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	WAXY (2004-present) ESPN Radio (2013-present)
TV adaptations	ESPNU (2015-present)
Starring	Dan Le Batard Jon "Stugotz" Weiner
Announcer	The Big Voice Gonzalo Le Batard
Produced by	Roy Bellamy, Guillermo "Billy" Gil, Chris "Fats and Info" Cote, Allyson Turner
Executive producer(s)	Michael Ryan Ruiz
Recording studio	Miami, Florida
Air dates	since September 1, 2004
Opening theme	A mashup mix featuring the Blade theme, Brooklyn Bounce's "This is the Real Bass," and DMX's "Party Up (Up in Here)," featuring various clips offering signature moments from the show's various personalities.
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 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 19, 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 from 1 to 4 PM. On May 18, 2016, Fusion aired the show for the last time as the year-long contract with ABC/Disney was expired and was not renewed. The TV portion of the show then remained solely on ESPN-U afterwards with the show airing live from 10 AM to 1 PM with no outlet for a tape-delay.

Regular Segments

• Looks Like Game – observations about sports figures and what they look like sent in by the radio audience. Example: "Wade Phillips looks like someone you would find on a bottle of barbecue sauce." Originally called, "The Game," it has quickly grown into one of the most popular and far-reaching elements of the show. The show now holds the annual tradition of matching up entries in the Looks Like Game with teams in the NCAA Tournament and updating the results with each round. The Looks Like Game is also frequently the ending to athlete interviews, particularly if the athlete is associated with a team that has a popular entry. In addition, weekly interviews during the baseball season with Tim Kurkjian are concluded with new submissions to the Looks Like Game because Kurkjian finds the game particularly humorous and often gives uproarious laughter to the segment.
• Grid of Death — it is well documented that Le Batard finds "prediction radio" ridiculous and does not make picks for games. During the 2015 NFL season, in lieu of such a segment, and to demonstrate the randomness of the NFL (and to be hilariously funny), the show participated in the Grid of Death. The game consisted of a Bucket of Death that was carried by the "clumsy, insecure, genderless Grim Reaper," played by staffer Allyson Turner, that contained mini-helmets of NFL teams. The helmets were chosen at random by each member of the show staff, including Le Batard and Stugotz. If the selected team won, nothing happened. If the selected team lost, that staff member had to select a "humiliation" from the Grid of Death. The humiliations spanned a wide range and involved everything from funny costumes to difficult food challenges to hard challenges like cleaning out the rhino pen at Zoo Miami. As the game evolved over the season, producer Mike Ryan began adding more helmets to the bucket such as, "Instant Death"(now known infamously as "Double Death"), a black helmet that sent the selector directly to the Grid of Death or the "Golden Helmet of Life," that granted three bye weeks. Others included, "Swap Helmet", "Dan Buys You Dinner" (now known as "Prime 112", a well-known Miami steakhouse) and "Any Team". Additionally, teams from other sports were added, and still are, at various times there were helmets for the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, and Greg's Lobos – the fantasy football team of Greg Cote, among others. Several guest hosts took part in the Grid of Death and ESPN personality Sarah Spain elevated herself to commissioner of the Grid of Death by the end of the season. All disagreements regarding the grid were sent to Spain and she would often call in to render verdicts.
• The Ron Magill Show – Zoo Miami's Ron Magill takes calls from listeners with their questions about the animal kingdom. Le Batard maintains it is the most popular segment of the show every week.
• "Stugotz' Weekend Observations" — on Mondays, Stugotz gives his game notes from the previous weekend's sporting events. Before the segment, Papi claims, "Nobody in the media will tell you what happened better than my boy Stu." Weiner frequently shouts, "Daaaaan!" before he gives a hot take, and has been known to use very anti-climactic knock-knock jokes. After each game note, Mike gives a beep sound. Stugotz has understandably been known to put Sean Miller on blast during this segment. Dan Le Batard has been openly opposed to this segment, but the listeners have frequently voted in favor of this segment. In June 2016, much to the disappointment of his fans, Stugotz admitted that he doesn't write all of the game notes.
• 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.
• Greg Cote's Soup of the Day - a short segment introduced by Papi LeBatard as Soup De Jour in which Greg Cote describes a soup and provides detailed instructions for its preparation.
• Black In My Day— ESPN NBA analyst Amin Elhassan regularly frequents the show and does a "black" version of Greg Cote's "Back in My Day." His most notable segment involved asserting that the movie Teen Wolf was actually about how white people wanted to be black.
• 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." This segment is often punctuated with a clip of Stugotz admitting that he didn't know Jonathan Coachman was black.

Running gags/Inside jokes/Trivia

Current

• 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 Ferrell 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 the "ka-chung" sound effect from the 90s newsmagazine A Current Affair, 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.
• Hard Network Out – For some reason, unbeknownst to humanity at present, professional journalist and Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote cannot understand the concept of the hard network out at the end of an hour of the show and will continue to talk through the break. There was a period on the show wherein Le Batard would wear a hat with a clock on the brim to help Cote understand how much time remained at the end of a segment, but to no avail. The phenomenon has now morphed into Le Batard and Stugotz attempting to trap Cote by waiting until late in an hour to ask his opinion, setting him up to ramble through the out. The show maintains frequently that this feat is not a contrived gag but is an actual problem for Cote that they exploit to great comedic benefit.
• Shockular – A sound effect of Le Batard's father Gonzalo saying, "Show killer" in his Cuban accent. The clip is usually played when Greg Cote tries to make a bad joke. On the February 24th, 2016 episode, John Amaechi was christened the "Overseas Showkiller" and the sound effect was played for him.
• 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."
• 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.
• Celebrity Prognosticator – The segment was 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 joined the show to pick NFL games against the spread. The celebrity's picks were 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 & Mike imitated the segment, renaming it "Celebrity Picker", beginning on September 11, 2015, with Ty Burrell. Le Batard acknowledged on air that Mike & Mike "stole" the segment and said they will find something to steal from their show. The Current Celebrity Prognosticator is Ric Flair.
• 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. Ryan often mocks the excessive and intrusive advertising during Zagacki's broadcast by adding extra sponsors for every location around the field. Ryan has also extended his Limited Fake impressions to singer Michael McDonald, and once interviewed the actual Alan Thicke as Limited Fake Alan Thicke.
• Stump the Meech- When John Amaechi appears on the program, he is played clips of Stugotz mispronouncing or stumbling over words and is asked to try to identify them. Typically the segment is played with a best-of-five scoring to determine if Amaechi has won.
• Kentucky Fraud Chickens – Generally released on Stugotz when he makes a ridiculous assertion or bold-faced lie, the staff assaults him with the word, "Fraud," squawked out like a chicken clucking. Recently, one of the chickens in the flock has become sentient and speaks in full, rushed, squawked sentences to point out Stugotz's hypocrisy.

Past

• 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.
• 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!"^[3]
• 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 in 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, Fake Cote, limited Fake Himalaya Operator (Kevin Luehrs) (also known as the Music Express).^[4][5]
• 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.
• 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?"), a policy originated on Tony Kornheiser's original DC-based radio show. 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. The show also,regularly reads tweets ftom listeners and polls them on pointless topic. When tweets are of a particular type of offensiveness to the staff, they may be followed by soundbites like "You don't get the show" or "He's...that...guy."
• 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. The show still holds the annual 'Suey Awards', which awarded some of the worst moments from the show's previous year.

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.”^[6]

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.^[7]

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.^[8][9]

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.^[10]

Michael Phelps calls Dan an Idiot

Michael Phelps appeared on the show shortly after the 2008 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".^[11]

References

External links

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