Radio sports show comes to a close

FAYETTEVILLE — On Jan. 23, Bo Mattingly led off his show with a surprising announcement.

After more than a decade of hosting arguably the state’s most popular sports talk radio show, Mattingly said he was giving up his coveted afternoon time slot to move his business, Sport & Story, in a new direction, toward documentary filmmaking and podcasting.

On Thursday, Sports Talk with Bo Mattingly aired for the final time on nine affiliates throughout Arkansas. It ended an 11½-year run, during which Mattingly, 42, became one of the most recognizable voices in the state — he was voted state sportscaster of the year in 2012, 2013 and 2016 — and one of the most influential on the topic of the Razorbacks.

Mattingly’s show was unlike any of its peers in the state at the time it launched in July 2007. Whereas other shows were driven almost entirely by callers, “Sports Talk” took a different approach by scheduling multiple guests each day to carry the show, then supplemented the interviews with calls and features.

Mattingly was helped by a pair of longtime personal friendships with ESPN personalities Chris Mortensen and Jimmy Dykes, who did weekly segments on the show. He also retained radio veterans Clay Henry and Dudley Dawson of Hawgs Illustrated, who had been regulars on “Sports Rap with Chuck Barrett,” a statewide show that preceded “Sports Talk.”

The recognizable voices added credibility to the show, and over time more nationally known guests joined on as regular contributors.

A listener might say they didn’t care for Mattingly’s opinion, but they listened to his show because of his guest list.

“The vision for the show was to always be content-driven and give people things they didn’t know,” Mattingly said. “Anytime I had a question, I would try to get somebody on to get an answer. Rather than just discuss it, let’s get someone on who can give an educated opinion.

“I wanted to have a thought-provoking, educated, opinion-type show where it was rooted in research or expertise.”

Prior to launching the show in 2007, Mattingly spent nearly a decade as a TV sportscaster at affiliates in Fayetteville.

The appetite for all-things-Razorback led Mattingly to be on the road several nights a year. In February 2007, he returned from a basketball game in Starkville, Miss., late in the afternoon and was met at Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport by a KNWA satellite truck. He did a live shot from the airport parking lot to address speculation that longtime athletic director Frank Broyles’ retirement was imminent.

“It just got to be we were going on every road trip with the basketball team and every football road trip, so during basketball season I was gone a lot,” Mattingly said. “I had gone from single to married with three kids in a year-and-ahalf.”

The opportunity to move to radio presented itself when Barrett was hired as the football play-byplay voice of the Razorbacks in 2007. Barrett had hosted his popular afternoon show for more than a decade.

Tommy Craft, the market manager for Pearson Broadcasting, was one of the individuals who approached Mattingly about filling the vacancy.

“It was clear his talent level was good enough to carry an afternoon show,” Craft said. “He had been in TV, and I knew the hours weren’t what he was desiring long term for his lifestyle, and we were able to put a business plan together that was good for everybody.

“We’ve been doing this for close to 12 years now. It’s been a process that has been good for everybody. We’ve grown our footprint with more stations, and his show has been aired on all those stations. We’ve been very pleased with it.”

Mattingly developed his business with Stephen R. Graves, an adviser to high-level business leaders who he had met at church. They have remained partners for nearly 12 years.

Mattingly and his team have been branching out in recent years. In conjunction with Little Rock-based JM Associates, Mattingly’s company has co-produced three preseason football miniseries since 2016 that focused on former Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck and Alabama coach Nick Saban. All three were aired on affiliates of ESPN.

He is currently working on a fourth series at a Power 5 football program.

In addition to an added video inventory, Mattingly has partnered with Learfield IMG College to produce a weekly podcast, “The Hog Pod,” that will air on the Razorbacks’ website. The podcast will be “labor intensive,” Mattingly said, and will tell stories about the athletics program, past and present.

The first podcast will drop on March 12 and will be a retrospective of the Razorbacks’ 1994 basketball national championship team, told from the perspective of former coach Nolan Richardson.

“That will take the place of doing the show,” Mattingly said. “The thing I’ll miss is when something exciting is happening and I won’t have the chance to weigh in.

“What will be different is not being able to have that interaction with the community on a daily basis. I’ll miss that interaction. But somebody else will move in there and have an opportunity.”