The Bridge Ep. 38: Steve Torre, program director for SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio, joins the show to discuss how he worked up to satellite radio and what life is like working on Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo’s channel

Steve Torre and John Lund at FALCon 2016 this past spring.
Steve Torre and John Lund at FALCon 2016 this past spring.

Things certainly have picked up for live show No. 2 with Sports Radio America. Last week featured a “Best of” show to introduce the new audience to some things they can expect to hear each week. This installment of The Bridge got back to the usual debauchery, with some new segments thrown in for good measure.

For starters, as a reminder, The Bridge now airs as a one hour show every Wednesday night on SRA, starting at 7 ET. Once the dust settles from that live broadcast, the podcast version of the latest show will be released on iTunes and this website on Friday nights. You can listen to the live show every Wednesday on Sports Radio America here or through the TuneIn app.

Now, to the fun. This week’s edition of Sports News Read Like Real News dealt with #FakeBrady wreaking havoc in Arizona on Sunday night. Thanks, Bleacher Report (3:21).

The new segment “The Drawbridge” made its debut, where we draw conclusions from what’s happened throughout the week. This installment of The Drawbridge made note of all the teams no longer in existence and all the teams that have been created since the Los Angeles Rams last won a football game way back in 1994 (7:22).

The new segment, “Wait, Who?” also made its debut, which focuses on the lesser-known players or coaches that you might see playing professional sports. This week centered around Denver Broncos starting quarterback, Trevor Siemian (10:33).

Now to this week’s guest. It was a pleasure to be joined by Steve Torre, who serves as the program director for SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. He also provides hourly sports bites for Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo’s weekly radio show before hosting an hour-long recap show immediately following. Steve did just about everything he could to work his way through the radio business, and it was great getting to hear his story and some of the things that go on while working with the Mad Dog.

During the interview, we discuss:

If he’s related to Joe Torre (15:45), how he fell in love with sports broadcasting and getting started in high school (16:38), working for college radio before getting a gig for Sports Phone, landing a job in Vermont, then ending up at 1010 WINS in New York (19:29), what his opening line was for Sports Phone (22:39), if there was any rivalry between WINS and WFAN and some different opportunities offered at the station (23:19), how he first got involved with Sirius satellite radio and the new NFL Radio channel, moving up to working with the “Sunday Drive” show and then making the switch to working at the station full-time (25:21), what he looks for when hiring talent and how much impact he’s had on the current lineup (30:53), the story of Chris’s famous rant from 2009 and if he was actually fired (33:27), ending up on the Howard Stern show from the rant (36:15), his relationships with Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo (37:15), how his post-Mad Dog Unleashed show ‘Dog Bites’ came to be (40:21), what his typical work day is like (43:51), where he hopes to see the station in the future (46:13), if he’ll try to get the band back together when Mike Francesa’s contract comes up next year (50:01) and when you can hear him on-air (50:52).

The interview starts at the 15:27 mark. Usually, here’s where you’d find the Twitter account of the guest, but Steve doesn’t have one (yet).

Call in or text the show 24/7 at 929-BRIDGE7, that’s (929) 274-3437. Contact the show with your questions, comments, stories or hot takes and you might be featured in the next installment of The Bridge.

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You can listen to the show live on Wednesday nights at 7 ET via Sports Radio America or the TuneIn app.

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Email the show at media [at] lundinbridge [dot] com and follow the host on Twitter @lundinbridge.

Show music: ‘Actionable’ and ‘Epic,’ courtesy of www.bensound.com.

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