicago we were on for a while. Well you know,
Speaker 1: a couple other radio stations we've been on over the years.
Speaker 1: But you know it's true.
Speaker 3: I mean at one point and maybe I wasn't ready
Speaker 3: and you get rejected, but you got to keep going, man,
Speaker 3: And people, it doesn't guarantee you're gonna make it, but
Speaker 3: if you have a backup plan you give up, then
Speaker 3: you're guaranteed to not make You.
Speaker 1: Know what I'm saying, And that's my position, man.
Speaker 4: Yeah you said it. Ben and I have such a
Speaker 4: weird and there's no one way to do this. As
Speaker 4: you said, you pointed this out, you had a thought
Speaker 4: in your mind of what you wanted to do, and
Speaker 4: then you made the pivot and sort of in that
Speaker 4: realm of thinking, I did the same thing. Like I
Speaker 4: started out in college. I was a sports producer at
Speaker 4: a local TV station in North Carolina. So basically what
Speaker 4: I was doing is I was shooting high school football,
Speaker 4: I was editing, I was.
Speaker 5: Writing copy for the anchor.
Speaker 4: I wasn't on the air, but I did that while
Speaker 4: I was in college, did that three days a week,
Speaker 4: and then I basically was up on the desk in
Speaker 4: between live shows, and I just put together reel and
Speaker 4: I just kept going at it and finally got an
Speaker 4: opportunity and Spokane where I was there. Lived there for
Speaker 4: two years and was a sports anchor weekend sports anchor
Speaker 4: for the CPS affiliate there, and was also a reporter,
Speaker 4: and we covered Mike Leach when he was at Washington.
Speaker 3: States, and good years, Mike Man, Mike Leach, of all
Speaker 3: the people I've come from my top five, oh no doubt,
Speaker 3: loquats wonderful, just amazing outlook on life. And he passed
Speaker 3: away a couple of years ago, but man, was that guy.
Speaker 3: What a what a peach man? What a what a
Speaker 3: good dude?
Speaker 1: Mike Leach? Was he?
Speaker 4: And he was great for you because of the quirkiness
Speaker 4: and gosh he You know, he passed way too soon,
Speaker 4: but think about the quotes that he would give, and
Speaker 4: I know on your show you would run wild with
Speaker 4: those things. Because that's what I loved about him, is
Speaker 4: being able to sit on those Monday press conferences with
Speaker 4: him and the last thing he ever want wanted to
Speaker 4: do with with folks that were beat reporters from wherever,
Speaker 4: what local newspaper or whatnot. The last thing he wanted
Speaker 4: to do was talk football. He wanted those opportunities ben
Speaker 4: to talk about dating, to talk about pirates, to talk
Speaker 4: about movies, to talk about Matthew McConaughey. The last thing
Speaker 4: on a Monday press conference of a game week that
Speaker 4: Mike Leach wanted to talk about was football. And that's
Speaker 4: what made him so special well, and he.
Speaker 3: Stood out to I used to cover Pac ten Media
Speaker 3: Day back when it was the Pac ten. I'd go
Speaker 3: every year, big event in LA and they had you know,
Speaker 3: it's free food, media free loan out there, get a
Speaker 3: free meal, and I'd listen to all the coaches from
Speaker 3: the Pac ten. And usually at that time it was
Speaker 3: like there was Oregon was good, sc was good, occasionally
Speaker 3: UCLA was good, but most of the other teams sucked,
Speaker 3: and the coaches all said the same thing. It was
Speaker 3: this monotone coach speak, you know, the same verbiage. And
Speaker 3: then Mike Leach would get up there and just kill
Speaker 3: it and smile. You were like he was like watching
Speaker 3: a great entertainer on stage as he waxed whatever was
Speaker 3: going on at the time, and it was just so undertanded.
Speaker 3: And he was really a great offensive mine too. Talk
Speaker 3: about his some of the innovations he had for offensive football.
Speaker 3: I know he had taken some of that stuff from
Speaker 3: other coaches, but he had made it a little bit
Speaker 3: better and fond members that.
Speaker 1: So you're working there local TV.
