Broadcasters thrive after going it on their own

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This article was published 18/03/2022 (1445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s just seconds before showtime and Andrew Paterson is getting ready to do what he does best — talk sports.

Sitting behind a microphone, Paterson, affectionately known by his on-air nickname “Hustler”, looks the part, his wardrobe matching the everyman style of his speech. He’s wearing a hat with the words “The Peg” emblazoned on the front, along with a pair of clear-coloured glasses and a dark-green hoody.

After a 15-second intro welcoming viewers to another episode, Paterson smiles into the camera before acknowledging what is a milestone moment for he and partner Michael Remis.

“Hey, what’s up everybody and welcome to another episode – and I can’t believe I’m saying it — another year of Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily,” Paterson starts. “That’s right, it’s our one-year anniversary today. We’re feeling festive and we have a great show for you.”

While the whole operation has a familiar feel, much has changed for Paterson and Remis over the past 365 days.

They’re self-employed, no longer working for a corporate-owned radio station. They share the same kind of opinionated sports takes, only now it’s streamed live over YouTube, before being converted to a podcast format.

“Thank you, Hustler, for coming to me saying you wanted to keep this going,” adds Remis. “I wasn’t sure if I’d still be doing sports media after everything happened, and here we are a year later, 253 shows in.”

While not shocked by the show’s growing success, it’s also not lost on Paterson the significance of his journey — from where he was a year ago to now. And to think what he considers some of the best days of his career were borne out of one of the worst has him feeling grateful for today and, just as important, what the future could hold.

“When it comes down to it, if you have a passion for something and you have a plan and you believe in it, you have to go for it, you have to do it,” Paterson says, in an hour-long phone interview with the Free Press. “And I’m so happy that we did.”

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Paterson was at home on a cold February morning when he received a chilling text, warning him that he might soon be out of a job.

He had just returned to work as a sports radio broadcaster at TSN 1290 six weeks earlier after being away for months. He was still not fully recovered from his bout with cauda equina syndrome, a rare spinal condition that left him without the use of his legs for a brief time and at one point threatened his life.

Sick of isolating at home, with the city on high alert, in the thick of a code-red action plan owing to increasing cases of COVID-19, Paterson pushed hard to return to a job he loved. Now, he was being asked by a former colleague if there was any way he could return to medical leave.

“I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t think so. Why would I?’” Paterson recalls. “And then he goes, ‘Listen, I’m hearing some bad stuff about what’s happening there later on today.’”

What transpired over the next few hours has been well-documented. Bell Media slashed three of its seven all-sports stations that day, with Winnipeg, Vancouver and Hamilton getting the axe with little to no notice.

The plans were already finalized. Winnipeg and Vancouver would transition to a comedy format, with Hamilton shifting to all-business programming, decisions made to cut costs and improve the bottom line of a multi-billion-dollar company.

At TSN 1290 in Winnipeg, 14 employees were out of work. Paterson, who hosted the afternoon slot from 2 to 6 p.m., and Remis, a producer and board operator at the station, were among the casualties.

Like a slow-motion car accident replaying in his mind, Paterson started to fear the worst.

“There’s a whole bunch of things running through your mind, like, ‘Holy s—-, what’s next? Is this the end? Is there still a spot for me?’” he says. “But very quickly my entire focus shifted to, ‘How do I do something where I can still do what I’ve been doing every day, but instead do it on my own?’”

Having both accrued more than a decade of service at the station, Paterson and Remis, who also had a one-year-old baby at home, were given healthy severance packages. But in an industry where time is of the essence and ‘out of sight, out of mind’ can be a death sentence, they were in no position to put their feet up.

Together, they started to talk next steps.

“That first month was the most stressful in my life, for sure,” Paterson says. “But it ended up being a huge opportunity, as opposed to thinking of it as a massive setback.”

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At his TSN job, Paterson was surrounded by radio veterans, a team of on-air talent that combined decades of experience. But when it came to finding a partner for a new endeavour, he needed someone who could complement his talents, not just bolster them.

Remis had put in time at the station, but any respect he garnered was mostly for his work behind the scenes. He was often passed over for on-air opportunities, including small ones such as announcing sports or weather and traffic updates.

For Paterson, though, there was something that always stood out about his colleague.

“My conversations with Remo were different than everybody else’s,” Paterson says. “He’s a bit of a quirkier dude, someone who brought a different viewpoint and who I always had fun with.”

What made for a perfect partnership, though, was they knew exactly what the other brought to the table.

Delivering content would be the easy part, they figured, with a list of guests such as NFL Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, members of the Winnipeg Jets and Blue Bombers, as well as local reporters and media personalities.

Finding a way to make a living and putting on a professional-looking show daily would take a fair amount of work.

With Paterson’s experience in sales (he started his broadcasting career as a freelancer responsible for finding his own sponsors), he would handle the business side of things and is the face of programming. Remis, who had taken courses in digital marketing and, as an avid video gamer, was familiar with various streaming software, would handle the technical components.

On Mar. 8, 2021, 27 days after losing their jobs, Paterson and Remis hosted the first episode of Winnipeg Sports Talk Daily.

Since then, Remis still hasn’t taken a full day off, while Paterson can count on one hand the number of days he’s been away. The show runs Monday to Friday, 1 to 3 p.m.

“I’m really proud that we’ve done this ourselves, that we haven’t really had any outside help,” Remis says. “We’ve had lots of people contribute to the show but for a year I’ve been self-employed and that’s pretty cool.”

What started with four sponsors has blossomed into 12, with more expected to come on as they work to expand their programming options. Remis dove headfirst into studying YouTube and its benefits, and for the first six months produced the show on the floor of his basement, using an Ikea table as a desk until he convinced his wife to turn the spare bedroom into a makeshift studio. They’ve never done the show in the same room together, with Paterson hosting the show from his apartment.

They didn’t disclose their exact incomes but attest to making a fair living. At last check, they’ve had more than 1.5 million YouTube views and podcast downloads.

The reaction from viewers — many of whom tune in live to offer their opinions in the show’s chatroom and have become a notable part of the whole operation — has been more than they could have ever imagined. The same can be said for the commitment from the show’s sponsors. All have stayed on, despite having an out-clause after three months.

Paterson wants to keep pushing for more and he’s excited about the possibilities for Year 2.

“It was an incredible opportunity that TSN presented us by just walking away,” Paterson says. “It’s been just an amazing first year and the future is super bright for this sort of content and particularly for what we’ve got going on here.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton