Speaker 1: If you thought four hours a day, minutes a week
Speaker 1: was enough, I think again. He's the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the old republic, a sole fashion of fairness. He treats
Speaker 1: crackheads in the ghetto cutter the same as the rich
Speaker 1: pill poppers in the penthouse, the clearing House of Hot
Speaker 1: takes break free for something special. The Fifth Hour with
Speaker 1: Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere, back
Speaker 1: at it on a Friday, a mead October, the middle
Speaker 1: of October. Here we are back in the magic podcast machine,
Speaker 1: the salt mine of podcasting, and it is our Friday show.
Speaker 1: We do this because four hours a night have been
Speaker 1: deemed not enough according to the management of the company
Speaker 1: that I work for, Fox Sports Radio. And so we
Speaker 1: we say, you know what, Let's do this eight days
Speaker 1: a week. We do the radio show five days. Let's
Speaker 1: do the podcast. We can curse, we can scream, we
Speaker 1: can shout on this podcast. And so a spinoff of
Speaker 1: the Overnight Show. We thank you for finding the podcast.
Speaker 1: Tell a friend, Tell a friend. We need to grow
Speaker 1: the podcast audience. And as I like to say, if
Speaker 1: everyone listening, if you listening right now, tell a co
Speaker 1: worker or a relative and they listen, we have instantly
Speaker 1: doubled our market share in the podcast world. But enough
Speaker 1: of that. This weekend. Very excited here on a Friday
Speaker 1: to catch up with a friend of mine by request. Now,
Speaker 1: I've known this guy for many years, but I didn't
Speaker 1: work with them, and we've had several listeners who have said, Hey,
Speaker 1: you've gotta you gotta get this guy, and I want
Speaker 1: to hear what he's up to. H I'm talking about
Speaker 1: Jerome or seeing that headline sports, that's that's the legend.
Speaker 1: Jerome Daranovitch, who has worked for the Atlanta Braves and
Speaker 1: the the Atlanta Hawks as well over the last fifteen years.
Speaker 1: She just retired. It doesn't seem like you should have retired.
Speaker 1: He's a young young guy in my eyes. But he
Speaker 1: has retired now and he worked in Denver and he's
Speaker 1: been all over the place. But you hear him talk.
Speaker 1: He is Western Pennsylvania through and through and he worked
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports Radio briefly. And so we are excited
Speaker 1: to go and the way Back Machine, a beloved broadcaster
Speaker 1: and a person that went out a few times, had
Speaker 1: some drinks with good times, good memories back in the day.
Speaker 1: And Jerome, why don't we start. You were at Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio, part of the Alumni Association. Are your dudes
Speaker 1: paid up? You know I have not paid up to
Speaker 1: do this, but don't tell anybody. I think I just
Speaker 1: left the cat out of the bag. But maybe our
Speaker 1: good friend Art Martinez will cover for me the next
Speaker 1: time the dudes are do Yeah, yeah, Well, Already is
Speaker 1: an active member of the Alumni Association that I see
Speaker 1: already once here Now for those that you know behind
Speaker 1: the scenes inside radio, Jerome the great Art Martine Nuez,
Speaker 1: a rock on the board, one of the great engineers.
Speaker 1: And really I've had a lot of board ops and
Speaker 1: engineers over these but Art Martinez in all time greade
Speaker 1: and you better not mess with the raiders or Already
Speaker 1: is gonna bring it down there a legend and I come,
Speaker 1: but I invite Art to my I do a Christmas
Speaker 1: party like a holiday sweater party thing every year, and
Speaker 1: Already shows up. I didn't do it last year because
Speaker 1: of that whole COVID thing, but Already shows up, and
Speaker 1: he's always the first person there, and Jerome he's the
Speaker 1: last person to leave. Every year I've had this, Art
Speaker 1: Martinez stays until the very I gotta kick him out
Speaker 1: of my house. There's no shock or surprised by coming
Speaker 1: first and staying till the end. Let's just hope that
Speaker 1: he doesn't go trick or treating as Jon Gruden. I
Speaker 1: know he's a big great I think he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to put that. Yes, hopefully he didn't send any emails
Speaker 1: to John Gruden that might come back and get him here.
Speaker 1: And now, you weren't at Fox Sports Radio all that long,
Speaker 1: but you're you're an East Coast guy living in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: Rome at the time. That's a that's an eye opening experience.
Speaker 1: I don't you've traveled around. You're a worldly man, you're
Speaker 1: a globe trekker and all that from your years in
Speaker 1: the media. But living in the belly of the beast
Speaker 1: in l a good, bad, ugly I still miss it
Speaker 1: to this day. I moved out of there in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four, and my wife is tired of hearing this.
Speaker 1: I still talk about moving back to California. I the
Speaker 1: first three months were difficult transition for me. It took
Speaker 1: about three weeks just to get settled into that three
Speaker 1: hour time difference. I kept waking waking up at four am.
Speaker 1: He was driving me crazy. But once I learned my
Speaker 1: way around and just got a little foothold into Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: I absolutely loved it, especially on college football Saturdays, nine
Speaker 1: am kick off and you're not You're going to bed
Speaker 1: five games later before you go to it was I
Speaker 1: just loved Lost. I loved the weather, I love the energy.
Speaker 1: Hated the traffic, but Atlanta has the second horse traffics
Speaker 1: in America behind l A, so I was used to
Speaker 1: being in terrible traffic. I loved everything about it. Now
Speaker 1: that was a long long time ago, since I left
Speaker 1: a long time ago, so I'm sure things have changed dramatically.
Speaker 1: I know the fires are just horrible out there, but
Speaker 1: I just I loved Ela. I just loved every minute
Speaker 1: of it. I had lived previously in New York City,
Speaker 1: and I'm hold enough to grow up on Johnny Carson
Speaker 1: when he would have celebrity guests, and if they were
Speaker 1: New Yorkers, they would complain about l A. If they
Speaker 1: were West Coast people, they would complain about New York.
Speaker 1: The whole l A New York rivalry. Never understood what
Speaker 1: they were talking about. Because I was a kid, having
Speaker 1: lived in both, I am sold on Los Angeles and
Speaker 1: a heart people, a chamber of commerce. Now you're right,
Speaker 1: l A has changed a lot room they've the city
Speaker 1: has gone down. Now. One thing that has not changed, though,
Speaker 1: And I actually have some good news for you. And
Speaker 1: I know I haven't talked to you in a while,
Speaker 1: but the same exact equipment that you used back in
Speaker 1: the day at Fox Sports Radio at the premier networks
Speaker 1: has not either been fixed or upgraded. It is like
Speaker 1: a time capsule saved posterity sake. And I've been working
Speaker 1: from home a lot to Rome, but I actually went
Speaker 1: in this week. I was at the the Dodger Games
Speaker 1: the other night and so I went in there and
Speaker 1: it is unreal. Nothing has been touched you this, I'm
Speaker 1: not exaggeratingbody with the same exact setup. So you could
Speaker 1: if you decide to unretired Jerome and come back to
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio and you know, take the family out
Speaker 1: the Cali, pack up the dogs in the station wagon,
Speaker 1: the wife, the whole thing. You would then be able
Speaker 1: to be very comfortable in our old old building because
Speaker 1: it's still exactly the same. You'll be happy that so
Speaker 1: that coffee staying on the rug left there by John
Speaker 1: Ireland in two thousand and three remains, is what you're telling. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is an There's a Tony Bruno. I think one
Speaker 1: time he he put some bubblegum down on the floor there,
Speaker 1: and that's still still there under the table of Pat O'Brien,
Speaker 1: who hasn't worked there in years. P o b he
Speaker 1: actually taped for some reason, Pat taped the dollar bill
Speaker 1: to the table in there, and that remnants of that
Speaker 1: dollar bill are still taped to the to the main
Speaker 1: studio table. So it is there's a lot of history
Speaker 1: in that building to room at Legends like yourself worked there,
Speaker 1: and they don't they don't want to change anything. Anyway.
Speaker 1: We mentioned already Eric Peterson are great producer friend, he
Speaker 1: also worked. I mean, so there's legends in that building.
Speaker 1: Jerome legends, legends, some of us not so much, but
Speaker 1: you know, Pat O'Brien, Tony Bruno, and the guys absolutely,
Speaker 1: My buddy Chris Rose, no question. So I was talking
Speaker 1: to another member of the Fox Sports Radio Alumni Association
Speaker 1: who I occasionally talked to, Tom Looney, and I said, Tom,
Speaker 1: what's Jerome dorenovis? You know he's I don't have Jeroman
Speaker 1: and he's got any Jerome stories. He said, Now I
Speaker 1: thought he was pulling chain here. He says, you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta ask him about the flowers, is what Looney said.