Speaker 3: No money, I would assume, right, A lot of ours
Speaker 3: no money.
Speaker 4: I mean yeah, when that first job in Spokane. I
Speaker 4: mean again, the price of living. The cost of living
Speaker 4: in Spokane, Washington is a lot lower than Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: But I was making actually pay you, I think, to
Speaker 1: live there.
Speaker 4: By the way, it is a beautiful part of the
Speaker 4: country because it's up against the northern Idaho border. So
Speaker 4: if anybody who's listening to this has ever been to
Speaker 4: Cordelaine Lake, it is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 5: So if you like nature, you're gonna love the area.
Speaker 4: There's not a whole lot going on, and in the
Speaker 4: middle of the state of Washington, if you're driving from
Speaker 4: one side to the other, the middle looks like Mars
Speaker 4: because there's nothing and it's just about all flat. But yeah,
Speaker 4: so I was making my first year in Spokane Ben,
Speaker 4: I made twenty eight thousand dollars that first year, twenty
Speaker 4: eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 5: And so we've had.
Speaker 3: A lot of money in like nineteen twenty, I would
Speaker 3: have been yes, and so yeah, and I think the
Speaker 3: second year I made like thirty or thirty or something
Speaker 3: like some are somewhere right around there. And then the
Speaker 3: I got to go to the front on the line
Speaker 3: at the soup kitchen when you're making the.
Speaker 5: Thirties, Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 1: Whatever.
Speaker 4: It's like, you Ben, whenever there's places to get free
Speaker 4: food at a media opportunity.
Speaker 5: I know where I can find you.
Speaker 1: My twenties.
Speaker 3: You know, you didn't know me when I was really fat,
Speaker 3: but my twenty I started out in radio I was nineteen,
Speaker 3: and then my twenties and pretty much my thirties.
Speaker 1: Most of my.
Speaker 3: Thirties, I just was a media freeloader and I ate
Speaker 3: and I well, and I never spent my own money
Speaker 3: because they were, you know, providing free food. It was
Speaker 3: it was great, but yeah, you really And I wasn't
Speaker 3: making a lot of money either in radio. I wasn't
Speaker 3: making thirty thousand, but I was made a little more
Speaker 3: on that but it was you know, it was LA
Speaker 3: so it was more expensive.
Speaker 5: So sure, yeah, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 4: So I was in Spokane and then after two years,
Speaker 4: I wanted to look somewhere else and so an opportunity
Speaker 4: in Memphis popped up and it was with the ABC
Speaker 4: station and I was there for three years as a
Speaker 4: fill in sports thanker. But mostly most of my my
Speaker 4: work was done in the field, and a lot of
Speaker 4: my assignments were around going to practices for Memphis Grizzlies
Speaker 4: and Memphis Tiger basketball and the high school basketball and
Speaker 4: the high school football. There was so good, so much talent.
Speaker 4: And I also would go down and cover the sec Ole,
Speaker 4: miss which is where half of my family went. That
Speaker 4: was really a treat being able to go down there.
Speaker 4: It's about a fifty five minute drive from Memphis to Oxford, Mississippi,
Speaker 4: so that was part of.
Speaker 5: What was in our in our viewing area. So you
Speaker 5: go down there and cover games.
Speaker 3: Brian, you do not let people know that you have
Speaker 3: ties to Old Miss. You keep that on the down low.
Speaker 3: You don't let people know about that.
Speaker 5: You keep why my dad and my sister went there.
Speaker 1: I'm aware.
Speaker 3: You like to mention that you're very proud of that, right,
Speaker 3: you're proud of your your roots.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you this, but my dad had my
Speaker 4: dad when he was alive, he wanted to go to
Speaker 4: Ole Miss because at the time they were really good
Speaker 4: at football, and he had no way to pay for that.
Speaker 5: He had no way to pay for the school. He
Speaker 5: shows up, he gets into the school.
Speaker 4: He shows up and he goes, hey, I don't know
Speaker 4: how to pay for this, but I got in.
Speaker 5: And so you talk about the balls on him.
