Nov. 27, 2023

Pay It Forward: Journey Inside the World of Sports TV Production with Todd Ehrlich

Pay It Forward: Journey Inside the World of Sports TV Production with Todd Ehrlich
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Season 3

Dive into the fascinating world of TV sports production in our latest episode, featuring Todd Ehrlich, an Emmy award-winning TV sports producer and newly minted author. Aside from needing a ferocious work ethic, Todd breaks down the realities of working in television from his early days to current position as a highly respected sports executive producer and owner of his own production company. 

Todd also shares what it takes to write a book from concept to creation by showcasing his new release, "The 20 Greatest Moments in New York Sports History."  And, you'll hear from Todd's mentee, Tushar Saxena, about the profound impact he had on his career and the importance of having mentors and paying it forward. So sit back and enjoy the many funny, personal and heartfelt stories from one of the best producers in the business.


To discover more episodes or connect with us:


Chapters

00:02 - Career Journeys and Mentorship in Media

15:23 - 20 Greatest Moments in NY Sports

28:52 - Father, Sports, and Career Growth

43:25 - Sourcing Talent, Sports Producer's Role

52:50 - Career Achievements and Future Goals

01:01:49 - Early Days, Free Food, Career Impact

01:15:22 - Connecting With No Wrong Choices' Community

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:02.686 --> 00:00:10.490
Hello and welcome to no Wrong Choices, where we explore the career journeys of accomplished and inspiring people to showcase pathways to success.

00:00:10.490 --> 00:00:15.612
I'm Larry Samuels, soon to be joined by the other fellows, tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.

00:00:15.612 --> 00:00:26.429
For those who might be joining us for the first time and for those who haven't done this yet, please support no Wrong Choices by following us on your podcasting platform of choice and by giving us a five star rating.

00:00:26.429 --> 00:00:38.164
We also encourage you to join the conversation by connecting with us on LinkedIn, facebook, instagram, youtube and X, by searching for no Wrong Choices or by visiting our website at NoWrongChoicescom.

00:00:38.164 --> 00:01:00.692
This episode features Todd Erlich, who is the executive producer of sports for WPIX 11 in New York, the president and executive producer of T-Line TV, the author of a new book titled the Twenty Greatest Moments in New York Sports History, and the person who is directly or indirectly responsible for bringing Tushar into our lives.

00:01:00.692 --> 00:01:07.090
So with that, tushar, I believe you are the appropriate person to set up this conversation for us.

00:01:07.129 --> 00:01:08.671
Well, I thank you, mr Samuels.

00:01:08.671 --> 00:01:09.873
Well, yeah, absolutely yes.

00:01:09.873 --> 00:01:16.227
When I started, when I got into this career more than three decades ago, there's got to be one person who starts it all.

00:01:16.227 --> 00:01:20.349
So whenever my parents, whenever my parents have been in the past and why did you want to do this?

00:01:20.349 --> 00:01:22.646
I said, hey, speak to Todd Erlich.

00:01:22.646 --> 00:01:23.388
You can blame him.

00:01:23.388 --> 00:01:24.844
He's responsible for this.

00:01:28.746 --> 00:01:34.567
Look, we've talked a lot on this podcast about how mentors need mentors, and this is my original mentor.

00:01:34.567 --> 00:01:47.771
I've had many throughout my career, but this was the number one guy and I still go to him to this very day, every now and then, if I have a question about something, or just I need his opinion about the business and how my career should move forward.

00:01:47.771 --> 00:01:50.266
He's one of the most giving guys I've ever met.

00:01:50.266 --> 00:01:59.481
He is directly responsible for my career as it is, and I can never repay him for the, for the graciousness that he showed me early on in my career.

00:01:59.481 --> 00:02:02.346
I think you'll love listening to Todd Erlich.

00:02:02.346 --> 00:02:03.563
He's got some great stories.

00:02:03.563 --> 00:02:04.968
He's a great storyteller.

00:02:04.968 --> 00:02:12.669
He was always a great storyteller, funny as hell and just one of the most caring guys in the business, and he's got so much knowledge to offer.

00:02:12.669 --> 00:02:13.872
Todd Erlich is one of the best.

00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:19.789
I mean, it's worth the price of admission just to listen to one of two Shars mentors, is it not?

00:02:19.789 --> 00:02:21.813
It could be a roast, exactly.

00:02:21.813 --> 00:02:25.248
They're hoping for some goods on this one, no doubt.

00:02:25.248 --> 00:02:26.200
But what a.

00:02:26.200 --> 00:02:27.343
What an industry professional.

00:02:27.343 --> 00:02:33.205
We did have him back on the old show back in the day, so I remember that conversation as well.

00:02:33.205 --> 00:02:35.025
He's a fascinating character.

00:02:35.025 --> 00:02:44.612
Like you said, t, he is a great storyteller and that's what we aim to do here is to tell a career journey in a, in an anecdotal way, in a fun way.

00:02:44.612 --> 00:02:47.146
So I think Todd's about to knock it out of the park.

00:02:47.367 --> 00:02:52.830
Absolutely, and for me there's so many different angles to take, but a unique one.

00:02:52.830 --> 00:03:00.471
We don't haven't had an author on this program before, so it's going to be interesting to hear how somebody writes a book.

00:03:00.471 --> 00:03:03.288
So with that, here is Todd Erlich.

00:03:03.288 --> 00:03:04.341
Now joining.

00:03:04.341 --> 00:03:22.062
No wrong choices is the president and executive producer of T-Line TV, the executive producer of sports for WPIX in New York, a four time Emmy award winner and author of the new book titled the 20 greatest memory moments in New York sports history Todd Erlich.

00:03:22.062 --> 00:03:23.406
Todd, thank you so much for joining us.

00:03:26.045 --> 00:03:27.008
Five, five, five.

00:03:27.008 --> 00:03:29.106
You've got to update your website.

00:03:30.603 --> 00:03:31.867
You need to update your website.

00:03:31.867 --> 00:03:33.003
It says it on the website.

00:03:33.003 --> 00:03:35.051
That's where.

00:03:35.072 --> 00:03:35.497
I got it.

00:03:36.224 --> 00:03:37.399
That's where I got it.

00:03:37.399 --> 00:03:39.747
Can we make a dinner bet?

00:03:39.847 --> 00:03:45.849
I believe you, ladies, and gentlemen, when everyone is going to T-LineTVcom.

00:03:46.251 --> 00:03:47.614
We're available for hire.

00:03:47.614 --> 00:03:50.199
Check out whether it's four or five.

00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:54.707
If it's five, I want you guys to listen to the next three.

00:03:54.707 --> 00:03:55.849
No wrong choices.

00:03:56.631 --> 00:03:57.932
Fair enough, fair enough.

00:03:58.860 --> 00:03:59.805
And I will admit my mistake.

00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:04.551
I remember 20 nominations, four wins and 35 years, 22 nominations.

00:04:04.879 --> 00:04:09.906
I'm telling you whatever I read needs to be updated 22,.

00:04:09.966 --> 00:04:11.751
I heard each and every one of them there.

00:04:11.751 --> 00:04:13.907
That worked hard.

00:04:13.907 --> 00:04:16.464
Two phrase me from a puck.

00:04:17.226 --> 00:04:18.851
Oh, please, all right.

00:04:18.851 --> 00:04:26.110
So full disclosure to everybody out there when we talk a lot about mentors on this show, mentors need mentors.

00:04:26.110 --> 00:04:33.067
So for me, this is a real pleasure to talk to you, todd, because you were really the very first mentor I ever had in the business.

00:04:33.067 --> 00:04:50.512
This is the guy who got me started in media and in sports media, so it was my very first internship and he actually helped me get my next internship, my next last internship and then my first job technically at WFAN.

00:04:50.512 --> 00:04:54.771
So, todd, I owe a lot of my career to you.

00:04:54.771 --> 00:04:59.627
I've been in the business now for 30 years at this point, so that all goes to you.

00:04:59.627 --> 00:05:04.028
So first of all, let me say thank you for everything that you've done for me.

00:05:04.771 --> 00:05:05.512
Absolutely.

00:05:05.512 --> 00:05:08.384
It's my pleasure to show.

00:05:08.384 --> 00:05:24.514
One of the things I take the most pride and pleasure in is helping other people, and we're very, very lucky in our industry to have the opportunity on both sides.

00:05:24.514 --> 00:05:34.286
And I was just talking to one of my mentors today and we were talking about how we never forget the people that helped us.

00:05:34.286 --> 00:05:54.228
And I'm not sure that it's as prevalent with people of the next generation, I've noticed, but for people of my generation I guess, going back to you, it is the most important thing because none of us make it alone.

00:05:54.228 --> 00:05:57.528
All of us need somebody to take a chance.

00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:03.492
When I came out of college, I quoted Joseph Heller's text 22.

00:06:03.492 --> 00:06:08.410
I said how do you get your first job without having your first job?

00:06:08.410 --> 00:06:14.639
And then I would say you are going to be the answer to that question to 600 people.

00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:20.805
But I said the same letter to you know, take a chance on me, you can be a trivia question.

00:06:20.805 --> 00:06:27.151
And the truth is, you know I like you for the internship route.

00:06:27.151 --> 00:06:52.293
I had an internship at WRC with the George Michael sports machine, wjla, with the great Frank Herzog who called Redskin Games, fox 5 in DC, with the great Steve Buckhans who called Wizards Games, and I ran out of stations in DC and I drove every night to Baltimore to work for Bjorn at WBZ Of course.

00:06:52.480 --> 00:07:00.793
I worked here at WABC for Corey McFerrin and then he later hired me and then I hired you.

00:07:00.793 --> 00:07:10.911
So that internship, you know, led to me getting my first job, which led to you getting your first internship, your second and then this career that you've had.

00:07:10.911 --> 00:07:16.096
So it's people helping people and anybody that's listening to this.

00:07:16.096 --> 00:07:21.367
You can't make any wrong choices, but make the next right choice and help somebody.

00:07:21.749 --> 00:07:22.690
Absolutely, absolutely.

00:07:22.690 --> 00:07:30.995
Now obviously you kind of broke down a little bit about what your career looked like, but before we talk about you know how you got started on this path.

00:07:30.995 --> 00:07:35.269
You know we were kind of talking before we all started here about what you're currently doing.

00:07:35.269 --> 00:07:42.392
Now, obviously, you are an Emmy Award, multiple Emmy Award winning sports producer, right Larry Five Five.

00:07:43.540 --> 00:07:45.791
The man has five Emmy Awards Five.

00:07:46.233 --> 00:07:47.339
Two nominations.

00:07:47.339 --> 00:07:53.230
The man has all these trophies on his mantle place.

00:07:53.230 --> 00:07:54.033
He wouldn't believe it.

00:07:54.033 --> 00:07:56.127
And now he has got a book out.

00:07:56.127 --> 00:07:58.788
The book is called the 20 Greatest Moments in New York Sports History.

00:07:58.788 --> 00:08:08.468
I've had the chance to read not all of it, but a good portion of it, and I got to tell you it's a great read and I want to know, like, what was the impetus behind the book?

00:08:09.699 --> 00:08:10.745
So it's a great question.

00:08:10.745 --> 00:08:14.668
So the impetus behind the book is an interesting story.

00:08:14.668 --> 00:08:20.790
Possibly you guys be the judge of it, but I'll spit it out and I give me a thumbs up, thumbs down.

00:08:20.790 --> 00:08:22.723
So here's what happened.

00:08:22.723 --> 00:08:29.451
I was either blessed or cursed by having a grandfather who wrote close to 20 books.

00:08:29.451 --> 00:08:36.630
My mom wrote over 15 books, my sister all writes for the Times and is a published author.

00:08:36.630 --> 00:08:42.421
So and I'm charming, you know what I mean, you know.

00:08:42.461 --> 00:08:44.246
So you definitely are charming.

00:08:44.307 --> 00:08:48.027
Yes, so I always said to myself I want to write a book.

00:08:48.027 --> 00:08:51.427
So I tried to think of all different ways.

00:08:51.427 --> 00:09:00.894
I read screenplays and all these interesting stories and I read, like Spike Lee's screenplay, Like maybe I could do that because it comes in book form, you know.

