SDR #314 With Emmy-Winning Sportscaster Jim Kozimor

Welcome, everybody, to the big show. Today we have a very special guest, broadcasting legend, Jim Cozamore. We also are going to talk about Christian's wedding, his blood pressure, and there's a lot of fun stuff in the news. So that and much, much more coming up on this edition of Service Drive Revol.

So the reason why we're doing these special edition SDRs is we have our coaching meeting coming up. We're doing it virtually on Thursday, April 24, and we wanted to interview the speakers we're going to have on top of the stuff we're going to do internally. But it's a meeting for our coaching clients, on demand clients, and.

It'S gonna be really fun.

Yeah.

The theme is the art of being extraordinary.

Yeah, these speakers are pretty good. It's gonna be. It's gonna be quite an event. You won't wanna miss it.

So we should talk about some of the stuff that people have missed while we've been off. And so you're getting married. You're doing the Vegas shotgun thing.

Yeah, Vegas shotgun thing. Quick. No stress, no planning. I wrote a check and it's just done.

But he says no stress. But Christian's blood pressure. So this is. This is funny. So I do these la Woo things where I get IV drips. I've. I've had you do them. I started getting sick and I had them come and do it for you the other day. Right. But you get a bunch of vitamins. Whenever I feel like I'm getting sick or I'm going to travel, I do them because it usually prevents it. And I don't have time to be sick. I can't be sick.

We have too much going on.

So when they do those drips, they check your blood pressure. Right. And so there was a new company that I was using. They came to the house and they checked my blood pressure and it was 180 over something.

It's pretty high, Chris.

And she's calling the doctor and she's like, hey, he probably should go to the ER. He's 180 over whatever. And I'm like, I'm not going to the er. Like, what are you talking about? And she's like, well, no, that's really high. And I don't know, she's using all kinds of crazy.

They call it a hypertension episode.

Hypertension. The whole thing. Yeah, they love that word, hypertension. And so then she's basically explaining to me that they can't do the drip because that's. That would add putting liquid into my Veins would add more pressure to an already pressurized system.

That makes sense.

Like if we used a cooling system in a car as an example. If you put more coolant in there, it would add more pressure.

Radiator caps blow off and all that other stuff.

Yeah, yeah. So then I just did my mental mind control meditation, got it down, and we were fine. But it takes me, like, five minutes to do that. But I could. I can fix it with my mind.

But that's amazing.

I don't. What made you want to start do. So I don't know. I don't know the backstory to this. I just know that you were checking your blood pressure here at the office, which had never happened before. I didn't even know we had a blood pressure machine here. Is that our machine or your machine?

Our machine.

We own here at Chris Collins. We own. I have one at home, but I didn't know he had one at the office. We. What made you start wanting to check your blood pressure?

So I've had blood pressure issues in the past, and it's a little bit runs in the family kind of thing. And I don't know how to really explain it other than when your blood pressure is how you can feel it. Like, the. You kinda.

You could feel that it was out of whack.

Yeah, Something was a little bit.

I relate to that. Okay. I know what that feels like. Yeah.

So sometimes I get bloody noses. Oh, yeah. That does happen more than I would expect. You get bloody noses? No, to you.

Oh.

Like, it's very. Cause you're very healthy. And the bloody nose.

When you get a bloody nose, it's usually an indicator of a blood pressure thing.

Okay. So I've seen that happen to you a couple of times, but I just kind of started feeling just like my blood pressure was elevated, Whatever it was, whether.

Now do you know how to take your blood pressure? Is there a reason why you were asking Alex to do it?

She offered more than.

How did you. How did she become aware that it was something.

I'm not sure. She just saw me go and get the. The machine.

So for you, she was worried. Alex, she's from Ukraine. She's white.

She. This day, she was whiter than white.

She was translucent.

She was translucent because Christian's blood pressure was 225 over something. Over a hundred and something.

130 or something like.

Yeah, 225 over 130. And she is freaked out. And so I pull Christian to the side and I go, hey, bro, you need to go to the doctor, like, you really need to go to the hospital. You're like, no, it runs in my family. You were saying all this stuff, which doesn't make sense because you knew that it was bad enough to have it checked, so then the next day, she checks it again, same. It's not going down. Like, this goes on for, I don't know, a couple weeks.

