Alumni Association-Jerome Jurenovich

of October. Here we are back in the magic podcast machine, the salt mine of podcasting, and it is our Friday show. We do this because four hours a night have been deemed not enough according to the management of the company that I work for, Fox Sports Radio. And so we we say, you know what, Let's do this eight days a week. We do the radio show five days. Let's do the podcast. We can curse, we can scream, we can shout on this podcast. And so a spinoff of

the Overnight Show. We thank you for finding the podcast. Tell a friend, Tell a friend. We need to grow the podcast audience. And as I like to say, if everyone listening, if you listening right now, tell a co worker or a relative and they listen, we have instantly doubled our market share in the podcast world. But enough of that. This weekend. Very excited here on a Friday

to catch up with a friend of mine by request. Now, I've known this guy for many years, but I didn't work with them, and we've had several listeners who have said, Hey, you've gotta you gotta get this guy, and I want to hear what he's up to. H I'm talking about Jerome or seeing that headline sports, that's that's the legend. Jerome Daranovitch, who has worked for the Atlanta Braves and the the Atlanta Hawks as well over the last fifteen years.

She just retired. It doesn't seem like you should have retired. He's a young young guy in my eyes. But he has retired now and he worked in Denver and he's been all over the place. But you hear him talk. He is Western Pennsylvania through and through and he worked at Fox Sports Radio briefly. And so we are excited to go and the way Back Machine, a beloved broadcaster and a person that went out a few times, had some drinks with good times, good memories back in the day.

And Jerome, why don't we start. You were at Fox Sports Radio, part of the Alumni Association. Are your dudes paid up? You know I have not paid up to do this, but don't tell anybody. I think I just

left the cat out of the bag. But maybe our good friend Art Martinez will cover for me the next time the dudes are do Yeah, yeah, Well, Already is an active member of the Alumni Association that I see already once here Now for those that you know behind the scenes inside radio, Jerome the great Art Martine Nuez, a rock on the board, one of the great engineers.

And really I've had a lot of board ops and engineers over these but Art Martinez in all time greade and you better not mess with the raiders or Already is gonna bring it down there a legend and I come, but I invite Art to my I do a Christmas party like a holiday sweater party thing every year, and Already shows up. I didn't do it last year because of that whole COVID thing, but Already shows up, and he's always the first person there, and Jerome he's the

last person to leave. Every year I've had this, Art Martinez stays until the very I gotta kick him out of my house. There's no shock or surprised by coming first and staying till the end. Let's just hope that he doesn't go trick or treating as Jon Gruden. I know he's a big great I think he's gonna have to put that. Yes, hopefully he didn't send any emails to John Gruden that might come back and get him here.

And now, you weren't at Fox Sports Radio all that long, but you're you're an East Coast guy living in Los Angeles, Rome at the time. That's a that's an eye opening experience. I don't you've traveled around. You're a worldly man, you're a globe trekker and all that from your years in the media. But living in the belly of the beast in l a good, bad, ugly I still miss it to this day. I moved out of there in two thousand and four, and my wife is tired of hearing this.

I still talk about moving back to California. I the first three months were difficult transition for me. It took about three weeks just to get settled into that three hour time difference. I kept waking waking up at four am. He was driving me crazy. But once I learned my way around and just got a little foothold into Los Angeles, I absolutely loved it, especially on college football Saturdays, nine am kick off and you're not You're going to bed five games later before you go to it was I

just loved Lost. I loved the weather, I love the energy. Hated the traffic, but Atlanta has the second horse traffics in America behind l A, so I was used to being in terrible traffic. I loved everything about it. Now that was a long long time ago, since I left a long time ago, so I'm sure things have changed dramatically. I know the fires are just horrible out there, but I just I loved Ela. I just loved every minute

of it. I had lived previously in New York City, and I'm hold enough to grow up on Johnny Carson when he would have celebrity guests, and if they were New Yorkers, they would complain about l A. If they were West Coast people, they would complain about New York. The whole l A New York rivalry. Never understood what they were talking about. Because I was a kid, having lived in both, I am sold on Los Angeles and

a heart people, a chamber of commerce. Now you're right, l A has changed a lot room they've the city has gone down. Now. One thing that has not changed, though, And I actually have some good news for you. And I know I haven't talked to you in a while, but the same exact equipment that you used back in the day at Fox Sports Radio at the premier networks has not either been fixed or upgraded. It is like

a time capsule saved posterity sake. And I've been working from home a lot to Rome, but I actually went in this week. I was at the the Dodger Games the other night and so I went in there and it is unreal. Nothing has been touched you this, I'm not exaggeratingbody with the same exact setup. So you could if you decide to unretired Jerome and come back to Fox Sports Radio and you know, take the family out the Cali, pack up the dogs in the station wagon,

the wife, the whole thing. You would then be able to be very comfortable in our old old building because it's still exactly the same. You'll be happy that so that coffee staying on the rug left there by John Ireland in two thousand and three remains, is what you're telling. Yes, that is an There's a Tony Bruno. I think one time he he put some bubblegum down on the floor there, and that's still still there under the table of Pat O'Brien,

who hasn't worked there in years. P o b he actually taped for some reason, Pat taped the dollar bill to the table in there, and that remnants of that dollar bill are still taped to the to the main studio table. So it is there's a lot of history in that building to room at Legends like yourself worked there, and they don't they don't want to change anything. Anyway. We mentioned already Eric Peterson are great producer friend, he also worked. I mean, so there's legends in that building.

