Whit Watson from Media Credentials and Golf Channel - Afterhours Encore
The episode delves into the evolving landscape of sports broadcasting, particularly focusing on the decline of regional sports networks and the challenges they face in the contemporary media environment. We engage in a thoughtful discussion with Whit Watson, a prominent figure in sports media, who shares insights on the ramifications of these changes for viewers and broadcasters alike. The conversation also reflects on the nostalgic days of regional sports coverage and the transition to newer platforms. We explore the importance of relationships in the industry and the dedication of unsung heroes, such as golf course superintendents, whose efforts often go unnoticed. Throughout the discourse, we emphasize the significance of adapting to the shifting dynamics of sports media while honoring the traditions that have shaped the industry.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Golf Channel
- ESPN
- Westwood One
- Bally
- Fanduel
- Diamond Sports
- Scripps
- Fox
- CBS
- NBC
- Action Cable Sports Network
- Root Sports
- Bonefish Grill
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
Welcome to Grilling at the Green After Hours.
Speaker B:The conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker A:Hi, everybody, it's jt and this is a special version of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker A:Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker A:That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker A:Welcome to After Hours here on Grilling.
Speaker A:It's Green.
Speaker A:I'm jt.
Speaker A:We got Whit Watson with us today from media Credentials.
Speaker A:Also, you've seen him on Golf Channel and you've seen him on espn and you hear his voice on Westwood One.
Speaker A:And I'm sure there's a poster somewhere in Orlando, a billboard that says, whit lives here, something like that.
Speaker B:Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker B:I'm too old for that.
Speaker B:I had a day.
Speaker B:We had a day back when, when the regional sports network model still worked.
Speaker B:Remember that?
Speaker B:Remember we used to watch NBA games and LB games on your local FOX regional or whatever it was.
Speaker B:Yeah, we had a heyday back then, but it's, it's a little, little different these days.
Speaker A:Oh, I was involved with a couple of those.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Produced some shows for them and, and, you know, voice some show stuff for them and did all that.
Speaker A:But that's pretty much gone.
Speaker A:Really.
Speaker B:It's going, it's going.
Speaker A:And out here, it's, it's gone pretty much.
Speaker B:Is it?
Speaker B:Yeah, I've the, When what used to be Fox Sports Net, it's gone through different rebrandings.
Speaker B:It was Bally and then it was fanduel and then Diamond Sports.
Speaker B:And as they've rebranded and reorganized and come out of bankruptcy, that new entity that is running those regional sports networks, the guy in charge of it is Norby Williamson, who was my ultimate boss at ESPN when I worked there a million years ago.
Speaker B:And the three most recent hires at the VP coordinating producer level are all guys that I work with.
Speaker B:They're all people that I know intimately.
Speaker B:And so I hope it works out, man.
Speaker B:I, I, you know, we all want to watch sports on TV or at least watch it somewhere.
Speaker B:So I hope they figure it out.
Speaker B:But with all those Major League Baseball teams, all those NBA teams, all those NHL teams that for years relied on that local cable model, and that's, as you say, is cratering.
Speaker B:It's going to take smarter people than me to figure out how to make that work.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, we had, in radio, we had the, the Trailblazer Network, of course, and then that expanded actually a little bit when the Sonics got Sold.
Speaker A:Went to Oklahoma City because Seattle doesn't have basketball team.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:That, that was going.
Speaker A:And the radio aspect of that still is fairly strong.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Then we had.
Speaker A:Gosh, what was.
Speaker A:Oh, Action Cable, the one, the one that cost me a bunch of money.
Speaker A:It was Paul Allen deal, Action Cable Sports Network.
Speaker A:And then that went away.
Speaker A:Then Root Sports came on.
Speaker B:Root Sports, I know, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:And then I think they're still around, but you don't see them on your channel lineup much, you know, like that.
Speaker A:And then of course, we've got the regionals, Fox area broadcast areas around like that.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And they're, you know, they're carrying some things.
Speaker A:And then you got, now you got the cw, which is part and parcel attached to CBS and NBC and different places and all that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they carry kind of the secondary sports leagues, if you will.
Speaker A:So it's, it's not like the old days when you had ESPN and ESPN2 or, you know.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And then the networks on the weekends.
Speaker A:So it's kind of.
Speaker B:And then Scripps, which is a company that owns a lot of over the air stations.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Is moving into sports now.