Yeah. At the most.

And. And then I was like, you really? I. I like the second.

The second conversation. What did you say?

When I had a talk with you, what did I say?

Oh, gosh.

I went in your office and I closed the door. And what did I say?

You're like, hey, you need to take this thing seriously. Like, it doesn't make any sense why you wouldn't take care of this.

Yeah, it's. It's. It's a big deal.

Like, it's not a joke. It's not funny. And it seems like you're very dismissive is what I think you. The word that you said to me, like, you're really dismissive, like you're invincible and it's not going to hurt you.

Yeah.

And so then I set a doctor's appointment that night.

And then what did they put you on?

I don't know. Whatever. Blood pressure medication.

The flip side to this is I. I won't take that blood pressure medication.

So. And it's very.

I do it through meditation. I won't do it because it makes you feel like you're falling down all the time or. It made me feel like that.

Okay, So I do have that. When I.

The doctor told me, now squeeze the chair.

What?

Yeah, go. I'm sitting there. I'm with clients. This was back, you know, a while ago. I'd be like, I'm sitting in the chair talking to clients, and I feel like I'm falling off a cliff. And he goes, well, just squeeze the chair.

That does not sound like a remedy to me. But at any rate, taking the.

Keep taking the. I was on Korg Cr is when I was on.

Okay. You'd have to look at whatever it is that I take. I don't know. But. But I start off taking two of those pills a day. And the dizziness, all the other stuff, like, man, the.

How tired you get is insane to me. But what happened is that it. It went so far that I was going in and I was getting my blood pressure checked, and I ended up going from 220 over 1, whatever it was down to like an 88 over 60. And then they started to get worried that my blood pressure was too low. I'm like, well, I can't take that much medicine. So then they backed you off? They backed me off to half the. Half the dosage. And now can see why.

When you're 225 or 130, they might.

Go aggressive on the dose. They put the full court defense.

Might be giving you the horse tranquilizer.

It was probably not a bad idea, but. But it regulated really fast. And now like, I'm pretty regularly, like the. Anywhere between 110, 140.

You know what they call you?

Customer for life.

Yeah. So. So until. So I've already taken that like entry level TM class. I just have to go back and finish it. But I love the idea of not taking medicine. It really.

I told you what my. What my doctor said after I got off mine and I told. He goes, what did you do? And I go, I was doing tm. He goes, oh, I was hearing, I've heard about that. Like they were talking about that at a conference, how it fixes blood pressure. And I go, oh, will you start recommending that to clients? And he was like. Looked at me like I was crazy. He's like, no, like, yeah, heaven forbid. You do a natural remedy. By all means. Like, give people the stuff that makes them feel like they.

Our healthcare industry is in the continuity business continuity.

It's like printer. It's like ink for printers.

Yeah. So I don't like being on medicine. I'm doing it now, but I do have to figure out it different way because I just. I don't like the way it makes me feel the other way. But I also don't want to have heart attack, so.

Also, like, what, do you want to be on something the rest of your life?

No, never. Not at all.

It's crazy.

So. So it's up to me to fix it.

So I, I would, you know, I would. You haven't thanked me or anything and that's fine. I don't need to thank you. But I saved your life.

Are you sure I haven't thanked you?

Saved your life?

No, I'm just being funny.

You know, it's funny worried like you, you. You did and you kept joking about it. You thought it was funny and it. It. A stroke isn't funny.

Well.

Isn'T funny.

Yeah, it's true. Me using humor as a defense mechanism is not a big surprise.

Well, we have that in common.

Yeah. But I would say that all of it has me thinking about charity and doing good things. So I went to donate.

I'LL wait.

Just. That premise is funny.

The.

So it made you think about charity.

Yeah, for sure.

And it made you want to do good things.

I did. I want to do good things.

Before that, you wanted to do bad things.

So yesterday I went and I. I tried to donate blood. And then you get there, and I'm not ever going to do.

You can take my blood. So it's the. The blood type that you can give to everybody. But I can only get one blood type. But they. They like that blood, so they call you all the time.

There is a. There's a kind of cool thing with you and that blood type. Well, I think you do a really trying to not get sick, but that blood's not hurting you at all.

