10/8/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show - Mo Egger

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:05):
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Speaker 3 (00:06):
That's Bills, Enter it now, all right, Bills. Yeah, what's up? Hi?
It's five minutes, five minutes after three o'clock. This is
ESPN fifteen thirty. Thank you for listening, Oprah. Having a
delightful Wednesday afternoon. God we are here. Let's see really quick.

(00:29):
Joe Flacco's not going to talk today, which is a
bummer because I'd love to hear from him. I guess instead,
he's going to talk on Friday, so we don't have
a three point fifteen Bengals quarterback press conference for you. Obviously,
Joe Burrow's not going to talk today, and Jake Browning's
not going to talk today, and neither is Joe Flacco.
But I guess we're gonna hear from him on Friday,

(00:50):
and I know I can't wait. Yeah, you heard Zach
Taylor a little bit earlier. We'll spend a little bit
of time on that coming up here in just a bit.
I'm I'm I'm going to start the show though by
by talking about Tony Pike and uh and Taren. I'll
just tell you now we're probably going to hit the
brake a little bit late, and I know that's going
to make you mad at me. So you heard Austin

(01:13):
throughout the afternoon. And by the way, just an absolute
game and professional effort by Austin both yesterday and today,
because I know firsthand how not easy that is when
your on air partner has been taken away and yesterday
with very little notice and then having to to do
the show and you know this change has happened, but
you can't talk about it and then you can talk

(01:35):
about it, and it's not easy to do. And so
Austin handled yesterday and today like a total pro, which
you knew he would. Tony put on social media something
that we found out about yesterday, which is he's no
longer employed here, and boy, you think about it. Last
week Tony commemorated eight years as one of the hosts

(01:56):
of Sincy three sixty and to celebrate that, Asian, iHeart
let him go. So that's that's just boy. Congrats, buddy,
here's your walking papers. I cannot tell you how crushed
I am, and I've I've heard from a lot of folks.
I've neglected to get back to most, but I am.

(02:19):
I'm crushed for what Tony's departure means for us. And
when I say for us, our show, Tony's show, the
staff here, he is beloved in this building. I'm crushed
for what it means for our audience, for you, because
this was a guy who was a success as an

(02:42):
on air host and terrific at what he did. And
I know what it's like when you're listening to somebody
every day and suddenly they're gone, like it, it sucks.
One of the worst things that this industry does. This
is not just about where I work. One of the
worst things we do is we just take people away
and poof, they're gone. And there is reasons for that,

(03:05):
I guess, but it's always so unfair to the audience.
Here's this host that you listen to every single day,
and then they're not there anymore. It's just And I'm
crushed for Tony for all the obvious reasons, because he's awesome.
And when I say awesome, I mean in every professional

(03:26):
and personal sense. So indulge me here for just a
few minutes. I promise you we'll talk more about Joe Flacco.
I've been an admirer of Tony since he was a
player at UC. And yeah, yeah, because of the fact
that he was UC's quarterback when they finally achieved national prominence.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
That was great.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
But above and beyond that, he was an awesome story.
Waited for years to get his shot, had setbacks, had
setbacks that I'm sure he would tell you were self inflicted.
But when he finally got the chance, when he finally
got the chance to be UC's quarterback, Remember it happened
because Dustin Grutze got hurt against Oklahoma, Tony got his shot,
and then the program took off and they got to

(04:08):
back to back BCS Bowls and play in the sort
of games that you never thought UC football was going
to play in. And that's awesome on its own merit,
But then you add to it, like the quarterback is
a local guy who had been with the program forever.
He was just an easy story to root for, an
easy guy to root for. I sold in September of
two thousand and nine. I sold Pike for Heisman T shirts.

(04:31):
And I had never actually met Tony when I decided
to sell Pike for Heisman t shirts, but I had
heard his family. I heard that they thought that that
was awesome, and then I was told that those T
shirts may make him ineligible, and so then I was
told his family suddenly didn't think that my T shirts
were all that awesome.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
But he was just such a cool story as a player.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
And then a few years after he was finished playing,
I remember there was a UC football broadcast, and I
think this is like twenty thirteen or fourteen. I guess
I could look it up. There was a UC football
broadcast in Hartford, the most miserable stadium in the United
States of America, by the way, Wrenchler Field.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
So it's like, cool, Tony, You're joining us in Hartford.
That'd be fun.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
And we needed a sideline reporter, and at the time,
tom Galader, who's now obviously the voice of FC Cincinnati,
was our sideline reporter. And the way it would work
back then, I think Dan Horde had to miss a broadcast.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I think I have this right.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Dan had to miss a broadcast for whatever reason, and
so Tommy would do the play by play, and then
that left a hole on the sideline, and so we
had to find somebody to be the sideline reporter. And
the folks that you see suggested we use Tony Pike
and so awesome, right, Like we know who he is,
is he going to be any good? And so I'm

(05:50):
wondering is he going to be good on the sideline?
But like, what's this guy gonna be like, right, big
shot quarterback? Is he a good dude? Is he fun
to hang out with? Is he gonna like care enough
to like prepare to do the sideline work? And what
I remember is we go on this road trip and
I reminded him that I was the guy that had
sold the Pike for Heisman T shirts. I was also

(06:11):
the guy that had referred to Tony on the air
after the Orange Bowl as Tony Pick.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
And I don't know if he knew these things.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
What I remember instantly thinking, though, is this guy is
awesome to hang out with. And like my filter is,
especially if you have achieved a level of fame or notoriety,
like can we make fun of you? You and I
both know there's a lot of folks who like they've

(06:38):
made it in sports, they're famous, they're stars, they're worshiped,
and you can't make fun of them. It's why the
SBS is the hardest gig in show business, because you're
making fun of people who are not used to being
made fun of, and so the host always bombs Shane
Gillis did this year. What I remember being impressed by
when it came to Tony was we can needle this dude.

(07:00):
I remember, he's doing his game, he's getting set to
do his first game on the sideline, and this is
before he was on the air every day. And he's
standing on the sideline and I said something to him
along the lines of like, is this the same you
you had when you never played for Carolina or something
like that, and he laughed and he pushed back, and
he told jokes. And you and I both know a
lot of folks who have achieved Tony's success. They're full

(07:22):
of themselves and they take themselves too seriously and you
can't make fun of them. And Tony was the exact opposite.
And then the broadcast started. He had never done games
on the sideline before, and he was awesome, like their
sideline reporter. And there's a bunch of good ones. Tommy
g was a good one, Scott Springer before him was
a good one. But Tony was like a sideline analyst

(07:45):
and with no training, having never done it before, it
was like Okay, that guy's pretty good, and so ultimately
he took that job over. I think in twenty fifteen,
Tommy g left to go start his own company and
now obviously the voice of FC Cincinnati, and so Tony
became the full time sideline reporter for UC football. And

(08:06):
I mean it was abundantly clear, dude, like he was
a natural. It's not like there's a sideline reporter's course
you take. You just you go down there, you see,
you pass along what you're seeing, and you either have
it or you don't.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
And from moment number one, he had it. And so.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
That was pretty cool twenty fifteen. Now, I'm going to
backtrack just a bit here right around twenty eleven, and
some will take credit for this. I take credit for
very few things. But I had an idea in twenty eleven.
My idea was I wanted our Monday show to not
be a traditional talk show. I wanted a former NFL
player to be with me to get their perspective, maybe

(08:49):
for an hour, maybe for the entire show. And so
if you have listened to this radio station for this
long amount of time, it was Artrell Hawkins right Mohawk Mondays,
and it went from the thing we did. I think
we did three to four with each other to eventually
I conned him into doing three to six and Artrail
did that show with me for a couple of years,
and then he went on to go do other things

(09:10):
Fox Sports Radio, and then we brought in Rocky Boyman,
and I was asked, well, what about Rocky Boyman. I
had seen Rocky do some stuff on TV. I didn't
sign off, I didn't hire Rocky, but I'm like, yeah,
let's do it. And so for a couple of years
it was the Rock and Mo Football Show on Mondays,
and not that dissimilar from what would become the Tony
and Mo Football Show. We were not out at a
bar or anything, but Rocky and I would do a

(09:31):
show on Mondays and it was all about the Bengals
in the NFL, and we did some college football and
it was terrific. And then Rocky moved on to go
do at the time, the night show on seven hundred Wow,
and so I needed someone on Mondays and I was
asked like, what do you think, and I said, well,
I'm gonna be with Tony Pike this weekend. We were

(09:52):
going to go on a UC road trip. I think
to Byu, I said, let me just see if he'll
do it. And I remember I think we were walking
on the plane to fly to Provo and I said, like,
what are you doing on Monday?

Speaker 1 (10:03):
And nothing.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
I want you to, you know, do the Tony and the
Rock and Moll Football show with me and do that
for a week. And I remember he was on with me.
I have no recollection who the Bengals had played the
day before, but he's doing the show with me. We're
talking about the Bengals, and it instantly worked. Instantly, it

(10:23):
worked the best chemistry I've ever had with anyone on
the year. And it became like abundantly clear to me,
like this thing on Mondays with Tony needs to be
a thing, not just the rest of the year, but
like we got to make this an every year thing,
a recurring thing. Unfortunately, the folks we worked for recognize
the same thing. And so there's Tony and I every

(10:44):
Monday starting in twenty fifteen. And it's my favorite show
to be a part of because I learned something and
he brings great preparation and insight and perspective, but more
than anything, he makes it fun. And like, this is

(11:05):
supposed to be fun, like this job is supposed to
be fun. Sports are supposed to be fun. And I
had no interest. And I would say this about Rocky
and our trail before him, but specifically Tony had no
interest in, Hey, we're really gonna seriously talk about these
football games like I want your insight, I want your analysis.
But this is this is the toy department here. The

(11:26):
ethos of this show has always been sports are fun,
and Tony fit in in that regard almost instantly. So
then in twenty eighteen, you know, we had started since
E three to sixty, right, I know, I'm telling a
long story here, You'll just have to put up with it.
Twenty seventeen, we started since E three sixty. James Rapeene

(11:47):
was hosting that show at the time, and then he
moved on and went to go do some things, and
you may have noticed things have worked out well for him.
But we needed a host for Sincy three sixty, and
at the time it was a one hour show, and
Tony was offered the shot to do the show pretty
much by himself, and he taught himself how to become

(12:08):
an everyday, full time host, and that's not easy to do.
And then the show became two hours, and then it
became three hours, and then Austin came aboard as the
producer and eventually co host right, And it's been awesome.
It's been awesome from my perspective having a local lead

(12:30):
in because for years I did this show and we
were the only local show, and you feel like you're
on an island and you don't feel like you're much
a part of a team. And what's happened over the
last few years is we've had three hours on before
us and it's felt like a real radio station where
there's like six hours of programming And the best part

(12:50):
of my day, the single best part of my day
for years now has been two forty five when I
get a chance to sit in with Tony and Austin
and just goof off and sometimes argue about stuff, but
just have fun together.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's the best.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
And not only doing that, but like watching Tony specifically
grow into the role and watching that show become something,
watching that show become I think, a really important part
of sports in this town, a big part of this company,
big part of this radio station, and watching him evolve

(13:27):
and grow and watching him in Austin develop an on
air chemistry together, which I think has been awesome, has
been just it's been fun, it's been a blast, and
the best part has been with Tony, in particular being
his teammate. And he's an unbelievable teammate. And what I
hate about this is now he's not and that sucks

(13:53):
so hard I can't even begin to express it. I've
been I've been in this business for a long time, man,
and I've I've watched I've watched a lot of uh
we're calling them restructures, restructures, reorganizations, reshuffling, I don't know,

(14:14):
and and they're they're never easy. They're never easy because
the people affected don't deserve it. And for the most part,
when they're told that their time is up, it's not
because of anything they did. And so you know, something
like this will happen and and Tony is told to leave,
and and folks will ask why, and and there's there's

