November 14, 2024 • 20 mins
In this episode, we react to the CNBC story about NBC not having the rights to Roundball Rock for the upcoming NBA on NBC reboot.
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Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:01):
Gib Gerard, welcome to the podcast. And as is, as is
what happens usual. What's usualfor me in the morning is that I
wake up and I have 450 textsabout something this time. It
was never a good sign. Never.
This has got to be from my wife,Connie. This is I left something
on. I don't know what happens.
(00:22):
The dog did something.
It was about, it was about thebasketball song. It was about,
about round ball rock, the greatand what happens with me, with
my friends, is it's like, areyou okay with this? And they
don't even tell me what theheck's going on. It's like, are
you okay with this? The samething happened when Saturday
Night Live did a parody of thesong right in New York and and I
(00:43):
hadn't hit here yet in LosAngeles. And so I get all these
texts from everybody, my friendLenny, like 100 texts, are you
okay with this? I can't believehe's I can't believe these guys
did this, you know. So it waslike that. And so finally,
somebody sent me a clip, and itwas these guys. It was on a show
that I don't I don't watch on CBCNBC, but maybe I should,
because it's on at my gym in themorning. So I go to my I do my
workout, and I watch Squawk Box.
I'm watching this. I'm thinking,you know, if I watch this every
(01:06):
now and then, my stock portfoliowould be better. But that's
usually what they talk about,right? Is stocks, yes, and then
they have like, 1000 tickers onthe bottom, yeah, yeah. It's a
regular business.
And they do business newsstories. And I mean, and they
picked up a story this morningabout you, involves the fact
(01:27):
that the NBA is coming back toNBC, right, which we're very
excited about, and about thenature of whether or not round
ball rock is going to be on thebroadcast or not. Yeah, I got to
tell you that when I see my namepop up and I see people on the
news talking about it. Checkyour pulse. My gosh. It was
like, okay, so should I playthis? The first part of this?
(01:48):
Yeah, go ahead. This is, this isthe story. Okay, here we go.
Remember that let the nostalgiaflood in, folks. During the
1990s it was open. It was theopen to the NBA on NBC featured
the beloved round ball rockthemes composed by John tett.
But with the NBA coming back toNBC, will we once again hear
(02:13):
that song blaring from our TVs?
I hope so. The guy who knows theanswer as he NBC, Alex Sherman
at the table this morning. Whatdo we got? Let me tell you a
little story. Andrew, a fewmonths ago, I wrote a story
about how NBC could license thissong from John TASH, the
composer, when it became clearthat NBC was on the verge of
(02:34):
striking a deal to bring backthe NBA, which starts next
season, I love this song. Itjust brings back everything from
it. So everything, when I wrotethe story, the the impact on
social media was through theroof. So in the back of my mind
as a reporter, I rememberedthat, and was like, Okay, let me
check up on how that deal was.
(02:57):
So in the intermediate, NBCSports, when they announced that
the NBA was coming back. Said,Hey, the song is going to come
back too. And there was, youknow, internet rejoicing, so I
checked up on the deal.
I hate to break this to you andthe audience, but there is no
deal yet.
Even though NBC Sports said thesong is coming back, they're
(03:18):
still in negotiations with JohnTesh, is that? Is that true
about the about them not havingit and making the announcement?
Yeah, I mean, what happened was,during right before the
Olympics, right I get a callfrom the music department that
NBC, and they, they say, Hey, wejust found out that we it's
(03:40):
official. We got the rights tothe NBA for 11 years. It's back,
and it begins in October of2025,
and we want to bring, we want towant to say that we're
negotiating with you and yourpublishing company, and we're
going to bring round ball rockback with it. We want to put
that in the press release,because we know that that will
be one of the big questions, aswell, as well. It should be as
(04:01):
well as I mean, I was, I washonored when they said, We want
to get ahead of all thequestions. You can't say this,
but I can say this as a viewerof basketball, how exciting it
is to have the theme come backand how, what an exciting moment
it'll be. Because for me, itconnects. You know, I talk about
this all the time. I have, Ihave this group of guys that I
grew up with, and we watchsports together, and we text
(04:22):
every day about the sports thatwe watch. And it brings me when
I hear the theme, and I hear itwhenever I want, when I hear the
theme associate with abasketball broadcast, it brings
me right back to that feeling ofwatching sports with my friends,
and brings me to this heyday ofthe NBA. So I do, I love that
about it. And it would havebeen, you know, regardless of
(04:46):
any connection I have to itwould have been my question.
When the NBA got the NBC got theNBA, I appreciate it. So when he
said this, you know, I said,well, listen, you know, you
don't have the rights to thesong. And so he said, Yeah,
yeah. But we.
