Latest / The Pat McGann Show / Operation Schvitz: Mitch Rosen on Running Chicago Sports Radio | The Pat McGann Show Ep. 41

Transcript

Operation Schvitz: Mitch Rosen on Running Chicago Sports Radio | The Pat McGann Show Ep. 41 · The Pat McGann Show

0:00
It's episode 41 of the Pat McGann Show.
0:02
This week, Pat welcomes Dwayne Kennedy and Mitch Rosen of 670 the Score.
0:07
The Pat McGann Show, as always, is brought to you by Teach Hanley, Uncomplicated Skin Care for Men.
0:11
And now, here's Pat.
0:13
All right, for the 41st time, we are joined together.
0:17
Dwayne Kennedy is here.
0:19
We got a great guest.
0:20
Mitch Rosen is joining us.
0:23
Mitch is the vice president of Odyssey Sports.
0:26
You got a lot of titles.
0:27
We're going to get into it.
0:28
Just happy to be back here in the T Chanley Studios on the west side of Chicago.
0:33
Mitch.
0:34
Thanks for being here, man.
0:35
Pat, my pleasure.
0:36
It's great to be here.
0:38
Cool studio, cool setup.
0:40
Nice to see all your castmates.
0:42
Fun.
0:42
Thanks for having me.
0:43
How do you feel?
0:44
What's your take on podcasts?
0:46
Because there's got to be some like, you know, being in radio, I mean you guys have influenced podcasts.
0:52
We're c we're bit really just kind of ripping off your format, your ideas.
0:56
Yeah, I don't think so.
0:57
Listen, I think the I think the more the merrier.
1:01
I think podcasts today is what radio may have been 20 years ago.
1:04
It's personality.
1:06
Like anybody can have a podcast now.
1:07
You know, you've got people doing podcasts about their hobbies, about what they like to do.
1:13
I think it's great.
1:14
I think it gives everybody a chance to do something.
1:16
Um, and I think the more the you know, the more the merrier.
1:19
And podcasts, it's personalities, it's what people want, it's their passion.
1:23
I always say in our business, what are you passionate about today?
1:26
Whether it's sports or news or current events, so whatever you're passionate about, it's cool.
1:31
Yeah, it's all content, right?
1:32
I mean, that's king.
1:33
Sometimes it feels like a bit of a wood chipper.
1:36
You just gotta create, put it in there.
1:38
Yeah, and you hope that people kind of appreciate it.
1:41
But you know, and you've been a uh a very busy man, so I appreciate you coming in here.
1:46
Love it.
1:46
Um, you know, we have people listening from all over the place, but you know, we do have a little bit of a Chicago flavor and focus, and you run one of or the biggest, most popular sports radio shows in Chicago, in addition to uh working with uh, you know, WXRT, which is uh would you say that's alternative or uh what kind of what's the what's the pitch on XRT?
2:10
I think uh XRT is the most iconic um rock station maybe in the world.
2:17
I I think what that staff has done over so many years, you know, you start with Terry Hemert and the Lightly Lynn Bramer and Marty Leonard and Johnny Mars and Frankie Lee and the current staff, Andy Chantley, um, Annalisa, it's just it's an iconic brand that people all around the world listen to.
2:35
You know, whether you live in Chicago or anywhere else, you can listen to it online.
2:39
But it's the most eclectic, uh, iconic rock station in the world.
2:44
That's all I got on in my car, to be honest with you, when I'm on FM.
2:47
And uh, I mean, my kids even know the handle jingles and going in and out of the bumps, and uh, you know, and you mentioned Lynn Bramer.
2:54
Is there a more beloved guy?
2:56
And uh, you know, I know we miss Lynn.
2:58
I met him one time, uh did uh one of the radio thonds that you guys would do.
3:02
Yep.
3:02
At um what was that?
3:04
Which one would he do annually?
3:06
He was B at I think it was a US 99.
3:09
Yep.
3:09
US 99 does one, score does one.
3:12
He was very passionate about ALS, so he was involved with ALS, Ms.
3:16
Recordia.
3:17
He was just charitable.
3:18
He was truly just one of the nicest people, you know.
3:22
He was famous for saying, you know, I'm your best friend in the whole wide world.
3:26
And he truly was, and just truly missed.
3:29
So just a great, great person and a super sports fan.
3:32
Like Cubs beyond belief.
3:34
And when the Cubs won the World Series, he was on the bus going down, you know, Michigan Avenue or to Grant Park, and he was uh just unbelievable.
3:44
Do these uh DJs do they pick the songs that they're playing, or is it kind of set up by Yeah, you know, they have a great, you know, they're called we're called brand managers.
3:54
We used to be called program directors.
3:56
I look at you know, the name brand manager, it sounds like we work for craft, and you know what is it Charmin today or craft macaroni and cheese?
4:04
I still like program directors because you help program the station.
4:07
So uh Michelle, who runs it, is just unbelievably great.
4:11
The station's at an all-time high.
4:13
So I think it's a combination.
4:15
The DJs like Marty Leonards, they're brilliant, they're like a musicologist.
4:19
So they, in combination with Michelle, pick the music, and it's just unbelievable.
4:24
How do you find the on-air talent for all these stations that you're programming?
4:30
Um, listen, for the score, you you look for people that are passionate about sports.
4:35
You look at our current lineup, like Mully and Haw have been doing mornings a long time.
4:40
You know, Mully's been there close to 20 years.
4:42
He grew up in Chicago, he was a columnist for the Sun-Times, David was a columnist at the Tribune, and they they are Chicago sports.
4:51
Layla, who does our midday show, she is one of the few women in the United States to host a primetime sports show in a top market like Chicago.
5:00
She works with Mark Roadie and Marshall Harris, and then in afternoons, who you know, Lawrence Holmes and Matt Spiegel, those guys are Chicago sports, but they're entertaining also.
5:09
And then you add in a guy like Chris Tannehill, who is a production genius and helps shape that show.
5:16
And you put that all together and it's entertaining.
5:19
We're opinionists, we're not we're not journalists.
5:22
I you know, I never like to say, like in sports radio content.
5:25
I don't look at us as a journalist, and we break some stories sometimes, but I like to say we're opinionists, and we have opinions, whether people like them or not, we have opinions, and that's the key with a brand like the score.
5:38
And you give a voice to the uh educated sports radio calling.
5:44
Yeah.
5:45
The uh which I especially the old Buffone O'Bratovich days after a Bears loss.
5:53
You gotta tune in Buffon and O'Bradovich just to hear classic the rants.
5:58
Yeah, those those guys, and I I'll be at the score brand, you know, 21 years.
6:04
Uh, someone who started the brand, a guy named Ron Gleason, actually put those two together, and that was radio magic.
6:10
And you can't recreate that.
6:12
Those guys, they were best friends, you know, they played together for the Bears, and just natural.
6:18
You know, it's like I don't know what you compare it to in comedy.
6:22
I know this is a stretch, so don't fall off your chair.
6:24
Is that like Martin and Lewis when you put his advantage?
6:26
Yeah, exactly.
6:27
I don't know.
6:28
I mean, you can't argue with chemistry, and no, it's definitely very comparable.
6:31
And you know, those guys were like 85 Bears before the 85 Bears.
6:36
Correct.
6:36
You know, and they were kind of riding their success from they were really good teams, right?
6:39
In the late 60s.
6:41
Yeah, and Buffone, and you know, one of the hardest calls I ever had to make.
6:45
So Doug passed away.
6:47
His wife, Dana, worked at the score in sales.
6:50
So I remember it's middle of the day, like one o'clock, and she runs by my office.
6:55
Doug had um has a set of twin girls, and she ran by my office.
7:00
She goes, Doug's dead.
7:01
I go, What?
7:02
She goes, Doug is dead.
7:03
One of the girls that found Doug in their bed at home, he had passed away.
7:08
So I'm like 10 minutes behind her.
7:11
They lived on the west side of the city.
7:13
So the first person I thought of was OB.
7:16
They were best friends.
7:17
So I have to think, like, I have to call OB, right?
7:20
It's one of the hardest calls you have to make.
7:22
So I call OB and hello, Mitch.
7:26
OB, I have some sense, what?
7:28
I can I swear I shouldn't swear, right?
7:31
No, no, you can swear.
7:32
Definitely.
7:33
All right, it's a direct quote.
7:34
You start out like, hey, first time caller.
7:36
OB.
7:37
Yeah.
7:37
So I go, O B.
7:38
Yeah, Mitch.
7:39
I go, O B, sad news.
7:40
Yep.
7:41
I go, um, Doug passed away.
7:44
You're shitting me, Mitch.
7:45
You're shitting me.
7:46
I go, Doug.
7:48
Dana talked to one of the girls.
7:50
I'm going over the house.
7:51
He's in his bed.
7:52
You're shitting me.
7:54
I go, Doug.
7:54
I go, OB, he's dead.
7:56
So that was one of the hardest calls.
7:58
So OB and I talk a couple times a year, but every day on Doug's, every year on Doug's death anniversary, we talk and you know, we laugh about Doug.
