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As LeBron Tried To Quit, Real Kings Had To Save The NBA’s Season

“In his biggest challenge as a social justice leader, LeBron James whiffed when he stormed out of a contentious players’ meeting and voted to cancel the NBA season, which required intervention from Barack Obama and Michael Jordan.”

Jay Mariotti

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Colin Kaepernick, he is not. If social activism would be the imprint that distinguished LeBron James from his contemporaries, all he has done now is feed the critics who told him to “shut up and dribble.’’ I can’t get past the image of James, when his strength and empathy were needed most inside a ballroom of emotional players, storming from a volatile meeting and vowing to burst the NBA Bubble last week after he and his Lakers teammates had voted to end the season.

He was ready to quit. Run from the pressure. Not take the final shot. Stomp out of the arena and rip apart his jersey, as we’ve seen before.

Only this wasn’t quitting in a playoff game. Or quitting on Cleveland to take his talents to South Beach. Or quitting on Cleveland again to take his show-business whims to Hollywood. This was the moment defining James as an American leader — how to maximize the collective voice of athletes incensed about another case of police brutality against a Black man — and, stunningly, his initial response was to shut down the league and go home. After all, his kids missed him in Los Angeles, and furthermore, his ex-Miami teammate, 40-year-old Udonis Haslem, was pushing too hard in demanding answers from James as the league’s longtime face and power broker. Would a boycott of games extend through the rest of the postseason? Was it time to return to work? Did LeBron have a plan?

Somehow, he did not.

“My mind began to figure out, what is the plan going forward? And if we don’t have a plan, then what are we talking about? Why are we still here?’’ said James, explaining his mindset at that moment. “There was no plan going forward, no plan of action. And me personally, I’m not the type of guy who doesn’t have a plan and then is not ready to act on it.’’

So, according to multiple reports, James got up from the large gathering of league players and coaches and said, “We’re out,’’ as every teammate but Dwight Howard followed, soon to be joined out the door by the other Los Angeles team, the Clippers. LeBron could have stayed inside the room all night — where did he have to go anyway, locked in a Bubble? — and hashed out the issues until a plan was formulated. Instead, as if the scene was beneath him, he exited while 11 other teams were voting to continue the postseason, which was not a good look for The King.

Kaepernick never quit, kneeling on a sideline until the NFL stopped paying him and TV networks stopped showing him. Martin Luther King Jr. never quit, stopped only by an assassin in Memphis. Quitting is an option no legitimate civil rights leader ever considers, yet James was doing just that as a petty megalomaniac — angry he couldn’t gain a consensus hours after the Milwaukee Bucks had launched the Great Sports Boycott of 2020, and frayed by his often-stated weariness of life inside the league’s restrictive campus. “He was at a place where he was fighting with his mind and fighting with his heart,” teammate Danny Green said.

But he was thinking with his ego. And when history records the story of these surreal times, it will remember how James nearly brought down the NBA — and probably other leagues, by extension of his clout — before two esteemed elders bailed him out and rescued sports, at least until the next crisis. It surprises no one that former President Barack Obama was one of them, taking a late-night call from James and Players Association president Chris Paul after the contentious session and, for starters, urging James not to go home. Rather, Obama reminded them that the Bubble, confining and soul-sucking as it is, still allows players their best chance to make mass statements about racial inequality and that they should work with the NBA instead of boycotting the season. The result: Though the league already is paying $300 million into a fund for the purpose, commissioner Adam Silver is creating a social justice coalition, turning NBA arenas into Election Day polling sites and asking ESPN and Turner Sports to help with expanded social justice awareness, such as public service announcements and morepregame coverage of players kneeling after recently abandoning that part of the story, as the NFL’s broadcast partners did post-Kaepernick.

“Fifteen years in this league, I’ve never seen anything like it. The voices that were heard, I’ll never forget it,’’ said Paul, who kept the peace in the room while James was saying peace-out. “Guys are tired. We’re all hurt. We’re tired of seeing the same (police brutality) over and over again and everybody expecting us to be OK just because we get paid great money. We’re human. We have real feelings. And I’m glad that we got the chance to get in a room and talk with one another and not just cross paths and say, `Good luck in your game today.’ ‘’ We understand the platform we have, and we wanted to keep our foot on the pedal.’’

