Dan Le Batard Show listeners deserve transparency with Stugotz

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz listeners deserve to know what happened, and Jonathan Zaslow believes that day will come.

Zaslow joined the latest episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast to discuss his media career and growing role on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. And with Zaslow’s increased role coinciding with Stugotz’s decreased role, Zaslow addressed whether he has more information about what drove Stugotz to leave what he built with Le Batard for Fox Sports Radio.

“I haven’t had a conversation about Stugotz with Dan in eight months,” Zaslow insisted. “I’m sure if I asked Dan, he would tell me something. But I really try to take the attitude of, if it doesn’t involve me, I don’t really need to know.”

While it’s fair to say what happens in a relationship between two other people is their business and not ours, that’s just not how radio works. Listeners know why Mike and the Mad Dog split, they know what happened to Mike and Mike or Toucher and Rich, and they know why Artie Lange left Stern. Le Batard and Stugotz were together for two decades, building this community and unique connection with the listeners that allowed their audience to get the show.

It’s been nearly five months since Stugotz launched his own terrestrial radio show on Fox Sports Radio, and nearly a year since he last appeared on the show he spent two decades building with Le Batard. And while there are plenty of guesses and theories as to what happened, Le Batard and Stugotz have continued to avoid any specifics about their split.

“I think that day will come,” Zaslow said, noting he doesn’t blame the audience for wanting more transparency. “By the way, Stugtoz’s name is still on the show. It would be one thing if Stugotz’s name comes off the show and there’s an announcement made that ‘they’re no longer together, this is final,’ and still no one has explained anything. And that hasn’t been the case yet.

“I do think that when there is some kind of finality, if there is a finality, I would think there will be some type of explanation for the audience…the audience in radio is a special kind of connection with its host. You really feel like you’re in the room with them. It’s not television, it is not the same thing. There is a relationship, and obviously with these guys, it’s a 20-plus year relationship. Whenever whatever happens happens, I do think everyone will wind up getting an explanation.”

The special kind of connection between radio listener and host is also proved by the fact that no one seems to be holding the break-up against Le Batard. Listeners continue to show up, even without Stugotz, and now they’ve fully embraced Zaslow as a full-time contributor to the show they’ve loved for 20 years.

“It’s that relationship where it’s part of your routine,” Zaslow said. “It’s the special thing about radio where you feel like you know these people and they’re a part of your life and you’re a part of their life.”

But the special connection and loyalty is also why listeners deserve more transparency about what happened to Stugotz. This isn’t fans and listeners wanting to know about someone’s personal life, this is the audience wanting to know about something that happened in their own life. Because if the community a radio show builds is real, then for some listeners, this has been part of their everyday lives for 20 years.

Listen to the full episode of the Awful Announcing Podcast featuring Jonathan Zaslow by subscribing to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. For more content, subscribe to AA’s YouTube page.