8:06
But truly, in my life, like my mom had passed away, and my dad's that is really one of the hardest calls I ever had to make.
8:12
Well, it sounded like you summed it up pretty good.
8:14
Not much of a bedside manner there, isn't it?
8:17
OB, Doug's dead.
8:19
What?
8:19
He's dead.
8:23
You gotta get right to the point.
8:24
I tell my wife, like, just give me the headlines.
8:26
I don't need the book, right?
8:27
I thought you were gonna say then every year he calls you up on the dead day.
8:31
You're shitting me! Click.
8:33
He's still dead.
8:35
Yeah, man.
8:37
Hey guys, quick question.
8:39
Are you washing your face with the same soap you wash your car with?
8:42
Do you shower in the driveway too?
8:44
It's time to step things up.
8:45
That's why I like Tiege Hanley.
8:48
It's a super simple skincare system made for guys.
8:52
Cleanse, moisturize, exfoliate.
8:55
It's all laid out so you don't have to think about it.
8:58
Just a few minutes a day, and your skin actually looks better.
9:02
Head to Tiege.com slash Pat for 40% off and a free gift.
9:08
Start taking care of your face like an adult.
9:11
That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
9:15
So you get you're at the score now, and you have like all this uh, you know, you're you're like the guy, but you don't start out the guy.
9:22
How did you get started in radio?
9:24
Was this something that you wanted to pursue?
9:26
Did you study broadcasting?
9:28
Or yeah, so I grew up in Skokie, uh, the streets of the mean streets of Skokie, right?
9:33
And um I was kind of a radio geek, and there was this overnight guy on WGN radio, a guy named Eddie Schwartz.
9:40
Yeah, yeah.
9:41
You've probably heard of him because Kevin Matthews and Dow made fun of him, right?
9:44
Right, right, right.
9:45
Real high voice.
9:46
Literally six, seven hundred pounds.
9:48
So I'm old.
9:49
He was that big.
9:50
Oh, yeah.
9:50
Yeah, they used to talk about that all the time.
9:52
Really?
9:53
How much?
9:53
6700.
9:55
You're shitting me.
9:55
Yeah.
9:57
So he was 700 on your radio, D.
10:00
Right, 720.
10:01
Right.
10:02
Um So we I'm old.
10:05
Um, and we didn't have cell phones or emails, so I wrote him a letter.
10:10
Mr.
10:10
Schwartz, I was like 12, 13.
10:12
I wrote him with Mr.
10:13
Schwartz, I'm a big fan, love to come visit the studio.
10:16
WGN Radio was on Bradley Place where TV is.
10:19
So out of the blue, one afternoon, I'm home from school, telephone rings.
10:23
I don't know if you guys are this old, but the phone would ring, mother would answer it, and she'd yell, you know, Mitchell, telephone.
10:30
So I get up, hello.
10:32
You remember those things?
10:34
So I go, and he goes, Hello, this is Eddie Schwartz.
10:36
You want to come visit me?
10:38
So yeah.
10:38
So your mother hope she was still listening on the other end.
10:41
Yeah.
10:42
You're not going to that perb too.
10:43
I wasn't a creep.
10:44
So on a Friday night, I went and visited him and like fell in love with the business.
10:49
Not with him, but with the business.
10:50
So ironically, I go away to school, Winona State in Minnesota, and it was a great experience for me.
10:56
I worked in college radio first day on campus, and it was a great experience.
11:00
So now, fast forward to my senior year, I graduated college in 1988.
11:06
I do an internship.
11:07
At that time, you could do an internship after you graduate.
11:10
I worked in the sports department at WGN Radio with Chuck Swarski, Wayne Larvey, Jack Brickhouse, Dwayne Statz.
11:16
Oh my gosh, Wayne Larvey.
11:20
Yep.
11:21
And then there was a full-time job open for overnights with Eddie Schwartz.
11:25
So my first full-time job at WGN Radio, 13 grand a year, was producing overnights and kind of full circle.
11:33
I wrote him a letter, and now I'm working with this guy, and I have a lot of fun stories, but I learned a lot from him.
11:38
And that was my first job in radio, WGN Working Overnights, as a producer, 1988-89-ish.
11:45
Wow.
11:46
You started right in in the big leagues, man.
11:48
And I loved it.
11:49
Very fortunate.
11:50
Yeah.
11:50
And that's got to be a rite of passage, too, just doing overnights.
11:53
Oh, yeah.
11:54
Because the uh Yeah, it was it was unbelievably great.
11:58
Quick story.
11:58
My first night on the job, and Eddie had been there a while.
12:02
And do you remember they were called cash station cards, not like your bank?
12:06
And in the it was a at that time they were at the Tribune Tower.
12:09
And he goes, uh, this is the first night on the job.
12:11
He goes, Can you go up to the third floor?
12:13
He wasn't very mobile.
12:14
He was a heavy guy.
12:16
And he goes, Here's my code to my uh cash station card.
12:19
He goes, Don't look at the balance and take out$400 cash.
12:23
All right, now I'm making$13,000 a year, so my paychecks weren't even$400, right?
12:28
So how can I not look at the balance?
12:30
And I'm getting$400 in cash.
12:32
You didn't even think about looking at it until he probably told you not, right?
12:35
So I come back downstairs.
12:36
He goes, Did you look at the balance?
12:38
I go, no.
12:39
The guy had$72,000 in his checking account at the time.
12:42
Of course I looked.
12:43
How could I not look, right?
12:44
And I gave it lucky you came back.
12:46
Right.
12:46
So I give him the and he gave me$20.
12:48
He goes, go buy yourself something, kid.
12:51
So he gave me$20.
12:52
But that was the start of a relationship, but it we I learned so much.
12:56
You know, he was friends with Bill Cosby, the good Bill Cosby, Ron Howard.
13:01
You know, we called, we made calls in the middle of the night to when the Iraq, the first Iraq war.
13:08
So I learned so much from him.
13:10
And then we I was part of the trade.
13:13
Do you remember when he went to the loop?
13:15
So he went, they made fun of him for years.
13:18
Steven Gary and Kevin Matthews.
13:20
And his contract was up.
13:22
And he goes, Hey, if I go to another station, you're coming.
13:26
Should I stop?
13:26
No, no, no.
13:29
Makes me think of a puppet show.
13:30
Yeah.
13:31
And he goes, if I go to another station, you're coming with me.
13:34
And I go, no, I'm thinking like LS, somewhere Eddie Schwartz, like, not the cool kids, you know, the loop.
13:40
So on one afternoon he goes, We're going.
13:43
I go, where are we going?
13:44
And he got me more money.
13:46
I increased 13 grand to something else.
13:48
We're going to the loop with the cool guys.
13:50
I go, the loop?
13:51
I go, great.
13:52
I go, great.
13:53
So we ended up going to the loop, and it was great for my career.
13:56
And he took me with him.
13:57
And yeah, it was fun.
13:58
How long did he last?
13:59
A weekend?
14:00
Yeah, no, a couple, like he got sick and he didn't get along.
14:03
Chetkopik drove him nuts.
14:05
But Stephen, Gary, and Kevin embraced him.
14:08
One night there was a big Halloween party at Park West.
14:11
It was a loop Halloween party, but uh Eddie was working, and Kevin Matthews called me.
14:17
He goes, Hey, bud, um, I'm sending over a surprise for Eddie.
14:21
Her name is Candy.
14:23
Can you go pick her up in the lobby at the Hancock?
14:26
I go, yeah.
14:27
I go, tell me.
14:28
He's more into salty stuff.
14:29
Yeah, and Candy was a stripper.
14:32
And Candy, I met Candy in the lobby at the Hancock, and off the air, Eddie put on like a 10-minute song.
14:39
So Candy put on a show for Eddie, and that was a gift that Stephen, Gary, and Kevin sent over for Eddie.
14:46
And now you couldn't do that these days, right?
14:48
No.
14:48
We're sending over a stripper.
14:50
No.
14:51
He's putting on Stairway to Heaven.
14:53
Yeah.
14:53
And it got a Davida.
14:55
It was a long song.
14:55
Oh, yeah.
14:57
The uh the loop days are have got to be insane.
15:00
High school with money.
15:01
And uh yeah, and Kevin Matthews, I know you you eventually started producing for Kevin Matthews.
15:06
Yeah, I uh so I was there Eddie year, and then Kevin had an opening, they put me with Kevin, and Kevin did mornings, and that was fantastic.
15:15
Kevin is a literally a genius.
15:17
I there will never be anybody like Kevin and the voices, but his creativity was unbelievable.
15:23
What is the scope of what was going on in radio?
15:25
Can you put it in perspective for us in terms of listeners and how much uh like how big the business actually was?
15:34
Yeah, it it was incredible.
15:36
Um personality radio.
15:38
You had your music stations, you had news, you know, BBM, but the loop in its heyday, you know, it was all demographics.
15:46
It wasn't just men listening, it was men, women, you know, 18 plus, and it was creativity.
15:52
Um, you want to go do a remote in California?
15:56
Kevin on the air said, I'd like to be a walk on on Baywatch.
16:00
Okay.
16:00
Someone was listening who was a who ran casting.
16:04
Two weeks later, him and I were on a plane, and he did a walk-on with Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff.
16:10
He's in that episode.
16:11
Yeah, he's in the episode.
16:12
Yeah, he had one line.
16:13
I have a wedding rash, and that was it.
16:15
And you were on set, you were there?
16:17
I was on set, and he walked on, and it was right around OJ time, and we went to the restaurant where they were last seen, and we stole a menu.
16:25
I think the name of the restaurant was Mezzaluna.
16:27
So, yeah, we have memories like that.
16:29
Yeah, crazy, right?
16:30
Crazy.
16:31
Yeah, yeah.
16:32
Where did they film that?
16:32
Which which beach were they on?
16:34
Um, somewhere in Malibu, somewhere around there.
16:37
Oh my god, that's wild.
16:38
So yeah, the loop in the day, it was it was just fun.
16:41
Kevin would do, he'd come up with stuff on the air, just natural, and we didn't worry about money, like, hey, can we pay for this remote?
16:49
Is there a sponsor?
16:50
He used to do the Jim Shorts golf outing.
16:53
And we would do it at we'd got we got kicked out of 10 different country clubs because you'd have you know on one hole Seika, the adult film star, and you'd have Father Pat Marshall, who was at Queen of Martyrs for years, and he, you know, we'd have so many babe Winkleman it would be at a hole.
17:11
So and just craziness would happen.
17:14
Wasn't he the fisherman?
17:15
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:17
Babe Winkleman.
17:18
And then Kevin Tim Walko had a great babe Babe Winkleman joke.
17:21
Yeah.
17:22
He was watching it.
17:23
You ever see the episode where he caught a bass with his dick and some gum?
17:28
It was crazy.
17:32
Shout out Tim Walko.
17:33
Yeah, but Kevin became friends with like the 85 beards.
17:36
His best friend, you know, Kevin Butler, Butthead, and Jim McMahon, and um Tom Thayer, and it just developed naturally, and that was the loop.
17:46
And Branmeyer, you know, in the moment.
17:47
Did all those guys get along?
17:49
The uh the talent, the on-air talent?
17:50
Yeah, I you know, i yes.
17:53
Um but they there were egos.
17:55
Danny Bonaducci you know developed on the air.
17:58
They became friends.
17:59
Danny, why don't you come in?
18:00
Danny became the nighttime guy.
18:02
Um, and then Horn and Thayer did a late night show, and then Seka uh did a nighttime show.
18:09
It was craziness, but fun.
18:12
Yeah, those have got to be some great days.
18:14
Yeah, it was a good commercials too, the loop.
18:16
Yeah.
18:16
Remember the big guy they had against the walls?
18:18
Yeah.
18:18
But but that was like DeCastro and Larry Wirt.
18:21
They were the geniuses behind it and great marketing people, and um it was it was a lot of fun.
18:27
Yeah, I know that they have a documentary um coming out, I think, about the loop in all those years.
18:32
But you also you also mentioned uh this documentary about Kevin Matthews.
18:36
Yeah, he um so Kevin you know was in Chicago, went to Grand Rapids, and you know, he uh very spiritual and he found um that happens when you get older after you've already done everything.
18:48
Yeah, yeah.
18:49
And uh it's it's called um Um something Broken Mary.
18:54
I say that, but I I should know that.
18:56
And it's just it's beautiful, talks about his radio career, talks about finding a statue, the Virgin Mary, and it's broken.
19:02
And it the theme is like we're all broken, right?
19:04
In some sort of another.
19:06
Um, but it's on Amazon, it's very, very good.
19:08
Yeah, I saw him one morning.
19:09
I was in uh Grand Rapids doing some shows, and he was at the radio station.
19:13
Yeah, because it's funny, you go to these radio stations and you know, you walk on the floor, and there's four stations right next to each other.
19:21
Yeah, you know, four studios right there.
19:23
And that's a little bit of uh what you're overseeing, uh, Odyssey.
19:27
You have what are the stations that you're running?
19:29
Everyone, you know, we have on our right now we have two floors.
19:33
So we have XRT, US 99, you know, like America's number one country station, which is huge, uh B96, we have WBBM News Radio in the score, and then we had jams, but the score recently moved to FM, 104.3.
19:48
Yeah, how'd that go down?
19:50
I listened to some of that 104.3.
19:52
Yeah, and then like a little salt and pepper in the morning?
19:54
Yeah, yeah.
19:55
Yeah, get it going.
19:56
Um so it you know it was a it was a hard decision.
19:58
You the um throughout the country, the trend has been sports stations on FM.
20:04
Um and the score was one of the last ones.
20:07
Why?
20:08
Just a younger demographic, fidelity.
20:10
You know, a lot of cars don't even put in manufacturers put AM in cars anymore, which is sad.
20:17
I like I still like having AM clock radio next to my bed or you know, in the kitchen.
20:22
Set for 2 a.m.
20:24
Yeah, wake up.
20:25
2 a.m.
20:25
wake up.
20:26
I set the alarm for 25 years, I think it's gone off once.
20:29
Um but it you know, it was just something we knew, it was a hard decision because Jam's great station, but it was a business decision which station makes most sense to simulcast AM and F.
20:40
And we're still on 670, which is a booming 50,000 watt station.
20:44
What does that mean?
20:45
50,000 watts.
20:46
It means you're going to 38 states and four Canadian provinces at night.
20:50
That from a wattage standpoint, it's a huge, huge station that that you it carries far mostly at night, but during the day, Wisconsin, Iowa, obviously in Illinois.
21:00
Is that the maximum amount you can have?
21:01
Yeah, 50,000 watts.
21:03
So now will you have an AM station forever, or are you gonna gradually phase that out?
21:08
There's no plans to phase it out.
21:10
Like it's hugely important, is we have the Cubs and the Bulls and other sports.
21:15
That's important to get that content out there.
21:17
Okay.
21:18
Yeah, the um the sound, you can tell the difference when you're listening to FM versus the downtown.
21:24
Like if you're in lower whack or a lot of people in high-rise buildings, before we were on FM, it was static.
21:29
Now, our goal is like we give you so many platforms that you know, whether it's uh the Odyssey app, we're on Twitch, YouTube, that in this day and age, it's funny, like five years ago, someone would have said, Hey, what business are you in?
21:41
Oh, the radio business.
21:42
Today the fancy thing.
21:44
I'm in the content distribution business.
21:45
No, right.
21:46
So it's all these different platforms, and you try to find as many ears and eyes as you can to you know consume the content.
21:54
When your skin looks better, you feel more confident everywhere you go at work.
22:00
Out with friends on a date or like me at a big show.
22:03
That's why I like Tiege Hanley.
22:06
They make skincare simple with a routine that takes about two minutes a day.
22:10
Just wash, exfoliate, moisturize, and you're done.
22:14
No complicated routines or cluttered bathroom shelves.
22:17
If you want to look better without overthinking it, try Tiege Hanley.
22:21
Check it out at Tiege.com slash Pat and get 40% off and a free gift.
22:26
That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
22:29
Tiege Hanley.
22:30
Put your best face forward.
22:33
Mitch, will you ever will there ever be a thing where uh at some point there will be different talent on the AM side than the FM side?
22:41
Um I don't think so.
22:42
You know, once in a while we split the signals.
22:44
So if the Bulls and the Cubs, for instance, at the end of the season, there were three or four conflicts.
22:49
So the Cubs would be on the FM, Bulls would be on the AM, so we don't have to put you know another team, let's say on BBM, one of our sister stations.
22:58
So it works out nice in that way.
23:00
But I don't see today, things could change, having two sports stations and putting talent on different, you know, competing against the stuff.
23:08
Okay, so no chance for me and Pat to Well, we can always talk.
23:12
Is it true that in 2005 you joined the score and you guys negotiated a deal with the White Sox and they won the World Series?
23:21
And then in 2016, the first year you brought the Cubs to the score, they won the World Series.
23:27
Yeah, a couple quick backstories on that.
23:29
So we negotiated our White Sox deal like in April of 05, but they were still on.
23:36
I had been at WMVP for nine years.
23:38
Okay.
23:38
I had come over to that's AM 1000.
23:41
ESPN.
23:41
I like to say WMVP because that's their official call letters, and they don't like it.
23:45
And then you don't have to say you don't have to say ESPN.
23:47
Right.
23:48
Like to give them that.
23:49
Still a competitive sum.
23:52
Um so yeah, so we negotiated that deal in April, and that's usually when you do deals.
23:58
Nobody knew they were going to win the World Series.
23:59
You remember that year.
24:00
It was unbelievable.
24:01
So as the season went on, oh, they're playing good, they're playing good, and then that playoff run, like, holy you know what.
24:07
So, yeah, so we take over the rights.
24:09
The minute that season ends, they you know, the final out in the World Series, we start imaging the score.