Speaker 1: So do you know, I mean, are you there was
Speaker 1: a flowers This is a cord of loony. I he said,
Speaker 1: he was not pulling my chain here, Jerome. He said,
Speaker 1: there's a legendary Jerome Drenovich flowers story from your days
Speaker 1: at Fox Sports Radio. Is this true? Or is Looney?
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know. I don't know if flowers
Speaker 1: doing Now I'm old Ben. Yeah, so I don't get
Speaker 1: flowers story. I don't know what flowers. Yeah. He he
Speaker 1: had claimed there was an incident somebody was ordering flowers
Speaker 1: and you were asking questions about it, and then, uh,
Speaker 1: you don't. You don't recall it. So so that might
Speaker 1: have been a Looney That might have been a Looney
Speaker 1: story that just got on the podcast. That was an
Speaker 1: incorrect story. Either that or he remembers it and you
Speaker 1: don't remember it was such and it was an unmemorable
Speaker 1: experience for you. Well, you know what, if Looney says
Speaker 1: it happened, I'm going with Looney's side of the story.
Speaker 1: So even if it makes me look terrific. I'm going
Speaker 1: with Looney, but he's not loved LOONI, but he's Looney. He's,
Speaker 1: I mean, the guy his names says, how can you?
Speaker 1: He's the funny thing about Looney now he's he's like
Speaker 1: a hard news guy. He does news now at k ABC,
Speaker 1: one of the news talk stations in l A. And
Speaker 1: it's great and I hear him sometimes and it's it's
Speaker 1: tremendous because you know, you think like you're the news guy,
Speaker 1: you gotta be all serious and all that him. But
Speaker 1: he's his name is Looney. Now you'd be when your
Speaker 1: name is Looney, you can't be the serious news guy,
Speaker 1: right crazy he is Loonie, m j T legends, legend. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: part of part of that time. So now when you left,
Speaker 1: didn't you go to Denver before you went to Atlanta?
Speaker 1: Am I right on that? Or am I imagining that
Speaker 1: in my head? No? You are correct. I left Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio in Los Angeles and went to Denver to
Speaker 1: launch the Altitude Sports Network. Stand Cockey decided he as
Speaker 1: legendary as you people in l A know, as the
Speaker 1: owner of not just the Rams, but of about nineteen
Speaker 1: thousand different sports teams, including the Denver Nuggets in Colorado Avalanche,
Speaker 1: and he owned the Pepsi Center at the time and
Speaker 1: decided that he wanted to UM owned the rights to
Speaker 1: the broadcasts of his two teams there, so he started
Speaker 1: his own Cave regional network and I was hired over
Speaker 1: there to be the main host as they launched that.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you then, boy, I first of
Speaker 1: all love stand I'd work for stand Mar. He was
Speaker 1: great After Nuggets gains. The bar inside the then Pepsi Center,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called now, UM called the
Speaker 1: Blue Sky Girl. He'd come down and me and three
Speaker 1: or four got we'd be sitting at the bar having
Speaker 1: drains after the game and just talking to him like
Speaker 1: a casual fan. What a great owner. You would never
Speaker 1: realize he's one of the wealthiest men in the world.
Speaker 1: He was just he was just a great guy. It
Speaker 1: still is. I'm sure he was great to work for UM. Now,
Speaker 1: the people that ran Altitude, I can tell you stories
Speaker 1: all my goodness. UM. When they flew me up there
Speaker 1: for the interview, we were in the same building as
Speaker 1: the Hallmark Channel, so they walked me through the Hallmark
Speaker 1: Channel and kind of a link in a NOD We're
Speaker 1: leading me to believe that that was their production set
Speaker 1: up when it wasn't. So when we launched Altitude, thankfully
Speaker 1: that was the year that the NHL had a lock out,
Speaker 1: because we would not have been prepared to be able
Speaker 1: to broadcast Nuggets and Avalanche games at the same time.
Speaker 1: We were so understaffed and under equipped. I was hosting
Speaker 1: the Nuggets pregame, post game and halftime without an analyst
Speaker 1: and without a desk, and with no highlights. I will
Speaker 1: stand out there and just talk for thirty minutes all
Speaker 1: by myself. And we had literally had one video tape deck.
Speaker 1: So in television to edit, you have to have one
Speaker 1: deck to play the tape and then edit on the
Speaker 1: other one. We only had one only to record. So
Speaker 1: they would send us the highlights from the Nuggets game
Speaker 1: from the truck and we would use that in the
Speaker 1: postgame show, but we wouldn't have any highlights from many
Speaker 1: other games and I'm just out there talking for thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: So thank god I came from those four years in
Speaker 1: radio because it was just unbelievable. We had we had
Speaker 1: a couple of people there that were in management positions
Speaker 1: that had no business even working in television, little management.
Speaker 1: It was a complete nightmare. It was fun, made some
Speaker 1: good fact friendships over those two years. The teams were
Speaker 1: great to deal with, the first class. Uh, The Avalanche
Speaker 1: and the Nuggets were both first class to deal with.
Speaker 1: The players were great, the organizations were great. Kike Vanderway
Speaker 1: was running the Nuggets at the time, Pierre Laqua was
Speaker 1: running the Apps. They were It was fantastic to deal with.
Speaker 1: They were both good teams. It was Carmelo's second and
Speaker 1: third season, so they were playoff teams those two years.
Speaker 1: And the Apps were still had Rob Blake and Joe Sakic.
Speaker 1: They still had a good handful of guys from the
Speaker 1: Stanley Cup run. So they were exciting teams. But it
Speaker 1: was just a not a good position to be in
Speaker 1: if you wanted to work in sports TV at the time.
Speaker 1: And then so after two years, my first contract was
Speaker 1: I got out of Dodge as fast as you could
Speaker 1: and took the job. I just retired from a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. Yeah, So if you had known at
Speaker 1: the time that it's like looking at a hotel you
Speaker 1: want to stay out online, they show you all the
Speaker 1: nice rooms and then your your rooms are in the
Speaker 1: back on the on the other side of the tracks.
Speaker 1: That's uh, that's essentially so, I wanna give me a
Speaker 1: stand cronkey store. So I've seen standing at these ram
Speaker 1: games if a few times I've been to Sofi Stadium,
Speaker 1: I saw him at the college see him. Actually more
Speaker 1: like everyone's kind of segregated at the Sofi Stadium in Inglewood.
Speaker 1: The media's kind of separated from the rich people and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. But but stand, isn't he the I
Speaker 1: think I read he's the largest landowner outside of the
Speaker 1: United States government, that he owns more land than anyone
Speaker 1: else in the United States, which is amazing to me.
Speaker 1: That you like parts of Texas, New Mexico all over
Speaker 1: the place, he's uh, he's got you know, that would
Speaker 1: not surprise me because I know and and I under standard.
Speaker 1: Although Ted Turner's health is not what it used to be,
Speaker 1: but he is also one of these massive landowners. They
Speaker 1: brought up massive amounts of land in Montana and New
Speaker 1: Mexico and out west. You know, most of it's an
Speaker 1: inhabited but uh, you know it's look, as my late
Speaker 1: Ultle used to say, God ain't building anymore land he's
Speaker 1: gonna want to get on that land eventually. And you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, what else you gonna do when you got
Speaker 1: that many We were talking billions. When you got that
Speaker 1: kind of money, I mean, you know, what are you
Speaker 1: gonna do? So I mean, yeah, well, you know, staying
Speaker 1: well to give you my one stand story that I
Speaker 1: really like the most. Okay, so I get there. Um,
Speaker 1: Andre Miller is the point guard. They got Carmelo Marcus
Speaker 1: Camby is our center. Um, we had a nice little
Speaker 1: team there, you know, playoff team. Kenyan Martin was our
Speaker 1: power forward and he used to drive me nuts because
Speaker 1: you know, we basically got five arrow bread's out there
Speaker 1: on the court and Andre Miller's walking the ball up
Speaker 1: the court you want to It was like he was
Speaker 1: allergic to a fast break. And I'm sitting there going,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? So We're in the bar one
Speaker 1: day after a game, and they had one day one
Speaker 1: more often then they lost, and then I'm sitting I
Speaker 1: go stand. You know, he's got his entourage with him.
Speaker 1: We're sitting there and I go, stand, you gotta get
Speaker 1: rid of Andre Miller And he goes thrown. He's a
Speaker 1: good basketball player, very good. I said stand. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying he's not a good basketball player. He is a
Speaker 1: good basketball player, no question about it. I said, he's
Speaker 1: a great half court point guard. I said, but you
Speaker 1: got Gazelle's out there and this guy's walking the ball
Speaker 1: up the court. Can you imagine if Magic Johnson walked
Speaker 1: the ball up the court, we'd never have showtime. He's
Speaker 1: got you gotta push it. You don't got Kevin mckill
Speaker 1: and a bunch of cloggers out there. You've got guys
Speaker 1: that can run when we on, When we run, we
Speaker 1: run teams out of the gym, especially here at home
Speaker 1: with this altitude. I said, but he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: push it. He doesn't want to push it. And then
Speaker 1: next thing you know, they George carl in there and
Speaker 1: then they just start running the ball. And I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there going singing. Come on, man, you don't have to
Speaker 1: be there in realize Andre Miller is not your point.
Speaker 1: But he was. He was very open to having those
Speaker 1: kind of discussions and just sit there and have a
Speaker 1: bever with you and talk basketball. He loves sports, There's
Speaker 1: no question. Man loves sports. Yeah that's cool, that's pretty
Speaker 1: pretty neat. And the the altitude droome. Now you having
Speaker 1: lived all over the country, Pennsylvania, guy in New York, Atlanta,
Speaker 1: l A. It is it legit? Though? In Denver? Is
Speaker 1: it is? It? Is it an? Is it reality? No? No,
Speaker 1: it's there's no question that, Bob. Is you? So I
Speaker 1: am there, I'm there. I get there on a Monday
Speaker 1: that Thursday, air Force is hosting Navy on Thursday college
Speaker 1: football Thursday night. Came and a couple of guys we
Speaker 1: we didn't even launched it. We're not launching until the
Speaker 1: next Monday. So a couple of guys go, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I said, heybody, can we get to this Air Force
Speaker 1: Navy game? I'd love to go down to the Academy
Speaker 1: and see it. And guys are going, yeah, no problems.
Speaker 1: So they called. We go down and we get tickets.
Speaker 1: And if you've ever been to the Air Force Academy,
Speaker 1: beautiful facility. By the way, when you walk in, you
Speaker 1: basically walk in on field level. When the fields a
Speaker 1: little sunk. You're walking on field level and you gotta
Speaker 1: walk up to your seat. And we're walking, you know,
Speaker 1: we had a couple of a couple of cold ones
Speaker 1: in the parking lot, but nothing out of control and
Speaker 1: I'm I'm walking and I'm like, oh my goodness. I
Speaker 1: know it's been a couple of months because of the
Speaker 1: move where I haven't worked out or anything, but I'm
Speaker 1: I'm like gasping for breath and these people are looking
Speaker 1: at me like what is wrong with you? And when
Speaker 1: we finally got to our seat, because we are about
Speaker 1: three quarters of the way up the stadium, up right
Speaker 1: by the press box, I'm like, guys, I don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on here, and they're like laughing at me.
Speaker 1: It was the altitude. It was the altitude, no question.
Speaker 1: If if you're not used to it, I don't know
Speaker 1: how these teams fly in, run up and down that
Speaker 1: court like that, and then fly back. And there's no
Speaker 1: question you would see it effect teams, especially like late
Speaker 1: in the third quarter or the fourth. A lot of
Speaker 1: teams like to come in, like on a Tuesday night
Speaker 1: to play a Thursday game, just to get an extra
Speaker 1: day in there. But you come in especially, you come
Speaker 1: in a lot of these teams arrived one in the morning,
Speaker 1: you know, and they get into their hotel room to
Speaker 1: three in the morning. They have a rough night, no question. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well you would think the teams in Denver would take you.
Speaker 1: You said, Andre Miller walking the ball up the court.
Speaker 1: But that's yeah. And so then you go to Atlanta
Speaker 1: and you're happy not to Jerome. You know this podcast
Speaker 1: and the radio show. Now I do these Friday conversations,
Speaker 1: you know, with random people like yourself, important people like yourself.
Speaker 1: And I've had several people in Georgia, but not just Georgia,
Speaker 1: like all over the South because of the reach of
Speaker 1: the channel you were on there, like you gotta get
Speaker 1: Jerome on you. You claim you know Jerome durnomous. People
Speaker 1: are doubting that I know you. And so you have.
Speaker 1: You have a bunch of fans there from your days
Speaker 1: with the Braves and the Hawks, and which just ended.
Speaker 1: When was your last day on television? I know you
Speaker 1: worked this season for the Braves, right when when did
Speaker 1: that end? My last day was the day they clinched
Speaker 1: the East. It was the third and final game of
Speaker 1: the Phillies series, in that final homestand and it was
Speaker 1: fifteen years here with the Braves and the Hawks. And
Speaker 1: you know, Ben, I'll tell you a funny story. So
Speaker 1: I come from Denver, where the Abs are good, where
Speaker 1: the Nuggets are good. And I had lived in Atlanta
Speaker 1: previous years, so we're seeing in fourteen and a half years.
Speaker 1: So I go from CNN in Atlanta to l A
Speaker 1: with you guys, and I'm in Denver and then come
Speaker 1: back here as I'm as I'm moving back here, I'm
Speaker 1: going through a divorce. My wife ex wife stays in Denver.
Speaker 1: So I'm going through a divorce and it's very amicable.
Speaker 1: She's great, we're still good friends. It just didn't work out.
Speaker 1: One of those things. God bless hers. So but legally,
Speaker 1: you gotta go to court, you do this stuff, right.
Speaker 1: So she's still in Denver. She goes just go you know,
Speaker 1: we're not contesting anything. It's just a matter of legality, formality.
Speaker 1: So I go to the courtroom, you know, and there's
Speaker 1: all these couples in they're going through all this divorce court,
Speaker 1: you know, and there he said, she said, they're crying,
Speaker 1: they're fighting whatever. And then the judge calls me up
Speaker 1: there and asked where the wife is and I explained.
Speaker 1: He goes, okay, and he goes, why I've got questions
Speaker 1: for And I go all right, and he goes, my
Speaker 1: first question is what do you do for a living
Speaker 1: and I tell him and he goes, and what brought
Speaker 1: you here to Atlanta? I said, well, I said, they're
Speaker 1: starting the pregame and post game for the Atlanta Hawks,
Speaker 1: the Atlanta Thrashers, and the the Atlanta Braves. And he goes,
Speaker 1: what were you doing before? I said that same thing,
Speaker 1: but for the Denver Nuggets in the Colorado Avalanche. And
Speaker 1: he goes, the Nuggets in the Avalanche or playoff teams?
Speaker 1: Aren't they? I said, yeah, they're very good. And he
Speaker 1: goes and the Hawks and Braves are last place teams,
Speaker 1: aren't they? Yes they are. He goes, what are you doing? Laugh?
Speaker 1: I said, it doesn't matter how good are bad the
Speaker 1: teams are, it's how big the paycheck is. He goes, okay,
Speaker 1: not just busting my jobs in front of a court
Speaker 1: roof full of people that are all everybody. I guess
Speaker 1: that they made everybody laugh because they were all hollow
Speaker 1: after they were crying and arguing. All that that is.
Speaker 1: It reminds me I had a conversation, you know, Ralph Lawler,
Speaker 1: the voice of the Clippers, where he just retired a
Speaker 1: few years ago, and and I remember we were having
Speaker 1: a conversation and the Clippers were just morbid for most
Speaker 1: of Ralph's time. They only became good the last like
Speaker 1: ten years or so. But he was there and they
Speaker 1: were the worst of the worst, and and he said
Speaker 1: pretty much the same things. And I was like, you
Speaker 1: get paid, it's a good job, and whether the team
Speaker 1: wins or not, it's it's it's an interesting dynamic. Now
Speaker 1: you can answer this question, Jerome, though, having had mostly TV,
Speaker 1: I think of you as a TV guy. But you
Speaker 1: worked at Fox Sports, right, I think you did work
Speaker 1: in radio early on in your career. So what is
Speaker 1: the harder media platform if you're walking in to do
Speaker 1: television or to do radio. Wow, that's a good question. Ben.
Speaker 1: I will say this because I had worked in television
Speaker 1: my whole life. Every job I had in TV, you know,
Speaker 1: I kind of started behind the scenes, and I knew
Speaker 1: I wanted to be in front of the camera. So
Speaker 1: you know, when I wasn't actually working, maybe on my
Speaker 1: dinner hour, coming in on a day off, I would
Speaker 1: I would work toward the eventual position of a reporter
Speaker 1: on camera person. So I got practice time on my own.
