Overcoming Growing Pains, Sports Radio 98.7 The Fox Celebrates First Birthday

Centre County’s sports radio station, 98.7 The Fox, will mark its first birthday on Wednesday, Aug. 21. Just like a typical one-year old human, this broadcasting infant is growing fast with increasing ad revenues and upgraded content. Unfortunately, The Fox is still in diapers with respect to its broadcasting technology.

Given that I had interviewed Jeff Byers last August when the station was born, I was curious to hear his take on its growth and also his explanation of its periods of static or going silent. He’s clearly the man in the know—the dean of local broadcasters who helped give birth to the station and now its most frequently heard voice.

You may know “Ironhead” for his 35 years of serving the Penn State wrestling network, but these days he’s also heard on 98.7’s daily news talk show (“Let’s Talk” with co-host Scott Geesey, 8 to 10 a.m. weekdays) and on its twice-weekly sports talk show (“Goon and Ironhead,” with Keith Conlin, 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays).

Even for the two of us willy-nilly types, our discussion was notable for its humorous dashes of Byers’ sarcasm and for its variety of topics:  the local sports rivalry between Philly fans and Yinzers; the station’s coverage of high school sports; the “Let’s Talk” discussions of Jerry Sandusky’s alleged innocence; and the station’s plans for dealing with the upcoming presidential election. Here then, are edited excerpts from our pre-birthday conversation.

How do you feel about the radio station as you celebrate the end of your first year?

Byers: There's been a lot of trial and error and a lot of learning.  We knew the first year was going to be filled with challenges and speed bumps, and I think that's been the case. But I think we're positioned well [for] the second year to really get this thing to take flight.

What was the most memorable or even funny criticism that you received?

Byers: We’ve had our fair share, which I expected since we’ve had our fair share of technical issues. Like the people who call and say, “I don't know if you're aware, but your station's down.” And we’re thinking, “Yep, the fact that we're not on the air is something we're aware of. We can hear the static just like you.”

It seems like you had dual problems—some things only affected your locally-produced content while other issues took the entire signal down.

Byers: We moved our studio location on July 5 to a much better location and since then…well, it’s been a multitude of issues. Comcast had a bunch of problems. And the receiver we had from Fox Sports—we went through five receivers and none of them were programmed properly. Finally, the guy that is near the top at Fox said, “I am going to personally program it and I will send it to you.” And he did, and it has worked, but there’s been other things. We’ve had two engineers work on things and they both said they've never seen the multitude of issues at one time with any station that they've worked with. So yeah, it has been a month of hell for the local content, but I think we're on the other side of it now. We’re very excited about moving forward.

How do you feel about the local sports programming that you’ve provided?

Byers: One of the things we tried was the “Centre County Red Zone” for high school football. I had an idea of how I wanted that to work and I just wasn't sure we'd be able to pull it off. But we got some really wonderful folks that were willing to help out as volunteer correspondents from the various high schools and they ended up making it work. I think we got really good at being able to convey not just what was happening in a game but also the entire atmosphere at the game.

Our correspondents would hear from the fans of their respective teams that they got a kick out of this line or that line. Rodney Brungart, for example, was our correspondent the entire year for Penns Valley, and they had a player, Ty Watson, who had a phenomenal season for the Penns Valley football team. It became a running thing between Rodney and I to talk about Ty like, “Yeah sure, Ty has scored touchdowns and kicked extra points, but he hasn’t sold a single hot dog yet. Has he been willing to help out with selling the programs? And he hasn’t done a single public address announcement at any of these games.”

We’d find new things that he hadn't done yet, because on the field the guy truly seemed to have done everything for Penn Valley. He played defense, he played offense, he did the kicking. He was a pretty remarkable story throughout the year.

What else were you able to do with local sports coverage, especially the high schools?

Byers: One of the things we really want to do is to use our website to provide coverage of anything that's happening within the local sports scene. I would love to get Little League scores in there and I would love to get flag football results. And I think we'll do more in terms of our local sports reports and do more coverage of high school games in various sports.

We’ve probably already done more than I was envisioning, and getting Todd and Norm Brown involved was huge for us. Those two (a father and son team) have a wonderful chemistry together and a real knowledge of sports and I think they have their own style that’s very entertaining. That was a bit of a coup for us to get the two of them involved with our basketball and wrestling and baseball and softball coverage. And I think we're going to be able to supplement those two when they need a night off with some additional folks.

How about the “Goon and Ironhead Show?” That's actually been around for a while.

Byers :  Yes, originally we were on ESPN radio when there was an ESPN radio in town. And then we were just a Facebook Live show for a couple years. And now we're back on with Fox.

Is the format or tone of the show still evolving?

Byers: It's pretty much what it is, a couple of guys who like sports, one from Philadelphia and one with a Pittsburgh bias, and we just give each other grief. It’s really just a fun show, the two of us spit-balling whatever's on our mind at a given time.