We just, we want to put in thein the press release that we're
negotiating with, with, with youand your and your publishing
(05:07):
company. And I said, Ah, that'sthat. I don't think that's a
great idea, right? And then hesaid, Well, we would just hope
that you would negotiate in goodfaith. I said, I guess you're
going to do what you you want todo. And he said, Yeah, that's
what, that's what the folks herewant to do, right? And so when
the press release, fast forward,and when the press release came
(05:27):
out, was this big thing, andeverybody picked it up, right?
All the podcasters, everythingyou know, the NBA is back on
NBC, and round ball rock isback. The press release actually
said we, basically, we have therights to round ball Rock, and
I'm reading this thing, I'mgoing, what? So I call him back
up the guy at NBC, and I say,Hey, you said you're going to
(05:48):
say you were negotiating with usin good faith. Because, yeah, we
got out a little ahead of ourskis. I said, skis. And he said,
Well, you know, we just, we hopethat you'll negotiate in good
faith. And he said, I wish, Ihope, that you won't, you know,
talk to the press about aboutthis. Because what I said was,
(06:10):
I'm gonna get a whole bunch ofphone calls now from all these
podcasts. Can you just waituntil everybody gets back from
the Olympics and then we'llstart negotiations? And so yeah.
Chris Roslin, my publicist said,John, we're getting hundreds of
phone calls. You've got to getahead of this. My lawyer says,
John, you've got to get ahead ofthis. And I realized that if I
quote, unquote, got ahead of it,and said, Whoa, wait, they don't
(06:33):
have the rights that I wouldhave destroyed that while that
great press that NBC wasgetting. And I worked for NBC, I
worked, I did the 92 OlympicGames as an announcer, and also
the 96 the 96 and a lot of stufffor them. I know all the guys
there. And I thought, oh gosh,you know. And I felt like I was
frozen in place. And then whenit came time to negotiate, it
was crickets for, yeah, quite along time. I think, okay, so I
(06:55):
just got cut off at the knees. Imean, look, first and foremost,
it is exciting, the idea of itcoming back. So that's, that's,
that's, that's super great. Theother thing is, you're talking
about negotiating around theOlympics, but having the theme
come back for the Olympics, andhaving that theme with the NBA,
again, with the NBA players thatare out there, was, was such a
great amount of goodwill, somuch excitement. And it really
(07:18):
was, was fueling an excitingfire online, of people
responding to and talking aboutit to the point where, you know,
we've, we've got, like, newversions of the song, and it's
really it, you say, you like tosay, it's taken a life of its
own. Yeah, the song, you know,what's funny is that the song
actually, and we're gonna playsome more clips from, from from
(07:38):
CNBC, but the song when itlasted for about 1011, years on
NBC, beginning in 1989right? And then there was off
for 24 years, right? But duringthat period of time, because of
because of YouTube and peoplelearning how to play the song
and it being, you know, peoplelicensing it for commercials,
and all that stuff, just tookout a larger life than it had,
(08:00):
even when it was on NBC duringthe Showtime era. So listen, I'm
a grateful guy. I had, you know,I do, I did that data, you know,
eight notes that have, like, youknow, I get people singing them
to me in the in the airport.
I'm, I'm totally grateful that'sjust me. I'm just following
around singing it in theairport. And I have to say that
(08:21):
once I left television while Ileft Entertainment Tonight, back
then I thought I had left thismedia madness, but this thing,
and now it's like, now I'm inthe middle of this thing where
it's like, okay, so now what arewe gonna do? Yeah,
so can we play the next play?
The next thing? Okay? NBC fullyexpects to reach a deal still
for the song, and we're still innegotiations. Another thing I
(08:43):
was told is that test hasactually held the conversation
with a VC firm where he couldsell the song to the VC firm and
the VC firm could negotiate withNBC, risk off the table. A
little risk off the table.
Remember, there's, like, therewas like, a big SNL sketch about
the song. The song is wildlypossible, like the theme song to
(09:04):
Top Gun, though it just, itbrings the you hear it, and it
brings back a whole but youalso think, honestly,
all right, so that's it. I'mleaving now. He just equated it
to Top Gun.
Look,you can't say this because the
you know, you wrote it. You'relike, oh, it's cool. But as
somebody look as somebody thatconsumes sports and non stop,
(09:26):
no, I mean, it's, you know, Itry not to be weird about it,
but like, I like this, and Ilike the connection that I have.
So, you know, I have kids. Iwhen they were before he died,
and when he was still the voiceof the voice the Dodgers, I had
my kids listening to Vin Scully,even though it was like a an
older style of voice, so thatthey could appreciate where, you
(09:47):
know, the sports that I grew uplistening to, and now they have
their own appreciation for thesports that I watch. And that's
what, that's what a theme likethis will do, in the same way,
you know, they talk about TopGun, in the same way that.
When Top Gun came back withtheir with Top Gun Maverick, 36
years later, it was 36 yearsYeah, the sequel. And, by the
(10:08):
way, fantastic movie. You know,it's like it was Star Wars with,
with, with top meets Top Gun.