24:15
You're home for the World Series champion White Sox.
24:18
So that was pretty cool.
24:19
I really think that was a defining moment in the history of the score.
24:23
Score signs on the air, January 2nd, 1992.
24:26
And you have people like Mike North and Terry Boars and McNeil, those are the founding fathers of the score.
24:32
Like I wouldn't be here today without them.
24:34
But I look back, you signing on was key.
24:37
But having a franchise like the White Sox was really one of the defining moments in the history of the score.
24:44
So we take the rights and and then you know it develops and things, but we it wasn't on our air, but yes, we did come to an agreement in that season and saw that season develop.
24:56
Then the Cubs, we timing-wise, we had the White Sox until the end of the 2015 season.
25:04
The 2015 season, the Cubs were on WBBM News Radio.
25:08
Obviously, we put in in the paperwork that we could trigger something in the contract where we had like a seven or ten day window where the Cubs, we could take the Cubs off BBM and put them on the score.
25:21
Ironically, the timing on the White Sox, we were done with the score with the White Sox on the score.
25:27
How do the contracts work?
25:28
Are they annually?
25:30
Multi-year deal.
25:31
Sometimes they're three years, sometimes they're five, but it worked out perfect timing, yeah.
25:36
Selfishly, where Sox deal was done, Cubs deal, we triggered it that they were off of BBM, and their first year on the score was 2016.
25:45
Sometimes you're rather be lucky than good.
25:48
And it's the first time they won the World Series since 1908.
25:51
Wow, man, that's crazy.
25:53
Yeah, so you think maybe you can start broadcasting Pat's son's basketball team?
26:00
Yeah, maybe they can win a championship.
26:02
Catholic League championship, right?
26:03
I have a uh that I think that would actually be a great thing to broadcast some of these kids' games, especially like in in-house, like at the actual game.
26:12
Yeah.
26:12
Especially the the B teams, dude.
26:14
Oh man.
26:15
Those are the fun ones.
26:16
The 10 to 9 uh Barnburners, yeah.
26:19
Do some backstory on each of the players.
26:21
So when you're negotiating with these teams, because you uh you also have do you have the bulls now?
26:26
We do have the bulls, yep.
26:27
The bulls.
26:28
Well that that didn't work.
26:29
We had Chris Holtman here, head coach of DePaul.
26:31
Are you also a nice guy?
26:32
DePaul men's basketball?
26:34
Uh we don't.
26:34
We uh DePaul left us uh after uh we didn't have this was the first year we didn't have him like in 30 years.
26:43
Oh, okay.
26:44
I was gonna say, so what determines that?
26:46
Whether you know you you pick a team up or they stay with you, what determines that?
26:50
You know, like everything else, you know, b business is it a good business decision for both parties?
26:55
And it's relationships.
26:56
Um, you know, our Bulls um agreement, like seven or eight years ago, the Bulls were on WLS and they're owned by a company Cumulus Media, great company.
27:07
At that time, they were going through some tough business times.
27:11
Everybody, you know, the company I work for, Odyssey, went through some tough business times.
27:15
Jerry Reinsdorf and and um the upper management reached out and said, Hey, um, we might have an opportunity for you to take the bulls on.
27:23
And we said, Oh, next season?
27:25
And they said, No, it might be soon, like two weeks.
27:29
Usually, rights agreements, you negotiate, you talk, you know, sometimes it's a couple months, sometimes it's six months.
27:36
This thing percolated very quickly.
27:38
Never in my career, and you don't hear about it often, that you take over the rights mid-season.
27:43
And this was we took it over mid-season, and uh it's worked out great.
27:48
At halftime of a game?
27:49
Yeah, yeah.
27:50
Be like a player traded.
27:51
You want to catch a third quarter, switch over to right, change jerseys, right?
27:56
Um, so it's worked out well.
27:58
I like to say we're in the relationship business.
28:00
Um, again, business is business, but you build up relationships and trust, and and you know, that's what happens.
28:06
What are the broad strokes of an agreement with a team?
28:09
They're licensed, you know, you're paying, they're paying you.
28:12
Yeah, there's different ways.
28:13
There's different ways of different rights agreement.
28:16
You know, sometimes it's uh you pay a team a rights fee and you own all the commercial inventory, and then you go sell that, and then hopefully you profit from that.
28:26
Okay.
28:26
Um, other ways uh in other organizations, the team owns all the inventory, meaning they own all the commercials, and maybe they pay you some money and they air the games on your station, and you benefit from that audience coming in.
28:40
So there's different models in terms of rights agreements.
28:43
That's gotta be that makes sense in different ways.
28:46
Yeah, this is why I never got into like the business side of stuff.
28:49
But I imagine that it's gotta be kind of cutthroat at some point.
28:53
At times, but again, it it's relationships.
28:55
Like we have a tremendous relationship with the Cubs organization.
28:59
You know, great people, and and I like to say a lot of times over the years, you never like pull out the contract and go, on page 32, clause B.
29:09
I mean, it's a it's a relationship, it's trust, and you never, you know, it never really gets to that because you work well together and you trust each other.
29:17
I'm a big White Sox fan.
29:18
I love baseball in general, um, but I love listening to baseball on the radio.
29:23
There still really is something about that.
29:25
Do you uh have some like favorite broadcasters that through the years that who would you listen to growing up?
29:32
Yeah, so I was a rebel growing up in Skokie.
29:35
I was a White Sox fan.
29:36
My mom grew up in the White Sox fan.
29:40
I will listen, I'm clear.
29:42
I go Cubs go for business, and I'm a fan, but down deep I'm a White Sox fan.
29:47
Uh my mom grew up in Chatham, so we'd go to White Sox games, but I lived in Skokie, so I'd hop on the Skokie Swift, the L and go to a lot of Cubs games.
29:56
Um, and on the radio, like I'm partial, but he's in the Hall of Fame.
30:01
To me, Pat Hughes is one of the best to ever do it.
30:03
He baseball on the radio special.
30:05
It's like a friend.
30:07
You're you're friends with someone like Pat Hughes because he's the voice of Summer and he sets the tone.
30:13
Len has done a great job on radio with the White Sox, especially with the recent excitement.
30:19
Ed Farmer, you know, was a special guy.
30:22
He was a really a close friend.
30:24
What he did was unbelievable.
30:25
John Rooney, I think, was a good job.
30:27
I love John Rooney.
30:28
He was good job.
30:29
Did he go to St.
30:29
Louis?
30:30
Uh yes, he went to St.
30:31
Louis right after the White Sox.
30:34
And um, those two were great.
30:36
I just think baseball and the radio is special.
30:37
Other sports are great, like Chuck Swersky on Bulls, exciting, and basketball is great.
30:42
But there's something special about baseball on the radio, a summer day, whether you're in your car, your backyard, or listening wherever you do, baseball on the radio special, I think.
30:53
How is uh your listenership since they started tweaking baseball and making it a faster game?
30:58
Because I know on television, they say ratings have gone up.
31:01
How is it on radio?
31:02
Yeah, radio too.
31:03
I mean, just the amount of people that listen to baseball on the radio is just huge.
31:08
Um continues to grow, but I think it's two things.
31:11
I think I'll speak for uh our own brand.
31:14
People love the Cubs, win or lose, and I really think it's the announcers.
31:18
Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer.
31:20
Coomer's a Chicago guy, grew up near Midway Airport.
31:23
He grew up a Cubs fan, played for the Cubs for a little bit, mainly twins.
31:26
He played for.
31:28
But he's a Chicago guy.
31:29
Yeah, I mean Farmer was too, right?
31:30
Oh, Rita and Evergreen Park.
31:33
Um Farmer was a character.
31:36
He uh it was funny.
31:37
First time I met him, I worked at WMVP and I went to meet him in the booth, and it was like the first inning.
31:43
It was I remember it was White Sox versus Royals.
31:45
He's very sarcastic, but agree.
31:47
He goes, Mitch, you want to see how much power I have around here?
31:49
I go, sure.
31:50
He picked he there's an in-house phone in the booth.
31:53
It's a first inning.
31:54
And he picks it up and he goes, uh, visiting bullpen.
31:58
So he, you know, like to the operator, picks up the phone, he goes, Get the lefty up.
32:03
He hangs up and he goes, Watch the visiting bullpen.
32:06
He like called the Royals bullpen in the first inning, and a pitcher got up.
32:09
He hung up and he goes, That's how much power I have around here.
32:12
Just screw it around.
32:14
Just screw around.
32:15
The other team warmed some guy up.
32:17
In the first inning.
32:17
Why is that guy throwing?
32:18
Right.
32:19
Um, but he was a character.
32:21
Yeah, man.
32:22
Yeah, I missed that farmer.
32:24
Tee's Handley has changed my life.
32:27
Skin has been amazing.
32:28
Uh, we're the number one men's skincare routine in America.
32:32
When I got here, they go, uh, we're just waiting for the podcast guest.
32:36
We know you're here for pictures.
32:37
Oh, you were a model?