Either way, I didn't get Covid. Yeah, none of that. Yeah, it's a good. It's a good. I'm lucky. Also, like, I don't have. I have zero plaque, so all the.

Arteries are really solid and everything like that.

Zero plaque.

Do you.

My doctor's always surprised.

Do you do like, an annual EKG or something like that?

Oh, no, it's like every three years or something.

Okay.

I never want to do that treadmill thing again.

Oh, the. The echo stress test. That's pretty serious stuff. And then the way that they push down on you afterwards, it's like you're.

Getting raped after the worst experience of your life.

Right. It's nuts. I almost made another joke. No, it was. It was like getting raped after jumping on a bike with no seat. But.

You can't say that.

No, they're not going to put this on YouTube.

Dang it.

Okay. What's in the news?

So I really am curious because I know that you've had this topic. You've done a really good job in your past of working with body shops, and you. You have a great partnership, I think, in terms of, like, understanding the model, where you get in on how a body ship can shop, can run really efficiently. But there's really a trend in the industry and automotive news is talking about this is that essentially dealerships that own a body shop, they're starting to sell them off in mass. So a lot of, you know, manufacturer franchise dealerships, they got a shop that's attached to their. Their stores or whatever, especially in a group. I see this pretty regularly, but they're selling off to, like, the Gerbers and the, you know, all the other, like, big players in the industry because they just don't see it as an opportunity for them to make money. And I was curious of what your thoughts were with that. Like if you had a group, you know, if you had six stores, would you want a body shop? If you owned a group of six.

Six stores, I'd probably want three body shops, wouldn't I?

Yeah, so, so, so tell me, unpack that a little bit because I like your thought towards body shops because I think that a lot of them are not how you think. A lot of beliefs.

Well, I mean most, most body shops are kind of like service departments in the sense that they're, they're running the same system they ran 30 years ago. But the business has changed and it's, it's more insurance driven. So a lot of times like insurance companies would deal with dealerships and some dealerships would be DRPs and they would have that connection. But back then when a customer got in an accident, they had, you know, they would figure out where to go. Now when a customer gets in an accident, they call the insurance company and the insurance company makes them appointment where to go to places they control the input in the output in a sense. Right. So now the body shops that they're going to send them to are the ones that can turn a car in two or three days. Dealerships probably average like 12 days or something. And so those dealerships run a different system or those body shops run a different system. The ones that are turning the cars in three days, they tria, they triage. Right. Like they have the lines, just bumpers and dings that they can turn in a day. Which for the insurance companies counts as zero days actually. Right. Because you kind of get a day. They also, the way they do estimates, they, they don't do an estimate, they do a work plan and they, you know, they have kind of three different lines that the cars go through. You have the light, the middle and then the heavy and they're running it completely different. The dealerships haven't evolved in that way. And so there it's, they're not competitive. You have to be competitive. But I would just, I would go with the insurance model. I would be, I would be geico. I would, I would do what they needed for me to do to turn the cars because to the insurance companies, you know, when it takes you 10 or 12 days, that's customers in a loan car, it's higher. Like it doesn't get, it's not like wine, it doesn't get better with time.

Yeah.

And so I would embrace it 100%. I'd be hiring a manager from one of those places, not the guy that's been around telling me what can and can't be done and all that. Like, it's a. It's a very systematized thing now, these body shops that are really successful. But like, we know somebody that he literally. The insurance companies go to him and ask him to open a body shop in a market. And he will. He will. He will be profitable his first month.

Like, and then they pay him a lot to set that up. Right. Like, and it's worth it for them.

At the end of the day, they don't pay him a lot. They just turn on the spigot.

Yeah.

The paint. There's ways to finance that sort of stuff. But literally there'll be dealerships around him that are saying, we don't have any business, we can't make money. And he just comes right in the back door. He'll have a. You know, the other thing is he doesn't have to be on a main street. He can be in the back somewhere. Because the insurance companies are making.

They're sending. They're sending the customer.

They control the funnel now.

Yeah.

It reminds me, like, if you had a really, really busy shop and you're. You didn't have enough space, who would care? Like, if you're doing stuff at a place two blocks down the road because nobody had ever seen.

He's not. He's doing the crazy leases on a main street. Like, none of that. He's in.

