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Strickland Rising In St. Louis

Jason Barrett

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The playoffs are a busy time for Andy Strickland, who is in his 16th season of covering the Blues in a wide variety of capacities.

He currently is in his second season as a contributor to Fox Sports Midwest’s Blues pregame shows, and also is a sportscaster at KTRS (550 AM) plus he appears Friday mornings on Frank Cusumano’s show at WGNU (920 AM).

What with the Blues having a late game Thursday night and a 6:15 a.m. airtime looming Friday at KTRS, where he is filling in on the early shift while Jim Holder recovers from ankle surgery, he wasn’t counting on getting much sleep before his radio shift.

“It’s a quick turnaround, but I’ll be on adenine in the morning,’’ he said Thursday. “It will be a long day, because (later) I’ll be at the rink for practice as well as on Frank’s show. But it’s great.”

Strickland doesn’t mind all that, because he has made covering hockey his professional life — most likely to his detriment in a baseball-crazed market. He doesn’t dispute the notion that he has been pigeon-holed into being thought of only as “a hockey guy” by management at many stations.

“I definitely have been,’’ he said. “I think it’s my own fault because of my passion for hockey. I’ve been around the game for my entire life, growing up playing it and having coached with our Triple A St. Louis Blues — the top youth hockey organization in St. Louis — for 10 years. And I’ve really been into covering the NHL. It’s almost my own fault because it’s not a traditional hockey market, yet I put myself in that position years ago.”

Strickland, now 38, got his start in 2000-01 season when he was working behind the scenes at KMOX and impressed Dan McLaughlin — who without management’s approval let Strickland start coming on the air. McLaughlin, now FSM’s longtime Cardinals play-by-play broadcaster, was working weekends then at KMOX.

“I knew he loved hockey, I knew he wanted to be on the air,’’ McLaughlin recalled. “I also knew I probably wasn’t supposed to give him a particular segment, but I didn’t care because I knew he had a passion for it.”

Strickland put together prepackaged interviews and features, then after they aired he and McLaughlin would discuss them.

“It was all him,’’ McLaughlin said of giving him the opportunity. “He had earned it, worked hard. I thought it was a smart thing to do then, I think it’s a smart thing to do now. I think it’s the responsibility of people like myself or others who are on the air that if a guy shows initiative and is working hard, why wouldn’t we give him a chance?”

Strickland, a Parkway North High graduate who has worked in many low-profile jobs in local print, radio and TV, was pointed toward finding his niche. He eventually met with Tom Langmyer, who then ran KMOX. Langmyer asked him about his career goals.

“I said, ‘I want to be the best I can be at covering the National Hockey League, I think there’s a need for it in St. Louis,’” Strickland recalls saying. “There really wasn’t anyone (in local broadcasting) doing it, I felt there was a void. I thought I could jump on it. Here we are 16 years later, and I always think about that.”

He made a name for himself, especially in Canada, with his in-depth coverage of the Mike Danton case. Danton was a Blues player who was charged in 2004 with conspiracy to commit murder, leading to a wild saga that made international headlines.

“That vaulted me,’’ said Strickland, who still appears on hockey radio shows across North America.

He also became prolific with written hockey coverage, especially online, and wasn’t afraid to throw out things he had heard or got from anonymous sources — a more undisciplined blog style than mainstream media uses. But he has given that up because of his FSM ties.

“I really had to re-invent myself in terms of how I cover the St. Louis Blues because, now working for Fox there are certain expectations in terms of how you handle yourself around the rink,” he said. “So I stopped writing in general because I didn’t want to get myself in trouble, No. 1. And No. 2, I’m not covering the team the same way that I used to. Obviously 95 percent of the information that I gather I can no longer report. … I still do a lot of reporting, but I don’t always release that information.

“But I wouldn’t have it any other way, either,’’ added Strickland, who said Blues owner Tom Stillman has been instrumental in his job growth. “This has been a great opportunity for me and I’m trying to take advantage of it.”

Like most St. Louis radio sportscasters, Strickland has worked at numerous stations in the market and now does several shows at KTRS. But Strickland, a man of many roles, has a new favorite one.

“I really like doing the TV thing,’’ he said. “I knew I would like it, but I like it even more (than I thought I would). There’s a big difference of being on TV (as a guest) and doing TV (as a regular). The people have been great to me. I really enjoy this.”

Credit to STL Today who originally published this article

Sports Radio News

Doug Gottlieb Details Interviewing For College Basketball Head Coaching Vacancy

“I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up.”

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Fox Sports Radio host Doug Gottlieb recently interviewed for the vacant head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay and detailed the experience on his podcast.

“I got a chance to talk to (Wisconsin-Green Bay AD) Josh Moon several times during the year after they had made their coaching job available and my approach to how I’ve done these things — and this is not the first time I’ve gone down this path, but this was a different path,” Gottlieb said on his All Ball podcast.

“This is a low-major, mid-major job, and there’s no connection there. I’ve told people that for the radio element to — for the right thing — I’d give it up. The (podcast), I’m not giving it up. I love doing it and I think there’s a very smart world where if I’m coaching I can still do this podcast and still do it with basketball people all over the country and the world, and it’s kind of like a cheat code.”

He continued by saying that seeing Shaka Smart be successful at Marquette has motivated him to continue to search for the right fit as a college basketball coach.

“That’s what I want to do. And last year when I was coaching in Israel, that also continued to invigorate me…this is something that I would really like to do. It has to be the right thing. It has to be the right AD who hits the right message.”

He continued by saying that a sticking point of negotiations was he wasn’t willing to give up his nationally syndicated radio program for the job. He was willing to take less money for his assistants pool, but also to continue doing his radio show.

Gottlieb did not get the position with the Phoenix, noting that he was a finalist but was never offered the job. The position ultimately went to Wyoming assistant coach Sundance Wicks. Wicks had previous head coaching experience and had worked with Green Bay athletic director Josh Moon at Division II Northern State. He admitted he wasn’t necessarily “all-in” on the job due to the current ages of his children and whether the timing was right to uproot his family to move to Northeastern Wisconsin.

The Fox Sports Radio host does have coaching experience. He has worked as a coach for the U.S. men’s basketball team at the Maccabiah Games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics.

Gottlieb’s father — Bob — was the head men’s basketball coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1975-1980, compiling a 97-91 record.

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Waddle & Silvy: Scott Hanson Told Us to Lose His Number

“We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

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Aaron Rodgers took immense pride in the fact that he told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter to “lose his number” while discussing his future earlier this week on The Pat McAfee Show. ESPN 1000’s Waddle & Silvy said they’ve experienced similar treatment from guests on their radio show.

While discussing the Rodgers interview with McAfee, the pair admitted that NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson once told their producer to stop trying to book him for interviews on the program.

“I believe the presentation was ‘Do me a favor: lose my number after this interview’,” Tom Waddle said. “So he tried to do it politely. Scott Hanson did. Get out of here. That concept is foreign to me. How about ‘Hey, next time you text me, my schedule is full. I can’t do it, but thanks for thinking of me’. ‘Lose my number?’ You ain’t the President, for Christ’s sake. I’m saying that to anyone who would say that. ‘Lose my number?’ We’re all in the communication business. I just don’t know — why be rude like that to people? What does that accomplish? You know what it accomplished? We didn’t call him back, so he set out what he wanted to do.”

Co-host Mark Silverman then mentioned that the show once tried to book Hansen and NFL Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano together in the same block, with the idea of doing a trivia game to see who the supreme Red Zone host was. Siciliano agreed, but Hansen declined.

The pair also confirmed that an NFL Network personality had told them to lose their number, but couldn’t remember if it was Rich Eisen or not.

Silverman later joked that maybe Hanson was getting a new phone with a new number, and was politely sharing with the producer that he could lose the current phone number because he would share his new number in short order.

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Seth Payne: Aaron Rodgers ‘Makes Gross Inaccuracies’ When Calling Out Media

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations.”

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Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is always mad at the media for the inaccurate things he says they report, but according to Sports Radio 610 morning man Seth Payne, no one is more inaccurate than the quarterback himself.

Friday morning, Payne and his partner Sean Pendergast played audio of Aaron Rodgers responding to a question about a list of players he provided to the Jets demanding they sign. Rodgers called the idea that he would make demands “so stupid” and chastised ESPN reporter Dianna Russini, who was the first to report it.

“Now to be clear, Dianna Russini didn’t say demands in her tweet. She said wishlist,” Pendergast clarified.

They also played a clip of Russini responding to Rodgers on NFL Live saying that she stands by her reporting and it is her job to reach out to confirm that it is true.

“This is where Rodgers does this thing where he, in calling out reporters for their inaccuracies, makes gross inaccuracies in his accusations,” Seth Payne said.

He added that if Rodgers is being serious, he is doing some serious nitpicking. He claims that he didn’t give the Jets a list, but that he spoke glowingly about former teammates and told the Jets executives that he met with who he enjoyed playing with during his career.

Payne joked that maybe he wrote down the names in a circle pattern so that it was not a list. Pendergast added that he could have had Fat Head stickers on his wall that he pointed to instead of writing anything at all.

In Payne’s mind, this is a case of Russini catching stray frustration. Neither in her initial tweet nor in any subsequent media appearance did she use the phrase “demands”.

“What he’s actually responding to in that instance is Pat McAfee is the one that described it as a list of demands,” Seth Payne said.

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