32:38
Yeah, you guys, he's glowing.
32:40
In fact, they brighten was like, your skin's awesome.
32:43
Just like, I look forward to like, I'm washing my face before I go to sleep.
32:46
I think we haven't had any 40-year-olds on the podcast, and I said I'm 50.
32:49
And everyone goes, What?
32:51
Teach Hanley.
32:52
It's the way we face the day.
32:55
Now, you stepped on a radio for a minute and you did some representation of some uh just like agent work.
33:00
Yeah, I, you know, I like say, you know, we learn from our mistakes.
33:04
I love radio, I miss the action.
33:06
I left MVP, and there was a great company, Paragon Marketing, in Skokie, and they said, Hey, we want to start this agent business.
33:12
I said, I'm not gonna be able to do it.
33:13
Are you kidding me?
33:14
You work for Paragon Marketing.
33:15
Yeah, you might be.
33:16
Buddy of mine, TJ Cohen.
33:17
Oh, yeah, where is TJ?
33:18
I haven't talked to him in years.
33:19
Now he's kind of doing his own thing.
33:20
I went to school with him.
33:21
Oh, tell me.
33:22
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
33:23
You guys work together?
33:24
Yeah.
33:24
We should have been meeting at Old Orchard for lunch.
33:26
I used to meet him over there.
33:28
Yeah, yeah.
33:29
My people up there.
33:30
That's a good time.
33:31
So um there's an old skoky joke about uh barnum and bagel.
33:36
Barnum and Bagel.
33:37
Ever hear that?
33:37
No.
33:38
What is the server saying?
33:38
Wasn't always very clean.
33:39
What does the server say at Barnum and Bagel?
33:41
Tell me.
33:42
Is anything okay?
33:44
It's a good one.
33:45
Um so yeah, David Brenner, nice people owned it.
33:49
So I said, I'm not a lawyer, but I've done contracts, you know.
33:52
So like I had Ozzy Ghean, that's how Ozzie and I became very friendly.
33:56
Like I represented him, um, did all his marketing and became very close to Ozzy and his family, John Rooney, Ed Far, like guys that I work with.
34:05
So I did that for a year, and then the score called, and I missed the action.
34:09
And so that's why how I got back into it.
34:11
You missed the action, you missed getting up at because you were saying off air when you came in.
34:15
You get up every day like 2 30 a.m.
34:17
Yeah, I'm nuts.
34:18
And then so what what time are you going to bed?
34:20
Like nine-ish.
34:21
Yeah?
34:21
I mean, I don't sleep much.
34:22
Okay, you get up and then you're grabbing.
34:24
Yeah, I I I go downstairs, I take my clothes, I go through email.
34:28
I learned a good trick a couple of years ago where I could time emails.
34:32
Before I I didn't know I was pissing employees off, I send emails at three in the morning.
34:37
Just stand, nothing major.
34:39
So if someone said, Hey, you know, we don't send emails.
34:42
So now you could time emails on Google Mail.
34:45
Did you know that or no?
34:46
I mean, I've heard this.
34:47
Yeah, yeah.
34:48
So this is a good trick.
34:49
So a lot of times I'll have like 30 pre-timed emails for eight or nine o'clock in the morning.
34:53
It's better than three in the morning.
34:54
So I'll do that.
34:55
I'll catch up on a little Netflix, and then what are you watching?
35:00
Guilty Pleasure.
35:01
It's a little creepy.
35:02
Come on.
35:02
Are you watching this campus show on Amazon?
35:04
No.
35:04
Oh God.
35:05
Is it good?
35:06
Yeah, it's a little sexy, but it's good.
35:07
Um Is that the one uh Sydney Sweeney's in?
35:12
I don't think so.
35:12
No, no, okay.
35:13
Which one?
35:15
The John Hamm show is very good.
35:16
Friends and neighbors.
35:17
Okay, I haven't seen that.
35:19
And then uh hacks, guilty pleasure.
35:21
Yeah, yeah.
35:22
Some women like So you get outside of sports.
35:24
You get outside of.
35:25
I come here, here's what I say.
35:26
Sports is my job, not my life.
35:28
Like, I'll come home and watch CNN and not ESPN.
35:31
Okay, yeah.
35:32
Like, I I live it.
35:33
It's uh, you know, I'm not a doctor, but I'm on call with you know, stations, but I want to come home and kind of clear the head a little bit.
35:41
Right.
35:42
But yeah, the other one, hacks, I love.
35:44
Like some people like say, you know, Mitch Lifetime is for you know women in Mitch.
35:50
So yeah.
35:51
People think I was born with an ovary.
35:53
But no, I like anybody watching Hack?
35:55
You must love hacks.
35:56
I mean, I saw it early on.
35:57
Dude, you love it.
35:58
And then I just kind of you know, yeah, I saw like the one episode.
36:01
I think this is the last scene.
36:04
That could be similar vibe for uh for me, though.
36:07
You kind of like, yeah, I'm gonna go the other way.
36:09
Like, I'm a people say it's loosely based on Joan Rivers' life, but I don't know.
36:13
Yeah, that's what I've heard as well.
36:14
Um you ever work with Joan Rivers?
36:16
You ever cross pass with her?
36:17
No, I never had.
36:18
You know, I never had Carol Burnett.
36:20
Yeah, same.
36:21
Carol Burnett.
36:22
Yeah, yeah.
36:22
Didn't she used to do this?
36:23
Yeah, yeah.
36:24
And then uh and Robert Klein, that's probably like the closest.
36:27
Oh man, age wage.
36:30
Um, so I leave the house at 417, not 419, 417.
36:34
You drive or you have a driver.
36:36
Come on.
36:37
I grew up on the mean streets of Skokie.
36:39
Um so you got a driver.
36:41
No, I don't know.
36:42
Um, and I go to the Starbucks uh in my neighborhood, 103rd in Longwood.
36:48
Nance opens up at 427, not 430.
36:51
Eight shots over ice, one Splenda.
36:54
I drive, I come downtown.
36:56
I'd say hello to our morning guys, Molly and Haw, Dustin and Brandon.
36:59
I stick around till 536, walk across the street and work out.
37:04
Are you a bot?
37:05
Huh?
37:05
Are you a bot?
37:06
Yeah, my kids say program.
37:09
I work out and then shower and shave, come back to work, and it's ready to rock and roll.
37:14
No kidding.
37:15
So you work out, you you get the coffee at home, then you go down.
37:18
Downtown, go to uh my office, get some work done, and then walk right across the street and work out for 32 minutes on the treadmill.
37:26
Everything's off like a little bit.
37:27
I know.
37:28
27 minutes?
37:29
Is it like a nuts?
37:31
OCD thing or I'm not I don't know.
37:33
It's just me being crazy.
37:34
You know, I don't know.
37:35
I'm just set in my ways.
37:37
What's the uh let me see the toughest it's ever been for you to let somebody go?
37:44
Yeah, it's hard.
37:45
Like being in management and being a leader, it sucks.
37:49
Um you have to make tough decisions.
37:52
And I do that at 9 43 a.m.
37:54
Yeah, is when I fire people.
37:57
I used to do that at three in the morning.
37:59
Yeah.
37:59
You know, whether it's you know, uh financial or budget cuts or disciplinary, it um, you know, sometimes you know, people come back and say, hey, that was the best thing you did.
38:10
You know, it it's never, never, never easy.
38:14
Um, but there's no butts.
38:16
It sucks.
38:17
Yeah.
38:18
I'm gonna put you on the spot, and this is uh, you know, and we don't even have to uh air this if you don't want, but I sometimes uh wonder what you guys being more serious and having history presenting sports to the public.
38:33
What do you think of Barstool?
38:35
I respect the hell out of them.
38:37
I think it's an iconic brand.
38:39
I think you know it will is and will can one day will be a great study, like an MBA study, how they created it.
38:48
Um I know, you know, the Chicago uh office, a number of them, you know, Big Cat Dan Katz, great guy.
38:55
Um Barstool Eddie.
38:57
I respect what they've done.
38:59
Yeah, he's a Chicago guy.
39:00
Yeah, you know, I I look at him almost like what Yurko was 20 years ago.
39:05
Um I have nothing uh I respect what they've done.
39:09
Um yeah, just just incredible.
39:11
Yeah, they're doing some cool stuff, especially the Chicago.
39:14
They seem to like give back to the community.
39:16
And they do have some outreach in our neighborhood.
39:18
You mentioned going to 103rd and Longwood Starbucks.
39:20
You're a Southsider.
39:21
You grew up in Skokie, right?
39:22
But now you live 30 years.
39:24
So you're a Southsider now.
39:26
Yeah, oh absolutely.
39:27
I say by injection only, yes.
39:29
Yes.
39:30
So I want to ask you uh some Southside stuff, Chicago stuff.
39:35
Give me some where are you going out?
39:36
Where are your your restaurants?
39:38
Um, there aren't many.
39:40
I wish there were more options.
39:41
Like Barackos is a go-to place on 111th.
39:45
Yeah.
39:45
Um a couple of culture shock things.
