Episode 28: Episode 28: John Popovich

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is John Popovich. Popo worked in the sports department at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati for 40-years from 1979-2019.
Popo got his start working at a high school radio station in his hometown of Struthers, Ohio. He admits that his love of sports was not going to translate into a playing career but this opportunity opened his eyes to the fact that he could still be a part of sports without playing the game.
After graduating from high school, he attended Ohio University and earned a degree in telecommunications. He worked as a news reporter covering events in town such as city counsel meetings and interviewing presidential candidates for the upcoming election in 1972.
At times the athletics department at OU had a number of good sports teams to follow. Bob Wren coached the baseball team to the 1970 College World Series with Hall of Fame Mike Schmidt playing shortstop for the Bobcats.
Also, the basketball arena, The Convocation Center, opened during his time in Athens and the Bobcats opened it by beating Purdue who was ranked third in the country at the time. OU made it to the NCAA tournament before being beaten by Notre Dame who was lead by the great Austin Carr.
After gradation Popo packed up and moved to Iowa for his first job at WDBQ radio in Dubuque. After about one year he moved across the state to the Quad Cities market in Davenport, Iowa. There he was working both radio and television at WOC for six years. Three years into his tenure, Popo moved full-time over to the sports department.
In July 1979, Popo moved to Cincinnati taking a job in the sports department at WCPO-TV Channel 9. He was hired by the lead news anchor and general manager Al Schottelkotte who was a legendary figure in the television news industry.
We talk about quite a few of his former co-workers in the sports department over the years. They include working with Jack Moran and Tim Melton when he first joined the station. Dennis Janson, who he worked with for 29 years, plus quite a few up-and-coming talents that went on to do great things in the business.
Popo has lots of great stories including an interview he conducted with Muhammad Ali at Staggs Barbershop in Avondale.
John talks about a close encounter that he was lucky enough not to be involved in when the newsroom was taken hostage on October 15, 1980. Click here (https://www.wcpo.com/news/our-community/from-the-vault/from-the-vault-james-hoskins-holds-wcpo-hostage) read a story with video footage from the original incident on one of the anniversaries of the event.
In 1980, at the suggestion of Schottelkotte, Popo created a show called Sports Of All Sorts that aired after the Sunday night newscast. The show started with feature stories but eventually evolved into a weekly full length episode that even had live calls from viewers. This show is still on the air and is the longest running sports show in the country.
He bounce around talking about of the more interesting people and subjects he has covered over the years. These include the Bengals during the Super Bowl runs and the dismal years, the return and fall of Pete Rose, the meteoric rise of local boxing champion Aaron Pryor, the Crosstown Shootout, college basketball in the area and high school sports.
As we start to wrap up Popo talks about him cleaning out his desk in his last months at WCPO and sharing some of those one-of-a-kind memorabilia items he collected over the course of his tenure.
He admits that he doesn’t miss the daily grind of putting together a newscast everyday but misses all of the people he met and worked with over the years.
Popo is not as active on Twitter as we once was but you can still follow him @Popo_WCPOSports (https://twitter.com/Popo_WCPOSports)
You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 (https://twitter.com/BradyLaber1) please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe
Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm (https://nobodysssafe.fireside.fm)
For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com (https://www.stoveleg.com) or send an email to [email protected]
Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com (https://www.bensound.com)

My guest on this episode of Nobody’s Safe w/Brady Laber is John Popovich. Popo worked in the sports department at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati for 40-years from 1979-2019.

Popo got his start working at a high school radio station in his hometown of Struthers, Ohio. He admits that his love of sports was not going to translate into a playing career but this opportunity opened his eyes to the fact that he could still be a part of sports without playing the game.

After graduating from high school, he attended Ohio University and earned a degree in telecommunications. He worked as a news reporter covering events in town such as city counsel meetings and interviewing presidential candidates for the upcoming election in 1972.

At times the athletics department at OU had a number of good sports teams to follow. Bob Wren coached the baseball team to the 1970 College World Series with Hall of Fame Mike Schmidt playing shortstop for the Bobcats.

Also, the basketball arena, The Convocation Center, opened during his time in Athens and the Bobcats opened it by beating Purdue who was ranked third in the country at the time. OU made it to the NCAA tournament before being beaten by Notre Dame who was lead by the great Austin Carr.

After gradation Popo packed up and moved to Iowa for his first job at WDBQ radio in Dubuque. After about one year he moved across the state to the Quad Cities market in Davenport, Iowa. There he was working both radio and television at WOC for six years. Three years into his tenure, Popo moved full-time over to the sports department.

In July 1979, Popo moved to Cincinnati taking a job in the sports department at WCPO-TV Channel 9. He was hired by the lead news anchor and general manager Al Schottelkotte who was a legendary figure in the television news industry.

We talk about quite a few of his former co-workers in the sports department over the years. They include working with Jack Moran and Tim Melton when he first joined the station. Dennis Janson, who he worked with for 29 years, plus quite a few up-and-coming talents that went on to do great things in the business.

Popo has lots of great stories including an interview he conducted with Muhammad Ali at Staggs Barbershop in Avondale.

John talks about a close encounter that he was lucky enough not to be involved in when the newsroom was taken hostage on October 15, 1980. Click here read a story with video footage from the original incident on one of the anniversaries of the event.

In 1980, at the suggestion of Schottelkotte, Popo created a show called Sports Of All Sorts that aired after the Sunday night newscast. The show started with feature stories but eventually evolved into a weekly full length episode that even had live calls from viewers. This show is still on the air and is the longest running sports show in the country.

He bounce around talking about of the more interesting people and subjects he has covered over the years. These include the Bengals during the Super Bowl runs and the dismal years, the return and fall of Pete Rose, the meteoric rise of local boxing champion Aaron Pryor, the Crosstown Shootout, college basketball in the area and high school sports.

As we start to wrap up Popo talks about him cleaning out his desk in his last months at WCPO and sharing some of those one-of-a-kind memorabilia items he collected over the course of his tenure.

He admits that he doesn’t miss the daily grind of putting together a newscast everyday but misses all of the people he met and worked with over the years.

Popo is not as active on Twitter as we once was but you can still follow him @Popo_WCPOSports

You can follow Brady Laber on Twitter @BradyLaber1 please use the hashtag #NobodysSafe

Check out the Nobody’s Safe website at nobodysssafe.fireside.fm

For more information on Stove Leg Media go the website StoveLeg.com or send an email to [email protected]

Intro music for the podcast was provided by bensoud.com