stlsports.com Media Watch

MARK BAUSCH Editor There's Something About Radio... and There's Something About Chuck Booms E-mail the Editor

The Kiley and Booms Show aired for 2+ years on FOX Sports Radio. In December of 2002, Chuck Booms was fired from the program. Kevin Kiley remains on the air. Why was Booms dismissed? What made the Kiley and Booms show so appealing to so many people? Are there any precedents for the style of broadcasting adopted by Chuck Booms? What is in Booms' immediate future? Read on...

Chuck Booms

In the decade of the 1980's, cable television and, in particular, ESPN, redefined electronic sports programming for your average American sports fanatic.

In the 1990's, the internet offered additional news and information for fans who desired even more knowledge about their favorite teams and personalities.

But before cable TV and the internet saturated North America with a non-stop stream of sports news and information, there was radio.

And for St. Louisans who came of age prior to the rise of ESPN, KMOX AM-1120 was the preferred destination for up-to-the-minute sports news and information, as well as the primary source of play-by-play coverage for the Cardinals (baseball and football) and Blues.

But it was not only St. Louisans who tuned into KMOX.

One of the most attractive features of the KMOX signal was (and remains) that its frequency (1120 KHz) is of the "clear channel" variety--the practical benefit of which is that the KMOX signal, at night, can be heard throughout a majority of the continental United States.

Indeed, a remarkable aspect of the incredible career arc of the now-deceased baseball sportscaster Harry Caray is that much of his more recent fame, fame which resulted from television work broadcasting Chicago Cubs' games on cable superstation WGN-TV, was basically a duplication of Caray's radio success as the Cardinals play-by-play broadcaster with KMOX in the 1940's, 50's and 60's.

During the 1940's and 50's the Cardinals were considered by many to be "America's Team" if for no reason other than the fact that St. Louis was the westernmost and southernmost big league franchise...and listeners in faraway states such as Colorado and Georgia found the 1120 signal to be a friendly one as far as reception was concerned.

Mr. Caray made a lot of friends across the USA in those days--friends for himself, friends for the Cardinals and KMOX, and friends for Anheuser-Busch.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: But in 1969, after broadcasting Cardinals' games for 25 years, Caray was fired. It was rumored at the time that Caray was dismissed because he had made romantic overtures to the wife of team president and A-B head August Busch Jr.)

But in the mid-1970's, radio tuners (like everything in that era) were analog. A steady hand was required to apply just the proper positioning to the circular dial of a table-top or car radio in order to listen to KMOX, especially if your location was far from St. Louis.

Nighttime listeners in Indiana, Michigan and other Great Lakes-area states who aimed to listen to KMOX often found interference from Cleveland-based WWWE AM-1100, another 50,000 watt clear channel signal just a slight turn to the left on the dial from KMOX.

At times, interference was indeed the proper terminology, because "Three W E" was the home of Pete Franklin.

There is room for debate on this point, but Peter J. Franklin was perhaps the originator of rambunctious sports talk on radio.

Throughout most of the 1970' and 80's, Franklin hosted "Sportsline" on WWWE. It is safe to say that "Sportsline" was a species of sports talk show the likes of which KMOX listeners have never experienced.

For example, in the mid-1980's, then-Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien filed a defamation of character lawsuit against Franklin.

It seems that Mr. Stepien was upset with statements made by Mr. Franklin.

Why?

Franklin's own attorneys did not dispute the fact that their client, on the WWWE airwaves, referred to Stepien in the following manner: "Other than being a certifiable nut and a pathological liar, there's really probably nothing wrong with the guy... he is an infestment, a cancer, that has screwed up the league, has escalated the salaries and is responsible for everything from venereal disease to whooping cough."

[EDITOR'S NOTE: On July 6, 1986, Judge Burt W. Griffin found in favor of defendant Franklin, stating that Franklin's words "consisted of language of a tavern or locker room sports outburst transferred to the airwaves". Plaintiff Stepien was required to pay court costs.]

Sometimes callers to "Sportsline" were treated in a fashion similar to the hapless Cavs' owner Stepien. Others, such as a regular caller referred to by Franklin as "Mr. Know-It-All" (i.e. Mike Trivissano, who, remarkably, succeeded Franklin in 1987), often chatted with the host as long as fifteen or twenty minutes.

The "Open Line" format developed by longtime KMOX bigwig Robert Hyland would never have included such a lengthy exchange between caller and host, one of many differences between the sports programming heard on AM-1100 and AM-1120.

But at least one loyal KMOX listener, after serendipitously locating WWWE, found Franklin's program fascinating, if for no other reason that it was so different from the content offered by KMOX and the likes of the late Jack Buck, the late Dan Kelly, and the late Bob Starr.

But for many in the Cleveland area, the appeal of Pete Franklin was similar in kind, if not in degree, to the appeal of Harry Caray: both men possessed massive amounts of sports and broadcasting expertise, massive amounts of sports and broadcasting passion, and an unsurpassed ability to share these attributes with their listeners in a straightforward manner.

Oh yes...there is one more thing.

Pete Franklin and Harry Caray, at their best, were very very funny.

A wicked sense of humor is a useful device for a sportscaster when your city's teams are in last place.

Sure, there are additional recipes when designing a sports broadcaster. But expertise, passion and humor are good ingredients for success in radio, a medium where, curiously, listeners often develop a greater affinity for the hosts of the programs that they listen to...than viewers of television programs develop for the stars of their favorite shows.

There's something about radio.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century, and the wild, wild world of national sports radio.

There are currently several organizations that provide nationally-oriented sports talk programming on their own branded network.

On a given day, AM radio listeners in St. Louis can access four of them:

• ESPN Radio (KFNS AM-590)
• Fox Sports Radio (KRFT AM-1190)
• Sporting News Radio Network (KSLG AM-1380)
• Sports Byline USA (WGNU AM-920)

In the opinion of many, ESPN and FOX are the primary players in this battle.

In large part this is due to the fact that the rivalry between these two corporate giants goes far beyond radio; their respective TV networks also butt heads on a regular basis.

No less than FOX TV's do-it-all play-by-play guy Joe Buck, on local St. Louis radio, has referred to ESPN as "the enemy".

Part of the FOX strategy, both on TV (sports and otherwise) and on radio, is to attract a younger audience than their competitors by trying new things and testing limits.

Some of the FOX strategy has succeeded.

For example, the FOX TV NFL pre-game show with JB (James Brown),Terry [Bradshaw], Howie [Long] and the gang is a trendsetter.

And you can be sure that the men and women at ESPN wish that they had thought of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period".

But that glowing puck...

On radio, the ESPN approach to sports talk programming is more generic and more traditional than the fare offered on FOX, where pushing the boundaries of sports talk radio is in itself considered to be sporting.

Nowhere on the Fox Sports Radio network was the boundary pushed as much as the afternoon program hosted, until early December 2002, by Kevin Kiley and Chuck Booms.

The final Kiley and Booms program aired on December 5, 2002. Booms' contract was not renewed, in a move that Booms describes as a "firing" that resulted from a "personality conflict" between himself and network management.

Of course there are at least two sides to every story. When contacted by stlsports.com, a blunt assessment of Booms and his firing was offered by a FOX Sports Radio personality who commented on the condition that he not be identified.

"I like Chuck personally. But from what I hear, he is claiming the company shafted him and while those sentiments are understandable, he wasn't exactly a good team guy. Apparently he became a daily problem for management with constant complaining and threats of calling in sick when he didn't have his way. They
don't want to deal with that kind of nonsense around here."

In the month since Booms was dismissed, Kevin Kiley has soldiered on with a variety of co-hosts, none of whom has been able to reproduce the magic that Kiley and Booms, together, possessed.

And magic it was, because in the world of national sports radio, the Kiley & Booms show was truly unique.

For starters, during an entire four hour program it was not uncommon for Kiley and Booms to seldom make more than a passing reference to the usual baseballfootballbasketballhockeygolftennisboxing-related topics which serve as fodder for so many sports talk shows.

Instead, the duo of Kiley and Booms consistently tackled subjects that were only tangentially related to the world of sports, subjects that often pertained to twenty-first century American "isms": materialism, feminism, racism, classism, ageism and sexism.

And whether it was real or contrived, Kiley, an experienced sportscaster and former professional football player, generally disagreed with Booms, a less-accomplished sportscaster who cut his teeth in the world of stand-up comedy, hosted the second incarnation of "The Gong Show", and has made countless appearances on TV talk shows such as CNN's "The Larry King Show", ABC's "Politically Incorrect" and various FOX News channel segments.

The backgrounds of the two men could hardly be more different.

Kiley is married, thought to be in his late 50s, the father of two sons...and, at least on the air, generally on the liberal side of any given debate.

Booms, by all accounts, is a Reagan Republican, a life-long bachelor in his late-30s, and much to Kiley's relief, has never successfully reproduced.

On the Kiley and Booms show, Kiley was recognized as the captain of the ship, generally spoke in measured tones to callers, and respectfully introduced the guests and topics to be discussed.

Booms, on the other hand...was consistently Booms.

There is a lot of Pete Franklin in Chuck Booms. And a dash of Harry Caray, as well.

Loud, brash, excitable, energetic and opinionated, Booms regularly interrupted Kiley, regularly interrupted callers and guests, and even regularly interrupted himself with endless commentary that had to be heard to be believed.

Regardless of the topic and regardless of the argument, or even who was "right", what seemed like organized confusion made for great, great radio.

And both men knew it--occasionally they would make each other laugh so hard that the show's producers were forced to kill one or both of their studio microphones.

But Kiley and Booms is no more.

Excerpts from an exclusive stlsports.com telephone Q&A with Chuck Booms that took place on January 8, 2003 follow...

Ol'Chuckie sounds the same via long-distance as he does on the radio; constant but friendly interruptions are the rule when speaking with Booms, not the exception.

Twice, Booms' new puppy distracted him as well, but only temporarily. When you call Chuck Booms on the telephone, you'd better be ready to listen.

All of which left yours truly feeling a bit like Kevin Kiley.

It felt good.

Hurry back Chuck Booms.

stlsports.com: Hi Chuck. We're calling from stlsports.com...
Booms: St. Louis is one of my favorite cities...one of my top stand-up cities for the thirteen or fourteen years I've been doing stand-up [comedy].

stlsports.com: We've been made aware of your upcoming appearances in Springfield, MO. Can you fill in some of the details?
Booms: Yes they're at the end of the month. I can't really say [my show] is a great show, can I? Not since I'm the one doing it. But I'll tell you [that] it is good.

stlsports.com: Can you share with us the dates of these and other appearances?
Booms: Right now that's the only date I've got, because I'm still trying to figure out what is going on with radio. Yesterday, I don't know whether you heard or not, but a major major bomb was dropped with Jim Rome.

stlsports.com: Yes we talked about that last night. You know, you and I have never met.. But just from listening to your show on the radio...I had the sense you would do it for free...that it was that much fun for you. And I was a bit worried about you. But when we spoke last night, and you immediate broke into the diatribe about Rome and his ESPN deal, and the conflict of interest, I knew everything was OK.
Booms: Yeah I'm fine. Everything is fine. This is a career choice, that if someone makes...you'd better have one of the thickest skins going. I lived in Los Angeles for nine-and-a-half years, and played at the real top levels. So, these guys that are playing this game, it doesn't really affect me that much. I loved what I was doing. I knew the show was a hit. I knew, from the time I went to Peoria and Springfield, I finally got a feel for just how big it was. I didn't know it was that big. But the passion that men and women had for that program was unmatched. The program directors in both cities said 'I've never seen anything like this in my life'. They blew it. There's no other way to tell it. They just blew it. It was one guy's ego who didn't like me, and, but the president of the company, Craig Kitchen, has been terrific. He has treated me with dignity, treated me with class, with grace, gave me a nice severance package, made it very very clear that I was one of the most talented people, top three he's ever worked with. And that's a pretty exclusive club considering he's working with Limbaugh and everybody else. So, there's not much I can do vis a vis a money situation.

(Editor's note: at this point in the conversation, Booms is distracted by his dog, who, in his words, is 'eating a q-tip')

stlsports.com: I'd like to pay you a compliment, Chuck. My wife and I have two daughters. Our oldest, who is sixteen, when forced to listen to your show while riding in our car, used to say things like 'you know, Dad, women don't listen to this kind of radio'. Well, as time went on, and she is sitting in the back seat as I'm taking her around town...there was one bit on your show where you and your partner were talking about to what lengths you would go to, would you punch a twelve year old boy in the nose to get the Barry Bonds HR baseball, if you were underneath a pile and no one could see you...
Booms: Oh, I remember that bit. You see, the thing that adds, always, to humor, and to the listening audience, especially if you get to know the host via radio or TV, you the listener are going 'this is this guy' that would do that. It is not funny if it is just somebody who is making it up, and you don't believe that that might in fact be done. What makes the bit funny is that, in your head, you're going, 'he really would do this. He would beat the s**t out of a seven year old for that ball'. And even though beating up a seven year old is not funny, the concept is. And the visual is. So that's where the show hit. The show hit with women. I designed it for that. It hit with women because, you know, we had the story on with the woman horse jockey who beat breast cancer...human interest stories, we deal with race, we dealt with gender, we dealt with sexuality, and we dealt with it in-your-face. [On the show] you weren't going to run from the topic, you were going to be right in the middle of it. And, the show was never for the faint of heart. If you were easily offended, you'd better turn the dial. We found great success in that format.

stlsports.com: But here's what happened with my daughter and the ball story, Chuck. I looked back in my rear-view mirror, and my sixteen year old daughter attempted to stifle a grin. She did not succeed...
Booms: The one thing that I found out, which was the most flattering thing from Peoria and Springfield...I met more girlfriends and wives that said to me 'I hated this thing, I hate sports radio, I would never listen to it...but now I'm more goofy about it than my husband'. The women were saying 'I can't miss a day of it'. That's when you knew you were doing something...

stlsports.com: I don't think your partner is really happy with the show now, Chuck. It is hard to listen to...
Booms: Seven affiliates have dropped. It is garbage. Kevin, with me, and I always told people this...and gave him a lot of credit. When you have great chemistry, you've got to give the other guy credit. And Kevin, with me, had a stunningly great sense of humor. It really played off of the visceral things that I would do. Kevin, on his own, trying to be funny, or Kevin trying to be mean-spirited, doesn't come off at all.

stlsports.com: On the air, your former partner now sounds mean. I'm not sure he is as nice a person as you are...
Booms: Well that's a typical liberal. They want everybody to like them, but they're not likable. It is [former President] Clinton...'I feel your pain'...'I'm here for you this-and-that'. Those are the people who wouldn't lift a finger to help you move across the street and move a piece of furniture.

stlsports.com: You know, Chuck, the Saturday Night Live comedian who used to portray President Clinton, when Clinton was having his problems with the definition of the word 'is', they did a skit on SNL in which Moses came down from the mountaintop with the Ten Commandments. As he started reading them to the assembled crowd dressed in robes, coming out of the back of the group was Bill Clinton, in a suit and tie. Clinton began parsing the adultery commandment for the benefit of the crowd and for Moses' benefit as well.
Booms: Perfect.

stlsports.com: What are the exact dates of your Springfield, MO shows?
Booms: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Two shows Friday and Saturday and then a special Super Bowl Sunday kind of show where I am hosting the Super Bowl.

stlsports.com: Are you going to be talking over the game, then?
Booms: Exactly. Commentary during time-outs and so on. That should be very very interesting. The shows are in a giant sports bar, Sir Gregory's.

stlsports.com: My sixteen year old daughter was kind of excited to hear about your shows. She has real liberal politics, Chuck.
Booms: Perfect.

stlsports.com: Can somebody sixteen go to one of your shows? I'm sounding like a dad now.
Booms: Obviously I use bad language, but it isn't anything a sixteen year old hasn't heard in high school or junior high. I would say it is up to the discretion of the individual parent. I use language, but it is in a way that is non-offensive, if that makes any sense. I don't find my show offensive. I find it to be real.