Wrote Silver in a letter to players in the NBA and WNBA, whose teams also boycotted games last week: “I have heard from several of you directly and I understand the pain, anger, and frustration that so many of us are feeling in this moment. I wholeheartedly support NBA and WNBA players and their commitment to shining a light on important issues of social justice. I understand that some of you feel the league should be doing more. I hear you — and please know that I am focused on ensuring that we as a league are affecting real change both within our organization and in communities across the country.’’

     In a statement, Obama’s office said: “As an avid basketball fan, President Obama speaks regularly with players and league officials. When asked, he was happy to provide advice to a small group of NBA players seeking to leverage their immense platforms for good after their brave and inspiring strike in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting. They discussed establishing a social justice committee to ensure that the players’ and league’s actions this week led to sustained, meaningful engagement on criminal justice and police reform.”

LeBron? He took a Twitter shot at President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. He reminded us about the wonderful public school he has created, for at-risk children, in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. And when the season resumed over the weekend — the games he was willing to abandon because he didn’t like the tone in the room — he sidestepped his epic failure to lead. He even cracked wise about breaking ranks, saying, “I’ve had numerous nights and days of thinking about leaving the Bubble. I think everyone has, including (the media). There hasn’t been one person that hasn’t thought in their mind, `I got to get the hell out of here.’ It probably crosses my mind once a day.”

He could afford to smile only after the intervention of Obama, probably the one man on the planet who could talk James out of leaving. “President Obama is a great man. He’s a great man,’’ he said, taking his usual shot at Trump. “I wish he was still the President of the United States.’’

How curious at age 35, after taking relentless political stands on social media and going to war against Trump, that LeBron required not only the 44th President to calm the seas … but Michael Jordan. He was the second savior, the bridge between the owners and players, and an effective one at that. As chairman of the league’s Labor Relations Committee, Jordan used his position as Charlotte Hornets owner to urge other owners to simply let the players vent and understand their frustrations. This was no small feat, knowing some owners didn’t support the idea of painting “BLACK LIVES MATTER’’ prominently on the three Bubble courts. But the owners obeyed Jordan and listened. Then he counseled the players, advising them to stay united and making sure they finish what they’ve started at Disney World. “He was huge in making sure that whatever we want to do together, we get it done,” Rockets star Russell Westbrook said.

Oh, the irony. Only last year, James was calling himself “the greatest player of all time,’’ assuming the Cavaliers’ 2016 rally to beat the Warriors finally had elevated him above Jordan in the age-old debate. And while never saying it, James figured he was a slam-dunk winner in any social awareness comparison, knowing Jordan shied from political positions as a capitalist during his playing career and once said, infamously, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.’’ But here was Jordan, in 2020, wisely ruling out quitting as an option. The other day, Jordan’s former teammate in Chicago, Craig Hodges, recalled how he was rejected by Jordan and Magic Johnson when he suggested the Bulls and Lakers boycott Game 1 of the 1991 NBA Finals after the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.

“I knew the answer before I went to them,” Hodges told CBS Sports. “What’s funny to me is how quick they dismissed it. Both conversations lasted less than two minutes. Magic was coming on the court the day before the first game, and I asked him about it and he tells me `it’s too extreme.’ I’d already discussed it with Mike in the locker room, and he tells me, `Man, that’s wild, man.’ “

Almost 30 years later, Jordan was urging James to keep playing. But he did so from a more enlightened social platform. “I am deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry,” Jordan said in May after George Floyd was choked to death. “I see and feel everyone’s pain, outrage and frustration. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of color in our country. We have had enough.’’

