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Motor City Mad Mouth Interviews LA Sportscaster Fred Wallin · Motor City Mad Mouth

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Happy Wednesday, everybody. My name is Scott the MotorCity man Mouth Show and
0:28
that's it's a MotorCity man Mouth Show. I have pleased to be joined by
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La sportscaster Fred Wallen. Fred, Welcome to the broadcast. Yeah, looking
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forward to it, really am. We're gonna have a lot of fun,
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that's for sure, So just a lot already. Know that, you know,
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Fred and I are old school media kind of guys. We've seen a
0:47
lot. He's read twenty pages of my books so far. Then you only
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have another one hundred and eighty to go. But I know that by the
0:53
time I get on his gig, which I'll talk about in a little while,
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you know, Fred will be enlightened and we certainly will be to compare
1:00
a couple of stories. Nevertheless, so before you go any further, The
1:03
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Meanwhile, for once again, I'm glad. You're glad to have you on
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the show. So why don't you give me audience a little bit of an
1:44
introduction about yourself. Well, uh, I was brought up in Culver City,
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California, which is like West La. I was going to play basketball
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at the University of Arizona. I go down there and I take the physical
2:00
and they said I have scoliosis, which is a curvature of the back.
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And so my parents take me to the best doctors there are and doctor Robert
2:10
Curland, doctor Frank Joe, the Dodger doctors here in southern California, and
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they were going to do a spine surgery. And two days before doctor Curlin
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called me up so help me, Scott, and he said, I want
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to see you. So I drove to Westchester, which is, you know,
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five miles away from Culver City, and he said, how much do
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you love basketball? And he said, well, I said, I sleep
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with the basketball more than I sleep with women. So he's hard laughing,
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and he said, you know, I was pretty good in basketball myself,
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and I got arthritis, and so I decided to help the athletes rather than
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be an athlete. So I put my hand up and I said, you're
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saying it's the spine. It's dangerous, and he says, one in a
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million, but it's the spine. I said, thank you very much.
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Should later, of course, I did Dodger Talk for KBC and the Dodger
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Radio Network, and doctor Frank Job a lot of times was up in the
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press box with us, so we had a lot of fun and laughing about
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what had happened a few years earlier. But so that's basically it. I've
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done a lot of LA shows. I'm doing now Sports over Not America,
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where you're going to be a guest next month in April, and it's heard
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Friday and Saturday nights. I do it from home, and I do a
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thing for a company called Believe Blav and you can hear that anywhere. And
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then I do one for a company called pod Clips and they're heard around the
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world, but they don't do it like you do through the stream thing.
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We just do it zoom. So I got to give you a lot of
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credit for that. Wasn't an easy transition. It's all right. You talked
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about works Overnight in America. And also I saw that you're connected with Sports
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Byline USA as well, right as I know it's Sports Byline. Yeah,
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I worked for Sports Byline and the show is Sports over not America. I
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saw what I'd like you to do, Fred, is why don't you give
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the audience an idea what you're doing with both of them, what these media
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outlets, and give them an overview of not only who you're working for,
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but the show itself. Well, we get into the political world of sports,
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the economic world of sports, and I'm probably more political than always have
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been an even sports oriented and we talk about that. I've got two co
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hosts and Art Source and Mark Mancini, and Mark happens to be the World
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Warst sports handicapper. Art used to kick field goals for USC and the La
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Rams and I almost played basketball Arizona. So that's the trio. And let
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me tell you a funny story. I did not know this was a Michigan
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oriented show. Obviously you call it the Motor City Show. Okay, I
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got most of my relatives are in Michigan. And about fifteen years years ago,
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twelve thirteen, fourteen years ago, on Sports over North America, I
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interviewed a person named Alan Rosenfeld. He wrote a great boxing book. Okay,
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And about two years after that, I see a picture on Facebook,
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a family portrait from Michigan in the forties or fifties. But it's a picture
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that my mother had given me, a photo my mother had given me.
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So after I interviewed him, I discovered that his daughter, my cousin,
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lives five miles from us here in Soanther, California. So because Alan Rosenfeld
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has passed away, now new boxing and I love talking at boxing. And
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he knew more than anybody because he came on the air, I found like
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fifty cousins I didn't know I had. They're all in Michigan and they all
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went to Michigan or Michigan State. So that gave the day that those two
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meet in football. They all meet at somebody's house. It's about seventy thirty
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Michigan over Michigan State. But it's fun to watch. I gotta tell you
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one thing about Mark Mancini. I've worked with him on a lot of projects.
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I'm sure you've seen us do a lot of stuff together. And it's
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one thing. I'll say A couple of things I can say about Mark Manscini,
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who, by the way, is in the book just so you know
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when you get around to it. Okay, one of the most candid characters
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I've ever seen, one of the nicest people I've ever seen. But I'll
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tell you one thing that a lot of people underrate about the guy. He's
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really knowledgeable too, he really is. I mean, we know he's a
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Dodgers hater, so not tell Mark you know what. Remember one thing.
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I know you like the Pirates, but they haven't won in Ages, Okay.
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And I know you're a Padres guy and you don't like the Dodgers living
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there. But I've done a lot of projects with Mark fred and I'll tell
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you I really have enjoyed every single show that I have actually gone ahead and
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been on with the guy. I really do. And you know again,
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we're like two crazy brothers. Anyways, every time he does something crazy,
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I like to I treat him like my little pinata and whack him over the
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head and he stands there and takes a good heartedly you know, again,
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like two crazy brothers. They're old school. Okay, we're always going to
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get on each other's nerves. But we love that because you know what it's
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like being in this business out you can take a guy and build off of
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him and feed off of him and really have a lot of fun with it.
