Nobody's Safe with Brady Laber

Scott Schweitzer graduated from Campbell County High School in 1998 where he was Kentucky all-state first basemen playing baseball for Hall of Fame head coach Tom Mohr. The Camels were 31-6 Schweitzer’s senior season which broke the record for most wins in a season. That year the Camels were 10th region tournament runners-up to eventual state champion Harrison County coached by Mac Whitaker and led on the field by Gary “Noochie” Varner. After committing originally to Bethune-Cookman, Schweitzer ultimately goes to Aquinas College a junior college program in Nashville, Tennessee coached by Chuck Anderson. Schweitzer talks about his recruitment and how things have changed in the not only in the process itself but how scholarship dispersals are different from back then up to now. Schweitzer went to college as a first basemen and ended up as a pitcher when his hitting career got off to a slow start. He got an emergency start when the scheduled starter became injured during warmups and pitched well enough to stay on the staff. After wrapping up his career at Aquinas, Schweitzer eventually decided on Kentucky Wesleyan after visits to East Tennessee State and Northern Kentucky. The main thing that attracted him to Kentucky Wesleyan was the opportunity to be a two-way player as assistant coach Rob Henry saw him as a first baseman, designated hitter and relief pitcher. The staff at Kentucky Wesleyan also included head coach Todd Lillpop and assistant coach Josh Bradford. During his senior year at Kentucky Wesleyan in 2002, Schweitzer was a 1st-team All-GLVC designated hitter and 2nd-team All-GLVC pitcher. He led the team in both home runs and wins on the mound. One of the biggest thrills in Schweitzer’s career at Kentucky Wesleyan was getting the win in a 1-0 game against Northern Kentucky and driving in the lone run of the game. Schweitzer is drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 18th round with the 552nd pick of the 2002 amateur draft. He talks about his draft day experience and the contract negotiation with Cardinals scout Scott Melvin that earned him a $1,000 signing bonus. We now get to the point of the show where we talk about how much of a financial struggle it is for a minor leaguer that doesn’t sign for big money. It takes the help of a supportive family at home and generous host families to support what Schweitzer calls his “baseball habit.” His host family in New Jersey, Jeff and Patty, owned the Third Base Pub in Branchville, New Jersey and where players received a generous discounted rate. Now that he’s officially in the Cardinals organization, Schweitzer is introduced what is known as the “Cardinal Way.” Gene Tenace, who was the 1972 World Series MVP for the Oakland A’s, was also on that staff and helped Schweitzer develop a slider as a strikeout pitch. Schweitzer talks about injuring his elbow while pitching to Howie Kendrick with Alberto Callaspo on first base. The end result was Tommy John surgery. Other coaches in the Cardinals system that left a mark on Schweitzer were Tommy Shields and Sid Monge. Schweitzer eventually retires at the all-star break of the 2005 season to begin his new life as a family man and figure what to do with his life without baseball. After working briefly in sales Schweitzer decides that he likes working with kids and eventually gets his teaching certificate working in the Campbell County School District. You can follow the Campbell County baseball account on Twitter its @CamelsBaseball 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 Cover art photo provided by Allen Ramsey of DWC Photo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like many baseball fans growing up in Northern Kentucky, Andrew was influenced by Marty Brenneman and Joe Nuxhall calling Cincinnati Reds games on the radio. Andrew got his start working in baseball at the tender age of 14 in the summer of 2005 when he started to cover the Florence Freedom of the independent Frontier League for the OurSports Central website. Andrew gives credit and thanks to Freedom manager at the time Jamie Keefe along with his staff especially pitching coach Chris Hook and bench coach John Christman for allowing him the opportunity to come into the coach’s office and learn about the game. Brady helped mentor Andrew in the Freedom press box but not without some good-natured ribbing that sometimes might have bordered on hazing. Brady along with play-by-play announcer Jeff Johnson and press box workers Mitch Morrison, Aaron Zupka and Rob Ellington took Andrew under their wing thought the course of that summer and beyond. In 2006, Andrew becomes part of the game day staff for the Freedom while also still writing for OurSports Central. As time goes on, Andrew is finally getting a chance to do some broadcasting, in small dosages, working with both the radio voice of the Freedom Roger Redmon. Though the relationships made working with the Freedom, Andrew is hired by Mike Anderson to work in the sports information department at Northern Kentucky University upon enrolling into college. This gives Andrew the opportunity to call soccer games for NKU as a freshman. This is also where Andrew begins to