Kevin Tippy Martinez, '88, is the Senior Vice President of Marketing Communications for the Seattle Mariners. It's no surprise that this New Jersey native, with passions for baseball and broadcasting, found himself transferring in to Syracuse.
Once he got to SU, Martinez was actively involved with both Z89 and WAER, where he honed his skills in sports broadcasting and DJing. Not many students worked for both stations at that time, but this chief announcer made it work. He simply couldn't walk away from the sports opportunities at WAER or the incredible camaraderie at Z89. In fact, you'll love the story he tells about Carl Weinstein walking in to his shift to flip the format and imaging.
After graduation, Kevin went to the ABC Television Network in New York City, working in affiliate relations and marketing, and gradually made his way into ABC Sports. Then, Emmis Communications' Jeff Smuylan bought the Seattle Mariners. Despite being very happy near home and at ABC, the chance to work in Major League Baseball was too good to pass up.
The new marketing team took many radio ideas (including those learned at WJPZ) to do what was then some pretty innovative entertainment at Mariners' games. Custom walk-up music for hitters? It started here. And outside a brief stint with the Boston Celtics, Kevin's been with the M's for over 30 years.
Throughout the podcast, Martinez reflects on the relationships and friendships he formed during his time at WJPZ and in his professional life. These connections have been enduring and impactful. And we'd be remiss not to ask his opinions on the evolution of baseball, the importance of adapting to changing fan preferences, and the strategies employed by the Mariners to engage with their audience.
The WJPZ at 50 Podcast Series is produced by Jon Gay, Class of 2002, and his podcast production agency, JAG in Detroit Podcasts.
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Jon "Jag" Gay: Welcome to WJPZ at 50. I am Jon "Jag" Gay. As baseball season gets a little bit closer, hope springs eternal. We go out to Seattle with a guest I've been wanting to have on the show for a long time. From the class of '88, he is the senior vice president of marketing communications for the Seattle Mariners, Kevin Tippy Martinez. Welcome to the show.
Kevin Martinez: Jag, thank you so much for making time to chat with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the work that you are doing to chronicle the station's history and all the people that played a small role in making the station what it is.
Jag: I appreciate that. Thank you. Before we get to your role, tell me about where you grew up and how you found Syracuse and then eventually the radio station.
Kevin: I grew up in central New Jersey. Jag, from the time I was about seven years old, I had two interests, two interests, baseball and broadcasting.
Jag: Perfect.
Kevin: [laughs] I have two older brothers. They both played the game. My mother, my father both played and loved the game of baseball. As a family, we'd always play catch in the backyard. Our conversation centered around baseball. We loved going to games. I would sit in front of the TV and watch the New York Mets for hours upon hours. My mom and dad taught me how to keep score. I'd actually listen to games on radio and keep score. I was that fanatical about it. At age eight, I started playing the game of baseball and I never really stopped through my freshman year in college.
Simultaneously, as a youngster, I fell in love with broadcasting, interestingly enough, I loved watching sports on TV and listening to it on radio. One day, my parents finally relented to my constant nagging and they took me to New York City, Jag, to go on the NBC studio tour. Jag, I went in there. I could remember it like it was yesterday. Truly. It was magic. Seeing the studios, seeing the newsroom, seeing master control, everything just connected with me. The possibilities were so exciting. From that moment on, I immersed myself in broadcasting. I learned at a very early age, Syracuse was the school that I needed to go to.
A funny thing happened along the way to graduating high school. My love of the game of baseball intensified as well. I had the opportunity to go play baseball at a Division 3 school in Pennsylvania, the University of Scranton, not too far from Syracuse. While I had a wonderful freshman year, I realized that Syracuse was still calling and transferred after my freshman year to Syracuse, and best decision I ever made.
Jag: You almost had to choose between broadcasting and baseball at that point?
