The Bridge Ep. 39: John Jastremski, sports talk radio host for WFAN and CBS Sports Radio, joins the show to discuss his broadcasting career and doing radio in NYC

WFAN's John Jastremski
WFAN’s John Jastremski

Since returning to Los Angeles, the Rams have provided us with not one, but two great weeks of segments. I’ll take it.

Before we get into Episode 39, as a reminder, The Bridge is now a one hour radio show every Wednesday night on Sports Radio America, starting at 7 ET. Once the dust settles from that live broadcast, the podcast version of the latest show will be released on iTunes and this website on Friday night. You can listen to the live show every Wednesday on Sports Radio America here or through the TuneIn app.

This week’s Sports News Read Like Real News focused on every college football team in the state of Mississippi LOSING last week to finish a combined 0-10 (4:11).

In the second installment of The Drawbridge, where we draw conclusions from what’s happened throughout the week, the Los Angeles Rams were once again under the bright lights. Though the Rams did win their first game since 1994, they managed to do so without scoring a touchdown. Because of that, we took a look at what some of the pop culture was like in the year 1994, the last time the LA Rams found the endzone (7:36).

This week’s “Wait, Who?!” Susan tells us the story of Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Jessie James, not to be confused as the great-great grandson of one of the most feared outlaws in the American Old West (13:11).

This week’s guest is John Jastremski, the host of JJ After Dark on WFAN in New York City in the wee hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. He also fills-in throughout the week on WFAN or on CBS Sports Radio, with some television appearances sprinkled in between. He’s got a great story about getting into the radio business and how an “American Idol” type of contest with Mike Francesa serving as Ryan Seacrest got his foot in the door at WFAN.

In the interview, we discuss:

If he allegedly helped Tom Brady deflate the footballs in the 2014 AFC Championship (Editor’s note — one of the equipment managers involved in Deflategate is also named John Jastremski) (17:38), how he fell in love with sports talk radio through WFAN and Mike and the Mad Dog (1821), his feelings when Mike and the Mad Dog went off the air in 2008 (19:33), if he ever considered playing baseball in college and how he ended up at Syracuse University (20:30), the importance of his time doing shows on college radio (21:50), what the job search after college was like and working as a sports writer (24:11), competing in, and winning, the WFAN Fantasy Phenom contest (25:47), what the day of winning the contest was like and the solo show that came from it at WFAN (27:58), how much growing up in Staten Island helped in hosting a show in New York (30:46), if there was a team or sport he had to freshen up on (32:14), the challenges of doing a local show vs. a national show (33:48), who his radio role models are (35:44), how he prepares for his late night/early morning show (38:03), what his day-to-day life is like (39:47), how crazy the phone calls get late into the night (41:07), how he handles interactions with callers (42:40), how interviews work on the local show and national shows (44:28), who one of his best interviews was with and the two players he would be starstruck to interview (45:57), what his relationship with Mike Francesa is like (47:55), one of his favorite interactions with Mike Francesa (49:11), where he hopes to see himself in radio down the road (51:04) and where you can find him on the airwaves (52:59).

The interview starts right after the 16-minute mark. You can follow John on Twitter at john_jastremski.

Call in or text the show 24/7 at 929-BRIDGE7, that’s (929) 274-3437. Contact the show with your questions, comments, stories or hot takes and you might be featured in the next installment of The Bridge.

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You can listen to the show live on Wednesday nights at 7 ET via Sports Radio America or the TuneIn app.

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Show music: ‘Actionable’ and ‘Epic,’ courtesy of www.bensound.com.

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