00:09:00.894 --> 00:09:04.528
And then I thought to myself but what I really know is sports.

00:09:04.528 --> 00:09:09.129
Now, 2003, two things happened.

00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:18.841
I read Survey's book on LT because we were interviewing LT for sports with a round table Steve Survey, you're talking about yeah, Steve.

00:09:18.881 --> 00:09:26.470
Survey, the great, legendary Steve Survey, with the greatest mullet in the history of sports writing, number one.

00:09:26.470 --> 00:09:33.089
That's tough, that's a big statement Larry, it's hands down, I'm going off the wall with that one.

00:09:34.299 --> 00:09:40.211
So Survey wrote a book and I was just so inspired by how great it was.

00:09:40.211 --> 00:09:49.984
Then my dad we were running late, he's dropping me off at the train station and I got like minutes to make the train but I had nothing to read.

00:09:49.984 --> 00:09:53.308
So I go running into the bookstore in the train station.

00:09:53.308 --> 00:09:55.885
I grabbed two football books.

00:09:55.885 --> 00:10:03.373
By the color of the books I put down my credit card jamming and go running to the train and just make it sit down.

00:10:03.373 --> 00:10:09.724
Then I look at the titles and it dawned on me guys, sports is hyper local.

00:10:09.724 --> 00:10:13.067
You only care about your teams.

00:10:13.067 --> 00:10:19.586
Now I've got great national stories, even though it's in your sports book that I think everybody's interested in.

00:10:19.586 --> 00:10:26.231
But primarily you live, breathe and die with your teams.

00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:33.107
So that started ruminating in my coconut and I said to myself well, wait a second.

00:10:33.107 --> 00:10:35.846
I got the makings of a book.

00:10:35.846 --> 00:10:40.009
I've been in town now for 20 years covering sports.

00:10:40.009 --> 00:10:50.208
I grew up watching sports and I've got the numbers of all of these guys that covered it, coached it, called it and played it.

00:10:50.208 --> 00:10:57.712
I got the makings of a good book and I very humbly consider myself an excellent interviewer.

00:10:58.379 --> 00:11:05.714
I'm on the other side now and I tell everybody the key to interviewing what's Letterman and Leno?

00:11:05.714 --> 00:11:07.585
Now you see how old I am.

00:11:07.585 --> 00:11:14.211
Leno could have few grant on talking about his indiscretions.

00:11:14.211 --> 00:11:19.171
He will read the next question about his movie, the next question about the star that he was with.

00:11:19.171 --> 00:11:26.491
Letterman has his questions, does his research, but if he hears something interesting he pivots.

00:11:26.491 --> 00:11:28.154
That will make some great.

00:11:28.154 --> 00:11:31.803
I'm not saying I'm great, I'm just saying that I learned that.

00:11:31.803 --> 00:11:34.370
So I feel like I'm a very good interviewer.

00:11:34.519 --> 00:11:38.529
So I said to myself how do I put this all together?

00:11:38.529 --> 00:11:43.774
So I said hyper local 20 grace moments in New York sports history.

00:11:43.774 --> 00:11:55.071
And then try to make it unique, try to come up with exclusive stories, try to use my interviewing techniques to do that and my contacts to do that.

00:11:55.071 --> 00:12:08.292
But in this book I came up with over 100 interviews and I was told afterwards that most authors lift from newspapers or magazines and put in quotes.

00:12:08.292 --> 00:12:09.663
I didn't do that.

00:12:09.663 --> 00:12:25.909
Almost all of the interviews are mine, but over 100 are my personal interviews where I got these people in person or on the phone and I feel like that makes the book unique.

00:12:25.909 --> 00:12:29.448
And that's answer your question to because I do listen.

00:12:29.448 --> 00:12:31.225
How did I start the book?

00:12:31.225 --> 00:12:33.125
I started with hyper local.

00:12:33.125 --> 00:12:35.927
I started with what's low hanging fruit?

00:12:35.927 --> 00:12:37.350
What can I do?

00:12:37.350 --> 00:12:38.284
What?

00:12:38.284 --> 00:12:39.938
What do I have a knowledge base on?

00:12:39.938 --> 00:12:42.727
And then what can I do to make something special?

00:12:42.727 --> 00:12:45.527
And so that's how I came up with this book.

00:12:46.081 --> 00:12:49.618
I'm sure we'll talk a lot more about the book, but I want to get you back to.

00:12:49.618 --> 00:12:51.365
You said you always wanted to write a book.

00:12:51.365 --> 00:12:52.644
Is that the original dream?

00:12:52.644 --> 00:12:54.125
Is that what you wanted to start with?

00:12:55.565 --> 00:12:56.408
Is that what you want to do?

00:12:56.600 --> 00:12:57.443
Was it always sports?

00:12:57.443 --> 00:12:59.385
Was it always what was it?

00:12:59.385 --> 00:13:03.028
Give me the dream of, I don't know, 10 year old Todd Erlich.

00:13:04.662 --> 00:13:18.416
So it's an excellent question, and I don't know if you guys have had any authors on this podcast, but it's the single hardest thing I've ever done in the history of myself and this planet.

00:13:18.416 --> 00:13:22.808
In December 8th It'll be 60 years, or the seventh, I guess.

00:13:22.808 --> 00:13:30.974
So, yeah, so it's a lot of projects, a lot of time that I've spent and this is by far the hardest.

00:13:30.974 --> 00:13:37.846
So no, it wasn't my dream, it was something that was on the bucket list.

00:13:37.846 --> 00:13:40.000
It's something that no-transcript.

00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:40.731
You know.

00:13:40.731 --> 00:13:45.383
To be serious, my brother went to Columbia and NYU Law School.

00:13:45.383 --> 00:13:47.015
He gets a genius.

00:13:47.015 --> 00:13:49.216
My mom was a Ford scholar.

00:13:49.216 --> 00:13:58.035
The woman's a genius and has her DSW, which is a doctorate of social work, so she's a genius.

00:13:58.035 --> 00:14:02.619
My grandfather had five chairs and I said, grandpa, one more.

00:14:02.619 --> 00:14:09.075
You have a dining room set from universities around the country and my dad's charming and a sports fan.

00:14:09.075 --> 00:14:11.500
And guess, who I picked after that's okay.

00:14:12.149 --> 00:14:16.476
Well, but I felt like just to be candid and honest.

00:14:16.476 --> 00:14:23.157
I wanted to prove something to my family that you know.

00:14:23.157 --> 00:14:25.657
I feel I'm lucky, I feel I've been successful.

00:14:25.657 --> 00:14:27.196
I'm in my career.

00:14:27.196 --> 00:14:29.336
I blazed my own path.

00:14:29.336 --> 00:14:39.143
I didn't take the offer of big money, my stepfather's insurance agency to blaze my own path and I'm very proud of myself.

00:14:39.143 --> 00:14:41.254
But writing a book is.

00:14:41.254 --> 00:14:44.279
It's a real thing.

00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:45.682
It's an accomplishment.

00:14:46.150 --> 00:14:49.880
Now I want to get you know into the journey that brought you to this point.

00:14:49.880 --> 00:15:00.794
But my last question about the book, or I guess also my first question about the book, you know, when you talk about doing a hundred interviews, did anybody not make the book or not make the cut?

00:15:01.591 --> 00:15:02.897
No, were you out of your mind?

00:15:04.152 --> 00:15:08.142
You know it takes to crack these guys down, set up a time.

00:15:08.142 --> 00:15:13.160
I must have called poor Mark Messier six or seven times.

00:15:13.160 --> 00:15:16.389
I called him before he went on vacation.

00:15:16.389 --> 00:15:17.875
He told me when to call him again.

00:15:17.875 --> 00:15:18.538
I called him again.

00:15:18.538 --> 00:15:22.998
He said I say he was like in the Bahamas because I say an extra day.

00:15:22.998 --> 00:15:24.802
Todd, will you call me tomorrow?

00:15:24.802 --> 00:15:25.903
I called tomorrow he goes.

00:15:25.903 --> 00:15:27.025
My flight was delayed.

00:15:27.025 --> 00:15:28.107
I'm in the airport.

00:15:28.107 --> 00:15:29.009
Can you call me tomorrow?

00:15:29.009 --> 00:15:30.575
I said, mark, can you call me?

00:15:30.575 --> 00:15:32.793
If I call you one more time, I'm like.

00:15:32.793 --> 00:15:34.818
You're like the hot girl I chased in high school.

00:15:35.311 --> 00:15:37.518
Like I feel terrible calling you again.

00:15:37.577 --> 00:15:48.219
You know, and I mean, you know, mark's been great to me my entire career, but no, and then you have to research everyone you're going to interview.

00:15:48.219 --> 00:15:59.580
Yeah, because when you get them, you only got them for five, 10 minutes, whatever it is, and you've got to go and if they call you back you have to have the tape recorder and your questions.

00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:02.537
I used to carry around questions in my pocket.

00:16:02.938 --> 00:16:03.600
Justin Kase.

00:16:03.970 --> 00:16:05.153
My paper for a year and a half.

00:16:05.153 --> 00:16:06.476
Okay, somebody?

00:16:06.517 --> 00:16:06.998
called me Wow.

00:16:08.629 --> 00:16:10.018
Because I mean you're not.

00:16:10.057 --> 00:16:20.960
Hey, gravy, I'm appreciate you gave back to me, but I hate you back and, like you know an hour when I got it no, dude, it's like I got, I sit on a park bench and let's go.

00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:24.993
Yeah, of course, this is a good time, but then after you.

00:16:24.993 --> 00:16:27.119
So, first of all, you have to do a lot of prep.

00:16:27.119 --> 00:16:35.038
Second of all, you got to know what are you filling in, what are the gaps in the chapters that you need interviews on?

00:16:35.038 --> 00:16:36.461
Where are you putting them?

00:16:36.461 --> 00:17:00.116
Third of all, you need to then write the questions, but you need to know the answers you need Because, as you guys know, whenever you're going athletes, sometimes you have to ask and then re-ask and then ask from around, this way that I was in order to get a real answer, and then you got to transcribe it, and then you got to place it in the book.

00:17:01.131 --> 00:17:03.668
So, no, larry, nothing Not a syllable.

00:17:04.792 --> 00:17:06.939
There's other cutting room floor.

00:17:06.939 --> 00:17:12.219
So no, I definitely not, and I'm very, I'm very proud of it.

00:17:12.219 --> 00:17:20.758
I mean, obviously we had to shorten a lot of them and all of that kind of stuff for sure, and not use all of the interviews.

00:17:20.758 --> 00:17:36.518
And I targeted 100 people and my editor, my mom, gary Myers, my wife, my son, who kept saying daddy's always up in his office, I kept saying enough with the book.

00:17:36.518 --> 00:17:38.434
You've done 50 interviews.

00:17:38.434 --> 00:17:39.840
Who does five?

00:17:39.840 --> 00:17:40.785
Who does 10?

00:17:40.785 --> 00:17:41.890
50 is enough.

00:17:41.890 --> 00:17:43.455
And I said you don't understand.

00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:45.194
I have 20 chapters.

00:17:45.194 --> 00:17:52.855
I need at least one marquee person per chapter, at least one, I really want at least two.

00:17:52.855 --> 00:17:58.642
And then you've got to work your way through because, like I said, you really have got to study it.

00:17:58.642 --> 00:18:05.392
So when you're doing two shes the chapters that are on the helmet, catch retiree, that you like the most.

00:18:05.392 --> 00:18:13.997
You need to know who else are you asking, who's answered what, who hasn't answered what, and so you're in a groove on that.

00:18:13.997 --> 00:18:21.236
Now, if somebody else calls me back, jeff Nelson, I got to pivot and I have to have all those questions ready.

00:18:21.236 --> 00:18:32.097
But if I can do them which I did, sort of multitasking, but chapter by chapter, I thought it made for a more cohesive full book.

00:18:32.097 --> 00:18:35.816
So that's the way in which I tried to go about it.

00:18:35.816 --> 00:18:36.998
It was brutal.

00:18:36.998 --> 00:18:37.859
I'm not going to lie.

00:18:38.161 --> 00:18:38.422
All right.

00:18:38.422 --> 00:18:45.740
So obviously it's the 20 greatest moments in New York's sports history and, let's be honest, there are far more than just 20 great moments.

00:18:45.740 --> 00:18:53.817
So is that how you kind of broke the book down to begin with, like, okay, I have 100 great moments and from those 100, I have to break it down to 50.

00:18:53.817 --> 00:18:55.635
And from that I have to break it down to 20.

00:18:55.635 --> 00:18:57.557
And like, what was that process?

00:18:59.431 --> 00:19:01.076
So here's the way the process worked.

00:19:01.076 --> 00:19:04.536
So I partnered with Serbe.

00:19:04.536 --> 00:19:26.500
We used his agent who sold the LT book, and he said to me you need to write a sample chapter and you've got to come up with all 20 chapters and then you've got to give sort of you know, how do we trust that you actually know these people who can take these interviews and execute the book?

00:19:26.500 --> 00:19:33.403
So I had to put together 40 pages or some, such as a pitch book for him to go out and sell.

00:19:33.403 --> 00:19:35.295
So that's how I had the 20.

00:19:35.295 --> 00:19:38.798
Now they couldn't sell it.

00:19:38.798 --> 00:19:40.540
What are you going to do?

00:19:40.540 --> 00:19:43.519
I figured I've got a New York Times bestselling author.

00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:44.791
I'm so you know.

00:19:44.791 --> 00:19:46.656
I mean, listen, who cares who I am?

00:19:46.656 --> 00:19:48.080
You got Serbs.

00:19:48.080 --> 00:19:51.218
You know, you got to be able to sell this book, but it didn't sell.

00:19:51.317 --> 00:19:55.377
Okay, 20 years later, long story short, I sold it again.

00:19:55.377 --> 00:19:59.058
So now things have happened in between.

00:19:59.058 --> 00:20:03.961
So I freshened stuff up like the helmet catch and then re-went out and pitched it.

00:20:03.961 --> 00:20:06.500
So now get a load of this, guys.

00:20:06.500 --> 00:20:07.909
The book is almost done.

00:20:07.909 --> 00:20:09.194
I don't know if I've mentioned it.

00:20:09.194 --> 00:20:10.816
It's the hardest thing I've ever done.

00:20:12.753 --> 00:20:14.819
I don't know I just want to share that with you guys.

00:20:14.819 --> 00:20:19.054
I feel close to my fellas, so it could have been a wrong choice.

00:20:19.054 --> 00:20:19.994
It's hard to do this.

00:20:19.994 --> 00:20:22.760
There are no wrong choices, no wrong choices no wrong choices.

00:20:22.780 --> 00:20:23.843
So it was a good choice.

00:20:24.309 --> 00:20:25.134
So here's the thing.

00:20:25.134 --> 00:20:25.912
So I'm now.

00:20:25.912 --> 00:20:33.000
I'm almost done with the book, right Like I'm like a couple interviews done and Judge keeps hitting home run after home.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:39.575
Oh geez, that jerk I'm like dude, cut it out Slow down what is wrong with you.

00:20:39.575 --> 00:20:44.621
So he keeps hitting and hitting and he breaks the record.

00:20:44.621 --> 00:20:51.089
I'm not saying a word to Gary, to my editor, to my publisher, to nobody.

00:20:51.089 --> 00:20:54.760
When he broke the record, I called up getting my publisher.

00:20:54.930 --> 00:20:57.657
I'm like we have to do this, we got to put them in.

00:20:57.818 --> 00:20:58.019
Right.

00:20:58.991 --> 00:21:01.269
Your book would have been dated before it came out.

00:21:01.328 --> 00:21:02.453
Yes, like me almost.

00:21:02.453 --> 00:21:10.715
So here's the deal, guys we go ahead and we add Judge and then so my editor goes all right.

00:21:10.715 --> 00:21:12.740
So let's just get rid of the 20 chapter.

00:21:12.740 --> 00:21:18.608
I said, if you ever written a book, Did you take the glass?

00:21:20.836 --> 00:21:22.119
I took my glasses off.

00:21:22.609 --> 00:21:24.897
I go, you are out of your cot to pick in mind.

00:21:24.897 --> 00:21:26.615
He's like well read dresses.

00:21:26.615 --> 00:21:29.478
I said you could read dresses many times as you want.

00:21:29.478 --> 00:21:35.922
It stays so, ladies and gentlemen, for the price of 20 great moments, you get 21.

00:21:37.634 --> 00:21:45.720
A bargain, a great value, and you guys asked about tenor tennis Connor's and Crickstein is number 21.

00:21:45.769 --> 00:21:56.434
And that to me, was just such an epic tennis match back in, you know, in my life and growing up and watching it just impact me so much.

00:21:56.434 --> 00:22:01.922
So, too, the answer is I had to do it to sell the book we serve.

00:22:01.922 --> 00:22:09.718
I had to do it again to sell the book the second time, and then, when we got to judge, I just pushed Connor's down.

00:22:09.718 --> 00:22:11.301
It's a bonus chapter, don't?

00:22:11.301 --> 00:22:13.976
You know I don't want to change the title.

00:22:15.270 --> 00:22:17.298
It felt like there was a better story.

00:22:17.298 --> 00:22:24.414
So, todd, you know, bringing it back to the beginning and then sort of taking us back to to where we are today.

00:22:24.556 --> 00:22:27.217
Yeah, sure, like just one last thing on the book.

00:22:27.217 --> 00:22:28.694
It's very, very fast.

00:22:28.694 --> 00:22:32.739
You guys asked about what, what makes it special and unique.

00:22:32.739 --> 00:22:38.260
I just want to share that with all your listeners, and then I want to go right back to the beginning.

00:22:38.260 --> 00:22:40.796
So here's what makes it unique.

00:22:40.796 --> 00:22:43.089
I read a lot of James Patterson.

00:22:43.089 --> 00:22:44.634
Have you guys ever read James Patterson?

00:22:44.654 --> 00:22:45.659
Of course, absolutely.

00:22:46.290 --> 00:22:51.832
Hey, the thing I love about James Patterson he's got 700 chapters but they're all three pages.

00:22:53.130 --> 00:22:53.852
Time Clancy was like that.

00:22:53.852 --> 00:22:55.236
Eventually too, yeah, exactly.

00:22:55.236 --> 00:22:56.338
I like that style, yep.

00:22:57.730 --> 00:22:57.769
So.

00:22:57.769 --> 00:23:02.308
So if you're reading on the beach and you want to go take a dip in the water, you can get to the end of the chapter.

00:23:02.308 --> 00:23:07.655
If you're reading at night and your eyes are going, you're falling asleep you can get to them in the chapter.

00:23:07.655 --> 00:23:10.903
No matter where you're reading, you can get to them to the chapter.

00:23:10.903 --> 00:23:23.817
In the olden days, when I grew up, reading my candlelight chapters were like 20 pages and you would fight your way through, falling asleep, and then you would oh, I made it through, and you shut the book and put it down.

00:23:23.817 --> 00:23:26.958
You pick up the next day and you have no idea what to have to read.

00:23:27.569 --> 00:23:30.538
So I tried to write something that was segmented.

00:23:30.538 --> 00:23:34.519
So what I came up with was I started with the Time Capsule.

00:23:34.519 --> 00:23:37.256
So the Time Capsule who's the mayor of New York?

00:23:37.256 --> 00:23:38.179
Who was the president?

00:23:38.179 --> 00:23:39.731
What was the price of gas?

00:23:39.731 --> 00:23:40.734
Who won the Heisman?

00:23:40.734 --> 00:23:41.878
Who won the Grammy?

00:23:41.878 --> 00:23:42.740
Who won the Oscar?

00:23:42.740 --> 00:23:46.039
So like, oh, I remember that song, I love that song.

00:23:46.039 --> 00:23:53.321
That was one of my favorite movies growing up and you're like oh, like Tush, you said earlier, that brought me back to high school.

00:23:53.321 --> 00:24:00.897
I remember in high school, and so the Time Capsule is supposed to bring you back, and I don't just talk about the moment I do the pregame.

00:24:00.897 --> 00:24:03.015
What led to that moment?

00:24:03.154 --> 00:24:04.038
I enjoyed that a lot.

00:24:04.038 --> 00:24:05.536
I enjoyed that a great deal actually.

00:24:05.936 --> 00:24:06.539
Thank you.

00:24:06.539 --> 00:24:08.487
So what were the big trades?

00:24:08.487 --> 00:24:11.190
What were the big games, what were the big moments in the games?

00:24:11.190 --> 00:24:14.819
What were the big injuries, coaching decisions.

00:24:14.819 --> 00:24:20.361
Then I got to the moment itself and I wanted that to feel a little bit different.

00:24:20.361 --> 00:24:24.880
So I got the great Peter Boddy to write those articles.

00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:25.602
Interesting.

00:24:26.111 --> 00:24:27.817
Yes, it felt like a different voice.

00:24:27.817 --> 00:24:39.276
And then I did the post game and the thing I'm most proud of in the post game was the post game started with a post game, like we do on TV.

00:24:39.276 --> 00:24:45.061
Right after the event I asked the athletes and the journalists what did the event mean?

00:24:45.061 --> 00:24:50.096
How did it impact you, why is it in this book, all that kind of stuff, key moments.

00:24:50.096 --> 00:25:02.640
But then I went through moments from the pregame that I didn't want to slow down the pregame and things that were like colorful, from that interesting stories.

00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:09.733
And then the thing that made me the happiest writing this book is this was the question I asked everybody.

00:25:09.733 --> 00:25:15.394
I said I am not, I don't want any dirt, I'm not looking for dirt.

00:25:15.394 --> 00:25:19.515
Some people share dirt and actually, larry, I'm sorry.

00:25:20.037 --> 00:25:21.079
No, it's okay, it's okay.

00:25:21.851 --> 00:25:22.594
I lied to you.

00:25:22.594 --> 00:25:31.183
I got some stories about some events and some myths that I was told were wrong.

00:25:31.183 --> 00:25:54.839
I was told why they were wrong and I left them out of the book because I'm not looking to break news, I'm looking to put smiles on people's faces and I wasn't looking to be an investigative journalist and, quite frankly, some of those stories, had I shared them, would have gotten me a lot more publicity, but it wasn't in the spirit of the book.

00:25:54.839 --> 00:25:58.958
There were some negative things about players that were shared.

00:25:58.958 --> 00:26:02.635
Not interested it's not the book I'm writing.

00:26:02.635 --> 00:26:14.942
So the question I asked, gentlemen, was tell me a story that either you haven't told anybody else, you haven't read or heard, or is not a famous story.

00:26:14.942 --> 00:26:26.537
So Steph on my toe told me I have never told anybody this, but have you noticed that the Stanley Cup has handlers that go with it wherever it goes with the white?

00:26:26.576 --> 00:26:28.079
cup, of course, the keepers of the cup.

00:26:28.821 --> 00:26:29.202
He goes.

00:26:29.202 --> 00:26:30.525
That was me.

00:26:30.525 --> 00:26:31.547
I go what do you mean?

00:26:31.547 --> 00:26:31.907
That was you.

00:26:31.907 --> 00:26:32.930
He said well, here's what happened.

00:26:32.930 --> 00:26:38.002
I've had Eric Desjardins' bar in my hometown.

00:26:38.022 --> 00:26:38.845
Desjardins the cup showed up.

00:26:38.865 --> 00:26:40.528
It was a little banged up.

00:26:40.528 --> 00:26:42.910
I'm not going to lie to you.

00:26:42.910 --> 00:26:45.017
It was a little banged up when it showed up.

00:26:45.017 --> 00:26:51.101
So here it shows up, somebody raises it to take a picture and the cup falls off.

00:26:51.101 --> 00:26:53.817
So now they're taking a picture with two halves.

00:26:53.817 --> 00:26:56.194
Oh my God, he's freaking out.

00:26:56.194 --> 00:26:58.536
He broke the Stanley Cup.

00:26:58.536 --> 00:27:06.002
Wow, the most coveted trophy in the history of the planet are, besides my fifth Emmy, which Larry doesn't recognize.