Speaker 1: So I built my way towards that. Radio. I was
Speaker 1: kind of just thrown into this mix. After working in
Speaker 1: television for well over twenty years, I go out to
Speaker 1: Fox Sports Radio. I had never done radio before. What
Speaker 1: a I opening, and just it blew me away. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest with that. Those I mean, I was doing
Speaker 1: the updates for a while, but when they put me
Speaker 1: on and made me do the Baseball show and the
Speaker 1: NFL Show on Saturday and Sunday, I didn't know what
Speaker 1: I was doing. And then, you know, after four years
Speaker 1: of I learned what you're supposed to do. And then actually,
Speaker 1: when I moved back here a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: CBS Radio started a a all sports talk station, and
Speaker 1: I allowed with Jamie Dukes, who was on NFL Network,
Speaker 1: long time NFL player. We had a show. We had
Speaker 1: a blast, But I knew what I was doing when
Speaker 1: I got on radio here in Atlanta. I didn't have
Speaker 1: a clue what I was doing in l A. And
Speaker 1: there is a big, big difference. Now. I would not
Speaker 1: be able to do the show I did in Denver
Speaker 1: or the show I did here with the Hawks and Braves.
Speaker 1: These pre and postgame shows, they're basically radio on TV.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're just talking, You're spewing facts, you're spewing knowledge.
Speaker 1: You're you know, it's just your knowledge of the individual
Speaker 1: players on the team that you cover how the team
Speaker 1: is sparing. And it's basically sports talk radio on TV
Speaker 1: as opposed to doing a three minute you know, Channel two,
Speaker 1: you know at six o'clock that's all written out. You know.
Speaker 1: I didn't use the prompter for fifteen years here because
Speaker 1: everything was off the cuff, and that was basically what
Speaker 1: I learned in radio. Radio was more challenging for me,
Speaker 1: There's no question. It seems like it would be easier,
Speaker 1: but it was. No I'll tell you. It was more
Speaker 1: challenging for me because I didn't have a clue what
Speaker 1: I was doing. Man. I leaned on guys like you
Speaker 1: and watching you and j T two break and and
Speaker 1: just marveling at how John Ireland could talk for twenty
Speaker 1: five minutes NonStop and entertain you and uh, listening to
Speaker 1: Bruno and Siciliano in the morning. That was good stuff.
Speaker 1: That was That was an eye opening experience, wealth and
Speaker 1: knowledge coming out of these guys. For me, yeah, it
Speaker 1: is much. It's much of an and like I have
Speaker 1: the complete opposite career drum I did television for I
Speaker 1: think it was nine months at NBC. They flew me
Speaker 1: back every month to do stuff at the NBC Sports Network,
Speaker 1: which I think has gone away. I think or it
Speaker 1: is going away. I don't even want I haven't kept
Speaker 1: tracked there. So I just had a little taste of it,
Speaker 1: and I thought like because I was just a correspondent,
Speaker 1: they brought in to give some hot takes, so I
Speaker 1: was only on for a segment here, like a segment there.
Speaker 1: And so for me, I was like, this is great
Speaker 1: because the radio show I do four hours a night
Speaker 1: on the overnight and it's a much different, much different animal.
Speaker 1: And the thing though, I will give you credit, I
Speaker 1: mean when you're doing television, I mean there's so many
Speaker 1: producers and directors and people around. As you know, in radio,
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of people around. It's it's pretty
Speaker 1: much you know, you and a couple of people and
Speaker 1: you got to figure it out. In television, I feel
Speaker 1: like it's they direct you more on what they're looking for.
Speaker 1: You know. Radio radio, you definitely have more control of
Speaker 1: the show. It's the Ben Mallor show. It is your show,
Speaker 1: and you know when you want to go to callers
Speaker 1: or you want to stay on a specific topic. You
Speaker 1: can stay on that topic for ten fifteen minutes if
Speaker 1: you want. And in television, you know, we've got to
Speaker 1: move off of the fact that the bullpen stinks after
Speaker 1: a minute or two, or the bullpens do be great.
Speaker 1: You know, I've gotta switch over to whatever is coming
Speaker 1: up next. And they want to get their video in
Speaker 1: and their graphics in, and yeah, they're moving you along.
Speaker 1: And there's sometimes uh, sometimes they're not listening to you
Speaker 1: and you want to move law it. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of moving parts in television. There is no there
Speaker 1: there is. There's a big difference between the two and
Speaker 1: you know, and they both have their pluses and minuses,
Speaker 1: which is why they worked so well. Hand in hand.
Speaker 1: You can get much more for what you're specifically looking
Speaker 1: for over here in radio and as opposed to getting
Speaker 1: a whole mishmash of a little bit of everything on TV. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there's I'm sure there's someone steam Droome. Maybe only
Speaker 1: one person that wants to be the next Jerome Jerenovitch,
Speaker 1: wants to follow in your footsteps and be the next
Speaker 1: you know, down the line host of the Braves and
Speaker 1: the Hawks pre and postgame and halftime and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So what is the cheat code? Now that you're retired,
Speaker 1: you can share this information, Jerome, you can give this out,
Speaker 1: like what is the secret to doing good television? You know,
Speaker 1: the secret to doing good television is, first of all,
Speaker 1: you have to be informed, man, I mean you have
Speaker 1: to pay attention. I can't tell you how many people
Speaker 1: have come up with me the last fifteen years because
Speaker 1: our our set, which is now bally Sport was Fox
Speaker 1: Sports South is outside the stadium, and um, you would
Speaker 1: not believe how many people, Hey, my son's in college,
Speaker 1: my daughter's in college, or hey I want to be
Speaker 1: on TV. And it's like, look, not only do you
Speaker 1: got to you know, pay your dues. It's rare when
Speaker 1: you're just thrown onto a situation where're gonna work for
Speaker 1: an NBA or an NHL or Major League baseball team
Speaker 1: without any type of experience. You have to know and
Speaker 1: love the sport, all right. You know, we had a girl,
Speaker 1: not gonna give her a name, and we had a girl,
Speaker 1: you know, a couple of years ago and we all
Speaker 1: now it's out. You'd like to say that Hank Aaron
Speaker 1: is the true home run. That's that's how that's our
Speaker 1: way of seeing Barry Bonds cheated. And that's our way
Speaker 1: of saying, Hank, we love you and we know you
Speaker 1: did it the right way. And this girl, actually she
Speaker 1: heard it so many times she actually thought Hank is
Speaker 1: the was the leader, all time leader. At home runs
Speaker 1: were like, uh no, and you're working for the brains
Speaker 1: to come on, you know. I mean, so you have
Speaker 1: to know, you have to know the strategies of the sport,
Speaker 1: and you have to really work. I mean, there there's
Speaker 1: no substitute for hard work. Um. You see, every time
Speaker 1: you turn on a college football game, you're gonna see
Speaker 1: another different, pretty blonde girl on the sidelines. But if
Speaker 1: they don't have personality along with intelligence, you're not going
Speaker 1: to see him more than two or three times. You
Speaker 1: have to be able to convey what you know, either
Speaker 1: in a cocite in a concise way or an entertaining way,
Speaker 1: and hopefully in both. And that's why you're so successful
Speaker 1: what you do, because you could you can take a
Speaker 1: position on a subject, you can inform your viewer and
Speaker 1: you can get them to either change their mind or
Speaker 1: at least see your point of view why they're right
Speaker 1: or why they're wrong. And you can't do that if
Speaker 1: you don't know what you're talking about. Well, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a great advice. And also we see that a lot
Speaker 1: with you mentioned the sideline reporter, but also like former
Speaker 1: players a lot of times, you know, and you worked
Speaker 1: with a lot of guys, and so I'm sure we're good.
Speaker 1: So we're not, but but some of those guys come in.
Speaker 1: In my experience, I didn't work with as many ex
Speaker 1: athletes as you did. But over the years at Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio, we've had guys come in and some of
Speaker 1: the guys would come in and just think because they
Speaker 1: played in the NFL, they just turn on the mic
Speaker 1: and they can just talk, and it's it's not how
Speaker 1: that works, right, I mean, you gotta, you gotta. I
Speaker 1: worked with sixteen different Braves as analysts on the pre
Speaker 1: and postgame show, everybody from John Smoltz and and Jeff Francoeur,
Speaker 1: who are both tremendous at what they do. I'll tell
Speaker 1: you a funny story. Uh been my first or second
Speaker 1: year here when I came back to Atlanta, I'm doing
Speaker 1: Braves and we were still doing the pregame show on
Speaker 1: the field right in front of the dugout and small
Speaker 1: it was small to his last year with the Braves. Well,
Speaker 1: he blows out his shoulder and uh, he's not gonna
Speaker 1: pitch for the rest of the season. But you know,
Speaker 1: as a lot of the guys do, they they still
Speaker 1: dressed in uniform and he's hanging out in the dugout.