Jerome legends, legends, some of us not so much, but you know, Pat O'Brien, Tony Bruno, and the guys absolutely, My buddy Chris Rose, no question. So I was talking to another member of the Fox Sports Radio Alumni Association who I occasionally talked to, Tom Looney, and I said, Tom, what's Jerome dorenovis? You know he's I don't have Jeroman and he's got any Jerome stories. He said, Now I

thought he was pulling chain here. He says, you gotta you gotta ask him about the flowers, is what Looney said. So do you know, I mean, are you there was a flowers This is a cord of loony. I he said, he was not pulling my chain here, Jerome. He said, there's a legendary Jerome Drenovich flowers story from your days at Fox Sports Radio. Is this true? Or is Looney? I don't I don't know. I don't know if flowers doing Now I'm old Ben. Yeah, so I don't get

flowers story. I don't know what flowers. Yeah. He he had claimed there was an incident somebody was ordering flowers and you were asking questions about it, and then, uh, you don't. You don't recall it. So so that might have been a Looney That might have been a Looney story that just got on the podcast. That was an incorrect story. Either that or he remembers it and you don't remember it was such and it was an unmemorable

experience for you. Well, you know what, if Looney says it happened, I'm going with Looney's side of the story. So even if it makes me look terrific. I'm going with Looney, but he's not loved LOONI, but he's Looney. He's, I mean, the guy his names says, how can you? He's the funny thing about Looney now he's he's like

a hard news guy. He does news now at k ABC, one of the news talk stations in l A. And it's great and I hear him sometimes and it's it's tremendous because you know, you think like you're the news guy, you gotta be all serious and all that him. But he's his name is Looney. Now you'd be when your name is Looney, you can't be the serious news guy, right crazy he is Loonie, m j T legends, legend. Yeah, absolutely,

part of part of that time. So now when you left, didn't you go to Denver before you went to Atlanta? Am I right on that? Or am I imagining that in my head? No? You are correct. I left Fox Sports Radio in Los Angeles and went to Denver to

launch the Altitude Sports Network. Stand Cockey decided he as legendary as you people in l A know, as the owner of not just the Rams, but of about nineteen thousand different sports teams, including the Denver Nuggets in Colorado Avalanche, and he owned the Pepsi Center at the time and decided that he wanted to UM owned the rights to the broadcasts of his two teams there, so he started his own Cave regional network and I was hired over there to be the main host as they launched that.

And let me tell you then, boy, I first of all love stand I'd work for stand Mar. He was great After Nuggets gains. The bar inside the then Pepsi Center, I don't know what it's called now, UM called the Blue Sky Girl. He'd come down and me and three or four got we'd be sitting at the bar having drains after the game and just talking to him like a casual fan. What a great owner. You would never realize he's one of the wealthiest men in the world. He was just he was just a great guy. It

still is. I'm sure he was great to work for UM. Now, the people that ran Altitude, I can tell you stories all my goodness. UM. When they flew me up there for the interview, we were in the same building as the Hallmark Channel, so they walked me through the Hallmark Channel and kind of a link in a NOD We're leading me to believe that that was their production set

up when it wasn't. So when we launched Altitude, thankfully that was the year that the NHL had a lock out, because we would not have been prepared to be able to broadcast Nuggets and Avalanche games at the same time. We were so understaffed and under equipped. I was hosting the Nuggets pregame, post game and halftime without an analyst and without a desk, and with no highlights. I will stand out there and just talk for thirty minutes all by myself. And we had literally had one video tape deck.

So in television to edit, you have to have one deck to play the tape and then edit on the other one. We only had one only to record. So they would send us the highlights from the Nuggets game from the truck and we would use that in the postgame show, but we wouldn't have any highlights from many other games and I'm just out there talking for thirty minutes. So thank god I came from those four years in

radio because it was just unbelievable. We had we had a couple of people there that were in management positions that had no business even working in television, little management. It was a complete nightmare. It was fun, made some good fact friendships over those two years. The teams were great to deal with, the first class. Uh, The Avalanche and the Nuggets were both first class to deal with.

The players were great, the organizations were great. Kike Vanderway was running the Nuggets at the time, Pierre Laqua was running the Apps. They were It was fantastic to deal with. They were both good teams. It was Carmelo's second and third season, so they were playoff teams those two years. And the Apps were still had Rob Blake and Joe Sakic. They still had a good handful of guys from the

Stanley Cup run. So they were exciting teams. But it was just a not a good position to be in if you wanted to work in sports TV at the time. And then so after two years, my first contract was I got out of Dodge as fast as you could and took the job. I just retired from a couple

of weeks ago. Yeah, So if you had known at the time that it's like looking at a hotel you want to stay out online, they show you all the nice rooms and then your your rooms are in the back on the on the other side of the tracks. That's uh, that's essentially so, I wanna give me a stand cronkey store. So I've seen standing at these ram games if a few times I've been to Sofi Stadium,

I saw him at the college see him. Actually more like everyone's kind of segregated at the Sofi Stadium in Inglewood. The media's kind of separated from the rich people and all that stuff. But but stand, isn't he the I think I read he's the largest landowner outside of the United States government, that he owns more land than anyone else in the United States, which is amazing to me.

That you like parts of Texas, New Mexico all over the place, he's uh, he's got you know, that would not surprise me because I know and and I under standard. Although Ted Turner's health is not what it used to be, but he is also one of these massive landowners. They brought up massive amounts of land in Montana and New Mexico and out west. You know, most of it's an inhabited but uh, you know it's look, as my late Ultle used to say, God ain't building anymore land he's

gonna want to get on that land eventually. And you know, I mean, what else you gonna do when you got that many We were talking billions. When you got that kind of money, I mean, you know, what are you gonna do? So I mean, yeah, well, you know, staying well to give you my one stand story that I really like the most. Okay, so I get there. Um, Andre Miller is the point guard. They got Carmelo Marcus Camby is our center. Um, we had a nice little

team there, you know, playoff team. Kenyan Martin was our power forward and he used to drive me nuts because you know, we basically got five arrow bread's out there on the court and Andre Miller's walking the ball up the court you want to It was like he was allergic to a fast break. And I'm sitting there going, what are you doing? So We're in the bar one day after a game, and they had one day one more often then they lost, and then I'm sitting I

go stand. You know, he's got his entourage with him. We're sitting there and I go, stand, you gotta get rid of Andre Miller And he goes thrown. He's a good basketball player, very good. I said stand. I'm not saying he's not a good basketball player. He is a good basketball player, no question about it. I said, he's a great half court point guard. I said, but you got Gazelle's out there and this guy's walking the ball up the court. Can you imagine if Magic Johnson walked