00:27:08.798 --> 00:27:09.881
So here's, what happened.

00:27:10.289 --> 00:27:11.595
There was a welder in the bar.

00:27:11.595 --> 00:27:12.638
He called him John.

00:27:12.638 --> 00:27:14.496
Why couldn't he give me the name?

00:27:14.496 --> 00:27:14.998
I don't know.

00:27:14.998 --> 00:27:20.675
It's gone, takes the cup home and he's gone for two hours.

00:27:20.675 --> 00:27:23.154
He finally comes back and he goes.

00:27:23.154 --> 00:27:26.323
If you solder one band, the cup will never break.

00:27:26.323 --> 00:27:28.557
I get four bands, you're good.

00:27:28.557 --> 00:27:34.923
He found out 15 years later that John had a party in his garage.

00:27:34.923 --> 00:27:36.273
He called up everyone.

00:27:36.273 --> 00:27:40.140
He knew Eight out of 10 people because it was 1 am hung up on him.

00:27:40.140 --> 00:27:49.349
The two out of 10 people turned out to be 20 people that showed up Right now the cup took pictures and party like it was 1999.

00:27:49.349 --> 00:27:52.759
Now there's Larry, your keepers of the cup.

00:27:52.759 --> 00:28:03.444
Stories like that that nobody knows, that are all throughout my book that I'm very, very proud of.

00:28:03.444 --> 00:28:13.941
I think that I wrote something that put smiles on people's faces, that brings back memories, that educates and enlightens and that's not easy.

00:28:14.431 --> 00:28:16.517
Let's rewind a little bit and talk about the beginning of it here.

00:28:16.517 --> 00:28:25.718
So obviously you said your sister brilliant, your mother brilliant, father brilliant, so all this brilliance in the family.

00:28:25.718 --> 00:28:30.901
And you said yourself that there was a possibility of you not going into this line of work.

00:28:30.901 --> 00:28:35.141
So what was it, as a younger man, that kind of sets you down this course?

00:28:35.141 --> 00:28:38.119
Was it that, as you said, your relationship with your father?

00:28:38.119 --> 00:28:44.695
Was it that your father was a big sports fan and that relationship helped to spur you and say, look, this is something I think I'd love to do for my career?

00:28:45.679 --> 00:28:46.695
Okay, hope you enjoy the book.

00:28:46.695 --> 00:28:46.938
Thanks, emma.

00:28:46.938 --> 00:28:51.955
Ok, all right, so here's the answer to that question.

00:28:51.955 --> 00:29:06.291
Number one my dad was a huge sports fan and when I was four I remember him carrying me into RFK and you would get a lap pass.

00:29:06.291 --> 00:29:14.355
And then later on in life, when we reconnected, which I'll share with you, he carried me in at 16.

00:29:14.355 --> 00:29:16.151
And he asked he's like, come on, man.

00:29:16.151 --> 00:29:24.253
He's like it says, if you can carry him in and let me tell you, I can barely carry him in, but unless you hold me up, I'll dig through this turd style.

00:29:24.253 --> 00:29:25.670
It's like where is he gonna sit?

00:29:25.670 --> 00:29:27.731
He said that's his problem, not mine.

00:29:27.731 --> 00:29:29.691
I just promised to get him in.

00:29:31.588 --> 00:29:38.869
So, number one my father and mom got divorced when I was five, and so sports was always something that was important to me.

00:29:38.869 --> 00:29:47.314
He kind of disappeared from five to 12 and wasn't around very much, and then, when he came back, what we bonded over was sports.

00:29:47.314 --> 00:29:52.155
So it had, I think, extra importance because of that.

00:29:52.155 --> 00:29:56.875
Number two we had more money when I was five.

00:29:56.875 --> 00:29:58.991
We had a lot less money than my mom.

00:29:58.991 --> 00:30:09.132
We married and all of a sudden we had a lot more money and I saw all different types of folks and I decided I was not.

00:30:09.132 --> 00:30:21.493
And I saw a lot of checkbook gloves from you know, my family, from my friend's family, and I'm like, no, this is no, this is not my morals, this is not my morality.

00:30:21.493 --> 00:30:30.451
And my stepfather in 86 offered me a quarter of a million dollars in the quarter office because I went to private school.

00:30:30.451 --> 00:30:34.112
I knew all these rich kids were going through their parents' business.

00:30:34.664 --> 00:30:35.567
I was very popular.

00:30:35.567 --> 00:30:40.775
Can't explain how or why, but I was a social chairman for all the spring breaks.

00:30:40.775 --> 00:30:44.190
We went on and I have like a hundred numbers I would take down there.

00:30:44.190 --> 00:30:45.788
And so I was.

00:30:45.788 --> 00:30:47.054
You know, I was a connection.

00:30:47.054 --> 00:30:48.390
I would have been very good at that.

00:30:48.390 --> 00:30:51.051
But I said no, I'm gonna make it on my own.

00:30:51.144 --> 00:30:55.415
And I took a job for 11-9 at WPIX, wow.

00:30:55.415 --> 00:31:20.476
And then I took a job for 14-2 at NBA Entertainment and then I took a job for 19 at Sports Channel America and then 25 at WABC TV, and so I and I worked my first three years out of college, 360 of the 365 I worked.

00:31:20.476 --> 00:31:40.333
And you know I can be entertainment Monday to Friday Sports Channel America doing games at night and then anyplace else that I could pick up freelance work, wfdu and ABC Sports and CBS Sports, which I got my Super Bowl tickets.

00:31:40.333 --> 00:31:51.449
And you know, I worked on the NFL today in the college football report and I paid my dues and I ate a lot of Kraft macaroni and cheese.

00:31:51.449 --> 00:31:58.392
But I decided I wasn't gonna owe anybody anything and I was gonna make it on my own.

00:31:58.392 --> 00:32:02.628
And again, I didn't make it on my own, I had.

00:32:02.628 --> 00:32:08.131
We can go through mentor after mentor after mentor after mentor Mentors need mentors absolutely.

00:32:08.545 --> 00:32:11.714
Yeah, I mean and I'm happy to name them go through it.

00:32:11.714 --> 00:32:19.315
So I didn't make it on my own, but I made those relationships and those relationships led to other jobs.

00:32:19.315 --> 00:32:20.809
There's this guy, mike Springer.

00:32:20.809 --> 00:32:30.176
So the first job I was hired for at WJLA with the legendary Frank Herzog who called Red Sking Games.

00:32:30.365 --> 00:32:31.430
Absolutely, absolutely legend.

00:32:31.904 --> 00:32:35.674
I mean just, oh my God, just I mean what.

00:32:35.674 --> 00:32:39.550
I mean I worked with Frank Herzog Like, are you kidding me?

00:32:39.550 --> 00:32:46.595
It was pinched me every day, it was ridiculous, taking me out to Red Skins camp and interviewing Joe.

00:32:46.595 --> 00:32:48.208
It was ridiculous, it was ridiculous.

00:32:48.208 --> 00:32:55.907
But Mike Springer tired me right and he used to say to me you know, all of a sudden, you know you leave me.

00:32:55.907 --> 00:32:59.709
I'm like, ah, I'm done with this guy, you go, you go to.

00:32:59.709 --> 00:33:03.990
I call WABC TV because I need sound from you.

00:33:03.990 --> 00:33:04.732
Know the bullets.

00:33:04.732 --> 00:33:07.432
Next, sports it's like fucking early.

00:33:07.432 --> 00:33:14.472
Then all of a sudden I call WJZ and Baltimore is like sports, it's like fucking early.

00:33:14.472 --> 00:33:15.480
Can I get rid of you?

00:33:16.749 --> 00:33:17.452
Why would I do that?

00:33:17.845 --> 00:33:20.553
And another great story speaking of mentors.

00:33:20.553 --> 00:33:26.634
So I was always sort of a smart cookie, so I sat here with the end of the internship.

00:33:26.634 --> 00:33:38.153
Hey, mike, you know you're so complimentary, you gave me so many opportunities to feel produced in white packages and produce things and you know, could you write me a letter of reference?

00:33:38.153 --> 00:33:40.211
It's like, ah, all right.

00:33:40.211 --> 00:33:50.515
So I come in and it was my last day and he hands me a piece of paper it looked kind of like this with different words on it and start talking about I would highly recommend.

00:33:50.515 --> 00:33:54.903
Tider O'Lakey has a great fashion sense when he cross dresses which is awesome.

00:33:57.632 --> 00:34:00.238
I'm like Mike, is there a back to it?

00:34:01.127 --> 00:34:02.692
Is there one in the top floor?

00:34:03.444 --> 00:34:04.891
Because I mean asked an answer.

00:34:04.891 --> 00:34:06.230
This is what you're writing.

00:34:06.230 --> 00:34:07.667
I got what you.

00:34:07.667 --> 00:34:09.775
He goes ah no, I got another one.

00:34:09.775 --> 00:34:12.813
I kept both of them.

00:34:12.813 --> 00:34:14.489
So you know and that's.

00:34:14.489 --> 00:34:21.594
And so, to answer your question, it was a bond with my father that you know.

00:34:21.594 --> 00:34:29.454
I missed a lot of years with him and so you know you want to prove to your old man that whatever you can, you can do it.

00:34:29.454 --> 00:34:30.791
You can do something special.

00:34:30.791 --> 00:34:33.253
So that was some of the impetus.

00:34:33.253 --> 00:34:51.831
And also, just, I'm a guy's guy, I joke around, I bust chops, I you know it's who I am and you know, just like the Springer story, I love that, like this guy's hysterical.

00:34:51.831 --> 00:34:55.952
You know, in this day and age they go running, take charge and you'd be fired.

00:34:56.364 --> 00:34:58.172
Like there's something wrong with that question.

00:34:58.545 --> 00:35:00.311
Yeah, there's something wrong with America today.

00:35:00.311 --> 00:35:01.911
It's one of my great stories.

00:35:01.911 --> 00:35:08.195
I loved it, you know, and I'll share another story with you.

00:35:08.195 --> 00:35:15.255
Doing later on in like a video news release for General Motors, for the Bader Group, with Mike Leventhal.

00:35:15.625 --> 00:35:16.909
Bader Group I worked there too.

00:35:16.969 --> 00:35:18.626
Right, mookie.

00:35:18.626 --> 00:35:22.235
Mike Leventhal is another huge mentor of mine.

00:35:22.235 --> 00:35:26.110
When I interned there he did resume takes for me to get on air.

00:35:26.110 --> 00:35:30.967
He told me about the producing job feature producing job.

00:35:30.967 --> 00:35:32.110
At Sports Day on America.

00:35:32.110 --> 00:35:36.072
They called me and said there was a producing job at WABC TV.

00:35:36.072 --> 00:35:41.971
And look, these people can't get you the job, but if you don't know about it, you can't get it for yourself.

00:35:41.971 --> 00:35:47.391
Of course, okay, and then when I went to start my own business, he gave me work so I could eat.

00:35:47.391 --> 00:35:51.353
So Mookie hired me to cover NASCAR.

00:35:51.353 --> 00:35:52.847
So this is.

00:35:52.847 --> 00:35:57.009
Jeff Gordon was a rookie or second, third year.

00:35:57.009 --> 00:35:58.132
He was a young driver.

00:35:58.132 --> 00:36:05.331
So I'm hanging out just BSing with Jeff, because that's the way to get better interviews.

00:36:05.472 --> 00:36:10.791
Also, ladies and gentlemen, if you're out there, develop a personal relationship.

00:36:10.791 --> 00:36:14.173
Don't always talk about sports, because they have lives.

00:36:14.173 --> 00:36:18.465
I almost never talk about sports with buttock.

00:36:18.465 --> 00:36:25.931
Comes in Tyree, comes in Myers, comes in Jeff Nelson, comes in all the rest of the guests we've had over the years.

00:36:25.931 --> 00:36:32.211
I talk about their life, I talk about their kids, their family, and that's the way to bond with people.

00:36:32.211 --> 00:36:33.166
However.

00:36:33.166 --> 00:36:38.831
So I'm talking to Jeff Gordon and Del Earnhardt Jr senior.