Speaker 1: On Sundays he would come out and host co host
Speaker 1: the show with me and either Ron gann or Brian
Speaker 1: Jordan's and he would do it in full uniform. It
Speaker 1: was I mean, we're in a sport coat and there's
Speaker 1: Smolty hat home whites. It was hilarious. And one time
Speaker 1: it was pouring rain, so they turned the camera round
Speaker 1: and Ron gant By, we get into the dugout and uh,
Speaker 1: to get all three of us in the shot, Smolty
Speaker 1: had to do kind of like the one cheek sneak
Speaker 1: on the edge of the bench and the waters running
Speaker 1: off the dugout and his left leg and left spike
Speaker 1: are just getting soaking wet. And I looked over at
Speaker 1: him and I said, you know, you may be a
Speaker 1: future Hall of Famer, but in broadcasting you're the rookie,
Speaker 1: so you have to get wet. We're staying dry, laughing
Speaker 1: but I knew the very first day that he hosted
Speaker 1: with US. I said, this man is going to have
Speaker 1: a career in sports broadcasting and he is going to
Speaker 1: go down as one of the all time great analysts
Speaker 1: because John just, first of all, he can talk all right.
Speaker 1: He's got a great sense of humor, and he's got
Speaker 1: a great way to explain what you're seeing or what
Speaker 1: you're about to see and make it so you understand.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be a baseball connoisseur or a
Speaker 1: baseball expert to understand what Smoltz is telling you. He
Speaker 1: is really really good, which is why he's the main
Speaker 1: analyst and Fox Now and you know on MLB Network,
Speaker 1: he's really really really good. But on the other side,
Speaker 1: and I won't keep you their names, there were two guys.
Speaker 1: One was so he was so nervous it was like
Speaker 1: broadcast news. He's sweating bullets left and right, you could
Speaker 1: barely talk. And another guy was so nervous, he so quiet,
Speaker 1: I wanted to sit there and go speak. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: And they're both great guys. They were very, very good players,
Speaker 1: but once the red light went on, they were they
Speaker 1: were horrible flops with any any blooper that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have so many mistakes that I've made or just horrific
Speaker 1: moments in radio over there is a good thing. We're
Speaker 1: on radio, I'm in the middle of the night, but
Speaker 1: you're on TV. Any was there any blooper that you
Speaker 1: remember that you look back, You're like, I can't believe
Speaker 1: that happened and that was unbelievably embarrassing or hilarious or
Speaker 1: any of that. Well, we've we've had our moments. There's
Speaker 1: no question. I will tell you that my most embarrassing
Speaker 1: moment in my entire career is because nobody had ever
Speaker 1: heard of her at the time. And when they when
Speaker 1: they started CNN International, this was during the CNN days,
Speaker 1: they would make us rundown. So we're doing our job.
Speaker 1: I'm doing headline sports along there twice an hour, you know,
Speaker 1: once an hour or whatever. So you know, it's the weekend.
Speaker 1: There's nine million events going on, and we had to
Speaker 1: report on all of them. So, I mean, you're getting
Speaker 1: just blasted. You got all the baseball games going on
Speaker 1: because it's all college football's happening. There's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the other sports, the NBA and the NHR crank. You
Speaker 1: just got a million gazillion things. And at CNN, you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't just cover the SEC or just the Big
Speaker 1: ten or just your local school. You have to keep
Speaker 1: an eye and all this stuff, so you're over inundated
Speaker 1: with information. And then they're making us literally run down
Speaker 1: a different flight of stairs into a different studio and
Speaker 1: do like a two minute update on what's going on
Speaker 1: in world sports. Like I knew what the hell was
Speaker 1: going on in the bundesh Liga or in Formula one racing.
Speaker 1: I did have time for them, so I ran down
Speaker 1: there and there was some ski event going on I
Speaker 1: don't know, and somebody just ripped, literally ripping and read.
Speaker 1: One of these news producers go, while I'm on the air,
Speaker 1: shows this piece of paper in me because an American
Speaker 1: had won a downy old race in some Olympic preliminary thing.
Speaker 1: And I looked at that. I've never heard this person.
Speaker 1: I go a street instead of peekaboo. I looked at
Speaker 1: the way she spelled that made what is this person?
Speaker 1: I didn't know? I called the picaboy for the rest
Speaker 1: of my life. You're going, hey, how's Picasso doing on
Speaker 1: the slope. I think it's one of those embarrassing moments
Speaker 1: that at two or three years ago. We are hosting
Speaker 1: a postgame show Brian Jordan, and you could finance on
Speaker 1: YouTube somewhere. I'm sure it lives. A matter of fact,
Speaker 1: they just showed it on the air on mL Beating
Speaker 1: Network the other day. Right in the middle of this
Speaker 1: postgame show, this uh drunk jumps up on the on
Speaker 1: the rail behind us. He's just waving a Braves jersey.
Speaker 1: And one of our over zealous security guards, big heavy, round,
Speaker 1: kind of fat Obert looking guy comes running behind us,
Speaker 1: but he's not supposed to be on this on this
Speaker 1: set area, and he runs behind us to shove the
Speaker 1: guy off, and he trips over one of the electrical
Speaker 1: cables back there, and there's a full face scorpion and
Speaker 1: you see him go down and his two feet come
Speaker 1: up in between Brian and I almost set our head
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, hey, we're having an issue here,
Speaker 1: let's get you downstairs. The Brian snicker and when they
Speaker 1: came back and everybody shows that over and over because
Speaker 1: the poor guy gets up, looks right in the camera,
Speaker 1: walks away like nothing happened. It was so embarrassing for
Speaker 1: him and Brian and I kept their composure. And then
Speaker 1: during the during the manager's press conference, they're showing us
Speaker 1: that on replay and he's standing there watching it. When
Speaker 1: we came back, we were laughing so hard and couldn't talk.
Speaker 1: We just couldn't talk. I think, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: I've seen that. I'm sure. Yeah, it's one of those things.
Speaker 1: It's just it's gonna live in infamy, and to this
Speaker 1: day it's one of my biggest regrets because I should
Speaker 1: have just I should have just thought and said, hey,
Speaker 1: to quote that America Cinema classic Tommy Boy. That's gonna
Speaker 1: leave a mark. But should I do it? Now? Whatever?
Speaker 1: That's great, that's great. Now you know there's those bloopers
Speaker 1: are all over. What are you gonna do? No, it's
Speaker 1: good listen. That's make people laugh when I when I
Speaker 1: look at in the NBA at JaVale McGee, who's bounced
Speaker 1: around right, there's the video clip up that Shack did
Speaker 1: on Shock and a Fool when JaVale Riggie was running
Speaker 1: the wrong way, when everyone else in the court was
Speaker 1: running running one direction and he was running the other.
Speaker 1: I laugh every time I see that. It's the funniest
Speaker 1: thing that I know in basketball, I think that there's
Speaker 1: one guy out of ten guys on the court that's
Speaker 1: running the wrong way. Uh, it's right. But you brought
Speaker 1: up the headline sports CNN Headline News. Now, when I
Speaker 1: met you, this was a big deal. Drum. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what you look like. I had no idea, but
Speaker 1: I knew the name, and I knew the name for
Speaker 1: those young punks. Explain how big a reach you you
Speaker 1: had at CNN Headline News. That was a very popular,
Speaker 1: very popular outlet back in the days before social media,
Speaker 1: right when people needed scores and but and whatnot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know here, first of all, let me tell you,
Speaker 1: let me explain why, and then I got a really
Speaker 1: interesting story for you. Well, this was before cell phones,
Speaker 1: This was before you had all this internet access. Uh,
Speaker 1: this was before you had the crawl on the bottom
Speaker 1: of your TV screen. As a matter of fact, CNN
Speaker 1: Headline News was the first channel that had the crawl.
Speaker 1: They had it exclusively for two years. And that was
Speaker 1: a nightmare for us because when we first started at
Speaker 1: these idiots and news had no idea about sports. So
Speaker 1: on college football Saturday, they were literally putting every college
Speaker 1: football score on there. So they were putting like an
Speaker 1: AI scores on there, so you'd be waiting for the
Speaker 1: Michigan Ohio state update you wouldn't see for five hours
Speaker 1: because they're so in like Pomona's like, come on, just
Speaker 1: take the main thing. So uh So, here's the deal.
