Kevin Sheehan is returning to the Team 980 in August
Kevin Sheehan is returning to the Team 980 on Aug. 5, but the independent podcast he launched last year isn’t going anywhere.
Sheehan, who will host a weekday morning show from 7 to 10 a.m. beginning next month, first joined 980 (WTEM-AM) in 2004 and hosted several programs on the station, including “The Sports Fix” with Thom Loverro for more than seven years. In May 2016, he teamed with former Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley on a morning drive-time show; “Cooley and Kevin” aired on weekdays through last July, when Silver Spring-based Urban One assumed operational control of Redskins owner Daniel Snyder’s final radio property and opted not to renew Sheehan’s contract.
Sheehan said there were “no hard feelings at all” upon parting ways with the station. One month later, he created his own D.C. sports podcast, which featured many of the familiar segments from his former radio show. Loverro joined him a couple of times a week, and Cooley was an occasional guest. When 980 recently reached out to Sheehan about a potential return to the air, he was excited but unwilling to give up his new format, which had more than five million downloads over the past year.
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“I missed radio, but I really love the podcast, too, and I get to do both,” Sheehan said in a phone interview Tuesday. “It’s a good situation. The podcast will be completely separate from the radio show. With respect to what the podcast will be, I’m still figuring that out, but it was important to me that I continue doing it, and 980 didn’t have a problem with that.”
Details of Sheehan’s new morning show are still being finalized, and it’s unclear whether he’ll have a co-host. He said he still envisions recording a new episode of the podcast every weekday.
“I missed radio, and 980 was a professional home for like 15 years,” Sheehan said of his decision to return. “It was a lot of fun. The combination of being part of a station, and the guys, and the regular guests and the callers and listeners — that aspect of the content I was generating was missing a little bit. I’m glad to have that back.”
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“I’m elated to have Kevin Sheehan back at home on The Team 980,” Urban One Senior Regional Vice President Jeff Wilson said in a statement. “His unique approach to the DMV sports landscape combined with his overwhelming passion provides an entertainment destination for listeners throughout the nation’s capital.”
The D.C. sports radio landscape is more crowded than it was when Sheehan left 980 almost exactly one year ago. Entercom’s 106.7 the Fan, the flagship home of the Washington Capitals and Washington Nationals, has featured an all-sports format on WJFK-FM since 2009. On July 1, WMAL’s AM station, 630, switched from a news talk format to an all-sports ESPN Radio affiliate. ESPN 630 has yet to announce any local programming that will complement its lineup of syndicated shows, including “Golic & Wingo” and “The Stephen A. Smith Show.”
The Team 980, previously an ESPN affiliate, has since picked up Fox Sports Radio programming, but it remains the flagship home of Redskins broadcasts on the Redskins Radio Network. Doc Walker and Brian Mitchell will broadcast their daily shows from Redskins training camp in Richmond next month, and the station will air 12 hours of Redskins game day coverage during the season. Sheehan, who hosted 980′s Redskins pregame show for more than a decade, is not expected to fill that role this year.
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When Sheehan’s new morning show premieres, Al Galdi, who hosts “The Morning Blitz” from 6 to 10 a.m., will switch to hosting a one-hour show from 6 to 7 a.m. and co-hosting with Walker from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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