00:36:38.831 --> 00:36:43.813
The Intimidator walks by and he's like what's up, wonder Kent?

00:36:43.813 --> 00:36:49.175
And just kept walking and Jeff is like his face turns.

00:36:49.175 --> 00:36:52.153
His red is his rainbow warrior car.

00:36:52.153 --> 00:36:54.351
Why is he always calling me that?

00:36:54.351 --> 00:36:55.509
He hates me?

00:36:55.509 --> 00:37:00.588
I'm like, jeff, where were you raised Wrong with you?

00:37:00.588 --> 00:37:05.250
I said number one he talks to you, he talks to nobody.

00:37:05.250 --> 00:37:10.030
Number two if he's busting your chops, it means he really likes you.

00:37:10.030 --> 00:37:15.068
Number three the way in which he's busting your chops is a compliment.

00:37:15.068 --> 00:37:21.355
Like you need to recalibrate the way you look with the world and your relationship with men.

00:37:21.425 --> 00:37:23.472
If you're really gonna drive race cars.

00:37:23.472 --> 00:37:25.030
He's like really Todd.

00:37:25.030 --> 00:37:28.748
I'm like really Jeff, I would never lie to you.

00:37:28.748 --> 00:37:29.771
Scouts on her.

00:37:29.771 --> 00:37:33.291
It was really quick, you even paid it forward with Jeff Gordon.

00:37:34.668 --> 00:37:35.831
But so that's my point.

00:37:35.831 --> 00:37:40.568
So Mike Springer was telling me with that letter I accept you.

00:37:40.568 --> 00:37:44.755
And it gave me the impetus to go and get.

00:37:44.755 --> 00:38:01.588
I think I had five internships and then I worked at a couple of networks and two radio stations and ABC Sports, all while in college, and it helped give me the confidence and impetus that I could do this, because everyone told me it was impossible.

00:38:01.849 --> 00:38:02.070
Yep.

00:38:02.704 --> 00:38:03.929
The career's impossible.

00:38:04.445 --> 00:38:08.666
Was there a project that helped put you on the map Like?

00:38:08.666 --> 00:38:15.393
Was there an achievement or an accomplishment where people started to take greater notice of you?

00:38:16.255 --> 00:38:22.030
Okay, so okay, excellent question.

00:38:22.030 --> 00:38:35.717
At the time that Tush and I worked at WABC-TV, it was the number one station and the number one market, and it was right when the USP was starting.

00:38:35.717 --> 00:38:43.494
So local TV was King and Corey McFarren and Scott Clark were the kings of local.

00:38:43.625 --> 00:38:46.550
Scott Clark was, I think, the number one guy in New York at that point.

00:38:46.905 --> 00:38:48.231
Yes, he absolutely was.

00:38:48.231 --> 00:38:53.411
And the funniest guy, great guy, the showbiz, and that's another very quick thing.

00:38:53.411 --> 00:38:54.889
And then, larry, I'll go back.

00:38:54.889 --> 00:38:58.373
So I got a chance to pay back.

00:38:58.373 --> 00:39:17.911
I got elected to the board of governors for the New York embies and we had the Golden Silver Circle Awards for excellence for 25 and 50 years and I got to nominate and present to poor Scott Clark into.

00:39:17.931 --> 00:39:18.893
Silver Circle.

00:39:18.893 --> 00:39:32.652
I got to do that for David Friend, who's a mentor of mine, dana Tyler, yeah, who used to do my common race for the cure and tunnel to towers every year.

00:39:32.652 --> 00:39:47.438
And Joe Goldberg, who hired me at WRC as a intern, then was at WNBC as an executive producer during 9-11.

00:39:47.438 --> 00:39:56.469
And I called him up and I said and this may be the answer to your question actually, hey, I know you went to.

00:39:56.469 --> 00:39:57.492
This was Thursday.

00:39:57.492 --> 00:39:59.911
I said I know you went to work Tuesday morning.

00:39:59.911 --> 00:40:00.809
I haven't been home.

00:40:00.809 --> 00:40:04.914
I've given blood and I'm not a construction worker.

00:40:04.914 --> 00:40:15.130
If you need somebody to come in and log sound, get coffee for people, cut VO's, you don't even have to pay me.

00:40:15.130 --> 00:40:20.570
I wanna do something to help and this is my skill set.

00:40:20.570 --> 00:40:27.106
Within 15 minutes actually maybe it was a managing editor, because this is executive producer called me and said hey.

00:40:27.106 --> 00:40:30.753
Joel said to call you, how soon can you be here?

00:40:30.753 --> 00:40:33.333
I said one of my offices is on 34th of Park.

00:40:33.333 --> 00:40:35.773
You're two stops on the subway, 10 minutes.

00:40:35.773 --> 00:40:36.985
He goes.

00:40:36.985 --> 00:40:37.990
Good, we need you.

00:40:37.990 --> 00:40:41.268
So I went up there.

00:40:41.329 --> 00:40:47.554
I got a chance to do a lot of features that were really impactful news features.

00:40:47.554 --> 00:40:51.335
And then Joel called me in with Lauren Spencer.

00:40:51.335 --> 00:40:53.632
I don't know if you guys know Spencey.

00:40:53.632 --> 00:40:54.594
She got married.

00:40:54.594 --> 00:40:57.425
I still call her Spencey, even though she's been married for 20 years.

00:40:57.425 --> 00:41:03.869
Lauren DeFord she married Frank DeFord's son and she's one of the great.

00:41:03.869 --> 00:41:06.007
She was a cornei producer at SNY.

00:41:06.007 --> 00:41:08.414
She's a huge producer at Golf Channel.

00:41:08.414 --> 00:41:10.271
She's one of the most successful.

00:41:10.271 --> 00:41:15.168
She was the EPA WNBC, one of the most successful producers in our industry.

00:41:15.168 --> 00:41:20.668
Bar Nun, joel called both of us in and Joel said I'm gonna share something with you.

00:41:20.668 --> 00:41:27.251
Guys said Spencey Erlich is the best sports producer in the country and we'll let him take the lead on this.

00:41:27.251 --> 00:41:29.289
We're doing an hour special.

00:41:29.289 --> 00:41:30.393
I had like three days.

00:41:30.393 --> 00:41:34.530
It's called the Voice of the Athlete out of the world of athletics.

00:41:34.530 --> 00:41:35.914
Deal with 9-11.

00:41:35.914 --> 00:41:44.911
And here's a short story that nobody knows it was the first time I'd ever done anything longer than a sports cast in my life.

00:41:45.684 --> 00:41:48.054
But I didn't wanna say that in that meeting.

00:41:48.054 --> 00:41:49.309
I didn't know what to say.

00:41:49.309 --> 00:41:51.329
You get built up like that.

00:41:51.329 --> 00:41:53.175
You look like are they gonna follow up.

00:41:53.445 --> 00:41:54.072
You gotta say yes.

00:41:54.072 --> 00:41:54.740
You gotta say yes.

00:41:55.045 --> 00:42:10.815
So I said thank you and did that, and land Berman, who, spencey, was his, her, his EP, and walked out of that show and said, spencey, I think you just won your first Emmy.

00:42:10.815 --> 00:42:17.813
Wow, and you know he nodded at me and shook my hand, but you know it was Spencey, that was his person.

00:42:17.813 --> 00:42:24.753
But it was at that moment that I said maybe I can do anything.

00:42:24.753 --> 00:42:31.838
You know, just keep working, keep learning, stay quiet, stay humble.

00:42:31.838 --> 00:42:45.554
And so maybe that's the answer to that question, because it was, um, it was a hard time and and I and I'm really proud of Of the work I did and it was impactful.

00:42:45.985 --> 00:42:54.019
It sounds like it was a huge breakthrough for you, the person like like, beyond the network, beyond the community, beyond the respect.

00:42:54.019 --> 00:42:58.894
That was a breakthrough for you to understand what you were, what you were capable of.

00:42:59.315 --> 00:43:10.311
Yeah, 100 percent that Joel goes To WCBS and he is.

00:43:10.311 --> 00:43:13.614
He was assistant director at WMC when he left.

00:43:13.614 --> 00:43:25.721
He's like a station manager on and he it was one of the top two people running this station period, whatever his title was, and so I call him up on a cloud, joel, congratulations.

00:43:25.721 --> 00:43:32.538
I said, todd, I took three things off my desk when I left and one of them was your pitch and I pitched um.

00:43:32.538 --> 00:43:43.197
There was a show called um Tomorrow, tomorrow's news today, and it was a round table show with the daily news.

00:43:43.197 --> 00:43:50.759
And he said he took that off his desk, um, and then that became sports from the round table.

00:43:51.521 --> 00:43:55.311
That started, you know, I did sports Sunday there.

00:43:55.311 --> 00:44:04.237
I did coming race for the cure tunnel, the towers, every sports special in Steinbrenner died, every parade I produced.

00:44:04.237 --> 00:44:19.769
You know, on and on and on, and I went out and covered all the major events in New York in the locker room and own those skills and did sweep specials, and so I think that I hadn't really thought of it.

00:44:19.769 --> 00:44:23.378
But I think, larry, on to something, loving all those stories.

00:44:23.826 --> 00:44:30.896
Um, I guess I have a nuts and bolts question because you know you're going on and on and you're like I did this and I did that and I did this.

00:44:30.896 --> 00:44:34.864
A lot of people out there don't know what a sports producer does.

00:44:34.864 --> 00:44:43.139
I mean, can you break down where you got your chops, where you learned the most, what it was like, and what you do to tackle these given jobs?

00:44:43.139 --> 00:44:48.764
Because You're talking about going from, you know, a frivolous sports story to a 9-11 story.

00:44:48.764 --> 00:44:51.411
I mean, how do you even go about something like that?

00:44:51.411 --> 00:44:52.974
Just break it down a little bit for us.

00:44:53.755 --> 00:44:59.036
Um, so I've Owned philosophy that I I teach all the people that work for me.

00:44:59.036 --> 00:45:04.697
I think it goes back to what we were talking to before, which is listening when you interview.

00:45:04.697 --> 00:45:15.771
So if you're covering an event, you have an idea what that event is about, and if you don't, you shouldn't be out there covering it.

00:45:15.771 --> 00:45:18.458
Yeah, okay, because you know.

00:45:18.458 --> 00:45:24.315
Um, mark Brown God rest his soul used to bust my chops at sports.

00:45:24.315 --> 00:45:26.088
You're starting again.

00:45:26.088 --> 00:45:30.137
Oh, I tell you are taking notes before you go out, who does that?

00:45:32.465 --> 00:45:38.967
And, and when I go back to my high school, I I tell, I tell people two things I go.

00:45:38.967 --> 00:45:44.237
Number one Look at the person on your left and the person on the right of you that you're numb, not friends.

00:45:44.237 --> 00:45:47.355
They are going to be the best connections you will ever have.

00:45:47.355 --> 00:45:50.815
They are going to be successful and they're going to help you through life.

00:45:50.815 --> 00:45:52.068
Never forget that.

00:45:52.068 --> 00:45:52.851
Treat them well.

00:45:52.851 --> 00:45:59.318
Number two I learned in private school in Dwight Englwood how to think and how to attack a project.

00:46:00.164 --> 00:46:03.836
So, yeah, you do so large.

00:46:03.836 --> 00:46:05.005
You're asking me a question.

00:46:05.005 --> 00:46:07.150
So what am I doing?

00:46:07.150 --> 00:46:09.617
Am I doing a highlight tape for the University of Maryland?

00:46:09.617 --> 00:46:12.231
Am I doing a whole tunnel of towers show?

00:46:12.231 --> 00:46:15.458
Am I doing a tower climb feature?

00:46:15.458 --> 00:46:17.126
What am I doing?

00:46:17.126 --> 00:46:18.672
Am I covering the Super Bowl?

00:46:18.672 --> 00:46:20.697
Am I covering the NCAA tournament?

00:46:20.697 --> 00:46:25.175
Am I doing Maryland's home home highlight tape for the entire series?

00:46:25.175 --> 00:46:26.157
What am I doing?