And they had, and they had, theyhad to bring the theme back,
because they are inextricablylinked in the same way that when
you think of the NBA on NBC, youthink of round ball rock being
there with it, because it bringsback the same energy, like you
can't watch Top Gun and not hearthe theme. You I can't think of
(10:29):
the NBA on NBC and not think ofthe theme and the you know, the
connection and the energy andthe emotion that it brings. It
harkens to another thing, whichis your theme was you got, you
got you got really lucky,because at a time when when the
NBA was expanding, and MichaelJordan was coming into his prime
(10:51):
and you had this really excitingtime to watch basketball,
the theme was associated withthe prime time coverage of those
basketball games in a fantasticway. And now, you know, and now
we think, okay, they,you think of all of these
current NBA stars, and they arefantastic. I love watching, you
(11:12):
know, Steph Curry and LeBron. Ilove watching Giannis. I like
watching the I like watchingthese new stars, but every
single one of them to the mangets compared to Michael Jordan.
So the bridging of those eras isa really exciting thing that we
have the opportunity to be apart of my favorite thing to
see, and it's, it's just soridiculous, is when, when, when
(11:36):
NBC, when Sunday Night Live, didthe parody. Oh, it's great. And
got my whole outfit right from,from, from Avalon. And also the,
you know, the 1000s of peoplewho learned how to play the
song, that's, that's when iThat's why I knew, like, okay,
so people are really connectingto the song. And it is one of
those things that only happens.
(11:56):
I mean, maybe it happens forHans Zimmer every week, I don't
know. Yeah,yeah. Yeah, I didn't mean to
correctyou. John Williams has some
themes. You can't put yourselfup there, but I'll put you up
there in the pantheon. Allright. What's this cut for?
Yeah, three, four, the other.
But the other piece of it that Ijust don't know is the old the
(12:19):
younger generation may not care.
They might not what they'venever heard in their whole life.
And in fact, I suppose if NBCSports said we want to reach the
younger generation, maybe theyfeel like the song is old and
they want to bring in a newsong. So there's a lot of
different things that look 90snostalgia is big, like you just
look at think about all of thedifferent reboots on the
streaming services of 90s TV. Sothere's absolutely a huge fan
(12:42):
base there that I think NBCwants to reach. And it would be
weird to hear the song on likeESPN. So yeah, you know, a new
theme, fine, but, but thatdoesn't it loses the connection
that I have to watchingbasketball with my kids. It
loses the connection of that'sone of the greatest things that
sports has. It has thisintergenerational ability, and
(13:04):
we compare players fromdifferent eras to players from
other eras eras. So, you know,we're comparing shoyotani to
Babe Ruth. We're comparingLeBron James to Michael Jordan.
And I get to talk to my kidsabout watching, you know, about
watching the Showtime Lakersgrowing up, and how exciting
that was. For me, it's anintergenerational connection
that it's not just aboutappealing to a new audience.
(13:27):
It's about the old audienceconnecting with the new audience
as the show, as the programming,as the game evolves. We all get
to enjoy it together. That iswhat the that is. That is the
real value of sports. Thecontracts for athletes are so
astronomically large, and theyare deserved because people
consume it in this way. Consumeit intergenerationally. So, you
(13:51):
know, new theme, smooth theme.
This is the one that I don'tknow. Why we don't have to tell
you this story, because I wenton on this podcast right when,
when the news came out that NBmight be coming back to NBC, and
when this podcast and I said,because that's what we were
going to do, I said, we're goingto go into the studio in
(14:12):
Nashville at Ocean, legendaryOcean Way, with a 70 piece
orchestra, and we're going to rerecord it, do a couple of
different versions And and theand Twitter like blew up, said,
don't change anything. Becausepeople they because now can now
they call the original versionthe OG version, which has a lot
of the old sounds, but now theseold sounds have come back, so
all the sounds that you heard onthe rocky four soundtrack and
(14:34):
all the rest of super Jupiter,if you want to get exactly what
it's called, yeah, all right,let's try the guy. I think we
got one more clip from theseguys, but obviously people
associated with NBC synthesizersound is definitely a little
dated, like it reminds me ofbroadcast news when they were
trying to look with the new thenew. So I think NBC probably is
thinking we can either tap intothe nostalgia base, or we can,
(14:57):
maybe we can create a new songthat is a little bit.
More modern sounding here, thenostalgia.
I'm sorry, but I did, and I'mtrying to be a nice guy here,
okay, but, but when she said,and I don't know this woman, God
bless you, but the synthesizersound that you're saying is
outdated, is totally back. Infact, I've got synthesizers in
(15:21):
this house that people aretrying to buy from me, because
that sound is is back. And Ithink a lot of kids, your kids
and your generation, that's the80s music, the 80s sound. And
you mentioned super Jupiter,it's that really thick. It's
EDM, it's electronic dancemusic, and it's, it's back so
that plus plus orchestra. So I'msorry, we have an orchestral
(15:44):
version with the full, with thefull real instruments. And it's
okay that everybody wants tohear, everybody wants to hear
that that's, you know, that big,giant, mini move, you know, fat
sound with oscillators. Youknow, firing off this morning.