Speaker 4: They put him to work in the student cafeteria and
Speaker 4: he's delivering sandwiches to other students and he finds a
Speaker 4: way to pay for the schooling. But he showed up
Speaker 4: there and they said, okay, Joe, you can come in
Speaker 4: even though you can't find a way to pay, because
Speaker 4: we're going to put you to work. And that's what
Speaker 4: I respect about that university for giving him that chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, well, I used to kid with the
Speaker 3: wife and we didn't have money to pay for the food,
Speaker 3: well just clean dishes. But your dad actually apparently did it.
Speaker 3: He actually cleaned to go to school. That's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 3: So you're you're in Memphis and this bigger city, right medium, Yeah,
Speaker 3: Tennessee and a lot of crime there.
Speaker 1: I've been to Memphis, you know, barbecue and you know,
Speaker 1: not too much going on. I'm not kind of a lazy
Speaker 1: town for the most part.
Speaker 4: Well, the thing that's really cool about it, and yeah,
Speaker 4: you said it, there's good barbecue. And I lived in Cordova,
Speaker 4: so if anybody is from the Memphis area, they'll know
Speaker 4: where that is. But there are so many outstanding basketball
Speaker 4: players that come out of those high schools. Penny Hardaway
Speaker 4: when he before he took the job at Memphis where
Speaker 4: he was the now he's the head he's now the
Speaker 4: head college basketball coach at at Memphis. As somebody calls
Speaker 4: me Ben, and I apologize for that. But as as
Speaker 4: Penny Hardaway took the head coaching job at Memphis, before then,
Speaker 4: he was the coach at Memphis East, the high school,
Speaker 4: and the amount of talent, like guys like James Wiseman,
Speaker 4: you know, and I know he didn't really pan out
Speaker 4: of the NBA, but I could go down a list
Speaker 4: of guys who I got to see when they were
Speaker 4: in high school and I just had this feeling that
Speaker 4: one day they'd make it to the NFL. So probably
Speaker 4: the most exciting thing for me is covering so many
Speaker 4: high school football and basketball games in that area and
Speaker 4: seeing so many of those players go on to the
Speaker 4: NBA and go on to the NFL and still maintain
Speaker 4: relationships with with those guys. That that to me was
Speaker 4: really cool. Yeah, that's awesome, that's great.
Speaker 3: Although the landscape has certainly changed now these high school
Speaker 3: guys are getting nil.
Speaker 1: Money now it's ooh, wacky, man, it's wacky.
Speaker 3: And I supported I did support the players getting paid everything.
Speaker 1: But as in with everything in life, Brian, you.
Speaker 3: Know, it's it gets a little extreme, right everything, you know, Yeah,
Speaker 3: taken to the next level. But so you're Syria in Memphis,
Speaker 3: and then you end up what next stop back in
Speaker 3: southern California after that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So twenty seventeen, I my mom, My mom had
Speaker 4: gotten remarried. I mentioned that at twenty seventeen, and that
Speaker 4: was the first time where I had made a move.
Speaker 4: I wanted to get back to California. That was the
Speaker 4: first time I made a move and I had absolutely nothing,
Speaker 4: And so I got back at the beginning of the
Speaker 4: summer and sort of spent that whole summer looking for
Speaker 4: anything and basically, and we talked about it earlier, the rejection,
Speaker 4: the rejection, the rejection, the rejection. I would go up
Speaker 4: to la maybe have a coffee with a couple of
Speaker 4: people and just you know, it's important to network and
Speaker 4: get to know people.
Speaker 5: So I started to do that.
Speaker 4: But it was getting towards the end of the year
Speaker 4: or end of the summer, and we're getting close to
Speaker 4: college football and I'm like, oh, I don't know what
Speaker 4: I'm gonna do. You know, we're getting up against it.
Speaker 4: And that is where kind of when I one of
Speaker 4: the lower moments. There's many of them, but again it's
Speaker 4: a constant and Ben, you would attest to this too,
Speaker 4: and many in this industry about persistence because there are gaps,
Speaker 4: or there are ebbs and highs and lows. I guess
Speaker 4: I should say so. In twenty seventeen, I finally got
Speaker 4: an opportunity with UCLA. I guess somehow they saw my work.
