The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Genre	Sports talk
Running time	4 hours
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	The Ticket Miami (WAXY) ESPN Radio (2013-)
TV adaptations	Fusion (coming soon)
Starring	Dan Le Batard Jon "Stugotz" Weiner
Announcer	The Big Voice Gonzalo Le Batard
Producer(s)	Roy Bellamy, Billy Gill
Exec. producer(s)	Mike Ryan
Recording studio	Miami, Florida
Air dates	since September 1, 2004
Opening theme	A montage of show sounds and pop culture audio clips
Ending theme	Gonzalo Le Batard saying, "We will talk to you mañana, this has been the Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN Radio"
Website	The Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN Radio www.theticketmiami.com
Podcast	Podcast RSS Podcast on ESPN Radio

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz is a sports talk radio show hosted by Dan Le Batard and Jon "Stugotz" Weiner and broadcast on 790 AM and 104.3 FM WAXY and ESPN Radio from Miami, Florida. The show is heard locally Monday through Friday from 3-4 PM ET and nationally on ESPN Radio from 4-7 PM ET. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, interviews with sports analysts and sports figures, as well as a generous blend of pop culture and listener interaction. The hosts are known for their self-deprecating humor, which carries over onto the show through running jokes.

Currently, Le Batard and Stugotz are joined on-air by Greg Cote of The Miami Herald on Tuesday and sports journalist Bomani Jones on Wednesday.

After running for 10 years on local radio, The Dan Le Batard Show debuted on ESPN Radio on September 30, 2013.^[1]

In early 2015, It was announced that the show would be televised on Fusion starting some time in 2015.^[2]

Running gags/Inside jokes/Trivia

Current

• '"The Game"' - The game is observations about sports figures and what they look like. Example: "Jeff Van Gundy looks like the Queen of Hearts."

• '"NFL Free agency breaking news"' - Stugotz randomly interrupts Le Batard during a long point with an "FM Radio breaking news" sound effect and delivers an update about NFL Free agency. The joke began with legitimate free agency news through the first few days of the free agency period. The joke has now been extended by giving "news" about nominal players or players making visits to teams. Stugotz has also begun adding random saying as the final breaking news in one of the groups of "stories" such as, "Rome wasn't built in a day" The joke often features an exasperated Le Batard begging his partner and producers to stop or pontificating about their ridiculousness. Producer Mike Ryan has also used the sound effect to interrupt Le Batard or Bomani Jones during an uncomfortable racial point.

• "'Shockular'" - A sound effect of Le Batard's father Gonzolo attempting to say, "Show killer." The clip is usually played when Greg Cote tries to make a bad joke but is played for any person who makes such a joke.

• The Rants - Following The Decision, the 2010 televised event in which LeBron James announced his intention to join the Miami Heat, Le Batard started the show delivering a five minute rant celebrating the then-defending MVP's decision, as well as the signing of Chris Bosh and return of Dwyane Wade. He delivered another shortly after and it became a tradition to unleash a new rant after each major Miami Heat accomplishment. In 2011, Le Batard gave a rant following series victories over the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls. In 2012, rants were given after an Eastern Conference Finals win over the Celtics and an NBA Finals victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 2013 versions were in honor of victories over the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs, the latter of which was the longest in show history. The rants are usually delivered to a rendition of O Fortuna.

• Suey - The "Suey" is named after a term Luther Campbell used to describe a rap record by basketball star Kobe Bryant. Campbell called it worse than garbage, worse than sewage..."suey." There is a suey montage, which consists of an initial "suey" and a flurry of other past show sounds, lasting 15 seconds or more in duration. For several years, the show held annual 'Suey Awards', usually hosted by one of Frank Caliendo's personas, which awarded some of the worst moments from the show's previous year.

• Call-in Policy - Le Batard rarely takes calls during the show unless it involves a segment where listeners can ask guests questions, such as with ESPN Baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian or Zoo Miami director Ron Magill. In these segments, Le Batard insists that callers not begin their calls with a pleasantry (such as "What's Up?" or "How Are You?"). Violators will have their call immediately dropped and followed by the 'Suey' montage. Stugotz is known to fail to enforce this rule when Le Batard is out-of-studio, as callers are more frequent during these Le Batard-less shows.