Speaker B:They're trying to sign teams and conferences to play on their over the air stations.
Speaker B:And I'm trying to dig back to my days in the NBA and at Portland Trailblazers on the radio broadcast, the legendary broadcaster was at.
Speaker B:Bill Shonley.
Speaker A:Bill Shonley.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I remember one of my jobs when I worked for the Magic was to bring in radio and local TV broadcasts of other teams and listen to them and be able to like edit them and use them for different features and things like that.
Speaker B:And I remember that Shawn Lee was one of those guys, you know, he was a legend, an absolute giant in the NBA.
Speaker B:Somebody we all respected and all knew.
Speaker B:And I just.
Speaker A:He was the one that.
Speaker A:He was the one that came up with the term Rip City.
Speaker B:Rip City.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:That was, that was, that was a Shanley deal.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I seem to recall, didn't he also get himself a sneaker deal as a radio play by play guy?
Speaker B:Someone told me this story once.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because of the proximity to Nike.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That he had a shoe deal as a radio guy, I guess, marketing to the people who could see him in the arena.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:Well, you know, legends of broadcasting, the.
Speaker A:TV guys would sit.
Speaker A:They all sat in a line on the table right.
Speaker A:Right next to the court and there would be.
Speaker A:Sean Lee, always got center stage.
Speaker A:The TV guys were off to the right or left a little bit.
Speaker A:And then there was maybe Another radio network from the opposing team was down the way.
Speaker A:Shawn Lee was right in the middle, man.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Every.
Speaker A:Every.
Speaker A:Every game.
Speaker A:He was right there, and he always.
Speaker B:Would be the king.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And he always dressed like, you know, he just came out of Brooks Brothers or something.
Speaker A:You know, he's right to the ninth.
Speaker A:Okay, I got some new questions for you for after hours.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Ready?
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker A:If I gave you a box with everything you've lost in your life with, what would be the first thing you would reach for?
Speaker B:Holy criminy.
Speaker B:Everything that I've lost was the first thing that I would reach for.
Speaker B:I would reach for a piece of understanding that I'm not sure I ever really had.
Speaker B:I can't say that I was going to say something about building relationships in our industry.
Speaker B:I'd love to have the knowledge 30 years ago that I have now of paying more attention to relationships and not.
Speaker B:That doesn't mean sucking up.
Speaker B:That means sort of allowing people into your process and including people in your thinking.
Speaker B:That's not really.
Speaker B:Are you.
Speaker B:Are you talking about, like, an object, or are we.
Speaker B:Are we going big picture?
Speaker A:Something that's very important to you personally?
Speaker A:It could be an object.
Speaker A:It could be a piece of philosophy.
Speaker A:It could be.
Speaker B:Something.
Speaker A:They asked me this question a few weeks ago that's.
Speaker A:And I stole it.
Speaker A:And I said, my dad, because I miss my dad.
Speaker A:My dad's been gone for 32 years, and he and I were great pals and very funny guy.
Speaker A:And if there was one thing I could replace or have back, it would be him.
Speaker B:Well, I don't have anything that poignant or that personal, I might say a willingness to take risks, take bigger risks and do things that maybe didn't seem obvious.
Speaker B:You know, I always.
Speaker B:Because of the age of my kids, you know, and when I was kind of coming up, we had kids relatively soon.
Speaker B:And so a lot of major decisions that I made career wise were based on what's better for them in terms of where we live and does this job have insurance and benefits and, you know, is there a good school nearby?
Speaker B:And maybe I would have reached for whatever gene it is that makes you bet on yourself a little bit more often.
Speaker B:That'd be my.
Speaker B:My answer.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:That's fair.
Speaker A:That's fair.
Speaker A:What's your favorite color of Lifesaver?
Speaker B:That's orange.
Speaker B:Hands down.
Speaker B:That's a way easier question.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:What's the one song you want to hear on the radio when you start your car?
Speaker B:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker B:The one song I want to hear on the Radio.
Speaker B:I don't know the full title of it.
Speaker B:It's a song by Panic at the Disco and it's called I Write.
Speaker B:I'm going to have to Google it.
Speaker B:I can't remember.
Speaker B:It's a lengthy, weird title.
Speaker B:I Write songs, not something or other.
Speaker B:But it's a great song.