39:48
When I first moved in the neighborhood, like, you know, we would have people over and people walk up the driver with coolers.
39:54
And I'm like, if I'm hosting something, I'll pay for booze.
39:58
It was like a culture shock thing.
39:59
I'm like, what are you doing?
40:01
Like, leave the stuff in the and then my wife would say, no, no, that's normal Southside.
40:05
I go, if they're coming to my house, I'll pay for things.
40:08
So that was one thing.
40:09
And then I've determined, you know, like there are two families that run the neighborhood, and they're all related.
40:15
It's either the McShanes or the Sheehan's, and they're all related, right?
40:18
So it's like the Gambino family, but on the South in the Beverly, would you agree?
40:22
Like those two last names run the neighborhood in a good way, not illegally.
40:26
Yeah, right, right.
40:27
Like everybody, those two families run the neighborhood.
40:31
Um, Frankenello's is good.
40:33
It's gone down a little since Nello died.
40:36
Um, and then it's all about pizza and parishes.
40:38
Like when I first moved in the neighborhood, yeah.
40:40
What parish you're from?
40:41
I go, what the hell's a parish?
40:43
I go, I grew up Skokie, you know, Cole Lemet.
40:45
That's where I was Bar Mitzwood.
40:46
So you'll learn the different things in the neighborhood.
40:48
You agree?
40:49
Yeah, that's what's it?
40:50
There's no new restaurants.
40:51
Well, I take Dwayne.
40:52
We go to the Top Notch, that's our spot.
40:54
Yeah.
40:54
Love Top Notch.
40:55
But it would be nice to be more options.
40:57
Right.
40:58
So now take us down.
40:59
Couldn't you take it?
41:01
I have.
41:01
They say we have too many cemeteries.
41:02
We don't have enough alive people.
41:05
A lot of our land is taken up by what's your pizza go-to?
41:07
You know, everyone's got a pizza place.
41:09
Now, on buddies with Nick, I do love Barack's.
41:12
I do too.
41:13
My kids are into Palermos.
41:14
Yep.
41:15
But that's not really like our neighborhood.
41:17
Right.
41:17
That's kind of importing it from Oakland.
41:20
Uh I think one time you and I, you and me and Jim, one time, a couple times we ate at Foxes.
41:26
Foxes in person is good.
41:28
When they delivered it, yeah.
41:30
Now our house is divided.
41:32
Sometimes we've ordered from three different places.
41:34
Really?
41:34
Have you ever done on the same night?
41:36
Yeah.
41:36
I haven't done the same night, but yeah, we've got to be a little bit more than Milano stuffed.
41:39
Yeah.
41:40
Good.
41:40
Very good.
41:41
Yeah.
41:41
I like Milanos.
41:43
And uh yeah, we have no trouble finding good pizza.
41:47
It's almost like you've never been to this place.
41:49
What's Chuck's?
41:50
It looks like a hidden, like what goes on in Chucks?
41:53
Have you ever been there?
41:54
Yes, I have.
41:55
What is Chucks?
41:55
It's good.
41:56
It's you know, it's been there forever.
41:58
Right.
41:58
I'm not a regular there, but they have their regulars, and they're known for their uh, I think they even call it a sewer cap.
42:04
I mean, that's appetizing.
42:06
It's the size of a sewer.
42:08
That's the pizza.
42:09
Do you know Chucks on Western?
42:11
No, see, I'm more southeast.
42:12
Like, see, I the joints I would go to, like Regio's.
42:15
Do you all know Reggio?
42:16
Oh, yeah, yeah.
42:16
But they they they just closed.
42:18
But see, the Regio's, I liked, it was black.
42:21
I used to think because I found out that Reggio's Regio was uh, you know, is a uh country, I mean a state in Italy.
42:30
But for years we thought it was just a brother named Reggie who was trying to sound Italian.
42:36
So put the EO on there.
42:38
Yeah, yeah.
42:39
Yeah, I remember Regio's.
42:41
A lot of guys already trust Tiege Handley.
42:43
They've shipped over three million boxes and have more than 24,000 reviews, averaging 4.7 stars.
42:51
In fact, 91% of customers say they'd recommend it to a friend.
42:55
People only talk like that when a product works.
42:58
If you're ready to upgrade your routine, check out Tiege Hanley and face the day with confidence.
43:04
Head to Tiege.com slash Pat for 40% off and a free gift.
43:09
That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
43:13
What about uh do you have some haunts on the in the loop downtown?
43:18
Um uh yeah, I mean, like, I don't know.
43:21
I you offer a cocktail, you you drink?
43:23
I a little, I'm not, you know, I'm not in the JDHOF Jewish drinking hall of fame.
43:27
Yeah.
43:28
So I'm uh one in two.
43:30
Yeah.
43:30
There's a couple of them.
43:32
I'm a like I'm a vodka lemonade guy, you know, in the summer.
43:35
I'm a one glass and done, you know, glass of wine.
43:38
Yeah, I'm not a yeah.
43:40
Um Cork Bill at Cork is a good friend, Bill Guidey.
43:43
Yeah.
43:44
We've been friends for years.
43:45
We used to do a thing, Coop at the Cork.
43:47
Do you remember that?
43:47
Yes.
43:47
Don Cooper.
43:48
Yes, Don Cooper.
43:49
We have some classic Don Cooper stories from there.
43:52
Uh Coop at the Cork was a lot of fun.
43:54
Um Legend.
43:55
You know, out of the blue, you know, here comes a Jim Tomey walking in or a Mark Burley.
44:00
Or um who was a pitcher?
44:02
Not uh was it Gavin Sheets, or is that the guy they just traded?
44:05
It's the guy on the Padres Now first base.
44:07
Yeah, but who was the pitcher?
44:08
Um John Garland?
44:09
Well Garland.
44:11
Was it that era?
44:12
Yes.
44:12
Um I forgot.
44:13
But they would just come in, you know, walk in and coop after an hour would be five bourbons in, and you know, it wasn't Bobby Janks.
44:22
Was it a starter?
44:23
John Danks would stop.
44:25
John Danks, yeah, yeah, yeah.
44:26
I remember him.
44:27
So he was good.
44:28
It was fun.
44:28
But that would, you know, coming in the neighborhood like on a Sunday after a Sunday game, it would be packed in the beer garden.
44:34
And a guy named Chris Ronji, who used to work with us, would host.
44:38
The Ranger.
44:39
Yes, yes.
44:40
He went to St.
44:41
Louis, too, I think.
44:42
He's working at KMOX, but he comes back here once in a while.
44:44
And you have a um responsibility with some Milwaukee stations, too, right?
44:49
Yeah, I oversee uh Milwaukee's called the Fan and uh a number of stations around the country, but fan is a good station.
44:56
We have two former Packers, a guy, Mason Crosby, he's the all-time uh score, he's a kicker, and John Kuhn, who's a fullback, also works there.
45:05
Yeah.
45:06
What was would you say is the difference between Milwaukee fans and Chicago fans?
45:10
Um both passionate, different, but both fat.
45:14
I thought you were gonna say you know it's funny.
45:16
I both got cholesterol issues.
45:18
Yes.
45:19
The Brat stuff.
45:20
We have a uh joint broadcast once a year.
45:22
We call it the Brat Bowl, where we have both stations broadcast live like on a Bears Packers weekend, and it's hilarious and fun.
45:30
So um, yeah, that that's great.
45:32
When I cross the state line, like you take a deep breath.
45:35
Like Chicago is go, go, go.
45:37
Milwaukee and Wisconsin's like go, go, go.
45:41
So I enjoy going up to Wisconsin um because people are great, but it's a little bit slower pace.
45:46
Yeah.
45:47
We as comics, I I don't know if I don't want to speak for you, Dwayne, but I always enjoy going up to Wisconsin.
45:52
They just are like some of the best crowds.
45:54
Yeah.
45:54
Oh man, absolutely.
45:55
I used to do the comedy cafe.
45:57
Oh, yeah.
45:58
I love that joint, man.
46:00
Yeah.
46:00
Do you consume a lot of comedy?
46:01
Do you watch stand-up?
46:02
Do you watch any uh a little?
46:04
I like listen, Sebastian is great.
46:06
Like your work.
46:08
Um when I worked with Kevin Matthews, he was good friends with a guy, Bill Hicks.
46:13
You remember that?
46:13
Yeah, yeah.
46:15
And uh Emo Phillips.
46:17
And is Emo still alive or not?
46:19
Judy Tenuta.
46:21
Emo is a legend in Chicago.
46:22
And uh he was had a really good relationship with Zanies.
46:25
He's from up there, right?
46:25
He's looking like Downer's Grown or something like that.
46:28
Yeah.
46:28
Yeah.
46:29
So I got to meet through Kevin, you know, number he used to do comedy shows like in Joliet, Kevin Meany, who I think has passed away, where Kevin Matthews was friends with.
46:38
Um, Kevin Meany, he came out at some point, yeah, right?
46:44
Right.
46:44
Other than how could he have stayed in with that act?