Speaker 1: If you were a sports fan, or more importantly, a
Speaker 1: sports better, the only way you were going to get
Speaker 1: updates on your teams if you weren't watching them on TV,
Speaker 1: if they were out of market teams, you had to
Speaker 1: wait until either CNN Sports Tonight or Sports Center at
Speaker 1: eleven o'clock. So when at seven o'clock local time and
Speaker 1: your team started, the only way to get an up
Speaker 1: there until eleven was to watch CNN Headline Sports at
Speaker 1: twenty after and fifty after the hour, because every thirty
Speaker 1: minutes we updated the scores, so unbeknownst to us at
Speaker 1: the time, everybody watched. Now, I always say I was
Speaker 1: wildly popular with teenage and twenty year old boys and gamblers,
Speaker 1: but I everywhere I would tell no, we weren't on camera.
Speaker 1: You've just heard your own you're red about CNN Headlines spots,
Speaker 1: and you know there's a story to that under itself,
Speaker 1: but you know. I was at the airport one day
Speaker 1: and I gave the guy the credit card. You looked
Speaker 1: at my credit card, he goes, you're going to Atlanta. Saidyeah, goes,
Speaker 1: You're not that CNN guy, are you. And that's when
Speaker 1: I started to realize, Wow, this is kind of cool.
Speaker 1: But it never dawned on me until the great Mario
Speaker 1: Lemieu had a for years had a charity golf tournament
Speaker 1: because he does such great work with children's cancer research
Speaker 1: at the Children's Pittsburgh Hospital. And I, through a friend
Speaker 1: after actually Andy Evan's light, got me involved with it.
Speaker 1: I went up and I was the at the first tea.
Speaker 1: I was announcing all the players, and I mean he
Speaker 1: had everybody there. There's Gretty from you, there's Jordan and Barkley,
Speaker 1: uh Elway and Marino, you name it, nothing but Hall
Speaker 1: of Famers and all stars. And I'm standing there and
Speaker 1: at the first team I'm giving every player this big introduction,
Speaker 1: you know, and I look over the yeah, but the
Speaker 1: you know, m v P, the Big Band and the
Speaker 1: Big Red Machine, greatest catch up all time, Johnny Bench.
Speaker 1: Everyone was clapping. Johnny Bench is putting his ball on
Speaker 1: his tea and he looks up. He goes, that's what
Speaker 1: you look like, and I'm like, yeah, you know. And
Speaker 1: then next thing I know, him and Nick Monacani are
Speaker 1: coming over and talking to me. And then after everyone's done,
Speaker 1: all these guys are coming over talking to me. And
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here thinking, oh my god, I am an
Speaker 1: awe of every athlete in this room. And these guys
Speaker 1: are all coming up because they all know who each
Speaker 1: other are and what they look like. Nobody knew what
Speaker 1: I looked like, and and that was like, that was
Speaker 1: just It's one thing for the guy at Macy's or
Speaker 1: a Delta Airlines to ask who you are. It's a
Speaker 1: whole another thing when you got guys like Mark May
Speaker 1: hanging out when you having a beer, and and and
Speaker 1: John Elway, and when I when I went to Denver
Speaker 1: because I got to know Elway on that thing. When
Speaker 1: I went to Denver my very first Nuggets game. I'm
Speaker 1: doing sidelines after the pregame show. It's the home opener.
Speaker 1: They killed the house lights. They put a spotlight on
Speaker 1: John Elway. He's up there, you know, in in one
Speaker 1: of those baby Bloom Nuggets uniform. You know, he's waving
Speaker 1: and you know, he's got at Denver and they're going crazy,
Speaker 1: you know. And then when they do the anthem, next thing,
Speaker 1: you know that the lights come up, always coming across
Speaker 1: the court, and I'm standing in the corner where the
Speaker 1: sideline guys are. I'm just standing up there and he's
Speaker 1: coming with that big grin, you know, He's got this
Speaker 1: big smile on his face, and I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at literally turning my head left and right,
Speaker 1: looking over my shoulder. Who's he looking at. He comes
Speaker 1: right over and gives me this big handshake and says,
Speaker 1: welcome to Denver. And he look, I didn't know him
Speaker 1: that well for him to do that for me. Everybody
Speaker 1: in that arena saw me and said, I don't know
Speaker 1: who that guy is doing sidelines, but if Elway likes them,
Speaker 1: I like him. And he that was a huge boost
Speaker 1: for me to start my career in Denver those two years.
Speaker 1: To be accepted by ol Way that way, and that
Speaker 1: made just you know, I did that for fourteen and
Speaker 1: a half years, and that led the three jobs got
Speaker 1: me the job at Fox Sports RA Radio, helped get
Speaker 1: me the job in Denver, and then it got me
Speaker 1: the h the job here doing the radio station at
Speaker 1: sports Stock Radio here in Atlanta as well. I mean,
Speaker 1: people knew the made and it was it was pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: It was. It was a lot of fun, but you know,
Speaker 1: it was on Q tone. Unlike you guys in Fox
Speaker 1: Sports Radio, you want to go a little longer in
Speaker 1: a segment. You go a little longer, you know, and
Speaker 1: then you hit your commercial break. But at CNN, at
Speaker 1: exactly you had exactly one minute forty two seconds to
Speaker 1: a minute forty nine to wrap up your show, and
Speaker 1: at one forty nine it cut you off. And you
Speaker 1: did not want to hear at your room, you know,
Speaker 1: and then go to youth. That would sound terrible. And
Speaker 1: I didn't want to go too long. That was like
Speaker 1: that was the Cardinal City. So I kept going short,
Speaker 1: and finally I figured I got to get to it
Speaker 1: one forty two, and I was hitting it about one
Speaker 1: thirty five, so I just went drone you and I
Speaker 1: just dragged it out to like eight seconds too. I
Speaker 1: get to a minute forty five and when I when
Speaker 1: it aired, I came out to the newsroom and everybody
Speaker 1: was laughing, and I thought, if this got a reaction
Speaker 1: out of all these jamokes and it was men and
Speaker 1: women in there is the news room, there's one of
Speaker 1: sports department. I said, I'm just gonna keep doing that,
Speaker 1: and I kept doing it. My boss called me in
Speaker 1: the next day and he goes, what are you doing
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm just trying to add a little
Speaker 1: spice and he goes, don't stop, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: I stayed with it. And oh, I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: the guys I worked with were great guys, very good guys.
Speaker 1: But their names were Tom West, and Ron Hyde and
Speaker 1: and Mark McKay and and there was just I mean,
Speaker 1: I had a funky sounding name and I just between
Speaker 1: that and the delivery, it's stuck. And it paid off
Speaker 1: for him in my career. Yeah, and you had not
Speaker 1: just the athletes. You have people at the White House.
Speaker 1: I mean they were are leaders of countries that were
Speaker 1: I mean everyone was white Airports. I remember CNN headline
Speaker 1: news that I'd been traveling in in the hotel, hotels, anywhere,
Speaker 1: airport lounges. I mean, everyone was watching everybody, every you know,
Speaker 1: it was I don't know why the the geniuses that
Speaker 1: took over that that we're screwed it up because it
Speaker 1: was basically minute newscasts in a row, you know, every
Speaker 1: thirty minutes would be a brand new newscast. So if
Speaker 1: you missed your you know, if you missed NBC News
Speaker 1: at seven or ABC at seven thirty, at nine o'clock,
Speaker 1: you just started over. I supposed that these hour longer
Speaker 1: talk shows you know on Fox right or CNN, it's MSNBC,
Speaker 1: it's it was a It was a niche format, but
Speaker 1: it was highly successful. And I don't know why they
Speaker 1: ever broke away from that, but to your point, so
Speaker 1: many people watched it was unbelievable. I'll never forget. One
Speaker 1: day I picked up you know, I'm just reading through
Speaker 1: my Sports Illustrated, and there's an article on Sparky. He
Speaker 1: was courting of his career, Sparky Anderson, and they were
Speaker 1: asking I'm the reporter asked him in the article, and
Speaker 1: they said, well, Sparky, what do you do at your
Speaker 1: age when you know, when you're on the road, I mean,
Speaker 1: you've seen it all, You've been everywhere. What do you do?
Speaker 1: He goes, I just go back to my hotel room
Speaker 1: and I could see ann headline news on all evening long,
Speaker 1: and I watched every one of those sportscasts every thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, oh my god, Parkie Anderson sticking around
Speaker 1: just to hear you know, that's great. Yeah. So when
Speaker 1: you at CNN like you because you're on it's weird.