Speaker B:It's the.
Speaker B:The chorus is.
Speaker B:I chimed in.
Speaker B:Haven't you people ever heard of Closing the GD Door?
Speaker B:It's a great.
Speaker B:It's a super up tempo song and I used to play it a lot with my kids.
Speaker B:But it's got a really long, weird title.
Speaker B:Like it doesn't exactly match the lyrics.
Speaker A:So I get that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Name an unsung hero in the golf world.
Speaker B:Every single guy that gets up at 4 o' clock in the morning, take care of the golf course, especially the ones that do it during major championships.
Speaker B:You can say it's only one week, but it's not because they spend really the entire year, but at least the better part of six months following every blade of grass, every drop of water, every grain of sand.
Speaker B:And you think about the media requirements and how late we are there, you know, into the night after any round of any major championship.
Speaker B:And those guys basically don't sleep for the week.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:I've been to the Golf Course Superintendents association of America annual trade show.
Speaker B:They've had it in Orlando a few times.
Speaker B:Those guys are the unsung heroes of golf, I think.
Speaker A:I think you're right.
Speaker A:Name a player you think is underrated.
Speaker B:A player that I think is underrated.
Speaker B:I think that even though, and this is notwithstanding what happened last week, I think Sam Burns is an underrated player.
Speaker B:Ben Griffin, although he's becoming.
Speaker B:He's less of a secret now, it's really hard to, you know, claim that he's underrated because people are kind of figuring him out.
Speaker B:Those are two of the male players that I would point to.
Speaker B:And I think that even though she's probably the number two odds on favorite to win the Women's PGA Championship, I think Gino Titicool on the LPGA Tour is still a little bit unknown to the American audience.
Speaker B:Those are three I'd take off the top of my head.
Speaker A:You've done broadcasts for both tours.
Speaker A:Which one's the most fun to do?
Speaker B:I think they're both equally fun and they're both great crews.
Speaker B:They're both really good environments to work in.
Speaker B:The LPGA was fun because you were going to smaller markets more often than not.
Speaker B:And there was a lot of enthusiasm and Excitement about the event being in town that week.
Speaker B:Places like Grand Rapids and Green Bay, even Portland to some extent.
Speaker B:And people get really fired up about the event being in town.
Speaker B:So that energy on the golf course made it for me a lot of fun to be in the booth.
Speaker A:When this kind of is a follow up.
Speaker A:Actually, when you're on the road a lot, name one place you always look forward to going to.
Speaker B:I have a couple of go to's.
Speaker B:Food wise, if there is a bonefish grill within sight of the hotel, I'm in pretty good shape for the week.
Speaker B:I can, I can, you know, you want something reliable and reasonably healthy.
Speaker B:It's a bit of a per diem buster.
Speaker B:It's not the cheapest dinner in the world, but that is one place I definitely look forward to going to.
Speaker A:So when you walk into.
Speaker A:If people don't know this, when you're at a, you're at a golf tournament and Golf Channel is there or NBC or cbs, doesn't matter.
Speaker A:They all work out of the one compound, if you will.
Speaker A:And that's kind of set off in a parking lot or back into the trees so you don't get a lot of foot traffic.
Speaker A:And then you go up to.
Speaker A:There's a trailer there, the famous green trailer that.
Speaker A:Yes, that actually is.
Speaker A:The windows are kind of blacked out from the outside, but they look out to the course and all that.
Speaker A:But when you walk into the compound in the morning, did they have things for you?
Speaker A:Do they have breakfast for you?
Speaker A:Do they have.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, you know, sandwiches and lunch or whatever.
Speaker B:Like everything else depends on the budget.
Speaker B:Okay, so if it's a CBS show, if Golf Channel is doing the first two days of a tournament that will be on CBS on Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker B:They hire caterers and they've got a food tent and they will cater every meal the whole day.
Speaker B:Golf Channel only for four days.
Speaker B:They'll order in, they'll order sandwiches or chick fil A or pizza or something.
Speaker B:Pizza or Chipotle became real popular the last couple of years.
Speaker B:And that they'll have, you know, there's two or three different temporary office trailers.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And plus the TV trucks, which are bigger and you know, far more complicated.
Speaker B:And so you'll eat in the compound in one of those trailers.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:And the green booth that you're talking about is a mobile broadcast booth that Golf Channel's been using for a number of years where they've got somebody who actually drives it to the golf tournament, parks it, powers it, turns on the cameras and that becomes your 18th tower.