46:47
Yeah.
46:48
Yeah.
46:49
That's where I was going.
46:50
That's where I was going.
46:51
Yeah.
46:52
My emo story is, and I love emo.
46:54
Very funny.
46:55
He had a great joke about uh it rings true more than ever about his high school.
46:59
He had like a niece in high school who's taking drama.
47:03
It's like, oh really?
47:05
Oh, do you really have to?
47:07
But he did something to me in the club one time, and I have since I will never do this to someone.
47:11
Has anyone ever done this to you?
47:13
He did that to you?
47:14
Yeah, from like across the across the room, one of these.
47:17
Really?
47:18
You ever do that to someone?
47:19
You should see that more.
47:20
Maybe even from my parents.
47:23
You know who did that?
47:24
Uh I only saw it on television.
47:25
Carmelo Soprano did that to her friend at a party.
47:29
Yeah, man.
47:30
He did this to me when not did this.
47:33
I had a I was reading 1984, but there was like, you know, long since, you know.
47:37
And I had the book, and uh, we were up in the green room.
47:39
He said, Why are you reading that?
47:41
What's it to you?
47:43
Yeah, worry about it.
47:45
Were you reading it out loud?
47:46
Well, yeah.
47:47
Yeah, I was asking him to read it to me, but still.
47:50
No, I mean, like, you know, I mean, yeah, but emo is what about other local like uh Rocky Laporte, still around or no?
47:57
Yes, yeah, yeah, Rocky had a bad accident.
47:59
Yeah, Rocky's in bad shape.
48:01
Well, he's in better shape, but yeah, he was in the funniest guys ever.
48:07
Yeah, yeah, very funny, dude.
48:08
Real quick, I tell you an Eddie Schwartz comedy story.
48:10
Um, so Schwartz and I wasn't with him at the time.
48:13
Schwartz used to work at a station W-I-N-D before G N, and he used to play Eddie was big into comedy.
48:20
I think he'd play sides of comedy albums, I think, so he can go to the restroom and play the whole sides.
48:25
So you go hang out with another stripper?
48:27
Right, yeah.
48:28
Um so he played Cosby before Cosby was Cosby.
48:32
So Cosby lands at O'Hare, he gets in a cab, and the cab driver has on WIND, and he's got and he Cosby hears himself.
48:40
And he says to the cab driver, Who's playing this?
48:42
And the cab driver goes, This guy Eddie Schwartz.
48:45
And for some reason the cab driver knew where Eddie Schwartz in his studio was.
48:50
And he goes, Take me to where the studio is.
48:52
So this is like at one in the morning.
48:53
And this and I do believe the story.
48:56
So Cosby gets to the security guard and says, Is Eddie Schwartz on the air?
49:00
Yeah, he's here.
49:01
So he walks in while Eddie's playing.
49:03
This is pretty cool, playing his album.
49:05
So they became pretty good friends.
49:06
And Cosby used to come on the radio with Eddie all the time, and um he uh he was very good friends, and that's how they became friends.
49:15
He literally got in a cab and hurt himself on Eddie's show.
49:18
Oh man, yeah, that is a good story.
49:20
Yeah, yeah.
49:20
Yeah, I mean, he was so big at the time in the 80s with his show.
49:24
Yeah, yeah.
49:26
Yeah.
49:26
Oh man You saw that coming.
49:28
Dwayne told me a long time ago, he said, I remember you remember telling me this?
49:32
You said the cleanest comics, they're the creepiest off stage.
49:37
Oh, I was always sus like suspect of super clean.
49:42
Yeah, I was I was quoting uh Brian Posane.
49:45
That yeah, right.
49:46
Like that, right?
49:47
The cats on stage who are the most milk toast, middle of the road, acts on stage, maniacs off stage.
49:54
And then the cats who seem to be maniacs on stage, off stage.
49:57
Yeah.
49:58
Crazy.
49:59
Yeah, yeah.
50:00
Well, Mitch, dude, I really appreciate you coming in here.
50:02
I know you're you're a busy guy.
50:04
Um, you want to plug some socials?
50:06
I know you're you're on X Twitter.
50:08
Yeah, you stay active.
50:10
Yeah, I don't, it doesn't matter.
50:11
But all the shows, too, that you're doing.
50:13
Yeah, listen, uh, the score, we thank everybody, our brand.
50:16
It's about our brand, it's about our people.
50:18
Like it we have great people, and to me, our brand is about the people.
50:23
People who were there before, and the people are there today, and people consume our brand, and to me, that's the most important thing.
50:30
So I appreciate you guys having me.
50:31
This was fun.
50:32
I love talking about the score and about the uh about the south side.
50:36
I was recently on with uh Lawrence and Spiegel.
50:38
Yep, great.
50:39
Great dudes.
50:40
Love the studio there, and uh I brought him some T Shanley, some skincare.
50:44
Oh, thank you.
50:45
Do you are you moisturizing?
50:47
Is this part of your I go uh can you fit that in at 4 13 a.m.?
50:52
I go to the Schwitz, that's legal.
50:54
Uh it's Yiddish for sweat.
50:56
Do you guys ever go to Division Street bathhouse?
50:58
No.
50:58
No, you guys have to try it.
50:59
Are there still bathhouses?
51:01
Yeah, yeah.
51:01
Yeah, it's very cool.
51:02
It's on Division Street.
51:04
Been going there since I was five.
51:05
Was it near Milwaukee?
51:06
Uh yeah, it's right off of Division North, and it's a great place.
51:10
And I've been going there since I was five, and you get a Plaitsa, and that's Yiddish for like a rub with leaves.
51:17
It sounds weird, but it's great.
51:19
You guys should try to do it.
51:19
Wait, wait, okay.
51:20
Yeah.
51:21
You were ready to end this.
51:22
Walk your life in the bathhouse.
51:24
You walk into the bathhouse and you're wearing what?
51:27
You're going in straight clothes.
51:28
There's a men to women's side, although my wife threw me a surprise 40th birthday party there.
51:33
Did that turn into an orgy.
51:34
Um, but this is a real cool place.
51:37
So you go on the men's side, 40 bucks, you get a sheet and two towels, a bar of soap, and a lock for your locker, and then you sound like a prison intake.
51:48
It's very relaxing.
51:49
And you go into wet steam.
51:54
Um and you go into wet steam, and um, if you get a rub with this broomstick and leaves, it's called a plezza, and it's one of the most relaxing.
52:03
It's about 200 degrees.
52:05
And I'm not outing him, but like Chelios is there every morning.
52:08
John Belushi used to go there, the late Reverend Jesse Jackson used to go there.
52:12
And you know, there could be mob guys, there could be old Russian men, every race, every minority, and it's a very cool place.
52:20
But it's the uh Division Street bathhouse, no plug, but it's really, really good.
52:24
Dude, we got to go in there and start booking some more guests.
52:28
Do the show from there.
52:29
Yeah.
52:29
Can you approach people in a bathhouse like that?
52:31
And you really fit in, you'll sound like a guy from Scotland.
52:34
Is it communal?
52:35
Are you too are you talking to other people?
52:37
Well, yeah, you're kibbitzing, and and it's uh it's pretty cool.
52:40
And you're there for how long?
52:42
Uh hour, hour and a half.
52:43
You can hang out.
52:44
And then upstairs is a restaurant, you can do a shot.
52:47
You know, it's old Russian men upstairs.
52:49
It's pretty cool.
52:51
How often are you going?
52:52
Is that a mic drop?
52:53
How often do you go?
52:54
I go like once a month.
52:56
I like my dad started taking me there when I was five years old.
52:59
I was probably traumatized.
53:00
But now um, you know, now there's women now that you're not at eye level with a bunch of strange dicks.
53:06
Yeah.
53:07
Now the It's a little bit more comfortable.
53:10
The young guys wear bathing suits.
53:12
Like, come on.
53:13
Yeah, yeah.
53:14
Man up and just take it all up.
53:16
You don't know what to say now, do you?
53:18
No, man.
53:19
I know what to say.
53:20
I don't think I'll be going.
53:22
Yeah.
53:23
Well, Mitch, I uh I'm a longtime listener to a bunch of these stations that you mentioned in the actively, always on the score and uh WXRT.
53:32
So appreciate it.
53:33
Really appreciate you and all that you're you've given to our city, and you know, it's a big part of our the culture of our conversations and what we're talking about.
53:42
The best part about T Shanley is the results.
53:45
95% of users report visible improvements to their skin, and about 80% say they start getting compliments.
53:54
The routine only takes about two minutes a day.
53:57
Wash, exfoliate, moisturize, and it's backed by the handsome guarantee.
54:03
Try T Sh Hanley today and enhance your handsome.
54:06
Head to Tiege.com slash Pat for 40% off and a free gift.
54:11
That's Tiege.com slash Pat.
54:14
T Shandley.
54:15
It's the way we face the day.
54:18
Big thing now with the Bears thing.
54:20
They were talking about it this morning on Molly and Hall.
54:24
They had our actually our state senator, Bill Cunningham on.