Speaker 4: I had worked with lear Field at in Memphis when
Speaker 4: Tubby Smith was the head basketball coach before Penny hard
Speaker 4: Away in Memphis. They did they did like a TV
Speaker 4: coaches show, and they used our studio and I'd fill
Speaker 4: in in Memphis, and I did a couple of shows
Speaker 4: with with Tubby Smith, doing the weekly Tubby Smith Show
Speaker 4: as they would call it. And anyway, under lear Field
Speaker 4: and UCLA at the time was under lear Field and
Speaker 4: they had an opportunity that was opened for a coaches show.
Speaker 4: So I finally, you know, by the grace of the
Speaker 4: higher power or whatever you want to call it, I
Speaker 4: got a nice email from a gentleman who wanted to
Speaker 4: speak with me, and then I went up to the
Speaker 4: university and met with a lot of the athletic personnel there,
Speaker 4: those who are in those.
Speaker 5: Positions of power.
Speaker 4: And that was my foot into the door in la
Speaker 4: and sort of from there I've kind of just slowly
Speaker 4: but surely chiseled a little bit of a bigger imprint
Speaker 4: in the market. And not to say, men, it happened overnight,
Speaker 4: my goodness, not to say that at all. And it's
Speaker 4: just a lot of literal blood, sweat and tears. But
Speaker 4: when you love what you do, you'll do just about
Speaker 4: anything for it and get your mind out of the
Speaker 4: gutter there, Ben, But.
Speaker 3: Oh I I'd never go go blue.
Speaker 1: I would never never said I gotta tell your mom's
Speaker 1: a cool woman.
Speaker 3: As you thank you, you know, because of some of
Speaker 3: the p ones like Justin and Cincinnati and somebody like you.
Speaker 1: Your mom was in was in Playboy? Well she was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no she was.
Speaker 3: I mean they of course justin immediately within like five
Speaker 3: minutes found the issue of Playboy.
Speaker 1: Your mom. But your mom was a good sport.
Speaker 3: I met her at your It wasn't your wedding, but
Speaker 3: it was like a wedding event that you had. And yes,
Speaker 3: right over the ocean there most of Wortune right there
Speaker 3: in San Diego. Just just wonderful event. And she was
Speaker 3: very nice and I met some of your friends and whatnot,
Speaker 3: and that was that.
Speaker 1: Was a cool night.
Speaker 3: I mean, we had many battles, Brian, and I enjoyed
Speaker 3: them on the on the radio.
Speaker 1: I give you a few nicknames. You were how many
Speaker 1: a couple of years? How many? I don't know how
Speaker 1: long you were there. It's how many years? Can you
Speaker 1: believe this? Ben?
Speaker 5: I was there for six years as no way.
Speaker 1: Yes, Wow, it just so quick, that's wild.
Speaker 5: The end of twenty eighteen is when I started.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have no concept of time, Brian, I really don't.
Speaker 3: I mean, I can't believe I've been there as long
Speaker 3: as I've been there, Everything's turned over, Management's turned over,
Speaker 3: every single person, the building's turned over, and it's like
Speaker 3: I'm stuck in some kind of time warp where I'm
Speaker 3: still there, which I don't know if that's good or bad.
Speaker 1: That might not be good, that might be bad.
Speaker 5: I think it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: But we gave you, We gave you a lot of nicknames.
Speaker 3: Now I want to know since this is you know,
Speaker 3: your appearance on the fifth hour, and I know you're
Speaker 3: a mentor to Poppy in San Diego.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we go. We're We're tight. Yeah,
Speaker 5: no doubt you've.
Speaker 3: You've got ferg Dog on your team and all that,
Speaker 3: and Fergie right now, this is orgasmic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listening to this.
Speaker 5: For well, he called Ben Ben.
Speaker 4: I hate to interrupt you, but he called in to
Speaker 4: postgame Bruins talk last Saturday. And when he called in
Speaker 4: after the football game where you see it lost against
Speaker 4: USC the first thing he brought up was you. So
Speaker 4: you made an appearance.
Speaker 1: That's just what the Bruin fans want to hear.
Speaker 5: Yeah, which, which.
