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A Conversation With Bernie Miklasz

Jason Barrett

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The Cardinals are in the midst of a remarkable season. They have the top record in all of baseball, and their pitching staff ranks among the best ever. But a string of injuries has compromised the offense, and the rival Pirates and Cubs are in hot pursuit. The Rams have looked shaky this preseason, perhaps destined for yet another losing year, but each new day brings a fresh round of speculation about whether the team will stay in St. Louis or bolt for Los Angeles. As the cooler weather last week reminded us, hockey season is just around the corner. And did we mention that Mizzou football is in the top 25?

Sports here are hotter than ever, but for the past couple of weeks, Bernie Miklasz hasn’t been around to help us make sense of the latest news, his familiar voice missing from the morning paper, his daily videos absent from the Internet. The venerable columnist, who’s been sharing his opinions in the pages of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch since the 1980s, was busy preparing for a new challenge. He’s left the paper to join 101 ESPN, where he’ll host a three-hour morning radio show. It premieres at 7 a.m. tomorrow.

On Saturday, Miklasz took a few minutes away from plotting segments for the new show to chat with us, explaining the rationale behind his career move and previewing what we can expect from him in the new gig. We’ll jump into the full conversation below, but first, a few major takeaways.

1. Miklasz hasn’t given up writing. Though his focus will certainly be the new radio show, Miklasz still plans to write several pieces each day for the station’s website, keeping up the torrid pace that he’s set over the past few years as a prolific blogger. “I’m as committed to writing as ever, and I’m going to be delivering a ton of written content,” he says.

2. It’s not a done deal just yet, but Miklasz has been talking to Will Leitch—noted author, Deadspin founder, and big-time Cardinals fan—about possibly teaming up on a Cardinals podcast. For a preview of just how fun that could be, listen to this segment of Leitch quizzing Miklasz on trivia over at Sports on Earth.

3. The deciding factor that led Miklasz to make the move was a desire to connect with his audience in more ways—on the airwaves and on the web, through blog posts, videos, and the aforementioned podcast. But he also admits that the decline of newspapers, a trend from which the Post has been far from immune, was a factor.

So, without further ado, here is our (significantly abridged) conversation. One thing about Bernie, he’s never at a loss for words.

Obviously, after decades at the paper, this is a huge change, but you do have a lot of past experience in radio.

I was way ahead of the curve on that. I’ve had a simultaneous radio career in some form since like the early 1980s in Baltimore. I’ve always loved radio, and I’ve been fortunate enough to where people want to put me on the radio. It’s just a matter of being practical. There were times, it was just very difficult to do both jobs well. That frustrated me. I realized at some point I was just going to have to choose one over the other. I kind of put that decision off for as long as I could. This seemed like the ideal time.

What appealed to you about the specific opportunity at 101 ESPN?

It’s been hard for me to emotionally make the decision to leave newspapers, because it is such a huge part of my life for so long, but I’ve had this pull to go where I think the business is headed. I just think the way media is consumed in our culture has changed dramatically and it’s still changing. The notion that everyone is going to go to one place and not go anywhere else for their news and information, that is a hopelessly outdated and naive belief. Well, 101 ESPN offers me multiple platforms, and I think that’s the way you build an audience. I want to be able to present something for everyone. If you want to read, well, I’m going to be blogging like a crazy man at 101Sports.com. If you don’t necessarily want to read, but you want to hear me run my mouth on the radio, well, I got that for you, too. If you want some advanced video, that will be there.

What about podcasting? At the Post, you and beat writer Derrick Goold had a great Cardinals podcast.

I think podcasting is going to be big with 101 ESPN. I don’t want it to sound like it’s a done deal, but I’m hopeful that I’m going to team up with Will Leitch to do a Cardinals podcast.

From a more personal perspective, what made you want to make this move?

This will sound really self-serving. I don’t mean it to be. It’s just really honest. I’m 56 years old, and I’ve been in this business basically since 1980. I’ve never stopped trying to evolve. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten complacent. I’m really hungry. I’m really curious. I was doing radio in the early ’80s, when very few sportswriters in America were doing radio. I was way ahead of the curve on that. When the Internet became a factor, I started hosting a forum. This was maybe 15 years ago, maybe more. I had sportswriters around the country saying, “What the hell are you doing this for?” I said, “I’m investing in my future, because this is where we’re headed.” I say this with great pride, I think I was the first mainstream sports columnist in America to host an online forum. You got to adapt or you are going to fade or die. I really believe that. So for me, the next step for my career, even at age 56, was to put the old model aside and leave to go with what I consider to be the new model, which is multiple platforms, something for everyone, take advantage of technology.

