Sports radio hosts encounter Twitter trolls constantly. It’s common to receive messages like, “You suck, I hate you,” or my personal favorite, “Your an idiot.” Being the target of anger comes with the territory. Many hosts don’t have to deal with feedback that is racist or sexist in nature though.

Sadly this is not a luxury that FS1 superstar Joy Taylor enjoys. The brilliant co-host of The Herd with Colin Cowherd talks about a method she has developed for dealing with these lowlifes. Hopefully her technique will discourage others from lashing out so Joy can be treated with the respect she deserves.

There is much more wisdom from Joy in the conversation below. The biggest improvement she has made as a broadcaster traces back to her early days in the industry. Joy carries what she developed in Miami to the national radio and TV airwaves. Her views on how the prodominantly white media is handling topics that deal with the current social unrest is a must-read. Joy also says that she doesn’t want to be normal and embraces being a little off. Many people — aka the smart ones — love her just the way she is. Enjoy.

Brian Noe: Which FaceApp picture do you think is better; you as a man or Colin as a woman?

Joy Taylor: [Laughs] Colin actually was more impressive. I obviously spend a lot of time on social media and I have Snapchat. It sounds weird but I’ve seen myself as a man before, at least according to what the apps would say.

I think this was Colin’s first experience with FaceApp. He looked great — high cheekbones, really great hair. It was fun. It was very unexpected. I saw Jason had tweeted that. I look exactly like my nephew, [former Miami Dolphin and Joy’ brother] Jason [Taylor]’s older son Isaiah. He looks like Jason with hair, so it was funny.

BN: What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned from Colin?

JT: Colin is a very thorough prepper. I think prepping is the number one thing you have to learn as a broadcaster. How do you prep the right way to let you do a good job? What kind of materials do you need during the show to do a good show? It’s really different for each person.

Every talent has a completely different routine for how they like to do it. With Colin we do a two-hour prep call before every three-hour show. So essentially Colin does a show before the show, which is remarkable. Now he would say it’s not that big of a deal, but it is a big deal. That’s a lot of prep.

I’ve worked with a ton of different talent in the industry, not that there’s any right or wrong way to do it, but that’s a lot of energy to talk through every single topic that thoroughly. He has his own system of notes, which I kind of tease him about because no one else on Earth could possibly understand his note system. I’m very OCD so I like my notes to be super organized, highlighted, this part bold, underlined. I have a completely different formula for how I do it but I have learned a lot about how and what preparation works best for a show of our length — especially being a TV/radio simulcast, which is different from doing just a radio only show. He’s very thorough and likes to be very, very prepared. I’ve been learning a lot from him when it comes to that.

BN: What was your first break in sports radio?

JT: I started interning at 560 QAM in Miami when I was in college at Barry University on the Joe Rose morning show. That was my first entrance of any official kind into the business. I did an internship with him. I believe it was my junior year of college. At that time those stations were owned by Beasley Broadcasting and they also had Power 96 in the building.

After I finished my internship with Joe Rose, I had developed a relationship with DJ Laz and the morning show over at Power 96 so they gave me an opportunity to intern there in a completely different capacity. It’s a music morning show, entertainment, a little bit of sports, and I would do sports updates for him, but also learning a completely different side of the business and implementing a lot of entertainment into the show. I did some internships in college that prepared me. I also worked at the radio station at our university as well. I really tried to get a lot of hands-on experience.

I eventually got my first job at QAM where I had interned a few years later on The Sid Rosenberg Show as a part-time producer. Anyone who knows radio knows that that is not a very high-paying gig, but I was very happy to have it because it’s very hard to get a job in the business. That’s the first step.

Nobody wants to hire you if you don’t have any experience. You can’t get any experience if you don’t get hired. That was really my first break; my first paying job in the business was being a part-time producer at QAM for Sid Rosenberg’s show. I freelanced at a few other places while doing that show but that was the first break.

BN: When do you first remember thinking, man, I really want to be on the air as a sports radio host?  

JT: I’ve always loved sports. I grew up in Pittsburgh so that’s not an option whether you’re going to like sports or not when you grew up in Pittsburgh. I played sports growing up and obviously had the opportunity to watch my brother’s career, which taught me a lot about the business and the personal side of sports. I think I just always was meant to be a personality.

I have the same story that every broadcaster has when you’re a kid you did your newscast with your hair brush in front of the mirror. My mom had gotten us this VHS camera that you put the whole actual tape in. We would record these news broadcasts. I really thought this is what I was supposed to do and what I really felt like I could be great at. After I finished college and went through the little journey you go through after you don’t get your first job that you want out of college, and just realized I love sports and I love talking.

I always wanted to be on air and got the opportunity with Sid. Sid is a very big personality. I learned a lot from him as well just being very unapologetic. I quickly realized from being with those talents — Joe Rose, DJ Laz, and then starting with Sid — that if I was going to be successful in this business I want to be a personality. That’s what best suits me.

I had done some reporting stuff. I had done some news stuff in college. There are so many different areas in the business you can get into but you should really do what you’re passionate about the most. I think all the experiences that I had early on in my career and in college really helped me get into the space that I’m in now.

BN: What is the main improvement you’ve made from when you first started off to where you are now?

JT: I think confidence. That really comes from reps. When you’re a young broadcaster, you feel like you’re getting into a business where you have to be very confident, but you don’t get opportunities, or you’re still a little nervous. There’s a lot that goes into it. It’s not just turning the microphone on and talking. You’ve got to hit breaks. You’ve got to read lives. You have to make sure that you get all the commercials in. Are you taking callers? How do you introduce them? How do you pull them up? Where’s the cough button? There’s a lot that goes on during a show that’s not just talking.

I think in the beginning knowing what kind of personality you want to be — that can be difficult too because maybe there isn’t someone in the business that exists to look up to. Confidence for me has been the biggest thing. Just understanding that you’re going to make mistakes, which is why I think working for a student radio station and doing internships and taking those Saturday night 8 o’clock to 10pm shifts on the local radio station that probably not a lot of people are listening to, but you can make your mistakes there and learn to not be nervous and be confident. I think that’s the biggest change because you know how you feel, right? You know when you’re watching a game and you’re talking to your friends what your opinions are, but how to put it all together, how to be smart and informed and prepped and be entertaining at the same time just comes from reps. I think the biggest change for me is definitely confidence. 

BN: What do you think about the way your show has handled subjects like George Floyd and NASCAR banning the Confederate flag?

JT: I think we’ve handled it on the show really well. I’ve had the opportunity to have some really open conversations. I think our network does a really good job about empowering talent to have those conversations and supporting us in that.

I’m exhausted and I’m very sad and frustrated that we still have to have these conversations. But I think it’s an important time in history with everything that’s going on with the election year, COVID obviously, and then now the string of deaths, murders, bringing that to light and having these really open conversations that I hope will bring about some real healing and change. I think it’s important to keep shining the light on it because as soon as it goes quiet that’s when we sink back into what we’ve been doing for many years in this country, which is not giving the true racist scar that this country has the attention it needs to heal and move forward together. I won’t speak for everyone but I talk to a lot of people in the business and it’s been a very exhausting time for everyone, but necessary.

I get a lot of…let’s just call it hate on social media, which I’m used to and I can handle, but normally if someone’s doing too much I’ll just block them. It’s not going to change my life whether or not you see my next social media post, but lately I’ve made a conscious effort not to block people and kind of highlight the terrible things that people are saying.

I’ll see people and they’ll talk to me and be like, “Wow, I’ll read some of this stuff on social media and it’s horrible. How do you deal with that every day?” I’m like well I want you to see that. I want people to see that this stuff does happen. It exists. There are lots of people out there that still feel the way they do and they’re still very racist. They’re very sexist.

I spent 16 years in a Baptist Church and am not spending my Thursday night picking you apart. But condemning me to hell because I support freedom, civil rights and love is a smooth way to show you’re a raging hypocrite, homophobic, intolerant, judgemental and self-righteous. https://t.co/egsrJ0h4V5

— Joy Taylor (@JoyTaylorTalks) June 19, 2020

BN: When you go on social media after a show and someone sends you something that’s racist or sexist, is it hard not to get dragged down by that?  

JT: Yes and no. I feel like I’m fortunately — I don’t know if it’s fortunate or not — but I feel like I’m very callous to it, very used to it.

It’s not something I spend my day complaining about, but I also realize I am not just speaking for me. I represent other people. As a black woman in the business and having a platform, I have a responsibility to use that platform properly. Does it hurt my feelings? No. Me? No, because I know if I saw this person on the street they wouldn’t say anything to me. They would not do that. These are weak people. They’re hiding behind fake accounts. These are internet trolls. They’re too scared to even put their name on what they’re saying.

I do realize other people see that and may feel threatened or afraid or sad or brought down by what’s being said to me. Does it hurt? It hurts that it’s still happening, not that that person is doing something that’s going to change my day. I know who I am and what I’m capable of and what I’m going to do, so that person doesn’t hurt me. It’s more of the fact that I want to continue to show other people who are out there denying that any of this is real and this is all a conspiracy or it’s not that bad or whatever, they need to see that. It’s more for them.

BN: Sports radio in general is very white dominated. Does it ever make you uncomfortable if you flip on a show and they’re talking about George Floyd or a social issue?

JT: Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable depending on how the conversation is going. I wish there was more diversity in the business. I wish there was more diversity behind the scenes in the business. I wish they would hire more black producers, more black women in executive positions, more black people behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera. I just wish the business was more diverse overall. Some of the conversations definitely make me uncomfortable.

I think the George Floyd conversation is directly related to George Floyd. I think for the most part what I’ve seen and heard has been very straightforward and mostly everyone has hit the tone of what it should be correctly, which is that he was murdered and deserves justice. I do think with the broader conversations there can be a tone of ignorance and more importantly a lack of empathy from non-diverse talent. That’s what’s more hurtful to me.

When I’m hearing some of the conversations that I don’t agree with, it’s not so much that I feel like they don’t know what’s going on, it’s more just a lack of empathy for an entire community that’s been saying this is a problem for a long time. Now it’s become very undeniable because we have camera phones to prove what’s happening.

To answer your question there’s definitely been times where I’ve been extremely uncomfortable, but the broader conversations are more of the ones that start to put me in that space because the George Floyd conversation is very straightforward.

BN: Is having your podcast a good outlet in terms of the conversations you want to have and the topics you want to hit on that might differ from The Herd?

JT: Yeah, absolutely. I started the podcast when I started on Undisputed because I did come from Miami doing a four-hour morning drive radio show. Being a moderator, your space is quite limited. Obviously I was very happy to have the opportunity but I still wanted to be able to get my opinions out there and stay sharp as a talent. That’s why I started the podcast a little over two years ago now.

I definitely still use it in that space. The week that everything started to ramp up with the conversation around George Floyd, I didn’t feel right doing a normal podcast so I just had everyone that’s on the podcast with me just get on a Zoom call. We did that as our podcast instead. We just had a conversation about how all of us were feeling and what this really means. I think it was very therapeutic.

I feel like the podcast is a space that I try to use to focus on things that I really want to talk about. I want the podcast to be a good blend of youth, culture, sports, entertainment, conversations that I have with my friends and things that we talk about pertaining to sports, people that I think will be interesting to talk about sports with. That’s the thing that I’ve tried to keep the podcast in since we launched it.

BN: How did you settle on the name for your podcast? What’s the backstory with Maybe I’m Crazy?

JT: [Laughs] Crazy has a lot of implications. I’ve always been a little off but I embrace it. I don’t want to be normal. That’s sort of where the name came from. I’m saying these off-the-wall things that people get really irritated or excited about. That’s just kind of where it came from. 

BN: You have so much ahead of you in the industry, is there anything in particular that you would like to do along the way?

JT: It’s really important to me to be able to have an impact on the industry outside of just myself. Obviously I have goals and things that I want to accomplish in the business in the near future and further down the road, but I just want whatever I do to have an impact on the next generation of broadcasters and sports broadcasters that come after me. I don’t want to leave the business the same way that I came in. Does that make sense? 

BN: Yeah.

JT: It’s important to me to see a more diverse culture when it comes to sports media and sports entertainment on camera and behind the scenes. Anytime I have an opportunity to make decisions as a talent, which isn’t always obviously, we all have bosses and work for networks, but when I do have those opportunities I want to take advantage of them as far as making sure that I have a diverse staff on any project that I work on and just encouraging young people to think in that same way and hopefully use whatever influence that I gain in the business to keep pushing that forward because I think it’s very important.

Being able to see yourself on television or see people that look like you or come from where you come from in those positions, it’s really seeing is believing. Representation really matters. I just want to continue to be a mentor and help push that forward however I can. Whatever I do in the business — which we’ll see, we’ve got to get sports back [laughs] — I have a lot of aspirations and different things I want to do in the business for sure short-term and long-term, but that’s just the most important thing to me.