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And I'm telling you, like I said, I have nothing negative with
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ever to say about Mark Mancini. And yes he earned his way in the
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lessons on the microphone. All right to the Chapman real quick, Kady,
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George Eichorn High School and Fred Graidshaw. Michigan has a great history with boxing,
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Oh does it ever? I mean, we all know about the Thomas
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Earns, we all know about Joe Lewis is the name of the couples.
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So there's no question that there's a great thing there. So all right,
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So what that said, what's it like to work in the LA market?
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I know you one of the things listed on here was Kabcam seven ninety.
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Well, I mean I did Dodger Talk for a few years and the general
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manager had offered me an extra five thousand dollars, And it's a long story,
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but the point is he refused to give me it, and so I
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left the station for five thousand dollars, which was the dumbest move anybody in
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the history of radio ever met. I still might be there now, I
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don't know. But although the ratings at KBC when I was there there were
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like four point seven. Before that, I was in college, I produced
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shows at KBC. Ironically, later I worked at KBC, but when I
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was producing the show, I produced the Bill Russell Show and shows like that
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at KBC and not the Shortstop, the Center, the Center for the Celtics
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and won nine eleven times in thirteen years Bill Russell. But anyway, the
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point is they had like a seven rating, and folks were talking about how
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many listeners you have, and the seven in LA means hundreds of thousands of
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listeners. Twenty years later, when I was working at KBC, we're down
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to four point seven, and now they're like a point three or a point
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four. So KBC now is really not doing too well. It hasn't for
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a long long time. Things do change in radio, Scott, I know
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you know that. Oh yeah, totally well, you know, we have
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a guy named Jashue Bernstein that's looks going on. Bred Walling is here and
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josh just to give me a little information about him, though, Brett is
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one of the guys in my pipeline that I'm actually training to become a broadcaster.
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So we're bringing it. We're gradually easing him into the program and his
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knowledge and energy is off the chart. So's I like to train young guys
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and see what kind of enthusiasm that they have work ethic and I have a
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lot of my system. Joshua is just the latest one in my system that
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I'm looking to groom into doing something. So we're working on some things there.
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Can I say something to Zach, Yeah, go ahead, Zacha,
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you can go to law school. Go to law school. So it's a
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much better business than than the radio. Just unders. Both of my brothers
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went to law school, and it's a different situation. You end up owning
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your own firm. You make the decisions the general manager and the program director
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does not now work for Scott. But just looking ahead, understand how tough
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this business really is. All right, Josh, So you got some good
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advice from a guy that'd been in the business forever like I have. So
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there you go, Josh Obersty, Fred Wall and you are now connected forever.
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All right, Well, and thanks so the workers. I appreciate it.
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All right. So as we continue on, well, are there any
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individuals that you actually enjoyed working with, whether it's his colleagues or whether it's
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particular you name. I'm just saying any individuals. Leave it open ended for
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you to answer. I don't think anybody has ever done a better talk show
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Bill Russell. He was the most honest, incredible human being I've ever heard
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do a radio talk show. He said, you know, at the time,
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he wasn't signing autographs and he said, you know, my dad was
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a bricklayer, and nobody asked him, and he was a better bricklayer than
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I was a talk show host. But nobody was better than Bill doing radio.
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And ironically, when Bill got the offer to move up to Seattle,
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the program director Bob Walsh asked me to go with him, and I should
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have, but I didn't, And Bob Walsh became a very very big person
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in Seattle, and Bill Russell, of course was up there for a long
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period of time too, And I should have gone I did. I had
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a girlfriend at the time. It was a bad move, and you know,
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again, it's another bad decision in a radio career, and that was
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when I was in college. So I think Bill Russell is the answer to
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your question because he just was very honest and most of the time, most
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of the time when you're doing the talk show, you think what I should
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say and what I really believe. In the nineties, I'm at KMPC radio.
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You know, that's a quick question about Russell. Are you talking about
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the Celtics guy or the Dodgers guy? Now? Oh, the Celtic guy,
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Okay, just makes work consistent. I continue, No, the best
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center of the right, biggest, the biggest winner in the history of the
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NBA, eleven championships in thirteen years. I can't do much better than that.
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I'm a Laker fan, but you can't do better than eleven out of
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thirteen years. Anyways, I'm at campc In on the day that Magic Johnson
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announces that he has HIV, and so that was the conversation for months and
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months and months, and I said on the air my eight year old brother,
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my eight year old son, I wouldn't want him to play competitive sports
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against other eight year old kids if they have HIV, and you couldn't say
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that. You shouldn't say that. And I got this is before twenty people
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had computers and this They got letters at the station and everything else. And
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the general manager brought me to the office and I said, Bill bill Wards,
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a GF, that's what I believe. I would not I'm not talking
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about going to school. I'm saying competitive sports. It's a blood to blood
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illness. And at that point he was fatal all the time. I knew
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that. And I had lost my little brother when he was seven to leukemia.
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So I have seen death, and I've seen people die, and I've
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seen people at seven years of age. And he was a super g and
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he was going to skip two grades in school and he never had an opportunity
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because he died August twenty third, nineteen. Well he died a long time
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ago. But anyway, the point is sometimes if you say something that you
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really believe, you can get into hot water. Bill Russell didn't care.