(14:35):
no good reason. There's no good reason they and and
by the way, Tony wasn't the only person here let go.
Other people left here yesterday, good people, people who make
up the foundation of a of a place like this,
and people who make this a fun place to come
to work every day.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
People who understand the realities of this.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Industry, which you know aren't great, and they still bring
passion for what they do. Man, Like, that's that's hard
and it's rare. And Tony was one of them. And
yet he's not here anymore. And it's obviously not because
he performed poorly or did anything wrong or didn't have
a connection to his audience, or because he had a

(15:17):
poor relationship with advertisers or folks at the radio station.
Has nothing to do with any of that, nothing to
do with any of that. Somebody sees a number on
a spreadsheet, that number doesn't work, and so off they go,
And like, that's hard, right, because on one hand, you know,
you could take comfort in knowing that nobody's questioning your performance,

(15:40):
nobody's doubting your talent. On the other hand, you feel
kind of helpless because at the end of the day,
it feels like it doesn't matter how good you are,
what you bring to the table, or how much you
mean to the radio station, or most importantly, how much
you mean to the audience. But I'll go ahead and
say it, Tony is amazing and he's meant a lot

(16:02):
to a lot of people here. He's meant a lot
to this place, and our stations, and our station in
particular this one are not as good today as they
were on Monday, And coming to work today and not
seeing him in this studio makes today exponentially less fun

(16:27):
than it's been for a very long time. I have
absolutely no doubt that Tony is going to be okay.
I don't think there's any limit to what he could
do in broadcasting if he chooses to. If you have
listened to even a few minutes of the last two
UC football games where he has slid in nicely in

(16:48):
the analyst chair spelling Jim Kelly, you've heard somebody who
could do that at the highest level. I'm not the
only person to say that, by the way, all right,
you have heard an analyst who I thought to myself
on Saturday when he was calling with Dan Horde the

(17:09):
UC Iowa State game, like, we're only going to have
him for a fat short while because he's going to
go do this for someone, someone higher profile, someone nationally,
and if if that's what he wants to do, he'll
get that chance. And if he wants to find platforms
that will allow him to keep doing what he was
doing every day here, then he'll find them and he'll

(17:29):
be a success. Uh very quickly. A word about Austin.
So that's been his show for a number of years now,
and I have no doubt in my mind that he
will take that show and do awesome things with it.
Watching Austin, you know, I have a little bit of

(17:51):
a kinship with Austin because we've we've both kind of
done it the traditional way, but the hard way. Right
We start, you know, looking for an entry level gig
at the radio station, and we kind of try to
work our way up and watching him evolve on the
air has been so much fun. And it's going to
be really hard for me to imagine the show before

(18:11):
us without the two of them. But as far as
I know, that show is Austin's vehicle, and I am
really excited to see and hear what he does with it.
And I hope that if you loved Tony and Austin together,
then you'll at the very least give Austin a chance

(18:34):
flying solo, because he has earned it and because I
know he's going to take advantage of it, and I'm
excited to see what he does Tony Pike put this
announcement out there on social media that he has left
the company a little bit before noon today. I know
he would love it if you reached out to him.
Many of you already have. Obviously you should follow his

(18:57):
next steps. I am excited to what he does next.
I'm grateful that I can still call him a friend.
I am heartbroken that I can no longer, at least
for now, call him a colleague. And uh, I wish
nothing more than then to that today I would have

(19:19):
walked in this studio and he'd be sitting here, and
it's gonna take some time for me to get used
to that not being the case. So, uh, I don't
know if Tony's listening. If I was him, I wouldn't
be listening to this. But if you are, I can't
tell you how much you're missed and how much you've

(19:39):
meant and how much we love you. It is twenty
four minutes after three o'clock now now, now, let's talk
sports on ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports station.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
And it's after three o'clock.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
By the way, if you want to join in the
fun five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifteen thirty and
eight six six seven oh two.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Three seven seven six. I went long that segment. I
went long that segment.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
I don't want to get in trouble, so I'm gonna
I'm gonna make sure we adhere to the format and
stay on time. Your phone calls are coming up. Sports
headlines as well. By the way, don't forget tonight Bengals
game plan with with Dan Horden Dave Lapham from six
to eight live on ESPN fifteen thirty and the game
on Sundays on ESPN fifteen.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Thirty as well.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Kickoff at four twenty five pregame coverage at twelve o'clock.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
It's three point thirty on ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Sports headlines are a service of Kelsey Chevrolet Home of
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to yours for life kelseshev dot Com. Bengals back at
work today getting said for Sunday's tilt against the Packers
in Green Bay. Zach Taylor today confirmed that Joe Flacco
is going to start on Sunday. They sent a car

(21:34):
to Cleveland. You'll hear Zach talk about this a little
bit later on. They sent a car to Cleveland because
you know, Joe Flacco played for the Browns, and I
guess on the ride back he was studying the playbook
and he was on the phone with Zach Taylor, and
I'm sure all this is going to go swimmingly four
twenty five on Sunday Live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Green
Bay is a fourteen and a half point favorite Bengals
game plan tonight starring Dan Horden. Dave Lapham from six

(21:57):
to eight on ESPN fifteen thirty. I think today is
the greatest day on the baseball calendar. All four division
series are in action today. All four can end today.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Right now.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
The Mariners, on a dominant canzone hit, have a one
nothing lead over the Tigers as Detroit gets sid to
come to plate, come to the plate in the bottom
of the second inning. Milwaukee up two to oh. In
the Cubs, Game three tonight at Wrigley Field actually starts
at five to eight. After blowing a chance to close
out the Yankees last night, New York is alive. Yanks

(22:30):
host game four of their alds. Toronto still has a
two to one series lead. That game starts tonight at
seven oh eight, and the Dodgers head home holding.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
What am I doing?

Speaker 3 (22:42):
Dodgers head home holding. The Dodgers are home, they're up
tow to oh. In the Phillies, Game three is tonight
at nine to oh eight. I think that's all we
got for the local sports headlines. Believe it is. It's
take a phone call or two, or if things go
well today about twenty five, Don, you're on ESPN fifteen thirty,

(23:06):
Don thank you for hanging on good afternoon.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
How are you okay?

Speaker 5 (23:09):
How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Tomor right? No, my name's Mo. But that's all right.
E've been called worse.

Speaker 6 (23:16):
Yeah, it's just bizarre, Hobe.

Speaker 5 (23:18):
You guys gonna do it going forward with the Tony
and Football Show or is it just going to be
you reading notes and brainstorming?

Speaker 3 (23:27):
Uh, We're actually just going to hire a random guy
named Tony so we can keep the name and not
have to read it.

Speaker 7 (23:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
I think the advertisers want to, you know, have expectations
of having somebody knowledgeable, yeah, not that you're not. No,
and having a conversational type of show.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
No, the idea is for there to be two of us.
My expectation is there will be two of us. I
don't know that I'm allowed to say that. Who we
think we're going to have on Monday. I'm not in
charge of such things. If I had my way, it
would be Tony Pike. But there will be someone there,
and we'll probably have to call the show whatever that

(24:06):
person's name is, and Mo Football Show. And I certainly
hope their name has two syllables so it continues to
roll off the tongue easily. But the answer to your
question is I don't know, but I don't think that
show will be me by myself, nor should it be,
nor do I want it to be.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
Okay? And I just you know, Tony he gave to
the Cincinnati three to sixty instant credibility. He achieved at
a high level in college, he played professional ball, and
he grew the show from one hour to three, brought
in more advertisers. And you know, it's just if you
have good people. I've had a mentor say that you
can't you can't afford to lose good people. No, it

(24:45):
costs you more money.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
You use the word credibility, And I think number one,
when the decision was made to have a three hour
show before us, that brought a level of credibility to
this radio station that we not had. And then you
add to it his football expertise. And then you add
to that his ability to communicate and do it in

(25:08):
a relatable manner and have fun at the same time, Well,
there's even more credibility. But I think if anything, like
I knew Tony would be a good football analyst, what
you didn't know is, you know, can he do talk
show every day right now? If I can do it?
I think we've proven pretty much anybody can. But I

(25:29):
had been in the business for ten years before I
started doing this, and it was a broadcasting major. Tony
had no formal training, Tony, let's be honest with the
way things work, not a ton of formal guidance, and yet,
through trial and error, became I think, a terrific talk
show host every day, somebody who could carry three hours,

(25:49):
whether it be with somebody else like Austin or on
the days he had to do it by himself. And
for me, that's what I got a lot of joy
out of was watching him grow into that role. I
knew if I knew if I asked him to talk
about football for three hours with me, he'd be great.
What we didn't know was could he do talk on
his own and basically have to teach himself.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
And he did and he was awesome at it.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
Just on a slight aside, you were one of the
panelists on Sports or Consequences, weren't you?

Speaker 3 (26:19):
So No, one time, oh one time, at the very
end of Gary's career, I asked, I called that show
when I was in high school, and I wanted to
bring it full circle. So when Gary was about to
wrap it up. I asked him could I be on
one day and he said yes, and it was awesome,
But that was the only time I was ever on
that show.

Speaker 5 (26:40):
Yeah, but I think the whole city is going to
miss Tony from doing what he's doing out now. Jim
Kelly's going to be stepping aside because he's been doing it,
what fifty three years between playing for the Bearcats and
coaching for the Bearcats and announcing for the Bearcats, and
but you know, fifty three years is a long time.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
It's it's yeah, no, I mean it's a don thank you.
You know, the the Jim situation is entirely different because
he's dealing with a major health issue and forget the
football part of it, or forget the radio part of it,
Like we just want Jim to be okay.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
But Tony made the transition.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
It was just two weeks ago in Lawrence, Kansas where
he handled color duties and we're all hoping, you know,
temporarily and did great and it was just another example
of him being terrific of what he does.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
And again, like.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
I take no credit or get no credit for this,
but I remember asking him, like, do the Tony and
Mo Football Show. And you know, I didn't have to
sell anybody on it, but it was you know, Rocky
Boyman won a Super Bowl and Archrell Hawkins played like
nine years in the NFL. Tony's NFL career, as I
often reminded him, was not extensive, but it was like,

(27:59):
you know what, the dude knows how to break down
film and tell you what do you see? And he's
been in a training camp and he's been in those
offensive game planning meetings, and like he's played the most
difficult position in all the sports at an extraordinarily high level.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
I think this will be okay.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
And you know this was We didn't take the Tony
and Mo Football Show out until twenty nineteen, so this
is twenty fifteen, and I remember about three minutes into
our first show together going like, yeah, this is good.
This will work, and it doesn't if there's not chemistry. Right, Like,
I've been on the air with a lot of people.

(28:36):
I've had great producers. I've had when I started doing this,
a regular daily on air partner. There's folks we do
you know, stuff with on a regular basis. And my
number one thing when it comes to getting people on
this show is do I have chemistry with them? You know,
It's why we've Paul Daner on every Tuesday. Because the

(28:58):
football information is great, but it's the chemistry. And I've
not had better on air chemistry with anybody than I've
had with Tony.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
And that's.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
That's more important than the football knowledge. Football knowledge. We
knew we were getting that, and it kills me that here,
at least on a daily basis, that's not going to
be the case any longer. Mike, go ahead, You're on
ESDM fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (29:27):
Thanks Mom. I'll tell you what boy. Tony sent me
a text about ten thirty last night in the hospital
after having a bitch of a procedure, a nasty, god
forsake and procedure, and that was not didn't even compare

(29:48):
to the text from Tony. I was legitimately shocked. And
my nurse said, mister, watch, what's wrong with you? I said,
your business? But yeah, I feel like I had a
piece of his show and your show over the years. Yeah,

(30:08):
I feel like I've done something to help cultivate the
shows in my own small way.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Well, I don't think that either.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
I don't think that either show has had a more
loyal listener, more frequent listener, and probably.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Not a more frequent caller.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
And if I don't want you to feel like those
things go unappreciate it, because they don't.