Speaker B:But some of the networks like CBS, they still build out towers.
Speaker B:They do temporary scaffolding and you know, full on like insulated, air conditioned temporary house on top of a platform overlooking the 18th.
Speaker B:It's just a matter of what you want to spend.
Speaker B:That's all it is.
Speaker B:And you know, with Golf Channel doing hundreds if not a thousand plus golf tournaments a year, being able to pull that trailer and park it and Boom, there's your 18th tower.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Is obviously the better way to go.
Speaker A:Yeah, I mean I've seen that trailer at Pumpkin Ridge, I've seen that trailer at Columbia Edgewater.
Speaker A:And Columbia Edgewater is a little nicer because it was kind of in the trees there.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:That's the reason why it's green, is to blend in with the trees.
Speaker B:And fun fact for the viewers and listeners, it's a third party vendor.
Speaker B:It's a supplier that is based in Utah, if they still are.
Speaker B:I'm assuming it's the same company still that operate them, maintain them and they hire people to get them to each location.
Speaker B:And usually the guy that drives the truck is also the guy who plugs everything in and runs the camera in the booth.
Speaker B:So it's really, it's a multi talented, multifaceted job and those guys are really skilled.
Speaker A:And the production trucks.
Speaker A:Now there's a company here just north of me and the guy, I can't remember his name, he, when I was at Action Cable, he was the head guy there.
Speaker A:And then when that went away, he and some other people started a production company that supplied the big production trucks up and down the west Coast.
Speaker A:I think they went as far west is Denver maybe.
Speaker A:Okay, but.
Speaker A:And I don't know if he's still doing it.
Speaker A:I haven't seen him in years.
Speaker A:But they they spent a lot of money on like three or four of these big, like, you know what they are, these big production trucks in there and you got in there and that's where the producer and the director hang out and you've got the board ops in there and doing all this stuff.
Speaker A:Yeah, but he had told me when he did it, he said, yeah, he says we've already got contracts with like NBC and CBS and we're busy every week.
Speaker B:And depending on the event, it's usually cheaper for a network to rent from a company like that that will build it out, maintain it, they'll staff it with people on the technical side that know what they're doing.
Speaker B:It's cheaper to do that than it is for the company to Own their own production trucks.
Speaker B:Now all the big networks, NBC, cbs, ESPN and Fox, they do own some production trucks, but those would be like the Mack Daddy absolutely blown out.
Speaker B:You know, the ones they take to the super bowl or the World Series or stuff like that.
Speaker B:But nine times out of 10, it's a third party vendor that's bringing that truck to the, to the game.
Speaker A:See folks, you didn't know you were going to learn all this stuff today.
Speaker A:How about that?
Speaker A:What's the first thing you reach for when you're done with your around of golf?
Speaker B:Unfortunately, my phone.
Speaker B:Probably I'm one of those guys.
Speaker B:A pencil with an eraser.
Speaker B:No, Yeah, I checked the phone.
Speaker B:I haven't played a lot lately, so I don't have like a set routine, but usually a phone to see what emails I missed and to call home.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Let.
Speaker B:Let the boss know that I'm on my way back.
Speaker A:Okay, just a couple more here with.
Speaker A:What's one thing you wish spectators would not do?
Speaker A:Most 99% of them are Great.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:One thing I wish spectators would not do is let themselves get out of control when it comes to alcohol.
Speaker B:And you know, none of us are preachers and none of us are perfect, but I think Phoenix has gotten kind of spoiled.
Speaker B:It's a fun event, but you watch these videos of people leaving the waste management Phoenix Open.
Speaker B:It's like, did you even know the golf tournament was going on?
Speaker B:And some of that behavior can get kind of boorish and I realize I'm old.
Speaker B:But one thing I wish, and it doesn't happen all the time, it doesn't happen everywhere you go.
Speaker B:But increasingly, as these events become more social events, as well as being athletic events, you do see a lot of people really get out of hand at golf tournaments.
Speaker B:That'd be one thing I would point out.
Speaker A:Yeah, I've seen videos of there at Phoenix of just guys walking.
Speaker A:They're leaving and they fall, they fall over and just lay there.
Speaker A:You know, it's.