It doesn't make sense because it doesn't change the thing. You know what it reminds me?

But he needs more square footage to do, you know.

Yeah. Because it's an assembly line of sorts. Right.

Same sort of thing we did in truck. Right. With the triage. You triage it up front. Instant inspection is the same way you triage it up front.

Yeah. So that's the thing that I was going to make the connection to is that body shop, if it's run right, is the same as if heavy trucks run right. Where we recognize that it's the time that's the problem. Like, the enemy is time on a body shop. The enemy is time on heavy truck. And so there might be some opportunity where, like before you sell your body shop, could you be more efficient? Could you get everything on top?

You want to know another part of the industry that isn't affected by tariffs?

What part?

Body shop labor.

Oh, yeah.

Bondo.

Bondo. Made in the usa.

So that's the news for today.

What is that old joke about the. The body shop manager praying for snow. Black ice.

Oh, yeah. Black Ice because then nobody slows down. Yeah, it's a better repair.

Terrible though to be praying for people to get in wrecks can't be good luck.

No, that's karma coming at some point in time.

But anyways, should we try to get our guest on the line here?

We should.

Our guest today is Jim Kosamore, accomplished television and radio sportscaster with an impressive career in broadcasting. Jim has worked as a play by play announcer for NBC Sports across six Olympic Games and has covered a wide range of sports including the NBA, Major League Baseball, college football, basketball, Major League Soccer, WNBA and more. He's even led regional coverage for the iconic events like the Super Bowl, World Series, NHL Finals and the NBA Finals. Jim is a three time Emmy award winner and has extensive experience covering all major American sports leagues. And we're really excited to welcome him here to the big show. Welcome, Jim. We're excited to have you. Look at those Emmys behind you.

I know, I know. I carry them everywhere. I actually, I just came back from lunch with the fellas and I keep them with me there as well. So they're always very impressed with them. Do you get it? They get you a little, they get you in for a table a little easier.

Do you get a seat just for the Emmys or do you just set them in the middle of the table?

That's a great question. So you know how to do follow ups? Yes, I like to have a seat for each Emmy for giving me a little bit more space at the table. So that was an excellent. I have to tip the cap to you, my friend.

Well, we're, we're really excited to have you speak at our, at our coaching virtual meeting. And we're so, we're so glad that you said yes to it and, you know, just to kind of give you a little perspective. So we're, we're in the automotive industry and our group is a really, really talented, you know, bunch of service managers, parts managers, directors, but people, you know, that are in the business of people and taking care of customers, the hospitality side of things. And one of the things that we teach them is how to prepare for the day, how to throw a good shift meeting in the morning and how to be intentional about what happens throughout the day. And I'm just kind of curious as a play by play announcer, what is your process for preparing for broadcast? Like, what do you, what do you do? Your personal system.

That's a great place to start. And I think there's some synergy between the type of people you were just Explaining and what I did for my career as I was preparing for what I like to do. We have to remember that part of the reason we're in this industry or that I got into the industry I'm in is because I love sports. That's the number one thing. I absolutely love it. I don't need to be on a TV camera. I don't need to be behind the microphone. I was blessed enough to have those opportunities, but I love sport. And I would think the same thing for people who are in the automotive industry, right, in some way, shape or form. They didn't just take that job because, you know, it's just another job. There's something about cars that attracted them. So that's the number one step into trying to improve or become extraordinary. So what is my process? And my process was always remember, you are blessed to be here. I never had to go to work. I got to go to work. That's the first place I always started every time I woke up in the morning. I got to go to Oracle park to see the Giants play. I got to go to the arena to see the Golden State warriors or some of the best players in their particular sports were. I got to go to New Orleans and cover The San Francisco 49ers in a Super Bowl. I got to go to the NHL Stanley cup finals. So when you think of your job and you think of what you do and I get to do instead of a have to do, that's the first step right there. So for me, that's part of the process. And the second part is just enjoying it while you're there. There's so many teams that I've been around, guys who, they have a great regular season and they get to the playoffs and the first thing they do is they all print shirts that say it's time to get down to business. And they're going to bring their lunch pail and they've got this serious face. And you know what got them to 60 wins in a regular season in the NBA? Enjoying the way they played. They being free spirited, being open in their play. But all of a sudden they get to the playoffs and we're down to business. I like to enjoy the moment. I think that's one of the most important things you could do is enjoy where you are at, be where you are at, the way you are most natural. So for me, guys, maybe a long winded answer, but those are my processes and how I like to do my job. In a. In an. In a. I can't believe In a career that I've been blessed enough to have.