the ball up the court, we'd never have showtime. He's got you gotta push it. You don't got Kevin mckill and a bunch of cloggers out there. You've got guys that can run when we on, When we run, we run teams out of the gym, especially here at home with this altitude. I said, but he doesn't want to push it. He doesn't want to push it. And then next thing you know, they George carl in there and then they just start running the ball. And I'm sitting

there going singing. Come on, man, you don't have to be there in realize Andre Miller is not your point. But he was. He was very open to having those kind of discussions and just sit there and have a bever with you and talk basketball. He loves sports, There's no question. Man loves sports. Yeah that's cool, that's pretty pretty neat. And the the altitude droome. Now you having lived all over the country, Pennsylvania, guy in New York, Atlanta, l A. It is it legit? Though? In Denver? Is

it is? It? Is it an? Is it reality? No? No, it's there's no question that, Bob. Is you? So I am there, I'm there. I get there on a Monday that Thursday, air Force is hosting Navy on Thursday college football Thursday night. Came and a couple of guys we we didn't even launched it. We're not launching until the next Monday. So a couple of guys go, hey, you know, I said, heybody, can we get to this Air Force Navy game? I'd love to go down to the Academy

and see it. And guys are going, yeah, no problems. So they called. We go down and we get tickets. And if you've ever been to the Air Force Academy, beautiful facility. By the way, when you walk in, you basically walk in on field level. When the fields a little sunk. You're walking on field level and you gotta walk up to your seat. And we're walking, you know, we had a couple of a couple of cold ones in the parking lot, but nothing out of control and

I'm I'm walking and I'm like, oh my goodness. I know it's been a couple of months because of the move where I haven't worked out or anything, but I'm I'm like gasping for breath and these people are looking at me like what is wrong with you? And when we finally got to our seat, because we are about three quarters of the way up the stadium, up right by the press box, I'm like, guys, I don't know what's going on here, and they're like laughing at me.

It was the altitude. It was the altitude, no question. If if you're not used to it, I don't know how these teams fly in, run up and down that court like that, and then fly back. And there's no question you would see it effect teams, especially like late in the third quarter or the fourth. A lot of teams like to come in, like on a Tuesday night to play a Thursday game, just to get an extra

day in there. But you come in especially, you come in a lot of these teams arrived one in the morning, you know, and they get into their hotel room to three in the morning. They have a rough night, no question. Yeah, yeah, well you would think the teams in Denver would take you. You said, Andre Miller walking the ball up the court. But that's yeah. And so then you go to Atlanta and you're happy not to Jerome. You know this podcast

and the radio show. Now I do these Friday conversations, you know, with random people like yourself, important people like yourself. And I've had several people in Georgia, but not just Georgia, like all over the South because of the reach of the channel you were on there, like you gotta get Jerome on you. You claim you know Jerome durnomous. People are doubting that I know you. And so you have. You have a bunch of fans there from your days with the Braves and the Hawks, and which just ended.

When was your last day on television? I know you worked this season for the Braves, right when when did that end? My last day was the day they clinched the East. It was the third and final game of the Phillies series, in that final homestand and it was fifteen years here with the Braves and the Hawks. And you know, Ben, I'll tell you a funny story. So I come from Denver, where the Abs are good, where

the Nuggets are good. And I had lived in Atlanta previous years, so we're seeing in fourteen and a half years. So I go from CNN in Atlanta to l A with you guys, and I'm in Denver and then come back here as I'm as I'm moving back here, I'm going through a divorce. My wife ex wife stays in Denver. So I'm going through a divorce and it's very amicable. She's great, we're still good friends. It just didn't work out.

One of those things. God bless hers. So but legally, you gotta go to court, you do this stuff, right. So she's still in Denver. She goes just go you know, we're not contesting anything. It's just a matter of legality, formality. So I go to the courtroom, you know, and there's all these couples in they're going through all this divorce court, you know, and there he said, she said, they're crying,

they're fighting whatever. And then the judge calls me up there and asked where the wife is and I explained. He goes, okay, and he goes, why I've got questions for And I go all right, and he goes, my first question is what do you do for a living and I tell him and he goes, and what brought you here to Atlanta? I said, well, I said, they're starting the pregame and post game for the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Thrashers, and the the Atlanta Braves. And he goes,

what were you doing before? I said that same thing, but for the Denver Nuggets in the Colorado Avalanche. And he goes, the Nuggets in the Avalanche or playoff teams? Aren't they? I said, yeah, they're very good. And he goes and the Hawks and Braves are last place teams, aren't they? Yes they are. He goes, what are you doing? Laugh? I said, it doesn't matter how good are bad the teams are, it's how big the paycheck is. He goes, okay, not just busting my jobs in front of a court

roof full of people that are all everybody. I guess that they made everybody laugh because they were all hollow after they were crying and arguing. All that that is. It reminds me I had a conversation, you know, Ralph Lawler, the voice of the Clippers, where he just retired a few years ago, and and I remember we were having a conversation and the Clippers were just morbid for most of Ralph's time. They only became good the last like

ten years or so. But he was there and they were the worst of the worst, and and he said pretty much the same things. And I was like, you get paid, it's a good job, and whether the team wins or not, it's it's it's an interesting dynamic. Now you can answer this question, Jerome, though, having had mostly TV, I think of you as a TV guy. But you worked at Fox Sports, right, I think you did work in radio early on in your career. So what is the harder media platform if you're walking in to do

television or to do radio. Wow, that's a good question. Ben. I will say this because I had worked in television my whole life. Every job I had in TV, you know, I kind of started behind the scenes, and I knew I wanted to be in front of the camera. So you know, when I wasn't actually working, maybe on my dinner hour, coming in on a day off, I would I would work toward the eventual position of a reporter on camera person. So I got practice time on my own.