Kevin: Yes, absolutely. I realized I'm not going to have a career in baseball, but perhaps in the world of broadcasting and communications. I had been accepted into the Newhouse school. It was in the back of my head the whole time like, "Am I doing the right thing?" After a year and some conversations with some really dear people in my life, it was clear, that I needed to transfer. Really after the first semester of my freshman year, filed the paperwork and got accepted again to Syracuse and made it.
Gosh, talk about feeling it right from the moment you step on campus. The fall of 1985, the station, JPZ had just moved to FM. I remember getting on campus in the fall of '85 and I knew about Z89. I had done my homework. I knew about WAER, UUTV. Transferring, I felt I was far behind. I felt I needed to dive in and really catch up with everybody else and take advantage of all the opportunities that are there at Syracuse for students. I remember flipping on Z89. I was blown away. I was absolutely blown away. The station sounded so good. I loved the music they were playing.
Jag: Oh, yes.
Kevin: The DJs. I couldn't believe these DJs were students. They were so vibrant, their personalities, hitting posts left and right. I'm like, "Oh, my gosh. This is incredible." My focus, though, Jag, at that time was sports. That's what I went to Syracuse to focus on.
Jag: You mentioned to me offline and also a moment ago that you did AER and JPZ. That was a little bit of a Cold War still at that point, wasn't there?
Kevin: Yes, it was. It was a funny journey to do both. Z89 sounded so good on the air. I'm like, "I got to get there." I found Watson Hall. I went there even before the orientation, and I met two super nice guys that were running the sports department, Howie Seidman and Tom Petrie. They couldn't be more welcoming. Just that energy and that vibe. We all know it. If you spent time at the station, just that atmosphere, it's really unmatched.
They welcomed me right out of the gate. I did some auditions. They gave me a sports report. Next thing I know, I was doing sports wrap up at night. We did a Sunday morning magazine show called the Press Box. We did a play-by-play of women's basketball, which was incredible. Even we experimented with a sports call-in show. It really gave me a great foundation.
As I moved throughout that first year at Syracuse, got ingrained in WAER. Yes, there was a little bit you shouldn't do both or you couldn't do both. Eventually, like I said, I loved the music and I was just enamored with the DJs. I'm like, "This is the coolest gig in the world." I transitioned at Z89 to do a lot of DJing, which I absolutely loved. To this point in my life, probably the most fun I've ever had. I ended up becoming the chief announcer for a year. Then I focused at Z89 on the DJing and at AER on doing sports. The broadcasting business is all about reps. Syracuse University offers its students so many great opportunities. I wanted to take advantage of as much of those opportunities as possible.
Jag: That is interesting that you did the music side at Z and you did the sports side at AER. I think throughout the 50-plus years of people that I've been talking to, there are some folks, regardless of whether it was a friendlier dynamic or a more rivalry dynamic between the two radio stations, there were folks who were hungry, who wanted to do both of all generations and did like yourself.
You mentioned the two sports guys that welcomed you when you first got to the station. Then once you got to the music side, who were some of the names that you worked with and around, whether music, sports or otherwise at JPZ? (He's reaching for his notes, by the way.)
Kevin: I wanted to be prepared for you. On the sports side, I mentioned Howie. Howie couldn't-- like I said, be more welcoming and just made me feel so comfortable and like I'd been there for years. Neil Presant was the sports director, another great guy, super smart. I wish I had Neil Presant's voice, the dulcet tones of Neil Presant. He was so good. Jim Morrison, another great guy at the JPZ sports department there, was a big figure there. Then "Cousin" Danny Corsun-
Jag: Oh, yes.
Kevin: He actually started at Z89 Sports and then moved over to hosting the morning show with Larry Barron. Those guys were at Z89 Sports. Then on the whole station side, I got there and guys like Rusty Burrell and Rocco Macri and Chris Bungo. These guys were-- they seemed like professionals. They were so smart and polished. I was in awe of them. Talk about having great mentors and people that you could look up to and learn from. It was an incredible environment. I knew I was home. I was in the right place. You had to pry me out of that station. I spent so much time there.
