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After a year of not having a radio show in Indianapolis, Dan Dakich is returning to the local airwaves.
“The Dan Dakich Show” is scheduled to debut Monday on WXNT-AM 1430, a station otherwise known as Indy’s Sports Ticket 1430 AM. The show will air noon to 3 p.m. weekdays.
From 2008 until December 2022, the former Indiana University basketball player and interim coach was heard during a similar time slot on radio’s 93.5/107.5 The Fan.
At Indy’s Sports Ticket, Dakich will join a station that ranks near the bottom of the ratings.
On a list of 29 central Indiana radio stations that subscribed to Nielsen ratings in December, Indy’s Sports Ticket ranked No. 28 among listeners 6 and older.
The Fan ranked No. 12 on the list, and central Indiana’s other sports radio station, WNDE-AM 1260, ranked No. 19.
Indy’s Sports Ticket is owned by Cumulus Media, a company with an Indianapolis portfolio that includes classic hits station WJJK-FM 104.5 and country station WFMS-FM 95.5. The Fan is owned by Urban One, a company with an Indianapolis portfolio that includes adult contemporary station WYXB-FM 105.7 and urban adult contemporary station WTLC-FM 106.7.
Dakich, 61, played basketball at Indiana University before a 10-season stint as head men’s basketball coach at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
He served as interim head coach at IU in 2008. From 2010 until 2021, Dakich worked as a college basketball analyst and color commentator for ESPN.
In addition to his new Indy’s Sports Ticket show, the alum of Merrillville’s Andrean High School hosts “Don’t @ Me,” a politics-meets-sports show that streams weekday mornings on sports media platform Outkick.
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Absolutely brilliant basketball mind but he veers into public policy debates and he’s….Bob Knight 2.0 But grumpier.
+1
I find it scary, yet fascinating, that the simple announcement of a new radio show and host can trigger the pervasive us vs. them divisiveness in which our country is buried.
Unfortunately, that’s what Dakich promotes.
Why? Because he doesn’t believe Leah Thomas is actually a female? You lefties….
Dan brings a contact list of coaches, broadcasters, and insiders that none of the other Indy sports talk shows can come close to matching. These nobody beat reporters and bloggers that the others consistently have on are so boring. I don’t always like what he has to say but I’m not a snowflake about it… it’s his show and he has his opinion, it’s pretty simple… if you don’t like it then don’t listen. Congrats to the person at WXNT who made this hire though, they know that both his fans and his haters will tune in!
Yes, ”nobody beat reporters” like Mike Chappell and Stephen Holder? That hack Don Fischer who knows nothing about IU basketball?
I’m not going to pretend I listen to anything past the podcasts posted with just the guests but don’t pretend like the current sports shows don’t have decent guests on a regular basis.
Let’s see who Dan gets past the first few weeks when he’s on a CBS Sports Radio affiliate replacing Jim Rome, who I wasn’t aware was even still on the air.
Looking forward to Coach Dakichs insight.
Like Dan …. I was raised in the old world,… respect, meritocracy, achievement.
I don’t know when that world ended. But it has.
We want everyone to live their best life, but I don’t need to live your life…
His interviews are good.
Everything else is moronic. He plays fan bases against each other to drive ratings. He tosses in his politics just for the sake of driving divisiveness… and drive ratings. It’s just a whole lot of nonsense and I question if he actually believes the words coming out of his mouth most of the time. I used to think it was appointment radio and would download the show on podcast. No longer.
The act just got really old.
Well said! He could be good at it if he wasn’t so thin skinned. He is a very good interviewer when he tries and was an excellent game analyst, but his churlish personality gets in the way. He is his own worst enemy. I will not be tuning in.
He is good to listen to when he takes his meds!
Who listens to AM radio weekdays from Noon to 3:00, or ever?!
I have a suggestion, if you don’t like Dan then don’t listen to his show. Easy
Dan is Dan. And just like anyone else on radio, streaming or TV, if you don’t like him, don’t listen. But I find it hilarious that the guy goes after other sports reporters, columnists, all the while saying that he’s not “media”. Maybe he’s still upset that Andre Morgan and the Anderson Indians got the best of him in the semi-state at Mackey Arena when he was a senior.
The video breaking down Dakich’s much mentioned by him defense against Jordan is sure an interesting watch.
https://twitter.com/itsAntWright/status/1672745888496721920
Dan is a sports curmudgeon and will succeed thanks to his personality and opinions that stir the pot. Crazy stuff on the air means higher ratings. The Pat McAfee, Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Joe Pine and Dan Dakich shows are all cut from the same cloth.
DD is a fascinating case study of someone bizarrely working so hard to crash his career. 10 years ago he was a universally liked former IU player, had 1 or 2 high profile national games per week for ESPN, and a successful local radio show. He now is none of that, but apparently is getting his version of Wayne’s World on cable access. For the “Dan is Dan and snowflakes don’t need to listen” crowd, it’s not quite that simple. In addition to being a belligerent ogre, he is a legal liability. Turns out you can’t publicly label an entire town as meth addicted or threaten to assault whatever player, Coach, or school board you are raging about.
Does he have dedicated fans? Sure. Does that tiny slice of the market bring enough revenue to outweigh his liability, and for how long?
Guess we will find out
He is where he belongs, the smallest radio station in the market.