Sorry, this morning I worked outto the Rocky theme. Oh,
(16:07):
yeah. So, you know, I surebroadcast news, but I would say
Rocky, yeah, you could referenceRocky. That's the sound that I
want to, that I want to connectto. All right, so, so, so, What?
What? What are we? What? How dowe conclude this? I mean, that's
the story. Is that we, you know,I think everybody is really
excited about the idea of thistheme being back on NBC. We
(16:27):
want, we want that to happen. Ithink, you know, they haven't. I
don't think we've got an offeryet. I don't think we've gotten
an opportunity. I say we, it'sreally, I think you've gotten an
offer. I think you've had anopportunity to actually finish
this deal with embassy. I, youknow, I
this song is, is, is a legacysong for the family. You know,
(16:49):
all three of your kids know howto play the song. Yeah, I have,
I've lived with this song, and Ihave become, probably, well, one
of the biggest influencers forthis song. And I've watched it,
wrote it well, because I, Ijust, you know, so here, you
know, it's, there's a, there's agreat book called, called Story
brand, right? And it's, it's,the book is, it's mostly for
(17:10):
sales people. And it's abouthow, if you're going to sell
something, if you're going toget somebody's attention, you
need to build a story. Yeah, andI didn't know this was going to
happen, but the story, thatroute you went through the whole
thing, the story that round ballRock has, has, has built, is the
halcyon days of Showtime at theend. Yeah. And you can see it if
you just go on, you know, like Isaid, they're like in June and
(17:32):
July of 2024,13 point, 1 billion impressions
from people. And I just, youknow, when I saw that, like
this, this is the most, becauseit was on, it was on the
Olympics, and people got excitedabout it. So, so, yeah, so I
just, I mean, for me, businesswise,
I was like, I'd say, I thinkthis, I I've seen what this,
what the song is, is worth. ButI also, I love NBC, you know.
(17:56):
And I just, I mean, back in theday, you know, Dick Ebersole.
God bless him. You know he hiredme and Terry O'Neill and Van
Gordon saw those guys hired meout of CBS News, and they sent
me on the Tour de France, andthey sent me on downhill skiing,
and they sent me with DavidMichaels Al Michaels, great
brother, producer, and that'swhere I learned how to play this
(18:17):
music with that synthesizermusic that she doesn't like.
You're gonna take that first. Ilove it. I got a call right now.
I apologize. And so that thatsound that on the Tour de France
in them. And if everybody knowsthe story, they've seen it, you
know, everywhere where, youknow, I wrote it on my answering
machine. Yeah? Because when Iwas that damn sell the tapes.
You want something new? NBC,yeah, all right. And so, yeah, I
(18:39):
guess you know pretty much rightnow, with the guys on NBC make
all these decisions, I'm hearingcrickets, but, but I'm ready,
and the song is ready, and Gibis also ready. I love the fact
I'm excited. I love the factthat you're 30 years younger
than me, and I love the factthat you know, 30 year olds, 40
year olds. I just, I just thinkthat I hear from them, right?
(19:04):
And so I don't, I, I disagreewith the guys at CNBC about this
that are saying that, Oh, maybethey're going to want something
new. Okay, fine, but, but, butthe song has lived for the last
24 years without being ontelevision, and it'll go along
if they make a decisionrightfully so. Look, it is it?
Is it a it is evocative of anexciting, emotional experience
(19:27):
of coming home and having primetime, having Prime Time
basketball on your television.
And, you know, I go to my buddyEli's house and we'd watch, we'd
watch, we'd watch basketball andorder a pizza and like that.
That's that song brings youright back to that, that moment.
Me too, so And before we end thepodcast, I just want to say to
(19:50):
those, to those of you who havewritten to me about it, who have
supported me, who have learnedhow to play the song I Love, the
kid who tried 1620Seven times to play it with a
ping pong ball bouncing off ofpots and pans, and it has like
17 million views. Hopefully, hemonetized that video. It's a lot
of work. Thank you for doingthat. The people who have been
(20:12):
just stay with the song. I mean,I don't take that lightly. You
shouldn't. It's exciting. It's agreat that's the joy of making
any kind of artistic form ofexpression is that it people
react to it, and that's great.
And when I die, and when I die,you know how to play it. So NBC,
(20:32):
whoever you're gonna be dealingwith, this guy, all right for
Gib Gerard, I'm John Tesh.
Thanks for enduring us in thisthis podcast, the reaction to
remember how hard it was. Icouldn't spell squawk. I've
never it's not an easy once youhave it, you have it, sounded
out. It's difficult. English isa difficult language. Thank you
(20:53):
guys.