Speaker B:It can be chaotic.
Speaker B:It really can be chaotic.
Speaker A:So what's the funniest thing you ever saw happen to a colleague while you were on the air that we did not see at home?
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker A:Maybe got messed up.
Speaker B:No, no, that's never happened in the history of golf.
Speaker B:Funniest thing I ever saw happen to a colleague.
Speaker B:You know, I've seen a couple of walking announcers go down like trip over something or you know, when the camera, when their camera, when a camera was on them but it wasn't hot, it wasn't on program.
Speaker B:You know.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:You see things in the monitor sometimes that'll kind of make you chuckle.
Speaker B:And I've seen a couple of guys trip.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's.
Speaker B:I wish I had something better for you.
Speaker B:I can assure you that Brando's hair out of place is not one of them.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That is.
Speaker B:That has never happened.
Speaker A:Is he kind of like the.
Speaker A:The Jimmy Johnson of golf commentators?
Speaker A:You know Jimmy?
Speaker B:No, because.
Speaker B:No, no, no.
Speaker B:Because Jimmy Johnson's never moved.
Speaker B:It was just absolutely.
Speaker A:It was like a helmet.
Speaker B:Yeah, it really was.
Speaker B:Brandles has, like, a wave.
Speaker B:It almost has its own life.
Speaker B:It's got, like, a wave to it.
Speaker B:And when the wind is blowing on the live from set, you know, there's definitely some motion, but it's almost soothing in a way.
Speaker B:It's kind of like relaxing.
Speaker B:It's like.
Speaker B:It's like his hair is meditating in the breeze, you know?
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And no, it's magical.
Speaker B:It had its own Twitter account for a while.
Speaker B:I'm not sure it still does, but.
Speaker A:You know, that might be the tease for this part of the show.
Speaker A:Randall's hair is soothing and magical.
Speaker B:A moving meditation, a moving medication.
Speaker A:Last question.
Speaker A:What is a course you want to play but haven't yet?
Speaker B:St. Andrews?
Speaker B:I have never done a European golf trip, believe it or not.
Speaker B:My dad, who's 81, goes over like, once every two years.
Speaker B:He's been, you know, Ireland, England, you name it.
Speaker B:I've never played anywhere in Europe, and if I was going to play in Europe, I would play St. Andrews first.
Speaker A:I can tell you.
Speaker A:I played in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker B:Did you really?
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:Which golf course is it?
Speaker B:One that was.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:Does it host one of the events?
Speaker A:Oh, this was in the late 90s.
Speaker A:I was over there doing some work in a little place called Durab, which is about 90 clicks out of Riyadh.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And they.
Speaker A:And it was.
Speaker A:They had.
Speaker A:The oil companies had built the little golf course for the expats that were there, and I got to play it one day.
Speaker A:A lot of sand, I'm sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The grass was kind of patchy, you might say.
Speaker A:But, yeah, yeah, I did play.
Speaker A:I did play over there.
Speaker B:Anyway, that is.
Speaker B:That is one for the record book, for sure.
Speaker A:That's one for the record books.
Speaker A:Whit Watson media credentials, among other fantastic things he does on the media.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Hit him again one more time where they can find you.
Speaker B:Good man.
Speaker B:You can find everything pretty much linked@whitwatson.com W-I-T w a T-S-O-N.com the media credentials podcast is there.
Speaker B:It's got links to some of the US Open updates that I did at the US For Westwood One.
Speaker B:In fact, I'm going to update those this week because they're last year, so I'm going to update them to this year's.
Speaker B:There's also a link there to the radio show that I host in Orlando and Jacksonville, which can be found anywhere on the iHeartMedia app.
Speaker B:That's called Making the Cut.
Speaker B:And as far as the podcast, media credentials, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you find your podcasts, there you go.
Speaker A:Whit, thank you.
Speaker A:You've been most kind to share your time with us again this week.
Speaker A:So I always appreciate it and I always really enjoy talking with you.
Speaker B:Yeah, me too.
Speaker B:This is always a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Speaker A:We will do it.
Speaker A:We're gonna get out of here.
Speaker A:I know I'm not gonna go play golf today, and I don't think Whit is either.
Speaker A:It's too hot down there.
Speaker A:But we will shortly.
Speaker A:So, like I said, go out, play golf, have some fun.
Speaker A:But most of all, be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