Speaker 4: Which tipped me off, been to say, I doubt Fergie
Speaker 4: watched one second of that game.
Speaker 1: No, probably not probably not. Yeah, well point out though. Now.
Speaker 3: I did bruin talk a generation ago, and I my
Speaker 3: one of my top ten moments in broadcasting, not for
Speaker 3: a good thing but for a bad thing was the
Speaker 3: Fateful Day. It was a Saturday afternoon. UCLA was playing
Speaker 3: Miami Bob Toledo.
Speaker 5: They oh, don't you dare go there?
Speaker 3: Well no, I did the ridiculous outcome there, like the
Speaker 3: FBI investigated it, and I'm doing bruin talk after the game.
Speaker 3: They were up seventeen points in the third quarter, they
Speaker 3: win the game. They're going whatever they called the champion
Speaker 3: on the playoff at that time, it was only coming Yeah, the.
Speaker 5: FCS orby FBS, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was.
Speaker 3: They were going to get in and then a guy
Speaker 3: named Edrin James ran through them. But I was doing
Speaker 3: bruin talk because they had laid off Joe McDonald and
Speaker 3: right BEFO for that.
Speaker 1: Actually that's why I was doing that.
Speaker 3: But I still remember that I did some bruin basketball
Speaker 3: post game, not too many of those, but I recall
Speaker 3: I'm doing that. But I wanted to ask you when
Speaker 3: I did Dodger Talk, and I also did Red Sox Review,
Speaker 3: which is the Red Sox.
Speaker 1: Okay, how that happened.
Speaker 3: But the Red Sox post game, which is a whole
Speaker 3: different can of worms. But one thing I've noticed everywhere
Speaker 3: I've done the post game, when the team wins, the.
Speaker 1: Call load is light. When the.
Speaker 3: Call load is fire, the coach players blow, you know,
Speaker 3: we suck?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: To me, it was always Is it still that way, Brian?
Speaker 3: When you're doing the postgame show and the team's playing well,
Speaker 3: it's a little lighter. But when they lose, people are
Speaker 3: up in arms? Is that still the way to it
Speaker 3: is been?
Speaker 4: And I go back to something that you're notorious for saying,
Speaker 4: the best story is in the losing locker room. And
Speaker 4: I think that goes off of what the callers think
Speaker 4: because I think that's where you get the most entergy, tainting,
Speaker 4: the most energy field calls. Where there was one loss
Speaker 4: this season where this dude calls in and I kid
Speaker 4: you not, he is asking for a new head coach
Speaker 4: at u c l A with with regards to their
Speaker 4: football team, and he's throwing out names like, well, why
Speaker 4: isn't Bill Belichick?
Speaker 5: Carroll? I'm like, are you serious?
Speaker 1: Are you high? But Nick Shaban? Can we get Nick? Yeah?
Speaker 5: Exactly like what are we doing here?
Speaker 4: So no, I mean it is It makes for very
Speaker 4: entertaining talk radio, especially when you lose to USC when
Speaker 4: the Bruins should have won that game. But yeah, tons
Speaker 4: of callers and we listen to them all. We don't discriminate.
Speaker 1: You gotta finish the game, man, you gotta finish the game.
Speaker 1: I remember I did Dodger Talk and I started it
Speaker 1: was Ross Porter wife Paul Trivia. Yeah, uh, Ross was
Speaker 1: was was a peach.
Speaker 3: We had certain people that call and the Dodgers weren't
Speaker 3: mediocre in those days. So now they win a You know,
Speaker 3: I know you Padre fans, tough for you to deal
Speaker 3: with that, but well.
Speaker 4: You guys finally got that pivotal World Series, the official
Speaker 4: ring first one before I was born nineteen eighty eight, eight
Speaker 4: right before I was born.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty, the hardest World Series of all time, during
Speaker 3: a global pandemic. The Dodgers won the World Series and
Speaker 3: that's much harder than beating the Yankees in the World Series.
Speaker 3: And it's to know that even old Padres want to
Speaker 3: play for the Dodgers, like that loser Blake Snell, who's
Speaker 3: now a Dodger.
Speaker 1: So that coming out.
