Nobody's Safe with Brady Laber

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Rick Broering who is the radio analyst for NKU basketball, publisher for Musketeer Report and Digital Content Producer at Local 12 in Cincinnati. Rick knew from a young age that he wanted to maximize his love of sports by eventually becoming a college basketball play-by-play broadcaster. He talks about using a tape recorder to practice calling games starting when he was 11 years old. Rick talks about growing up in Northern Kentucky and attending Holy Cross High School which is located in the Latonia section of Covington. We talk about some of the influential coaches and teachers that he encountered and learned from at Holy Cross. After briefly flirting with the idea of playing college baseball, Rick decides instead to attend Northern Kentucky University and major in Radio/TV. Rick ended up graduating from NKU with a double major that included journalism. We talked about the professors that we both learned from during our time at NKU including Mary Cupito, Brad King and Wes Akers. Speaking of Wes Akers, the two of us recall getting the chance to receive hands-on experience thanks to him and Bill Farro running a student production that produced live NKU men’s and women’s basketball games. Rick runs through his extensive resume that includes quite a bit of work while he us still a college student. This includes doing internet play-by-play and running a website with his own blog the covering high school sports. One of Rick’s goals has been to do sports talk radio and he gets his chance working for a short-lived FM sports station in Cincinnati. That experience helped him gain experience to later be a guest on many different sports talk shows in the market. Rick eventually lands a position working on a rivals.com site that produces content to cover the Xavier men’s basketball program. He eventually becomes the publisher of the site that now known as MusketeerReport.com After a stint as the Kentucky preps beat writer at the Cincinnati Enquirer, Rick lands a full-time at Local 12 WKRC-TV as the digital content producer. This eventually leads to him teaming up with Richard Skinner and the two combine to work on the very popular “Skinny Podcast” that can be found on local12.com In 2019, Rick is hired by Learfield Sports as an in-season replacement to be the new radio analyst for NKU men’s basketball. He is teamed with longtime play-by-play broadcaster Jim Kelch who Rick credits with teaching him to be make the transition as seamless as possible. You can follow Rick on Twitter @RickBroering, Musketeer Report on Twitter @musketeerreport and Local 12/WKRC-TV @Local12. You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm to listen to all episodes on demand and in their entirety. For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Jeff Hans the head women’s basketball coach at Thomas More University. He has led the Saints to three NCAA D-III National Championship along with a D-III final four appearance and an NAIA National runner-up appearance while winning over 90 percent of his games as a head coach with the Saints. Coach Hans grew up in Eaton, Ohio and went to Wilmington College to study agriculture and be a member of the golf team. He would eventually try his hand at coaching basketball when you joined the staff at Clinton-Massie High School during his junior year of college. During his time at Wilmington he also helped out in the sports information department and had a working relationship with then assistant coach Brian Neal would he would later succeed as head coach at Thomas More. Coach also met the love of his life Stacee who was a player on the women’s basketball team during his time at Wilmington. After he graduated from Wilmington, head women’s basketball coach Jerry Shevee hired Jeff to be an assistant coach on his staff. After four seasons, Coach Hans begins a journey taking him to many different stops. He started as a graduate assistant at Northern Kentucky University and moved on after one season to become a full-time assistant coach at Indiana State. He decides to go the high school route as a head coach starting at Holy Cross in Covington and later going to Lexington Catholic High School. He goes back to the college game in 2008, returning to Northern Kentucky as the top assistant coach for head coach Nancy Winstel. In 2011, the head coaching job at Thomas More University comes open he takes over a very good Saints program. The program goes to the next level when Sydney Moss transfers into the program. This leads to unprecedented success that includes back-to-back D-III national championships. The Saints would go on to win a third national championship in its last season of D-III competition before reclassifying to NAIA. The NAIA journey has been a tough but also a rewarding one in a very short period of time. After the first season, the team was robbed of a chance to participate in the NAIA national tournament due to COVID-19. The second season was especially difficult while playing through the pandemic but his team has a great season on the floor. They reach the national championship game before falling to Westmont in the title game. You can follow Jeff