Longtime skeptic Matt Lepay gives sports talk radio a shot

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: Longtime skeptic Matt Lepay gives sports talk radio a shot : Dennis Punzel, 77 Square | January 14, 2009 : --------------------------------------- : : Matt Lepay knows sports talk radio. He's listened to it for years. He's been a guest on shows both around town and around the country. : But until recently Lepay, the longtime voice of the Wisconsin Badgers, resisted the notion that he would ever do his own daily sports talk show. : Then along came WTSO-AM/1070 station manager Tim Scott with an offer he couldn't refuse. As part of the station's revamped lineup in the post-ESPN era, Scott was looking to create a morning equivalent to top-rated afternoon "Heller and Murphy" show. : His first and only choices for such a show were Lepay and his broadcasting partner and sports columnist for The Capital Times, Mike Lucas. It was an opportunity that broke down Lepay's resistance. And when he was given the option of doing his end of the show from his home, it was a done deal. : "When they offered that up, it took me about one second to agree to that," Lepay said. "This is something I honestly never thought I'd want to do. But when asked, it intrigued me and I thought this was something I should at least try." : The "Lucas and Lepay" show was launched Jan. 5, running from 6-8 a.m. Monday through Friday, filling half of the time slot formerly occupied by ESPN's dynamic duo of Mike (Greenberg) and Mike (Golic). : For Scott, the extension of Lucas and Lepay from the broadcast booth to morning drive time was a no-brainer. : "When we decided to do the morning thing, our first choices were Matt and Mike," Scott said. "Who is a better sports brand in Madison than those two guys? Who is better from a name recognition standpoint with their Badger stuff and from a longevity standpoint?" : The questions, of course, were rhetorical. : But even after he accepted the job, Lepay has a couple lingering questions of his own. : "I have two questions for myself going into this," he said. "One, am I going to like it over the long haul and two, am I going to be any good at it? And I don't know the answers to that. : "It's something I think I need to try. They were either nice enough or crazy enough to approach myself and Mike about doing this. I think this is something 'Lukie' has been intrigued with for a while and I just think I'm at a point where I at least need to try it." : The advantage of a locally based talk show is that it can address topics of local interest. For example, while last Thursday morning "Mike and Mike" were obsessing about that night's BCS national championship game, the Dallas Cowboys' release of Pacman Jones and the upcoming NFL playoff games, the topics of the day for "Lucas and Lepay" were P.J. Hill's decision to leave UW early to enter the NFL draft and the Brewers' impending signing of relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman. : "In morning drive there are people in Madison who want to talk about Trevor Hoffman and P.J. Hill and get some perspectives on that," Scott said. "You're not going to get that from a national show. It's going to be all Oklahoma and Florida. Our goal is to find what are the hot topics of the day, not just be a local show. What are the hot topics in Madison? Is it the big game? Absolutely. Is it P.J. Hill and Trevor Hoffman? Absolutely." : As a student of sports talk, Lepay understands that there's more than topical subject matter to making a show successful. There's also style and personality. : "I think there are a lot of different ways to put on a decent talk show," said Lepay, an Ohio native who has been doing UW broadcasts since 1988. "Anybody who's listened to a lot of radio has heard a lot of different styles, from people who label themselves as coach killers to people who have some other type of shtick to others who are more down the middle. That's probably where I'm going to fall. : "I'm certainly not going to go on the air and scream for Mike McCarthy to get canned, or Scott Skiles or Ken Macha, not to mention the UW types. That's not who I am. To me, what works is up to the individual listener. Jim Rome has a style that works for him and he's developed a loyal following. Mike and Mike have a different approach and it's worked very well for them. : "What Mike and I can bring, I think, is more insight locally than what you might hear on a lot of other shows because we're around it. He's covered the university for 40 years and I've been around for half of that, so we can bring a little perspective to things. And at the same time, you try to have some fun. I think at the end of it all you have to be likable, at least to enough people to justify your existence." : That, he admits, can be a challenge at 6 a.m. : "I'm a fairly early riser, anyway, so this isn't so much of a jolt as some people might think," he said. "But there's a difference between being awake at 6 in the morning and talking to an audience for two hours from 6 to 8 in the morning. I've had that confirmed. I thought there'd be a difference and there is."

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