Speaker 6 (30:35):
No, I understand that moment. You you show it in
how you treat me, which is great. But the thing is,
this is a stepping stone for Tony. He's going to
go onto something really, really better than he ever imagined.
I would think that's that's in my seventy three years.
This is the way things tend to work. You go,
oh my god, yes, it's a crap. I am pissed.

(30:58):
This is you know, I'm going to get into a
another vocation bubble. And for some reason, if you're a
good person, that always works out for the best. So
that's what's gonna happen for Tony. It was almost a
shock as shocking as the Tom Brennanan firing. Of course,
a totally different situation, but it was equally kind of shocking,

(31:19):
wasn't it.

Speaker 3 (31:19):
Though, Well, yeah, I mean, you know, entirely different set
of circumstances that this and I you know, I said
this thirty minutes or so ago. Did this happened to
a lot of people in our company. This happened to
a lot of people around the country. This happened to
other folks here, uh, and folks here who are as
good at their jobs as Tony is it his. And

(31:42):
I've I've watched a lot of these and I've had
to explain on the air some of these and it's
never easy. And I never, I never really understand. I
never there will be folks who dive into the weeds
of this business, of this company, who you know, almost
celebrate the fact that these things happen. I I don't understand.

(32:05):
I simply, for the life of me, dude, don't understand
how you could take somebody who has Tony's upside, who
has done literally everything he's been asked to do, and
I don't understand how he's told to leave. And I
trust me, man, I'm a veteran of this business. I
just and maybe I do understand it, but I I

(32:27):
just I hate it so much. I hate it so much.
And like you get folks who come to work and
do this, and look, man, radio isn't what it was
thirty years ago. We all understand it. Like I, nobody's
naive to the challenges that this business face. Faces this
industry faces, and that's not just our company. And yet
when you have people who still decide to pursue it

(32:49):
and do it, and do it with a smile every day,
and do it with passion every day, and do it
with enthusiasm every day, and they're they're rewarded by being
told you can't do it anymore more. That leaves a
very bad taste in my mouth. And I know it
leaves a very bad taste in the mouths of my coworkers,
and I know it leaves an awful taste in the

(33:09):
mouths of our listeners. What I dislike most, and it
happens all the time, is you ask an audience listen
to us every day, listen to Tony and Austin for
three hours, listen every day, invest your time, make it
a part of your daily routine, and then poof, it's
just one half of that show is gone. It's it's

(33:30):
so unfair to the audience. And so I don't know
if the people that I work for will love me
saying that. And frankly, I gotta be honest with you.
I don't care. I detest that. That's always how It's
not always, but ninety nine percent of the time in
this business how it's handled, and it makes no sense

(33:51):
to me whatsoever.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
Well on the human on the human levels, that's the
tough part. Can I get a let me get a
sports thing real quickly.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Oh please, thank you, Mike.

Speaker 6 (34:02):
Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get off. So
so I have my Dodgers impressed you. That's all I
want to know.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
They have, you know, uh, game one, free nothing early
and I'm thinking, oh boy, uh now I I'm I'm
skeptical about the bullpen still and and for good reason.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Man.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
You know you saw it in the Red Series. You
saw it, you saw it in Yeah, you saw it
in Game two against Philly. But that lineup just keeps coming.

Speaker 7 (34:31):
Man.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
To go to Philadelphia, especially after you fell behind free
nothing in game one, and to walk out of there
with back to back victories. Blake Snell was awesome in
game two. Uh, it's it's been It's been impressive. I
will admit that.

Speaker 6 (34:45):
Who was who was our mayor and Cincinnati years ago
that threw that uh that first pitch that was such
a dud Mark Mark, Mark Mallory, Mark Mallory. That was
what Tommy Edmunds did last night for Freddy here you
I bet you one thing. I know they won the game,
but I bet after the game Freddy said, hey, good,

(35:07):
come on, you gotta do better than that.

Speaker 8 (35:10):
You.

Speaker 6 (35:10):
Yeah, gotta do better because you know, as soon as
Tommy Edmands let go of the ball, he thought, oh
my god, what what if I look like I could
have cost in the game. Anyway, I know you got
to go. Thanks bellot appreciation.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
Okay, Mike, thanks very much. It's eleven away from four
o'clock at Moleager on Twitter. Five one three seven four nine,
fifteen thirty is our phone number. Uh, we'll spend some
time on what the Bendals did, because I'm not sure
folks completely appreciate what they did yesterday. We'll spend some
time on that. Coming up at four oh five on
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

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Speaker 9 (36:22):
You found Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
All right, that's us. What's up?

Speaker 3 (36:27):
Good afternoon for for ESPN fifteen thirty, Thank you for listening.
Bengals game plan is on afterwords. We're done at to
six o'clock. That to look forward to. You have some
Zach Taylor audio to look forward to as well. Mariners
won Tiger's nothing top four in Detroit. Seattle leeds the
series two games one, trying to close out the Tigers.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Will keep you up today.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
It looks like a gorgeous day in Detroit, the antithesis,
so to speak, of what they had yesterday. All four
league division series have games happening today, either games three
or four.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
For uh, let's see.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
We started the show by by talking about Tony Pike,
and for those of you who don't know, Tony put
on social media. Tony is no longer with the company,
and he's not the only one on R cluster, and
I spent a lot of time on that. The part
of about Tony that I didn't talk about, uh and
we discussed his on air work. What it's been like
to be his teammate, what it's been like to be

(37:24):
uh for me at least, to have him as a
friend in my life. What it's been like to watch
him grow professionally. It's also been fun to watch. I
am I think I'm nine years older than Tony, but
when he started working here, he was a single guy,
and uh, you know, as as his friend kind of

(37:46):
at different places in our lives. What has been fun
to watch aside from you know, being his his co
worker and doing shows with him and Mondays at Twin
Peaks and all that. You know, Tony recently celebrated. We
joked about this over the weekend his wedding anniversary, his
sixth wedding anniversary. I don't know that I've ever met

(38:08):
anybody who has moved more quickly than Tony, because he
got married in October of twenty nineteen, and I think
within three and a half years, had three kids and
so to watch Tony as a dad and watch Tony
as a husband and have a very very, very very
I don't even want to say a role, but being
in their lives to the extent that I've been has

(38:30):
been also a lot of fun as well. And as
hurt as we were here to find out that Tony's
not with us, as hurt as I am for our audience,
and as much as it sucks for us here, you
know you're out of your mind if your first thought
isn't well, this is a guy with three kids, and
this is a guy with a young family and a

(38:51):
growing family and a great family.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
And so.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
The radio part of this is obviously important, and the
friendship part of this for me, I think Austin and
everybody here would tell you the same thing, very very important.
But but we're also talking about somebody who we we
we love as a father and as a husband and
a terrific family man. I don't really know many people
who are as loyal to their their their family and

(39:16):
their friends as as Tony is, and I uh in
talking about him for much of the first hour, I
don't know that I I don't know that I gave
as much time to that as I should have, because
that is it's frankly, far more important than anything you
do sitting in a radio studio or standing on a
college football sideline. So I needed to spend some time

(39:38):
on that. I'm looking at the phone lines, and you know,
folks want to talk about Tony.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
Which is great.

Speaker 8 (39:42):
You know.

Speaker 3 (39:43):
The idea is to let the audience dictate where the
show goes. Five nine, fifteen thirty and and so far,
so far, and I've looked at social media, nobody has
said they let the wrong guy go, and let's be honest,

(40:04):
they probably did.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
And I'm talking about myself.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Let's see here, Mark in Florence, You're on ESPN fifteen
thirty Market afternoon.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
How are you?

Speaker 7 (40:16):
Yeah, what's up? I was disappointed to hear the news
that they let Tony go. I mean, he was he
was the main reason, the only reason I called in
to the show before you and his came on every morning.
So I just but on the positive side, I've been
through this before in my life when I was in

(40:38):
the Navy and the new president came in and said, hey,
we don't need a big military, and he started slicing
and dicing, and my.

Speaker 10 (40:47):
Career was over with.

Speaker 7 (40:48):
Yeah, and then I went to college after that. So
I'm saying that to say Tony Pike's media career is
not over.

Speaker 1 (40:55):
Oh hell no.

Speaker 7 (40:57):
Yeah, it's just this part of his is over with.
He'll land on his feet somewhere else.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
He'll thrive somewhere else. He'll whatever he does next, he
will thrive.

Speaker 7 (41:08):
Yeah. And this couldn't have happened at the worst time
because with the new quarterback coming in for the Bengals,
it would have been perfect to get his take on it. Oh,
So I'm hoping I can run into him somewhere and
get his take on that, because you know, I'm all
in on it because I and the reason I'm all

(41:30):
in on this new on the new quarterback coming in
is I know the fundamentals are gonna be done right.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yes, Yes, he's going he's.

Speaker 7 (41:38):
Gonna check the ball down when he's supposed to, and
he's gonna go through his reads and hit the guy
that's open. I mean, when I watched them in that
Cleveland game, when the Bengals played Cleveland, he just took
what the defense gave you and they stayed and they
stayed on the field. So I think for the most

(41:59):
part the Bengals offensive stay on the field a little
longer and get the defensive rest. I mean, I'm I
think that part of happens.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
So this might be.

Speaker 7 (42:10):
Uh, this may be a good thing, you know. Uh,
Jake Browning wasn't doing the fundamental things right. And you know,
you know how life is. If you don't do the
fundamentals right, you struggle.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
No doubt.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Yeah, I look, and I'm looking for somebody who first
and foremost, when Jamar Chase is open, knows I've got
to throw him the ball. And with Jake Browning over
these last three games, you know, there are the picks
and they're bad. But more than anything, I can't tell
you how many plays there were where it felt like
Jamar's open, or mikea Sicki's open, or someone's open and

(42:46):
Jake is not thrown it to him.

Speaker 11 (42:48):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
And I start there and then you know, roll through
everything else that he did poorly. At the very least,
if if you bring in Joe Flacco, you should feel like,
for the most part, if a guy's open, especially one
of your better receivers, if they're open, I should throw
the ball toward them.

Speaker 7 (43:08):
Yeah. So I'm thinking I'm not saying it's gonna be
exactly like this. You remember when David Quinland was struggling
back in the nineties that the Bengals couldn't move the
ball anywhere, and then when when when, when he got
hurt and then the backup to him got hurt. Jeff
Blake came in and the Bengals, the Bengals could move

(43:28):
the ball. Well, that was that was because Blake could
read defenses faster than those other guys. So I'm thinking
Flaco's ability to read defenses, he he may be able
to get the ball out quicker and the line may
not have to hold up as long as they have
to hold up, say with with with Browning, because Brownie

(43:52):
was holding onto the ball forever, waiting on a route
to develop where Flacco will probably get rid of it
or check it down. So we'll see what happens. But
I think I think we'll see a better run offense
than what we've been seeing. And I'll get off and
listen to the rest of the show.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Okay, Mark, thank you, I appreciate I appreciate you calling in.
I agree.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
Look, my level of expectation isn't that the Joe Flacco
is going to rewrite the record book as the Bengals
starting quarterback. I'm starting from a very very very I'm
starting for a place where the bar is very very low.
When Jamar Chase is open, well, you understand you have
to throw it to him. Now, within that framework, Joe

(44:41):
Flacker will probably throw picks. He's thrown a bunch already
this year. If the pushback, though, is he's too immobile
and that's going to be a disaster behind this offensive line. Okay,
I think every quarterback is going to be compromised by
this offensive line. I'm willing to sacrifice a little of
what a more mobile quarterback could give them for a

(45:04):
guy that I know could be a quick study, Like
that's part of this man. They're trying to compete in
the game on Sunday. They're trying to win the game
on Sunday. So in order to do that, Joe Flacco
is going to have to pick up a significant chunk
of the Bengals offense. That's not to say that nobody
else could, but there is a track record here of

(45:25):
this quarterback showing up in a place and having the
offense down enough to keep it functional in a very
short amount of time. Maybe not as short of a
window as he is dealing with here, but certainly short
a couple of years ago in Cleveland.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
All right, So can you be a quick study?