work with John Asalon calling NKU baseball games. Andrew starts doing middle innings for Norse games all the while being critiqued by “Johnny A.” Andrew also recalls his first solo broadcast job was calling high school basketball games for his alma matter Bishop Brossart. Local legend Dave Schabell who founded the website bmustangs.com gives Andrew a chance to call games for the Mustangs. As a recent college graduate Andrew begins to work as the radio play-by-play announcer and later on the TV side for the NKU women’s basketball program. He credits head coach [Dawn Plitzuweit](@CoachDawnP) and her assistant coach Lynn Plett for being instrumental in his development during this time. His professional baseball career is starting to get off the ground as well and he begins that journey as an intern for two seasons with the Lexington Legends. The Legends were at the time Class-A affiliate of the Houston Astros and Andrew is working under local broadcasting legend Keith Elkins. Also, during this process Andrew begins to shadow Louisville Bats lead play-by-play announcer [Jim Kelch](@KelchJim). This spawned a mentorship that was very instrumental in Andrew’s development as a young up-an-coming broadcaster. Andrew’s first full-time job in broadcasting was with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barrie RailRaiders in 2013. The RailRaiders are the Triple-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Andrew talks about the tough love he received from his boss [John Sadak](@johnsadak). You can follow Andrew Kappes on Twitter [@KappesPxP](@KappesPxP) 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

Abby Owings grew up in Independence, Kentucky where she attended and played basketball at Simon Kenton High School. Her head coach Jeff Stowers was a Hall of Fame basketball player at Northern Kentucky University. Stowers took over a struggling program that has become a perennial contender for the 8th Region title by the time Abby became the staring point guard as a freshman in 2010-11. Abby credits Simon Kenton assistant coach Loretta Olmstead with helping Abby and her family through the recruiting process. She also talks about playing grass roots basketball for coach Buddy Pittman in the Shining Stars program. Abby chooses to play college basketball at Thomas More University for head coach Jeff Hans. She becomes the starting point guard her freshman year and the team goes 33-0 winning the 2015 NCAA D-III National Championship. (Note: That title was later vacated.) Just before her sophomore season is about to start, Abby’s mom loses her five year battle with cancer. It’s a tough time in her life but the only child knew that watching Abby play basketball gave her mom joy during her fight with the illness. Thomas More continues to dominate the D-III ranks in Abby’s sophomore season. The Saints already have Sydney Moss, the nation’s best player along with Abby and a great supporting cast. Now they have added a 5’11” guard Madison Temple and are even better in 2015-16. This leads to a second straight undefeated season and national championship. With Moss now graduated Abby is moved to the shooting guard position her junior and is the featured offensive option. The team flourishes once again and is undefeated going into the NCAA tournament. The Saints hosts the first weekend regionals but are upset by Hope College. It’s the first loss in Abby’s career and she takes it hard. Abby and her team use the loss as motivation going into her senior season. Abby returns to point guard and teams up with Temple and post player Nikki Kiernan to make another deep run. Thomas More returns to the Final Four in Rochester, Minnesota but lose in the national semifinals to Amherst ending Abby’s college career. To summarize her career, Abby was a three-time All-American, 2017 PAC Player of the Year, appeared in three Final Fours and won two National Championships. With her playing career over there is no question in Abby’s mind what she wants to do upon graduation. She is determined to become a college coach and begins that journey as a graduate assistant at Morehead State University. She moves onto Shawnee State where coincidentally her new team is in the same conference as her alma matter Thomas More. As a side note the Bears come to Crestview Hills and snap the Saints nine-year regular season conference winning streak. Abby admits before the game it was the most nervous she had ever been preparing for a game. In the late spring of 2020 she is hired to be an assistant coach at Bellarmine University on head coach Chancellor Dugan’s staff. Bellarmine was going into Division-I after many years of success in Division-II and the Great Lakes Valley Conference. In the summer of 2020 Abby is named to the NCAA D-III All-Decade Team. This accolade is made special for Abby because she is joined for that honor with her teammates Sydney Moss and Madison Temple. You can follow Abby on Twitter @CoachAbbyO 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