That's great. So how do you adjust your approach to the different sports? Like, you know, calling the WNBA is different than NHL or baseball. It's all different. How do you, how do you adjust from one to the other?

So there are two ways to look at that. One is, yes, they are different. You approach it differently because they're different games. And you might approach it differently because you know certain things, teams better than, than other teams. But there's, there's a similarity there in that you are still getting an opportunity to do what you love to do. So let's say I was doing a small college football game. Am I going to give that less homework? Am I going to give that less shrift? Am I going to pay less attention to that because it's a lower game than I am when I was preparing to. To be the regional host for a Stanley Cup Final? Well, no. The minute you start taking an opportunity and devaluing it, that's when not only does that event get short sheeted, you get short sheeted. So for me, it was always to remember it did. There's no small time event. All right? There might be events that, that are newer in starting. You know, I did the MLS years and years ago before it's become the behem. Behemoth that it is in the United States. So if I gave it less effort, I just think that's bad form. Same thing there. There are cynically, sadly, some people who think women's basketball isn't as good to watch. Well, I think that's bad form. So for me, the process is always remembering, no matter the level of play of a game you're going to call, always give it the effort that you will give to the biggest event you will do. Because when you do that, then that opportunity to be extraordinary, that opportunity to do your best and actually shine, it's making others shine around you, Right? That's part of it. So if you can set that example of I'm doing the women's NCAA tournament the same way I would do the men's NCAA tournament the same way I would do an NBA game, if I was calling LeBron James and Steph Curry well, then you know that everything is going to get treated the same and other people might start to respect that event as well.

So.

So for me, that's how I try to keep it grounded in that I never rank what I'm doing. I never said, no, I'm not going to do that because it's not to my level. That makes no sense to me. Another, for instance is in the Olympic Games. I just, I just finished the Paris Olympic Games. And the big sports for the Olympics are track and field, swimming and diving, basketball, some of the gymnastics. Those are the massive events. The sport that I've done for a number of Olympics now is badminton. And I guess you do pronounce the N in badminton, and people would roll their eyes and say, oh, well, you're just doing badminton. You know what? I treat it like it's gymnastics, like it's track and field. I give it my all. And I think at the end of the Olympics, when, when NBC called and says, hey, we appreciate you doing that, will you work another event that tells me that I've treated it the right way. So for me, it's treating things equally, it's treating things the same with respect, that you'll be able to get the most out of it.

That's such a. Such a great answer. And, you know, the thing, too, just to kind of expand on that a little bit, is what you're doing is you're bringing a lot of enthusiasm to the part of the job you can control. You can control your approach, you know, your preparation, your enthusiasm. Maybe you don't know what NBC is going to pick you to do in the Olympics, but you do know what you can bring to the table and what you can offer and control that. And I think a lot of times people focus too much on the part they can't control and they get lost.

That's true. You said it perfectly right there. I think that's fantastic. And I think that's true in every line of business. And I know everyone has a bad day, right? There are times when you just have a bad day. You're not going to be as enthusiastic when you're running a meeting just because you, your kid was up all night because they were sick and you're miserable and tired, it's going to happen. But you can control what you can do. And when you're somebody who's in a leadership role, if you can be enthusiastic about what you're doing, if you can be supportive of the people around you in an enthusiastic way. And I've got a great story about this that I'll tell when we gather again in April. There are two head coaches in the NBA, both extraordinarily successful with multiple NBA championship titles as coaches, and they were in a Game seven situation. They both went at it in different ways. And I'll explain it to you. And that'll help some people understand what style of leadership they want to utilize. But if you can be enthusiastic, I think it'll feed off on, especially on those who look up to you in that role.

I can't wait. So you've won three Emmys in your career, and I know you're humble about it, but to us, that's. That's. That's a big deal. You know, they're not. They're not giving those out to anybody by. By accident. Does the recognition, you know, mean anything to you? Or, like, how does it feel when. When you win something like that individually?