Speaker 3 (45:42):
Yes, And if Jamar Chase is open, and I make
it more about him because for me at least, and
by the way, speaking of whom, Tony put a wonderful
series of plays or breakdowns on Twitter after the Denver game,
pointing out mistakes, pointing out guys that Jake Browning could
have thrown to. When I think of these last few games,

(46:04):
more than anything, I think of the amount of times
where it felt like Jamar Chase was open and Jake
Browning didn't even try to throw him the ball. I
can be dead wrong about this, but I believe that
number one, Joe Flacco can pick up the offense quickly,
and number two, if Jamar Chase is open, Joe Flacco
will look his way. All the other stuff I will

(46:29):
admit are problematic, the lack of mobility. You know the
fact that this year he's already been bench once his age, like, yes,
but he's a backup quarterback. Like I used the analogy yesterday.
And it's not to disparage donuts he is the best
of the bad donuts you pick up off the tray

(46:50):
when you arrive to the meeting three and a half
hours late, and there's only a handful of options, Like,
you're not picking a good one up. If you're looking
for a starting quote back, a starting quarterback before week
six from another team or from the street, you're sifting
through a whole lot of less than good options. There

(47:12):
wasn't anybody they could sign who would make you go, oh,
here we go. I mean, just that wasn't happening. So
I'm looking for the positive attributes here, and I think
the positive attributes play quick study knows to throw the
ball to Jamar.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Mariners have scored again.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Top four, up two nothing, still batting runner and scoring
position with two outs over Detroit, trying to close out
the series, holding a two to one series.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Lead quarter after four.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
More on that in a few and your phone calls
ESPN fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (47:45):
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Speaker 1 (48:20):
This report is sponsored by Mike.

Speaker 9 (48:23):
This is Football in the Nattie, brought to you by
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Speaker 3 (48:36):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty one. OWEG or more of
your phone calls coming up. I almost said Brendanman and
Jones on baseball, but that's over because the Reds aren't
playing anymore. Richard Skinner in an hour because it's Wednesday
and we are looking forward to that. Anything you might
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(48:56):
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(49:19):
got you got rich Wood. Joe Flacco is going to
be the quarterback. More of your phone calls in in
just a few minutes on the Flacco thing. You know
you folks who roll their eyes, Oh really, this is
the best they could do. He's totally immobile? Or Bengals
are you know, the Bengals being Bengals. I'm not even

(49:39):
sure anybody's actually said that. Do you realize for the
Cincinnati Bengals to do what they did, how truly awful?
The quarterback play had to have been with Jake Browning.
The Bengals made an unprecedented deal for their franchise.

Speaker 1 (49:59):
It was with the Evelynn Brown's.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
This franchise, which by the way, values continuity and stability
more than maybe any other, decided in season to change
quarterbacks and bringing a guy who played against him Week one.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Like that play. This is Jake Browning's fault. Now, the
the overall.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
I guess situation the Bengals find themselves in is their
fault because they couldn't protect and keep Joe Burrow upright,
like I understand that, but a backup quarterback that they
have invested a lot of time and energy in that
they have brought along, they have groomed like it's the
Bengals most patient franchise ever. And they saw three games

(50:51):
worth of Jake Browning playing quarterback and said, we're gonna
do something we've never done before, and in trade for
Joe Flacco to be the backup, like, we're gonna take
what is already a tough job, Like Zach Taylor's job
is already really hard because he's coaching a team that
doesn't have its meal ticket, and he's working with a
roster that has all sorts of flaws. And we just

(51:12):
added to the degree of difficulty. You've got to teach
a new quarterback the offense. Granted and experienced QB. We've
got to teach this quarterback the offense. Have him go
on the road against a good Green Bay Packers team,
try to win a football game, try to get our
season back on course. For them to embrace this challenge,

(51:34):
the quarterback play they were getting from Jake Browning couldn't
just be bad. It had to be historically awful. Remedial
like just well below NFL level caliber. NFL caliber QB
play easy for me to say. I'm not sure there's

(51:55):
a total appreciation there probably is here, maybe not from outsiders.
It just looks like Bengals need a QB. They turned
to Joe Flacco. Jake Browning was being called by some
after two weeks he came in that Week two game
against Jacksonville was being labeled by some the best backup
quarterback in the NFL. I think ESPN they ranked all
the backup qbs, which doesn't sound like a very fun job.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
They ranked them second.

Speaker 3 (52:19):
Like the consensus was, as backup qbs go, this guy's
really good. The Bengals didn't give him a month. Good
for them, by the way. He was so wretched that
the most patient franchise ever with a coaching staff that
already has a really tough job in front of it,
they said, to hell with that. We'll make a trade

(52:41):
with the Browns. We'll make our head coach's life more difficult,
and we'll bag on using a guy that we have
invested parts of four seasons in. That's not something you
do lightly, that's not something you do haphazardly. That's something
you do if the quarterback play is so terrible and
you feel like the season is worth salvaging.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
And by the way I think it is now.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Look, when Joe Burrow was healthy, I might not be
speaking for you or anybody else. When Joe Burrow was healthy,
I did not believe the Bengals were a super Bowl team.
I thought they were a playoff team. Thought they'd at
best make the postseason as a wildcard, and then we
would talk about how dangerous they are once they got there.

(53:26):
So maybe you disagreed, But what the moment that Joe
Burrow got hurt. I certainly understood like that might be
their super Bowl chances. But I didn't look at the
Bengals through that lens because the roster I don't believe
is good enough and there was too many there were
too many things that you didn't trust coming into the
season to make you feel like, at least for me,
that the Bengals can win the title even with Joe

(53:47):
Burrow playing quarterback.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
So ah, now it's Joe Flacco.

Speaker 3 (53:55):
Do I feel like this team, with the possibility at
least that Joe comes back in mid December, can put
themselves in a position to use the last couple of
weeks to get in. Yeah, I do, and like I'm
the guy who thinks the roster is not very good,
but I also don't think the AFC is very good.

(54:16):
I also think the AFC North is very good. Browns
are a mess right now, Baltimore is a mess. Pittsburgh's better.
Give a lot of credit to Aaron Rodgers. Still not
buying them is like runaway favorites in the AFC North.
Despite what the standings currently look like, it's hard to
identify five really good teams in the AFC, much less

(54:37):
seven playoff squads. I don't Somebody said on the show
yesterday they were hoping the Bengals would tank. I don't know,
man like not now. I also think it's really hard
to do. I think thanking is one of the more
difficult things in sports because the players care too much,
coaches care too much. But I think with the schedule

(55:02):
easing up after these next couple of weeks, having an
experienced quarterback, having a pretty damn healthy team offensively and
defensively top to bottom, yeah, I think there's something more
salvaging here. I don't know Joe Flacco will salvage this
season I'm not sure I trust this roster to salvage
this season, but I think this is a good, necessary, step.

(55:27):
But it's one created by the fact that the caliber
of play they were getting from Jake Browning was huge
rid Like, we know what average or slightly below average
quarterback play looks like. We haven't seen many just you know,
blatantly terrible performances, much less three straight. So yeah, all in,

(55:53):
all in on Joe Flacco at least making it interesting
and more than anything, giving them a better chance to
win than Jake Browning. I'm not all in on them
being a Super Bowl contender, because you may disagree. I
didn't think they were one to begin with. Twenty seven
after four o'clock, your phone calls are coming up sports

(56:14):
headlines to ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (56:17):
You've been listening to football in the NATI on ESPN
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Speaker 2 (56:29):

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is now cleared between Turkey Foot Road and Madison Pike.
Still a five minute delay though back from Dixie Highway.

(56:55):
New accident in southbound on Coal rain over at Fork
Road northbound seventy five traffic stop and go Mitchell up
the paddock. I'm at Ezelak with traffic.

Speaker 8 (57:05):
Both like ESPN and fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Sports Headlines our service at Kelsey Jevroli, home of lifetime
power train protection and guaranteed credit approval from their family
to yours for life kelsey chev dot com. Zach Taylor
confirmed today Joe Flacco is going to be the starting
quarterback for the Bengals on Sunday when they take on
the Packers at lambeau Field. Four to twenty five. Will
be your kickoff. You'll listen to her live. I hope

(57:32):
you listen to her live on ESPN fifteen thirty. More
tonight on Bengals game plan that is going to be
from six to eight on ESPN fifteen thirty. By the way,
Jake Browning did talk with reporters. I'm looking at tweets
from Jay Morrison of Bengals Talk dot Com, where Jay
conveys that Jake Browning says, and you can understand why
he is pissed, but if he wasn't pissed, he shouldn't

(57:55):
be in the locker room. He says, he won't be
walking around sulking, He'll be staying prepared. Uh, you want
a Bengals injury report, I'm here for you.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
I give it to you. I give you the injury report.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
Lucas Lucas, Dylan Fairchild a no go at practice today.
Lucas Patrick has been cleared to return to practice, which
is a good thing.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
What else do we have? Shamar Stewart was limited.

Speaker 3 (58:23):
I have almost completely and totally lost my Bengals injury report.
That's why I sound so unprepared.

Speaker 8 (58:32):
What else?

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Baseball playoffs Seattle is now up. Last I looked they
just went to commercialize. I think it's three to nothing, Yes,
three nothing. M's they headed the bottom of the fifth
inning in Detroit, Tiger's coming to the play trying to
avoid elimination. Tonight in the National League, Brewers and Cubs
at Wrigley Field getting underway in about thirty minutes Milwaukee
leads that series two games to none. Toronto's at New
York Yankees staved off elimination with a comeback last night,

(58:57):
seven to eight, first pitch in the Bronx, Toronto obviously
still up to one, Dodgers trying to close out the
Phillies up two games to non game three tonight in
Los Angeles. Well organized, well oiled piece of machinery right here,
let's see, Larry. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Larry, thanks
for hanging on.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
How are you.

Speaker 6 (59:20):
Disappointed?

Speaker 1 (59:21):
Likewise?

Speaker 11 (59:23):
Well, you know, I had quit listening to sports radio.
I mean, I just I don't know, it just became
kind of inane. Then I kind of tuned back in
when Rocky for the Rocky and Most Show, because I'd
coached Rocky and he's a great.

Speaker 8 (59:39):
Guy, and.

Speaker 11 (59:42):
So so then Tony came in and I said, you know,
this guy's a breath of fresh air. And then then
I listened to he and Austin, and I said, you know,
these guys are fun. You know, I didn't feel like
I was sitting in a lecture hall listening to someone
about sports. I felt like the guys that really just

(01:00:04):
loved the games, that they covered. They they studied hard
because out of that love, not because it was a
job that they had to prepare for. I listened to
Tony do the color analysis of the of the game Saturday,
and I said, this guy is so much better than
this clown that I heard on television Sunday. Yeah, you know,

(01:00:28):
it just it's just so unfair that they had to
take him off the air. I'm not used talking.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
On the radio.