It remains doubtful whether the season will finish. One more police shooting, God help us, and everyone goes home. As James should have anticipated, the Bucks were horrified by the Blake shooting just 40 miles down I-94 from Milwaukee. “One thing that moved me as a human being was that, if you really want to accomplish something, you can. We were able to get his family’s number within, like, 30 minutes,” said two-time reigning league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, recalling how Bucks players spoke to Blake’s family the day of their boycott. “We came together as a team, went in a circle, talked to his dad, and his dad was tearing up telling us how powerful what we did on that day was for him and his family. That’s bigger than basketball. We’re going to remember the way we felt for the rest of our lives.”

On that, James could agree. “Obviously, the Bubble season will never be forgotten. In sports, this is the first time we’ve been able to do something like this, but this moment is much bigger than us playing basketball,’’ he said. “Hopefully, years down the line, when America is in a better place, you can look back at this moment and be like, `That was one of the catapults that kind of got it going.’ ‘’

The Clippers also voted to cancel the season, remember, and while Pat Beverley and even superstar Kawhi Leonard avoid criticism because they don’t carry LeBron’s weight, they are dealing with daily anxiety that could crack their title hopes. Marcus Morris, for instance, is a headhunter who could sabotage his team at any moment after again trying to maim Luka Doncic on Sunday. In that cranky-mood vein, who knows if the Bubble has six more weeks of staying power when we haven’t even discussed the ongoing coronavirus threats, heightened by this week’s arrival of close family members and friends of the players?

And who knows if the league honors its pledge to support the players? “All you can do is give us your word. If the word you have given us is not fulfilled, then we’ll attack that moment,’’ said James, whose teammate, Anthony Davis, went so far to say, “We won’t play again,’’ if the owners don’t keep their word. Celtics forward Jaylen Brown, one of the league’s young social justice leaders who voiced ballroom feelings independent of James, has his doubts. “I’m not as confident as I would like to be, I’ll say that,’’ said Brown, who drove from Boston to his native Atlanta to march in a protest months ago. “I think promises are made year after year. We’ve heard a lot of these terms and words before. We heard them in 2014 — reform. We’re still hearing them now. A lot of them are just reshaping the same ideas and nothing is actually taking place. Long-term goals are one thing, but I think there’s stuff in our wheelhouse as athletes with our resources and the people that we’re connected to that short-term effect is possible as well.

“Everybody keeps saying, `Change is going to take this, change is going to take that.’ That’s the incrementalism idea that keeps stringing you along to make you feel like something’s going to happen, something’s going to happen. People were dying in 2014, and it’s 2020 and people are still dying the same way. They keep saying `reform, reform, reform,’ and ain’t nothing being reformed.’’

There was no shortage of symbolism when Bucks guard George Hill, the first player to demand league support after the Blake shooting, explained why he was late in taking the court Saturday. “You want the honest truth? I take a s— every time before the game,’’ he said.

A fitting parable for an NBA s—storm, wouldn’t you say?

Sure, he’s still LeBron James. He’s still seeking his fourth championship, still an elite player, still routinely capable of a 36-point triple-double used to oust Portland in the first round, still a model family man who has avoided scandal despite living half his life in the searing public eye.

But suddenly, for the first time in forever, it doesn’t seem like he’s The King anymore.

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Kim Mulkey Now Has Everyone Anticipating Washington Post Story

I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it.

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photo of LSU women's college basketball coach Kim Mulkey
Credit: Dailymail.co.uk

The Washington Post, you might’ve heard, has a story coming out about controversial LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. The reason you might’ve heard is because Kim Mulkey told you. The Tigers coach read a fiery prepared statement just before her team started the Women’s NCAA Tournament. In the statement, Mulkey threatened to sue The Post for defamation before the first word was even published.

Now, I’ve never run a public relations firm but that did not seem like a good idea. The Washington Post story on Mulkey is one of the bigger stories in sports right now and nobody even knows what’s in it. The reason the story, apparently unflattering to Mulkey, is even on anyone’s radar screen is Mulkey herself.

It all started with an innocuous social media post by Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde right in the middle of the most anticipated two days in sports, the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. On his X account, Forde posted: “Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc.”