00:46:26.686 --> 00:46:29.775
So now, if I'm going out and covering an event for a feature, what do I do?

00:46:29.775 --> 00:46:32.784
I read and research, read and research, read and research.

00:46:32.784 --> 00:46:34.853
Okay, what are the stories?

00:46:34.853 --> 00:46:39.817
Well, again, you shouldn't be going out there if you don't know what the stories are.

00:46:39.817 --> 00:46:41.588
So now, what do I do?

00:46:41.588 --> 00:46:42.331
Now?

00:46:42.331 --> 00:46:43.715
I know the story right.

00:46:43.715 --> 00:46:51.876
So now I start writing and I write on camera league that I write the first track, that I write the first sound bite, what's it on?

00:46:51.876 --> 00:46:55.315
Second track, second sound like third track, third sound bite.

00:46:55.315 --> 00:46:58.784
And then I always like to leave a nugget for the on camera tag, right.

00:46:58.784 --> 00:46:59.907
So I write that.

00:47:00.548 --> 00:47:07.173
Now I go through and I take the script, I print that, I take that, then I copy and paste in another word document.

00:47:07.173 --> 00:47:11.577
I take all the tracks and I write the b-roll that I need to cover that.

00:47:11.577 --> 00:47:13.731
So I list the b-roll.

00:47:13.731 --> 00:47:16.431
Now that goes on one sheet.

00:47:16.431 --> 00:47:18.016
Now I take the sound bites.

00:47:18.016 --> 00:47:23.677
I write a couple different ways to ask the question to get a sound right sound bite that goes after that track.

00:47:23.677 --> 00:47:28.510
Now I tape all those pieces of paper together and off I go.

00:47:28.510 --> 00:47:32.949
Now I show up and something surprises me.

00:47:32.949 --> 00:47:36.597
Or I get a chance to interview somebody that I think I would get.

00:47:36.597 --> 00:47:38.750
Well, I got the whole thing written.

00:47:38.750 --> 00:47:43.864
If I can't figure out where to put that in, I'm not worth my soul why they hire me.

00:47:43.864 --> 00:47:46.239
Whoever they are, right, pivot.

00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:53.224
I ask the questions, I shoot the b-roll for that and then, literally on the shoot, you'll see me highlighting or crossing off.

00:47:54.367 --> 00:48:00.605
Each piece of b-roll, because the last thing you want to do is end up in an edit room with a shot and a track you can't cover.

00:48:00.605 --> 00:48:05.295
It's the editors will hate you and then you'll hate yourself.

00:48:05.295 --> 00:48:06.878
It's a transit property of hate.

00:48:07.304 --> 00:48:16.268
You know, as we're talking about younger people and the industry changing and things of that nature, you know, I wonder about sourcing talent.

00:48:16.268 --> 00:48:21.824
You know we've entered a different age where people are producing content all over the place.

00:48:21.824 --> 00:48:23.489
They're producing it in new ways.

00:48:23.489 --> 00:48:32.597
You can stand up a podcast, you can stand up a video cast and you can learn your chops in a very different way than than you did 30 years ago.

00:48:32.597 --> 00:48:38.246
So when you're sourcing talent, like is there, what is your?

00:48:38.246 --> 00:48:39.851
Your feeding mechanism?

00:48:39.851 --> 00:48:41.675
I mean, are people coming from anywhere?

00:48:41.675 --> 00:48:46.704
Referrals, schools, like how do you find talent in today's age?

00:48:47.567 --> 00:48:49.893
Um, so I just want to answer that.

00:48:49.893 --> 00:48:53.706
Second and first, I want to say that you know I get it.

00:48:53.706 --> 00:48:55.891
This is a get off my lawn moment.

00:48:55.891 --> 00:48:57.434
You'll see his charge.

00:48:57.434 --> 00:48:59.438
I paid my dues.

00:48:59.498 --> 00:48:59.677
Yep.

00:49:00.525 --> 00:49:03.572
And it bothers me that there isn't a barrier to entering.

00:49:03.572 --> 00:49:19.590
When I started t-line tv, you had to go to a post house and it was 300 an hour, and so you better be excellent at what you do, because you had to charge 30 grand to break even Video like it was no joke.

00:49:19.590 --> 00:49:28.605
And now the new kids are on their ipad Shooting and putting together videos, so that it sort of bothers me that there's no barrier to entry.

00:49:28.605 --> 00:49:30.170
But that wasn't your question.

00:49:30.844 --> 00:49:32.793
It's sort of this it definitely relates to it.

00:49:33.186 --> 00:49:43.885
Well, we'll think about it Jagger right now I would say, like a jagger right now probably has the access to more technology in terms of video editing than you or I had 20 years ago, right?

00:49:43.885 --> 00:49:46.572
So obviously there's been a huge leap.

00:49:46.572 --> 00:49:48.376
Yeah, technology wise, right.

00:49:48.784 --> 00:49:49.686
Yeah, so you.

00:49:49.686 --> 00:49:58.175
You alluded to it, larry, which is why I picked up on it for your specific question and I do try to listen, I do try to answer.

00:49:58.175 --> 00:50:01.331
Questions was how do I source talent?

00:50:01.353 --> 00:50:01.532
Yeah.

00:50:02.255 --> 00:50:02.376
And?

00:50:02.376 --> 00:50:13.237
Um, so the last round of hires, I called 30 people in the industry and I interviewed over 60 people for two jobs.

00:50:13.237 --> 00:50:15.268
Wow and it.

00:50:15.268 --> 00:50:26.153
It was painful and painstaking but it's, it's important and, for me, the only way I made it any places.

00:50:26.153 --> 00:50:31.157
Through all those internships I met all those mentors and all those mentors.

00:50:31.157 --> 00:50:34.373
I was on the phone with one of them today asking advice.

00:50:34.373 --> 00:50:45.134
You know, today, today, he hired me at W ABC in 1991, so that is 30, over 30 years ago.

00:50:45.134 --> 00:50:50.309
He hired me and he picks up the phone today To answer a question.

00:50:50.389 --> 00:50:54.438
I had needed advice and couldn't think of anyone else that would know.

00:50:54.438 --> 00:50:56.090
And he was the guy.

00:50:56.090 --> 00:50:58.179
And he actually didn't pick up.

00:50:58.179 --> 00:50:59.425
He called me right back.

00:50:59.425 --> 00:51:03.012
So, and I was on the other phone, so I hung up and called him right back.

00:51:03.012 --> 00:51:16.355
But the point is he's a huge, huge guy in the industry and called me right back because of relationships, and relationships to me is the only way to get jobs.

00:51:16.355 --> 00:51:18.552
Piece of paper doesn't mean anything to me.

00:51:18.552 --> 00:51:21.385
A resume tape Does it mean anything to me?

00:51:21.385 --> 00:51:24.230
Um, you know, it's, it's important.

00:51:24.230 --> 00:51:24.650
I don't care.

00:51:24.650 --> 00:51:25.512
We went to school.

00:51:25.512 --> 00:51:30.768
Unless it's Marilyn, I'm not saying Are you guys laughing?

00:51:30.809 --> 00:51:38.498
Marilyn beer the turtle, yes, marilyn's, the Harvard of Marilyn, with the notable exception of john hopkins, which is a much better school.

00:51:38.498 --> 00:51:58.695
It's a small problem but but and I'm not saying all those things aren't, aren't important I looked at like 300 resumes and I parsed them and I called people a lot of people called off the resumes a lot Well, over a hundred to talk to people and they got narrowed down.

00:51:58.695 --> 00:52:06.449
But when you get a call from somebody it says I worked with this guy, I was in a skag's.

00:52:06.449 --> 00:52:11.625
Chris gag leone, the great ap at wcbs says I was in a bunker.

00:52:12.266 --> 00:52:19.719
Yeah why and I would share a TV bunker with this guy this guy comes through, he's smart, he's talented, he's unflappable.

00:52:19.719 --> 00:52:31.788
You can't get that off of a resume or a totally right um and and so that's, you've got to.

00:52:31.788 --> 00:52:40.485
You've got to go through every single avenue To talk to every single person, because you don't know where the diamond the rough is.

00:52:40.485 --> 00:52:49.394
But I will say that referrals really, really, really is the most important.

00:52:50.746 --> 00:52:58.934
All right, so I want to talk about some of your proudest moments in your career, and one in particular, which I know you've talked about a great deal, is the tunnel to towers run because you are.

00:52:58.934 --> 00:53:04.858
You are, I think, the lead producer on that when, for the very first, for the very first, steven sealer tunnel.

00:53:04.998 --> 00:53:05.840
I wish I was.

00:53:05.840 --> 00:53:06.824
I'm not that old too.

00:53:06.824 --> 00:53:19.590
I'm not a rocker brats was the first VP and then um I started working with her away and I think my 10 she was gone.

00:53:19.913 --> 00:53:20.153
Okay.

00:53:20.153 --> 00:53:22.688
So, you've worked on it.

00:53:22.688 --> 00:53:26.576
You've worked on a considerable amount oh yeah, yeah, well over that day.

00:53:26.576 --> 00:53:29.990
Yeah, at this point, what has that experience been like?

00:53:29.990 --> 00:53:51.068
Because that seems to me like to be, first, not only, not only just crazy, rewarding, you know, obviously dealing with the, with the foundation, with frank um, and obviously the story behind behind Steven Siller um and his you know, obviously, and what happened to him on 9, 11, but the, the entire event itself, like, like, what has that?

00:53:51.068 --> 00:53:53.155
What has that experience been like for you?

00:53:54.264 --> 00:54:00.384
so, again, I tell you guys that, um, storytelling is the most important thing, right?

00:54:00.384 --> 00:54:08.425
So I get brought on board and I'm a sports guy and David friends, and I really want you to work on some of our big specials.

00:54:08.425 --> 00:54:21.695
They took the look of sports sundae and the graphical look, and, and they Parsed it out to the entire station group and he said you know one of the best producers we've got.

00:54:21.695 --> 00:54:23.822
So I want you to work with franca on this.

00:54:23.822 --> 00:54:33.146
And, and when I started, the big thing was she wanted us to look for the male and female winner of the race and interview them.

00:54:33.146 --> 00:54:39.365
And they were like, I don't know, a tunnel of towers is this is a marathon warm-up race for men, you know?

00:54:39.365 --> 00:54:43.554
Or if they knew anything, I think it's a 9 11, something you know.

00:54:43.554 --> 00:54:44.637
And so what?

00:54:44.677 --> 00:54:50.755
So what happened was I started asking questions, you know, do they raise money?

00:54:50.755 --> 00:54:53.728
Is this a charity, um, event?

00:54:53.728 --> 00:54:57.514
Okay, if they raise money, where does the money go?

00:54:57.514 --> 00:55:02.617
Okay, how's it impact people and impact people's lives, right?

00:55:02.617 --> 00:55:06.731
So, and let's tell those stories.

00:55:06.731 --> 00:55:10.693
And once I started doing that, the money started to fall out.

00:55:11.094 --> 00:55:14.148
Because the point is why do you support a charity?

00:55:14.148 --> 00:55:16.615
You support a charity because you put a face on it.

00:55:16.615 --> 00:55:36.106
You put a triple, quadruple amputee that was given back as freedom by building them a smart omen and making a mortgage free, and you think to yourself wow, the fight I have to go through to pay my mortgage and to take that burden off these people that have so rightfully Armed it.

00:55:36.106 --> 00:55:38.210
That's where my money should go.

00:55:38.210 --> 00:55:46.688
And so one of my proudest moments, which was another one of your questions to, is um, we did.

00:55:46.688 --> 00:56:08.713
The show was distributed nationally on the station group and um, I get called by Joe Goldberg and he tells me that um, a donor in california was so moved by the show that he personally underwrote a house 500 000 Wrote a check for a wounded veteran.

00:56:08.994 --> 00:56:10.838
Oh, my god on his area.

00:56:11.385 --> 00:56:24.364
And so when I won the Emmy for that show, I stood up and I said guys, I am so lucky To do what I do for a living and to be able to make a difference.

00:56:24.364 --> 00:56:43.324
And I told that story and at the Emmy somebody's listening to anything I got may not have been standing a couple people I said but it was an ovation which is, you know, which is very, very rare, and All night people are coming up to me saying how moved they were by it.