Speaker 11 (01:00:41):
I talked to a lot of people, but yeah, anyway,
I just totally disappointed. I think that Tony did a
heck of a lot better job at what he does
than the person that fired him does what he does.
Because he obviously made a huge mistake. I think he
underestimated the audience. I think they're gonna be repercussion from

(01:01:05):
it somehow, some way. I know that my interest in
listening to anything iHeart has gone down the tube. In fact,
I had a radio went dead on me. I didn't
bother replacing it because I listened to iHeart. That's not
gonna happen. What happened buying a radio and the act
with iHeart. But I just want to express my frustration

(01:01:28):
appreciation for Tony and Austin Austin does a good job,
you know, and it'll be interesting to see what happens
with the former Tony and Most show, because it can't
get any better than that was.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Well, that's kind of you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
I'm not going to tell you that your feelings are invalid,
and I'm also not speaking from the perspective of trying
to be a company man. What I will tell you
is in that time slot, as much as I will
miss Tony, I believe if you have listened to that
show for a few weeks, a couple of months, a
few years, I think Austin deserves a shot. I think

(01:02:07):
Austin deserves And when I say he deserves a shot,
he's he's you know, I I think if and for
what it's worth for those who don't know, Austin is
is taking the next few days off pre planned trip
to go watch the Bengals play. So if you don't
hear him for the next couple of days, Austin is fine.
That was That was a great well, without a question,

(01:02:27):
that is a great show with the two of them together,
And the departure of one does not mean you have
to give up on the other. Uh, you might want
to give up on. You might want to give up
on the other day parts of the radio station. You
might think this show is garbage, and that's totally fine.
But I would tell you that if you have invested
time in Tony and Austin together, as disappointing as it is,

(01:02:50):
that Tony's not there, I think the work that Austin
does and the the responsibility that he'll assume being on
in that slot deserves the audience as a whole to
give him an opportunity, and I think most will give
it to him. And so be angry and be upset
and use our airwaves to ven if you want, and

(01:03:13):
feel however you want to feel about who you know
that the folks who made this decision. But I would
hope that you would still give Austin the chance to
be a big part of your day as a listener.

Speaker 11 (01:03:25):
Well, Austin, I think has done a tremendous job. He
works at it really hard, and he he deserves a
decent audience.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
He deserves more.

Speaker 11 (01:03:37):
Respect than I've heard him give him over there. Some
of these people who default have been pretty ridiculous. But yeah,
Austin does a great job. I will be listening to
Austin but as far as I'm concerned, ihearts did. I'll
be listening on my transistor.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Larry, I understand.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
And I appreciate you calling in and and and chiming
in and listening today. Thanks, thanks very much. It it sucks,
and you know it. I am a fan of this
medium and have been since I was, you know, eight
or nine years old. I you know, but God knows,

(01:04:18):
I've I've bored you with this for for a number
of years, over the course of a number of different occasions.
But like I decided when I was nine years old,
I wanted to work in radio. I know how to
do it, didn't know what I wanted to do. But
like I knew when I was a little kid, man
like I just want, I want to work at a
radio station. My my love for this, I didn't want

(01:04:39):
to say industry, for this, for doing this, for being
a part of this goes back to when I was
a little kid. I literally never wanted to do anything else.
And I'm a fan of it. Like I mentioned this
on rare occasion, like I am a sports talk radio dork.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
I listen.

Speaker 3 (01:05:03):
I listened to eight to ten sports talk radio shows
on a regular basis, and then a handful of others
that I catch from time to time. On top of
liking general talk, like I have a genuine love and

(01:05:23):
passion and interest in this, and so it kills me
as somebody who loves this when it's compromised, when good
people like Tony or let go and others across the company.
But I view this, I look at this through two
different lenses. One is, Tony's my friend, he's my colleague.

(01:05:47):
He's somebody I care about. He's somebody I admire, somebody
I can't say enough good things about him. But I
also say it as a listener. It sucks, and I
don't have a better, more gentle way of putting it.
It sucks so hard when you know, you listen to

(01:06:09):
a show every single day, and maybe it's the entire show,
maybe it's live, maybe it's podcast, maybe it's Hey, i'm
in my car from you know, let's say, in their
time slot twelve to twelve twenty every day, and it becomes,
I think, more than any other medium part of your day.
Like that's that's the beauty of I think, as hokey

(01:06:30):
as it sounds, it's the cool part about radio, whether
it's listening to this station or another one, or music
whatever it is, Like that becomes part of like your routine,
your day. I mean, I can tell you where I
need to be in the morning based on when unsportsmen
like takes certain breaks, or based on when Tom Brenneman

(01:06:51):
takes certain breaks down the hall. It becomes a part
of your day. And then someone just decides to take
that part of your day away like it. There are
not enough people in a decision making capacity in our
business who even consider that much less respected, like that's.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
A disruption rights. What's fun about?

Speaker 3 (01:07:15):
I think radio more than anything else, God knows, there's
awesome podcasters out there. Is it becomes a part of
your day, like it's it's there, It's always on, and
you turn on this show at this radio station at
four forty four in the afternoon, you expect to hear me.
There's obviously days I'm not here and suddenly that goes away.

(01:07:37):
In regards to since he three sixty like it, it's it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
I hate it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:44):
The best part about this is that like routine element,
and the worst part about it is that folks in
a decision making capacity, and by the way, not in Cincinnati,
just take that away, suddenly, no heads up, no chance
to say goodbye, like I hate it. So the fallout

(01:08:09):
from that is you hear folks like our guy Larry,
who are pissed off because he loved listening to that
show and suddenly a big part of it's gone.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Yeah, man, I get that.

Speaker 3 (01:08:23):
I get that because I have felt that as a listener,
and beyond just the obvious, which is it's our guy,
it's our friend, and you know, removing him just disrupts
what we do, makes it less fun. It's it's hard

(01:08:47):
for the audience, and I I empathize. I understand that.
It's quarter to five. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
Station Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 4 (01:09:02):
Traffic from the UC Health Traffic Center. Mamma gram Saved Lives.
Call five one three five eight four pink to schedule
your annual mammogram with UC Help's expert team. That's five
one three five eight four pink. Northbound seventy five before
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southbound Cole Rain. Another accident at West Fork Road southbound

(01:09:25):
seventy five. Traffic is stop and go between Western Hills
Viaduct and Fort Washington Way up to a ten minute
slow down. I'm at ezelik with traffic.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
Distreekware and the fact that you are not being pulled
over right now. Dylan Fairchild and no go. Let's see
bj Hill full go today. Charlie Jones limited, Lucas Patrick
cleared to return to practice. Also limited, Drew Sample, no goo,
Shamar Stewart limited. Bengals and Packers on Sunday four, twenty five.
Bengals game plan is tonight at six on ESPN fifteen

(01:09:55):
thirty three straight run scoring heads for the Tigers. They
have tied the game me against Seattle in the bottom
of the fifth inning three to three. Detroit still batting
Mariners up in that series two games to one. This
is thanks to our friend Mike Petrellia aka Trags. We
talked about Jake Browning. Jake Browning did talk today, and
by the way, give him a measure of credit for it,

(01:10:17):
because he has no obligation and don't shove him out
there to do the weekly press conference like they do
when he is the starter. But answered questions today about
being benched. And here's Jake Browning doing that. Thanks to Tracks.

Speaker 12 (01:10:31):
No I mean, I'm socially aware enough I think to
handle it on my own. I think it sucks, but
like I said, everyone's in the middle. Everyone's in the
middle of the season, and you know, I think, welcome,
welcome to pro football. If you don't play well, you're
gonna get replaced. And uh, you know that's what I'm
going through. And you know, I think, just like the

(01:10:51):
general theme for myself is, you know, anybody that is
going through some university, whether it's football or personal stuff,
you know, if you go through it and deal with
it the right way, there's no way you don't come
out the other end, you know, a better version of
who you who you were. And so you know, for me,
it's like, you know, trying to respond the right way. Obviously,
I'm pissed, and if I wasn't pissed, then I shouldn't
be in this locker room. And it's important to me.

(01:11:14):
And you know, I'm aware of the role I played
and in the offensive struggles over the last few weeks,
and you know, but I'm also not shouldering the entire.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
Situation.

Speaker 12 (01:11:24):
And uh, you know, I went through yesterday, watched my throws,
tried to come up with some stuff that I want
to work on and just doing that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Look, he's playing behind in a mobile old quarterback who's
going to be playing behind a bad offensive line, and
so they need Jake brown And to get better because
he's a pretty damn good chance he's going to play
at some point. But you would expect him to be upset.
Took some degree of accountability, large degree of accountability, and
made himself available. And there's a lot of folks in
his shoes, perhaps maybe including myself. If I was in

(01:11:58):
his shoes, who would have said, Yeah, I'm not gonna talk.
Go talk to Joe Flacco, go talk to other folks.
I'm gonna go and hide. He did not do that
good for him. The quarterback play was substandard. There's no
getting around this. Tarran made this point to me earlier.
You know, Zach Taylor. We can debate how much he's
on the hot seat, but like, there is a degree

(01:12:19):
of scrutiny here that matters. Kevin Stefanski, with Joe Flacco
two years ago, won the NFL's Coach of the Year award. Now,
that season, the Browns had great defense, but he won
that award in part because of his work with Joe Flacco,
getting them up to speed, coaching them up, getting them

(01:12:42):
ready to have the offense function. Terren's team, Kevin O'Connell,
they bring in Josh Dobbs, they trade for him on Tuesday,
he plays for them on Sunday. Kevin O'Connell, who our
friend Tony Pike things is the best coach in the NFL,
got an extension with the Vikings. This passed off season,
but that was I think when he kind of burst

(01:13:02):
into the national consciousness, if you will. Where they go
get Josh Dobbs and Kevin O'Connell gets him ready to
play Week one, gets him ready to play and function
and have the offense work.

Speaker 1 (01:13:15):
They won the football game.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
And so this is an opportunity for Zach Taylor, which
by the way, I think he did a good job
getting Jake Browning ready two years ago. This is an
opportunity for Zach Taylor to show off some coaching chops
and do something that's been done before. We've used the
example Baker Mayfield with the Rams a couple of years ago,

(01:13:38):
where he got to town on a Tuesday, played on
Thursday and they won the Heck, we've talked a lot
this week about Kyle Shanahan and the forty nine ers.
Last week on Thursday Night Football, a whole bunch of dudes,
hurt backup quarterback, pieced together a game plan that worked
and they beat the Rams on a short week, tough opponent,
division opponent on the road. So well, all right, Like Zach,

(01:14:02):
this to me is this is the coaching challenge that
I think should ultimately dictate where the conversation goes more
than anywhere else. Quick change, less than ideal set of circumstances,
tough opponent on the road, three straight losses, a guy
you just brought to Cincinnati. Now, it's not like the

(01:14:25):
dudes never played before. Joe Flacco has a ton of experience,
but can he get him ready?

Speaker 1 (01:14:31):
Like this is?

Speaker 3 (01:14:32):
Terror made this point to me off air, and he's right,
like this is. This is where there's gonna be a
lot of attention and a lot of scrutiny and maybe
ultimately where he can either win some people over or
make people go, you know what, This ain't it And
a lot of folks are obviously already there, but these
are This is one of those situations that I think
tests you as a coach. This is one of those

(01:14:54):
situations not unlike what Joe Flacco's coach two years ago
had to encounter, and he got the team to the
postseason won the NFL's Coach of the Year award.

Speaker 1 (01:15:08):
So we'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:15:12):
I guess there's gonna be there's gonna be a lot
of attention paid.

Speaker 1 (01:15:17):
We'll see if he's up to the task.

Speaker 3 (01:15:19):
So far this year, it is completely fair to say
that Zach Taylor has not the disintegration of the run game,
the inability to craft game plans around Jake Browning, the
inability to find anything that works for this offense. You
might argue a lot of it would have been undone
anyway by the awful quarterback play. But this team has

(01:15:39):
not looked ultra prepared. They certainly didn't against Denver, and
it doesn't feel like they're at all equipped to come
up with solutions that make them slightly more competitive. All Right,
we're changing quarterbacks. We're giving you somebody who's got experience.
Get to work, getting this guy up to speed, make
the offense more or functional.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
When some folks over, We'll see if he can do that.