Jag: You and so many others, myself included, along the years. On the air, chief announcer, anything else that you were involved with or stories you want to tell from your time at JPZ?
Kevin: There's one funny story, Jag, I'll never forget. It was the fall of '86. At that point, I had a Monday DJ shift from 10 AM to 1 PM. The senior staff was led by the head of programming, Hall of Famer Carl Weinstein. They had been working on new imaging for the station. I think you probably know this better than me. I was there at the time. I know the history. I think we were transitioning from future hits to power hits.
Jag: Sounds right.
Kevin: Does that sound right?
Jag: Yes.
Kevin: Here I am. I walk in for my shift, 10:00 AM shift. I get there and you know how the transition from jocks goes. The morning show was ending up. They end, I get in there, that last song before the top of the hour is playing. I'm getting set up and into the room walks Weinstein and Brian Dobkowski. Brian was a super nice guy, extraordinary at production, extraordinary. These guys had worked for weeks, them and other people, on producing all the new top of the hour, the station IDs, the drops, the stingers, all of that. They did a fabulous job.
Here I come in walking in, the DJ. At 10:00 AM, they're transitioning to all of the new imaging. I'm the guy that's going to hit the first new top of the hour. These guys are hovering over me. They're like, "Okay, Kev. You hit the top of the hour at one second remaining in the song that's playing. Then at two seconds, you hit the, I think Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam was the song that was coming. Then you hit the Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam song. Then the top of the hour will post and it will sound terrific." Like proud parents, they're sitting there giving me all these instructions.
Jag: [laughs]
Kevin: I go, "Fellas, fellas. I got it. Not my first rodeo." It was my first rodeo, but that's okay. "I got this." Then, the Hall of Famer Weinstein comes over to me and he starts showing me at what level to run each piece of sound.
Jag: I can picture this.
Kevin:I said, "That's it." I said, "That's the final straw." I say, "Hey, Carl. Why don't you do this? Why don't you run the board for the inaugural?" His eyes light up. He's like, "Kev, really? You'd let me do it? That's your shift."
"No, Carl. You and Brian have worked way too hard."
Carl pushes me out of the way. He says, "Hey, Brian. Come up." These guys, they get over this board, Jag, like two surgeons over an operating table."
Jag: [laughs]
Kevin: Bada bing bada boom badabop, they hit it all. It sounds unbelievable. Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam, the top of the hour, it's all blended in perfectly. They post and they celebrate like they just hit a walk-off homer in Game 7 of the World Series. They are ecstatic. I'm just watching this. I'm like, "This is what it's all about. The pride, the attention to detail. These are college students, but so passionate. I just thought it embodied everything that station is about and how much people care so much about all of the details. I think it makes being in that environment, we experience it, we keep it with us our entire career. I'll never forget that. It stayed with me. I was relatively new to the station at that point, and it was the birth of Power Hits. It was awesome.
Jag: Sometimes that I'm doing these interviews, I think about, "Geez, what am I going to use for a clip? I think that one stands out pretty quickly to me."
[laughter]
Jag: You mentioned to me also in an email before we sat down today, Kevin, that there are folks, lifelong friends you made at the station. Other relationships that you formed you've just kept in touch with over the years?
Kevin: Yes. I didn't really know him at the time, Carl Weinstein, during that wonderful introduction of the new imaging. Over time, we got to know each other better and became friends. I think about "Hot Shot" Scott Bergstein. Just saw him a few months ago. That friendship remains. Mike Tierney, who had an incredible impact on the station's history. Mike lives out here in Seattle, so I'm fortunate to get to see him often. Gigi Katz was a program director at the station when I was there. She's a lifelong friend. Her and her daughter were out here last summer and got to revisit.
I mentioned Rusty Burrell, and Rocco, and Chris. There are so many people, Scott E Meach, Hal Rood. When I was graduating, they were coming in. We've all stayed in touch. I remember bumping into Meach. I was down in Las Vegas for a convention and I bump into Meach in an elevator.