I.
Gib Gerard, welcome to the podcast. And as is, as is
what happens usual. What's usualfor me in the morning is that I
wake up and I have 450 textsabout something this time. It
was never a good sign. Never.
This has got to be from my wife,Connie. This is I left something
on. I don't know what happens.
(00:22):
The dog did something.
It was about, it was about thebasketball song. It was about,
about round ball rock, the greatand what happens with me, with
my friends, is it's like, areyou okay with this? And they
don't even tell me what theheck's going on. It's like, are
you okay with this? The samething happened when Saturday
Night Live did a parody of thesong right in New York and and I
(00:43):
hadn't hit here yet in LosAngeles. And so I get all these
texts from everybody, my friendLenny, like 100 texts, are you
okay with this? I can't believehe's I can't believe these guys
did this, you know. So it waslike that. And so finally,
somebody sent me a clip, and itwas these guys. It was on a show
that I don't I don't watch on CBCNBC, but maybe I should,
because it's on at my gym in themorning. So I go to my I do my
workout, and I watch Squawk Box.
I'm watching this. I'm thinking,you know, if I watch this every
(01:06):
now and then, my stock portfoliowould be better. But that's
usually what they talk about,right? Is stocks, yes, and then
they have like, 1000 tickers onthe bottom, yeah, yeah. It's a
regular business.
And they do business newsstories. And I mean, and they
picked up a story this morningabout you, involves the fact
(01:27):
that the NBA is coming back toNBC, right, which we're very
excited about, and about thenature of whether or not round
ball rock is going to be on thebroadcast or not. Yeah, I got to
tell you that when I see my namepop up and I see people on the
news talking about it. Checkyour pulse. My gosh. It was
like, okay, so should I playthis? The first part of this?
(01:48):
Yeah, go ahead. This is, this isthe story. Okay, here we go.
Remember that let the nostalgiaflood in, folks. During the
1990s it was open. It was theopen to the NBA on NBC featured
the beloved round ball rockthemes composed by John tett.
But with the NBA coming back toNBC, will we once again hear
(02:13):
that song blaring from our TVs?
I hope so. The guy who knows theanswer as he NBC, Alex Sherman
at the table this morning. Whatdo we got? Let me tell you a
little story. Andrew, a fewmonths ago, I wrote a story
about how NBC could license thissong from John TASH, the
composer, when it became clearthat NBC was on the verge of
(02:34):
striking a deal to bring backthe NBA, which starts next
season, I love this song. Itjust brings back everything from
it. So everything, when I wrotethe story, the the impact on
social media was through theroof. So in the back of my mind
as a reporter, I rememberedthat, and was like, Okay, let me
check up on how that deal was.
(02:57):
So in the intermediate, NBCSports, when they announced that
the NBA was coming back. Said,Hey, the song is going to come
back too. And there was, youknow, internet rejoicing, so I
checked up on the deal.
I hate to break this to you andthe audience, but there is no
deal yet.
Even though NBC Sports said thesong is coming back, they're
(03:18):
still in negotiations with JohnTesh, is that? Is that true
about the about them not havingit and making the announcement?
Yeah, I mean, what happened was,during right before the
Olympics, right I get a callfrom the music department that
NBC, and they, they say, Hey, wejust found out that we it's
(03:40):
official. We got the rights tothe NBA for 11 years. It's back,
and it begins in October of2025,
and we want to bring, we want towant to say that we're
negotiating with you and yourpublishing company, and we're
going to bring round ball rockback with it. We want to put
that in the press release,because we know that that will
be one of the big questions, aswell, as well. It should be as
(04:01):
well as I mean, I was, I washonored when they said, We want
to get ahead of all thequestions. You can't say this,
but I can say this as a viewerof basketball, how exciting it
is to have the theme come backand how, what an exciting moment
it'll be. Because for me, itconnects. You know, I talk about
this all the time. I have, Ihave this group of guys that I
grew up with, and we watchsports together, and we text
(04:22):
every day about the sports thatwe watch. And it brings me when
I hear the theme, and I hear itwhenever I want, when I hear the
theme associate with abasketball broadcast, it brings
me right back to that feeling ofwatching sports with my friends,
and brings me to this heyday ofthe NBA. So I do, I love that
about it. And it would havebeen, you know, regardless of
(04:46):
any connection I have to itwould have been my question.
When the NBA got the NBC got theNBA, I appreciate it. So when he
said this, you know, I said,well, listen, you know, you
don't have the rights to thesong. And so he said, Yeah,
yeah. But we.
We just, we want to put in thein the press release that we're
negotiating with, with, with youand your and your publishing
(05:07):
company. And I said, Ah, that'sthat. I don't think that's a
great idea, right? And then hesaid, Well, we would just hope
that you would negotiate in goodfaith. I said, I guess you're
going to do what you you want todo. And he said, Yeah, that's
what, that's what the folks herewant to do, right? And so when
the press release, fast forward,and when the press release came
(05:27):
out, was this big thing, andeverybody picked it up, right?