Speaker 4: It's funny how you bring that up about the Dodgers
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty. But if the Clippers won the title
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty in the bubble, unlike the Lakers, you
Speaker 4: would have said that was the hardest. But you continue
Speaker 4: to discount the Lakers winning time.
Speaker 1: You're doing what about ism, and you're doing what. I
Speaker 1: don't believe in what about ism. I'm not doing that.
Speaker 3: I live in reality and okay I do wrong. So
Speaker 3: of the nicknames, no, let me give you the nickname
Speaker 3: run down here, Brian. I want to know which one
Speaker 3: do you like the most, because I have my favorite.
Speaker 3: So I gave you a lot nicknames out. I didn't
Speaker 3: realize it was six years. So the the Brian Finley
Speaker 3: nickname rundown I got. I did this with Eddie too,
Speaker 3: because I mean, I can't here, I can't on tape now,
Speaker 3: so I can't really do a nickname for a guy
Speaker 3: on tape.
Speaker 1: But I have. I called you what Goldielocks.
Speaker 3: I think that was the bottleneck, Brian Gridlock, the Butcher,
Speaker 3: the Buckeroo, the babbling baboon, Radio Ned Flanders, ok fake news,
Speaker 3: Finley wonderbred of radio and Quaker oats. I think those
Speaker 3: are those those are the ones I remember. Yeah, Now,
Speaker 3: what do you have a favorite? Because I have a favorite.
Speaker 1: You know what my favorite is? You absolutely know, like, oh.
Speaker 5: My god, oh what my favorite is?
Speaker 1: Brian? No is it? Man?
Speaker 5: I let me hear it from you. Let me hear
Speaker 5: it from you, buckeroo.
Speaker 1: That was one of the funniest nights.
Speaker 3: I will if I write a book sometime, I'll have
Speaker 3: to try to get that in the book.
Speaker 1: Because we were trying.
Speaker 3: We were in a pissing match, me and you and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, I dropped a piano on you, and you're
Speaker 3: very upsetting.
Speaker 5: Hey, let's not forget Ben.
Speaker 4: There was that one time where yeah, I mean, look,
Speaker 4: I always think that, you know, the barbs we throw
Speaker 4: are fun, but I get it.
Speaker 5: You know, I have to learn, you know, you put
Speaker 5: me in my spot.
Speaker 4: There was one week where I was filling in for
Speaker 4: Eddie and I remember you're like, I think I said
Speaker 4: something about you know, and I didn't mean it personally,
Speaker 4: but I think I said something about saddle back. And
Speaker 4: then you only let me talk for like one minute
Speaker 4: at the bottom of the hour and there and then
Speaker 4: you're like, I'll take it from from the Do you
Speaker 4: remember this this was a few years ago.
Speaker 3: I don't particularly remember that, but I'm sure it probably happened.
Speaker 1: I was having a you know, I was having it,
Speaker 1: you know, that time of the month or whatever. I
Speaker 1: don't know what's going on, but no.
Speaker 5: But I learned my lesson, like I I you know,
Speaker 5: it's so.
Speaker 1: I remember when you when you, like.
Speaker 3: The early part of the time we worked together, you
Speaker 3: were trying to make your mark right, and you were
Speaker 3: annoying me. And because you were, you were trying too hard, right,
Speaker 3: and it happens right, you just you were just over
Speaker 3: the top and it was getting under my skin. But
Speaker 3: you that's the line you had. You were using different
Speaker 3: verbiage to describe the outcome of games. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: that was too far. You used a position, a certain
Speaker 3: description of a I'll cover your Brian, But there was
Speaker 3: a way you described the outcome of a game that
Speaker 3: we gave you the nickname the Buckeroo, and that was
Speaker 3: just I still I still chuckle at the particular night
Speaker 3: there was. It was absolutely wonderful, just just tremendous. And
Speaker 3: the net Flanders thing, I think that's also one of
Speaker 3: my top for you.
Speaker 5: Ocally Docally do no, Now, how did you come up
Speaker 5: with those two?
Speaker 1: Though? Well, the the buckeroo was we couldn't say what
Speaker 1: you had.