Brady and John pick up their conversation talking about John’s time as a sports talk radio show personality. It begins innocently enough when John is catering food to the station and ends up with him getting on the air. John gives credit to Mark Amazon and Dennis “Wild Man” Walker for giving him his break. He also talks about some debauchery that takes place in the studio thanks to The Wild Man. Through his friendship with Wild Man, John was able to also fill-in as the public address announcer for local hockey team the Cincinnati Cyclones. Also, Mark Amazon helped get John the full-time public announcing job for a minor league basketball team in town known as the Cincinnati Stuff. In 2012, Brady actually hired John to be the play-by-play announcer for the Cincinnati Steam of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League. The Steam is a team comprised of college players in a wood-bat league that plays its home games on The Westside at Western Hills High School. Brady and John fondly reminisce about all the great people that contribute to the day-to-day operations of the team. This conversation can’t happen with talking about the man who was the heartbeat of the organization, the late great Max McLeary. Some of the highlights of John’s career included call two triple plays, a 23-game that was the second game of a double header, having his nephew Anthony Asalon play for the Steam and John singing God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch on the Fourth of July. Click here to hear John’s first triple play call from June 25, 2016 versus the Lake Erie Monarchs. Next we talk about some of John’s broadcasts partners over the years. While with the Steam John gave a high school kid a chance to do his first television game. John didn’t realize this kid really didn’t need his help but was still gracious enough to accept the invitation. That young man was Jac Collinsworth who now works for ESPN and NBC Sports. Brady asks John to talk about a couple of his broadcasts partners over the years Denny Wright and Andrew Kappes. Wright is a long-time broadcaster for both Thomas More and Northern Kentucky University. Kappes, who is currently the number-two broadcaster for the Indianapolis Indians, got his start as a student at NKU. John talks about some of the difficult vantage points to call games for a broadcasts. Many people assume the media have luxurious press box facilities, and sometimes that’s true, but most times it is not even close to being ideal. John shares some of the unusual accommodations provided for a professional broadcast. We wrap up the conversation where John talks about his current project which is a podcast detailing the American Professional Baseball Association. You can follow “Johnny A” on Twitter @john_asalon and catch his podcast The Week in APBA Anchor preview. Click here to listen to the podcast. 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

Brady welcomes John to the podcast and John talks about his growing up in the “Westside” which sparks a lengthy conversation about the demographics and makeup of this large neighborhood on the western side of Cincinnati, Ohio. This discussion moves toward John’s high school alma mater Elder High School. Elder is one of the most tradition filled programs in America let alone Cincinnati and John talks about the fierce loyalty shown by people who still life vicariously through the Purple and White. This spins off into a brief description and comparison to Elder and John’s current employer Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky. With a degree in marketing from Northern Kentucky University, John starts working as the assistant manager at Hader Hardware. After a brief period of time John decides to branch out on his own. He buys a competing hardware store that is struggling and goes into business for himself. After five years of owning and operating the hardware store, his brother Todd Asalon gets him into the catering business. Todd and his business partner are doing a great business but need help actually running the business and bring John into the mix. The conversation somehow veers into a sidebar about Todd playing baseball at Northern Kentucky University for legendary head coach and founder of the program Bill Aker. Todd would eventually becomes Aker’s hand picked successor as head coach upon his retirement after the 2000 season. There are a ton of Bill Aker stories and because of purposes of time John only talks about just a few of them. Because John’s story a long winding and interesting road he just now gets to the point of when he makes his debut as a play-by-play broadcaster. Todd is the baseball coach and athletic director at Thomas More and in the mid-90’s he needs a fill-in for a Saints football game. At this point John was in his late-30’s and is making his debut with less than 24 hours notice. John finds out upon arrival that he will be working solo and after a rough start finds his rhythm as the Saints defeat Hope College. The circumstances are not uneventful but like and old pro John perseveres and his broadcasting career is finally underway. Thomas More games are broadcasts on a local level, many times with volunteers, on public access and local origination programming channels. The name of that channel is currently called TBNK, the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky formerly known as