All the podcasters, everythingyou know, the NBA is back on
NBC, and round ball rock isback. The press release actually
said we, basically, we have therights to round ball Rock, and
I'm reading this thing, I'mgoing, what? So I call him back
up the guy at NBC, and I say,Hey, you said you're going to
(05:48):
say you were negotiating with usin good faith. Because, yeah, we
got out a little ahead of ourskis. I said, skis. And he said,
Well, you know, we just, we hopethat you'll negotiate in good
faith. And he said, I wish, Ihope, that you won't, you know,
talk to the press about aboutthis. Because what I said was,
(06:10):
I'm gonna get a whole bunch ofphone calls now from all these
podcasts. Can you just waituntil everybody gets back from
the Olympics and then we'llstart negotiations? And so yeah.
Chris Roslin, my publicist said,John, we're getting hundreds of
phone calls. You've got to getahead of this. My lawyer says,
John, you've got to get ahead ofthis. And I realized that if I
quote, unquote, got ahead of it,and said, Whoa, wait, they don't
(06:33):
have the rights that I wouldhave destroyed that while that
great press that NBC wasgetting. And I worked for NBC, I
worked, I did the 92 OlympicGames as an announcer, and also
the 96 the 96 and a lot of stufffor them. I know all the guys
there. And I thought, oh gosh,you know. And I felt like I was
frozen in place. And then whenit came time to negotiate, it
was crickets for, yeah, quite along time. I think, okay, so I
(06:55):
just got cut off at the knees. Imean, look, first and foremost,
it is exciting, the idea of itcoming back. So that's, that's,
that's, that's super great. Theother thing is, you're talking
about negotiating around theOlympics, but having the theme
come back for the Olympics, andhaving that theme with the NBA,
again, with the NBA players thatare out there, was, was such a
great amount of goodwill, somuch excitement. And it really
(07:18):
was, was fueling an excitingfire online, of people
responding to and talking aboutit to the point where, you know,
we've, we've got, like, newversions of the song, and it's
really it, you say, you like tosay, it's taken a life of its
own. Yeah, the song, you know,what's funny is that the song
actually, and we're gonna playsome more clips from, from from
(07:38):
CNBC, but the song when itlasted for about 1011, years on
NBC, beginning in 1989right? And then there was off
for 24 years, right? But duringthat period of time, because of
because of YouTube and peoplelearning how to play the song
and it being, you know, peoplelicensing it for commercials,
and all that stuff, just tookout a larger life than it had,
(08:00):
even when it was on NBC duringthe Showtime era. So listen, I'm
a grateful guy. I had, you know,I do, I did that data, you know,
eight notes that have, like, youknow, I get people singing them
to me in the in the airport.
I'm, I'm totally grateful that'sjust me. I'm just following
around singing it in theairport. And I have to say that
(08:21):
once I left television while Ileft Entertainment Tonight, back
then I thought I had left thismedia madness, but this thing,
and now it's like, now I'm inthe middle of this thing where
it's like, okay, so now what arewe gonna do? Yeah,
so can we play the next play?
The next thing? Okay? NBC fullyexpects to reach a deal still
for the song, and we're still innegotiations. Another thing I
(08:43):
was told is that test hasactually held the conversation
with a VC firm where he couldsell the song to the VC firm and
the VC firm could negotiate withNBC, risk off the table. A
little risk off the table.
Remember, there's, like, therewas like, a big SNL sketch about
the song. The song is wildlypossible, like the theme song to
(09:04):
Top Gun, though it just, itbrings the you hear it, and it
brings back a whole but youalso think, honestly,
all right, so that's it. I'mleaving now. He just equated it
to Top Gun.
Look,you can't say this because the
you know, you wrote it. You'relike, oh, it's cool. But as
somebody look as somebody thatconsumes sports and non stop,
(09:26):
no, I mean, it's, you know, Itry not to be weird about it,
but like, I like this, and Ilike the connection that I have.
So, you know, I have kids. Iwhen they were before he died,
and when he was still the voiceof the voice the Dodgers, I had
my kids listening to Vin Scully,even though it was like a an
older style of voice, so thatthey could appreciate where, you
(09:47):
know, the sports that I grew uplistening to, and now they have
their own appreciation for thesports that I watch. And that's
what, that's what a theme likethis will do, in the same way,
you know, they talk about TopGun, in the same way that.
When Top Gun came back withtheir with Top Gun Maverick, 36
years later, it was 36 yearsYeah, the sequel. And, by the
(10:08):
way, fantastic movie. You know,it's like it was Star Wars with,
with, with top meets Top Gun.
And they had, and they had, theyhad to bring the theme back,
because they are inextricablylinked in the same way that when
you think of the NBA on NBC, youthink of round ball rock being
there with it, because it bringsback the same energy, like you
can't watch Top Gun and not hearthe theme. You I can't think of
(10:29):
the NBA on NBC and not think ofthe theme and the you know, the
connection and the energy andthe emotion that it brings. It
harkens to another thing, whichis your theme was you got, you
got you got really lucky,because at a time when when the
NBA was expanding, and MichaelJordan was coming into his prime
(10:51):
and you had this really excitingtime to watch basketball,
the theme was associated withthe prime time coverage of those
basketball games in a fantasticway. And now, you know, and now
we think, okay, they,you think of all of these
current NBA stars, and they arefantastic. I love watching, you
(11:12):
know, Steph Curry and LeBron. Ilove watching Giannis. I like
watching the I like watchingthese new stars, but every
single one of them to the mangets compared to Michael Jordan.
So the bridging of those eras isa really exciting thing that we
have the opportunity to be apart of my favorite thing to
see, and it's, it's just soridiculous, is when, when, when
(11:36):
NBC, when Sunday Night Live, didthe parody. Oh, it's great. And
got my whole outfit right from,from, from Avalon. And also the,
you know, the 1000s of peoplewho learned how to play the
song, that's, that's when iThat's why I knew, like, okay,
so people are really connectingto the song. And it is one of
those things that only happens.
(11:56):
I mean, maybe it happens forHans Zimmer every week, I don't
know. Yeah,yeah. Yeah, I didn't mean to
correctyou. John Williams has some
themes. You can't put yourselfup there, but I'll put you up
there in the pantheon. Allright. What's this cut for?
Yeah, three, four, the other.
But the other piece of it that Ijust don't know is the old the
(12:19):
younger generation may not care.
They might not what they'venever heard in their whole life.
And in fact, I suppose if NBCSports said we want to reach the
younger generation, maybe theyfeel like the song is old and
they want to bring in a newsong. So there's a lot of
different things that look 90snostalgia is big, like you just
look at think about all of thedifferent reboots on the
streaming services of 90s TV. Sothere's absolutely a huge fan
(12:42):
base there that I think NBCwants to reach. And it would be
weird to hear the song on likeESPN. So yeah, you know, a new
theme, fine, but, but thatdoesn't it loses the connection
that I have to watchingbasketball with my kids. It
loses the connection of that'sone of the greatest things that
sports has. It has thisintergenerational ability, and
(13:04):
we compare players fromdifferent eras to players from
other eras eras. So, you know,we're comparing shoyotani to
Babe Ruth. We're comparingLeBron James to Michael Jordan.
And I get to talk to my kidsabout watching, you know, about
watching the Showtime Lakersgrowing up, and how exciting
that was. For me, it's anintergenerational connection
that it's not just aboutappealing to a new audience.
(13:27):
It's about the old audienceconnecting with the new audience
as the show, as the programming,as the game evolves. We all get
to enjoy it together. That iswhat the that is. That is the
real value of sports. Thecontracts for athletes are so
astronomically large, and theyare deserved because people
consume it in this way. Consumeit intergenerationally. So, you
(13:51):
know, new theme, smooth theme.
This is the one that I don'tknow. Why we don't have to tell
you this story, because I wenton on this podcast right when,
when the news came out that NBmight be coming back to NBC, and
when this podcast and I said,because that's what we were
going to do, I said, we're goingto go into the studio in
(14:12):
Nashville at Ocean, legendaryOcean Way, with a 70 piece
orchestra, and we're going to rerecord it, do a couple of
different versions And and theand Twitter like blew up, said,
don't change anything. Becausepeople they because now can now
they call the original versionthe OG version, which has a lot
of the old sounds, but now theseold sounds have come back, so
all the sounds that you heard onthe rocky four soundtrack and
(14:34):
all the rest of super Jupiter,if you want to get exactly what
it's called, yeah, all right,let's try the guy. I think we
got one more clip from theseguys, but obviously people
associated with NBC synthesizersound is definitely a little
dated, like it reminds me ofbroadcast news when they were
trying to look with the new thenew. So I think NBC probably is
thinking we can either tap intothe nostalgia base, or we can,
(14:57):
maybe we can create a new songthat is a little bit.
More modern sounding here, thenostalgia.
I'm sorry, but I did, and I'mtrying to be a nice guy here,
okay, but, but when she said,and I don't know this woman, God
bless you, but the synthesizersound that you're saying is
outdated, is totally back. Infact, I've got synthesizers in
(15:21):
this house that people aretrying to buy from me, because
that sound is is back. And Ithink a lot of kids, your kids
and your generation, that's the80s music, the 80s sound. And
you mentioned super Jupiter,it's that really thick. It's
EDM, it's electronic dancemusic, and it's, it's back so
that plus plus orchestra. So I'msorry, we have an orchestral
(15:44):
version with the full, with thefull real instruments. And it's
okay that everybody wants tohear, everybody wants to hear
that that's, you know, that big,giant, mini move, you know, fat
sound with oscillators. Youknow, firing off this morning.
