Riter Radio

Episode 228 opens with Brad admitting (proudly) that show sheets are back… but so is his preferred style: controlled chaos. A text from Scott Wilson kicks things off with an instant classic—Brazilian Portuguese broadcast audio of the Josh Allen-to-Dawson Knox touchdown—so electric Brad jokes he could play it 47 times and call it a show. From there, he pivots to the Sabres’ new general manager (whose name he’s still getting comfortable saying), lines up Paul Hamilton for Friday to explain what’s actually going on, and launches into a very Brad rant about the NHL standings: the “sometimes 2 points, sometimes 3 points” system is brutal math that makes a three-game win streak feel meaningless when the Sabres still sit at the bottom.

Halfway through, Bob Gaughan joins Brad for a mix of tribute, sports, and chaos. They start with Rob Reiner—especially the absurdly strong start to his directing career (This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Sure Thing, The Princess Bride—which Brad still hates—When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men). The conversation shifts to Bills/Pats officiating noise and the growing “Josh Allen carrying a talentless roster” narrative—one both Brad and Bob push back on—before detouring into what a Mahomes injury could mean for the Chiefs’ entire era. They touch on Kevin Adams being out as Sabres GM, wrap with Bob’s “Stone Cold Lock” (Tampa -3), and Brad tries (and fails) to deliver the full uncensored Todd Bowles rant. The episode’s closer is the heart-stealer: Drew and Dylan’s two-minute school podcast “Allen’s Dimes,” complete with kid-chosen sponsors (Sabres and Pepsi), adorable Bills facts, and the killer line: “We’ve been Bills fans since 2016… fun fact, that’s when we were born.”

Episode 227 opens with Brad in a rare, openly off-kilter mood: tired, cold, unmotivated, and still weighed down by the heavy tone of the previous day’s show. With no guests and no real plan, he leans into the honesty—admitting he almost didn’t want to do the show at all—but decides to hit the mic anyway, framing the episode as a palate cleanser built on randomness rather than structure. That loose approach quickly turns into a wandering, conversational stream as he reflects on waking up too early, feeling physically off, and needing something light and silly to reset his brain.

From there, the show becomes exactly that: a free-associative hang. Brad dives into late-night movie watching (The Poseidon Adventure and its dated, theatrical overacting), spirals into a deep and absurd breakdown of Puff the Magic Dragon lore, and riffs on how old movies, kids’ specials, and disaster films hit differently decades later. Along the way, he mixes in personal nostalgia, pop-culture tangents, weather complaints, and observational humor, fully embracing the idea that some days the show isn’t about tight segments—it’s about showing up, talking it out, and letting the audience ride along while he figures it out in real time.

Episode 226 opens with Brad riding the high of the Bills’ comeback win over New England, and arguing it shouldn’t have shocked anybody: “score, stop, score” is the simple math of flipping a game, especially when Josh Allen is your quarterback. He pushes back on the “tale of two halves” narrative, frames the Patriots as a legitimate playoff threat (while still insisting the Bills are better), and gives love to under-the-radar contributors like Ray Davis in the return game. Along the way: Christmas music takes over the breaks for the final stretch to Christmas, a quick plug for YouTube subscribers to hit the notification bell, and a happy-birthday shoutout to his dad Gary (77).

Then the show veers into a true-crime-style segment with Scott Wilson reacting to the shocking headline about Rob Reiner and his wife being murdered, with discussion of Reiner’s massive legacy across genres (Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally, and more) and how Hollywood doesn’t make “heart” movies like that anymore. They pivot back to football with a rant about NFL replay/clock management—especially everything that felt off at Gillette—and a perfectly-timed Patriots radio clip prematurely declaring the Bills’ window “closed.” The episode wraps with more Gillette paranoia, a little Chiefs/Mahomes injury talk, and the debut of the “Brad-vent calendar” featuring a vintage, absurd duck-bunny video as the day’s gift to the audience.

Preview/Summary of Ep 224

Episode 224: Brad vs. The Machines (and Everything Else)
Today’s episode turns into an accidental deep dive on AI, self-awareness, and the evolving chaos that is Riter Radio. Brad opens by battling stream malfunctions, missing start times, and his ongoing war with lighting and glasses glare — all while explaining major upgrades to the show, including the fully functional YouTube chat now appearing live on his screen. From there, the conversation spirals into a surprisingly compelling breakdown of how he fed transcripts of previous episodes into AI, asked it to review the show, and wound up with brutal, glowing, and hilariously revealing critiques that somehow captured the spirit of Riter Radio better than most humans.

At 11:00, Bob Gaughan joins to talk Bills, linebackers, defensive adjustments, halftime coaching, Michigan’s meltdown with Sherrone Moore, Notre Dame’s bowl fiasco, and his Stone Cold Lock of the Week. After Bob departs, Brad returns to the AI experiment — reading scathing reviews, rebuttal reviews, and a third critic who accidentally invents a new genre to describe the show (“a live, free-associative human diary”). The episode ends with Brad debuting an AI-generated video recap of the infamous Pistachio Challenge and outlining how AI might finally help scale Riter Radio without changing what makes it work. It’s the most meta, funniest, most self-aware episode yet — half tech odyssey, half sports talk, all Brad.

Today's episode features Senior Boston correspondent Mike O'Brien to discuss the upcoming Bills/Patriots game and Senior Philly correspondent Jon Fuller who checks in from Vegas where he attended the National Football Foundation's awards dinner and HOF induction ceremony.

Or, if you ask AI...