It means a lot. But I will give you two stories. The first Emmy that I won, I got it. I think I had it at the office. I might have brought it home. And trying to remember, either way, I won the Emmy. First Emmy. And about a week later, my wife's on the phone, and she says, what? And I hear say what? And her friend is talking to her, and she said, he did what? And she turned to me in the kitchen, she looked at me. She goes, did you win an Emmy? And I said, yeah, I won one. Last week was the Bay Area Emmys, and I won an Emmy. And so while I'm appreciative and humbled by it, I don't do this to win the award. Right. I do it because I love it. And I was blessed to be in a situation where I worked with extraordinary people, and NBC said, we are going to put this up for an Emmy, and God bless it, I won. So I was a byproduct of a number of people doing really great things. And as a result, I was singled out to get this victory. So it was really, really nice. But here's the second story. I had won three Emmys, and then I had never gone to the Emmy Awards, and finally I was up for another Emmy. And I go to the Emmy Awards with my wife. We make it a big date night. We go to San Francisco. We have dinner. We get there early. We're schmoozing with all the other anchors and. And reporters and producers and everyone in Bay Area media. And you're. You're thinking, number four, make room for it. I'll be darned. We. We get to it, and they come to our category, and I kind of sit up in the old chair, and I'm getting ready to. To step up to the stage, and. And the winner is not Jim Cozamore. And it was someone else who won and did a wonderful job. And, you know, you said politely and you applaud And I look at my wife, I go, I never go to these. I finally go to one and I'm stiffed. I know I had my wife. My wife was my trophy. So that's the trophy. Still went home with a trophy. I went home with my wife. Well, you got to have another one with me.

She got to get dressed up.

Yeah, it's quite the date. Yeah, quite the date.

So, so really quick. Anyway, so I've got a question. And as much as I do appreciate the Emmys back there and sounds like they're, they're, they're good dinner partners, yet I would question their ability to hold their own at a buffet line.

What's the, what's the basketball?

WNBA started back in 1997 and I was with the Houston Rockets at the time as part of their broadcast crew. But when they became a team in the wnba, they asked me to call their games on TV and radio. And so I did. And lo and behold, the first two years of the wnba. The Houston Comets at the time won the first two WNBA titles. And so some of us were gifted fully autographed first year and second year balls by every member of the team and every member of the coaching staff. And so that's kind of a remembrance for us. But it's for a league that has gone through ups and downs and has morphed into something that is now more highly respected and there's more viewership going on right now. Those are the first two championship teams. And to know that you were a part of makes you feel good to have been at the ground floor of a league that has now grown through a quarter century plus. And it's nice to know that you were there to see it all get started. In the beginning, there were just eight teams.

It was pretty tough. It was rough sledding. There were a lot of winds blown against the league. A lot of cynicism about women playing basketball and wanting men to appreciate it. Now look at that 25 years later, the groundbreakers who played over my shoulder, who I still consider friends. Cheryl Swoopes was on those teams.

Cynthia Cooper.

Cynthia Cooper. Yep, exactly one of the greatest, probably the greatest clutch player in a women's game I've ever seen. Cynthia Cooper, Tina Thompson, another USC Trojan. Those are just some of the players on that team at that time. That league has had great players. And so those, those two, two signed autograph balls mean a lot to me because I just to have been lucky enough to have been there in the beginning. That gets back to the, to the story of you know, I did NBA games, but they asked me to do WNBA games. Well, I didn't. I didn't give it, you know, lesser effort. I didn't treat it as anything lesser. I treated it as. You are a major sport. We are going to. We are going to prepare the same way as I would for a Philadelphia 76ers game or a Sacramento Kings game. We are going to treat it the same way. And I think the connection with the audience there was pretty important. So they mean a lot.

When you do a broadcast, are you thinking about the end result of what it means to the audience? Does that help with. Yes, with how you.