stlsports.com: You know, Chuck, I've been reading some interesting things about the man who put together 'The Gong Show', Chuck Barris. I think he is even more interesting than Chuck Booms...
Booms: I did 'The Gong Show', the one that was on in '95. I met Chuck and got to know him. He is an extremely gifted and brilliant and talented guy. He's in his seventies and still has young girlfriends so something's clicking for Chuck.

stlsports.com: In terms of your radio work now...you're doing a Cleveland Browns post-game show?
Booms: Yep. I can't even talk about them after last Sunday. Was that the most...only to be topped by the Giants in the next game? Just when you thought you'd seen it all...

stlsports.com: I thought of you, Chuck, with (defensive coordinator) Foge Fazio and all and the three man rush...
Booms: Actually, that was not Foge. Big article in the paper yesterday...

(Editor's note: Booms is again distracted by his dog.)

Foge Fazio wanted to attack. He was overruled by (head coach) Butch Davis. That's why Foge quit. It was Davis. And it was Davis who promised us after the Chicago Bears debacle a couple of years ago, when the Browns were up 27-13 with 1:09 left, and lost, that we would never ever see the prevent again. I was screaming that it was Fazio. But it wasn't. He wanted to attack...bring the linebackers and bring the corners. Maddox looked terrible all day when the Browns were attacking on defense. The Browns players outplayed the Steelers big-time. That's what makes the loss so hard to take.

stlsports.com: It was none other than offensive genius Bill Walsh who stated that the key to keeping a lead, late in an NFL game, from a defensive standpoint, is to be able to put pressure on the passer.
Booms: Yep. That's all there is. The Browns were rushing three guys. And never once, when you have three guys rushing the quarterback, do you ever get to the quarterback. They can't. There's five or even six guys blocking three. What happens is, no matter how good your coverage is in these nickel or dime packages, which is about all they're worth, well Maddox can stand there all day. Sooner or later the receiver, no matter how good you are, is going to shake you, and be open for a minute. Then Maddox is going to get on the ball.

stlsports.com: After doing seven shows in five nights in Springfield, you're going to know that town like the back of your hand.
Booms: Good, there are some cute chicks down there.

stlsports.com: You sound great.
Booms: Well, I've learned from watching other people suffer through cancers and different things, that whatever is happening to me is nowhere near as bad as what has happened to other people who are sick or financially downtrodden. I learned a long time ago, I guess through my faith, that you come to appreciate what you have every day, enjoy each day for what it is. You don't know whether you're going to be here tomorrow, so I try to make the best of every day. I miss not being able to communicate with the masses every day. But hopefully that will be resolved in the near future and I'll be able to go back and do it again.

You know, the Jim Rome [signing with ESPN TV] is a bomb of mega proportions, because if you're a FOX Sports Radio affiliate, you cannot have Jim Rome come on every day and say 'don't forget about those great people at ESPN, who are going to have my TV show'. Just the mere mention of ESPN on Fox is taboo. He cannot be promoting ESPN on FOX Sports Radio. What is the point of other Fox hosts going to work? It would be like Tim Couch having a press conference every day and saying 'let me tell you about the Steelers. Boy are they great'. The whole point of Fox Sports Radio is to beat ESPN radio. ESPN is the enemy.

The only reason I may end up on back on the air is because I talked to Craig Kitchen the other day and I offered a salary restructure because I did make a lot of money and I offered a salary restructure that I thought might make it more palatable for Craig to be able to do it.

stlsports.com: Finally, you do well to be able to talk about your show and your former partner Kiley in a straightforward way. I heard an internet-based recording of some stuff you did with Des Moines just a day or two after [your dismissal], and I don't know that you'd want to take any of that stuff back, but you were a little bit hard on your former partner. Now, if you listen carefully to the show, it sounds like your former partner is not happy with the show now. If what I am hearing is right, I don't think Kevin Kiley quite figured out ahead of time what he was going to do after the split.
Booms: But keep in mind, part of what happened, too, that I found out along the way here. [Kiley] was helping to facilitate [the split]. For sure the audience knows one thing. He sure didn't do anything to stop it...and that is what has people angry. He keeps going on with that bull about 'I honor my contract'. That's fine. But along with honoring your contract, honor your friendship and your loyalty to the guy who got you that contract.