Speaker 5: Said, so well, yeah, I get that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the net Flanners, I think that was one of
Speaker 3: the listeners actually sent that one in because you sounded
Speaker 3: your delivery initially was a little ned flanders Ish, the
Speaker 3: character from the Simpsons, So I think that's that's what
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 1: I also remember the day that you were eating almond.
Speaker 3: And you left it on the counter there, and again
Speaker 3: it made a big deal about that. I remember you
Speaker 3: and you were you ate a lot. I think it
Speaker 3: was around this time. This is Thanksgiving weekend. It's Black
Speaker 3: Friday today, and I remember one Thanksgiving. I think we
Speaker 3: worked together and you were eating like chicken, olive oil, almond, butter,
Speaker 3: you know, like all that stuff on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Like that was your Thanksgiving meal.
Speaker 4: It's very well, because of working overnight, Ben, I had
Speaker 4: to think outside the box. And let's just say that
Speaker 4: I've opened up my palette since then. I'm not as restrictive.
Speaker 4: I've learned a lot on my own health journey. So
Speaker 4: that's another store.
Speaker 3: But yes or no, you're not like the vegan Alex.
Speaker 3: The Vegan who's been on this podcast, who.
Speaker 4: Go no, no, no, I but I'm Keto so Keto diet,
Speaker 4: So I don't do anything that has artificial sugar. Okay,
Speaker 4: so any like natural sugar that's in fruits and stuff
Speaker 4: like that, I'll do. But I'm not doing anything processed
Speaker 4: or any artificial sugar, and that's sort of more limited.
Speaker 1: I got you, I got you.
Speaker 3: By the way, I need to promote I have a
Speaker 3: TV show that's took me on today on Friday here,
Speaker 3: even though it's Thanksgiving weekend. I know you'll be watching,
Speaker 3: Brian unless you don't, but it's Benny Versus the Penny.
Speaker 3: It'll be on today now that I always debut in
Speaker 3: Boston because that's where the show is produced out of,
Speaker 3: so NBC Sports Boston.
Speaker 1: Today it's six o'clock Boston, right after the I.
Speaker 3: Assume it's a replay of Felger and Maz on NBC
Speaker 3: Sports Boston.
Speaker 1: So that'll be available later today and I work that
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 3: Also, since you're here, Brian and you're part of the show,
Speaker 3: how about the worm of the day.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for the That's what I am.
Speaker 5: Ready, let's do it.
Speaker 3: So the phrase of the day today, I figured, why
Speaker 3: not just play the hits, mom, man, play the hits
Speaker 3: a black Friday. The term black Friday, which originated I
Speaker 3: did not know is it goes back to eighteen sixty nine.
Speaker 3: Today is black Friday a day that we know is
Speaker 3: about shopping and spending money and all that. But the
Speaker 3: original term was coined in eighteen sixty nine the bottom
Speaker 3: fell out of the gold market because of manipulation. There
Speaker 3: were a couple of shady Wall Street people, go figure
Speaker 3: that manipulated the gold market, and black Friday was used
Speaker 3: the first time to describe the day that launched bankruptcies.
Speaker 3: So that's the real It wasn't for retail. But wait,
Speaker 3: there's more. Now, this part of this I found. I
Speaker 3: found it fascinating. Years ago, Black Friday was not a thing, right,
Speaker 3: It was not a thing up until like the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 3: In fact, originally it was. It was such a negative
Speaker 3: that they turned into a positive. So the stories that
Speaker 3: black Friday, you know, most people say, well that's when
Speaker 3: stores go from in the red to in the black,
Speaker 3: but it actually goes back to Philadelphia, PA. And it
Speaker 3: was the day after Thanksgiving. Cops hated it. They complained
Speaker 3: about Black Friday because they had to work on their
Speaker 3: off day, they'd work overtime and the day after Thanksgiving
Speaker 3: because downtown Philadelphia there were tons of people there shopping.