So I built my way towards that. Radio. I was kind of just thrown into this mix. After working in television for well over twenty years, I go out to Fox Sports Radio. I had never done radio before. What a I opening, and just it blew me away. I'll be honest with that. Those I mean, I was doing the updates for a while, but when they put me on and made me do the Baseball show and the NFL Show on Saturday and Sunday, I didn't know what I was doing. And then, you know, after four years

of I learned what you're supposed to do. And then actually, when I moved back here a couple of years ago, CBS Radio started a a all sports talk station, and I allowed with Jamie Dukes, who was on NFL Network, long time NFL player. We had a show. We had a blast, But I knew what I was doing when I got on radio here in Atlanta. I didn't have a clue what I was doing in l A. And

there is a big, big difference. Now. I would not be able to do the show I did in Denver or the show I did here with the Hawks and Braves. These pre and postgame shows, they're basically radio on TV. I mean, you're just talking, You're spewing facts, you're spewing knowledge. You're you know, it's just your knowledge of the individual players on the team that you cover how the team is sparing. And it's basically sports talk radio on TV as opposed to doing a three minute you know, Channel two,

you know at six o'clock that's all written out. You know. I didn't use the prompter for fifteen years here because everything was off the cuff, and that was basically what I learned in radio. Radio was more challenging for me, There's no question. It seems like it would be easier, but it was. No I'll tell you. It was more challenging for me because I didn't have a clue what

I was doing. Man. I leaned on guys like you and watching you and j T two break and and just marveling at how John Ireland could talk for twenty five minutes NonStop and entertain you and uh, listening to Bruno and Siciliano in the morning. That was good stuff. That was That was an eye opening experience, wealth and knowledge coming out of these guys. For me, yeah, it is much. It's much of an and like I have the complete opposite career drum I did television for I

think it was nine months at NBC. They flew me back every month to do stuff at the NBC Sports Network, which I think has gone away. I think or it is going away. I don't even want I haven't kept tracked there. So I just had a little taste of it, and I thought like because I was just a correspondent, they brought in to give some hot takes, so I was only on for a segment here, like a segment there.

And so for me, I was like, this is great because the radio show I do four hours a night on the overnight and it's a much different, much different animal. And the thing though, I will give you credit, I mean when you're doing television, I mean there's so many producers and directors and people around. As you know, in radio, there's not a lot of people around. It's it's pretty much you know, you and a couple of people and

you got to figure it out. In television, I feel like it's they direct you more on what they're looking for. You know. Radio radio, you definitely have more control of the show. It's the Ben Mallor show. It is your show, and you know when you want to go to callers or you want to stay on a specific topic. You can stay on that topic for ten fifteen minutes if

you want. And in television, you know, we've got to move off of the fact that the bullpen stinks after a minute or two, or the bullpens do be great. You know, I've gotta switch over to whatever is coming up next. And they want to get their video in and their graphics in, and yeah, they're moving you along. And there's sometimes uh, sometimes they're not listening to you and you want to move law it. There are a lot of moving parts in television. There is no there

there is. There's a big difference between the two and you know, and they both have their pluses and minuses, which is why they worked so well. Hand in hand. You can get much more for what you're specifically looking for over here in radio and as opposed to getting a whole mishmash of a little bit of everything on TV. Yeah,

so there's I'm sure there's someone steam Droome. Maybe only one person that wants to be the next Jerome Jerenovitch, wants to follow in your footsteps and be the next you know, down the line host of the Braves and the Hawks pre and postgame and halftime and all that stuff. So what is the cheat code? Now that you're retired, you can share this information, Jerome, you can give this out,

like what is the secret to doing good television? You know, the secret to doing good television is, first of all, you have to be informed, man, I mean you have to pay attention. I can't tell you how many people have come up with me the last fifteen years because our our set, which is now bally Sport was Fox Sports South is outside the stadium, and um, you would not believe how many people, Hey, my son's in college, my daughter's in college, or hey I want to be

on TV. And it's like, look, not only do you got to you know, pay your dues. It's rare when you're just thrown onto a situation where're gonna work for an NBA or an NHL or Major League baseball team without any type of experience. You have to know and love the sport, all right. You know, we had a girl, not gonna give her a name, and we had a girl, you know, a couple of years ago and we all now it's out. You'd like to say that Hank Aaron is the true home run. That's that's how that's our

way of seeing Barry Bonds cheated. And that's our way of saying, Hank, we love you and we know you did it the right way. And this girl, actually she heard it so many times she actually thought Hank is the was the leader, all time leader. At home runs were like, uh no, and you're working for the brains to come on, you know. I mean, so you have to know, you have to know the strategies of the sport, and you have to really work. I mean, there there's

no substitute for hard work. Um. You see, every time you turn on a college football game, you're gonna see another different, pretty blonde girl on the sidelines. But if they don't have personality along with intelligence, you're not going to see him more than two or three times. You have to be able to convey what you know, either in a cocite in a concise way or an entertaining way,

and hopefully in both. And that's why you're so successful what you do, because you could you can take a position on a subject, you can inform your viewer and you can get them to either change their mind or at least see your point of view why they're right or why they're wrong. And you can't do that if you don't know what you're talking about. Well, yeah, that's

a great advice. And also we see that a lot with you mentioned the sideline reporter, but also like former players a lot of times, you know, and you worked with a lot of guys, and so I'm sure we're good. So we're not, but but some of those guys come in. In my experience, I didn't work with as many ex

athletes as you did. But over the years at Fox Sports Radio, we've had guys come in and some of the guys would come in and just think because they played in the NFL, they just turn on the mic and they can just talk, and it's it's not how that works, right, I mean, you gotta, you gotta. I worked with sixteen different Braves as analysts on the pre and postgame show, everybody from John Smoltz and and Jeff Francoeur, who are both tremendous at what they do. I'll tell

you a funny story. Uh been my first or second year here when I came back to Atlanta, I'm doing Braves and we were still doing the pregame show on the field right in front of the dugout and small it was small to his last year with the Braves. Well, he blows out his shoulder and uh, he's not gonna pitch for the rest of the season. But you know, as a lot of the guys do, they they still dressed in uniform and he's hanging out in the dugout.