00:56:43.324 --> 00:56:59.231
So you know, that was one of the proudest moments where I tangibly knew the impact that I made on another person's life by the way in which I told stories and EP and produced a show.

00:57:00.764 --> 00:57:01.807
Do you still think that that?

00:57:01.807 --> 00:57:02.349
Do you?

00:57:02.349 --> 00:57:15.717
Do you still get juiced from that feeling, knowing that every time you you essentially set up a shoot, set up a set up that kind of a moment, that that Kind of an opportunity is still out there for you to make that kind of an impact on someone?

00:57:17.065 --> 00:57:18.793
I think I go about it a different way.

00:57:18.793 --> 00:57:33.688
I go about it from the process, starting the process and the storytelling, and and I always start with any client or any tv show or whatever who's your target audience?

00:57:33.688 --> 00:57:37.179
What are the three takeaways that you want?

00:57:37.179 --> 00:57:38.945
What are you looking to accomplish?

00:57:38.945 --> 00:58:00.393
So, whether it's, you know, a boss at tv station or a corporate client, or tunnel to towers, once I do that and I work backwards and I don't think about what's it going to mean to me If I can make an impact, I think how can I produce this so it makes the most impact?

00:58:03.119 --> 00:58:10.300
Todd, as you look forward, you know, beyond the book, that we will certainly talk about going off the air this evening.

00:58:10.300 --> 00:58:18.815
Is there something on your radar screen that you haven't done, that you still want to do Like?

00:58:18.815 --> 00:58:24.440
Is there a challenge in front of you that you've got your sights set on, that you look forward to tackling?

00:58:25.735 --> 00:58:29.079
I mean, I think that, I think it would.

00:58:29.079 --> 00:58:38.550
I mean I think, let's see, I think that, okay, here's one thing.

00:58:38.550 --> 00:58:40.842
So I work at CBS Sports, right.

00:58:40.842 --> 00:58:44.039
So Steve Karasik is the.

00:58:44.039 --> 00:58:57.264
He's the executive producer, vice president in charge of all production, and he was my boss when I was running the Emmy division and so I told you I always had to earn your chops, right.

00:58:57.264 --> 00:59:11.521
So you know, we went from winning like the year before I was hired, they were nominated for five Emmys and it went any through, consistently being in the high 20s, sometimes low 30s, and winning between five and 10 years.

00:59:11.521 --> 00:59:18.320
So I done a good job for a number of years and I built the division and I changed the way we did everything.

00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:24.882
And I went up to him and I said, hey, there's some stuff I really want to do and my bucket list is to cover the masters.

00:59:24.882 --> 00:59:25.945
I'm a big golfer.

00:59:25.945 --> 00:59:28.802
Wow, he goes, todd, there's a long line.

00:59:28.802 --> 00:59:31.905
And I said, steve, I plan on living a long time.

00:59:31.905 --> 00:59:33.990
I said you'll be surprised.

00:59:36.820 --> 00:59:40.108
You know, a decade later, how far I moved up that line.

00:59:41.577 --> 00:59:47.628
Well maybe that'll be a moment, not moment number 22, because it'd have to be played at Beth Page However.

00:59:49.757 --> 00:59:59.485
Yeah, I mean I've covered a Super Bowl, I've covered the NHL finals, I've covered the NBA finals, I've covered the World Series, covered the US Open.

00:59:59.485 --> 01:00:07.108
So I've done two Olympics which were incredibly rewarding.

01:00:07.108 --> 01:00:11.987
I mean incredibly I did.

01:00:11.987 --> 01:00:24.077
I produced the first Olympic webcast and the Sydney Olympics for NBC Sports Online and I produced what's called the summary of the games in Torino, and what that is.

01:00:24.077 --> 01:00:32.365
It's the half hour video that goes out on the world feed and it's shown in the Olympic Stadium leading up to the closing ceremonies.

01:00:32.365 --> 01:00:38.818
Wow, and I got taken in a police escort and the guy that drove me was Italian, because you know, we were in Torino.

01:00:40.014 --> 01:00:41.221
I was like whoa, whoa, whoa.

01:00:45.108 --> 01:00:49.945
I was like come on, I'm hopefully, hopefully, never going to be a cop car again.

01:00:49.945 --> 01:00:59.664
And suddenly I had finally kept shaking his hand at me and muttered just up in Italian he said boom the lights in the silence.

01:00:59.664 --> 01:01:05.565
We go to the stadium, I go running into the truck, I give it to the people for the world feed and make them spot check it.

01:01:05.565 --> 01:01:17.054
Yeah, the president of Tobo, which is Torino Olympic Broadcasting Association, got me tickets in his box so I go in and he could only hit me one ticket.

01:01:17.054 --> 01:01:19.320
So I'm saying that I'm with him and his family.

01:01:19.320 --> 01:01:22.166
But you know, I wasn't that high up on the food chain.

01:01:22.166 --> 01:01:23.739
I got to say hello to him.

01:01:23.739 --> 01:01:36.327
But so I'm sort of sitting there by myself and I'm looking up at the screen at an Olympic Games in Torino watching my half hour show at the closing ceremonies.

01:01:36.327 --> 01:01:38.137
Are you kidding me?

01:01:38.137 --> 01:01:39.980
Wow, yeah.

01:01:40.019 --> 01:01:42.262
Wow, that's a heck of a moment.

01:01:42.603 --> 01:01:44.927
Yeah, so that was a pretty good moment.

01:01:45.608 --> 01:01:46.048
Yeah, all right.

01:01:46.048 --> 01:01:48.300
So before we let you go, I kind of want to.

01:01:48.300 --> 01:01:57.541
I want to relay one story from my very early days with Todd Erlich, and this was actually when I was interning over at WABC local channel.

01:01:57.541 --> 01:02:08.619
Seven Students had to order food, had to order dinner, everybody, and I forget where the it was like local, it was like a local.

01:02:08.719 --> 01:02:10.360
A ring, a ring.

01:02:10.721 --> 01:02:11.601
Was it a lobby?

01:02:11.601 --> 01:02:14.405
A ring, yeah, food in the lobby, food in the lobby.

01:02:14.405 --> 01:02:16.606
So A ring the best.

01:02:16.606 --> 01:02:18.068
And it was me.

01:02:18.068 --> 01:02:23.094
It was me and two others, and I only remember, like the one of the other kids, you and everyone had nicknames, right?

01:02:23.094 --> 01:02:26.760
Because Todd and everybody else could never remember anyone's name.

01:02:26.760 --> 01:02:28.704
So everybody had nicknames.

01:02:28.704 --> 01:02:30.307
Yeah, and the other kids that we were with.

01:02:30.748 --> 01:02:31.730
My grandma Wilbur.

01:02:31.931 --> 01:02:32.090
His.

01:02:32.090 --> 01:02:38.416
His name was Wilbur, because you look at Wilbur Marshall, you look exactly like Wilbur Marshall, anyway.

01:02:38.416 --> 01:02:53.043
So it was me, wilbur, and one other person I don't remember, and the dinner the dinner that we ordered because it, and for whatever reason, it was like my turn to order dinner, and so I would always get nervous about this, just crazy nervous, because it was like it was five minutes late.

01:02:53.043 --> 01:02:58.661
Todd and Scott Clark and one of the other producers would be like where the hell is our food?

01:02:58.661 --> 01:03:01.318
Why is it not here, get our food?

01:03:01.318 --> 01:03:02.876
So this?

01:03:03.177 --> 01:03:15.822
So here was one of those nights where where this deli was late with our food, like by 15 minutes, like it was like a tremendous amount of time 15, 20 minutes and Todd was like you have to get this food for free.

01:03:15.822 --> 01:03:18.342
I was like what are you talking about?

01:03:18.342 --> 01:03:21.280
You have to get this food for free.

01:03:21.280 --> 01:03:24.362
And I was like, okay, I'll see what I can do.

01:03:24.362 --> 01:03:29.342
So I called the, I called the diner, and they're like oh, your food hasn't arrived yet.

01:03:29.342 --> 01:03:30.940
He's a, your food hasn't gone out yet.

01:03:30.940 --> 01:03:31.878
I'm like what the hell do you mean?

01:03:31.878 --> 01:03:32.981
Our food hasn't gone out yet?

01:03:32.981 --> 01:03:36.003
I was like you don't expect us to pay for this food, do you.

01:03:36.003 --> 01:03:42.657
He was like he was, and somehow I managed to harangue this guy to where we didn't have to pay for dinner.

01:03:42.938 --> 01:03:44.242
Well done Right.

01:03:44.762 --> 01:03:48.219
Absolutely so.

01:03:48.219 --> 01:03:53.588
Here now sets this precedent, for somehow, well, tush can get free food.

01:03:53.989 --> 01:03:55.753
Oh jeez, You're an irrespective.

01:03:57.016 --> 01:04:18.306
It then became every time I was into into intern I had to get free food that night and figure out a way to do this and somehow, at least the next two times I was in, the next time I was, so the following time I was in, yes, somehow I managed to harangue another delicate test and into getting us free food.

01:04:18.306 --> 01:04:22.083
And then the third time we had to pay and they're like you, failed.

01:04:22.405 --> 01:04:23.657
You failed the words.

01:04:23.657 --> 01:04:24.440
You're miserable.

01:04:24.440 --> 01:04:26.579
To failure you, they're making this business.

01:04:26.579 --> 01:04:29.563
Well, now we have a challenge for you to share.

01:04:29.563 --> 01:04:30.898
We want free food.

01:04:30.958 --> 01:04:32.521
Come on Free food.

01:04:32.563 --> 01:04:33.465
I'm beyond our thought.

01:04:35.659 --> 01:04:47.907
But I will say this is that when I was done with my internship and I should actually say this is that when I was looking for my very first job, my very first job was WFAN.

01:04:47.907 --> 01:04:50.282
I was, I was interning there.

01:04:50.282 --> 01:04:57.226
And when I wanted to intern at WFAN, I told Todd early okay, I'm looking for my next internship.

01:04:57.226 --> 01:04:58.389
He said, well, where do you want to intern?

01:04:58.389 --> 01:05:00.675
And I was thinking about WFAN.

01:05:00.675 --> 01:05:01.900
You know, I really love it there.

01:05:01.900 --> 01:05:02.563
Blah, blah, blah.

01:05:02.563 --> 01:05:04.782
He's like don't worry about it, I'll make a call.

01:05:04.782 --> 01:05:10.753
And in front of me he called Chris Russo and was like dog, I got this.

01:05:10.753 --> 01:05:12.719
I got this kid who will be great for you.

01:05:12.719 --> 01:05:15.081
I think you guys should hire him straight away.

01:05:15.081 --> 01:05:24.485
Now, I don't know if dog may if dog you know listen to him or spoke to anybody else, but I got the internship and from that it it launched my career.

01:05:24.485 --> 01:05:31.918
So, as I've said before, as I said to start, I'll say it again you are personally responsible for my career.

01:05:31.918 --> 01:05:33.902
30 years later, and.

01:05:34.043 --> 01:05:35.585
I can never repay that.

01:05:36.615 --> 01:05:37.780
I appreciate that too.

01:05:37.780 --> 01:05:51.264
She's very nice and and dog has been a good friend for a long time and and that's what I was saying at the beginning I was like you know, work your contacts.

01:05:51.264 --> 01:05:54.659
If you get an opportunity, work, work hard.

01:05:54.659 --> 01:05:57.565
Get free dinners for people like Tuesday, Make an impact.

01:05:57.565 --> 01:06:02.621
No, but Tuesday worked hard.

01:06:02.621 --> 01:06:22.864
You earned it because here's the thing and this part is no joke I was putting my reputation on the line with Chris, and if you had done a bad job, that would have negatively affected me, and so you earned what I did for you.

01:06:22.864 --> 01:06:28.940
You earned it because I trusted you, and that's also important.

01:06:28.940 --> 01:06:31.340
There are no small jobs.

01:06:31.340 --> 01:06:35.085
My wife used to ask me why are you taking that job for that amount of money?

01:06:35.085 --> 01:06:43.202
And I'm like I don't know who I'm going to meet, I don't know what that's going to lead to, and so if I got a chance to work, I'm going to work.

01:06:43.501 --> 01:06:44.505
Sure, absolutely.

01:06:45.715 --> 01:06:47.541
And so you got an internship.

01:06:47.541 --> 01:07:06.809
You didn't get paid, you worked hard, you were impactful, you made an impact on me and then me, being a type person I am always wants to help people you know, I'm like this is a guy that that I want to help, that I trust will go ahead and work hard.

01:07:06.809 --> 01:07:08.541
That won't make me look bad.

01:07:09.795 --> 01:07:15.967
I appreciate that and I've used that attitude for so many others because, like you, I believe in paying that forward.

01:07:15.967 --> 01:07:21.597
So there are obviously others who I have gone out of my way to make that phone call for as well, like you.

01:07:22.400 --> 01:07:25.842
Yeah, yeah and and it's impactful.

01:07:25.842 --> 01:07:30.784
And I said to, I said to David today, when we are on the phone.

01:07:30.784 --> 01:07:33.659
I said this generation doesn't seem to get it.

01:07:33.659 --> 01:07:37.204
I said but, david, you are in MWABC TV.

01:07:37.204 --> 01:07:41.025
Then you adopted me at WCBS because I was already there.

01:07:41.025 --> 01:07:46.788
Then you expanded my role to producing the morning news, selling all the powers coming away for the cure.

01:07:46.788 --> 01:07:49.358
Then you added station group stock.

01:07:49.358 --> 01:07:52.065
I started doing all kinds of stuff for the station group.

01:07:52.065 --> 01:07:56.003
You know I can't ever repay that.

01:07:56.003 --> 01:07:58.541
Sure, there's no way to repay that.

01:07:58.541 --> 01:08:04.800
You know it's like oh, you earned it and your talent it's just got nothing to do with it.

01:08:04.800 --> 01:08:08.260
David, you took chances on me.

01:08:08.260 --> 01:08:10.820
Yeah, I'll leave you with this.

01:08:10.820 --> 01:08:14.262
So, david, frank Hirshman, wabc TV.

01:08:15.074 --> 01:08:18.001
So he calls me in my first day and he goes.

01:08:18.001 --> 01:08:18.261
He goes.

01:08:18.261 --> 01:08:19.583
Why are you saying that?

01:08:19.583 --> 01:08:21.528
Stand up, all right, I'll stand up.

01:08:21.528 --> 01:08:23.581
As you see those file cabinets.

01:08:23.581 --> 01:08:24.363
He goes, open them.

01:08:24.363 --> 01:08:27.382
It was two of those six foot long file cabinets.

01:08:27.382 --> 01:08:28.605
So I opened them.

01:08:28.605 --> 01:08:29.497
He goes.

01:08:29.497 --> 01:08:30.742
You see what's in there.

01:08:30.742 --> 01:08:32.841
I said I'm assuming files, david.

01:08:32.841 --> 01:08:35.439
He goes, he goes.

01:08:35.439 --> 01:08:38.688
Those are pieces of paper, individual pieces of paper.

01:08:38.688 --> 01:08:39.577
Do you know?

01:08:39.577 --> 01:08:41.483
Do you have any idea what they're attached to?

01:08:41.483 --> 01:08:43.237
I said the file?

01:08:43.237 --> 01:08:45.923
He said no people that apply for your job.

01:08:45.923 --> 01:08:50.739
He said don't fuck up, you've got my name on you.

01:08:50.739 --> 01:08:52.465
So I said, all right, I won't.

01:08:52.465 --> 01:08:53.699
I turned around and started walking out.

01:08:53.699 --> 01:08:53.996
He goes.

01:08:53.996 --> 01:08:57.230
I said I turned around and go hey, david, do you want me to shut the file cabinet?

01:08:57.230 --> 01:08:58.118
Can I leave it open?

01:08:58.118 --> 01:08:59.886
He goes shut it.

01:08:59.886 --> 01:09:00.711
And he started laughing.

01:09:00.730 --> 01:09:01.614
He couldn't hold on to the entire thing.

01:09:02.115 --> 01:09:08.341
He couldn't hold on to the intimidation that he longed for, but that's the point of this story.

01:09:08.341 --> 01:09:21.962
The point of this story is we all gamble on people and that's why I interviewed 60 people, read through a couple hundred resumes and called 30 people for referrals.

01:09:22.695 --> 01:09:24.101
Well yeah.

01:09:24.101 --> 01:09:29.886
Well, todd, this has been a remarkable conversation.

01:09:29.886 --> 01:09:39.966
Obviously, you are a great storyteller, and with that, will you please mention your book again and let everybody know where they can get it.

01:09:41.176 --> 01:10:01.359
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and Girls, amazoncom, the 20 greatest moments in New York sports history, barnes and Noble and, as my editor likes to say, we're all good books are sold so literally any place in the tri-state area.

01:10:01.359 --> 01:10:07.652
My goal in writing that book is to put a smile on your face and bring back memories.

01:10:07.652 --> 01:10:11.490
And the second thing is I saw, larry, you had a kid.

01:10:11.490 --> 01:10:25.567
The second thing that I think is important is for you to read a chapter with your son, for me to read a chapter with my son, then discuss it and do the next chapter and the next chapter, yep, and give them the gift of history.

01:10:25.567 --> 01:10:31.332
And it's a fun, nice father, son, father, daughter, daughter, mother thing to do.

01:10:31.920 --> 01:10:33.024
Will there be a volume two?

01:10:34.301 --> 01:10:35.447
Not if I want to stay married.

01:10:38.064 --> 01:10:41.112
Well, I will definitely read the book with William.

01:10:41.112 --> 01:10:43.587
It's funny that you bring that up.

01:10:43.587 --> 01:10:53.595
He started to bring out my baseball cards and he started to read through the different pages and to ask questions about who's that guy and why does that guy have a bird on his hat?

01:10:53.595 --> 01:10:55.627
Like it's starting now.

01:10:55.627 --> 01:10:58.027
So the introduction of your book.

01:10:58.027 --> 01:10:58.469
He's four.

01:10:58.469 --> 01:11:00.466
He'll be five in a couple of months.

01:11:00.886 --> 01:11:01.469
Awesome.

01:11:02.000 --> 01:11:08.153
So I get to brainwash him from this point forward, and why not use your book as a tool in that process?

01:11:08.980 --> 01:11:10.145
Listen, anyway, I can help.

01:11:10.145 --> 01:11:13.582
Anyway, I can help, happy to serve this.

01:11:14.800 --> 01:11:15.582
Todd, thank you so much.

01:11:16.404 --> 01:11:18.588
Thank you, gentlemen, appreciate the time.

01:11:18.588 --> 01:11:19.532
Thank you.

01:11:20.001 --> 01:11:23.409
Well, tushar, thank you for bringing Todd to us.

01:11:23.409 --> 01:11:26.587
I certainly lived up to all of my expectations.

01:11:26.587 --> 01:11:30.739
What an incredible storyteller, what amazing energy.

01:11:31.100 --> 01:11:39.230
We were at that for a long time and he never wavered and remember he's talking to us at that point after he's already finished a day at work.

01:11:39.230 --> 01:11:43.467
So imagine what this guy is like on days that he's not working.

01:11:43.467 --> 01:11:44.992
He's so full of energy, wow.

01:11:44.992 --> 01:11:52.503
And the one thing I'll say about Todd is that he has always been an extremely creative person and he's never happy.

01:11:52.503 --> 01:11:57.465
He's one of these guys who's not happy being still so.

01:11:57.604 --> 01:12:19.567
Even when he's not creating something just wonderful for television, he's always thinking about doing something else and that's what always has made me look up to him and admire him and have that kind of work ethic that he has, where he's never satisfied, he always finds joy in working and he understands that you know what to make it in the business.

01:12:20.269 --> 01:12:30.274
Sometimes you kind of have to as I like to tell kids when I speak to them early on in the business you kind of have to take a vow of both chastity and poverty.

01:12:30.274 --> 01:12:38.779
You're not going to make a lot of money, which me and if you're going to work a lot, you're not going to have much of a life outside of work, and that will pay off in the end.

01:12:38.779 --> 01:12:46.779
And that's what he says perseverance, making sure you make a lot of contacts, just making sure that you get to be well known in the business and we talk about it all the time.

01:12:46.779 --> 01:13:01.733
If you prove to others that you're not a jerk, people want to work with you, they want to be around you, and that's what Todd's done throughout his entire career, and, once again, I can never repay him for the kindness that he showed me at the start of my career.

01:13:02.020 --> 01:13:05.349
I guess we have to thank him too for you, tushar, for creating you.

01:13:05.349 --> 01:13:05.909
You should.

01:13:05.909 --> 01:13:11.779
I love the stories about the rite of passage, the ordering lunch, getting free lunch, things like that.

01:13:11.779 --> 01:13:17.773
Those are things that we don't really talk about on this program a lot, but you have to start on that bottom rung.

01:13:17.840 --> 01:13:32.711
I mean, I made the best coffee and river sound history back in the day, man, because you got to start somewhere, you know, and you got to be ready, willing and able and, as you said, t, you got to be good to work with, fun to work with, and you can tell Todd was great fun to work with.

01:13:32.711 --> 01:13:37.591
He made the job interesting, palatable and fun.

01:13:37.591 --> 01:13:47.529
And you know, if you really want to make it in any business and this really goes across to every industry imaginable you have to be someone that people want to work with.

01:13:47.529 --> 01:13:53.733
We talk about it all the time, but you could tell he's developed those relationships and it's paid off through a career.

01:13:53.733 --> 01:13:56.779
I mean he kept rolling through like I went to this job and I went to that job.

01:13:56.779 --> 01:13:58.587
How do you think he got those jobs?

01:13:58.587 --> 01:14:02.470
Because he knew somebody, he was good to somebody and they were good back.

01:14:02.859 --> 01:14:12.800
And you know, if you put that kind of good energy out there, good energy comes back to you and look, you said it before like I always tell folks is that you know you never want your first gig to be one where you get coffee for people.

01:14:12.800 --> 01:14:13.943
But you know what?

01:14:13.943 --> 01:14:16.631
Sometimes that's what it takes.

01:14:16.631 --> 01:14:19.800
And if that's what it takes, well then you got to do what you got to do, as I say, right.

01:14:20.440 --> 01:14:33.670
Absolutely, and you know, for me, you know, one of the things that really stood out to me was how important it is to maintain a high level of performance at all times, and that clearly was very important to him.

01:14:33.670 --> 01:14:41.511
I don't know how else to do things, but he made that very clear and that was obviously a very big part of his career and his journey.

01:14:41.511 --> 01:14:59.751
And you know, something else to me that really stood out was the beginning of his journey, meaning his family, I think his brother he mentioned, went into law, if I recall correctly, and he was surrounded by a lot of other professional people and he chose a path that was a little bit different.

01:14:59.751 --> 01:15:11.779
You know, he got into the sports world and he followed a passion, he followed an interest, not necessarily knowing where that road was going to take him, which you know required a certain degree of courage.

01:15:11.779 --> 01:15:15.189
And with that, you know, clearly, things worked out.

01:15:15.899 --> 01:15:20.658
So with that, todd, thank you so much for joining this episode of no Wrong Choices.

01:15:20.658 --> 01:15:22.506
We also thank you for joining us.

01:15:22.506 --> 01:15:34.144
If this or another journey story inspired you to think of a friend who could be a great guest, please let us know by sending us a note by the contact page of NoWrongChoicescom, as I mentioned off the top.

01:15:34.144 --> 01:15:39.800
Please support us by following no Wrong Choices on your favorite podcasting platform, while giving us a five star rating.

01:15:39.800 --> 01:15:50.800
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01:15:50.800 --> 01:15:54.197
On behalf of Tushar Saxena and Larry Shea.

01:15:54.197 --> 01:15:54.779
I'm Larry Samuels.

01:15:54.779 --> 01:16:00.773
Thank you again for joining us and always remember there are no wrong choices on the road to success.

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We learn from every experience.