Jag: No kidding?
Kevin: He's getting off. I'm getting on. Of course, you stop and you revisit. It's such a wonderful environment at the station. As you said, we spend so much time there. You form these friendships. If you're intentional about staying in touch or even unintentional, if you bump into somebody in an elevator, you pick up right where you left off.
Jag: I'm glad you mentioned Meach. I wanted to ask you about this. You probably heard this in the Larry Barron tribute episode. Meach told the story of him getting to campus and you were assigned to him as his peer advisor. He said, "Oh, yes. I know Larry Barron." I don't remember the exact phrasing, but you said something to the effect of, "You know Larry Barron, what the hell do you need me for?" Is that true?
Kevin: Yes, that is absolutely true. I had the privilege of being a peer advisor for a year there. Scott was in the group of students, and I reached out. Back then, the only way you could talk to somebody was via phone. I made initial calls to everybody. We set up a time to meet on the new house plaza. All right, Scotty, I'll meet you on Friday at 10:00 AM on the plaza. Here comes Scott. He meets me. And I introduced myself. I'm ready. I'm armed with all my information. I have a handout for him. Here's how you get involved at this station and that station. Before I even get to that, he drops on me. I said, "Why did you pick Syracuse?" He starts explaining. Along the way, he said, "When Larry Barron worked at my high school radio station, I developed a good friendship with Larry." I basically folded up all the packet and information-
Jag: [laughs]
Kevin: -put it under my shoulder. I said, "If you're friends with Larry Barron, you're in great shape. You're in the best hands you can be. For somebody who wants to work in radio. I'm always a resource for you, Scott, if you have any questions, but I think you got a bigger name.
[laughter]
Kevin: That was it. Larry's whole deal, even from a young age, was about mentorship. Whether you knew him or not, Larry quickly became your friend and would be there for you and just give you great sage advice.
Jag: I'm so glad that that group that you've mentioned has set up the Larry Barron Fund for Mentorship to carry on his legacy. It's so sad that we've lost him, but the impact he had on the station is going to continue even after his passing because of what some folks have recognized in what he did for so many folks throughout the years.
Kevin: No question. The work that you're doing in having these stories out there will only help keep that legacy alive for sure. Thank you.
Jag: I want to turn to your career after Syracuse. Take me through your journey from graduation and to where you are now.
Kevin: After college, I was fortunate to-- again, as I said earlier, I grew up in New Jersey, right? Very East Coast-based. I was fortunate to land a job in New York City at the ABC Television Network in their affiliate relations and marketing group. Once I was there, Jag, I still had this love of sports, right?
Jag: Yes.
Kevin: I was trying to find a way into ABC sports. You got to be persistent, learn that at JPZ.
Jag: Sure.
Kevin: I was in the building, and if I see somebody in the Commissary having lunch that worked at ABC Sports, go introduce yourself. Long story short, started taking vacation days and working weekends in ABC Sports. I was in heaven. It took me back to that NBC studio tour. It just felt-- I'm like, "This is where I belong." I was at ABC for a year and a half, and I was promoted. I really had a path on the network side outside of ABC Sports, but I was making progress at ABC Sports as well.
Then I heard about the opportunity with the Seattle Mariners. Now, the Mariners had just gone through a new ownership change and Jeff Smulyan of Emmis Broadcasting. Jeff owned Emmis Broadcasting, and they had WFAN in New York and Hot 97 in New York. Jeff bought the team and word made it back to New York that they were building a new marketing department. There's the love of baseball for me. Now, it's all the way across the country. My world is going really well here in New York and this job, and I'm really happy, but a chance to work in Major League Baseball, really?
Jag: Sure, yes.
Kevin: I put materials together, updated my resume, sent it all in, and I got a call from the Vice President of marketing of the Seattle Mariners. Fortuitously, the Mariners were coming to New York City to play the Yankees. He invited me to the game. He said, "Let's meet at Yankee Stadium. Now, as a lifelong Mets fan.
