Mike Schopp

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Mike Schopp (right) and Chris "Bulldog" Parker broadcasting from Super Bowl XL's radio row in Detroit's Renaissance Center.

Mike Schopp is the current afternoon co-host on WGR-AM radio in Buffalo, New York. "Schopp and the Bulldog" runs weekdays from 3-7 p.m. Eastern. His co-host is Chris "Bulldog" Parker. Schopp has also been a weekend and fill-in host on ESPN Radio.

WGR Sportsradio 550 was Arbitron's highest-rated sports station in the United States three out of four seasons between 2006 and 2007. The show features regular national experts like ESPN's John Clayton as well as Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres beat reporters.

1 Career
2 Show bits
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Career

Schopp began his radio career at WHAM (1180) in Rochester, New York, where he was the morning sports anchor. He also worked as a mid-morning sports-talk host at WHTK (1280) and named his show "Sports Talk for Smart People".

Schopp left the Clear Channel stations in the fall of 2000 and became one of the founding hosts of radio station WNSA-FM (107.7) in rural Wyoming County, New York (serving the Buffalo, New York market). Adelphia Cable had recently purchased the radio station as a complement to its now defunct Empire Sports Network. Both WNSA and Empire broadcast the games of the Buffalo Sabres, then owned by Adelphia's CEO John Rigas.

One of the recurring segments on the show was called "The Sharpshooters" which featured local hockey media personalities Jim Kelley and Mike Robitaille discussing the Sabres and the National Hockey League. (Said show continued after Schopp left WNSA, with Howard Simon as host, until WNSA's demise.) Former Buffalo Bill Steve Tasker was also a frequent guest and contributor on Schopp's show.

Schopp had been offered a job at ESPN Radio while working at WNSA according to reports in the Buffalo News. ^[1] However, because ESPN's affiliation was held by rival WGR, and Schopp worked at WNSA, a Sporting News Radio affiliate, Schopp would have to choose between continuing his shift at WNSA or defecting to WGR and taking the ESPN position. Schopp chose WGR. By the end of his tenure at WNSA, Schopp's Arbitron ratings were consistently better than his rival, Chuck "The Coach" Dickerson, yet he ended up working daily with "The Coach" when he first joined WGR. It was speculated in the press that WGR released Dickerson from the station because it wanted to gain the rights to Sabres hockey broadcasts, leaving Schopp the lone afternoon host for a short time until Chris "Bulldog" Parker, who came from the morning show as part of a restructuring between WGR and WBEN, joined Schopp.

Schopp grew up in Grand Island, New York and graduated from Saint John Fisher College in Rochester. He is married and resides in Grand Island. His wife, Carolyn, is a prominent tennis player in the Buffalo area.

[edit] Show bits

"Schopp and the Bulldog" features a number of recurring segments, including:

"Hall of Fame Rejection Committee": This idea was started while Schopp was at WNSA. Each day Schopp and company (usually 3 in all) would eliminate one person from the Hall of Fame until only one player, the supposed greatest contributor to the sport of all time, remained. In 2005, the Baseball Committee ultimately selected Willie Mays. Successors included the "Pro Football Hall of Fame Rejection Committee" (which selected Otto Graham), the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Rejection Committee" (The Rolling Stones) and the "Hockey Hall of Fame Rejection Committee" (ongoing).

"Haseoke": These are supposed to be the lost tapes of former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Hašek "singing" in a heavy Czech accent and wildly off-pitch. The voice of Hašek was never revealed but is believed to be Schopp's former producer, Steve Cichon, who sells the Haseoke tapes on his Web site.

Greg Bauch comedy sketches which air occasionally as bumpers between sports updates and sometimes as comedy relief. They include the Colorado School of Mimes; a sketch about the real Division II school- Colorado School of Mines, changed to "mimes", that attempts to play a game of college football.