Episode 223 of Riter Radio is peak “hang out with Brad” energy — funny, loose, surprisingly sharp, and packed. It opens with Brad battling his studio lighting and glasses glare, turning a mundane tech problem into classic Riter Radio charm. From there he delivers a legitimately clear, useful breakdown of Bills–Patriots: why this week’s matchup functions as a “four-point game,” what “clinching the division” really means, and how a Bills win keeps the AFC East — and even seeding — wide open. It’s the rare sports talk segment that’s both insightful and actually fun to listen to.

The guest segments fire on all cylinders. Senior Boston correspondent Michael O’Brien calls in at full volume with hilarious Patriots takes, Drake May worship, AFC East psychology, and Boston sports insanity. Then senior Philly (and today, Vegas) correspondent Jon Fuller checks in from a black-tie College Football Hall of Fame event at the Bellagio, sharing surreal stories about being in a room with Saban, Urban Meyer, Michael Vick, and Strahan while celebrating UB’s Red Murdoch. Add in NIL/transfer-portal talk, UB hoops buzz, a quick Sabres rant, and a family trivia-night meltdown, and Episode 223 stands out as a lively, packed, genuinely entertaining show — the kind that reminds you why Riter Radio hits different.

AI says:

Brad opens Episode 222 with a delirious, overtired recap of accidentally falling asleep at 8:20 p.m., waking up at 1:15 a.m. fully recharged, and realizing the post-COVID world has killed all the late-night options that used to make nocturnal life fun — like grocery shopping alone at 3 a.m. He wanders through the joys and perils of being a lifelong night owl, a sore throat that may mutate into seven different symptoms over seven days (as it always does), and the existential crisis of being addicted not to social media but to puzzle games he insists are “for children.” There are riffs on bottle returns, pennies disappearing from society, Ferris Bueller tributes in art museum commercials, and whatever else crossed the dashboard of his sleep-deprived brain.

From there the show shifts into Bills-Pats mode, with Brad laying out why the division is still wide open, how one win in Foxborough resets the entire AFC picture, and why December football shouldn’t trigger panic in Buffalo — it only matters that the Bills land in the tournament. He runs through playoff math, quarterback tiers, Josh Allen’s absurd postseason numbers, and the vulnerabilities of AFC contenders, while weaving in life updates: 17 youth-sports events per week, his 6’2" son learning to play big in basketball, and the thrill of a buzzer-beater. By the time Brad gets to Australia banning teens from social media, Golden Globe nominations, and a four-hour Puff Daddy documentary he watched at 2 a.m., you’ve heard a full Brad-Riter-day compressed into two hours — sports, parenting, insomnia, Bills optimism, and unfiltered Buffalo brain.

Episode 221 opens with Brad freezing in his own basement, explaining how he shut every heat vent downstairs so his kids wouldn’t turn into icicles upstairs — a noble dad move that leaves him doing the show in hood-up, sleeves-over-hands survival mode. From there he spirals into early-winter dread, basement-floor frostbite, and the indignity of being cold even after a Bills win. Before Scott arrives, Brad kills time by unloading a full, hilarious rant on Jeff Kent making the Baseball Hall of Fame — a deep dive into Bonds, steroids, motorcycle stunts disguised as truck-washing injuries, MVP math fraud, and how Cooperstown is committing a crime against baseball logic.

When Scott finally joins, Brad confesses he spent the entire first hour yelling about Jeff Kent instead of talking Bills-Bengals. They quickly pivot to Buffalo’s season-saving defensive plays, why the division (and even the 1-seed) is still realistically in reach, and the difference between real panic and fake panic in a Josh Allen world. From there the conversation rockets through the NFL standings, the absurdity of rooting for ties in December, and college football madness — Miami in the wrong MAC title game, Duke trolling North Carolina and Belichick, playoff consequences disappearing in a 12-team world, Group of Five disrespect, and Texas Tech buying a winner with billionaire NIL money. Scott ends with a World Cup update featuring Croatia–Ghana (great!) and a pride-themed Egypt–Iran game (oh no!), before Brad abruptly ends the show because he suddenly remembers he has to be at a parent-teacher conference in 12 minutes.

This is an excerpt from Ep 220 in which Scott Wilson and I (both longtime UB football broadcasters) address the suggested improprieties leveled by online miscreants against star WR Victor Snow.

Or, as AI put it...

Episode 220 opens with Brad and Scott addressing the online firestorm over Victor Snow’s 58-yard catch — a great play that suddenly became “evidence” of gambling corruption after a 15-second clip went viral. Both guys are fired up.

Scott lays out the core issue: with recent gambling scandals in other sports, fans now assume the worst about any weird-looking play. Leagues haven’t clarified rules, punishments, or guardrails, so suspicion fills the vacuum — and innocent players get smeared. He argues prop bets should be eliminated to protect athletes and the integrity of the games.

Brad and Scott then explain what actually happened on the play. Snow adjusted to an underthrown ball, turned upfield, glanced at the new scoreboard to check defenders’ angles, misread it by a split-second, tucked the ball to protect it, and stepped out. Not ideal, but understandable — especially given his role as UB’s toughest, most reliable all-around weapon. They emphasize: there are no college player props on New York apps, and probably none anywhere for a UB receiver. The whole gambling narrative is built on ignorance.

Both hosts push back hard on the online outrage cycle: people judging a player they don’t know, in a stadium they’ve never been in, from a camera angle the player wasn’t even seeing. They’ve watched every snap Snow has taken; they know his value, toughness, and integrity. One clipped moment doesn’t outweigh years of evidence.

The segment ends with a bigger point: this is what happens when reaction culture + legal gambling + zero context collide. A kid makes a split-second misread, and suddenly strangers are calling for FBI investigations. Brad and Scott argue for something radical — understanding what you’re talking about before forming an opinion.