Speaker 1: As you said, you're on television, but you're not like that,
Speaker 1: nobody sees you. So do you have to get dressed
Speaker 1: up like TV people have to get dressed up? Or
Speaker 1: can you just go in there and just kind of
Speaker 1: lounge around because at CNN that they requires like a
Speaker 1: dress code at CNN or that, well, they didn't have
Speaker 1: a dress code back then, but eventually when they started
Speaker 1: the international stuff, they were making the headline sports anchors
Speaker 1: double dips, so we had to go in and suit
Speaker 1: and tie them. But on the weekends, when you know,
Speaker 1: when we weren't doing anything on camera, when it was
Speaker 1: just the headline sports, we which go in and a
Speaker 1: polo shirt and in jeans that you weren't allowed to
Speaker 1: wear shorts, even though most guys wanted to, but we
Speaker 1: just you know, it was crazy. We had a good
Speaker 1: crew back then at the old CNN days because we
Speaker 1: had Dan Patrick and Gary Miller were our weekend guys,
Speaker 1: and uh, we had Fred Hickman and the legendary Nick
Speaker 1: Charles were on Monday through Friday. Guys, we we just
Speaker 1: you know, hand a storm and Dan Hicks came and
Speaker 1: they were like our number three team. We had a
Speaker 1: lot of talented individuals, you Bob Lorenz and Uh, it
Speaker 1: was I was never gonna get on camera there because
Speaker 1: those people ahead of the event, Clini, they were all
Speaker 1: so talented. And I was like, you know, that was
Speaker 1: the bottom of the totem pool and uh, and that's
Speaker 1: what led to the radio gig, and then the radio
Speaker 1: gig led to getting a chance back on camera and uh,
Speaker 1: you were asking about Denver. You know, in hindsight, UM,
Speaker 1: I met good people. I gained a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: experience doing those pre and postgame shows. Um, it was
Speaker 1: a very difficult situation for me, but it was a
Speaker 1: great transitional I mean, if I had to do it
Speaker 1: all over again, I would have yes, and maybe UH
Speaker 1: tried to manipulate my bosses into trying to do things
Speaker 1: the right way, but that was a no win situation.
Speaker 1: But it led to a position in Atlanta. So um,
Speaker 1: the people that there were two people that were above
Speaker 1: me there that were complete morons and what I'm still
Speaker 1: there and that's a shame because the people that still
Speaker 1: worked there that I know still complained about them fifteen
Speaker 1: sixteen years later. But you know, things are what they are.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've all had bad bosses in our life.
Speaker 1: We've all had great bosses in our life. And and
Speaker 1: then you know, it was it is what it is.
Speaker 1: I mean, CNN was a great run. Uh, Denver was fun.
Speaker 1: I'm glad I got to experience the city of Denver
Speaker 1: the Rocky Mountains for two years. You know that that
Speaker 1: was pretty cool. UM. One great part of that ben
Speaker 1: one of my favorite baseball players of all times, Goose Gossip.
Speaker 1: So Mark P. Knudson, who had who played American leaguball
Speaker 1: mostly for the Brew was at the time UM organized
Speaker 1: a charity hardball game at the Triple A Stadium in
Speaker 1: Colorado Springs. So you know, he was on our show
Speaker 1: every once in a while. So you know, Mark asked
Speaker 1: me and maybe four or five members of the media
Speaker 1: and Denver if he wanted to come down and playing
Speaker 1: since you're what, you know, I'm thinking it's gonna be softball.
Speaker 1: It's hardball. And there is a bevy of former Major
Speaker 1: leaguers and major league umpires that live in that area
Speaker 1: because they all love to hunt. So I go down there,
Speaker 1: and first of all, he got all the All Star
Speaker 1: uniforms that were left over from the All Star Game
Speaker 1: in Houston the year before. So we're wearing major league,
Speaker 1: you know, uniforms. It was pretty cool. And we're sitting
Speaker 1: there with all of these players, and I knew Goose
Speaker 1: was coming, so I brought I got a Yankees Gossipe jersey,
Speaker 1: so I brought him down to sign it, and he
Speaker 1: was genuinely touched. We're sitting there just bs and over
Speaker 1: his time with the Pirates. He said he never wanted
Speaker 1: to leave Pittsburgh. He said that the day that he
Speaker 1: saw Mind agreed to the Yankees, him and his wife
Speaker 1: sat in his in his pickup truck in the parking
Speaker 1: a lot of three River Stadium and cried, that's so much.
Speaker 1: He loved living in Western Pa and playing for the Pirates,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't turn the money down. They had to
Speaker 1: go to New York. And so we're sitting there, we're
Speaker 1: talking and next thing you know, we're taking v P
Speaker 1: and I go to take VP and Gossage goes. I
Speaker 1: got this good steps in there and I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I get the hit off goose gossage. So
Speaker 1: because where do you want it? So I put, like,
Speaker 1: you know, belt high fastball. So he throws one in there.
Speaker 1: I don't even see it, and I'm like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: every one of these guys could still throw an any
Speaker 1: as as well as they could when they were in
Speaker 1: their hated They just couldn't throw a morning any. So
Speaker 1: he loves one in there and I turned on it
Speaker 1: and I actually ripped it, but it was filed. So
Speaker 1: he looked at me. He gives me like a little nod,
Speaker 1: like god, I wasn't bad, right. He dusted me high
Speaker 1: and inside, right underneath the chin. To me, it was
Speaker 1: the greatest sporting the moment of my life. I got
Speaker 1: through the lat The next pitch bind you throw so
Speaker 1: fast I don't even know. I think it was back
Speaker 1: in his glove by the time I was done swinging
Speaker 1: the bat. He threw it so damn hard. But that
Speaker 1: was just one. I mean to get to clay. But
Speaker 1: all those guys, there were a lot of major leaders
Speaker 1: out there. That was a lot of fun. Well, when
Speaker 1: you when you talk, you are Western Pennsylvania. Did you
Speaker 1: ever and I don't know what you did before CNN.
Speaker 1: I know you started in Pennsylvania. Did you ever consider
Speaker 1: going back and did you ever have the opportunity to
Speaker 1: work in Pittsburgh like with the Pirates or the Penguins, Steve?
Speaker 1: I never did. And you know, for year, all those
Speaker 1: years at CNN, every time a job opening in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: you know, appeared, I applied, And I mean I was begging.
Speaker 1: I begged to get back there for ten to twelve years.
Speaker 1: I just could not catch your breaking because I wasn't
Speaker 1: on camera on a regular basis at CNN. I just
Speaker 1: didn't have a resume real good enough for TV at
Speaker 1: the time. And by the time and opening occurred after
Speaker 1: I had been back here for a while in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't gonna work out. The money wasn't what
Speaker 1: it was going to be, and it just it would
Speaker 1: have been it would have been almost like a demotion
Speaker 1: for me for less pay and a different position. And
Speaker 1: you know, I even thought about it at the time,
Speaker 1: but I was just beginning to date my now second wife,
Speaker 1: and she was settled in here, her kids were in
Speaker 1: school here, and I'm like, I can't take less money
Speaker 1: to go to Pittsburgh, and my my parents had already
Speaker 1: moved out. They had relocated. My brother lives in Texas,
Speaker 1: and they relocated to San Antonio with him. And I'm like, look,
Speaker 1: I got a handful of relatives and a really good,
Speaker 1: hardcore group of friends there, but my parents aren't there anymore.
Speaker 1: So it's not really you know, it'll always be home.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't home because they weren't there. And I
Speaker 1: just thought, I'm not gonna ask this woman to relocate
Speaker 1: for me. She settled unsettled, so it would have been
Speaker 1: it would have been a labor of love for me.
Speaker 1: You know. I wouldn't have cared what the income was
Speaker 1: because it would have been steelers pirates payments in penn
Speaker 1: State pit you know. But never, never, never really came.
Speaker 1: I did start in Western Pa and Erie, Pennsylvania. I
Speaker 1: grew up in a small town fair all about halfway
Speaker 1: right on the Ohio Pennsylvania line. My my great aunt
Speaker 1: lived on State Line Road, a single lane blacktop road.
Speaker 1: She was on Pennsylvania. You walked across the street or
Speaker 1: neighboring r in Ohio and uh, my uncle's would get
Speaker 1: drunk at Christmas time at my parents house, and you'd
Speaker 1: started arguing Steelers Browns because it was crazy. It was
Speaker 1: just crazy. Um, so I'm living in Erie. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you one quick story about Aree, which is awesome.
Speaker 1: Nine two, I finally get on camera in Eurie p Ad.
Speaker 1: It started the year before behind the scenes, um, weekend sports.
Speaker 1: Erie was just getting cable TV at the time. Ere
Speaker 1: He was kind of behind the times, still probably is.