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Russell would say anything he wanted. He knew, you know, it wasn't
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his life. But the people that are relying on the talk show for their
14:24
livelihood, most people think very closely before they say anything. In Scott,
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I mean, you've been doing this for years. You know what I'm saying.
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There are certain things you know, you might not believe, but you
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have to say. And you know, I think ninety nine percent of the
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time I'm honest, but there's always something you're holding back, and some guys
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hold back a whole lot. Right, let me tell you some of my
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friend. You're right, we've been doing this a while. Okay, if
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you have a hot mic, you can get in hot water. Period.
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Okay, with that said Josh Obersty, and go ahead, put the question
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up here. What's the biggest person you've worked with? Right? Well?
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Bill Russell was six eleven six eleven child jocks, all right, and I
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worked with a lot. I work with a sportscaster and the actor Stue Nahan
15:16
here in southern California on KBC. I worked with super fan Ed Beeler,
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who only had got one thing right in his life, and it was the
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following sports is after all, the toy department. Everything else he said for
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fifteen or twenty years when he was doing radio off and on was wrong.
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But the one thing he was right about is sports is after all, the
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toy department. It's not life and death. And there are other things going
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like now, there are things going on in this world versus the NCAA basketball
15:52
tournament or the NBA and beginning of the baseball season. There are things going
15:56
on in this world, in this country that are more important than the world
16:00
sports. And I think, honestly, that's what I believe that. And
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he wasn't right about many things, but he was right about that. Candy
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Aling chat room favorite interview. I'm sorry, Candy Adling in the chat room
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favorite interview, by the way the questions are being exhibited on our screen,
16:17
favorite favorite interview. I know, I've done so many interviews it's hard to
16:19
say. I mean, I'm a good friend of Pete Arbogast, the voice
16:25
of USC football, and every time I talk to Pete on the air,
16:30
I really enjoy it because we are good friends. I don't know favorite interview,
16:36
you know. I mean, I know Vin Scully, Ross Porter,
16:38
all the Dodger announcers, Vince Colley was the best I've ever heard, and
16:44
the best anybody's ever heard, I think in baseball. I don't think you
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can really argue about that, And so probably Scully from that perspective, but
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the one I enjoyed the most probably was Pete arbogast Is. We're friends and
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he's out of the he's the head of the uh Sportscasters here in Southern California,
17:03
so he's always inviting people to go to their meetings. When I was
17:07
a member of by the way I start on, even though I'm on the
17:10
East Coast, I'm a member of that organization and I won a couple of
17:12
years ago during twenty twenty. Okay, you want to hear. Okay,
17:15
So when I used to go in the eighties, yeah, it was like
17:19
five or ten dollars for lunch. You know what it is now one hundred
17:23
and twenty. Yeah, that's I see the emails all the time. It's
17:29
one thing for me to fly out to Southern California. Now, while you're
17:32
at it, watched to just pull one hundred and twenty dollars bill and all
17:34
of a sudden, and now from what I understand, they're doing it for
17:37
breakfast too, and not lunch. So yeah, they did it. They
17:38
did it. Breakfast, had breakfast. It's worth one hundred and twenty bucks.
17:41
I realized these are and so cal but I haven't found that hundred and
17:45
twenty dollars breakfast, and we don't have that here in southern Florida. That's
17:48
old cal All right, let's go back to the chat room. I'm off
17:52
this activity. Did I tell you? Friend? We're gonna have to people
17:55
here, all right? Breaks this year is a ride one of another one
17:57
of my young pops. Bag well here, this guy at least knows how
18:00
to use some rhyme, Fred Wallen, it must need balling well about that
18:04
ryme? All right? So have you ever worked with Jimmy the Whistle La
18:10
legend? Who? All right, Josh, you might want to clarify that.
18:15
Jimmy the Whistle La Legend. Clarify that. And by the way,
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Pete Ebbergast I got to meet him. You're right, he's really a nice
18:21
guy. You ever heard of Anuelescano many years ago? Yeah, you want
18:27
to go back to Let's go back to Pete harble Guest for a moment.
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Yeah, go ahead. I've always been in UCLA honk and he's of course
18:37
the USC honk. But his dad, Barbara ber Guest, was one of
18:42
the best radio guys in the history of Southern California. He was unbelievable.
18:48
Originally just spinning records, but then doing a talk show on five seventy kla
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C with Jack Mark Golis and it was called Arvo Guest and Margolis and that's
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how I met him, and there was a big get together. I forgot
19:04
the political thing, but it was like but anyways, So the funny story
19:11
is that he's working at CAMPC and the owner of the station, of course,
19:15
is Gene Autry, the cowboy, and Gene Autry introduces him to somebody,
19:25
but he called him another host's name. He misnamed him. So what
19:33
barb Arbara guest did was said to the guy, Yeah, hi, Roy
19:37
Roy Rodgers, how you doing? And Gene Auti and Roy Rodgers were necessarily
19:42
friends. So he got fired the next day. But so Peter Arbogast grew
19:48
up in the industry, and again his father was We're just so good.
19:52
It was unbelievable. Now, Joshaw says, he's referring to the old hockey
19:56
ruffee Jimmy the whistle from LA Does that ring a bell? Yeah? No,
20:02
right, Josh, sorry about that bell? All right, so let
20:03
me I know we probably are. Candy said, all right, put it
20:07
up again. Candy who that you interview challenge you the most two interviews.
