A Familiar Voice
AS A HOST of ESPN's SportsCenter for 18 years, Dan Patrick delivered the news in a different kind of voice, with wit and irony and verbal play toys that changed the way fans—and other broadcasters—talked about sports. These days if you say, "You can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him" with a straight face, you do so at your own peril.
In 1999 Dan took his voice to radio, and The Dan Patrick Show on ESPN radio became the gold standard for sports talk radio. Last October, The Dan Patrick Show launched into national syndication and is currently broadcast on nearly 100 stations across the country, as well as XM satellite radio. And now Dan's show can be heard live, every weekday morning, online.
At DanPatrick.com (below), which is linked to and operated by SI.com, the show is simulcast from 9 a.m. to noon ET. If you miss it live, you can listen later, to the entire show or to highlights and interview segments posted on the site all day. You can also listen to many of Dan's previous interviews, ranging in recent days from LaDainian Tomlinson to Senator Arlen Specter, all easily accessed in the site's audio archive. (If you're a new listener, you can get up to speed on all things Dan by consulting the on-site Dan Patrick Dictionary, so you won't feel lost when Dan refers to, say, "Kobe Bryant's passion bucket.")
The relationship between The Dan Patrick Show and SI.com is a pioneering move to link radio talk to online chat. As an online listener, you'll now be able to add your voice to the debates of the day. Andrew Perloff, previously SI.com's NFL editor, is now blogging live on the site during Dan's show and responding to comments sent in by listeners. Perloff—or, as Patrick has dubbed him, McLovin—then relays the best listener comments to Dan live on the air. "The show is really about the audience," Patrick says, "and what I like about the blog is that it's another way to bring people into the show."
This issue also marks the debut of JUST MY TYPE (page 34), Patrick's weekly magazine page. "Long-time reader, first-time writer," says Patrick of SI. "I've been reading the magazine since I was a kid, so I'm excited to join the team." Each week the page will offer a mix of interviews (this week he talks to Dwight Howard about the upcoming NBA Slam Dunk contest), observations, opinions, wisecracks and whatever else Dan finds interesting.
So now you can get your Dan Patrick fix on air, online and in the magazine. He's a man of many mediums.
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HEINZ KLUETMEIER
MORNING MAN Patrick's radio show airs from 9 to 12 weekdays at DanPatrick.com.
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