Hans on Twitter @coachjeffhans and the Thomas More women’s basketball team @TMWBasketball. You can also follow the Thomas More athletics department @tmusaints or visit the website thomasmoresaints.com You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm to listen to all episodes on demand and in their entirety. For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Dustin Maguire. Dustin was the leading scorer for the NKU Norse on its 2009 GLVC Conference Tournament championship team and is now an attorney that has become the foremost authority on the Name, Image and Likeness movement for college athletes. Dustin transferred into NKU after two seasons at St. Louis University. After a coaching change he was told that his scholarship would not be renewed and he was forced transfer out of the program. He lands at Division-II Northern Kentucky University which is a program that embraced welcoming Division-I transfers looking for a new opportunity. The 2008-09 season gets off to an exciting start as NKU opens a brand new state-of-the-art on-campus arena with an exhibition game against the University of Louisville Cardinals. Dustin was on fire leading all scorers with 33 points, hitting nine 3-point shots in the process. NKU’s team that year was loaded with a great mix of transfers and veteran players within the program. The team was nationally ranked all season and win a share of the GLVC Eastern Division. The Norse travel to Southern Indiana for the GLVC Conference Tournament. NKU ends up winning the tournament earning head coach Dave Bezold his 100th career win in the championship game victory. Dustin has a great season leading the team in scoring and earning 2nd-team All-GLVC honors. He had a lot of momentum going into the next season but a back injury suffered during the conference tournament slowed him down. Despite the injury Dustin was voted a preseason All-American. He looks back fondly on a game against Christian Brothers University where he hits a game winning shot before the buzzer. Unfortunately, the back injury forces him to shut it down and his season ends prematurely. He would go through two back surgeries to help fix his bulging disks but a different medical condition turns out to be more serious. While recovering from surgery, he is diagnosed with testicular cancer. After surgery for the original cancer diagnosis, Dustin is ready to complete his comeback. Unfortunately, he gets word that the cancer has moved to his lymph nodes. After successful treatment Dustin is deemed cancer free in 2010. With his playing career now finished, Dustin pursues his law degree at NKU’s Chase School of Law. Norse head coach Dave Bezold puts Dustin on scholarship as a student assistant coach while he is studying for his degree. He was on the coaching staff during NKU’s transition into Division-I. Ultimately, Dustin earns his law degree and passes the bar exam deciding to open his own law practice near his hometown of Edwardsville, Illinois. His practice is based in family law but he has always had a passion for athletes rights. This comes from his personal experiences as a player that was forced to transfer and as a player that went through injuries during his playing career. The Ed O’Bannon lawsuit was also very instrumental in Dustin’s path becasue his name, image and likeness was used in the EA Sports video game depicting him during his time at St. Louis University. We talk about a host of subjects such a name, image and likeness but also the transfer portal and expanding the rights for the college athlete. Dustin has become the foremost authority on NIL and has created and website as a resource to help college athletes in this subject. Go to nameimagelikeness.com for more information and how to contact Dustin if you have more questions or would like to contact him for further questions or possible representation. Also, if you need at family law attorney in the Edwardsville, Illinois area Dustin’s practice is called The Center of Family Law and you can get more information at edwardsvillefamilylaw.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Jim Kelch who is a successful radio and television play-by-play broadcaster. Jim grew in Peoria, Illinois which is the line of demarkation that divides the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals respective fan bases. Jim grew up a Cubs fans but admits that he also enjoyed Cardinals baseball because he was such a fan of Cardinals radio play-by-play man Jack Buck. Jim grew up playing baseball but always knew that he wanted to call both baseball and basketball games and often practiced his craft in the bleachers while watching high school games. After a short stint playing college baseball, Jim attended Bradley University with hopes of breaking into the broadcasting business. He landed a job at a local radio station but as a salesman selling commercial ads for the stations sports broadcasts. He eventually gets his chance to be on the call local high school games. After some seasoning, he is hired to call the Peoria Chiefs games. The Chiefs was a Cubs minor league affiliate at the time and he got the gig when he was able to convince the station manager that he could sell enough ads to at least