Cable One. For many years John begins to branch out by calling basketball games for Thomas More as well as high school football and basketball on TBNK. John’s brother Todd makes arrangements for John to begin his tenure for the Northern Kentucky University baseball games in 2006. Since was the early days of internet streaming plus the Norse were not playing on campus at the time. Also around this same time, John teams up with Denny Wright on TBNK called Florence Freedom games. This sparks conversation and memories about one of the founding members of the television industry in Northern Kentucky, the late great Ted Bushelman. Click here to see Ted’s death notice and obituary because it is a great recap of Ted’s distinguished life. In Episode 6 we continue the story with John as he and Brady talk about his time in sports talk radio, his tenure with the Cincinnati Steam, a couple of his long-time broadcast partners AND him calling games from some very difficult and unique vantage points during the course of his career. You can follow “Johnny A” on Twitter @john_asalon and catch his podcast The Week in APBA Anchor preview. 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

Brady welcomes Randy Gore to the podcast and they talk about his upbringing in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, Pennsylvania. Randy talks about growing up a Pirates/Steelers/Penguins fan. In fact, he was born in 1979 when the Pirates and Steelers had won world championships in during that calendar year. Randy attended and graduated from Waynesburg University where he majored in Communications with an emphasis on Sports Broadcasting. He describes the practical experience he gained at Waynesburg, first learning production work before getting a chance to broadcast games for the Yellow Jackets student-run production. Very similar to Brady’s training at Northern Kentucky University, Waynesburg provided a student-run television production for the athletic department under the supervision of the professors. Once he became an upper classman, Randy earned a talent position on the Waynesburg broadcasts. Randy interned as a college student for the Pittsburgh Penguins. On game nights he was part of the crew that executes the in-game entertainment segments. Among other things, on non-game nights he did things such as log file footage of highlight clips to be used at a later time for things such as hype-videos and sponsor video. Interns from the Penguins were also able to work as production assistants for ESPN and FOX coverage of Penguins playoff games. Once Randy graduated from Waynesburg he bounced around as a freelance prouduction worker in the Pittsburgh area before landing a job at WJPA Radio (95.3 FM, 1450AM) in Washington, Pennsylvania. At WJPA, Randy started as a producer and board operator before landing his first on-air opportunity in the news department as a Saturday morning weekend reporter. Randy talks about the early struggles breaking into broadcasting when its hard to earn a living and how his parents were supportive of his pursuit of chasing the dream even when times and money were both lean. Randy was able to earn more opportunities and gain full-time employment at WJPA. He thanks Operations Manager and Sports Director Bob Gregg for having the confidence in him in order to gain more sports experience. WJPA was the flagship station for the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League and in 2005 Randy becomes the team’s play-by-play broadcaster. The discussion turns to being in the tough position of describing a mistake made by a player and not upsetting his family who is at home listening. Randy talks about going through the process of exploring other baseball opportunities but ultimately staying with the Wild Things for 11 seasons which is a long tenure in the Frontier League. What would be a conversation about minor league baseball without discussing the long bus rides and trips. Randy does protect the innocent by not going into seedy details but does refer to it as some of the best times of his life. Despite all of the success, after the 2007 off-season was a bit of a turning point for him in his broadcasting career. Feeling the need to find a job with a pension and more secure insurance benefits, Randy applies for a job with his father’s company. He did not get job which kept in broadcasting full-time and shortly thereafter he enjoyed the best success of his career up to that point. You can follow the PAC Sports Network on Twitter @PACSports and the Presidents' Athletics Conference @PAC_Athletics 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

Matt talks about how he was able to land the job of television play-by-play announcer for Northern Kentucky University. At first he was assigned men’s and women’s soccer and then added women’s basketball to his schedule. Matt talks about his beginnings in the media business as a reporter for the Wilmington News Journal as a high school student under the tutelage of sports editor Mark Huber. Matt and Brady talk about the willingness to work for free in order get a foot in the door. In Matt’s case he became the public address announcer as a high school freshman at Blanchester (Ohio) High School. Matt graduated from Blanchester High School in 1997 as the valedictorian and enrolled at Ohio University. While at OU he studied at the illustrious Scripps School of Journalism and worked as a disc jockey at the campus radio station. Matt talks about being burned out with school and dropping out of college after his sophomore year. He acknowledges that in hindsight it wasn’t a great decision but he was able to find work back home in Blanchester. His first media job after leaving OU was returning to the Wilmington News Journal. He would eventually made the jump to the Wilmington radio station WSWO-FM and WKFI-AM. Apparently there was a big rivalry between the newspaper and the radio station in a small market like Wilmington and Matt felt the wrath of that situation. Matt look back on his most memorable day on the job at the radio station when he and his co-host Jerry “Too Tall” Jennings where on the air reporting on the 9/11 tragedy. After the radio station closes and the newspaper job was not an option, Matt talks about being out of the business for a few years supporting himself by working in a factory. Matt bounces back and returns into the media field by streaming high school football games for both Blanchester and nearby Goshen High School. Eventually Matt is able to mend fences at the Wilmington News Journal and started covering high school football again. In particular he is given the assignment as the beat reporter for Clinton-Massie High School and its run to back-to-back state championships in 2012 and 2013. Brady and Matt talk about the current state of coverage that high school sports get in the local media. They discuss how the coverage has diminished while the demand has increased. Brady asks Matt to discus one the great high school football coaches in the state of Ohio, Dan McSurley of Clinton-Massie. Through his coverage, Matt has a unique perspective of this program that has produced multiple state championships using a unique offensive scheme. In 2014, at the age of 35, Matt decides to make the decision to return to college and earn his degree. He enrolls as a non-tradition student at Northern Kentucky University where he makes valuable connections and takes advance of some great opportunities. While at NKU, he becomes the sports editor of The Northerner which is the student newspaper. This give Matt the opportunity to interact with Bryan McEldowney and Brad Pope for the NKU Athletic Communications and Media Services Department. Matt also takes classes in the Electronic Media & Broadcasting program at NKU in order to help keep his budding broadcasting career. Wes Akers becomes a mentor and helps Matt get his opportunity to broadcast NKU soccer games. Matt also gives thanks to both Brad Pope and Bryan McEldowney for actually approving his hire as a broadcaster for NKU on the ESPN Digital Platform known as ESPN+ You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattSextonPxP 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](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

On this edition of Nobody’s Safe with Brady Laber, Brady’s guest is former Xavier University “sharpshooter” and television analyst for Northern Kentucky University Brad Redford. Brad talks about his hometown of Frankenmuth, Michigan and how it’s not only the Christmas retail store capital on the world it’s also the home of his favorite family owned restaurants, Zehnder’s and the Bavarian Inn. The Redford family settled in Frankentmuth when his father Mike, a former news anchor relocated from Detroit to Saginaw. Brad remembers growing up in the television newsroom and developed an interest in broadcasting. Brad talks about his love for basketball at an early and when he was first noticed by college coaches at a summer camp when he was in the 7th grade. Brad played for head coach Norm Oden for his AAU program the Michigan Mustangs. One of his teammates on the Mustangs was former Michigan State All-American and NBA world champion Draymond Green. The recruiting process started for Brad as a freshman when he received an offer from Valparaiso University. Ultimately, Brad commits at the end of his sophomore year with Xavier University and explains why he chose to play for the Musketeers and head coach Sean Miller. Brad’s senior year was a special one as he averaged 37 points per game and set state records in both 3-point and free throw shooting. The season culminated in Brad winning the 2008 Mr. Basketball award in the state of Michigan. There was a famous highlight video of Brad’s exploits that helped give him exposure and create awareness during the run to the Mr. Basketball crown. Click here to watch that video. Brad tells a funny story about finding out that we won Mr. Basketball. There was NO a banquet, so he and his teammates took off a half-day off school taking a party bus down to Detroit to accept the award. Brad shares why he picked Xavier as his college of choice and how it was down to business as soon as he arrived on campus shortly after high school graduation. He knew that he had to prove himself in order to get on the court with a talented group of teammates at a winning program. Brad looks back on