Jag: I was going to ask. Okay, yes.
[laughter]
Kevin: Going to Yankee Stadium was enemy territory. Jag, it was like something out of a movie. I go there and meet with him for nine innings. He's expressing the vision. The Mariners want to take their broadcasts in-house. They had some really progressive ideas from a marketing standpoint, and a lot of them came from radio. Just everything felt right except moving across the country. Big move, right? Again, you talk to people you love and trust and the advice was, this is such a unique opportunity. "These are both your passions, and you can blend them. You got to give it a shot."
I really felt like I was leaving something that I had worked hard to build here at ABC. Jag, I was fortunate to get the offer. I took the job, best decision professionally that I ever made. 32 years later, still working with the Mariners. Now, I took a brief hiatus. I moved to Boston, your hometown, to work for the Celtics for two years, which was--
Jag: Really?
Kevin: Yes. Which was an incredible experience. I was there for the final year of Boston Garden and then the first year of the new building.
Jag: In marketing? That's a hell of a time to be there, Kevin.
Kevin: Wow, What a learning experience too to go through that. Then interestingly enough, I go through those two years in Boston and then the Mariners call me when they get their new ballpark that opened in 1999. In '97, I moved back to Seattle, Washington. I've been back in Seattle ever since.
Jag: Let me back up for a second. It was '91 that you first got to the Mariners?
Kevin: '90. 1990 was the first year.
Jag: What was your title in that first role?
Kevin: Promotions manager was the title.
Jag: Okay.
Kevin: It was great. Jag, now at the Mariners, we have 150 to 200 employees. We had 54 employees back then.
[laughter]
Kevin: You did everything. It was round the clock. It felt like I was back at Z89. We were working all day, all night. You loved it, you loved it. It was such a great environment because at that time in 1990, the Mariners had never had a winning season. The whole mindset was, how do you get people to pay attention to us? How can we surprise the marketplace and do things that will really get people's attention and make Mariners baseball fun? Oh, by the way, we had a 19, 20-year-old named Ken Griffey, Jr. that was just breaking on the scene at the time.
Jag: That helped, I'm sure.
Kevin: [laughs] That helped incredibly. All the stuff around the game and how we position the franchise, oh my gosh, it was an incredible time to be a part of the organization, for sure.
Jag: I would imagine you're doing stuff at that time that's a little more commonplace now with all the promotions you see during innings, between innings at Major League Stadiums. I'd imagine you guys were at the forefront of that with this young group of marketing people coming in to reinvent the wheel a little bit.
Kevin: Again, it's because we had that runway. I think that's a lesson that I learned at JPZ and I've tried to keep with me my whole career. As I grow older, and we have new people join our organization, and they come in with these fresh ideas, it's a lesson to just step back, let it breathe, let that idea breathe, give it a shot. If you have that mindset, you'd be amazing at what really takes shape and takes hold and connects with fans.
Yes, we did a bunch of stuff that hadn't been done before. Yes, some of it you still see around the game. We were on the cutting edge of walk-up music for years. Again, this was all of our radio background. For years, it was the organist who would play a little theme song as players walked up to the plate. We said, "Well, what if we took a popular song? We were operating back then. Now everything's digital, Jag. We had carts just like we had back in the '80s-
Jag: Oh, yes.
Kevin: -at Z89. We had hooks of songs queued up for each player. It was a wonderful creative environment and so much fun. Just to see fans react to your work. In radio, you can wait to get the numbers and the ratings, right? When you're working in a live event environment to see something you're doing, and then to see the reaction, it gets in your veins. It's pretty spectacular.
Jag: It's instant feedback. It's why I love doing, in my younger days, nightclub DJing-
Kevin: Oh, yes.
Jag: -and then in my older days, bar trivia, cracking a joke or playing the right song for the right question thing.
Kevin: Absolutely.