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
It's coming up on five o'clock five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
fifteen thirty. This is ESPN fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.
That here now your chance to win one thousand dollars.
Enter this nationwide keyword on our website. Dollar, that's dollar.
Enter it now, all right? Do that five o ESPN

(01:16:24):
fifteen thirty on my legger it is well, yeah, the
bud Light five o'clock Happy Hour on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Thanks to bud Light, easy to drink, easy to enjoy.
I will probably have one here very very soon, very

(01:16:46):
very soon.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
I am.

Speaker 3 (01:16:49):
I am not going to repeat the the twenty minute
soliloquy that I launched into at the top of the show,
but I'll sort of in camps lies things quickly here.
It's been awesome to hear from a lot of you there.
There are often times where a radio station will go
through a personnel change. And if you don't know Tony,

(01:17:10):
Tony Pike announced on his social media a little before
noon today, which is obviously when he would have been
on the air, that he has left the company. And
he's not leaving the company as part of his own doing.
And he's not the only one. And Tony did nothing wrong,
and Tony did not underperform and oftentimes you're you're kind
of told don't really talk about it. I think that's ridiculous.

(01:17:34):
And what I will say is, nobody has told me
not to talk about Tony. Nobody has told me not
to take phone calls about Tony. And when when you
ask an audience to be loyal and then you take
away somebody they listened to on a regular basis, I
think you owe it to them to give them a
chance to kind of speak their mind. And so we've

(01:17:55):
heard from a lot of folks today about Tony, and
we've worked in some sports talk to the best we can.
I certainly do appreciate everybody bearing with us. This has
not been an easy show to do. These haven't been
two easy shows to do. Because we found out about
this yesterday and I think Austin and I both felt
like that was Tony's announcement to make, so it went

(01:18:20):
unmentioned by us yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:18:21):
And thank god for Joe Flacco, by the way, because.

Speaker 3 (01:18:28):
I'm sitting there yesterday and my energy is drained, and
it's like, all right, I can make some jokes about
Joe Flacco on Twitter and then we could do a
show about Joe Flacco. But inside my heart's hurting for Tony,
and so Tony is no longer with us. And we
started the show by talking about his impact on the
radio station and my friendship with him and how much

(01:18:48):
I have valued him as a teammate and a colleague
and how I value him more than anything else as
a friend. And the good news is that part for
me doesn't end and wherever Tony goes, and I don't
know what that's going to look like. I don't know
what he wants to do, but if he chooses to
make a living in front of a microphone, he will

(01:19:09):
be even better. And he's already damn good. So I
don't know that anybody wants to hear the twenty minutes
that I started the show with, but.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
I just hope he.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
I hope Tony and I know he listened at the top,
because he did sent me a text. And I cannot
imagine when you get, you know, thrown away by a
radio station, that you have that much of an appetite
to listen to the radio station. So I'm sure he's
not listening now, but I hope he feels the deep
appreciation that everybody has for him. And I'm talking everybody

(01:19:45):
here and everybody in our audience, everybody in our orbit,
folks in social media, folks in sports, and most importantly, frankly,
you guys, the people who listen to this show and
people who listen to this radio station and consume our content.
I hope as hard as I'm sure finding out that

(01:20:06):
he's being let go was that he could take soulis
in the fact that a lot of folks have expressed
their appreciation for him, their admiration for him, and like me,
can't wait to find out where he surfaces next. And
wherever that is, I know I'll be in the audience,

(01:20:26):
So we have a few waiting patiently. We will play
the Zach Taylor audio. That'd be fun, be fun to
hear from Zach Taylor today. We do have Bengals game
plan as soon as we're done at six o'clock tonight
on ESPN fifteen thirty one. More on just kind of
what's going on here. I appreciate the patients that folks
have shown, because I don't know that yesterday's show was

(01:20:48):
very good, and I don't know that today has been
all that much better because we're distracted by something that
bothers us. But I do think that our guy Austin
today and yesterday in a position that he has never
been in before, was unequivocally awesome. And I said this
to a caller last hour who basically said, they're kind
of done, you know, listening, And that's you know, that's

(01:21:11):
a choice that you make, and it's up to yours,
and it's a choice that people who run radio stations
have to live with when they move on from somebody
who is a beloved personality in somebody the audience loves.
But I sincerely hope that if you made since he
three to sixty a part of your daily routine, that
you give Austin a chance to take the show wherever

(01:21:32):
he wants it to go, because I think he'll do
great too, And I hope he's afforded the opportunity. I
know he'll be afforded the opportunity here. I hope he's
afforded the opportunity by folks who listen to that show
every single day with Tony and Austin.

Speaker 1 (01:21:49):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
Let's see the Bengals news of the day. By the way,
Joe FLACKO, if you were wondering, is going to be
the starting quarterback on Sunday. I don't think that comes
to the surprise if anybody. Jake Browning did talk earlier today,
played the audio before the top of the hour and says, essentially,
it sucks, but I'm gonna do my thing. He kind
of gets it, like, Jake Browning can't be that dumb.
And I would not imagine he was shocked by the

(01:22:12):
news that he's not going to be the starting QB.
He might have been stunned by who the starting quarterback
is going to be. But I think he is painfully
familiar with how bad his play was, and I think
what you wonder is how many more opportunities is he
going to get. I viewed this for him and for
the team as if you have to turn to a
backup quarterback, you could do a hell of a lot

(01:22:34):
worse than Jake Browning, Right, I don't think any of
us feel that way anymore. But also, what an opportunity
for him to prove that he could take on the
load that comes with being a starting quarterback in the NFL,
and he did not take advantage of the opportunity. You
wonder how many more will come his way?

Speaker 1 (01:22:54):
We'll see, all right?

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
Long winded by the way, Richard Skinner's gonna join us
in eight minutes. That'd be good. Let's see here. We
have folks waiting patient and I appreciate everybody.

Speaker 8 (01:23:05):
Ian.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
You're on ESPN fifteen thirty.

Speaker 6 (01:23:07):
How are you, hey, brother, I'm great. I'll just preface
this by saying, like, my comments.

Speaker 11 (01:23:16):
Are gonna be clean.

Speaker 13 (01:23:17):
I'm respectful, but you don't have to respond to some
things that I say.

Speaker 6 (01:23:23):
That cut deep.

Speaker 5 (01:23:25):
I'll just say it.

Speaker 10 (01:23:27):
Listen, man, I listen to you every day.

Speaker 13 (01:23:30):
I listen to Austin Tony every day. It feels like
part of my freaking family.

Speaker 6 (01:23:35):
Dude, you know your comedic hilarious. They have their thing.

Speaker 13 (01:23:41):
Personality awesome is like a very good radio voice, and
I sure darn hope we don't lose him too. Very talented,
and it's kind of puzzling to me. I'm gonna just
say this and then you're spot after. It's kind of
similar to like, why would you pay Burrow and these

(01:24:03):
receivers this money and not be preemptive and invest in
line and that goes a bumped in COVID. I'm sorry,
but that's a freaking truth and they need to face it.
They need to face it. With their scouting. All right,
let's table that for a second and.

Speaker 6 (01:24:19):
Back to my ending of my emotional rant here.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
Yeah, but.

Speaker 13 (01:24:25):
You know, he's a personality of the people of the town.
I hope I can freaking hear them again somewhere, But
you just can't come by that often in the world
of like intense competition with podcasts. And let me say
that again, very intense competition. Why in the heck would

(01:24:47):
you want to give away a personality that strong, that
that many people have that strong of a connection with.

Speaker 7 (01:24:54):
The big mistake?

Speaker 13 (01:24:54):
And I think that they must be very disconnected, for
I'm the loco and just more looking at numbers and
like a national kind of a cunt because I don't
it doesn't make any sets, just kind of like some
of the moods of ownership.

Speaker 10 (01:25:13):
And I love you guys, I love the shows.

Speaker 13 (01:25:16):
I'm gonna stop listening, but I'd love to hear what
you have to say with what I think it's just
quite puzzling.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Did you really quick? Did know?

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
I appreciate you? I appreciate your thoughts. Did you just
describe this show as comedic?

Speaker 6 (01:25:32):
Well, you're very funny. I think it could be a comedian.

Speaker 7 (01:25:36):
Man I think talent.

Speaker 3 (01:25:39):
You know, things keep going the way they are all
go to open mic night. Look, you said something that
I think, as hokey as it sounds, I think has
always mattered to me when it comes to formats like
this and shows like this. I know, I listen to
Lance McAllister every day when he was on in the
afternoons on another radio station when I was in.

Speaker 1 (01:26:01):
College, every day every day.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
And I don't say that to make Lance feel old,
but he was on from ten o'clock until one o'clock
every single day.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
And this is at a.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
Radio station that doesn't exist anymore, every single day. And
then he came here and he was on in the
afternoon and was on in the afternoon until I got here.
And then they put Lance on at night every day
from like nineteen ninety seven through two thousand and nine,

(01:26:33):
and then you know, we were splitting the show and
it was a little bit different, but every single day,
and I could tell you what it was like as
a listener, and I like got I am a talk
radio listener, sports talk radio listener far more than I
am a sports talk radio host. And on the days
Lance wouldn't be there, you'd be disappointed, and it didn't

(01:26:54):
matter who was there. And so I understand what it's
like to have that routine this person every day when
I was going to school at UD and working at
the radio station, I'd get in the car at a
ten thirty and I'd drive an hour to go to
school every day at UD and I would listen to
it until the signal of that radio station faded for
about forty five minutes every single day, every single day.

(01:27:16):
And so that was a part of my day, that
was a part of my daily routine, that was a
part of everything that I did. That show felt like
an extension of me, felt like an extension of my life.
That felt like somebody who I had an intimate, forty
five minute relationship with every day listening to his show,
and sometimes even longer. And that's the idea behind doing this, right.

(01:27:37):
The idea behind doing this is it's daily. It's not
once a week, it's not a couple of times a week,
it's every day. So we're supposed to be there and
provide companionship. And whether it's a part of people's daily
routines or whether it's feeling like making folks feel like
you're a part of their family. That's the objective. And
so when that's taken away and suddenly the guy you

(01:27:59):
listened to every day is not there, the reaction is visceral.
And I think, unlike when they take away a newscaster,
not that that's not important, or they take away, you know,
a podcast, isn't produced nearly as often.

Speaker 1 (01:28:13):
I think that's what makes this medium unique.

Speaker 3 (01:28:16):
And I think that the people who decide to take
away people like Tony lose sight of that those decisions
are not made by people that are in this building.
They're not, but not in this building now at least,
And so what happens is the people here have to
deal with the fallout, right and we have to deal
with We have to be the ones to explain why

(01:28:36):
Tony's not here, and we have to convince people, hey,
we're still here. Listen to us. We'll still be a
part of your family. And sometimes it falls on deaf ears.
But what you expressed I understand, because that's what this
is supposed to be. We want you to listen to
us every day. We want you to make us a
part of your routine, whether it's for five minutes or
for six hours. And when that is taken away. It

(01:28:58):
sucks and I wish I had a better way to
put it, but I don't. And so whatever pushback that
comes from the audience, I understand.

Speaker 1 (01:29:06):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:07):
I hope that doesn't result in people leaving the radio
station in mass because that's not good for me. It's
not good for my co workers. It's not good for Tarn,
it's not good for Austin, it's not good for the
people that I work for here, who I care about
a lot. But I understand that man, and I understand
being hurt and pissed and upset, because the idea, when
this is done successfully, the person who's on the air

(01:29:27):
feels like a part of your life, feels like your friend,
feels like your companion, and feels like a part of
your family. And the fact that you feel that way
about Tony means he did his job successfully.

Speaker 13 (01:29:39):
I'll just say one more thing. I mean, it's I'm
being goofy here, but like when crackle Brew tried to
change your name.

