KEN HOFFMAN,
Julia Morales and Raheel Ramzanali are two of Houston’s brightest young sports broadcasters.
They go back. They met as sophomores (if you trust Ramzanali’s memory) or juniors (let’s go with Morales’) in a journalism class at the University of Texas. They worked as teammates on a semester project. And they walked across the stage and were handed their degrees in broadcast journalism the same day in 2007.
Morales took baby steps on a traditional career path, working her way to Houston through TV stations in Sherman, Tyler and Austin. Now she’s the very popular field reporter for Astros telecasts on Root Sports Southwest.
Ramzanali came straight to Houston for a beginner’s job as a program assistant on KGOW (1560 AM), a new radio station with a signal roughly equal to a distant kitten’s meow. The station’s early days were rough, but Ramzanali stayed onboard. Now he’s co-host of the “Granato and Raheel With Del” show from 9-11 a.m. on ESPN 97.5 FM. It’s the No. 1-rated sports talk show in its time slot and No. 3 overall in the market. Let’s go back to Morales and Ramzanali’s days on the UT campus.
“Julia was the friendliest and coolest girl in our journalism class. She was a member of the UT dance team, so it was like having a celebrity in the class. I used to tell people that I knew her,” Ramzanali said. “She was a sports person from the get-go. UT football was always a big conversation topic, and Julia absolutely held her own. We became good friends right away.”
Morales laughed, “Did Raheel really call us the ‘UT dance team?’ It’s called Texas Pom, and if you’re a real UT fan you definitely know the Pom girls. We’re the girls who wear chaps and cute vest things on the sidelines at UT football and basketball games. We’re the hot ones. He really said ‘dance team?’
“Raheel was one of those naturally funny, smart people who everybody liked instantly. He was so easy to talk with. We always bumped into each other in the journalism building and, I’m not afraid to say this, during weekends on Sixth Street in Austin.”
Morales came to work for the Astros on Root Sports Southwest in 2013. That’s her with the fiery-red hair, running throughout Minute Maid Park, talking with fans, sampling the concessions, interviewing players before and after games and trading banter with the announcers. Morales, whose airtime seems to grow bigger each season, is clearly a major part of Astros games on TV.
“I work 140 of the Astros’ 162 games, and I travel on all the road trips. I didn’t know what a ‘dream job’ was until I landed this one. The opportunity to cover the Astros is very exciting, more than I imagined. Just think, I cover the team and the sport I really love on a daily basis. And I get to go on Raheel’s radio show all the time!” she said.
“Coming here in 2013 was great timing. That year, the only star was Jose Altuve. Now the whole team is stars who have wonderful personalities.”
Her favorite post-game interview?
“Let’s go with George Springer. I never know what he’s going to say!”
That’s how listeners — and management — feel about Ramzanali on ESPN 97.5 FM. They never know what he’s going to say, either. Most of the time, Ramzanali is right on the money with his sports views, opinions and outrageous comments. Sometimes, the show ends with Ramzanali in the boss’ office for a “Did you have to say that?” meeting.
I asked Ramzanali, are you jealous that Morales is a thousand times more successful than you? Where did it all go wrong for you?
He laughed, “That’s how it should be. Julia is a wonderful person and, well, you know me.”
I do know Ramzanali. Ready for how he got his onair break?
Ten years ago, KGOW hired a few radio veterans, such as John Granato and Lance Zierlein, who knew what they were doing, and a bunch of new people without much radio experience to host shows.
I was picked to host the 10 a.m.-to-noon show. I had no right to be there. But I needed the money, and it was either do radio on a station that nobody could hear or dance at Le Bare where everybody could see. Let’s do radio.
At 9:59 a.m. on the first day, panic set in. I shouldn’t be doing this. And why am I doing this alone, without a co-host? At that moment, I saw a young guy walk past the studio door. I didn’t even know to shut the door to keep out noise from the hallway.
I yelled at the guy, “Hey, come in here. You’re going to do the show with me.”
The “on air” light went on. We talked for about 15 minutes about … I have no idea what … and went to our first commercial break. I leaned across the table and asked my temporary lifesaver co-host, “What’s your name?”
I was doing my debut radio show with someone whom I had never met and whose name I didn’t know.
He said, “Raheel Ramzanali. I’m new here. I just graduated from UT.”
I thought, there’s something about this person and told him, “You stick around.”