break even. After three seasons he moved up to the Double-A level moving to Chattanooga calling games for the Lookouts. This is the first season in which Jim called every game of the season. Two seasons later he finds out about an opening in Louisville, Kentucky in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He got the job with the team which is called the Redbirds at the time which and was a Triple-A affiliate. While in Louisville as a Cardinals affiliate, Jim filled in for his hero Jack Buck at the big league level and helped mentor Jack’s son Joe in his early college years. The Cardinals broke ties with the Louisville team and that group eventually became a Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds organization. After patiently waiting, Jim got his chance in do some consistent fill-in work for the Reds starting in 2008. Jim was hired full-time by the Reds for the 2010 season and being in the big leagues was his crowning achievement. He stayed with the Reds for eight seasons until his contract was not renewed at the end of the 2017 season. Jim was devastated when the Reds parted ways with him and he talks candidly about it. You can hear the pain in his voice as he talks about being let go and the lasting effects. Jim became the radio voice of the Northern Kentucky University Norse men’s basketball program in 2012. His hiring was also a seminal moment in his career since it was his other major goal to call Division-I men’s basketball. We talk about some of his memorial calls and fond memories as the Voice of the Norse. You can follow Jim on Twitter @JimKelch and the NKU Norse basketball teams @NKUNorseMBB You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm to listen to all episodes on demand and in their entirety. For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Thomas More University head men’s basketball coach Justin Ray. Justin Ray is from the Westside of Cincinnati and we begin the episode going into pretty good detail about his love and experiences growing up over there. Grade school sports in that predominately Roman Catholic community is very serious and Justin looks back glowingly on his youth career. He attended Our Lady of Lourdes School and played football and basketball for the Tigers. We talked about his 8th grade football coach Ozzy Bowns who just recently retired from coaching after more than 40 seasons. Despite his ties to Our Lady of Lourdes, Justin’s wife is a proud member of Our Lady of Visitation. In a classic Westside situation he explains that he will let their kids go through the Visitation system but will not wear any of the spirit wear in order not completely break ranks from Lourdes. However, Justin did break ranks when it came to attending high school when he decided not to go to Elder. He wanted basketball to be his future and he played on the grass roots level for Oak Hills head coach Mike Price. Justin explains how Coach Price is a mentor to him even to this day. Justin would go on to be a Hall of Fame athlete at Oak Hills as both a star football and basketball player for the Highlanders. After high school, Justin played his college basketball career in Memphis, Tennessee at Christian Brothers University. Head coach Mike Nienaber had ties to the Westside and many different Cincinnati area players made the trek to play for the Buccaneers. After his playing career, Justin briefly worked in the private sector but quickly realized that was not the life for him so he returned to be a graduate assistant at Christian Brothers. He felt like he wanted to pursue a career in coaching on the Division-I level. He landed a spot on the staff at Wright State University where he was an unpaid graduate assistant for two seasons under both Brad Brownell and Billy Donlan. Justin earned his first full-time assistant coaching jobs close to his home at Mount St. Joseph University. He was hired by newly hired head coach Toby Carrigan and the two of them helped turn that program around. After a couple a rough seasons in the beginning the Lions would go to win its first conference championship and make the first NCAA tournament appearance in program history. In 2018, Ray was hired as the head coach at Thomas More University. This was at a time when the athletic department was transitioning from NCAA Division-III into NAIA. The victory that put the Saints on the map was a win over the #1 team in the nation and Mid South Conference opponent Georgetown Tigers. Justin talks about being influenced by the other coaches at Thomas More including head women’s basketball coach Jeff Hans and athletic director Terry Connor. You can follow Coach Ray on Twitter @JustinMRay and the Thomas More men’s basketball program @TMUMensBBall Cover photo provided by Thomas More softball player Taylor Peterson who takes pictures for both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Thomas More. You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm to listen to all episodes on demand and in their entirety. For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Jed DeMuesy. Jed just wrapped up his tenure as a sports anchor, reporter and producer of Local 12 WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. Jed grew in Massilon, Ohio