I know you're the Pittsburgh-related guy.

Byers: Yep.

How are you going to handle Saquon Barkley playing with the Eagles?

Byers: Oh, that is a good question. It's like having Micah Parsons or Sean Lee with the Dallas Cowboys. It breaks your heart. Obviously I love Saquon, and I want him to do well. But that’s the tough thing with professional sports—you get these good guys who end up in godawful situations from my perspective.

Are you as down on the Eagles as you are up on the Steelers?

Byers: I despise the Flyers, but the Eagles… I’m not a fan of them, but I am not as passionate as I am about teams like the Cowboys and the Raiders and the Ravens and the Browns. Those teams bring out a lot more anti-sentiment in me than the Eagles do.

With respect to the Steelers and Eagles, this is a divided community.

Byers: Well, you have right-thinking individuals and then you have folks that lean toward Philadelphia. I can't help with that.

Tell me about “Let’s Talk.”  I heard your co-host, Scott Geesey, say it’s rare to have a news talk show on a sports talk radio station.

Byers: Scott does most of our guest scheduling, and I think he's done a really good job of getting a wide variety of guests, covering a wide range of topics, who are interesting and fun to listen to. I think one of the better things we did in this first year was when we had a student from Penn State’s College Republicans and a student from the College Democrats as separate guests in the fall or winter. And then we had them together in the spring. It was a really good discussion. It was really interesting to hear their perspectives and their priorities and listen to them be able to talk it out without screaming, yelling or getting crazy. It was one of my favorite segments of the first year. Overall, I think Scott and I have good chemistry, and we each have some different things that we're more passionate about. So we let each other vent on the things that we're most passionate about.

What are your thoughts about how you'll cover the presidential election?

Byers: I think the election in essence is going to come down to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. And so the fact that we are in one of the clear battleground states will make it a very intense election season.

Are you kind of excited about that or are you dreading the intensity of it all?

Byers: I'm a little bit of a political junkie, so I guess I'm excited about it. But I'm also nervous because I do think this is a critical juncture for our country and I think some of the decisions that'll be made here over the next four years are going to be tremendously impactful in terms of our economy, our freedoms and the overall outlook for the future.

Do you and Scott have any guests lined up to talk about the election?

Byers: We may try to have the head of the College Republicans and the College Democrats again. And then there's a political science professor that we've also tapped into a couple of times, and I'm sure we will do so again in the fall. Just talking about the overall issues and the political landscape.

Out of all your “Let’s Talk” shows, which have been the most memorable?

Byers: For the whole year? It would have to be the guests we’ve had to discuss the Jerry Sandusky situation. Should he get a new trial and so on.

What were these people saying about Sandusky? That he’s guilty, partly innocent or totally innocent?

Byers: Totally innocent.

Wow, what kind of buzz did you get from your listeners?

Byers: I've gotten more people saying, “I'm glad somebody's telling the truth about this because it's been frustrating to see so many people vilify Sandusky.” But we also had a few people saying, “You guys are all part of a cult, and I can't believe you're supporting a pedophile.”

I know I genuinely just want the truth. I'm not concerned with the damage or lack of damage to Penn State. Football is not what's driving me here. It's whether or not he actually did what he's accused of or not. You can make the accusation that I've lived here all my life and I've covered Penn State football, et cetera, et cetera. But John Ziegler (a journalist who has argued most frequently and forcefully for Sandusky’s innocence) has zero connection to Penn State football. John Snedden (a veteran NCIS Special Agent and criminal investigator) couldn't care less. I mean, he truly could not care less about Penn State football. Frank Parlato is just a journalist who's digging for the truth. Ralph Cipriano (a muckraking reporter who has worked for the Los Angeles Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer) is doing the same thing with a similar journalistic background, so the cult argument just doesn't hold up. You can make this about Penn State fans who are believing this, but with those four individuals, it makes no sense. It doesn't hold any water.

Apart from local games, you haven’t been providing any play-by-play sports coverage. Will that be changing in your second year?

Byers: Yes, we’ll be carrying a lot of college football and NFL games including all of the prime time action. We have some other things in the works including, hopefully, the Pirates next season. Also, we have confirmed that Lavar Arrington will have a show that we’ll air Friday nights during football season from 6 to 7 pm. Arrington will also have a postgame show on football Saturdays and, with most games, a pregame show as well.

Will you have any kind of celebration Wednesday for the station’s first birthday? Should I bring my noisemaker to your office?

Byers: For every radio show’s one year anniversary, I’ve always done a pants-less show so we’re planning that. Just kidding. We’ll eat cake that morning, but I eat cake every morning. Listeners won’t hear anything special during the first 10 minutes of “Let’s Talk,” but maybe we’ll sing “Happy Birthday” to us. We'll just be happy to be on the air at the one-year mark.

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