20:11
I'm sure there are some guys out there that have challenged it quite a bit.
20:18
Maybe when we got political. You know, it's like, but very
20:22
you know, very few times anything like that ever happened. They you know,
20:26
the thing about the HIV and the magic Johnson, his agent called me,
20:32
people called me, uh from from the Lakers and things like that,
20:40
and so off the air, you know, I got into some heated discussions.
20:45
But on the air, I really have never been It's never been a
20:49
major McGill, a major fight between anybody on the radio. I honestly I
20:57
haven't. There isn't anything that really stands out as far as that is concerned.
21:04
I will tell you that when I was at during the morning ONKMPC seventy
21:08
ten, when Jim Rome was just starting on the competitor station in San Diego,
21:18
the mighty six ninety and I called him the youthful Yenta, and so
21:27
I got a call from their program director, why are you doing this?
21:32
And I said, just having fun. So half the people don't know what
21:38
yenta means anyway, So it didn't really hit. But as far as interviews,
21:48
on the air. Honestly, there haven't been really many that stand out
21:52
as far as being strikingly antagonistic or competitive or combative. I really there haven't
22:00
been any. Now, if I recall correctly, Mark harm Tom Harmon was
22:04
once the president of Southern California Sports Broadcaster. Is that correct? I believe?
22:10
Now? Who Tom Harmon? I believe. So there's a lot Pete
22:18
he is now I'm talking about going no, no, yeah, yeah,
22:21
yeah. So now there might be some n CIS fans out here. Have
22:27
you ever had the pleasure of meeting Mark Harmon at all? Out in LA
22:32
I mean, n CIS is reallycoming thing these days. But Mark Harmon,
22:37
I have to tell you, I do enjoy his character on that on that
22:41
show. But do you have any Mark Harmon stories? There are any observations
22:44
about Mark Harmon? No, but I have a Tom Harmon story for you.
22:47
Are I'll take it? Go ahead. In the mid nineteen seventies there
22:52
was the Tom Harmon Sports magazine and they published in Las Vegas. So for
23:00
a year and a half I flew to Vegas and I was their math guy,
23:03
their numbers guy. That's what I'm best at. And this one time
23:11
we were rushing to the airport together. Now you got to remember this is
23:15
twenty five years after he was the Heisman winner in Michigan. I was twenty,
23:22
you know, just out of college, and we had to race to
23:27
get on the plane, and I swore to a Scott. He beat me
23:33
by one hundred yards, and when I got there, he started laughing,
23:37
and I was you know, I told you I was going to play basketball
23:40
in Arizona. So it wasn't like I wasn't athletic from that perspective. But
23:45
the Heisman winner beat me by one hundred to two hundred yards to the plane
23:51
to come back to LA. So that's I've never met Mark, but like
23:56
his movies, like his television work. But Tom was still a great athlete
24:00
twenty five years after his Heisman days for the Wolverines. Yeah, Chris Proberts
24:06
used to tell me all the kinds of story about how Tom really did.
24:08
I mean, yeah, Tom Harriman went out there and did an incredible job
24:12
of that organization and it's carried on as well. So all right, So,
24:17
Milake Lozinski, is a question you've ever interviewed Chris Turk, Chris who
24:22
Urk t U RK I don't think so. All right, Well I'm talking
24:26
your memory there, Jesse Stumer has a high prompted all right, Well that's
24:30
fine, so all right, so that's interesting stuff. So all right,
24:34
so let's talk about best assignments. I know in our industry there probably have
24:38
been. I've had a lot of great ones through the years. But are
24:41
there any best assignments you've had? And I also saw on your bio that
24:45
you've worked with John Wooden, who I love John Wooden. I met him
24:48
over at poly Pavilion. To me, John Wooden is one of the greatest
24:52
interviews I've ever had, if not the greatest. You'll find out as you
24:55
go deeper in the book. But let's keep this focus on you. The
24:57
best assignments that you've had through the years. The best assignment I ever had
25:03
through the years, I was the Okay, let's go back Bill Brown,
25:07
who became the Houston Astros baseball announcer for like thirty years. Okay, nineteen
25:15
eighty five, he's getting the job with the Astros. He's the pro program
25:19
director of FNN Score, and FNN Score came on right after the stock market
25:26
and he hired me as the program director to replace him, and so after
25:33
about a year I'd go on the air sometimes, but mostly I was the
25:37
program director. But somebody from WFN when it was first starting, saw me
25:42
on the air the program, their program director, and he called me up
25:48
and he says, hey, listen, Pete Franklin. We hired from Cleveland,
25:53
but he had a heart attack. Do you want to come here and
25:57
fill in? So I actually the WFAN the very first day they went on
26:02
the air, in July of nineteen eighty seven, so I did three.
26:06
It was owned by MS Broadcasting, which means the truth. They were run
26:12
by Jeff Smollian, who is still well. I don't think he's involved in
26:17
the radio now. But they put me up over Central Park. You have
26:22
it was the most beautiful three weeks you could ever have in radio. And
26:26
then I thought it was over. And then they called me and they said
26:30
Greg Gumbels taking two weeks off, you want to fill in for him?