where football is king. He talks about his dad having a job that allowed him to be around the Pro Football Hall of Fame in nearby Canton, Ohio. After playing high school football at Jackson High School, Jed realized he had a love of sports and wanted to continue with that path even if it wasn’t going to be as an on-field competitor. Broadcasting would be his vehicle and he felt like his skill set and personality would be better suited for television news as opposed to being a play-by-play announcer. Jed attended Miami University and majored in mass communications. He was able to cover all of the sports in Oxford and has some great stories. The Redhawks were very successful during his time there and has found memories covering Miami sports. As an undergrad at Miami, Jed interned in the sports department at Local 12 working under sports director Brad Johansen. Jed talks about learning from Brad who he forced him outside of his comfort zone and challenged him to improve his skill set. Upon graduation, Jed lands his first job in the 207th largest media market which happens to be in Marquette, Michigan. He talks about the challenges of living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during the winter months while working at a small station. After 10 months, Jed moves on to Zainesville, Ohio which is actually a smaller market than Marquette but gives him the opportunity to relocate closer to home. During this time Jed is co-workers with Jeremy Rauch who is currently in the Cincinnati market at Fox-19. Jeremy actually helps Jed land his next job in Champaign, Illinois. In July 2013, a producer job becomes available and Jed jumps at the chance and returns to Local 12. Although it is not an on-camera role, he is more than happy to be back in Cincinnati where he eventually does become a reporter and anchor. We talk about some of the Local-12 staff that have been helpful to Jed in his career included folks that work in the news department. Some of the those legendary figures include Rob Braun, Cammy Dierking, Joe Webb and Deborah Dixon. In the sports department Jed obviously gives Brad Johansen a lot of credit for helping him grow and develop. We also talk about some of the other characters he has had the opportunity to work with at Local 12. Those folks include Gary Miller, Kevin Barnett, Richard Skinner and Rick Broering. Jed explains how it all came to an end for him at Local 12. In March 2021, budget cuts needed to be made and Jed volunteered himself in order for someone else in the department to stay on board. He was already looking into an opportunity to move on from the television business. Working weekends and nights began to take a toll on his family life and with a wife and a newborn Jed was looking for a change. A college friend offered him a job and the timing was accelerated with the impending layoffs. Jed says he was looking out for his family first but to also be able to keep someone else to stay employed worked out best for everyone involved. You can still follow Jed on Twitter where he will continue to have hot takes his handle his has been updated to @JedDeMuesy If you also want to check out Jed’s new venture with the company owned by his friend Tim Brantz visit the website LegacyWealthHoldings.com You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm to listen to all episodes on demand and in their entirety. For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber we asked a number of people from both the Westside and Eastside of Cincinnati to describe what it’s like living in a sometimes imaginary rivalry that sometimes can get real. The first person we talk to is John Asalon who’s the voice of NKU Norse baseball and the Cincinnati Steam. John sparks this whole subject by being a Westsider who actually goes against the company line to speak about some of the things that annoy him when it comes to his homeland. Here is a link to the full episode where John talks about his upbringing growing up on the Westside Click here for Episode #5 of Nobody’s Safe with John Asalon. You can follow John on Twitter @john_asalon. We had many other Westside residents weight on this subject. Please check out the full episodes on demand of the guest in order of their appearance on this particular episode. Click here for Episode #18 of Nobody’s Safe with Jeff Hetzer. Click here for Episode #27 of Nobody’s Safe with Adam Baum. You can follow Adam on Twiter @AdamJBaum Thomas More head coach Justin Ray will be on a soon-to-be released upcoming episode of Nobody’s Safe. You can follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMRay Click here for Episode #11 of Nobody’s Safe with Terry Connor. You can follow Terry on Twitter @TMUAD_Connor We transition to get the options and takes from our Eastside guest starting with McNicholas High School junior varsity head basketball coach and former team manager at Xavier University Eric Thompson. Click here for Episode #22 of Nobody’s Safe with Eric Thompson. You can follow Eric on Twitter @Eric_Thompson10 Click here for Episode #20 of Nobody’s Safe with Madison Temple. You can follow Madison on Twitter @mpaige11 Click here for Episode #24 of Nobody’s Safe with Rich Linville. You can follow Rich on