Sorry, this morning I worked outto the Rocky theme. Oh,
(16:07):
yeah. So, you know, I surebroadcast news, but I would say
Rocky, yeah, you could referenceRocky. That's the sound that I
want to, that I want to connectto. All right, so, so, so, What?
What? What are we? What? How dowe conclude this? I mean, that's
the story. Is that we, you know,I think everybody is really
excited about the idea of thistheme being back on NBC. We
(16:27):
want, we want that to happen. Ithink, you know, they haven't. I
don't think we've got an offeryet. I don't think we've gotten
an opportunity. I say we, it'sreally, I think you've gotten an
offer. I think you've had anopportunity to actually finish
this deal with embassy. I, youknow, I
this song is, is, is a legacysong for the family. You know,
(16:49):
all three of your kids know howto play the song. Yeah, I have,
I've lived with this song, and Ihave become, probably, well, one
of the biggest influencers forthis song. And I've watched it,
wrote it well, because I, Ijust, you know, so here, you
know, it's, there's a, there's agreat book called, called Story
brand, right? And it's, it's,the book is, it's mostly for
(17:10):
sales people. And it's abouthow, if you're going to sell
something, if you're going toget somebody's attention, you
need to build a story. Yeah, andI didn't know this was going to
happen, but the story, thatroute you went through the whole
thing, the story that round ballRock has, has, has built, is the
halcyon days of Showtime at theend. Yeah. And you can see it if
you just go on, you know, like Isaid, they're like in June and
(17:32):
July of 2024,13 point, 1 billion impressions
from people. And I just, youknow, when I saw that, like
this, this is the most, becauseit was on, it was on the
Olympics, and people got excitedabout it. So, so, yeah, so I
just, I mean, for me, businesswise,
I was like, I'd say, I thinkthis, I I've seen what this,
what the song is, is worth. ButI also, I love NBC, you know.
(17:56):
And I just, I mean, back in theday, you know, Dick Ebersole.
God bless him. You know he hiredme and Terry O'Neill and Van
Gordon saw those guys hired meout of CBS News, and they sent
me on the Tour de France, andthey sent me on downhill skiing,
and they sent me with DavidMichaels Al Michaels, great
brother, producer, and that'swhere I learned how to play this
(18:17):
music with that synthesizermusic that she doesn't like.
You're gonna take that first. Ilove it. I got a call right now.
I apologize. And so that thatsound that on the Tour de France
in them. And if everybody knowsthe story, they've seen it, you
know, everywhere where, youknow, I wrote it on my answering
machine. Yeah? Because when Iwas that damn sell the tapes.
You want something new? NBC,yeah, all right. And so, yeah, I
(18:39):
guess you know pretty much rightnow, with the guys on NBC make
all these decisions, I'm hearingcrickets, but, but I'm ready,
and the song is ready, and Gibis also ready. I love the fact
I'm excited. I love the factthat you're 30 years younger
than me, and I love the factthat you know, 30 year olds, 40
year olds. I just, I just thinkthat I hear from them, right?
(19:04):
And so I don't, I, I disagreewith the guys at CNBC about this
that are saying that, Oh, maybethey're going to want something
new. Okay, fine, but, but, butthe song has lived for the last
24 years without being ontelevision, and it'll go along
if they make a decisionrightfully so. Look, it is it?
Is it a it is evocative of anexciting, emotional experience
(19:27):
of coming home and having primetime, having Prime Time
basketball on your television.
And, you know, I go to my buddyEli's house and we'd watch, we'd
watch, we'd watch basketball andorder a pizza and like that.
That's that song brings youright back to that, that moment.
Me too, so And before we end thepodcast, I just want to say to
(19:50):
those, to those of you who havewritten to me about it, who have
supported me, who have learnedhow to play the song I Love, the
kid who tried 1620Seven times to play it with a
ping pong ball bouncing off ofpots and pans, and it has like
17 million views. Hopefully, hemonetized that video. It's a lot
of work. Thank you for doingthat. The people who have been
(20:12):
just stay with the song. I mean,I don't take that lightly. You
shouldn't. It's exciting. It's agreat that's the joy of making
any kind of artistic form ofexpression is that it people
react to it, and that's great.
And when I die, and when I die,you know how to play it. So NBC,
(20:32):
whoever you're gonna be dealingwith, this guy, all right for
Gib Gerard, I'm John Tesh.
Thanks for enduring us in thisthis podcast, the reaction to
remember how hard it was. Icouldn't spell squawk. I've
never it's not an easy once youhave it, you have it, sounded
out. It's difficult. English isa difficult language. Thank you
(20:53):
guys.
I.
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