The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz

Genre	Sports talk
Running time	5 hours
Country	United States
Language(s)	English
Home station	WAXY (2004-present) ESPN Radio (2013-present)
TV adaptations	ESPNU (2015-present) Fusion (Taped)
Starring	Dan Le Batard Jon "Stugotz" Weiner
Announcer	The Big Voice Gonzalo Le Batard
Producer(s)	Roy Bellamy, Billy Gil
Exec. producer(s)	Mike-Ryan Ruiz
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 WAXY AM 790 "The Ticket" in Miami, Florida, and on many ESPN Radio affiliates nationwide. The show is heard locally Monday through Friday from 9 AM to 1 PM ET with a recorded hour from 3 to 4 PM, and nationally on ESPN Radio and ESPNU from 10 AM to 1 PM. 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 Tuesdays.

After running for nine 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 May 19th 2015.^[2] After the departure of Colin Cowherd from ESPN, the network moved the time slot of the show into the 10 AM to 1 PM slot formerly occupied by The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and moved the live simulcast to ESPNU, with the Fusion broadcast shifting to tape delay.

Regular Segments

• Celebrity Prognosticator - The segment is based in Le Batard's assertion that NFL "experts" who pick games do not actually have any knowledge that make their picks worth valuing and are guessing like everyone else. To prove this point, a random celebrity joins the show to pick NFL games against the spread. The celebrity's picks are in competition against Colin Cowherd and if the celebrity does a better job of picking than Cowherd he or she is invited back the next week. If the celebrity loses, the show finds a new prognosticator. Some celebrities that have appeared in the segment include Alan Thicke, Carrot Top, Billy Bob Thornton, Alice Cooper and Big Boi among others. Mike and Mike copied the segment, renaming it "Celebrity Picker", beginning on September 11th, 2015 with Ty Burrell. Le Batard acknowledged on air that Mike and Mike "stole" the segment and said they will find something to steal from their show.
• The Game - The game is observations about sports figures and what they look like. Example: "Mike Dunleavy looks like a generic police sketch."
• Greg Cote's Back in my Day - A satirical segment in which Greg Cote narrates a four- to five-minute story about a modern trend that is especially troubling to him.

• Guillermo's Epic Sound of the Day - A producer, Billy Gil (nicknamed Guillermo by Le Batard), introduces a sound clip that typically involves someone saying something stupid.
• The Club - At the end of the last show of each week, Le Batard declares "The Club" open. Clips from the show, usually from the past week, are played over a background of Debbie Deb's 1987 dance song Lookout Weekend.

Running gags/Inside jokes/Trivia

Current

• Mowing through Callers - Listeners are given the opportunity to call in and ask experts questions on a given sport. Listeners and experts are both encouraged to ask and answer questions as quickly as possible and the segment features background music that becomes increasingly fast and intense as it goes to press people to go faster. Le Batard maintains John Clayton is currently the best expert at this segment.

• Cannonball! - Because Stugotz maintains he is too afraid to approach "dangerous" topics (typically racial), he will often play a sound clip from the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy featuring Will Ferrel screaming "Cannonball!" to indicate he is stepping away from the topic and would rather go outside to the Clevelander pool.

• NFL Breaking news - Stugotz randomly interrupts Le Batard during a long point with an "FM Radio breaking news" sound effect and delivers three updates about the NFL. The joke began with legitimate free agency news through the first few days of the 2014 free agency period. The joke has now been extended by giving "news" about nominal players, players making visits to teams or training camp reports. 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.

• The Washington Racial Slurs - While not a gag, Le Batard has maintained he will not say the name of the Washington Redskins on air because their name is a racial slur that offends people. He instead, refers to them as the Washington Racial Slurs.

• Useless Sound Montage- Producers of the show compile a montage of sound after an NFL weekend, composed of sports clichés during coach or player press conferences, and sometimes of NFL analysis. Le Batard often refers to it as "coach gibberish" during the segment.

• Fake Joe Zagacki- During the show's local hour in Miami, executive producer Mike Ryan often imitates Joe Zagacki, the local radio broadcaster for Miami Hurricanes football. Mike Ryan often mocks the excessive and intrusive advertising during Zagacki's broadcast by adding extra sponsors for every location around the field.

Past

• 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.

• 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.

• Fake Callers - During the show's local hour (more so before the show went national is 2013) callers would often imitate and pretend to be "fake" sports figures and celebrities. Many callers became popular and would call regularly into the show. There was the Fake Howard Schnellenberger (Fake Howard Schellenfraud), Fake Stephen A. Smith, Limited Fake Jason Jackson, Fake Pavarotti, & Limited Fake Himalaya Operator (also known as the Music Express).^[3][4]

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.” ^[5]

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.^[6]

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 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.^{[7] [8]}

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.^[9]

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".^[10]

References

External links

• Show Twitter feed
• Official website for the show on WAXY "790 The Ticket"