Title: Host of Outkick The Coverage with Clay Travis             

Market: National             

Company: FOX Sports Radio/ Premiere Networks

Born: Nashville, TN                                        

Raised:  Nashville, TN                                  

 

In July of 2007, Travis published his first book Dixieland Delight, a critically-acclaimed chronicle of his 2006 tour of all 12 Southeastern Conference football stadiums and his entertaining fan experiences at every stop. The Nashville native and former lawyer previously wrote columns for CBSSports.com for four years before joining Deadspin as an editor in 2008. During fall of that year, he began his second book, On Rocky Top: A Front-Row Seat to the End of an Era, an all-access tell-all documenting the University of Tennessee football program over the course of its season. After spending 2009-2011 as a columnist for AOL FanHouse, Travis launched Outkick The Coverage, then an SEC-centric news and opinion blog, in July 2011. Gaining strong traction through the world of social media, Outkick became an internet phenomenon, attracting an average of two million unique visitors each month. The site entered a licensing partnership with FOX Sports in July 2013, at which time Travis also became a college football analyst for FS1. He also co-hosted the top-rated 3HL on 104.5 The Zone in Nashville for five years. In September 2016, he joined FOX Sports Radio as host of Outkick The Coverage with Clay Travis, which airs weekday mornings on 220 stations nationwide.

 

As for how I started in radio, I began by doing radio interviews based on articles I was writing. That grew into weekly spots on several stations. Thanks to Brad Willis, the program director at 104.5 the Zone in Nashville, I then started doing a weekly show with a buddy of mine, Chad Withrow. I think we got $50 each for the show. I moved to daily radio about eight or nine years ago, first in middays and then in afternoons, with Brent Dougherty and Blaine Bishop - two good guys who still do the show there.

I've loved radio since the very start.

 

2. You've been in Nashville -- SEC country -- since birth (other than your Caribbean sojourn), and there are definitely regional differences in what people want to talk about regarding sports that even the biggest national radio, TV, and online sports sources have to negotiate, such as SEC football being dominant in the South, NFL in the Northeast, and Lakers Lakers Lakers USC Lakers Dodgers Lakers Rams Lakers in Los Angeles. As a national host from a market where it's SEC and the Titans over everything else, how do you balance what you talk about for the national audience? Do you find yourself backing off college football a little to accommodate non-CFB markets, or do you talk about what you want? (And do you miss talking Titans and Vandy locally, or do you get enough of that into the national shows?)

 

I'm a Titans fan, but talking about who the Titans are going to draft every day for five months, which you have to do in local radio, makes me want to shoot myself in the head with a nail gun.

I also think that football is national, both pro and college, so I’ve always done a ton of football talk on every show I've been on. Why? Because it's the only subject that doesn't alienate your audience. Everybody in this country cares about football. When I did local radio, I said “no” to any hockey talk, even though we had a local NHL team, because outside of the playoffs, it doesn't rate. No one watches hockey in most of the country and if I'm driving along in my car and someone says, “And now we're going to talk about (any hockey story other than a live tiger on the ice that mauled three people),” I immediately change the channel.

 

I think every host has to have a good needle, an idea of what his audience cares about. Ultimately in radio, you need needle-moving topics. I think I'm pretty good at recognizing those topics.

 

Well, I can curse on the podcast show, so that's a big difference. Outkick The Show is also entirely my audience. That is, no one comes there accidentally, so I don't have to worry about explaining much of who I am or what I do – they’re diehards. It’s a big and fun audience that I love.

 

The biggest difference is probably that the online show is more likely to react to live events. From 6-9 am ET, there’s rarely breaking news that's legitimately big news. I think one time we got the news that Tim Tebow had been signed by the Mets. Otherwise, in three months of morning radio, we haven't had a single major news story that broke while we were on air.

The radio audience is still learning who I am, but I think we've already got the best national morning sports radio show in the country, and it's only going to improve from here.

 

I'm like Brer Rabbit - if you throw me into the briar patch, I love it there. Some people worry about getting dirty, but I'm a pig. I like being down in the mud.

Plus, every critic means more listeners and readers.

I honestly wish my critics had bigger audiences; I'd make even more money.

 

I may run for governor or the senate one day in Tennessee, but I have to get richer first. I'd hate to fundraise. I'd want to self-fund a campaign, or fund it by selling Outkick t-shirts.

This won't surprise anyone who knows me, but I'm pretty sure I could win a statewide race in Tennessee. The same thing that makes you a good radio host makes you a good politician; you have to know what people care about and then connect with them. That's whether you're talking about health care or who the new coach of a local team should be.

 

As for doing a show that's all politics, that doesn't appeal to me because that's not how my life works. It’s not how the life of anyone I'm friends with works. I don't know any guys or girls within twenty years of my age who say, "Okay, tonight at dinner, we're just going to talk about sports. Or we're just going to talk about politics. Or we're just going to talk about our favorite TV shows and musicians." Everyone I know mixes all of those things together all the time. It's a polyglot conversation. No one sticks to any one subject. That's what I try to do on our show too. Let's have a fun conversation about everything all at once.

 

If you just want to be boring and listen to bland and inoffensive sports talk radio, that option is already out there at ESPN - it's called Mike and Mike.

That's not us.

 

People who just want sports aren't going to listen to me. That audience, in my experience, is mostly dumber, older and less educated people.

I'll let ESPN keep them and take everyone else.

 

Professionally, Howard Stern is my model. He's the best to ever do radio and I think I can do for sports radio what Stern did for rock radio. In terms of the existing sports arena, I've always pointed to Tony Kornheiser, because he was the first sports media member to be great at writing, radio, and TV. He was a triple threat, just outstanding at all three mediums, and I think I can be a triple threat too.

 

In life? My dad is the best person I've ever known. There isn't a single person on earth that knows my dad and doesn't love him. I'm not even kidding about that. The odds of the most-loved man on earth producing one of the most-hated have to be slim, but I think he's pretty much perfect.

 

My three boys, ages 8, 6, and 2. Also my hair.

 

9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without ________________.

…Twitter. And Pornhub.

 

Don't be afraid to take a risk. Most people are terrified of failing. But failure isn't that bad. I've failed quite a few times. If you aren't failing, then you probably aren't ever going to succeed either.