On Sundays he would come out and host co host the show with me and either Ron gann or Brian Jordan's and he would do it in full uniform. It was I mean, we're in a sport coat and there's

Smolty hat home whites. It was hilarious. And one time it was pouring rain, so they turned the camera round and Ron gant By, we get into the dugout and uh, to get all three of us in the shot, Smolty had to do kind of like the one cheek sneak on the edge of the bench and the waters running off the dugout and his left leg and left spike are just getting soaking wet. And I looked over at him and I said, you know, you may be a future Hall of Famer, but in broadcasting you're the rookie,

so you have to get wet. We're staying dry, laughing but I knew the very first day that he hosted with US. I said, this man is going to have a career in sports broadcasting and he is going to go down as one of the all time great analysts because John just, first of all, he can talk all right. He's got a great sense of humor, and he's got a great way to explain what you're seeing or what you're about to see and make it so you understand. You don't have to be a baseball connoisseur or a

baseball expert to understand what Smoltz is telling you. He is really really good, which is why he's the main analyst and Fox Now and you know on MLB Network, he's really really really good. But on the other side, and I won't keep you their names, there were two guys. One was so he was so nervous it was like broadcast news. He's sweating bullets left and right, you could barely talk. And another guy was so nervous, he so quiet, I wanted to sit there and go speak. Uh, you know,

And they're both great guys. They were very, very good players, but once the red light went on, they were they were horrible flops with any any blooper that. Yeah, I have so many mistakes that I've made or just horrific moments in radio over there is a good thing. We're on radio, I'm in the middle of the night, but you're on TV. Any was there any blooper that you remember that you look back, You're like, I can't believe that happened and that was unbelievably embarrassing or hilarious or

any of that. Well, we've we've had our moments. There's no question. I will tell you that my most embarrassing moment in my entire career is because nobody had ever heard of her at the time. And when they when they started CNN International, this was during the CNN days, they would make us rundown. So we're doing our job. I'm doing headline sports along there twice an hour, you know, once an hour or whatever. So you know, it's the weekend. There's nine million events going on, and we had to

report on all of them. So, I mean, you're getting just blasted. You got all the baseball games going on because it's all college football's happening. There's uh, you know, the other sports, the NBA and the NHR crank. You just got a million gazillion things. And at CNN, you know, you didn't just cover the SEC or just the Big ten or just your local school. You have to keep an eye and all this stuff, so you're over inundated

with information. And then they're making us literally run down a different flight of stairs into a different studio and do like a two minute update on what's going on in world sports. Like I knew what the hell was going on in the bundesh Liga or in Formula one racing. I did have time for them, so I ran down there and there was some ski event going on I don't know, and somebody just ripped, literally ripping and read.

One of these news producers go, while I'm on the air, shows this piece of paper in me because an American had won a downy old race in some Olympic preliminary thing. And I looked at that. I've never heard this person. I go a street instead of peekaboo. I looked at the way she spelled that made what is this person? I didn't know? I called the picaboy for the rest of my life. You're going, hey, how's Picasso doing on the slope. I think it's one of those embarrassing moments

that at two or three years ago. We are hosting a postgame show Brian Jordan, and you could finance on YouTube somewhere. I'm sure it lives. A matter of fact, they just showed it on the air on mL Beating Network the other day. Right in the middle of this postgame show, this uh drunk jumps up on the on the rail behind us. He's just waving a Braves jersey.

And one of our over zealous security guards, big heavy, round, kind of fat Obert looking guy comes running behind us, but he's not supposed to be on this on this set area, and he runs behind us to shove the guy off, and he trips over one of the electrical cables back there, and there's a full face scorpion and you see him go down and his two feet come up in between Brian and I almost set our head and I'm just like, hey, we're having an issue here,

let's get you downstairs. The Brian snicker and when they came back and everybody shows that over and over because the poor guy gets up, looks right in the camera, walks away like nothing happened. It was so embarrassing for him and Brian and I kept their composure. And then during the during the manager's press conference, they're showing us that on replay and he's standing there watching it. When we came back, we were laughing so hard and couldn't talk.

We just couldn't talk. I think, I mean, I think I've seen that. I'm sure. Yeah, it's one of those things. It's just it's gonna live in infamy, and to this day it's one of my biggest regrets because I should have just I should have just thought and said, hey, to quote that America Cinema classic Tommy Boy. That's gonna leave a mark. But should I do it? Now? Whatever? That's great, that's great. Now you know there's those bloopers are all over. What are you gonna do? No, it's

good listen. That's make people laugh when I when I look at in the NBA at JaVale McGee, who's bounced around right, there's the video clip up that Shack did on Shock and a Fool when JaVale Riggie was running the wrong way, when everyone else in the court was running running one direction and he was running the other. I laugh every time I see that. It's the funniest thing that I know in basketball, I think that there's one guy out of ten guys on the court that's

running the wrong way. Uh, it's right. But you brought up the headline sports CNN Headline News. Now, when I met you, this was a big deal. Drum. I didn't know what you look like. I had no idea, but I knew the name, and I knew the name for those young punks. Explain how big a reach you you had at CNN Headline News. That was a very popular, very popular outlet back in the days before social media,

right when people needed scores and but and whatnot. Yeah, you know here, first of all, let me tell you, let me explain why, and then I got a really interesting story for you. Well, this was before cell phones, This was before you had all this internet access. Uh, this was before you had the crawl on the bottom of your TV screen. As a matter of fact, CNN Headline News was the first channel that had the crawl.

They had it exclusively for two years. And that was a nightmare for us because when we first started at these idiots and news had no idea about sports. So on college football Saturday, they were literally putting every college football score on there. So they were putting like an AI scores on there, so you'd be waiting for the Michigan Ohio state update you wouldn't see for five hours because they're so in like Pomona's like, come on, just take the main thing. So uh So, here's the deal.

If you were a sports fan, or more importantly, a sports better, the only way you were going to get updates on your teams if you weren't watching them on TV, if they were out of market teams, you had to wait until either CNN Sports Tonight or Sports Center at

eleven o'clock. So when at seven o'clock local time and your team started, the only way to get an up there until eleven was to watch CNN Headline Sports at twenty after and fifty after the hour, because every thirty minutes we updated the scores, so unbeknownst to us at the time, everybody watched. Now, I always say I was wildly popular with teenage and twenty year old boys and gamblers, but I everywhere I would tell no, we weren't on camera.

You've just heard your own you're red about CNN Headlines spots, and you know there's a story to that under itself, but you know. I was at the airport one day and I gave the guy the credit card. You looked at my credit card, he goes, you're going to Atlanta. Saidyeah, goes, You're not that CNN guy, are you. And that's when I started to realize, Wow, this is kind of cool.

But it never dawned on me until the great Mario Lemieu had a for years had a charity golf tournament because he does such great work with children's cancer research at the Children's Pittsburgh Hospital. And I, through a friend after actually Andy Evan's light, got me involved with it. I went up and I was the at the first tea. I was announcing all the players, and I mean he

had everybody there. There's Gretty from you, there's Jordan and Barkley, uh Elway and Marino, you name it, nothing but Hall of Famers and all stars. And I'm standing there and at the first team I'm giving every player this big introduction, you know, and I look over the yeah, but the you know, m v P, the Big Band and the Big Red Machine, greatest catch up all time, Johnny Bench. Everyone was clapping. Johnny Bench is putting his ball on his tea and he looks up. He goes, that's what

you look like, and I'm like, yeah, you know. And then next thing I know, him and Nick Monacani are coming over and talking to me. And then after everyone's done, all these guys are coming over talking to me. And I'm sitting here thinking, oh my god, I am an awe of every athlete in this room. And these guys are all coming up because they all know who each other are and what they look like. Nobody knew what I looked like, and and that was like, that was just It's one thing for the guy at Macy's or

a Delta Airlines to ask who you are. It's a whole another thing when you got guys like Mark May hanging out when you having a beer, and and and John Elway, and when I when I went to Denver because I got to know Elway on that thing. When I went to Denver my very first Nuggets game. I'm doing sidelines after the pregame show. It's the home opener. They killed the house lights. They put a spotlight on John Elway. He's up there, you know, in in one

of those baby Bloom Nuggets uniform. You know, he's waving and you know, he's got at Denver and they're going crazy, you know. And then when they do the anthem, next thing, you know that the lights come up, always coming across the court, and I'm standing in the corner where the sideline guys are. I'm just standing up there and he's coming with that big grin, you know, He's got this big smile on his face, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm looking at literally turning my head left and right,

looking over my shoulder. Who's he looking at. He comes right over and gives me this big handshake and says, welcome to Denver. And he look, I didn't know him that well for him to do that for me. Everybody in that arena saw me and said, I don't know who that guy is doing sidelines, but if Elway likes them, I like him. And he that was a huge boost for me to start my career in Denver those two years.

To be accepted by ol Way that way, and that made just you know, I did that for fourteen and a half years, and that led the three jobs got me the job at Fox Sports RA Radio, helped get me the job in Denver, and then it got me the h the job here doing the radio station at sports Stock Radio here in Atlanta as well. I mean, people knew the made and it was it was pretty amazing. It was. It was a lot of fun, but you know,

it was on Q tone. Unlike you guys in Fox Sports Radio, you want to go a little longer in a segment. You go a little longer, you know, and then you hit your commercial break. But at CNN, at exactly you had exactly one minute forty two seconds to a minute forty nine to wrap up your show, and at one forty nine it cut you off. And you did not want to hear at your room, you know, and then go to youth. That would sound terrible. And I didn't want to go too long. That was like

that was the Cardinal City. So I kept going short, and finally I figured I got to get to it one forty two, and I was hitting it about one thirty five, so I just went drone you and I just dragged it out to like eight seconds too. I get to a minute forty five and when I when it aired, I came out to the newsroom and everybody was laughing, and I thought, if this got a reaction out of all these jamokes and it was men and women in there is the news room, there's one of

sports department. I said, I'm just gonna keep doing that, and I kept doing it. My boss called me in the next day and he goes, what are you doing And I said, I'm just trying to add a little spice and he goes, don't stop, and um, you know, I stayed with it. And oh, I mean, I mean the guys I worked with were great guys, very good guys. But their names were Tom West, and Ron Hyde and and Mark McKay and and there was just I mean, I had a funky sounding name and I just between

that and the delivery, it's stuck. And it paid off for him in my career. Yeah, and you had not just the athletes. You have people at the White House. I mean they were are leaders of countries that were I mean everyone was white Airports. I remember CNN headline news that I'd been traveling in in the hotel, hotels, anywhere,

airport lounges. I mean, everyone was watching everybody, every you know, it was I don't know why the the geniuses that took over that that we're screwed it up because it was basically minute newscasts in a row, you know, every thirty minutes would be a brand new newscast. So if you missed your you know, if you missed NBC News at seven or ABC at seven thirty, at nine o'clock,

you just started over. I supposed that these hour longer talk shows you know on Fox right or CNN, it's MSNBC, it's it was a It was a niche format, but it was highly successful. And I don't know why they ever broke away from that, but to your point, so many people watched it was unbelievable. I'll never forget. One day I picked up you know, I'm just reading through

my Sports Illustrated, and there's an article on Sparky. He was courting of his career, Sparky Anderson, and they were asking I'm the reporter asked him in the article, and they said, well, Sparky, what do you do at your age when you know, when you're on the road, I mean, you've seen it all, You've been everywhere. What do you do? He goes, I just go back to my hotel room and I could see ann headline news on all evening long, and I watched every one of those sportscasts every thirty minutes.