You know what generally will go unnoticed at 4:00 on the first Friday of the NCAA Tournament? A post on X about a women’s basketball coach. But don’t tell Mulkey, she saw Forde’s post and decided to fight fire with nuclear weaponry. The result: the average person like me now is really interested in what has Mulkey so incensed. By “average person like me” I mean that I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it. Maybe:

“LSU Women’s Coach Discovers Ark of the Covenant”

Or:

“Mulkey Reveals True JFK Assassin(s)”

Perhaps:

“Famed Women’s Basketball Coach Reveals the Mystery Behind Slow Drivers in the Left Lane”

Literally any of those catch my attention more than whatever will likely be the Washington Post headline about Mulkey. But now Mulkey is “Mad as Hell and is not going to take this anymore” so I now have an interest I would never before have had in this story. It has been fascinating to watch the online speculation about the subject of the article and all we really know, as of now, is that it will be written by Kent Babb. This is a dream come true for Babb; he writes an article that is, presumably, not flattering about Kim Mulkey and, before it is even published, she gives the article the greatest commercial anyone could give it. Babb couldn’t have entered into a business agreement with Mulkey and had this turn out better for him.

For those who don’t follow Babb, he is a former NFL reporter who now is an award-winning writer for the Washington Post. In his 14 years with The Post, he has written sports features and authored a couple of books. One of those sports features stories was a deep dive into what he viewed as a large inequity in the level of pay for LSU head football coach Brian Kelly and his LSU players. It is this piece Mulkey described as a “hit piece” and, based on that piece, referred to Babb as a “sleazy reporter.” Babb, and many others, resented the fact his story was labeled as a hit piece. In fact, Babb essentially confirmed he was the author Mulkey was referencing when he shared the original article on X with the comment: “Hit piece?”

Whether a printed piece or a recorded interview, I can’t imagine a better promotion for it than the subject of the interview threatening a libel/slander lawsuit, especially before it is even released. That simply screams “This piece is salacious!!” Also, libel and slander suits get settled all the time, right? Of course they don’t, they seem to never even get filed. That little thing called discovery is a scary thing for most public figures.

The NCAA Tournament has been very entertaining, and I think the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be terrific. For only the fifth time ever, the top two seeds have advanced to the third round which sets up for a remarkable weekend. For me, I guess it will now include a Washington Post article, not a sentence I’d normally say.

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Ian Eagle Crushing It for CBS As Replacement for Jim Nantz

Eagle continues to be a shining example of what a network play-by-play announcer should be.

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Photo of Ian Eagle and the CBS Sports logo

I’ll admit, it’s been a little strange not hearing Jim Nantz during this year’s NCAA Tournament. Nantz stepped aside to concentrate on golf and the NFL after a long run covering the Final Four. Change is sometimes hard to accept, we are all creatures of habit, and I’m sure it’s a little weird for Nantz himself this time of year. But change doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. When it comes to Ian Eagle, not that I’m surprised, so far, so good.

Eagle is no stranger to CBS viewers. He’s been with the network since 1998 calling college basketball games and the NFL through the years. That certainly made the transition a little easier for everyone involved. CBS, the viewers and Eagle himself. Familiarity in these cases doesn’t breed content, it breeds a more comfortable broadcast and an easier handle on the change itself.

For Eagle, one of the other benefits for him was working with familiar folks, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill and Tracy Wolfson. Eagle estimates that he and Raftery have called 600 basketball games together, because they were longtime partners on the NBA’s Nets broadcasts. Eagle has also previously worked with Hill in college basketball, the same for Wolfson.

“To do this with Bill, Grant, and Tracy, it really is going to feel very seamless. In many ways, it will feel like we’ve been doing it together for many years,” says Eagle on a conference call before the Big Dance.

It sounds seamless too. It’s not underrated to have a good rapport with the folks that you’re working with. Everyone is trying to get used to a new voice and the idiosyncrasies of a new announcer. It’s much less of a chore, when you know and have worked with your co-workers and partners before.  You know what to expect from them, and they know what to expect from you. That’s good.

I think Eagle is killing it in his new role. You could even tell during the Big Ten Tournament that led up to the “Big Dance” that he was not only ready, he was ready to roll. It’s easy to hear how much he loves doing what he’s doing. That’s the case in all of the sports he calls.

