Episode 5: Episode 5: John Asalon (Part 1)

Brady welcomes John to the podcast and John talks about his growing up in the “Westside” which sparks a lengthy conversation about the demographics and makeup of this large neighborhood on the western side of Cincinnati, Ohio.
This discussion moves toward John’s high school alma mater Elder High School (https://www.ehsports.com). Elder is one of the most tradition filled programs in America let alone Cincinnati and John talks about the fierce loyalty shown by people who still life vicariously through the Purple and White.
This spins off into a brief description and comparison to Elder and John’s current employer Highlands High School (https://www.highlandsathletics.com/football) in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.
John begins to talk about his early influences and wanting to be a broadcaster as an eight-year old baseball fan. He was first introduced to baseball following a family member Art Mahaffey (https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mahafar01.shtml) who was a pitcher for the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies.
John listened to the Cincinnati Reds radio broadcasts with Waite Hoyt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waite_Hoyt) and Claude Sullivan on the call. He was mesmerized by the all stories that Hoyt would tell about playing for the New York Yankees and being teammates with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
After his graduating from Elder in 1974, John went on an interesting odyssey through college as he wanted to study broadcasting but instead pleased his family by going a safer route.
John talks about landing a part-time job as a teenager with the Cincinnati Reds on the grounds crew at Riverfront Stadium. John worked there from 1972-79 where he witness the height of the Big Red Machine.
With a degree in marketing from Northern Kentucky University (https://nkunorse.com), John starts working as the assistant manager at Hader Hardware. After a brief period of time John decides to branch out on his own. He buys a competing hardware store that is struggling and goes into business for himself.
After five years of owning and operating the hardware store, his brother Todd Asalon gets him into the catering business. Todd and his business partner are doing a great business but need help actually running the business and bring John into the mix.
The conversation somehow veers into a sidebar about Todd playing baseball at Northern Kentucky University for legendary head coach and founder of the program Bill Aker. Todd would eventually becomes Aker’s hand picked successor as head coach upon his retirement after the 2000 season. There are a ton of Bill Aker stories and because of purposes of time John only talks about just a few of them.
Because John’s story a long winding and interesting road he just now gets to the point of when he makes his debut as a play-by-play broadcaster. Todd is the baseball coach and athletic director at Thomas More (https://www.thomasmoresaints.com/landing/index) and in the mid-90’s he needs a fill-in for a Saints football game. At this point John was in his late-30’s and is making his debut with less than 24 hours notice.
John finds out upon arrival that he will be working solo and after a rough start finds his rhythm as the Saints defeat Hope College. The circumstances are not uneventful but like and old pro John perseveres and his broadcasting career is finally underway.
Thomas More games are broadcasts on a local level, many times with volunteers, on public access and local origination programming channels. The name of that channel is currently called TBNK (https://www.tbnk.org/site/index.php), the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky formerly known as Cable One.
For many years John begins to branch out by calling basketball games for Thomas More as well as high school football and basketball on TBNK.
John’s brother Todd makes arrangements for John to begin his tenure for the Northern Kentucky University baseball games in 2006. Since was the early days of internet streaming plus the Norse were not playing on campus at the time.
Also around this same time, John teams up with Denny Wright on TBNK called Florence Freedom games. This sparks conversation and memories about one of the founding members of the television industry in Northern Kentucky, the late great Ted Bushelman. Click here (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/102433070/theodore-joseph-bushelman) to see Ted’s death notice and obituary because it is a great recap of Ted’s distinguished life.
In Episode 6 we continue the story with John as he and Brady talk about his time in sports talk radio, his tenure with the Cincinnati Steam, a couple of his long-time broadcast partners AND him calling games from some very difficult and unique vantage points during the course of his career.
You can follow “Johnny A” on Twitter @john_asalon (https://twitter.com/john_asalon) and catch his podcast The Week in APBA Anchor preview (https://anchor.fm/john-asalon).
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)

Brady welcomes John to the podcast and John talks about his growing up in the “Westside” which sparks a lengthy conversation about the demographics and makeup of this large neighborhood on the western side of Cincinnati, Ohio.

This discussion moves toward John’s high school alma mater Elder High School. Elder is one of the most tradition filled programs in America let alone Cincinnati and John talks about the fierce loyalty shown by people who still life vicariously through the Purple and White.

This spins off into a brief description and comparison to Elder and John’s current employer Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

John begins to talk about his early influences and wanting to be a broadcaster as an eight-year old baseball fan. He was first introduced to baseball following a family member Art Mahaffey who was a pitcher for the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies.

John listened to the Cincinnati Reds radio broadcasts with Waite Hoyt and Claude Sullivan on the call. He was mesmerized by the all stories that Hoyt would tell about playing for the New York Yankees and being teammates with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

After his graduating from Elder in 1974, John went on an interesting odyssey through college as he wanted to study broadcasting but instead pleased his family by going a safer route.

John talks about landing a part-time job as a teenager with the Cincinnati Reds on the grounds crew at Riverfront Stadium. John worked there from 1972-79 where he witness the height of the Big Red Machine.

With a degree in marketing from Northern Kentucky University, John starts working as the assistant manager at Hader Hardware. After a brief period of time John decides to branch out on his own. He buys a competing hardware store that is struggling and goes into business for himself.

After five years of owning and operating the hardware store, his brother Todd Asalon gets him into the catering business. Todd and his business partner are doing a great business but need help actually running the business and bring John into the mix.

The conversation somehow veers into a sidebar about Todd playing baseball at Northern Kentucky University for legendary head coach and founder of the program Bill Aker. Todd would eventually becomes Aker’s hand picked successor as head coach upon his retirement after the 2000 season. There are a ton of Bill Aker stories and because of purposes of time John only talks about just a few of them.

Because John’s story a long winding and interesting road he just now gets to the point of when he makes his debut as a play-by-play broadcaster. Todd is the baseball coach and athletic director at Thomas More and in the mid-90’s he needs a fill-in for a Saints football game. At this point John was in his late-30’s and is making his debut with less than 24 hours notice.

John finds out upon arrival that he will be working solo and after a rough start finds his rhythm as the Saints defeat Hope College. The circumstances are not uneventful but like and old pro John perseveres and his broadcasting career is finally underway.

Thomas More games are broadcasts on a local level, many times with volunteers, on public access and local origination programming channels. The name of that channel is currently called TBNK, the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky formerly known as Cable One.

For many years John begins to branch out by calling basketball games for Thomas More as well as high school football and basketball on TBNK.

John’s brother Todd makes arrangements for John to begin his tenure for the Northern Kentucky University baseball games in 2006. Since was the early days of internet streaming plus the Norse were not playing on campus at the time.

Also around this same time, John teams up with Denny Wright on TBNK called Florence Freedom games. This sparks conversation and memories about one of the founding members of the television industry in Northern Kentucky, the late great Ted Bushelman. Click here to see Ted’s death notice and obituary because it is a great recap of Ted’s distinguished life.

In Episode 6 we continue the story with John as he and Brady talk about his time in sports talk radio, his tenure with the Cincinnati Steam, a couple of his long-time broadcast partners AND him calling games from some very difficult and unique vantage points during the course of his career.

You can follow “Johnny A” on Twitter @john_asalon and catch his podcast The Week in APBA Anchor preview.

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