one of the most memorable games, all be it a loss, in Xavier basketball history which was a double overtime defeat at the hands of Kansas State in the NCAA tournament. Good memories included going 3-1 in one the country’s greatest rivalries, the Crosstown Shootout against the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Besides the rivalry with UC, Brad also talks about the heated nature of the series between Xavier and the Dayton Flyers. Brad is forced to red shirt his junior season due to a torn ACL so he along with Xavier marketing department create an interview segment called Redford’s Rundown. His first interview is with Bobby Knight and Brad talks about the interaction being awkward. The final product is not as bad as Brad remembers so take a look and judge for yourself: Redford’s Rundown: Brad talk with Bobby Knight. You can follow Brad Redford on both Twitter @Brad_Redford12 and Instagram @Brad_Redford12. You can follow Brad’s podcast the BeDFRNT Podcast on Twitter @BeDFRNTPodcast and subscribe to it on YouTube by using this link: BrDFRNT Podcast You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at https://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

On the debut edition of Nobody’s Safe with Brady Laber, Brady’s guest is Nate Metz who is the voice of the Thomas More University Saints and the founder of the Stove Leg Media Podcast Network. Nate talks about “cold calling” local small colleges in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area trying to land a spot as a play-by-play announcer after graduating from college and working a regular job. After doing some work for the Cincinnati Christian University women’s basketball team he tells the story about receiving a call from Thomas More University. Nate joins the Thomas More basketball broadcast team in mid-season of the 2017-18 campaign. He goes into detail about the chemistry between himself and his first broadcast partner at Thomas More, former women’s basketball player Devin Beasley. He tells a great story about the time they first met each other which was after their first broadcast together had already begun. We go back to the beginning for Nate being born in Cincinnati. His mother Kim Beeson was a former disk jockey/on-air personalty at WUBE-FM (now known as B-105) in Cincinnati during the 1980’s and early 90’s. As a youngster, Nate’s family moves to Beloit, Wisconsin after his dad, a commercial airline pilot, is relocated. He explains how Beloit is more of an urban area than the dairy farms that most people reference when people talk about the state of Wisconsin. Nate talks about some of his early influences in the broadcast industry. Of course he states his mom but his next answer isn’t what you might expect out of a sports announcer. For an upcoming broadcaster Nate actually did not study broadcasting at first in college. He attended Berea College in Kentucky but his mom advised him to actually major in accounting. Nate talks about having to participate in a work-study program while at Berea that includes his first ever job that happened to be in food services. He eventually gets involved in the athletics department as a broadcaster thanks to a personal connection with someone else that was actually from Beloit. Nate talks about returning home each summer to work for the Beloit Snappers, Class-A affiliate of the Oakland A’s. He worked there with Frontier League Hall of Fame player/manager Fran Riordan who encouraged Nate to walk-on to the baseball team at Berea. Nate also talks about working in Beloit with Bill Czaja, a longtime play-by-play announcer in the Frontier League who was working for the Snappers as the Director of Marketing and Promotions. This of course sparks a conversation about the unusual promotions you see in minor league baseball. After graduating from Berea, Nate settled in Cincinnati, working a "real job” at insurance company followed by an accounting job while trying to figure out a strategy to land work as a broadcaster. Nate goes into more detail about his first season working for Thomas More that included a run by the women’s basketball team to the NCAA Division-III national championship game. Nate and Brady then talk about starting to work together as a broadcast team calling Thomas More football games for the 2018 season. Nate also talks about calling all Thomas More varsity sporting events including ones that he had never had experience in calling before. Nate and Brady talk about teaming up for the Thomas More women’s basketball run to the 2019 NCAA D-III National Championship. Nate closes out the conversation talking his venture as an entrepreneur founding his own podcast distribution company called Stove Leg Media. You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe You can follow Nate Metz on Twitter @NateMetz For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected] You can follow Thomas More University Athletics on its Official Twitter account @tmusaints please use the #LetsGoSaints Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

The official audio trailer of Nobody's Safe - With Brady Laber Proudly distributed by Stove Leg Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices