Katie Nolan talks new SiriusXM show ‘Fan Service’ and the inevitability of more NFL RedZone ads

Katie Nolan has another way she wants to connect with sports fans. The longtime sports media personality has recently launched a new SiriusXM daily show, Fan Service with Katie Nolan. The hour-long show, which airs weekdays 12-1 p.m. ET on Mad Dog Sports Radio, is billed as a hotline for sports fans across the country. It’s broadcast right before Stephen A. Smith’s afternoon show on the network.

This year marks a comeback for Nolan, who previously worked at FS1 and ESPN and won a Sports Emmy in 2016. January marked the debut of her podcast Casuals, which aims to be a more inclusive sports and pop culture show.

We recently caught up with Nolan to discuss her work, sports topics, and her fiancé, comedian Dan Soder.

Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Awful Announcing: Why should someone check out your new show?

Katie Nolan: “The goal for Fan Service is to connect with sports fans and give a space to show what that experience of loving sports is like, and not just the downsides, like the headlines of, ‘Oh, a fan acted poorly.’ I feel like it’s such a big part of my life and always has been. The goal for this show is to help people work through the emotions that it causes and answer any questions that it raises, and discuss the news in a broad way with people who love sports.”

Does this show feel like a bit of a throwback because you’re taking calls?

“Yeah. For me, the value of live radio was that it allows you to connect immediately with the people who are listening to you and have thoughts on what you’re saying. Most of my audio work has always been podcasts, which are recorded and then released. People can have conversations about them, but mostly those live separately from the content itself. I like being a part of conversations, and I like talking to sports fans and probing their brains and hearing about their highs and hearing about their lows, and so it felt perfect for me.”

How many calls do you usually get per show? 

“Probably around like ten. We just started, so I might get better at taking more, or I might get better at narrowing things down and taking less. We’re playing around with it as we go. I always try to get in as many women as I can to show the variety of fans. I know, as a woman who grew up listening to sports radio, I don’t even feel comfortable calling in most of the time. I know that might take a little while longer to make people feel comfortable to call in.”

Any memorable calls so far?

“We were talking about the Ravens-Bills game. That was a crazy win probability switch. So, we were talking about leaving a sporting event early, and the fan experience of, ‘Is that okay? Is that never okay?’ We had somebody call in. His friends wanted to leave early, and he wanted to stay out of spite to show them that the Bills stink and that they should fire their coach. Then the Bills ended up winning. We also got to talk to a guy who said that a voice told him to put on his slippers, and once he put his slippers on, he knew the game would change. The second he did, there was a fumble, and the momentum of the game changed.”

How did this opportunity with SiriusXM come about?

“I was approached over the summer. They were toying with the idea of what to do with the hour before Stephen A. Smith. I had no plans in my mind to become a radio host. I tried that test week over the summer where they were like, ‘See if you like it, see if it’s for you.’ I walked away from that, and I really did love the part where I got to talk to people live. I had no idea who would call in. I had no idea what they were going to say. Something about that was exciting for me. Our conversations continued, and I was like ‘Is this something we could really play around with?’ If we could open up basically like a helpline for sports fans and spend the hour doing that.'”

What was your inspiration behind Casuals?

“I took some time reevaluating my relationship with sports. In that time, I was having interesting conversations with people about the sports they love, but I always noticed that they would say, ‘I don’t know as much as you, so I can’t really speak to blah blah blah.’ It just felt like there were so many people that I was talking to in my daily life who had a love for sports or curiosity about sports that they always felt they needed to couch. Why do sports make people feel like this? This isn’t (how) sports are supposed to feel.

“Casuals is a no-barrier-to-entry place that you can come if you want to know a little bit about all of the popular sports and then a little bit about sports that we don’t spend that much time talking about on, say, ESPN or FS1.”

How was your Week 1 NFL RedZone experience? Did the ads bother you?

“If I’m being honest, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but that’s how they get you. They can’t just come out here and say they’re going to put ads in our seven hours of commercial-free football and have us go: ‘Well, of course, all things must be ruined in time.’ No, I raged against it because like ‘What the heck? ‘There’s not supposed to be any. The whole point of RedZone was all action, no ads, no filler, nothing.

“Scott Hanson does such a good job with that, and I hated that he had to be the guy who had to come out and say: ‘So, there’s gonna be ads.’ I regret that I came out so angry about it, but you know, we both know, we all know that now that ads are in. It’s just going to grow. We’re going to be the frogs in the pot of water as they turn up the heat.”

Have we gone too far with piling on Phillies Karen?

“If it’s enough of a pile-on for long enough, I always feel like metaphorically lending my hands and being like, ‘Let’s get you out of this pile of people.’ Nobody needs to be under all of this. I think eventually I will feel bad. I hate that instinct we’ve arrived at as the internet, where they’re like: ‘Find her name and where she works.’ I don’t think we need to do this. I think what we should be doing instead is holding up this nameless person as an example of what not to do.”

How did you meet your fiancé, Dan Soder?

“Funny enough, we met at SiriusXM. I was promoting Garbage Time on Opie and Jim, and the guest in the studio that morning was Pete Davidson and Dan. Afterwards, I was like, ‘I didn’t know that guy. He’s so funny. He’s a big sports fan. We should have him on our podcast.’ A week later, we booked him, and we were immediately fast friends.

“All the YouTube comments predicted that this would happen, although at the time, we both were in relationships. The YouTube comments were like ‘These two are in love!’ I hate to tell the internet that they were right, but after years of running into each other at stuff and doing podcasts and TV shows together, we finally both were at a point where we were single and we dated and now we’re getting married.”

Do you ever have a friendly competition over who gets recognized more?

“We’re probably doing the math in our heads, both of us separately. But he’s kicking my ass. There’s no way I’m winning that at this point. He also stands out more. These are the things I tell myself to feel better about it. He’s a lot taller. He’s got a really deep voice, very recognizable. You’re not going: ‘I think that might be Dan Soder.’ You know that it’s him. With me, I look like a completely different lady without hair and makeup. So, I’m going to chalk it up to that as to why he absolutely wins in this competition.”