Speaker 1: And I go in there on the weekends. You know,
Speaker 1: most weekends sportscasts are like three and a half minutes long, right,
Speaker 1: maybe four Not where I was, they are we are
Speaker 1: news department was so understaffed. They're like, Jerome, how much
Speaker 1: can you feel? I said, give me eight minutes. I
Speaker 1: was recording everything. I mean, I'm showing highlights from the
Speaker 1: Islanders Rangers. I'm showing what he didn't matter if it
Speaker 1: was on table that day. I was cutting down thirty
Speaker 1: seconds of each game. And you know, so people loved it.
Speaker 1: It was like a mini sports center. And after about
Speaker 1: three and a half weeks, Meadville, PA, this tiny little
Speaker 1: western Pennsylvania town where the great uh Sharon Sharon Stone,
Speaker 1: the actresses from It's maybe fifteen thousand people. But they
Speaker 1: had a heck of a sports banquet for their high school.
Speaker 1: They would bring in Pirates and Indians and Steelers and Browns.
Speaker 1: It was a big, big deal. So Jim Leland just
Speaker 1: gets hired to be the Pirates manager, and the Monday
Speaker 1: through Friday guy goes, Hey, go down there and try
Speaker 1: to get an interview with Leland. I'll keep in mind, Ben,
Speaker 1: this is before the internet. The only way we knew
Speaker 1: who Jim Leland, so here's the third base coach for
Speaker 1: the White Sox, was to look at that little black
Speaker 1: and white photo in the team media guide we had.
Speaker 1: And we didn't even have the American League, so I
Speaker 1: had no idea what he looked like. So I go
Speaker 1: down there and the guy at the front door, they're
Speaker 1: handing out a baseball to everybody to get autographed. Star
Speaker 1: Joel was there, Andre Thornton, people like that, and it
Speaker 1: was mostly for the kids, you know, but they're giving
Speaker 1: a baseball to everybody, and the guy pulls me aside.
Speaker 1: He was, Hey, I love watching you. I know you're
Speaker 1: the new guy in town, but you're the only guy
Speaker 1: showing NBA highlights. I love the NBA. I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: you a favor. Go in the kitchen. You're gonna be surprised,
Speaker 1: trust me. And I'm thinking, what he was, just go
Speaker 1: in the kitchen. So I go in the kitchen. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: everybody's out there. You know, I got a quick interview
Speaker 1: with star Joel and Leland and it wasn't there. So
Speaker 1: I go in the kitchen and you know, next thing
Speaker 1: I know, the back door opens up. It's sort of
Speaker 1: like a scene out of good Fellas. These three big
Speaker 1: gumbas come in and right behind him Joe DiMaggio. Whoa.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my lord. They had a guest speaker,
Speaker 1: but nobody knew who it was. It's Joe Demaggio. So
Speaker 1: I tell him my cameraman, flick your late on. I go,
Speaker 1: Mr DiMaggio, Can I get a couple of questions? I
Speaker 1: was so nervous. Then I called him Mr DiMaggio and
Speaker 1: every question So I asked them five questions and about
Speaker 1: three questions in one of the you know those big
Speaker 1: guys security guys, all right, wrap it up. So I
Speaker 1: asked him one more care you know something. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it was, and then he goes, okay, last one,
Speaker 1: and I nodded to him I said sure, and about
Speaker 1: three or four questions in rumor, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: spilled out. So all of a sudden, these little kids
Speaker 1: start flooding through those doors that the waiters come in
Speaker 1: and out of, and they're at the bottom of the
Speaker 1: camera shot where you would see like your score crawl.
Speaker 1: Now all you see are pens and baseballs from these
Speaker 1: little hands shooting up into the bottom of the screen,
Speaker 1: and Joe just starts grabbing him and he's signing him
Speaker 1: as he's answering my final two questions, which I thought
Speaker 1: was really cool, And after the fifth question, I thanked
Speaker 1: him for his time, told him what an honor it
Speaker 1: was was, And after my cameraman, you know, clicked off
Speaker 1: on the recording, I said, Mr Demasha, and he turned around.
Speaker 1: I said, look, I know this is completely unprofessional, but
Speaker 1: we're not in a ballpark and you're Joe Tomasa. Would
Speaker 1: you sign my ball too? He goes absolutely, and the
Speaker 1: autographed my ball, and I said, I know I'm not
Speaker 1: really supposed to do this, but my goodness, Ben, it
Speaker 1: was I got that ball in too safe right now.
Speaker 1: I probably only asked for maybe three autographs of my
Speaker 1: entire career. Josha that's an all time, that's an all
Speaker 1: That's a wonderful story. All right, we gotta wrap this up.
Speaker 1: And you're we're retired now, Drew. I can't believe you're
Speaker 1: you're retired? You know. Yeah, it's amazing to me. So
Speaker 1: are you gonna Are you gonna do the traditional retirement
Speaker 1: thing and get like a Winnebago and travel around the country? Like,
Speaker 1: have you thought about what's next for you? You know? Uh?
Speaker 1: People keep pestering me to do a podcast, but I'm like,
Speaker 1: why would I do a podcast when everybody listens to
Speaker 1: Ben mallor no one will listen to me? So I
Speaker 1: want to take a break. I am gonna fill in
Speaker 1: this Monday on one of the local stations. One of
Speaker 1: my buddies is off doing something, so they asked me
Speaker 1: to just do morning Drive on Monday. I said, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll do it because the Braves in the playoffs and
Speaker 1: Hawks are getting going. But I don't want to do
Speaker 1: a whole lot. I want to kick back. Um, we're
Speaker 1: doing three weeks in Europe next year, and if my
Speaker 1: wife really likes it in a year, once the final
Speaker 1: Kick gets out of high school, we may actually move
Speaker 1: to Europe. For a summer anywhere from four to six months.
Speaker 1: We're gonna tour all six parts out in Utah. The
Speaker 1: National Parks were big into that. I gotta hit back
Speaker 1: to wine Kenny. We got a lot of traveling. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do a lot of traveling. We're just gonna take
Speaker 1: the rest of this year and kind of kick back
Speaker 1: and then we're we got like six trips already planned
Speaker 1: for next year. So it's gonna be most you know, hey, look,
Speaker 1: as you know, when you work in sports broadcasting out
Speaker 1: of Charac it's radio and TV. You're working nights and weekends.
Speaker 1: And you know I did that for forty years. So
Speaker 1: you know, every time the guys in the neighbor got
Speaker 1: together play poker, or they wanted to go to a ballgame,
Speaker 1: or you know the one you know, two or three
Speaker 1: couples wanted to go just go get dinner or go
Speaker 1: to a concert. At the last minute, I always had
Speaker 1: to say no. And uh, I'm just gonna try to
Speaker 1: make up for lost time. That's what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: Kick I'm gonna complain about my Steelers on Sunday. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna can't I can't wait for Crosby to get back
Speaker 1: out on the ice, and I'm gonna watch the Braves
Speaker 1: have a nice run here in the playoffs, and hopefully
Speaker 1: Trey Young will be very entertaining in the winter, because
Speaker 1: I think the Hawks are gonna be good again. So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be a fan. Man, Now you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a fan. Nice. Well, Hey, if you end up
Speaker 1: at in California, I'm sure you've been to Sequoia. That's
Speaker 1: my one of my favorite spots from the giant forest
Speaker 1: which almost burned up a couple of months ago. I
Speaker 1: think it was a couple of months ago, maybe a
Speaker 1: month ago. I saw that they put the giant foil
Speaker 1: around the bottom of the that that is an amazing plaisodia.
Speaker 1: You end up there, yeah, give me, give me a
Speaker 1: buzz in the we'll get already together. We'll get the
Speaker 1: old game together. We'll have Yeah, Elie is gonna be
Speaker 1: one of our ops. We were supposed to be out
Speaker 1: there for the L. S u u c l A game.
Speaker 1: My uh my stepson loves L. S u. Four of
Speaker 1: his first cousins all went to L. S Ue is
Speaker 1: uncle and uncle living Betton Rouge. So they have become
Speaker 1: our adopted SEC team, but work, and that was his
Speaker 1: first week of college. He goes locally here to one
Speaker 1: of the colleges, and he just couldn't. He couldn't take
Speaker 1: off the first two days of college to fly out
Speaker 1: to l A. Sou l A is definitely, uh, definitely
Speaker 1: on the list. So when I do, I'll give your
Speaker 1: heads up because I would love to see all you
Speaker 1: guys a goat, no question about that. Awesome. Thank you, Jerome.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Man, thanks for doing this. You're the man.
Speaker 1: Ben