Jag: You had a little bit of a JPZ connection in Seattle at one point too, because you mentioned T-Bone. Tierney was out there at one point. Did you guys overlap there, have a little bit of a connection with all the radio folks going out with the Mariners?
Kevin: Yes. The Tierney story is awesome in that upon graduation, like all of the students when you graduate, it's like, "Okay, what am I going to do now?" Right?
Jag: Right.
Kevin: Mike said, "I'm going to come out and visit Seattle." He stayed with me. He had some family out here. He'd stay like a week with me. He'd go over there to his family.
Jag: Various couches, I think, he mentioned in his podcast.
Kevin: Yes, absolutely. He became a super fan of the Mariners. I would leave him one ticket at will call. As an employee, you get tickets to the game. I would leave one of my tickets at will call for Mike almost every home game. One game, I forgot. The people at the ticket office got to know him so well. They were like, "Oh, you're Kevin's friend. Here you go. Here's a ticket."
[laughter]
Kevin: They just gave him a ticket. It was wonderful to have him out here for that time too because we'd ideate around things that we'd bring to the Mariners and into our game presentation. His career is incredible what he went on to accomplish.
Jag: Sure.
Kevin: It's just so special to have him back in town. Now he's working for Amazon Music. We don't see each other as much as we would like, but we were just texting over Thanksgiving we're going to get together here.
Jag: Full disclosure. We're recording this in probably the one time of year that Kevin can talk to me, and that's the end of November with the baseball calendar.
Kevin: There you go.
Jag: Other folks have referred to you as Tippy. How'd you get the nickname Tippy? I have to ask.
Kevin: It's a good one. There was a pitcher, you can look it up, for the Baltimore Orioles named Tippy Martinez. He was a left-handed pitcher. It was a nickname that I had playing baseball. A lot of my teammates would call me Tippy. You're trying to come up with different names for on-air. Originally, that was my first on-air DJ name. I later switched to Kevin Kelly. I thought that sounded more professional, more--
Jag: You've got the alliteration, you got the two-syllable last name, all those radio rules.
Kevin: I transitioned to that. For, I think my first year DJing, that was the name I was on. T-Bone and I actually did a morning show for a little while. It was T-Bone and Tippy. Again, the alliteration. That was, I think, my junior year. Then I transitioned to Kevin Kelly my senior year. It was a name after the pitcher for the Orioles. He played for a couple of other teams.
Jag: I want to ask you, and I could geek out with you over baseball all day. I won't do that to our listeners. However, as we approach the 2024 season, a lot of changes in baseball lately, obviously, with the pitch clock, and the ghost runner, and all these other kinds of things. Baseball has had, I would say, some challenges, to be fair. Where do you see baseball now? What challenges from your perspective as VP of Marketing of a Major League Baseball team going forward? What does baseball need to do? What does baseball need to continue to do?
Kevin: I think this past season, Jag, as somebody who's worked in the game for three decades now, got to give baseball a lot of credit. They really did a lot of research. They spent time in talking to fans and listening to fans. In any business, that's something we should all be doing is listen to the people who are supporting your business. Listen to your customers.
They got a lot of feedback on time of game. The games were getting so long. Baseball, the romantic in me, putting a clock in baseball-- I've loved this game pretty much since birth-- it was a hard one, but it was needed. The time batters were stepping out of the box, pitchers taking between pitchers. It extended the game unnecessarily. We saw this year games get down to about 2:36, 2:38, much more manageable. The feedback from fans was terrific. We saw increases in TV ratings. The game's more watchable now. They did some other things to put more motion into the game. You're seeing more stolen bases.
We've got to appeal to that next generation of fans, Jag. We've got to build bonds between our players and the fans. I credit baseball and the players in today's game, the use of social media to be accessible to fans. People get invested not only in the name on the front of the jersey, but who these players are. Not only are they exceptional athletes, they're really tremendous people and have some great personalities. The deeper you can make those connections.
Again, I give a big cap tip to Major League Baseball because they're being very intentional about trying to make that happen. I think there's more opportunities to do that. I think tremendous strides were made this past season, and I'm really excited about where we're headed as a league, really.
Jag: As we start to wrap up here, any other stories or things you want to mention?
Kevin: I was trying to think of something that hasn't been told. You've had so many great stories told. I thought back, Jag, to the spring of 1986. It was the day that Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington, basketball legend, decided that he was going to leave Syracuse early and go to the NBA. Yours truly had the sports report that afternoon and got the opportunity on JPZ to break the news that Pearl's going pro. Broadcasting 101. What's the lead? What's the lead? I'm racking my brain and I'm trying to come up with something terrific. "Times now. We got to go, Kev."
I get into the news booth. I'm looking across the glass at the DJ at the time. He sends it over to me, "Breaking news in sports. Now for a sports report." He sends it over to me. Here's my lead. I say, "Diamonds may be forever, but pearls are not. Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington has decided to forego his final year of eligibility and got to the NBA." As I'm doing this live, this lead-- this is serious stuff. this is big news, the DJ and anybody who was at cues at the time-- the DJ for this moment was a DJ by the name of E Double R, Eric Renner, Rick Renner. He went on to be known as Rick Renner. He had a wonderful career in sports broadcasting. E Double R was one of the biggest personalities at Z89 at the time. Jag, his show from beginning to end was an absolute party. He used sound effects. He had incredibly colorful language, all FCC-approved. He just had this energy.
Anyway, I'm trying to deliver this breaking news story. I'm like, "This is going to be my resume tape. This is going to be great." E Double R kept his mic open the entire time. As I'm giving the news, he's sobbing, he's playing sound clips of like from movies that's like, "Don't go. Don't go."
Jag: Oh my god.
Kevin: [laughs] He was so prepared for this moment and had this wonderful array of sound effects to integrate, if you will, into my sports report. I wrap up and I send it back to E Double R. He's got music playing under me as I'm sending it back. It's the Gap Band's You Dropped a Bomb on Me. He's doing this talk out there, "Pearl Washington has dropped on Syracuse sports fans," and, "Don't go Pearl. Don't go Pearl," and "You heard it here first on Z89." Boom. He posts. It's just magic. It was so great. He was such a talent and so fun to be around, and like I said, went on to have a great career in sports broadcasting.
Again, it's another illustration of that wonderful opportunity to be so creative and take something that could be very mundane, and staid, but, "Hey, let's make it entertainment." He did that better than anybody.
Jag: First of all, huge props on the lead, because that's a great lead about diamonds and pearls.
Kevin: [laughs]
Jag: All these years later, I can appreciate a good lead. How did you react when you started hearing all these sound effects? Were you losing it around the serious story or were you trying to roll with it? How did you handle it?
Kevin: To be completely honest, I was like, "What the hell are you doing?" but you're live. I just said, "Look, this is E Double R, right?" At the time, this was the show. Everybody on campus knew the show. It's like, you got to roll with it. Play along. This is his show. I went with it and just had fun with it afterwards. Again, he's an upperclassman like, "Dude, you pretty much killed me." He's like,"Oh, no. It was great. It was great. You did great, buddy. You did great. That was awesome. That was great." He ended up using it on his resume tape. I never used it.
Jag: Oh my God.
[laughter]
Jag: Is that an Emmy I see on the shelf behind you? I think it turned out okay for you.
Kevin: Yes. That was from some Mariners commercial. Yes, that was great, great fun. Great fun. Thanks for noticing.
Jag: Kevin, I can't thank you enough for coming to the podcast. Like so many of these, I have not stopped smiling for the last 35 minutes. It's really been a joy to visit with you today. Thank you so much for your time, your contributions to Z89, and really sharing some fun stuff with us today.
Kevin: Thank you, Jag, really. Like I said, you're doing incredible work. We got to get you out to Seattle and watch the Mariners baseball.
Jag: Sounds like a plan.