That's the reason I got out of this. I might even tear up. That's why I got into this. I got into this business because my dad and I, when I was a little kid, we were. I was born in Chicago. We moved to suburban Detroit when I was young, and my dad was a big sports fan and he loved listening to the radio. And when the Chicago Cubs would play on the west coast in LA and San Diego and San Francisco, the game started a lot later. So the signal from the Chicago station would. Would make its way to the Detroit market. But the only radio we could get it on was our baby blue Plymouth Brome that we parked in the driveway. And my dad and I would sit there at 10:30 at night trying to tune it in through the crackle to hear the Cubs game. And I could only stay up probably for about three innings, but that's how I. I started to love it. And when I see people going to games with radios, when I hear people listening to games on the radio, there is a certain connection you get with the fan. And it's true on Telev Vision as well. But if. If there was an old saying from a famous showbiz personality who said a surefire recipe for failure is forget the public. All right? If you forget the public, and I just want to get my. I've got a great voice and I might look good on camera, and I get off this cute saying and I get to travel with the team and I stay at their hotel. You do that and you forget the public. You'll be sitting with them sooner or later. So to me, the most important connection is who your audience is.

Wow. So Christian is from Illinois, so he's.

Many a game on AM720. Just so you know, he's.

He's one. Yes.

My friend.

He's one of a few friends I have that every year about this time, they're super optimistic about the Bears, like, this is the year.

Yes. I'll tell you, they've had a heck of a spending spree during free agencies, so we'll see if it all comes comes to fruition. We used to listen to those games, too. It's so funny you say that. We had one of those big console radio. It was like a. It was a stereo, you know, with a turntable, and all your pictures were.

On top of it. Yep, we had one of those, too. There's a console thing. It was the biggest. It was the most ridiculously big piece of furniture you'd ever had that had sound coming out of it.

But it was awesome. And for some reason, we could pick up the Bears games on those things, and it was just so much fun to do. And so those are great memories. Great memories.

So are you a Bears fan?

So here's the thing about being in sports and being a sportscaster. I grew up a Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, somewhat of a Bulls fan. But when you get into the industry, you work for so many other teams and entities and leagues and networks that, that your fandom changes. It doesn't lessen, it just changes. So if I was a Bulls fan but drawing a paycheck from Philadelphia 76ers, you know, I didn't, I didn't want the Bulls to beat the team that was paying me. So you learn to change your, your fandom.

So. But I would say those are the baseline for baseline teams that I cheer for now that I, I've moved out of the Midwest. I was working in California for about a quarter century, and now we've moved to Tennessee. You know, I follow the Tennessee Titans and I want them to do well. I follow the Tennessee Volunteers. I have a daughter who goes to University of Tennessee. You know, local teams to do well. So you tend to root for the local teams. But. But if you, if you were to kind of really chisel down on it, I would say for me, the Big Four were the Bears, Cubs, Blackhawks, and then the Bulls were next.

I mean, it's. It's hard to shed that if it's a part of your childhood and your relationship with your dad and all that. Like, yeah, that's. That's special.

Yeah. You know, it's funny, funny about my dad. You mentioned my dad. He. He was successful in business, but his, his Achilles heel was his. He was not a great public speaker. He. He didn't like to do it. And, and he, he wasn't. He was from a generation where he didn't get a chance to go to college. So he didn't get a lot of those opportunities, and he rose up the chain in the industry he was in. But he would. He wasn't comfortable speaking. And so I found it quite interesting that his son got into an. Got into a business where I would. That I spoke for a living. So maybe that's the transformation generation to generation. He was successful in his line of work, and there was an area that didn't work for him that maybe the next generation was able to do something and kind of, you know, you know, you stack a cake, the next layer of that cake is, hey, this is what this person's going to be able to do. So I'm excited to see what my daughters are going to do when they take that layer of the cake and they make it even better. The next layer was.

Was he. Was he surprised that you went into broadcasting?

I think at times he wondered, boy, what. That's.

That's.

That's a slim margin there, son. That is a slim margin. I remember my senior year in high school, he called me and he said, do you have a job yet? And I said, no. He goes, you better get your resumes out. The next day, I had 30 demo tapes. And this is back when you use cassettes, demo tapes and resumes in their folders, off to the US Mail. Boom. I was shipping them off and making phone calls. And my first job in this, knowing that I wanted to be a sportscaster. My first job, I was a country music disc jockey in Silver City, New Mexico.

And they changed my name. I was. I was. Jim Cozy was the one.