So I'm like, oh my god, Parkie Anderson sticking around just to hear you know, that's great. Yeah. So when you at CNN like you because you're on it's weird. As you said, you're on television, but you're not like that, nobody sees you. So do you have to get dressed

up like TV people have to get dressed up? Or can you just go in there and just kind of lounge around because at CNN that they requires like a dress code at CNN or that, well, they didn't have a dress code back then, but eventually when they started the international stuff, they were making the headline sports anchors double dips, so we had to go in and suit

and tie them. But on the weekends, when you know, when we weren't doing anything on camera, when it was just the headline sports, we which go in and a polo shirt and in jeans that you weren't allowed to wear shorts, even though most guys wanted to, but we just you know, it was crazy. We had a good crew back then at the old CNN days because we had Dan Patrick and Gary Miller were our weekend guys, and uh, we had Fred Hickman and the legendary Nick

Charles were on Monday through Friday. Guys, we we just you know, hand a storm and Dan Hicks came and they were like our number three team. We had a lot of talented individuals, you Bob Lorenz and Uh, it was I was never gonna get on camera there because those people ahead of the event, Clini, they were all so talented. And I was like, you know, that was the bottom of the totem pool and uh, and that's what led to the radio gig, and then the radio gig led to getting a chance back on camera and uh,

you were asking about Denver. You know, in hindsight, UM, I met good people. I gained a tremendous amount of experience doing those pre and postgame shows. Um, it was a very difficult situation for me, but it was a great transitional I mean, if I had to do it all over again, I would have yes, and maybe UH tried to manipulate my bosses into trying to do things the right way, but that was a no win situation.

But it led to a position in Atlanta. So um, the people that there were two people that were above me there that were complete morons and what I'm still there and that's a shame because the people that still worked there that I know still complained about them fifteen sixteen years later. But you know, things are what they are. I mean, we've all had bad bosses in our life. We've all had great bosses in our life. And and then you know, it was it is what it is.

I mean, CNN was a great run. Uh, Denver was fun. I'm glad I got to experience the city of Denver the Rocky Mountains for two years. You know that that was pretty cool. UM. One great part of that ben one of my favorite baseball players of all times, Goose Gossip. So Mark P. Knudson, who had who played American leaguball mostly for the Brew was at the time UM organized a charity hardball game at the Triple A Stadium in Colorado Springs. So you know, he was on our show

every once in a while. So you know, Mark asked me and maybe four or five members of the media and Denver if he wanted to come down and playing since you're what, you know, I'm thinking it's gonna be softball. It's hardball. And there is a bevy of former Major leaguers and major league umpires that live in that area because they all love to hunt. So I go down there, and first of all, he got all the All Star uniforms that were left over from the All Star Game

in Houston the year before. So we're wearing major league, you know, uniforms. It was pretty cool. And we're sitting there with all of these players, and I knew Goose was coming, so I brought I got a Yankees Gossipe jersey, so I brought him down to sign it, and he was genuinely touched. We're sitting there just bs and over his time with the Pirates. He said he never wanted

to leave Pittsburgh. He said that the day that he saw Mind agreed to the Yankees, him and his wife sat in his in his pickup truck in the parking a lot of three River Stadium and cried, that's so much. He loved living in Western Pa and playing for the Pirates, but they couldn't turn the money down. They had to go to New York. And so we're sitting there, we're talking and next thing you know, we're taking v P and I go to take VP and Gossage goes. I got this good steps in there and I'm like, oh

my god, I get the hit off goose gossage. So because where do you want it? So I put, like, you know, belt high fastball. So he throws one in there. I don't even see it, and I'm like, come on, man, every one of these guys could still throw an any as as well as they could when they were in their hated They just couldn't throw a morning any. So he loves one in there and I turned on it and I actually ripped it, but it was filed. So he looked at me. He gives me like a little nod,

like god, I wasn't bad, right. He dusted me high and inside, right underneath the chin. To me, it was the greatest sporting the moment of my life. I got through the lat The next pitch bind you throw so fast I don't even know. I think it was back in his glove by the time I was done swinging the bat. He threw it so damn hard. But that was just one. I mean to get to clay. But all those guys, there were a lot of major leaders out there. That was a lot of fun. Well, when

you when you talk, you are Western Pennsylvania. Did you ever and I don't know what you did before CNN. I know you started in Pennsylvania. Did you ever consider going back and did you ever have the opportunity to work in Pittsburgh like with the Pirates or the Penguins, Steve? I never did. And you know, for year, all those years at CNN, every time a job opening in Pittsburgh, you know, appeared, I applied, And I mean I was begging. I begged to get back there for ten to twelve years.

I just could not catch your breaking because I wasn't on camera on a regular basis at CNN. I just didn't have a resume real good enough for TV at the time. And by the time and opening occurred after I had been back here for a while in Atlanta, it just wasn't gonna work out. The money wasn't what it was going to be, and it just it would have been it would have been almost like a demotion

for me for less pay and a different position. And you know, I even thought about it at the time, but I was just beginning to date my now second wife, and she was settled in here, her kids were in school here, and I'm like, I can't take less money to go to Pittsburgh, and my my parents had already moved out. They had relocated. My brother lives in Texas,

and they relocated to San Antonio with him. And I'm like, look, I got a handful of relatives and a really good, hardcore group of friends there, but my parents aren't there anymore. So it's not really you know, it'll always be home. But it wasn't home because they weren't there. And I just thought, I'm not gonna ask this woman to relocate for me. She settled unsettled, so it would have been it would have been a labor of love for me.

You know. I wouldn't have cared what the income was because it would have been steelers pirates payments in penn State pit you know. But never, never, never really came. I did start in Western Pa and Erie, Pennsylvania. I grew up in a small town fair all about halfway right on the Ohio Pennsylvania line. My my great aunt lived on State Line Road, a single lane blacktop road.

She was on Pennsylvania. You walked across the street or neighboring r in Ohio and uh, my uncle's would get drunk at Christmas time at my parents house, and you'd started arguing Steelers Browns because it was crazy. It was just crazy. Um, so I'm living in Erie. Let me tell you one quick story about Aree, which is awesome. Nine two, I finally get on camera in Eurie p Ad. It started the year before behind the scenes, um, weekend sports.

