Podcast appearances and mentions of ernie baur

Kevin talks John Madden to start and then also at the end of the show with local TV legend, Ernie Baur. In between, Kevin on why any conversation about Ron Rivera being fired is absurd and why he thinks Kyle Allen should start against the Eagles.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andy was joined by former sports producer Ernie Baur, who had the pleasure of working with John Madden and strolls down memory lane off of the passing of the football icon. For more sports coverage, download the ESPN630 AM app, visit https://www.sportscapitoldc.com, or tune in live 10AM Monday-Friday. To join the conversation, check us out on twitter @ESPN630DC, @andypollin1 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The podcast today was a conversation between Kevin and Ernie Baur. Ernie is a local broadcasting legend having directed and produced some of the greatest television news and sports talent in the history of DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Al Koken on what started his career ~ "All because I jumped out of an airplane." Al Koken, Capitals Reporter and Host, NBC Sports Washington, and host Andy Ockershausen in-studio interview Andy Ockershausen: This is a special, special treat to me on our podcast, a man, and I know that's a cliché and I'm going to say it anyway, needs no introduction, but he likes it. So I'm going to introduce you to a wonderful, wonderful great broadcaster, Smokin' Al Koken. Al Koken: We're using my biblical name then? Is that what we're doing? Andy Ockershausen: Who came up with the "Smokin'"? Glenn Brenner and a True Badge of Honor - "Smokin'Al Koken" Al Koken: It was given to me, and I wear it with a true badge of honor, by the late great Glenn Brenner. Andy Ockershausen: Glenn did that? Al Koken: When I was working with him at Channel 9, it was back in the day. Remember when the third-string quarterback held the clipboard, as opposed to being inactive? Glenn called me the clipboard guy. If he was on vacation, Ken Mease would go Monday through Friday, and I'd fill in for Ken Mease. I was kind of their third guy. Back in the day when the Redskins were on CBS as opposed to Fox, after Redskin home games they would do a Redskin post-game show with Glenn in the studio, and I would be down at RFK Stadium interviewing players. During one of the broadcasts, we come back from commercial, they're going to come down to me, and I'm going to interview a player. Glenn comes back and says, "All right, let's go back down to RFK Stadium and rejoin," and he paused. I'm thinking, did he forget my name? He goes, "Smokin' Al Koken." I kind of laughed, you know. Andy Ockershausen: First time you heard it? Al Koken: Yeah. Of course, the next day, because it was given by Glenn Brenner, people, "Hey, Smokin' Al Koken. Smokin' Al Koken." That's how it stuck, but because it was given to me by somebody who I respect and love so much- Andy Ockershausen: Everybody. Everybody loved Glenn. Al Koken: Yeah, I treat that like a real badge of honor. Andy Ockershausen: One of the things, and, this isn't at all for you, Koken, but it's important. One of the things Janice and I would really look forward to, because they were friends, was the Redskins show on Saturday night. Well, they taped it on Thursday, but John Riggins and Sonny, of course, and George. Before that it was Glenn. It was all those guys. It was about fun. It was a fun show. Stuff I'm watching now, not fun. Al Koken: Right, and directed by our great friend, Ernie Baur, and produced by Ernie Baur. He was a guy who always made sure that the best of what Glenn did, which was off-the-cuff, ad libbing, as you said, having fun, that had to shine through. You couldn't sit there with John Riggins and Sonny Jurgensen and ask serious questions and get people to watch for 30 minutes. You had to have fun with it, and the more off-script they went, the better the show. Andy Ockershausen: You were right, and it doesn't happen anymore. But Al, you are a Missourian. You're from Missouri, but you've gotta be shown. St. Louis. I remember you, we're trying to get you on the phone. They said, "Don't call him during the World Series. He's in St. Louis." That's was the first time I knew you were connected by a lot of things to St. Louis. St. Louis, Missouri Fan - Baseball, Football and Hockey Al Koken: Grew up in St. Louis, and obviously I was a huge St. Louis Baseball Cardinal fan, football fan, St. Louis Blues. That's where I really fell in love with hockey, seeing the St. Louis Blues for the first years of expansion. They came in 1967, and I remember my uncle had some season tickets, and going down and seeing the games, and just mesmerized. I tell everybody- Andy Ockershausen: You lived in the city? Movie "Back to the Future" Based on University City Al Koken: Lived just on the edge. It's called University City. In fact, I'll give you a very quick story about University City.