Eagle continues to be a shining example of what a network play-by-play announcer should be. He has the ability to combine his talent with some personality, but never at the expense of the action he’s calling. His broadcasts always hit the mark, as he rises to the occasion when the moment calls for it.

What do I mean by personality? He manages to make us laugh, even in some tense moments of a game. He also manages to articulate our thoughts in some situations, like this example from the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. 

Sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson had a report during the UConn/Northwestern game about the superstitions of Huskies’ coach Dan Hurley. He wears the same red dragon underwear and suit as he did last year. Wolfson said Hurley’s wife travels with a portable washing machine to make sure his clothes stay clean. Leading Eagle to ask the question on all our minds:

“Who has a portable washing machine?! I didn’t even know that existed!”

Also in that game, Eagle had a couple of other great moments. UConn big man Donovan Clingan had a couple of swats on one play.

“Denied! Clingan! Denied! Two for the price of one!” Quick thinking and entertaining at the same time. Later when a ball got pinned between the basket and the backboard, Eagle said, “Oooh! A Brooklyn wedgie!”

Great stuff. None of his ‘ad-libs’ sound like they are forced. It’s within the flow of the action and just seem to come to him. It’s pretty amazing to be that quick on your feet, when you’re trying to make sure to get the call correct above all else. I’m sure we’re all in for many more treats like that along the way from Eagle.

In general, when fans are watching a tournament game, they probably aren’t thinking about the preparation that goes into a broadcast. Especially for a play-by-play announcer. The first weekend network announcers calling a couple of games in the same day. There’s also only a day in between the first and second rounds to prep for teams that you may or may not have seen during the college season.  The turnaround is quick and demanding.  

“It feels like an information avalanche in many ways,” Eagle said recently on 670 The Score. “The fact that I’ve done it for so long would make you think, ‘oh, he’s got it down, he has the system, he found the secret sauce.’ No, it feels the same way every year.”

Eagle says even veteran announcers like himself have to manage stress levels and work efficiently once they know which games they’ll call. “The two or three days leading up to the tournament, I must admit, are probably the most angst-riddled of the year because it’s a little bit out of your control.” Eagle told 670 The Score.

Yes, the stress level is great on the broadcasters, but how about what Clark Kellogg continues to do at the NCAA Tournament and the Final Four? For the 8th year, he’ll join Kevin Kugler and Jim Jackson on Westwood One’s broadcast of the Final Four and Championship Game on radio. At the same time, Kellogg will be a studio analyst for the television coverage. How does he pull it off? Following the pregame show broadcast on TV, Kellogg will make his way courtside to the radio broadcast position to join Kugler and Jackson. Then, he will rejoin TV for halftime before repeating the process in the second half and postgame. 

Working this tournament isn’t easy for these broadcasters. It’s a big stage for sure, but as you’ve read, there’s big pressure that goes along with it. The audience is usually huge, and announcers are constantly put under the microscope. Fans want to make sure that you know their team, pronunciations and all. Stories. Bios. All of it. Cut these folks a little slack, information gathering with little time to do it, isn’t exactly simple. They do a damn good job.

Eagle himself, is doing a tremendous job. The 3-man booth works so well because of his ability to keep it all together. He can set up either Raftery or Hill with a serious basketball question, or deliver a great ‘straight line’ to bring out their personalities. It’s a gift. Eagle has that knack for knowing when to go ‘rogue’ and go for that entertaining line, that seems to fit in perfectly. Speaking of fitting fine, those rather large shoes he had to fill, they’re becoming the perfect size.

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Andrew Salciunas Aims to Thrive in Morning Drive on 97.5 The Fanatic

“We are two radio guys that kind of know what we’re doing.”

Derek Futterman

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Andrew Salciunas
Courtesy: Beasley Media Group

When 97.5 The Fanatic midday host Anthony Gargano agreed to a deal to contribute to PHLY Sports, a local digital venture within ALLCITY Network, he was promptly suspended by Beasley Media Group and subsequently sued for breach of contract. Although the two sides eventually reached a settlement and officially parted ways, the future of the daypart was still in question. In the interim time period, the station granted Andrew Salciunas the opportunity to lead a four-hour solo program with producer Ray Dunne. Salciunas had served as Gargano’s producer in the midday slot and still has a strong relationship with the sports media personality today despite no longer working together.

The onerous aspect of the situation, however, was in recognizing that Salciunas was being afforded a chance to prove himself as a host in the marketplace. In the past, he had filled in when Gargano took vacations, but it was not for an extended period of time. Although he was familiar with the flow of a midday program, achieving a successful, yet sudden assimilation into a regular timeslot without a partner was an invigorating circumstance.

“I knew that it was going to be a learning experience because it’s one thing to host a show on Saturday or it’s one thing to host a weekly podcast and you have a week’s worth of content at your disposal,” Salciunas said. “It’s another thing to [be] hosting every single day and needing to come up with new ideas and new angles and new twists on things, so it was a challenge knowing that I was going to have to do that for however long the process was going to be.”

Salciunas received help from program director Scott Masteller, a sports radio veteran who has helped elevate brands and nurture budding talent. Several months later, Masteller asked Salciunas how he would feel about working with morning program host John Kincade. Salciunas replied by saying that it was something he would be interested in doing, and he later added that he already wakes up early and could easily work in morning drive. Salciunas was somewhat nonplussed when he discovered that Masteller’s intention was to have him anchor the program rather than Kincade, who has been hosting in the daypart since January 2021.

In the weeks and months ensuing, Salciunas and Kincade were involved in meetings to plan the new program, which officially made its debut on 97.5 The Fanatic last week and is titled Kincade & Salciunas. Both hosts knew about the program for roughly two months, and Salciunas is surprised that it was kept a secret for as long as it was. Outside of their scheduled meetings, Salciunas was able to speak with Kincade between their shows since they occurred after the other as well. From the onset, he wanted to make his thoughts about the program clear to ensure a smooth transition amid a quest to inform and entertain the audience.

“The first thing I told John when they told us that this was the plan moving forward was that, ‘This is going to be our show,’” Salciunas recalled. “Yes, I might be the guy running the ins and outs out of commercial breaks. I’m the guy that brings on the guests; I’m the guy that brings on the callers, but this is our show. We both have ideas, we’re both passionate about Philadelphia sports teams, we’re both high-energy people, we’re both opinionated and we’re also respectful of each other.”

While there is natural disagreement between Salciunas and Kincade on a variety of sports topics, they make sure not to fabricate their discussions and engender debate for the sake of the show. Instead of feigning their contrarian discourse, there is a legitimate willingness to be genuine with their audience while continuing to put radio first. Salciunas, Kincade and show producer Connor Thomas all contribute ideas for the program to appeal to the audience and continue building the show as a whole. Thomas also had familiarity in working with Kincade since he served as an associate producer on his previous morning program.

“I’m not a former journalist; he’s not a former professional athlete,” Salciunas said. “We are two radio guys that kind of know what we’re doing. Even though our opinions might differ on sports-related stuff, we see doing radio in a similar way.”

Upon Kincade officially joining 97.5 The Fanatic, he demonstrated his magnanimity and commitment to his colleagues by offering to take all of them out to lunch individually to learn more about them. It was a gesture that surprised Salciunas and something that stuck with him, ultimately helping familiarize themselves with one another and subsequently creating a viable on-air product.

“He’s one of those guys who likes getting to know people, and I think that’s helped a lot,” Salciunas said. “We already had that sort of knowledge of one another [and] we already had that relationship, and because we’re just both so bought in and both so hungry, that’s made it so much easier that we’re willing to do whatever it takes to make the show work.”

Before arriving at 97.5 The Fanatic, Kincade had worked at sports radio both at the local and national levels while also hosting a podcast with Hall of Fame center and Inside the NBA studio analyst Shaquille O’Neal. Bringing him back to his home marketplace and realizing success in the morning daypart was valuable as the sports media ecosystem underwent stretches of change. Transitioning to the new morning show iteration without colleagues Bob Cooney and Pat Egan presented its challenges, but Salciunas has had no qualms that Kincade was invested to win. As a result, the transition has been relatively simple in terms of building palpable chemistry among the on-air team.

“He believes in anybody that he works with,” Salciunas said of Kincade, “and knowing that somebody has worked that long as long as he has in sports radio that he values the young person’s opinion, not just in sports but in terms of radio, that goes a long way.”

There is constant communication between the morning show team leading up to a program outside of typical pre-show meetings and twice-weekly conversations with their boss. Salciunas arrives at the station well before the start of the program and compiles ideas from the previous day into a document, along with ideas from others that come during their commutes. Additionally, they continuously monitor the news cycle and determine what to address on the air while also interviewing special guests throughout the week.

Effectuating a fully prepared show rundown by 6 a.m. EST has been marginally difficult, along with the fact that it can be difficult to book guests on short notice before sunrise. Because of this, the program frequently outlines its guests early in the week and makes adjustments as necessary while maintaining fealty towards conveying their true, authentic personalities.

“I’m a little bit more energetic on the radio because I understand the entertainment portion of doing what we do and having to properly express myself,” Salciunas said. “I’m probably not going to scream at a bar, but when I converse with callers; when I converse with John [or] producers… that’s who I am as a person. There’s just a microphone in front of me.”

When he first started working at 97.5 The Fanatic as an intern, Salciunas did not have a goal of eventually becoming an on-air talent. He was content with his role as a producer, which was borne out of an internship where he worked with Jon Marks and Steve Vassalotti. Both station members served as mentors that he utilized to gain information and advice, a fortuitous outcome after Salciunas impetuously applied for the opening.

While Salciunas was matriculating at Temple University, he needed at least three internship credits in order to qualify for graduation. Reflecting back on his education days, he does not regard himself as the best student and recognized that he needed to intern with the radio station to set himself apart. Honing his focus in sports media took time since he had varied interests in areas such as reporting, podcasting and play-by-play announcing, but he ultimately gravitated towards the sports radio format during his time in Philadelphia.

Salciunas made a favorable impression on those with 97.5 The Fanatic and ended up being hired as an associate producer where he learned more about the format and its programming. Eric Camille, a former executive producer at the station, is someone Salciunas regards as seminal to his professional development.

“He was the guy that hired me out of my internship, and then once I started working, he really helped me,” Salciunas said. “He kind of took me under his wing and helped me out a lot.”

Once Salciunas was hired as a full-time producer, he began to work with Mike Missanelli on his midday program, providing an invaluable learning experience to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the sports media industry. As a veteran host who has captivated Philadelphia sports fans and media consumers at large, Salciunas noticed that collaborating on Missanelli’s program was a different experience than the other shows he had done. Whereas a morning drive show is oftentimes one of the first points of reaction on a given day, Missanelli knew that he would need to approach his daypart differently and adopted a paradigmatic style implementing second-level topics.

“It’s not just going on the air and reacting to an Eagles loss,” Salciunas explained. “It’s reacting to a storyline within an Eagles loss or reacting to a storyline within an Eagles win that may generate conversation. Trying to figure out topics that generate conversation but are not just the, ‘Oh wow, I’m angry they lost today,’ and give out the phone number. It’s [trying] to find topics that make people think and make yourself think and make the audience think.”

When Missanelli left the station, Salciunas began his stint working with Anthony Gargano where he began occasionally hosting select programs. The rationale behind his decision to go behind the microphone was that when the Eagles won a Super Bowl championship, the station needed someone to host from 2 to 5 a.m. Salciunas decided to volunteer for the program, presuming that it sounded fun. From that shift on, he continued his work as a producer while also refining his craft behind the microphone in a major market. It deviated from a philosophy perpetuated by former program director Matt Nahigian of limiting the amount of time producers were on the air, assuming that consumers listened to hear the hosts.

“Now you have to be a producer,” Salciunas affirmed. “You look at both radio stations in Philadelphia – a lot of the hosts now were former producers, and so you learn so much of the craft and then you figure out your own role. You figure out how you handle yourself as a host, so I think producing first before becoming a talk show host should be the way to go moving forward.”