Speaker 3: They were out of towners there, fans in town because
Speaker 3: that was always I know, they don't play it there
Speaker 3: every year anymore, but the Army Navy game was played
Speaker 3: in Philadelphia, see me forever. So they had huge crowds
Speaker 3: in Philly that the game was on Saturday, so people
Speaker 3: would come into town and it was apparently a massive
Speaker 3: day for shoplifters. This goes back like the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 3: and so it was a massive problem for the people
Speaker 3: that were in the retail business because they know people
Speaker 3: shoppers were coming in there and they would steal a
Speaker 3: bunch of crap, much like they do today in some places.
Speaker 3: And so this is like the the in the in
Speaker 3: the fifties and in the sixties. And then at some
Speaker 3: point they got together, some of the big retailers in Philadelphia,
Speaker 3: and as the story has been passed on to me,
Speaker 3: it was one of those things, well, if we can't
Speaker 3: beat them, we might as well join them. And so
Speaker 3: let's try to turn a negative into a positive and
Speaker 3: we'll reinvent Black Friday. But it took a while, and then,
Speaker 3: you know, the late seventies early eighties, Black Friday by
Speaker 3: then became synonymous with the day to spend money you
Speaker 3: don't have and shop to drop and you know, doorbuster
Speaker 3: deals and all that. But originally Black Friday was a negative.
Speaker 3: You know, it was a Wall Street term about the
Speaker 3: gold market manipulation. And then in Philadelphia it was a
Speaker 3: day where crime ran wild and people were hoodlums and
Speaker 3: all that, and they turned the negative into a puzzle.
Speaker 1: So that is the phrase of the week. There you go.
Speaker 4: Who knows, it's funny, Ben, because that's all you do
Speaker 4: on your shows. You turn a negative into a positive.
Speaker 4: So it makes so much sense.
Speaker 1: I look at that out.
Speaker 3: There, all right, thank you for doing this. Now anything
Speaker 3: you want to promote, Brian, How can people? I know
Speaker 3: you're still on the X and all that, and then
Speaker 3: you know, follow me on X.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, doing a lot of tennis, doing a lot
Speaker 4: of volleyball, looking forward to twenty twenty five. So for
Speaker 4: all the updates going into twenty twenty five, follow me
Speaker 4: on X and Ben.
Speaker 5: It's great to finally be on that's great.
Speaker 3: What's your dream gig, like, you know, five years from now,
Speaker 3: we're sitting here at the end of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: If I if I dial you up in twenty twenty
Speaker 3: nine around giving like could you be a play by
Speaker 3: play guy for a team network job?
Speaker 4: But something else? What do you what do you think?
Speaker 4: I got my toes in a lot of different things.
Speaker 4: So I want to be able to to do something
Speaker 4: related to tennis, broadcasting at Wimbledon or one of the majors,
Speaker 4: you know, Grand Slam wise in tennis, also college volleyball,
Speaker 4: more that on ESPN.
Speaker 5: I've done some of that before.
Speaker 4: I want to continue to do that and want to
Speaker 4: get into the golf space. But tennis and volleyball I
Speaker 4: am gonna do. This is kind of fun. I'm doing
Speaker 4: a couple of UCLA women's basketball games in December. So
Speaker 4: we're getting close to December, and they are now number
Speaker 4: one in the country after beating Don Staley South Carolina
Speaker 4: team a few days ago from when we tape this,
Speaker 4: So you're going to see me do some basketball in December.
Speaker 1: Ben.
Speaker 4: So, yeah, just a little thing, a little bunch of
Speaker 4: different things all over the place.
Speaker 3: Outstanding all right, Well, Brian, it's been it's been fun.
Speaker 3: And you look at that you're part of the alumni associations.
Speaker 3: Make sure todm looney told me to make sure you
Speaker 3: pay your dues. You're you're in the alumni association. Now
Speaker 3: you're an active member FSR Alumni Association, the number one.
Speaker 1: Club out there.
Speaker 3: But had a good time busting your balls back in
Speaker 3: the day. And you know, maybe we'll work together again
Speaker 3: down the line. But thanks for coming on.
Speaker 4: Thanks have a great, great holiday season, Brian YouTube Ben.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you having me man. Always cherish our times
Speaker 4: and all the laughs and all the fun times we
Speaker 4: had together.
Speaker 1: Lader skater gotta murder, I gotta go