Twitter @ScoreboardRich You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm to listen to all episodes on demand and in their entirety. For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is NKU Hall of Famer Rick Meyers. Rick joins me today to talk about the first head coach of the men’s basketball team at Northern Kentucky University Mote Hils. Rick starts off with some brief background on the new college being built in Highland Heights, Kentucky and how Mote was hired to be its first head basketball coach. Mote enjoyed at ton of success as a local high school coach first at St Henry and later at Covington Catholic. He was coming off of a run of winning five consecutive regional championships leading the Colonels to the state tournament. After Mote’s second season the team moved into the newly constructed Regents Hall which would be the home of the basketball program until 2009. We talk about the success of some of his great players including the programs first superstar Richard Derkson. Derkson followed Mote to NKU from Covington Catholic and was the leading scorer all four years that he played for the Norse. Derkson was a charter member of the NKU Hall of Fame being inducted in 1997. Other great players that we mentioned over Mote’s tenure include other Hall of Famers as Jeff Stowers, Dan Doellman and the very underrated Dennis Bettis. Rick talks about traveling with the team in those early days and how small college facilities and environments made it very difficult to win on the road. NKU was put on the map with a pair of wins over Xavier University in back-to-back seasons of 1978 and 1979. The first win over the Musketeers was part of the program’s first 20-win season and a chance to host the NCAA Division-II regional at Regents Hall. Rick tells the legendary story about how Athletic Director Dr. Lonny Davis turned down the opportunity to host and the team would have to travel as the #1 seed to Eastern Illinois University to play in the tournament. This leads to a confrontation on the bus as the team is ready to leave Regents Hall for Charleston, Illinois. Mote approached Dr. Davis and after a brief but heated interaction Mote tells his boss to “get off the bus.” Needless to say Dr. Davis exited the bus quietly but it was Mote’s only win of the entire weekend. The favored Norse end up losing to ISU-Evansville and in the consolation game to St. Joseph College ending its season. This incident was the beginning of the end of Mote’s tenure as head coach He wanted to see the program make the jump to Division-I along with other regional opponents as UT-Chattanooga and Wright State but the university administration decided against it and Mote stepped down as the head coach in 1980. In nine seasons as the NKU head coach, Mote earned 119 victories. Mote stayed with the university for many years as an advisor and testing coordinator before retiring. He was inducted into the David Lee Holt NKU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009. Mote passed away in 2016 at the age of 81. You can follow the NKU athletics department on Twitter @NKUNorse and the men’s basketball program @NKUMensBB. You can also follow Rick Meyers on Twitter @NKURick. You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is former NKU big man Jalen Billups. Jalen played the Norse from 2011-16 scorning 1,185 points, grabbing 599 rebounds while shoting 62% from the floor. Among his accomplishments at Northern Kentucky, Jalen scored the first basket in the program’s Division-I era. He was also the first player to score 1,000 career points solely as a D-I player. He set the single season field goal percentage record and is second place all-time for career field goal percentage. Jalen went to Shroder High School in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Madisonville. He played for the Jaguars and head coach Thomas Owens. He played against some of the top talent in the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference. A number of his high school opponents and AAU teammates also went on the play college basketball at a high level. Jalen committed to play at Northern Kentucky University and play for head coach Dave Bezold. At the time, NKU was still Division-II but after his freshman season (2011-12) the announcement was made that the school’s athletic department was going to move up to D-I. His sophomore year (2012-13) got off to a fast start. The plan was that he would redshirt after playing 20% of the schedule and have knee surgery while maintaining the year of eligibility. Just before he was to have been shutdown for the season a medical emergency happened in practice that changes his path. He was diagnosed with a rare heart condition and would eventually have a pacemaker inserted into his chest. He would have the pacemaker removed in 2018 and saved it, having it engraved as a reminder of his journey. Jalen recovered just before the next season (2013-14) began and he made a full comeback despite not going through any off-season conditioning and playing 30 pounds overweight. The next year (2014-15), fully recovered in the best shape of his career up to that point, Jalen led the nation for much of the year in field goal percentage. He set the NKU