26:33
And then it happened three times. So in the first six months of WFAN,
26:40
I was on seven weeks. Put me up in over Central Park,
26:44
and I'd been to New York before, but not overlooking Central Park. So
26:48
I just walk around when I wasn't on the air, and then they offered
26:51
me not a full time thing, but a job working a couple of days
26:56
a week and then doing reports. But instead I went to Cave. So
27:00
looking back, I'm a Los Angeles person. I've lived here ninety percent of
27:04
my life. I probably made a bad mistake in not working at WFN and
27:08
now on tune in the app. I listened to a WFN almost every night
27:14
and no offense. But we were better in nineteen eighty seven that the guy's
27:18
doing it now. It's a different thing. When we were doing it,
27:22
you had Greg Gumbo and Jim Lampley and people like that, and they'd be
27:26
talking about national stuff and local stuff. Now it's purely local local. Who
27:33
can help the Mets, who can help the Yankees? If you know what
27:36
I'm saying, It's not a national thing and that I enjoy more. But
27:40
I listened to it because it's three thousand miles away and you get a different
27:44
opinion. So when you do your own show, in my case, you
27:47
pick up something that what they're saying on wf AN. So an answer to
27:51
your question, I would say best assignment was seven weeks WFAN when it first
27:56
started beautiful. Well, you obviously know about Renny Harwell of the Tigers.
28:00
He's a guy that I obviously he's like an uncle to me, mentor you
28:06
name it. And I've had a lot of great sports casters in the metro
28:08
area. By the way, did evening Jeremy Bulrick another guy in my system
28:12
that's worked hard to progress. So a lot of my young guys are popping
28:15
in today. Although Jerremany's actually in his fifties, he's got into visittle bit
28:19
later. He does a really good job with his lion's work and he can't
28:23
biting. So so we have a lot of and I'm going to lead to
28:26
a couple of questions along those lines. But yeah, again, you know,
28:30
we talk about different markets. I know about wf AN, and I've
28:33
heard Pete Franklin as well. I remember many many years ago out in Cleveland,
28:38
and back then you had I remember you'd have Paul Harvey with the rest
28:42
of the story and all these syndicated guys that you would hear all the time.
28:48
And when you would hear these syndicated guys, you know, yeah,
28:52
because you felt like when you were in the media, you were in the
28:53
real media, you know, I mean I'll get into I'll get into that
28:57
other part in just a moment. But I can appreciate everything you're talking about
29:03
in terms of the national media market size. Nowadays, guys don't have to
29:07
go to the number one or two market anymore to think they're big stuff.
29:11
You know, they can be right where they're at. And this is a
29:12
different hiring system altogether. So with that said, that leads me to let
29:18
me transition over to this. Okay, Obviously, the big part of my
29:22
book is old school media versus new school media. So what is your perception
29:26
of old school media as you and I know that, whether it's a terrestrial
29:32
radio as well as old time TV when you used to have three to five
29:36
stations at the most and a bunch of amf M stations. I miss those
29:41
days, don't you. I miss those days so much you wouldn't believe it
29:47
again. I was brought up in Cover City, California. This is before
29:51
you've got very few RAM home games because unless it was sold out, you
29:56
can get it. So my uncle, because I Dad wouldn't go on the
30:00
roof, my uncle and I went on the roof and put a high gain
30:03
antenna and so we could pick up San Diego and Santa Barbara. And that's
30:10
how much you know, I love getting extra stations, extra channels, things
30:14
like that. In fact, there was one day that in Los Angeles we
30:21
didn't get any game, but in San Diego channel eight KFMB, they had
30:26
the Bears game against the forty nine ers at Wrigley Field in Chicago, and
30:30
that was the day that Gail Sayers scored six touchdowns. So Fred as a
30:34
teenager might have been one of the few people in Los Angeles who had the
30:38
opportunity to see that day. I'll never forget it. And so it was
30:45
different then. I mean, obviously now you got five hundred channels on cable
30:48
and they charged it two hundred and fifty dollars a month and whatever on direct
30:52
TV. And it's interesting you mentioned John Wooden before. Yeah, I mean
31:00
I grew up with John Wooden and Fred Hesler was the announcer nineteen sixty four
31:04
and they had the Perfect season at Walt Hazzard and Gail Goodrich at the Guards
31:10
and they won all thirty games and they put together a record called the Perfect
31:15
Season on my Facebook. Fred Hesler's daughters there and she had forgotten about it.
31:21
And then she said, like on Facebook, she said, thank you.
31:25
I'm gonna listen to it right now. And so Fred Hesler was an
31:29
underrated Southern California sportscaster and John Wooden, as you said, you can't be
31:37
any better than winning ten national titles, seven in a row. He won
31:44
with Goodbridge and Hazzard. The biggest guy in the team was Fred Slaughter at
31:48
six five, and then he went with the big guy. He won with
31:52
the big guys in Kareem Luausander and Walton, and he won in between with
31:56
Sydney Wicks and Curtis Row. And it's hard to believe he retired in nineteen
32:01
seventy five, the only championship LA one since Jim Herrick nineteen ninety five for
32:09
the Bruins when tyas Edney made the steal against Missouri in the first round and
32:15
then they go on to they made the basket and they win, and then
32:20
they win the championship in ninety five, and that's twenty nine years ago.
32:23
So it's hard to believe that time does fly. Yeah, I'll pay one
32:29
thing about John Wooden to me, I live by the pyramids of success,
32:32
I really do. I take that pyramids success. I have a rate in
32:36
my office and I look at it all the time. And since I talked
32:39
to coach with when I had the opportunity to interview him one time, I
32:43
guess before the University of Towards he was the most approachable person in the world.
32:46
Just one of the greatest people I've ever met. Well, I talked
32:50
about old school media me in the metro Detroit area. Just what all I
32:53
had did it was go across the windsor right away at CKLW. We used
32:58
to watch Hockey Night Canada channel, and then had when we had the local
33:01
stuff. All right, So I mean, you know Nacky Knight Dan,
33:05
I'll many people know that, so probably nobody. But anyways, you mentioned
33:09
Canada. My mom was a sports fan and my dad was a sports fan,
33:16
and they would take me to you sail a game when I was very
33:20
young, and Dodger games when I was very young and things like that.
33:22
But my dad, my mother's dad, my granddad couldn't read English, but
33:31
he loved the horses. So my mother, Bernice had to go with him
33:38
to Canada over that bridge that you're talking about. I don't know how often
33:44
to read the race he had. She had to go with him so she
33:45
could read the racing form to him. So horse racing wasn't her thing.
33:50
Other sports were. But you mentioned that bridge something I will never forget.
33:53
You tell me when I was very very young that bridge wasn't too far away,
33:59
and bridges not too far and in Canada. Well, I can tell
34:02
you this story one time. I actually don't mind telling it to you.
34:06
I was dating a woman, one of my girlfriends in the past, and
34:10
you know what, she forgot her ID one time. So yeah, well
34:15
that was done. So you know, I told her said, well,
34:16
you know, Diana, hate to tell you this name. With Diana,
34:19
I want to leave you here because you're never going to get back. You
34:22
can't do that to me. You can't do that to me. So I
34:23
put on the biggest poker face, says, you know this is on Thanksgiving.
34:27
Now Thanksgiving there, you know, a normal day, but not in
34:30
Michigan where he had the you know, the parade and the lines and all
34:35
that. But I've just put out a poker face at made her don't forget
34:37
your ID, never to fight you. So but am I ruthless now?
34:43
But you know you can't take that outdays you can get away with it.
34:46
Back then, it was a little bit looser. So with that said,
34:50
let's switch it over to another aspect of what I did write in a book
34:53
called new Media. You know what, I've never seen a situation where we
34:57
had to acclimate so much of screaming. And not only whether it's zoom and
35:01
oh COVID nineteen excel them a bit more. You're dealing with communications people that
35:07
are young, that don't return emails and all that. I mean, the
35:09
beat goes on and on. So what are your thoughts about what media has
35:14
become in terms of new school media? You know, we talk about all
35:17
the streaming as well as all the internet radio. I mean, like I
35:22
said, I miss those days. But what's your perception of what new media
35:24
is today? Well, again, you know, just listening to WFAN,
35:30
it's just New York, New York, New York. We were doing the
35:32
shows all the time. It was national stuff and the local stuff. I
35:37
enjoyed that more and I always will enjoy that more. But most of the
35:42
shows that I've heard from San Diego or San Diego oriented at night. I
35:46
can listen to San Francisco and they're giants oriented and not really anything beyond that
35:54
as far as national and so it's sort of like, can you take it
35:59
serious? Slee? I don't think so, because it's just pro local stuff
36:07
and they're not going to see when I'm on a KBC. Steve Sachs was
36:15
the second baseman, right, and we interviewed him before the nineteen eighty eight
36:21
season, I think stun Ahan and myself, and they had just signed another
36:27
second baseman named Mike Sharperson. And if you remember correctly, Steve had the
36:34
yips where he couldn't throw it to first base. Yeah, I remember that.
36:37
And I said to him on the air. It wasn't the first question,
36:40
but it was in the middle of the conversation. I said, Steve,
36:44
they just signed Mike Sharperson and this is before the d H or anything.
36:46
How do you feel about that? And he says, whenever Skip wants,
36:52
I'm happy to be part of the team. This and this this.
36:54
Then we go to a break and he says, you blank blank blank blank,
37:00
how dare you ask me? I'm Steve Sachs and I'm an All Star.
37:05
I swear to guy. Go back on the air, and he goes
37:07
back to the BS again. So he became an arch enemy he tried to
37:12
get me fired KBC, along with right fielder Mike Marshall. And one day
37:17
Mike's Soosha, the catcher and the captain said come over here if you can,
37:22
and so we won the Dodger dugout and they said, Steve says,
37:27
you've been saying negative things about him, and I said, no, I'm
37:30
just saying the truth. He doesn't have an arm at this point, and
37:32
he hurts the team and anyway, so they go to Peter O'Malley and they
37:37
try to get me fired. So I go in there and there on the
37:40
other side of the room and Peter O'Malley turns to them and they say,
37:45
and he says, the phone, guys, Fred is the most objective guy
37:52
who've ever had doing sports talking Dodger talk. He loves the Dodgers as much
37:58
as you do. And get the blank out of here. So I've been
38:01
a friend of Peter O'Malley's ever since, and he stood up for me.
38:07
And it's something that you know, I talk about this business of all the
38:12
things, you know, we talk about the negative, all the things positive,
38:15
is mister Peter O'Malley did There wasn't anybody you know he didn't have to
38:20
do that. I was just a you know, a talk show host.
38:23
He didn't have to do that. But he told his own guys to get
38:25
out of the office. And there's something I will never forget. It's a
38:30
great story. So well that said, who did you idolize as a sportscaster
38:35
growing up? Well, when I was a really young kid, it was
38:38
Duke Snider. I mean, my dad said, it turns on the TV
38:43
and he says, that's the best player in baseball, and I swear to
38:45
you. In the next pitch he hits the home run. I got a
38:47
picture of stup behind me. So he died thirteen years ago this last month.