Does changing career paths at age 56, after 26 years as a newspaper columnist, represent a risk?

I’m not an idiot. If I thought there was a distinct possibility or any possibility of failure, I would have never made this jump. To me, the risk is staying put. The risk is being afraid to try to reinvent yourself. I’m sitting at a desk all day, and I’m writing these pieces for STLToday. You’re just kind of in a rut. I enjoyed my work, but you’re just kind of bogged down with writing, writing, writing, writing, writing. After a while, I was wondering how many brain cells I was killing. It wasn’t a matter of getting complacent, because I will never be complacent. It was a matter of maybe wanting to challenge myself. I have had people say, “You could have worked there until you died.” That’s probably true. But am I really at a point in life and in my career where my goal is to run out the clock? No.

It also probably feels nice to have a company come to you and show that they value what you do.

This will sound self-serving, too, and I apologize, but frankly, I think they were intelligent enough to realize that I was a smart investment. They realized, we are going to have to pay this guy a lot of money, but he’s going to do this. He’s going to help grow the audience on the digital side. We’re going to have a local morning drive show, which we’ve never had. That’s new revenue. It just tells me they’re sharp in terms of recognizing the business opportunity. I’m just thrilled. To do this at 56, it’s just amazing. In terms of just optimism, and an extra infusion of energy and just having your creative juices recharged a little bit, it’s just gotten me really, really fired up.

How much did the slow death of newspapers play into this decision? Were you leaving a sinking ship?

My purpose is not at all the disparage the Post-Dispatch. I was very grateful for the vehicle they gave me. They gave me a chance. I’m eternally grateful. But we can’t sit here and pretend that there aren’t problems in the newspaper industry or that there aren’t problems with Lee Enterprises. The financial challenges are pretty extreme. There have been layoffs and more layoffs and more cutbacks. I mean what’s happening with the Post-Dispatch is happening everywhere. All newspapers have cut staff and the newsrooms are down to about as low as you can go. The people who are there who are excellent reporters want to do a great job. But they now have much more work put on their shoulders, and then there is another round of layoffs, and there is even more work put on their shoulders. It’s just really hard to not only maintain your physical and mental stamina to do the job, but also just to keep your morale up. It’s just becoming increasingly difficult. It’s just really sad actually.

To read the rest of the article visit STL Magazine where it was originally published

 

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Jason Puckett Launches PuckSports.com

“I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

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Logo for PuckSports.com

Jason Puckett, who decided to walk away from a contract offer from iHeartMedia’s KJR in Seattle after finding out his partner Jim Moore had been laid off, has launched a new venture – PuckSports.com. ‘Puck’ has a baseball opening day show posted on the Puck Sports YouTube page and also posted an introductory message about his new venture and what led to creating it.

“I wanted to talk to you guys, the listeners out there, the viewers out there, sorry for all of this,” an emotional Puckett said. “Sorry for what has happened and what has taken place. Thank you for all of the comments and the well-wishes and what you have said about myself and Jim.

“It has been a whirlwind of a last few days, for sure and I do want to say that I feel for the people that we used to work with. “I know it’s not easy to go through that, I have been on that side of it many, many times in this industry when someone is let go and you have to sit there and answer all the questions about them and for them…It’s unfortunate and it shouldn’t be that way, but the reality of this business is it’s like that.”

Puckett then told his fans that PuckSports.com and YouTube are where you will be finding his content along with Moore. “I am going to take what I have learned over the years and apply it to a new age of media,” he said and noted this was a direction he had been thinking about for a while.

As for what took place that led to his decision to not sign his contract and talk away, he said, “I just want to take you briefly back to last week. I don’t want to get too much in the weeds, I’m not here to lay any blame or point any fingers at anybody…there’s too many good people that I have worked with that I don’t want to drag into this. It was a process that was at times handled fine, handled perfectly, and at other times it got to a point where it just went on too long. But that’s corporate media and that’s what happens.”

Continuing on Puckett said, “…I had been without a contract since about January…when I was away from the station that was something that we and the station agreed upon…to see if we could get something done and we were all hopeful that we would…I was only supposed to be gone a couple of days…unfortunately as these things sometimes happen, it just went a little bit longer…We received the deal and it was what we wanted, but unfortunately with that news a few hours later came the news from corporate that Jim had lost his job. Obviously there was a mix of emotions with that from me.