Gordon Peterson on conversation with colleague Glenn Brenner after they began to work together at Channel 9 ~ "He says to me one day, 'I need to talk to you. This is serious.' He says, 'I’ve been fired from every job I’ve ever had for the stuff I’m doing here and you keep throwing gasoline on the fire. I’m trying to figure out if you’re with me or against me.' I said, 'I’m with you, baby, just trust me.'" Gordon Peterson, Retired Journalist and Legendary News Anchor and Andy Ockershausen in studio interview Andy Ockershausen: This is Our Town with Andy Ockershausen. Like all the rest of us, so much of our guests have grown up in the news business here in Washington. We just decided we wanted people on that everybody knew about, so we've been trying to get this man for the last year, and we finally got it. Gordon Peterson was at one time the dean. I hate to say that, the dean of anchors, but you were. You were older than anybody except Bryson Rash, who died. But the names and people we have on the show talk about Channel 9, and they talk about Gordon Peterson, and inevitably, guys like Sonny Jurgensen who worked with you, the new chief of police is from Worcester. Gordon Peterson: I knew that. Andy Ockershausen: He told me that. I was sitting right here. Then, even your TV director, Ernie Baur. Ernie Baur on Gordon Peterson as "Guy LeGuy" Ernie Baur: So we decided, to do a show with the Caps. This is in January, or something like that. It was 7:30, live audience. Boom. It starts snowing around 9:00 in the morning. Now it's getting deeper, you know? So now I call the Caps up and I go, "You guys think you're going to be able to make it?" "Oh, yeah, yeah. We're hockey players." It's Guy Charron, Danny Belisle, I don't know. So now, we've got eight, six feet of snow, and the audience can't get there and the Caps are stuck in College Park. But we still have to do a show. So I gathered everybody in the station to be in the audience, and you see in the audience, Mike Buchanan, Pat Collins, Susan King. I don't know if Andrea Mitchell was there. You know, but all the talent- Andy Ockershausen: All the talent. Ernie Baur: And a couple of the engineers. But we have no guest. So first comes out Gordon and Glenn and Sonny and we get Gordon Barnes on, who was doing weather. And somebody throws a snowball, hits him right in the groin. "Oh, God." So now we're scrambling, you know? So Gordon Peterson, God bless him, wanders around and we said, "Why don't you come on?" So he comes on, and he comes on as Guy LeGuy. Andy Ockershausen: Yeah, world-famous. Ernie Baur: He's a Venezuelan... He's an American imitating a Venezuelan hockey player with a Swedish accent, okay? And he's Guy LeGuy. And it's great. He talks about, you know, in an accent that I can't do, you know, "It's tough to be a hockey player in Venezuela because the ice keeps melting," and all this stuff. Andy Ockershausen: Great line. Ernie Baur: Then so we... Any questions from audience? And Chris Gordon raises his hand, "Yeah, how long have you been 'Guy'?" Andy Ockershausen: Chris Gordon is still on the air. Ernie Baur: Absolutely. Andy Ockershausen: How about that, buddy? Ernie Baur: And Gordon Peterson says you know, "Of all the things I've done, this is what I'll be remembered for. Guy LeGuy." And people still tap me on the shoulder about that one. Andy Ockershausen: So here he is live and in color, the erstwhile Gordon Peterson. The Guy LeGuy Backstory Gordon Peterson: Ernie Baur was the first guy who cued me on television at Channel 9. And here's how he cued me. Just before the mic gets hot and the lights go on, he says "Hey, dummy, when I point, you talk." And he points. So the lights come on and I'm laughing. And after the broadcast, my boss says, "What was so funny at the beginning of the broadcast?" I said, "I don't know, I just was in a good mood, I guess." Now, the backstory on this thing that he told you, the studio was,

Ernie Baur is a DC TV producer who saw it all. He and Thom reminisce on his illustrious career. 6:23 how he got his start in the biz, 12:39 Hanafi Siege coverage, 16:30 Birth of Warner’s catchphrase, 21:10 working w/ Glenn Brenner, and 25:28 getting to know and become friends with Sonny Jurgensen"

From Wednesday, January 3, 2017: Ernie Baur is a DC TV producer who saw it all. He and Thom reminisce on his illustrious career. 6:23 how he got his start in the biz, 12:39 Hanafi Siege coverage, 16:30 Birth of Warner’s catchphrase, 21:10 working w/ Glenn Brenner, and 25:28 getting to know and become friends with Sonny Jurgensen.

The phrase “living legend” gets tossed around a lot but there is no better way to describe Ernie Baur, long-time D.C. news and sports director and producer. In this fun and story-filled interview, Andy O. and the 14-time Emmy winning reminisce about the go-go years of local television programming and the diverse personalities that made it so special. Ernie Baur - Emmy Award Winning Producer/Director Born and raised in a Bethesda that has long-since faded from memory among the concrete and steel buildings of today, Ernie attended our Lady of Lourdes until 8th grade. In 9th, grade Ernie attended Good Counsel (hitchhiking to and from the all-boys Catholic school), and ultimately graduated from the co-ed high school right behind his house, Bethesda Chevy Chase. Deciding that more school was not for him (“I went to Montgomery College for about an hour and a half”), Ernie Baur was grilling steaks at the local Bonanza when his first break in broadcasting came as a part time copy boy at Channel 9. His prowess on the football field playing with the station crew team in the local flag football beer league game earned him an invitation for a paid internship. This would be just the beginning of the important role football would play in his life and career. Among the news anchors that Ernie ran copy to in those early years at Channel 9 was Sam Donaldson, who would go on to fame as a dogged reporter covering the White House for ABC. “Donaldson, he was a heart attack waiting to happen. He did everything to the last minute . . . what a character. You know he auditioned once… at channel 7 and we didn't hire him. The opinion of the group was this guy's a jerk and yeah, I'm not gonna argue. He was high maintenance but a great broadcaster. He’d always come up to you and say ‘I'm surrounded by incompetents everyday’.” But it wasn’t just on the news broadcasts where Ernie learned his craft. As stage manager of the Saturday morning Ranger Hal show “I used to run the puppets, Hal did the voices. You get behind the screen and you put your hand up you’re Marvin Monkey, Dr. Fox, Oswald Rabbit.” And, of course, Ernie has a story or two about trying to do the show after a few late nights at The Dancing Crab. While brief, Ernie Baur got his first directing break at Channel 7, working with another DC broadcasting legend Ed Walker on AM Washington, pairing Walker with Ruth Hudgens. But Channel 9 wanted him back and they sent a very special envoy to recruit him. “Fortunately for me…the person that they hired to replace me was awful, so awful to the point that they came back to me and they had Gordon Peterson take me out and say we need to get him back. Jim Snyder was a news director Ben Schneider and John Baker was a producer they're the ones that said ‘Look we gotta get Ernie back okay and whatever it takes and so Gordon got me back.” And it was at Channel 9 the Ernie met Lucille, his wife of 43 years. Of course, one of Ernie Baur’s great contributions to DC broadcasting lore is his work with NFL football and creating “Redskins Sidelines.” But that is not the only “sidelines” Ernie worked – for 15 seasons (and including 6 Super Bowls) Ernie worked as the “glove man” – the sideline guy who wears big orange gloves and indicates timeouts on the field. “Yeah I did it for “The Catch” the famous play in 49er history by Dwight Clark (in the 1982 NFC Championship Game against the Cowboys). I was there for that.” Glenn Brenner, the quick-witted and beloved sportscaster started out as the “third-string” sports anchor on Channel 9 but within a year was the “guy.” And, the rest is history. As the “Warner Wolf Show” morphed into “Redskins Sidelines” once Wolf had left the station. Once Sonny Jurgensen joined “Sidelines”, the format was set and its popularity grew among Redskins fans. Many of the behind-the-scenes stories of “Redskins Sidelines” have passed into Washington broadcasting lore. Sobriety of the hosts and the guests could some...