38:53
But Duke Snyder was my childhood hero and always had has been. I
39:00
finally interviewed him when I was doing the FNN Scores show and my girlfriend at
39:05
the time, Linda, as he left, she said, can you sign
39:12
up this baseball for Fred? I'll never ask you, And of course Duke
39:15
did. And the ironic thing was I had we picked them up in a
39:20
card show and then to drive him to the network, and then after we'd
39:27
gone back and so Linda asked him for the baseball, which I have up
39:30
here and something I'll never forget. But I'll tell you an interesting story.
39:36
My favorite Dodger was Duke Snyder and my second favorite Dodger was Sandy Kofax.
39:42
So it's nineteen sixty four now and Duke's last season, and people don't remember
39:47
this, but he's playing for the Giants, and the Giants are running run
39:52
out of right handed pinch hitters and all they have left is Snyder against Kolfax.
39:59
So I remember that as three pitches, strike three, You're out now.
40:05
I asked Duke about that, and I said what I just said.
40:07
I said, you know, Sandy was my second favorite, you were my
40:09
favorite. What do you remember about that? And he said, Sandy was
40:15
laughing so hard that he walked me on four pitches. So I'm not going
40:21
to disagree with him because I don't remember. I mean, he was living
40:24
it. I just something in my mind that he struck out on three pitches.
40:28
To this day, I don't know what's correct. He either struck out
40:30
on three pitches or he walked on four. But you know, when you
40:36
asked what the most you know, humorous situation you've ever been on radio,
40:40
that was one of them. It really was with the duke talking about Sandy.
40:45
Oh no, Tayos, don't you want to hear a story about Sandy?
40:47
Sure, go ahead. I became good friends with Don Drysdale. Okay.
40:53
So we're walking to lunch and we walk into the restaurant and Sandy is
41:00
talking to somebody, and all we hear Sandy is saying, is and tell
41:06
that SOB Frank Thomas that I never threw at anybody. We're talking about the
41:12
old Frank Thomas who played for Pittsburgh and the Cobbies, not the new Frank
41:15
Thomas who played for the White Side. Okay, so he says, tell
41:20
that soo B Frank Thomas that I ever that I never threw it anyway,
41:23
So now Sandy leave says goodbye bye, Sandy bye. And then first question
41:29
I asked Don Drysdale was dom what was Sandy saying about Frank Thomas. He
41:36
said, Oh, Frank Thomas would call him all kinds of anti Jewish names,
41:39
and so Sandy obviously didn't like it, so he threw at him a
41:45
few times. So, you know, that's another story that I'll never forget
41:49
as long as I left. You know, I met Sandy Cope's in nineteen
41:52
eighty five at the Port of State League, also a game really nice to
41:54
me. It was neat And also I should point out too that you know,
41:59
I mean the Dodgers obviously trained in Dodger Town over in Vero Beach,
42:04
so I always missed Vince Pilly. I couldn't get there. When he did
42:07
get there, I wish I would have met him. Never did try to
42:08
get up there to fly to so Cal for the one event didn't work out.
42:12
Hurt him in the background, but that was one but it just wasn't
42:15
meant to happen, all right. One other thing I want to mention before
42:17
we talk about our upcoming show, and that being this Okay, Tommy Lasorda
42:22
was really huge for me as a young kid growing up in the business,
42:27
my first major interview. I have nothing but positive things to say about.
42:30
Tommy did a lot for my confidence when I was younger, and it was
42:34
always successful when I wanted them. But what are your thoughts about tom Lasorda
42:38
called me a second guesser? Well did he? Y oh, and he
42:43
never forgot that I wasn't a second guesser. I told him I'm a first
42:46
guesser, And you know, I would say things. And in the nineteen
42:52
eighty eight season, I you know, I mentioned that their center fielder John
42:58
Shelby got hurt and I said that there's no way on earth people are talking
43:04
about Kirk Gibson playing center field. And I said, and this is why
43:07
I'm talking about this business. You have to say some good things if you're
43:13
going to say anything negative. So I said, great in the clubhouse,
43:15
great power, great speed. He'll do anything for the team, but the
43:20
one thing he can't do is throw. Because at Michigan State, when he
43:23
was the wide receiver, he hurt his arm and he couldn't throw. So
43:32
I got a lot of heat for that. I really did. Somebody from
43:37
the Major League Baseball a writer said one day, you better not go in
43:42
the clubhouse. Gibson's going to kill you. So I did. He didn't
43:45
do anything, but I'm just saying that he didn't hear the first nine good
43:50
things. I said, team player, great speed, most valuable player on
43:54
the team. But the one thing he can't do is throw. And again,
43:58
you're from Michigan, you know you can't put you can't play him in
44:00
centerfield and expect to win. I mean, there's going to be too many
44:04
base runners taking advantage. But as far as Tommy LaSora, what are your
44:08
interactions with them? Were they put more positive or more negative? Negative?
44:13
Okay, because he didn't like anybody saying that he made a mistake or I
44:19
wouldn't have done that, you know, you know, it's just like and
44:21
again, folks that don't know this, when they signed Sandy Kofax in nineteen
44:24
fifty five, they gave him a bonus so he under major league growth.
44:30
He had to play on the major league team, the brook the Dodgers,
44:32
and the person they set down was Tommy Lasorda. So it's a small world,
44:37
a crazy world, but that's what we're in, all right. Coming
44:40
off after the Motors City, mad Mouseta, we do have a sports exchange.
44:44
I'll be joined by George Einkhorn, Jacob Krishner and Jabella. So let's
44:49
go ahead and talk about what we have to look forward to. On April
44:52
twenty six, if he would need the opportunity to promout my book, listens
44:54
from the microphone, tell me what that experience is like it I know we're
44:59
gonna be doing like fifteen minutes or so, so and let everybody know how
45:02
they can hear the broadcast as well as you give me the opportunity to promote
45:07
my book on your airwaves. It's a late night Friday night and Saturday night
45:14
in Michigan. It's ten o'clock Pacific, one o'clock in the East Friday night,
45:20
Saturday morning and Saturday night Sunday morning, and then it runs two hours
45:23
later. So it's basically it's going to run four times, at least four
45:28
times. Sometimes they run six times, at least four times. Go to
45:31
tune in, go to Sports Byline USA, go to the various radio stations,
45:37
including CASHP fourteen hundred in Las Vegas. And you know it's not ESPN,
45:43
but we're on ten or fifteen radio stations across America. I wish we
45:46
were still on Grand Rapids, but we're not. And it'll be a fun
45:53
thirteen and a half minutes, I guarantee you scut. Oh you know what,
45:58
Ford, I'm really looking forward to it. As you g you mentioned
46:00
you wanted me on, I couldn't get that booked out fast enough, and
46:04
I was looking forward to putting on here tonight. And I'm telling you it's
46:07
really been a lot of fun just talking sports so cal and we I know
46:10
we talked about a little a lot of different things, but you know what,
46:13
Hey, listen, I'm a Southern California boy at heart because i know
46:16
a lot about the area. I've had a lot of good past dealings with
46:19
it as well. And to have a guy like you on tonight, to
46:22
me, he's been an absolute pleasure and I'm looking forward to bring you on
46:25
a future show if you want to come on and we can talk LA sports.
46:29
But this is the first great first act first Friday. It really really
46:31
was well everybody knows too. Also that our website www dot South Florida Tribune
46:37
dot com. You can find me on Twitter, slash Exit Tribune South kandye
46:42
Ebling is behind the scenes. And my book is Lessen from the Microphone,
46:45
Tuning into the enduring wisdom of Visionary Leaders. It's available on Kindle and Amazon
46:51
and Barnes and Noble, and we're also working on some more providers as well,
46:54
so it can be obtained a lot of different ways. You can get
46:57
the e virgin or you can get the hard copy. Either way, it's
47:00
a good read for people that are learning about the industry or people that have
47:05
been in the industry, which is why I build a theme bread around old
47:07
school media versus new school media. You know, it's a very good educational
47:13
book that then if you're not too old to learn, then you're going to
47:15
have a lot of fun with it. And I bring up a lot of
47:17
people in and out of sports, like Frank Renolds is one of the favorite
47:22
people that I like to bring out because he talked about the rate assassination of
47:24
them, and here's the guy that stands for a lot of good things because
47:29
he's not about getting it first, it's about getting it right. And I
47:31
think that's the one thing we can't lose sight of in journalism. So Fred,
47:36
do you want to let everybody know how they can reach you as well.
47:38
I'm on Facebook, just under Fred Waller, and I'm a computer idiot,
47:43
so I'm not on Twitter. I'm not on anything else, just Facebook
47:47
and I talk probably more politics and sports, but we talked both and I
47:54
appreciate the time. It's been a lot of fun. It really has well
47:59
Fred feeling they're mutual. You know, anytime I could talk to a guy
48:01
that's been in the business as long as I have, it definitely conjures up
48:07
a lot of memories. For sure. It really does because you know,
48:09
you and I could compare stories back and forth, and I think that's the
48:13
one thing I really don't get me wrong. I like a lot of the
48:15
aspiring young broadcasters that are coming up. But let's say I said I have
48:20
a soft spot for people that I can relate too closer to my age or
48:22
a little bit older, that we can talk about the good old days.
48:25
Because I'm going to tell you, Fred, I make no bones about it.
48:30
They were the good old days, and I wish a lot of these
48:32
millennials could have experienced what it was like when we did it, because while
48:37
everybody has more access to a microphone, back when we did it, it
48:39
wasn't those that had more access. It was those that were more deserving of
48:45
being behind the microphone and working at the newspapers and things like that that really
48:50
talk about what our industry is, and that is media in general. So
48:54
once again, it's been such a pleasure to have you on. But you
48:57
know what, I'm looking forward to ayan again. That sound sounds great,
49:01
all right, So meanwhile, I'll be half of Fredwaller. My name is
49:04
Scott MORGANA thank you for joining us on this edition of the MotorCity Man Mild
49:07
Show coming up. Afterwards, we got the Sports Exchange. I mentioned the
49:10
people involved. Meanwhile, everybody, have yourself a great night, and I'm
49:15
looking forward to being on Fred's show. I'll be doing this thing with him
49:19
on April the twenty sixth, the NFL Draft. Thank you very much everybody
49:22
for joining us. We appreciate the participation in the chat room Joshua, Blake,
49:28
George, Jeremy and the rest. So take care of everybody and we'll
49:31
catch you on the Sports Exchange shortly. Good night, everybody,