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Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

ESPN's Adnan Virk and The Athletic's Calvin Watkins

Sports Media with Richard Deitsch

Audacy

News, Business News, Sports, Sports News

4.3721 Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2018

⏱️ 102 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Episode 11 of the Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch features two guests. First up is ESPN Adnan Virk, who hosts multiple studio shows in multiple sports and is the host of “Cinephile: The Adnan Virk Movie Podcast.” In this podcast Virk goes deep into how an sports broadcaster in his position deals with a contract negotiation; at what point his agent started negotiating an extension at ESPN; the anxiety of not getting an offer prior to the end of a contract; how to get a sense of what money to ask for; the role of broadcast agents and their importance; how to know what to ask for in terms of salary and beyond; the impact of what others at an organization have on your contract negotiations; the role of relationships with your bosses when it comes to contract negotiations; how he ended up getting tennis opportunities into his new contract; the impact of Mo Salah on the Muslim community; being mistaken for former NHL All Star Chris Chelios, and much more. The second guest is Calvin Watkins, who was recently hired to cover the Dallas Cowboys for The Athletic Dallas-Fort Worth. Watkins discusses the challenges of covering the Cowboys; why Jerry Jones is the most important person for a media reporter; the differences between covering the New York Jets and Cowboys as a press person; where he thinks the newspaper sports section is today and where it might be tomorrow; the influence of his grandfather who worked for Ebony and went on to produce a monthly African-American newsletter called Negro Heritage; working for ESPN’s city sites; what he would say to young people of color who want to get into the business and much more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, everybody, this is Richard Deich and welcome to the sports media podcast with Richard Deich.

0:05.7

My producer, as always, is Lou Pellegrino.

0:08.5

Two excellent guests this week.

0:11.1

First up is a, he's almost become a semi-regular for this podcast, and that is Adnan Verk, who has so many job titles at this point.

0:20.2

College football, baseball tonight.

0:22.9

He's a fill-in host for ESPN Radio.

0:26.2

He has his own podcast, cinephile.

0:29.5

I believe he probably does some college basketball stuff as well.

0:34.1

He usually is in studio, but because I'm in his beloved Toronto, and he is in my beloved...

0:40.3

Where are you at, Annan? Avon, Connecticut, or Bristol, Connecticut?

0:43.3

I mean, I'm in Central Connecticut, West Hartford.

0:47.3

Yeah, he's in my beloved West Hartford.

0:50.3

We are taping this in outside places.

0:53.3

Adnan, Verk, welcome back to the sports media podcast.

0:57.8

Rich, thank you so much.

0:59.0

This is Rarified Air.

1:00.5

Is it not third time guest?

1:02.3

And I'm not Jimmy Trina, Jim Miller type.

1:04.8

This is very exclusive, right?

1:06.8

Yeah.

1:07.7

And then, by the way, we're not back.

1:09.3

Nobody will know that I just screwed up my little segue there. But yes, I believe you are the, you are the most gilded guest on this, on the combined podcast that I have done. Guest number three, Carissa Thompson of Fox Sports, Dave Meltzer, the famous wrestling journals. They've been on twice, but I don't think there is a third.

...

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