Spence Checketts remembers the Bill and Spence Show

Spence Checketts remembers the Bill and Spence Show

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
You were listening to a three timesUtah Sports broadcaster of the Year. This
is the Bill Riley Show, presentedby Leschwab Tigresqua, Utah's number one sports
song ESPN seven hundred. All right, Bill Riley Show, heading down the
home stretch. Thanks to John Wrightfor coming by today. Thank you,
Johnny. Half hour left in thisshow and then three hours tomorrow and then

(00:27):
that's that we will be announcing inthis time slot tomorrow the guy that's gonna
take my place here, So we'llintroduce you to the new midday host here
on ESPN seven hundred. Before therewas ever a Bill Riley Show in the
mid days, there was an afternoondrive show. But before that, there
was a show by the name ofBill and Spence. And for those of

(00:47):
you that are old enough, youguys might remember it sounded a little like
this leaf. Go ahead. Ifyou missed a Bill Riley Show, well
you missed out this text message infrom Major League Baseball. Would you guys
voute Nellie Fox whites Hawx second basementinto the hall. I loved him,
I put him in. I'm surprisedsomebody that knows who Nelly Fox is knows
how to text to be honest withyou seriously, or has a cell Siria

(01:11):
has a cell phone or knows howto Maybe it's the group's cell phone at
the home. T into the BillRiley Show week the afternoons from three to
seven, right here on calls sevenhundred sports. If you missed the Bill
Riley Show, will you missed?Doubt you know it's interesting. Everybody,
of course, remembers where they werewhen the Bronco Chase went down. I

(01:32):
remember where I was when the acquittalwent down. I was at my girlfriend's
house and her parents were gone.Any premature acquittling, it is so dumb,
stupid. So we're all laugh andturn into The Bill Riley Show week
the afternoons from three to seven righthere on calls seven hundred sports. If

(01:55):
you missed Bill and Spence, willyou We'll find that if tonight's the night,
oh oh, the Jazz were ableto beat the Spurs, Tonight's the
night. I don't I don't knowthe words. Stick to the music,
man, Professor Hill, That's allI know. Oh Lord Jill, drop

(02:17):
the ball. It's Bill, Rillyand Spitzer chuckets. Sweet Days from the
tweety seven on call seven hundred sports. That was fun, so good man,
that was dispenses here, so good. I've said this forever. There
have been a lot of great showsin this market over the years. I
don't think anybody ever had a bettershow than the show you and I did
together for three and a half years. It was a special show. Man.

(02:38):
I learned a lot. I certainlyowe you a lot, and we're
all sad to see you go.And I often think back at that was
really my first, you know,full time radio job where I was actually
making enough money not to do somethingelse, and it was a lot of
fun. I learned a ton fromyou, and more often than not,
it just was fun. And that'swhat radio should be. This should be

(03:00):
a fun space. Sports should befun. We're in the toy aisle and
that was a great way for meto learn the business and kind of launch
my career. And here we areback together again. Basically what fifteen years
later, something like that fish bowlof trolley is where we began. Oh
yeah, yeah. And then wemoved to the West Side studio, yes,
where somebody literally shot a bullet holein the window. They never fixed

(03:23):
it, No, they never fixedit. It gave us a lot of
street cred when other hosts would driveby the back. Oh, don't mess
with Bill and Spence. They've beenshot at. So you know, I
don't know what I have more peoplebring up when we bring up our show
together Hot or Not Wednesday? Uhhuh? Or Shep? Oh sure,
sure, yeah. I saw Sheplast week at the Plocky thing. And

(03:44):
Shep was such a big part ofwhat we did was Shep was such a
good sport. We gave him alot of greeds. Oh yeah, but
it almost kind of helped grow hisbrand a little bit too, absolutely,
and it launched Shep into a placewhere he was able to leverage his presence
in our our pro gramm into exactlywhat he wanted to do. And it's
only covering BYU. And I stillkeep in touch with Shep here there.

(04:04):
And you know, a good kidwho I think still wears gene shorts.
We gave him endless grief for thosegene shorts back in the day. Do
you remember who was our launching padfor Hot or Not Wednesday? How Hot
or Not Wednesday began? It wasa conversation. It was not a topic
idea, It just began organically andshep began it because he threw it out

(04:27):
to you were on do you rememberwho it was? I don't Cameron Diaz.
Cameron Diaz, okay, and shehad he had just watched a Cameron
Diaz movie and he was like,I think she's good looking, but is
she hot or yeah, like that'sa good quad. And then we began
to discuss it amongst ourselves and Ithink we came to the conclusion she was
not hot. I believe that wedid, and then we brought that on

(04:49):
air. Certainly a segment you couldnot do in twenty twenty four. If
people have asked me over the lastcouple of weeks if I would do one
more Hot or Not Wednesday, andI said I will not because it's not
I want to remain employed gamefully,either here or beyond. You know.
It's funny about a year after wewere doing that segment, the TV show
The Office had an episode where theywere debating if Hillary Swank was hot or

(05:12):
not remember, And so we justtook credit for that entirely, even though
obviously The Office came up with thaton their own, But yes, that
was it's It was always such anexample of the way listeners interact with shows,
because you and I could break downYou's too deep. We could break
down jazz, pick and roll,say hey, what do you guys think?
Text us and be like, hey, is Cameron Diaz hot or not?

(05:34):
Boom, seventy five texts within thirtyseconds. We could have the greatest
sports breakdown ever. It would becrickets. Yeah, and it we rolled
out, people would wait. Theystarted throwing nominations out to us, and
of course my role was to introduceit. Chep's role was to be the
wet blanket, and you were preservingand protecting the same today of hot or

(05:55):
not Wednesday? Yes, yes,now, great, great memories for Shay.
It was such a fun show,you know. And obviously I went
to a different station and came backand it's been great to be reunited and
certainly have enjoyed working with you overthe past five years. And I'll add
my voice to the echoes of folksthat are sad to see you go,
but happy for your opportunity. Chile'son the West Side, Yes, yes,

(06:15):
chiffs and salsa. And where didShep used to go to get his
bottomless steak fries? The Red Robin? He wanted to wait for the deal
to get endless steak fries to takehis family to have dinner because remember SHEP
was like super cheap. He neverwanted to spend a dime. The Dan
Patrick dinner at Spencer's indeed, severalcrab legs and a lot of beers.

(06:39):
Dan probably had twenty krab legs andeighteen beers. He just kept ordering crab
legs and beers. He Our bossat that time was a guy named Dean
Howell. Shout out Dean Dean.I think he called him an evangelical pre
preacher. Yes, he had thelook of an evangelical preacher. He did,
he did because he was an LDSbishop at the time, and Dan

(07:00):
asked him if he was an ethat Jelco preacher. And I don't think
Dean liked that very much, butit was a funny moment. That was
funny. And then of course nobodycould ever forget you dubbed him this the
awkward intern. Oh indeed, yeshe's still working in the market. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, the awkward intern. And also nicknaming Dulce the Human
Details because I would listen to youand Frank on the football calls and of

(07:24):
course you're such a pro. Youwould have this great call and Frank would
just step all over you. SoI just nicknamed Frank the Human Detour,
which then became his Twitter handle.Oh so many good Memorieah, definitely,
I'm sure you do. Two peoplecome up and say, man, you
and Spence, that show was awesome. And I'll maintain to this day,
as much as I love my showsolo, what you and I did for

(07:46):
that three and a half years wasamazing. It was a hard decision to
leave, It really was. Imean, ultimately for me it was to
get back around the NBA and getround and get back around basketball. But
the redeeming sentiment I received when Ileft is you just left the best show
and market, you know. Andso we both did our best to make
our way through our careers, andyou know, Rent it worked out great
for both the y. Yeah,but that that three and a half years

(08:09):
was just so much fun because weplan a show out and then we would
just go in a million We couldgo a million different directions right right,
and between the two of us,we had a great guest list. You
know. That was when I gotto know Klonie Satake, who was the
defensive coordinator for Kyle. We didcoaches shows with Kilanie would come in studio
Gary Anderson as well, and thenbeing able to get to know Kyle and

(08:30):
obviously Kyle's still coaching the team tothis day and forging a lot of relationships
that I still really very much value, you know, including you and and
like I said, sad to seeyou go, but thrilled for your opportunity.
I think my favorite time that wegot Chef to turn white and he
just lost his mind when when wewere you were talking about the president of
the LDS Church, Thomas Monson,and you called him timons She is like,

(08:56):
he didn't he can't do you can'tdo it. He didn't think it
was funny at all. He waslike, we're that they were gonna call
and take away his temple recommend becauseyou had given the LDS prophet and nickname
with Temos and Andultcea used to impersonatehim on air and shep found no humor
in that whatsoever. Yes, temOn's for sure. Yeah, memories flooding
back, man, for sure.You know all the remotes that we did,

(09:18):
all the good times we had togetherand again learning how to do a
proper radio show from you, youknow, because you had had the experience
because you were really old when wewere doing that show. I chuckled that
older now, dude, I chuckledthat all the time because at that time
when we were doing that show,how old were you? I was like
thirty six or thirty seven, becauseI would have been twenty seven, twenty
eight, And I just cracked onyou for how old you are. And

(09:41):
I'm forty six down, way olderthan you were when we were working together.
And that was just our running bed, like, hey, go easy
on Bill, he's really old andyou're like thirty five years old at the
time. And the other line wasI love you like a little brother even
though I'm older. Yeah, Iwould say that to SHP. I would
say that to Shep. You know, I love you like a little brother

(10:03):
even though I'm older. And Ican remember during the draft process when Shep
said that he didn't think Steph Curryis an NBA player. Do you remember
this? I don't remember that.So we were doing the show and we
were analyzing prospects, and I lovedSteph and I'm not taking a victory lab.
But there was a little noise aroundSteph at the time, and Shep
was like, I don't even thinkhe's an NBA player, and I just
obliterated him on air, and Iremind him to this day, you know,

(10:26):
because obviously Steph has turned out tobe generational. Nobody thought he was
going to be this, But yeah, Shep was a good sport because he
certainly caught a lot of the bruntof our of our good time. I
took an l from you too becauseI thought Darren Williams would have a longer
career than Chris Poh the CP threeD, because I just thought the way

(10:46):
he was built, because he wasso much bigger and sturdier, I think
he'll have a longer career than ChrisPaul. And that was not the case.
Well, Jerry Sloan agreed with you, and you know, Darren had
four elite years here, you know, so for a while it was neck
and neck. But there was somethingabout Chris Paul that stood out to me
in my draft analysis, and Ithought he would be really, really good,
and ultimately, you know, thedeal did. And I say this

(11:09):
on my show all the time.We're informed, but we're guessing like everybody
else, and sometimes it works.Sometimes it doesn't, which is why the
new age media of embraced debate,where you have to have a hot take
is something that I am not interestedin at all. And the business has
changed now a little bit where guyslike you and I that have shows for
three and four hours, we haveto cover a bit of everything. And

(11:31):
now there are so many smart peoplethat cover individual events like the draft or
like recruiting, So I'll have arecruiting expert on or a draft expert on,
as opposed to paint myself like Iam the biggest expert in the world.
No, I think our audience issmarter than that. I don't think
our audience wants Steven A. Smith. I think they'll talk. They'll turn
him on in the morning when they'regetting ready for work, but when they're

(11:52):
tuning into us, they don't wantthe guy that thinks he knows everything about
everything. Well, a guy that'sgot an opinion on something, yeah,
you stand it. Yeah, butalso somebody that's going to bring on people
that will enhance the conversation even oradd to it or takeing a different direction.
Well, and you're kind of theone in the beginning of my career
where you know. Your kind ofethos was, Yeah, you do have
to have an opinion, you dohave to take a stand, you can't

(12:13):
waffle. But at the same timereminding me and reminding anybody you've worked with
at the end of the day,this better be a good time. We're
not waking up at six to returnemails all day. We don't have sales
calls at eight. You know,we're not grinding to to This is not
real work. Ultimately, it takesIt's a very energetic ask. You have

(12:35):
to prepare, you have to beon point for hours at a time every
single day. But it juxtaposed towhat a lot of people have to do
to get through their day every day. And I never forget that. Just
certainly grateful that I have the opportunityto do this. But you were always
good at reminding like, yes,take this seriously, be prepared, have
an opinion, stand on it.But if you're not having fun, then

(12:56):
you're not showing gratitude for this amazinglife that we're able to have. Well,
I said it to John Wright becauseI've been here for twenty years at
this station, and when we tookit over it was a mess. Clear
Channel loaned it, and you know, there's that adage in life you always
want to leave things better than youfound them. Sure, and as excited
as I am to start this newadventure at the University of Utah, there
is a little part of me that'ssad. But I feel great because I

(13:18):
know you're going to carry on thetorch, and I know the guy that
we're putting in this chair is goingto do a great job too, and
James and Jackie and our sales staff, and I just know that we're in
such a great position right now thatI can feel good about. Hey,
Spence, it's now Spence's baton torun with and take it and do take
the station to another level. Yeah, I appreciate you saying that we are

(13:39):
in a good place. We willmiss you. It's an undeniable hole with
your ties to the University of Utah, but we are going to use you
as much as you let us,of course, on the station, and
you're always welcome for a draft nightor just on a weekly basis to talk
to Utah. Last night was surrealwhen I walked in for the draft coverage
and you're sitting in the wingman's chairand you point over to the captain Cherry

(14:00):
and you say you're the captain now, and you pass the baton over,
and I appreciated that you didn't haveto do that, but that was kind
of a sign of respect, andthat was kind of you to do.
So I'm in a really good placein my career. I'm in a really
good place personally. I feel good. I'm energetic. I love where the
station's at. I think we havea lot of momentum. And you did
leave it a lot better than whereyou found it, for sure, energetic
for an old guy, I can'targue. There's nothing to argue about.

(14:24):
If I argue with that, Iwould be the biggest hypocrite in the world.
As I painted you with some geriatricwhen you're in your mid thirties.
It's ridiculous. Hey, thanks foreverything. Great to see him, my
man. All right, don't bea stranger. I'll let you go get
over the studio. That sounds good. I'll cover for a little while.
Yeah, Spencer, appreciate the show. Today. We have Craig Bowler,
Jack, we have Andy Larson,we have Steve Bartell for some youths recruiting

(14:48):
a couple of handies in studios.So that'll be good, all right,
But a lot of draft stuff ina little Utah football. That's Spence Chair
and the drive. Love him todeath, and he and I have been
been carrying this load for a longtime here at ESPN seven hundred. He's
got the Batani's running with it now. And appreciate all that he's done for
this station in for me down throughthe years as well. Big shout out
and to thank you to our friendsat rn R Barbecue. They are sponsors

(15:11):
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