• Roy's Top Ten - Roy Bellamy performs this list on a regular basis, and the humor of the segment is multi-faceted. Part of it is derived from Bellamy's sometime mangling of the delivery, part is the often uproarious laughter from Stugotz, but the underlying, veiled theme is that nine of the ten on the list is Afrocentric in nature, and the number one answer is always Caucasian in nature. Written by Roy and producer Mike Ryan, and previously former producer and co-host Marc Hochman, the list is always subject to being misconstrued by a casual listener as racist, but the show's (and Le Batard's) racial color-blindness allows for a lot of latitude in this regard.

• GOTZ-YA! - When Stugotz does something "Stugotzian" (e.g., telling a blatant lie, bringing the show to a screeching halt with bad information, or dismissing Le Batard by saying "Perhaps..."), the GOTZ-YA! sound clip is played. In this clip, The Big Voice or Papi thunders in with "GOTZ-YA!" and this interjection is immediately followed by Jamaican reggae horns.

Past

• Wann-stache - The "Wann-stache" is a reference to the facial hair of former Miami Dolphins head-coach Dave Wannstedt. There are many instances where Le Batard asks callers for symbols related to the Wann-stache. For example, in January 2008 with the Dolphins' hiring of Tony Sparano, callers were asked to name Sparano's facial hair. The resulting calls were disastrous.

• Violent Sneezers - Dan recalled the story of former MLB pitcher Goose Gossage throwing out his back while sneezing. He then challenged the callers to name others in the world of sports that seem as if they would do the same. Dusty Rhodes seemed to be the only clear-cut consensus among Dan and the listeners. Mixed with popular songs, including House of Pain's Jump Around, was a sound bite of Fake Dusty Rhodes proclaiming with his trademark lisp and Southern accent, "I'm a violent sneeza!"

• Gonzalo "Gonzo" Le Batard - Le Batard often surreptitiously calls his father and records the conversation for fodder for the show. With a heavy Cuban accent, Le Batard's father laments the fates of Miami's sports teams, especially the Florida Marlins. "Gonzo" is aware that his son records their phone calls, but doesn't know when or which of their calls are being recorded. Prior to his father's knowledge of the recordings, Le Batard himself deemed the act as "felonious". Le Batard's baiting of his father about various disappointing aspects of the Miami sports scene always produces humorous results.

Controversies

Tim Hardaway's Homophobic Comments

On, February 14, the week of the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, former Miami Heat player Tim Hardaway appeared on the show. When asked if he would be accepting of a gay teammate, such as retired NBA center John Amaechi, Hardaway replied: ‘First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team.’

Hardaway continued, ‘You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known,’ Hardaway said. ‘I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.’

NBA commissioner David Stern, upon learning of the remarks Wednesday, banished Hardaway from All-Star weekend in Las Vegas.” ^[3]

Following the comments, Hardaway apologized and attended counseling. He has also made public appearances supporting gay rights, including one in El Paso, Texas in response to an attempted recall.^[4]

David Samson’s Criticism of Ichiro Suzuki’s $100 Million Contract

On July 11, 2007, Florida Marlins team president David Samson was featured on the show as he often is. When told by Dan about the report of Seattle Mariners player Ichiro Suzuki signing a 5-year, $100 million dollar contract, Samson was in a state of disbelief. He went on to say that no player in baseball was worthy of that amount and that this deal would surely return the league to the days of ridiculous contracts, surely ruining the sport.

The next day, Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe appeared on the show to share opinion on the matter. He began by asking if Samson had just entered baseball yesterday. He then went on to criticize both Samson and the Florida Marlins franchise, while calling the deal as one of a well-managed franchise.^{[5] [6]}

Jay Bilas Dodges Racial Questions

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas was on the show on April 7, 2008 to discuss NBA Draft prospects. When Le Batard asked if race was a factor in drafting, specifically if Michael Beasley would be drafted as highly if he had the same numbers but were white (the discussion originated with Tyler Hansbrough's low draft projection despite his numbers). Bilas responded “this is stupid,” and proceeded to end the interview.^[7]

Michael Phelps calls Dan an Idiot

Michael Phelps appeared on the show shortly after the Beijing Olympics. After not liking Le Batard's line of questioning, Phelps abruptly ended the interview however did not properly hang up the phone. Phelps could then be heard in the background calling Dan an "idiot".^[8]

References

External links

• Show Twitter feed
• The Ticket Official Website
• Listen Live to the Show