Speaker 6 (01:29:48):
It's like that's a the snake you guys.

Speaker 13 (01:29:51):
Everybody was like, no, dude, you're completely wrong, And I
think I speak for a lot of people and saying
you got sound completely wrong.

Speaker 6 (01:30:02):
You're disconnected.

Speaker 13 (01:30:03):
You don't understand we are your power. In the world
of technology and advancement, radio wants to be strong.

Speaker 7 (01:30:12):
They need to have local.

Speaker 5 (01:30:15):
Realization, like people.

Speaker 13 (01:30:17):
That are connected that do understand, to be a mediator
to not make this.

Speaker 6 (01:30:22):
Mistake bad news.

Speaker 13 (01:30:24):
Man, it's the wrong move.

Speaker 7 (01:30:26):
I love your show.

Speaker 6 (01:30:27):
I always list in. I love Austin. I'll keep listening.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
But geez yeah, Ian, I do, thank you and I
appreciate you chiming in comedic. I don't know that this
show has ever been referred to as as comedic. The
fact that anybody feels that way about Tony means he
did his job successfully and.

Speaker 1 (01:30:46):
At the end of the day, man, like I.

Speaker 3 (01:30:50):
Love I love this medium. Don't always love the industry,
don't always love the business. But when it's done right,
the person in front of the microphone, regardless of whether
it's sports or talk or music, like they have done
their job, if you feel like they're a part of
your family, or they have done their job, if you

(01:31:14):
feel like they're a part of your circle of friends.

Speaker 1 (01:31:19):
I mean like, that's that's how this is supposed to work.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
And the fact that anybody would feel that way about
Tony means he did his job successfully. Richard Skinner Next
Cincinnati's ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from the.

Speaker 4 (01:31:38):
UC Health Traffic Center. Mamma Grams Save Lives. Call five
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Traffic right now slow back from Mostellar up to a

(01:31:59):
twenty five minute delay southbound cold rain. An accident at
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I'm at ezelak with traffic.

Speaker 9 (01:32:09):
This is Football in the Natti, brought to you in
part by Postman Law and Vice Skyline Chilly on ESPN
fifteen point thirty to the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Speaker 3 (01:32:22):
Thank god, we've reached the point of the show where
we call Richard Skinner Local twelve, Local twelve dot com
on Twitter at Local twelve Skinny, Hi, Richard.

Speaker 10 (01:32:34):
Hey MO, can you give me fifteen seconds here? I
just want to share everybody's sentiments about Tony Pike. It's
wholly unfair. As someone who's been riffed in this business.
It's a gut punch. But I'll tell you this, and
it'll happen for Tony. One door closes, a better door opens.
And he's a really talented guy. I know he's gonna
land on his feet.

Speaker 1 (01:32:53):
You you only won fifteen seconds.

Speaker 10 (01:32:56):
Well, I could do longer, but I thought i'd keep
it condensed just for you.

Speaker 1 (01:33:00):
That's kind of you. I I second everything.

Speaker 8 (01:33:03):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:33:03):
You could bring back the angry quarterbacks.

Speaker 6 (01:33:06):
We could.

Speaker 10 (01:33:07):
I've actually thought about that. I don't think that's the
recesses of my mind somewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
Very very good.

Speaker 3 (01:33:15):
How how taken aback were you when you found out
that the solution that quarterback is is gonna be Joe Flacco.

Speaker 10 (01:33:22):
I wouldn't say stunned, but if you started tossing around names,
he probably wasn't when you were tossing around. But you know,
I know people are banging the drum for Russell Wilson,
and I mean, let's face it, there's been four teams,
three teams in a row that have given up on
that guy. There's a reason for that, right, I.

Speaker 6 (01:33:39):
Mean, there just is.

Speaker 10 (01:33:40):
And then there's also the diva stuff that comes with it,
and maybe it's unfair, and maybe I've not been in
a locker room with Russell, so I've never had an
interaction with Russell, so maybe that's completely unfair. But it
just wasn't gonna be the fit. And then you know,
Jamis is fun. I mean he's fun, but he's Jake
downing three interceptions, three touchdowns fun. That's not much fun, right,

(01:34:01):
I mean, it's just not the cousin's thing was interesting.
Depends on how you would have done the contract machinations,
how much you would have been on the hook for,
because maybe it would have been worthwhile because you're gonna
need a backup next season and maybe he could be
that guy. But a ten million dollars backups a lot.
I mean, so yeah, I mean where you fell here,

(01:34:22):
I'm okay with it. I mean, he didn't move my
needle a ton. If you use advanced metrics, you know,
Jake Brown's the worst in the league. And guess who's
right above him next door in the league. It's Shoe Flacco.
But I do think this offense is interesting because he
still has that big arm. They still have a lot
of quick stuff where you know, make a quick read,
get it out of your hands. And I think that's
where Jake was really struggling. He just was having a

(01:34:44):
hard time with progressions and making quick reads and making
quick decisions. I don't think that'll be a problem for
Joe Flacco. I am a little stun You signed the
guys on a Tuesday, and he's going to start a
game on a Sunday. I really thought whoever they signed,
it would almost be Jason. Get a couple more starts,
and maybe he works his way out of this, and
you know, after that through that Thursday night game, because
it's a quick week, then we'll go in a different

(01:35:04):
direction with the guy we brought in because we've gotten.

Speaker 7 (01:35:06):
Up to speed.

Speaker 10 (01:35:07):
This tells you how desperate they were, right. I mean,
they'd had enough, they'd seen enough. They didn't think they
could win with Jake any longer, and so you had
to pull the trigger again. It doesn't move my needle
much because again, I don't know what to expect. I
know what I've seen, and what i've seen has been eh. Yeah,
I've seen from Jake has beenah. So I get it,
and I'm a big fan of Jakes.

Speaker 6 (01:35:27):
It just didn't work.

Speaker 7 (01:35:28):
And I'm so.

Speaker 11 (01:35:29):
Stunned it didn't.

Speaker 10 (01:35:30):
I'm I'm probably the most surprised person it didn't work,
because what I saw in those seven games in twenty
three was a capable quarterback. What I saw in these
three games this year was the guy we feared that
would be in there in twenty twenty three when he
took his first nap.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
I'm stunned it didn't work because my expectations weren't huge, right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:44):
I looked for competence.

Speaker 3 (01:35:45):
I looked for just be capable, make it function, and
if it does, especially in those games against Denver and Minnesota,
that could have been enough. The fact that it cratered
the way it did and did so quickly, Yeah, I mean,
I think it's actually a pretty salk development.

Speaker 10 (01:36:02):
Yeah. I just never would have seen that coming. Could
I tell you he's gonna play Joe Burrow level football
for three games?

Speaker 8 (01:36:07):
No?

Speaker 10 (01:36:08):
But again, I saw a confident court. I saw a
guy go to a game in Jacksonville on a Monday
night when Jacksonville at the time was really good and
they cratered that season, but they were really good, and
he goes thirty two and thirty seven and helps him
win the game. In overtime, they kept him in the
playoff race. I just listen, I asked. I asked Jake
that question in the press conference.

Speaker 7 (01:36:27):
I asked that that question.

Speaker 10 (01:36:29):
I asked Dan Pitcher when we have him in kind
of a writer's only session, that question. And no one
seems to be able to put their finger on what's
different between Jake Browning now and Jake Browning. Then Jake
gave me a decent enough answer where you know, we
had the run game going in the screen game. Okay,
you probably did, because I think your strength is using
play action, getting under center. I mean, remember we talked
about the elements of the offense with the play action

(01:36:50):
and the under center and the bootlegs. Wow, what maybe
you incorporate that with Joe Burrow. It looks so good,
well when you didn't run the football and you didn't
put very well. And then Jake got in his own head.
I mean, I think Sunday after Sunday night, him talking
to the media Sunday night, it was almost like, yeah,
this can't go forward. He's he's a mess at the moment.

Speaker 3 (01:37:10):
With Joe Flacco, I get somebody who's who's a quick study.
He's done the quick study thing before with the Browns,
although admittedly not this quickly and at the very least
like I've seen Jamar Chase get open and the ball
will not come his way, and I feel like that
will get rectified even if there are mobility issues.

Speaker 10 (01:37:28):
Yeah, No, I agree, the mobility issues are real. You
can you can mask some of that with a little
bit more more max protection, Mike. Literally, you know, there's
two guys in the route at number five and number one,
maybe a third there's a checkdown guy. I mean you
can do that.

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
Teams do.

Speaker 10 (01:37:41):
There's two man routes all the time in this league,
and those are two pretty good guys to send out. Now,
then you hear that both get doubled, and where do
you go with the football? All those things? You know
he's willing to throw the ball away. You know, I'm
gonna put a name here in a minute. I did
it yesterday when I did a TV segment. I got
a statue quarterback. Peyton Manning was a literal statue quarterback.

(01:38:01):
Did okay, Now, he had better offensive lines, and he
had certainly the Marvin Harrison uh And and Reggie Wayne
and and Dallas Clark and those guys and so he
had weapons and a running game, so he had all
those things going on, but he was a statue and
he did pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:38:15):
No, you're right, I mean I'm not. I'm less worried
about that, and more, can he master the basics? And
I think Joe Flacco can, and and the mastering the
basics in this offense still means there's a high end
that this unit collectively can hit.

Speaker 7 (01:38:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:38:30):
I think that's the part too. I like, I mean,
can you still throw it? He sure can. Okay, Now
that's that's point one. He's a very smart guy. There's
no question about that. I mean, I thought it was
really semi comedic that. I mean, they started going over
this stuff as he was being driven from Cleveland to yesterday.
But I think it shows you that, hey, we got
no time to waste. Man, we got to get do
this thing. I hazact today. You know, do you scale

(01:38:52):
some stuff back? And he said, yeah, you gotta be
mindful of it. I mean, I don't think you're gonna
throw a whole playbook into into the game plan now
for for Joe Flacco. But I want to bet you
there's a chunk of the playbook that's probably more than
what we think that's going to be available to him.
And I will say this, it's made a trip and
I'm taking a driving trip as you know, with some
of our friends. Yeah, it's made a trip. That was

(01:39:13):
going to be oh gosh for going up here to
watch this again, to at least it's going to be interesting,
right one way or the others, to be interesting good
or interesting bad.

Speaker 3 (01:39:20):
Yeah, that car ride's going to be interesting. And frankly,
I think that's still the most interesting thing about this weekend.

Speaker 10 (01:39:25):
It might be.

Speaker 7 (01:39:26):
It just might be.

Speaker 1 (01:39:28):
Thanks as always, man, I appreciate it.

Speaker 10 (01:39:30):
Ye.

Speaker 3 (01:39:30):
Take that's our guy, Richard Skinner Local twelve, Local twelve
dot com. We'll play some Zach Taylor audio. We'll hear
from Gregory and John Michael and another guy named Mike
and room for you before six o'clock on ESPN fifteen thirty,
Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 9 (01:39:45):
You've been listening to football in the NATI, brought to
you by Cincinnati Tax Resolution, powered by Tope Sheldon on
ESPN fifteen thirty, the official home of the Cincinnati Bengals Eddies.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
ESPN fifteen thirty Traffic from.

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The UC Health Traffic Center. Mamma gram save Lives. Call
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(01:40:26):
over at Webb Lane, Camargo Road. Accident at Shawnee Run
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Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
This report is sponsored by US.

Speaker 8 (01:40:37):
Fifteen thirty, Cincinnati's sports station.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
Sports Headlines are a service of Kelsey schev Light, home
of lifetime powertrain protection and guaranteed credit approval from their
family to yours for life, kelseyshove dot com. Zach Taylor Today,
you're gonna hear Zach and just a second said yes, Yes, Indeed.