record for single season field goal percentage at just under 70 percent. The team finished its season at 13-17 and 7-7 in Atlantic Sun conference play. It was the team’s best record during the transitional phase to D-I which meant they were not eligible for the post season tournament. The did play a thrilling overtime game in a loss to Lipscomb in a conference tournament game that was played at Regents Hall. Unfortunately, after that season ended and the team moving into the Horizon League with just one year left in the transitional phase, Coach Bezold was fired. Jalen had just graduated from school with one year of eligibility remaining. He could have transferred to another school without penalty and he talks about some of the schools that showed interest in him. He talking it over with his mother he decides to stay with NKU and play for new head coach John Brannen. Although the team struggled in its year in the Horizon League (2015-16), he felt that the year under Coach Brannen helped prepare him for a professional career. We talk about his career overseas and the countries that he has traveled to in his basketball journey. Also, we talk about some of his career options once he retires from basketball. Jalen also talks about still following the program and how proud he is to have helped build the program for the success it now enjoys. You can follow Jalen Billups are both Twitter @jbills_21 and Instagram @jbills_21 You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is Dennis “Wildman” Walker who started with WEBN 102.7 FM in Cincinnati back in 1983 and was a full time member of the morning show crew called the Dawn Patrol from 1985-2011. Wildman has written a book called Wild Man: The Book with co-author Gerry Schultz. He has organized a book signing tour and the initial schedule is at the bottom of this section. Wildman was first noticed by WEBN disc jockey Michael Luczak in 1983 while he was collecting money to fly a banner over Riverfront Stadium. Wildman, like many fans, was disgruntled about the performance of Reds general manager Dick Wagner and arranged to have airplane fly over the stadium with a banner that said, “Pete Rose Forever… Dick Wagner never.” When Wagner was fired days later, the folks at WEBN realized Wildman’s role and decided to hire him as a freelancer collecting postgame soundbites to be used for the sports reports. After two years, Wildman is hired full-time at WEBN in 1985 as a member of the Dawn Patrol. The Dawn Patrol was the name morning drive-time talent and for over two decades was the top rated group in the city. Wildman also talks about how he was given the Wildman moniker which of course is really just an exaggeration of his true personality. This persona was exactly what WEBN was looking for when it came to their sports guy was it was a perfect storm leading to Wildman joining the team. We talk about the personal relationships that Wildman has developed and has continued to maintain of the years with some of the top sports personalities in the Cincinnati sports scene. It’s no secret that the “Hit King” Pete Rose was Wildman’s favorite baseball player. He talks about how it all started for his fandom of Pete when he first met him collecting autographs as a kid at Crosley Field. Another guy Wildman developed a great friendship with was former University of Cincinnati Bearcats head basketball coach Bob Huggins. We talk about an interaction he had with “Hugs” in the media room at Northern Kentucky University after the Norse played against West Virginia. This leads into a great discussion about Wildman’s biggest claim to fame when he spent 61 days on a billboard vowing to never come down until the Bengals win a game. In addition to covering sports for WEBN, Wildman also had a chance to go to concerts and interview all of the top Rock n’ Roll acts of the time. He talks about some of those interesting interactions. Wildman is also a very accomplished public address announcer and one of his highest profile jobs was for the Cincinnati Cyclones hockey team. He spent 20 years with the team that won two Kelly Cups Championships. Before going to the Cyclones, he was the PA announcer for NKU men’s and women’s basketball teams in the 1980’s. He remembers how the women’s team had a legit chance of winning the NCAA Division-II championship but an injury to star player Melissa Wood derailed that season. We talk about him attending games with his buddies known as the “Rail Gang.” One of their favorite players was John “Moose” Campbell who played for the Cincinnati Slammers of the CBA. They were also able to meet Phil Jackson and Cazzie Russell while going to Slammers games and jeering the visiting team. Now in what he describes as semi-retirement, Wildman stays busy as a PA announcer for both Seven Hills and Indian Hill High School. Recently, Joe Danneman from Fox 19 did a feature of Wildman in action. Click here to see that story. Finally we go into some detail about his newly release book Wild Man: The Book. He teases a story about an incident between him and former Reds pitcher Danny Graves that developed into a full fledged feud between the two that is far from settled. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices