It’s an historic weekend in the NBA playoffs with FIVE winner-take-all Game Sevens just to get out of the first round. Exactly a week ago, the sports world was consumed by the racist remarks of an NBA owner caught on tape. It’s always something. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time we had a dull weekend in sports. The Final Four; the Masters; the NFL regular season, playoffs, and Super Bowl; college football; baseball–the sports calendar doesn’t feature much downtime, especially not over weekends. Friday through Sunday nights is a whirlwind stretch for me because there’s ALWAYS something happening. That’s why I chuckle when people ask me if I’d rather host a weekday show on CBS Sports Radio. The question is frequently posed OR I hear it as an insult on social media. Listeners taunt me by saying I’d be hosting during the week if I was any good. Perfect example: I recently received a tweet telling me I was “buried” nights & weekends. Ha! If you say so…
This is just one of the common misconceptions about who I am and what I do. What better way to dispel them than to use a new blog post! The truth is I LOVE working nights and weekends because there’s always something for me to sink my teeth into on air. In fact, when I auditioned for the bosses at CBS back in 2012, I told them how much I love Sunday nights. It’s literally my favorite night of the week to be on the radio, no matter what the season. I also told them mornings aren’t for me. Shocker. Haha. You either go to bed early evening and miss the pertinent games and events (because the alarm goes off before dawn) or you stay up to watch and then spend all your time exhausted. I can’t be effective as a host without seeing the games myself; so when I did morning radio, I was bleary-eyed and dazed most of the time. And while it’s nice to collapse on the couch in the evenings after hosting the Doug Gottlieb Show now and then, I’d rather react in the aftermath of a huge Game Seven or a packed NFL Sunday than preview what’s to come. I hate predicting games because it’s nothing more than guesswork, and most often, not even educated guesses. Sports defy logic. The games very rarely go according to plan which is why we keep coming back. So instead of taking wild stabs on a daytime show and telling you what MIGHT happen, I’d rather wait until the action unfolds and share what I saw, heard, felt, and experienced. That’s why I prefer hosting nights and weekends in sports radio. I’ve got the best time slots of the week!
I also have ZERO desire to take my talents to a small screen near you. Another myth about me is that I must have TV goals and aspirations or that I’m using the radio medium as a stepping stone to reach television. Nothing could be further from the truth for me (and I can only speak for me). I’ve done play-by-play and color for TV basketball games for more than a decade, but only because I don’t have to be on camera more than 5 minutes. Ha! That taste is enough. TV is too high maintenance for me. Too much emphasis placed on what you look like instead of what you know, especially for women in sports. I’ve worked too hard to be dismissed or dissected based on how I do my hair or whether I’m a supermodel…which I’m not. It cheapens all the effort I’ve put into getting this far. More importantly, radio and TV require completely different skill sets. Most TV anchors couldn’t navigate a four-hour radio show and keep the conversation interesting and entertaining the whole time. In between commercial breaks, my radio segments can run 13 minutes. That kind of air time isn’t offered on TV, and I NEED my air time! The four-hour shows give me a chance to get creative and dive into a variety of topics, looking at them from every angle. I also enjoy interacting with listeners by taking phone calls and fielding tweets. On TV, you rarely have time to go deeper; instead, you barely scratch the surface. Plus there’s no teleprompter or script in my radio studio like television which tends to be more packaged and controlled. The two mediums are completely different when it comes to sports, night and day. My strengths are better served on radio, and I’ve always been in love with the idea of using nothing but words and audio to paint an entire picture.
While I know this post doesn’t answer all the questions I’m asked about my radio journey, I want people to know I’m thrilled with what I’m doing. Yes, I have goals and aspirations; yes, I want to keep moving forward until I achieve my dreams. But there isn’t one part of me that’s unhappy hosting CBS Sports Radio shows on the nights and weekends. Woooo! As I always remind people, I was never meant to walk the conventional beaten path. I’m the only one on the planet traveling this particular road, so whatever’s “logical” or “normal,” I’m usually the opposite!
Play by Play Day by Day with Amy Lawrence 