(01:41:02):
Joe Flacco is going to start on Sunday when the
Bengals take on the Packers at lambeau Field. That game
is going to be at four to twenty five on Sunday.
You'll listen to it live on ESPN fifteen thirty. Pre
game coverage at twelve o'clock. More tonight on Bengals game
plan from six to eight live on ESPN fifteen thirty.
Schamar Stewart was limited today in practice. Dylan Fairchild a

(01:41:25):
no go as the Bengals get set for Green Bay.
I would tell you so much more, but you ever
Google something and you punch it in and then it
says this site can't be reached. So apparently Google or
my computer not responsive. Baseball playoffs. There's two games happening

(01:41:46):
right now. The Tigers have it erupted for eight so
far unanswered runs, and they have overcome a three to
nothing deficit. They take an eight to three lead into
the eighth inning. Detroit is the home team. Mariners lead
that series two games to one. Tiger's up eight three.
They're in the bottom of the first inning at Wrigley Field.
The Brewers and Cubs are tied at one. Chicago, though,

(01:42:07):
has the bases loaded with two outs. Later tonight, it's
the Yankees hosting the Blue Jays Toronto, still up in
that series two games to one, and the Dodgers taking
on the Phillies Game three National League Division Series LA
up to nothing in that one. Let's listen to Zach Taylor, huh,
the head coach of the Bengals. He announced that Joe
Flacco is going to start that game on Sunday. Here

(01:42:28):
is Zach explaining why he is comfortable with Joe Joe
two point zero starting against Green Bay.

Speaker 7 (01:42:34):
You just know him.

Speaker 14 (01:42:35):
I mean I don't know him personally. I've only met
him once before he came here. But no, his game
as well. I mean it's putting against some I don't
know how many times, a lot of times, and so
very comfortable with his style concepts. He has been good
at things that fit us that we do a lot
of the terminology. There's a bunch of carryover, more so

(01:42:56):
than I would have anticipated. So I feel like you
we can get him most being quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:43:00):
Worth Uh, there's there's Zach Taylor on Joe Flacca. Now,
now here's Zach on Joe being in it. Says here,
tear and cut these up. He put this in all
caps being a great passer.

Speaker 14 (01:43:13):
He's a great passor he's a great passer. And again,
we've got to expand all areas of our offense to
be better, to be able to efficient run the football,
protect all that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:22):
Kind of stuff.

Speaker 14 (01:43:24):
But the number one trait you're looking for is a
guy that can operate your system into the football. And
Joe has always been a tremendous passer in this league
and have seen it, and so now we've got treminous
weapons that he can he can play around, and so
I'm excited to watch him do it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:38):
There you go, great passer. Maybe atow shout out Jake
brown look could be could be Jake Browning the opposite
of a great passer. I'm not sure I would use
the word on the radio that would describe Jake Browning's
passing ability right now, But there you go. Now here's
Zach on how the Bengals ended up landing on Joe
Flacco as the third started quarterback they've used this year.

Speaker 14 (01:44:03):
I do just let me know yesterday that that's where
it was at. So obviously he asked my opinion of Joe,
and I was excited that if we were ever to
make it happen, I'm all on board. That would excite me.
And so then he just came and said we had it.

Speaker 1 (01:44:15):
Done with it yesterday. Looked like, what time did he
get here? What were you guys able to do last
night to get ahead?

Speaker 10 (01:44:19):
Start?

Speaker 8 (01:44:20):
Well?

Speaker 14 (01:44:20):
We talked on the phone while he drove. We had
somebody to drive him, he and his wife from Cleveland,
and so we were able to send him the information
to study. Talked to him on the phone as he
drove down, gave him a break, let him then come
in facility, and we got a chance to meet last
night and at.

Speaker 3 (01:44:37):
This morning, I'm wonder I'm interested in the driver, Like
who does that? Who's the person that has to drive
the car to Cleveland and drive it back? Do they
have to use their own personal vehicle? And did they
get mileage?

Speaker 1 (01:44:52):
Dude?

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
Mileage is awesome like the irs? Now if the internet
worked right now? Like mileage is like what close to
sixty cents per so here to Cleveland's what about two
two and a quarter? What two hundred and thirty miles?
If I can get the computer to work here, uh
and get basic internet service in this studio, which in

(01:45:12):
twenty twenty five you would assume would be a given.
I will look up what that you think? It's like
an intern? Is that the sort of thing that he
would ask, like Dan Pitcher to do. I don't know
who's the person in charge of driving to Cleveland, you know,
because they don't. I don't think they have access to
a private jet flying to Cleveland. You know, once you

(01:45:35):
go through security is going to take like four hours anyway. Uh,
and then you know you can't talk to him on
the phone. I'm guessing I would make that true if
I could charge mileage. Mileage is awesome. If you ever
work somewhere and they give you the option between gas
is expensive, but they give you the option, they'll Reimburshue
for the gas or they'll Reimburshue for mileage. Always take mileage.

(01:45:59):
Always Okay, Gregory in Westwood, thank you for hanging on. Gregory,
you're on. You're on ESPN fifteen thirty. Good afternoon. How
are you.

Speaker 6 (01:46:11):
I'm all right.

Speaker 8 (01:46:11):
I appreciate you taking a call.

Speaker 5 (01:46:13):
Wan.

Speaker 8 (01:46:15):
I heard that you said something earlier though, when you
were talking about people being part of your daily life.
I used to listen to lands like that back in
the day when you was spilling in. I was like,
whee is this guy?

Speaker 1 (01:46:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (01:46:28):
So was I.

Speaker 8 (01:46:30):
I'm switching this off right now my guy is not on.

Speaker 1 (01:46:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:46:33):
That sucks, it does now.

Speaker 8 (01:46:35):
But Tony, though, I feel like I've been there from
the beginning with him listening to him and it was
only on there for an hour and it's like, man,
that's just don't seem like long enough. Then they switched
off to the ESPN y'all hoos, and it's just like, okay,
I'm done with this till three o'clock. And I happened
to be there that night that the Hostel takeover. Yeah,

(01:46:58):
you talk about it an amazing too. I'm sorry my
bluetook kicked on to be a part of I was like, Oh,
they gonna really keep doing this. I was, I think,
get fired one hundred percent behind that one. But I
thought that was pretty amazing though, and shout out to
the Austin too for sticking out and going to you know,

(01:47:18):
staying in there with him not turning his mouth, risking
his own job.

Speaker 6 (01:47:22):
No question, was pretty cool to see.

Speaker 3 (01:47:24):
Yeah, I remember that well, and I think when that
show got expanded to three hours, it was trying to
think of the way that I could put this best.
When that show was expanded to three hours, it was
the first time since I started on the air where
I felt like I was legitimately on.

Speaker 8 (01:47:45):
Eighteen and it was not because I get my last
clicked thought and you got to go back to when
he had a morning show, the Two Angry Guys two.

Speaker 1 (01:47:57):
Right, yeah and see them and.

Speaker 8 (01:48:01):
It would go all days, it's like, this is this
is what you'd like to see. And then they just
went back to Mike and Mike and they that's cool,
but it didn't have the same feel to it, though
I appreciate the time, No.

Speaker 3 (01:48:13):
Gregory, thank you. When that show debuted. You know, for
from two thousand and nine up until the formation of
SINCY three sixty and twenty seventeen, this was the only
local show on this radio station. With the exception of
Bengals programming. Bengals Game Plan has been on since twenty

(01:48:35):
eleven and you know, different one offs. This was the
only local show. And fine, you know, the ESPN product
has its pluses and has its things that maybe I
would do a little bit differently, But when you're the
only local host on a show, it's a big responsibility.
You also feel like you're on a little bit of

(01:48:56):
an island. And so when they they long launched SINCY
three sixty, which at the time was a one hour show,
was James Rapine and I was on it for a while.
That was great, another hour of local programming, and then
Tony took it over and quickly made it his own,
and I think it became abundantly clear that there was

(01:49:17):
room for more, and there was an audience for more.
Then the show expanded to two hours, and then the
show became three hours, and I think that's been like
three and a half years now, maybe a little bit longer,
and since then this has been awesome. The best part
of my day, the single best part of my day
coming to work here every day is when I'm with

(01:49:40):
those guys at two forty five, because for about ten
minutes there, I get a I get a taste of
what I think really good radio sounds like, which is
there are different shows, right, but they're not siloed, and
there's a collaboration and there's a team, and there's sharp

(01:50:01):
differences between the two, and that, to me is what
it should sound like. And that's, for me, was the
best part of these last three and a half years
with those guys. It'll continue with Austin, at least that's
what I've I've been told and and it will be fine,
and it'll take some time for our audience to adjust,

(01:50:22):
and it's my sincere hope that everybody who loves Tony
on that show sticks with Austin and sticks with the
radio station. But I can understand why somebody might have
tuned in to hear Tony and they go, you took
away my guys. So I'm leaving, like I get that,
that's how it works. But the last listen, I said
this at the top of the show. Listening to Tony

(01:50:45):
grow into the role of a host on every single
day and talking about football, which is his main area
of expertise, but expanding it to baseball and basketball and
talking about different issues in sports and creating an on
air personality has been awesome to watch, and it's been

(01:51:07):
awesome to be a very small part of. And I
have an extraordinary amount of admiration for somebody who took
on that challenge and did so with admittedly not a
ton of guidance. And he made the radio station better.
He made our group of radio stations better. I could
tell you he is beloved in the office. And by

(01:51:31):
the way, we lost other people yesterday. To to which
extent they want their stories told, I couldn't tell you,
but I hold them in high regard as well. And
what stinks about this and I said this at the
top of our show. Is in this day and age,
you kind of understand where radio is like you do,

(01:51:52):
I'm not naive to it. It's not what it was
in the eighties or nineties. It's not what it was
when I got into it in ninety seven ninety eight. Like,
it's not competitors. The business has changed, how people consume
it has changed. There's challenges, there's no getting around that.
And there's challenges when you work for a corporation. I
get that too, And yet you have folks who come

(01:52:13):
in every day and they're willing to overlook those challenges,
work through them, be optimistic in the face of them,
and still have passion for creating content, being a part
of our team. And then they're unceremoniously dumped. It's exceptionally hard,
exceptionally hard, and it's exceptionally hard if you work here.

(01:52:36):
It's exceptionally hard if it impacts people you care about,
and it's exceptionally hard if you listen to a show
or a radio station every day. Like the crappiest thing
we do in this business is ask people to listen
every day, and then suddenly the person they're asked to
listen to every day, be loyal to follow on social

(01:52:58):
media into their show if they can't hear it Live.

Speaker 1 (01:53:02):
Oo Gone Away, Gone Gone Away. I hate it. I
hate it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:06):
And so if if you love Tony, if you love
that show, if you love our radio station number one,
thank you number two. I understand any amount of anger, frustration,
sadness to spare.

Speaker 1 (01:53:18):
That you may feel.

Speaker 3 (01:53:19):
And I thought it was appropriate today to give folks
an outlet to express those things.

Speaker 1 (01:53:26):
We're done, I mean to the best.

Speaker 8 (01:53:29):
I know.

Speaker 3 (01:53:29):
We're back tomorrow. Anything you might have missed go find
on the iHeartRadio app. Podcasts are a service of Long
Next Sports Grill. Bengals game plan is next Dan Hoard
Dave Lapham tomorrow since he three sixty. Austin's not going
to be here because he had planned on going to
Green Bay for the Bengals game anyway, and God God

(01:53:50):
knows that dude deserves some time off. Chad Brenda will
be in. We return tomorrow at three oh five. Have
an awesome night. Thank you for listening. This is ESPN
fifteen thirty, Cincinnati Sports Station.

Speaker 2 (01:54:06):

Speaker 4 (01:54:09):
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moving through there. Southbound seventy five. Another accident between Mitchell
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10/8/25 - The Mo Egger Radio Show

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