Charlie Hume
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
I am Charlie Hume and I used to produce the TV simulcast of a Levitard show for Fusion and ESPN. It was a sort of layered thing. In fact, it was kind of funny how the whole thing came to be in that we had always seen the Fusion version of the show as an incubator of sorts for a simulcast version of this that could end up on ESPN channel.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
We just didn't know when and where and what the timing of that would be. And if I recall this correctly, we had an afternoon time slot for the original iteration of the show, the radio show. And of course, the simulcast of the TV show on Fusion. It was only airing on Fusion. And then I think Colin Cowherd had signed a deal to go to Fox or rumored to sign a deal going to Fox.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
And we thought we had this long runway that, you know, we're going to kind of develop the version of the show is going to move into the Cowherd time slot or... Maybe we didn't know whether that was going to be a possibility. But then Colin, I think, said something controversial on the air about like a baseball player or something. And ESPN radio execs decided to pull the plug then and there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
And so just in the matter of a week or maybe even shorter, we were thrust into this new time slot. in the morning and it did not coincide with fusion's television lineup and so that's when we were simulcasted i think it was a combination of espn you and espn news and that was somehow a wider distribution than wherever fusion was at that point in time
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
That's when people really started to kind of take notice of the visual version of the show and all the weird and fun stuff we were doing there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
So that happens, and then at that point, Fusion, whether or not they were deciding to re-up after that initial year-long contract, is realizing that everyone's watching the version of the show simulcast on ESPN, and no one's watching the version of the show airing later that day on tape delay on their network. So it was pretty clear at that point that they were not going to re-up.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
And we were going to have to figure out a different way to produce this version of the show. Dan was really pushing to continue doing creative stuff with that wherever it ended up. And Eric basically said, look, I already have the fiber lines here that we use every single day to produce Highly Questionable out of that studio above the Clevelander, running that all the way from Miami to DC.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
Why don't we just use the same nano control room to do the radio show earlier in the day?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
I remember sitting in that bar of the Clevelander underneath our studio and Eric calling me and saying, what do you think about moving to D.C. and doing the show from here? There was definitely a sadness leaving Miami and just the whole crew and the whole team there and, you know, the sort of camaraderie we had in the shipping container.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
I still have like pictures and videos that last day of the big group hug we had in the shipping container as very comedically throughout every segment, every break of the show, I took more of those Velcro show set pieces off.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
the set until the end of the day the entire thing was stripped off and only the Dan Levittard Show logo remained up there as like a show of closure for the show from the Clevelander. They moved to DC and you know selfishly turned out to be a great life move because that's where I met my wife we got married in DC and you know now we have two kids and all's well that ends well so
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
was definitely an interesting time moving you know from fusion to the ride home version of the show in dc but i think one that worked out in terms of continuing dan's creative vision for the show through a guy and eric that he really kind of trusted and respected and then there was a real boom time for that show on the aftermath of that and did some fun stuff at the super bowl and a number of other places so that's kind of how it all happened
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Oral History of the Dan Le Batard Show: Episode 7
It would live longer.