Erie was just getting cable TV at the time. Ere He was kind of behind the times, still probably is. And I go in there on the weekends. You know, most weekends sportscasts are like three and a half minutes long, right, maybe four Not where I was, they are we are news department was so understaffed. They're like, Jerome, how much can you feel? I said, give me eight minutes. I was recording everything. I mean, I'm showing highlights from the

Islanders Rangers. I'm showing what he didn't matter if it was on table that day. I was cutting down thirty seconds of each game. And you know, so people loved it. It was like a mini sports center. And after about three and a half weeks, Meadville, PA, this tiny little western Pennsylvania town where the great uh Sharon Sharon Stone, the actresses from It's maybe fifteen thousand people. But they had a heck of a sports banquet for their high school.

They would bring in Pirates and Indians and Steelers and Browns. It was a big, big deal. So Jim Leland just gets hired to be the Pirates manager, and the Monday through Friday guy goes, Hey, go down there and try to get an interview with Leland. I'll keep in mind, Ben, this is before the internet. The only way we knew who Jim Leland, so here's the third base coach for the White Sox, was to look at that little black and white photo in the team media guide we had.

And we didn't even have the American League, so I had no idea what he looked like. So I go down there and the guy at the front door, they're handing out a baseball to everybody to get autographed. Star Joel was there, Andre Thornton, people like that, and it was mostly for the kids, you know, but they're giving a baseball to everybody, and the guy pulls me aside. He was, Hey, I love watching you. I know you're the new guy in town, but you're the only guy

showing NBA highlights. I love the NBA. I'm gonna do you a favor. Go in the kitchen. You're gonna be surprised, trust me. And I'm thinking, what he was, just go in the kitchen. So I go in the kitchen. Meanwhile, everybody's out there. You know, I got a quick interview with star Joel and Leland and it wasn't there. So I go in the kitchen and you know, next thing I know, the back door opens up. It's sort of like a scene out of good Fellas. These three big

gumbas come in and right behind him Joe DiMaggio. Whoa. I'm like, oh my lord. They had a guest speaker, but nobody knew who it was. It's Joe Demaggio. So I tell him my cameraman, flick your late on. I go, Mr DiMaggio, Can I get a couple of questions? I was so nervous. Then I called him Mr DiMaggio and every question So I asked them five questions and about three questions in one of the you know those big guys security guys, all right, wrap it up. So I

asked him one more care you know something. I don't know what it was, and then he goes, okay, last one, and I nodded to him I said sure, and about three or four questions in rumor, you know, kind of spilled out. So all of a sudden, these little kids start flooding through those doors that the waiters come in and out of, and they're at the bottom of the camera shot where you would see like your score crawl.

Now all you see are pens and baseballs from these little hands shooting up into the bottom of the screen, and Joe just starts grabbing him and he's signing him as he's answering my final two questions, which I thought was really cool, And after the fifth question, I thanked him for his time, told him what an honor it was was, And after my cameraman, you know, clicked off on the recording, I said, Mr Demasha, and he turned around. I said, look, I know this is completely unprofessional, but

we're not in a ballpark and you're Joe Tomasa. Would you sign my ball too? He goes absolutely, and the autographed my ball, and I said, I know I'm not really supposed to do this, but my goodness, Ben, it was I got that ball in too safe right now. I probably only asked for maybe three autographs of my entire career. Josha that's an all time, that's an all That's a wonderful story. All right, we gotta wrap this up. And you're we're retired now, Drew. I can't believe you're

you're retired? You know. Yeah, it's amazing to me. So are you gonna Are you gonna do the traditional retirement thing and get like a Winnebago and travel around the country? Like, have you thought about what's next for you? You know? Uh? People keep pestering me to do a podcast, but I'm like, why would I do a podcast when everybody listens to Ben mallor no one will listen to me? So I want to take a break. I am gonna fill in

this Monday on one of the local stations. One of my buddies is off doing something, so they asked me to just do morning Drive on Monday. I said, all right, I'll do it because the Braves in the playoffs and Hawks are getting going. But I don't want to do a whole lot. I want to kick back. Um, we're doing three weeks in Europe next year, and if my wife really likes it in a year, once the final Kick gets out of high school, we may actually move

to Europe. For a summer anywhere from four to six months. We're gonna tour all six parts out in Utah. The National Parks were big into that. I gotta hit back to wine Kenny. We got a lot of traveling. We're gonna do a lot of traveling. We're just gonna take the rest of this year and kind of kick back and then we're we got like six trips already planned for next year. So it's gonna be most you know, hey, look, as you know, when you work in sports broadcasting out

of Charac it's radio and TV. You're working nights and weekends. And you know I did that for forty years. So you know, every time the guys in the neighbor got together play poker, or they wanted to go to a ballgame, or you know the one you know, two or three couples wanted to go just go get dinner or go to a concert. At the last minute, I always had to say no. And uh, I'm just gonna try to make up for lost time. That's what I'm gonna do.

Kick I'm gonna complain about my Steelers on Sunday. I'm gonna can't I can't wait for Crosby to get back out on the ice, and I'm gonna watch the Braves have a nice run here in the playoffs, and hopefully Trey Young will be very entertaining in the winter, because I think the Hawks are gonna be good again. So I'm just gonna be a fan. Man, Now you're gonna be a fan. Nice. Well, Hey, if you end up

at in California, I'm sure you've been to Sequoia. That's my one of my favorite spots from the giant forest which almost burned up a couple of months ago. I think it was a couple of months ago, maybe a month ago. I saw that they put the giant foil around the bottom of the that that is an amazing plaisodia. You end up there, yeah, give me, give me a buzz in the we'll get already together. We'll get the old game together. We'll have Yeah, Elie is gonna be

one of our ops. We were supposed to be out there for the L. S u u c l A game. My uh my stepson loves L. S u. Four of his first cousins all went to L. S Ue is uncle and uncle living Betton Rouge. So they have become our adopted SEC team, but work, and that was his first week of college. He goes locally here to one of the colleges, and he just couldn't. He couldn't take off the first two days of college to fly out to l A. Sou l A is definitely, uh, definitely

on the list. So when I do, I'll give your heads up because I would love to see all you guys a goat, no question about that. Awesome. Thank you, Jerome. I appreciate it. Man, thanks for doing this. You're the man. Ben