“I wrestled with that and the decision and what I would do. It was hard for me to move forward…I couldn’t fight the perception more than anything that I had received a new deal while at the same time, my partner and good friend, guy I love to death, who I grew up reading…it was a hard reality…The loyalty I have, I couldn’t live with myself even though Jim knew what the truth was.”

Puckett said he was aware Moore was planning to step away from the radio show at the end of the year and was looking forward to the nine months they would have left to work with one another. Then, when iHeartMedia made the decision to make Moore a casualty of their latest round of layoffs, Puckett knew he needed to revisit the idea of starting his own venture.

He said, “It has kind of changed my timeline as far as what I wanted to do and where I felt I was at…I am super motivated right now and I can’t wait. I have probably been busier now than I’ve ever been in the last 48 hours.”

Puckett said several of the show’s regular guests would stay with the show and he thanked several sponsors who he said would remain supporters of the show with the new venture. ‘Puck’ noted that starting next week, “…We get underway in full force…I’m going to continue to try and make people laugh and entertain you and talk about sports…and all of the other things you have become accustomed to with this show.”

As he started to wrap up, Puckett said, “I’m jumping into the deep end of the pool and I am going to see if I can swim or sink.”

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Kirk Minihane: WEEI is “Going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in Afternoons”

“It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful.”

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Photos of Kirk Minihane and Rich Shertenlieb

As the speculation continues on where Boston sports talker Rich Shertenlieb will end up, one former WEEI host said he has the scoop on what is going to happen. Kirk Minihane, now with Barstool Sports, said, “What I heard was, initially, was they were moving Rich Keefe from nights to middays, moving Adam Jones from afternoons to middays and keeping Fauria there, and moving Andy Gresh to afternoons…But now it appears Rich Shertenlieb is going to do afternoons with Andy Gresh.”

On Wednesday, Boston Globe sports and sports media columnist Chad Finn put out a post on X, saying, “Didn’t think Rich Shertenlieb would end up at WEEI after leaving Sports Hub. I do now, most likely in afternoon drive. Audacy management has been telling people to expect changes.”

Minihane continued commenting on the matter, saying, “It’s going to be Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb in the afternoons, which is going to be so awful. Maybe the two most sensitive c***s in the history of radio. That’s a show we are going to ruin…we haven’t done that in a while, we are going to take that show down…Once that show starts, we are just going to blitz them with phone calls because Gresh can’t handle that.

“What they don’t understand, because they are so dumb, is that…Rich Shertenlieb has no fan base…no fan of [Toucher and Hardy] in the morning is going to be like ‘I’m not going to listen to Felger in the afternoons, I’ll now listen to Andy Gresh and Rich Shertenlieb.’ It’s going to be dreadful.”

Recapping what he has heard the rest of the WEEI lineup will be, Minihane said, “…And then in middays you have Adam Jones, failed afternoons. Rich Keefe who has now failed middays, drivetime, nights and is now going to fail again in middays… and Christian Fauria who has never drawn a rating in his life.”

WEEI has not commented on any of the speculation. BSM will have more as the story unfolds.

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Former 670 The Score Host Tommy Williams Has Died

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Photo of Tommy Williams
Courtesy: Lakeshore Public Media

Tommy Williams, who was heard for a decade on 670 The Score, died on Wednesday at the age of 66.

Williams began his broadcasting career in his hometown of Gary, Indiana in 1982 at WLTH before moving on to The Score. In 2003, Williams became the PA Announcer for the Gary Southshore RailCats of the American Association where he had his signature call to get the attention of the fans, “People, People, People.”

A story in The Times of Northwest Indiana said, “The longtime RailCats public address announcer and Lakeshore Public Media sports journalist was known for broadcasting countless games, interviewing countless athletes and covering Region sports at all levels. The Gary native and co-host of “Prep Sports Report,” “Prep Football Report,” and “Lakeshore PBS Scoreboard” often signed off shows saying, “Gary, Indiana, you know I love you.”

“The cadence he had in his voice echoed across the Region in a way we may never see again. He was widely known and widely loved,” Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operations at Lakeshore Public Media told the paper.

“He’d want to be remembered as the voice of Lakeshore sports,” his Regionally Speaking co-host and producer Dee Dotson told The Times. “Most people will remember him for covering prep sports all the way up to semi-pros. He’ll be remembered for treating each of his subjects like they were world champions. His depth of knowledge of sports at all levels is commendable. He was a walking encyclopedia of stats.” 

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