54:27
This thing is a mess.
54:28
I'm almost tired of talking about it.
54:29
I know.
54:30
We have we just try to find a balance.
54:31
Like, is it too much?
54:33
Is it not enough?
54:34
But we think people, you know, we talk about what are the hits today?
54:37
We we think this is still a hit, you know, it is today.
54:40
Yeah.
54:40
No, it's certainly relevant.
54:42
It's not your fault that it's still I'm just saying that it's still an issue.
54:45
Right.
54:45
And it's the bears that are probably I mean, do you have a feeling?
54:48
I want them to be in Chicago.
54:50
Me too.
54:50
Or second Arlington Heights.
54:52
Yeah, I I don't know.
54:53
I mean, if they do go to Indiana, Hammond, let's just be honest with each other.
54:57
Like Hammond, Indiana, for you know, where we live on the South Side is closer than Arlington Heights, yes?
55:03
Yes, but the perception is they're in Indiana.
55:06
Now, you could also say, like, the Jets and the Giants play in New Jersey.
55:10
So I don't know, man.
55:12
I mean, does it matter?
55:14
Yeah, perceptually, like they're not in Chicago.
55:17
So Hammond is basically a Chicago suburb.
55:20
I think so.
55:21
Right?
55:21
I I mean, yeah.
55:22
Yeah.
55:23
But it's weird.
55:24
Yeah, and it seems like toxic over there.
55:26
Yeah, the landfill.
55:28
The land is not, I mean, it's kind of like a swamp or marsh, isn't it?
55:31
Right.
55:34
I don't know where like today, whatever the date, what's today?
55:37
May what?
55:38
Or June what?
55:39
June 2nd.
55:39
Yeah, happy by the way.
55:41
June 2nd at 10 57 a.m.
55:43
This minute, my weird feel is Hammond, Indiana.
55:47
But ask me in an hour.
55:49
Yeah.
55:50
Okay.
55:50
I I say they're gonna stay in Chicago.
55:54
Where?
55:55
I don't know.
55:56
So Soldier Fields?
55:58
No.
55:58
Well, or across Michael Reese?
56:00
I don't know.
56:00
Somewhere.
56:01
Yeah.
56:01
Well, that's where they were gonna build the Olympic stuff.
56:03
That's where they were gonna build the Olympic site, right?
56:05
The Michael Reese.
56:06
I would say today, Arlington Heights.
56:08
Okay.
56:09
I still think that that's I think they're bluffing on Indiana.
56:12
I think it would be a PR, I don't know.
56:15
Maybe there would be some backlash.
56:17
But I will ask you in an hour.
56:18
Could we talk about the bathhouse until the Schmidt's?
56:22
Let's go back to the Schmidtz.
56:23
Oh, you know, okay, before you I know you gotta go.
56:25
Yes.
56:26
How has uh the internet affected what you all do, and how have you all integrated that into uh tertiary radio?
56:33
Yeah, it's part of what we do.
56:34
You know, we promote the app, streaming.
56:36
Streaming is so popular because not everybody's in their car, not everybody's at home having their Alexa, so it's on their phone.
56:44
We like to say, take the score with you anywhere.
56:46
So on the Odyssey app, you can listen to the score anywhere.
56:50
So the internet is part of our DNA, and it's huge.
56:54
Um, without like that app and people can listen from anywhere.
56:58
I don't think we our brand would be as strong.
57:00
So it's huge.
57:01
If you had to guess, and maybe you don't even want to say, but how what percentage of your listeners are still uh on the radio?
57:07
Just turning the radio on.
57:08
Well, I think the FM was a game changer.
57:10
I think when we were just AM only, the app was a huge percentage because people couldn't hear AM everywhere.
57:18
So I think the FM balances out balances it out a little bit, but I think um the app and the internet is a convenience for people.
57:27
Does that make sense?
57:28
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
57:29
Yeah, and then with YouTube has turned every radio show into a television show, right?
57:34
No doubt.
57:36
Yeah, no doubt.
57:37
Yeah, um, and listen, I have one kid, he's 26.
57:40
He consumes a lot of media through video, whether it's Pat McAfee or other things or the score, it's Twitch, YouTube, and people like that visual medium.
57:50
And like I said earlier, you know, it's content distribution, and what that what that is is YouTube, Twitch, and all the different platforms.
57:57
And we want as many ears and eyes, and however we can deliver that to them is key.
58:02
Very cool, man.
58:03
Well, Mitch, thank you again for joining us.
58:05
Uh, we are gonna hook you up with some skincare.
58:08
Awesome.
58:08
We have to moisturize in this world.
58:10
You can rub it on in the in the in the steam.
58:12
Yeah, take some to the bathhouse.
58:14
I'm bringing it in.
58:15
Yeah, bring it in.
58:18
At the bathhouse.
58:19
I love it.
58:19
You guys don't even think it's real.
58:23
I love the cast of characters in there, though.
58:25
It makes me realize like we're not hanging out in the right place.
58:28
Use it in your shows.
58:28
Yeah, that's a schmitz.
58:30
That's where everybody's a mob do some lotion.
58:33
Yeah, serious about booking guests there.
58:35
Yeah.
58:35
Because that is something that you know I I get help here booking guests, but that is a large part of what you have to do here.
58:41
Sure.
58:42
And when you guys are doing that, are you reaching out cold?
58:45
Are you yeah?
58:46
We have great producers, and you know, they're following whatever the hits are of the day are, but they've made relations like out of the blue, Alex, uh Spiegel and Holmes producer, became friends with Benji Molina, you know, a Cardinals guy.
58:58
So when the Cubs or once in a while when the White Sox play the Cardinals, he's become a regular, he's a real character.
59:04
So you develop relationships over here.
59:06
Yeah, Benji Melina, yeah.
59:09
Yeah, another guy I've stayed in touch with who I met through the score, uh Parkinson Parkinson's great.
59:14
His career is taking off.
59:16
Over 800 grand.
59:17
He was here for a radio thon.
59:18
He did 24 straight hours and raised money uh for cancer research.
59:22
And Danny's great, uh, really terrific, doing great in New York, and we miss him.
59:27
Yeah, and that's kind of cool how he's maintained his relationship with you all.
59:30
Right.
59:31
You know, even though he's a national guy now.
59:33
Yeah, he's like I said to him when he was in last week, he'll always be a score person, and and uh we're real proud of him.
59:40
Yeah, all good stuff, man.
59:42
All right, guys.
59:43
Check out Mitch on the socials.
59:45
Make sure you listen to the score, WXRT, all the Odyssey stuff.
59:49
Uh and Dwayne, do you have anything coming up you want to?
59:52
Yes, I'm going to be in uh why am I talking like San Diego?
59:56
Yes, that's what you should say.
59:57
Uh you were just yeah, I'm I'm doing this Saturday, I'm shooting uh Don't Tell Comedy in Manhattan Beach, California.
1:00:07
Beautiful, man.
1:00:07
We'll see what happens, bro.
1:00:08
Yeah, knock it out.
1:00:09
Yeah, have a great time.
1:00:10
I'm gonna be in Syracuse coming up.
1:00:12
I also have uh oh dude, I just booked something in Hawaii.
1:00:14
What?
1:00:15
Going to the Blue Note in Honolulu.
1:00:17
Oh, man.
1:00:18
Nice.
1:00:18
I've never done I did a corporate game.
1:00:20
I've only been in Hawaii one time.
1:00:21
I was there for like 48 hours.
1:00:22
So I'm excited about this.
1:00:24
Go out there, make a little trip of it.
1:00:26
Yeah, man.
1:00:26
Check it out.
1:00:27
Okay.
1:00:28
All right.
1:00:28
So if we have any listeners in Honolulu, I'll see you June 20th at the Blue Note.
1:00:33
All right, guys, thanks for listening.
1:00:35
Don't forget to download, subscribe, leave us a review.
1:00:38
We will be back next week.
1:00:40
We have uh we do have Father Tom Hurley coming in.
1:00:43
Oh with Tom Curley, funeral home director.
1:00:47
Hurley and Curly.
1:00:48
Hurley and Curly.
1:00:49
Okay.
1:00:49
See, that's how we book.
1:00:50
Yeah.
1:00:51
Love it.
1:00:51
Got a rhyme.
1:00:52
And then we also uh have Abby Murphy coming up, who is an Olympic gold medalist with our national hockey team, and Oz Perlman, too.
1:01:00
A lot of great guests coming up.
1:01:02
Make sure you're tuning in.
1:01:03
Have a great week, everyone, and happy June later.
1:01:07
The Pat McGann Show is brought to you by the Pat McGann Show team.
1:01:11
Producer Paula Thornton.
1:01:13
Showrunner Tom Bambera.
1:01:14
Audio engineer Tommy Grant.
1:01:16
Video production Eddie Perez.
1:01:18
Video and audio editor Madeline Curlis.
1:01:21
Organic Content Manager George Master.
1:01:23
Recorded at Tiege Hanley Studios in Chicago, Illinois.