Beasley Media Group’s 97.5 The Fanatic shares the Philadelphia marketplace with Audacy-owned SportsRadio 94WIP, and both stations have had intense battles in the ratings over the years. Salciunas shared that most people between the two stations have worked with their competitors at some point in their careers, and there is an evident respect that exists between the two entities. With both outlets introducing new morning shows within the last two years though, Salciunas understands there is a chance to gain ground on the WIP Morning Show, which finished ahead in the four Nielsen XTrends quarterly ratings books last year.

“Clearly if somebody’s behind a microphone in Philadelphia, everybody’s talented, and we’re going to do whatever we can to try to bridge that gap a little bit, and we’re seeing some good strides already,” Salciunas said. “I think having a new show is a big part of that trying to grab that initial audience, but then it’s holding on to that initial audience.”

Being able to achieve this outcome, however, requires a commitment to showcasing talent and different personalities. Salciunas referenced how there was a point in John Kincade’s stint hosting mornings in the daypart’s previous iteration where he gained ground on his crosstown competitor Angelo Cataldi with WIP. Kincade, of course, used to work with Cataldi’s show as a contributor and received a chance to take the air while with the outlet.

“I’ve seen the turn of tides of ratings over the years for every show [and] every time slot, so there’s always an opportunity, but that means we always have to be on our game; that means we always have to be doing the best show possible,” Salciunas said. “We can’t go in the next day and say, ‘Wow, that show was really good yesterday. Let’s have some fun today; let’s make this a lighthearted show.’ No, we always have to be thinking about, ‘Alright, what can we do next to put on another great entertaining four-hour radio show?’”

Over the last several years, there have been several leadership changes at 97.5 The Fanatic responsible for overseeing the slate of programming and station operations. Scott Masteller currently leads the outlet, someone in whom Salciunas has confidence that he can continue to elevate the standing of the station. In his earlier years working with 97.5 The Fanatic, Salciunas had an innovative spirit but was discouraged from taking steps to align with the multimedia evolution. For example, when he offered to do a podcast several years ago, someone at the station questioned his judgment and the reasoning behind the idea.

“I was told by someone, ‘What’s the point in doing that? We’re a radio station,’ and I knew back then that that was a mistake to say,” Salciunas explained. “You shouldn’t say, ‘We’re a radio station;’ that was years ago, so seeing that bosses and market managers and hosts and producers all realizing, ‘Alright, we have to adapt,’ that excites me.”

Possessing the background as a producer lends shrewd and calculated judgment on how to include members of the audience into the program. While there are still open phone lines for callers to chime in, the program has introduced a text line and also engages with the audience through the live chat functionality of YouTube. Having Thomas as a producer of the show has helped in this area as well, with Salciunas sharing that he has a strong understanding of how to create and optimize content for various platforms of dissemination.

“We have a great YouTube audience where they basically have their own community all of a sudden,” Salciunas said. “They’re constantly talking about the show, and sometimes we grab what they’re saying on that YouTube feed because that’s another area of today’s new media where you have another avenue to communicate with people.”

As Salciunas grows accustomed to the early start on 97.5 The Fanatic and his new colleagues in morning drive, he is filled with enthusiasm and the prospect of possibility. The radio station has been the only outlet by which he has been employed since the start of his media career, and he hopes to work there for as long as possible. National radio and television intrigue him going forward, but his priority centers on thriving in the new role.

“I want to try to get 97.5 The Fanatic – because it starts in the morning – back up in the map; back in the top five of the ratings books – and that’s going to take some time,” Salciunas said. “We’re a new show – we’re going to have to figure each other out.”

Salciunas expressed that the last year-and-a-half has been “hectic” in the midday daypart, but there has also been excitement surrounding the ephemerality as well. Taking the microphone in a major market with a dedicated sports fanbase such as Philadelphia is a privilege he does not take for granted, and he aspires to continue excelling in the marketplace for years to come.

“I just started, so I’m not thinking about the next step just yet,” Salciunas said. “I want this to last for a long time – for a very long time. If I never have to leave, that would be great.”

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