Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
Richard Deitsch talks Kevin Harlan, potential Paramount-Warner Bros. merger
23 Mar 2026
Chapter 1: What insights does Richard Deitsch share about Kevin Harlan's broadcasting career?
Rahimi Harrison-Grody, middays 10-2, on Chicago Sports Radio, 104.3 The Score. Wouldn't have a lot of time now, Bill Self and his staff making sure they know, no fouls.
This is going to be Darling, he's got to go.
Darling puts it up, he puts it up! St. John's is going to the Sweet 16! For the first time since 1999.
Our guy, the voice of Kevin Harlan calling St. John's' last second win over Kentucky 67-65 as seen on CBS. Dylan Darling with that last second layup. Patino against Self and the man narrating it. Kevin Harlan doesn't get any better than that.
As a matter of fact, Kevin will be one of the topics of our next discussion, which we are happy to report is with, here on Rahimi Harris and Grody, with the one and only Richard Deitch, host of the Odyssey podcast, Sports Media with Richard Deitch, also Sports Business Journal contributor. He is on Zoom right now.
You could follow him on X at Richard Deitch as we welcome onto the Rahimi Harris and Grody show on the score. What's going on, Richard? How are you?
Fellas, it's always great to be here. You know, whenever I'm on your station, and I love Chicago because it is very, very similar to my city, Toronto, I always like to, you know, CM Punk it up, where you say something like, you know, where else would you rather be on a Monday afternoon than in the great city of Chicago, Illinois?
I love the sell, Richard. That has got me excited, and it's my show. We appreciate you stopping by. This Kevin Harlan story was so interesting to me because people don't understand how much this man has to travel. I think the travel piece of this is the most iconic of the things he's doing. Obviously, he's a great broadcaster. We have him on the station all the time. Can you walk me through this?
and maybe the people out there, just how difficult it is to get from one place to another on any given assignment because he's got different bosses and different priorities, but he still is able to not miss work. And we all miss work because of flight cancellations and everything else.
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Chapter 2: How does Kevin Harlan manage his extensive travel schedule?
And they think it sort of cheapens the sport, but you have to remember, this is ultimately in the day, this is a television show, you know, and like these guys pay a lot of money. And if you pay a lot of money, you're going to have Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley and, and your, you know, Turner talent or not Turner anymore, but WBD talent, uh,
on on on a very very big property like that um so i think you just you have to sort of accept uh that's the case i'm trying to you know like the one thing i would say like i actually just happen to hear the uh odyssey sports minute not sure who did it but i couldn't disagree more with the that 40 second take there because to me um the tournament remains great when an underdog can make a play into the second week
Like, I get it. You don't want High Point to play necessarily for the title, but I think you do want them to get to the second weekend. That, to me, is what makes the sport great. So I'm hoping that the NIL era does not eliminate us from any kind of second round in Sweet 16 where we get one or two FDUs or George Mason or something like that because I think that still gives the tournament ā
like kind of its secret sauce. That's what makes it, that's to me what makes it compelling.
Yeah, Richard Deitch joining us to host the Odyssey Podcast Sports Media with Richard Deitch. He's also a Sports Business Journal contributor. And I think it gives it the charm that it has, Richard, overall. The idea that somebody double-digit C can go on and do big things.
Texas not included because I don't really... I mean, I know they got an 11 next to their name, but I don't call them a double-digit C. I'm really curious to your thoughts on this Warner Brothers sell to Paramount and what that means for us, the sports consumer, going forward because... I don't think it's good, but also I can't do anything to stop it.
Yeah, listen, man, I grew up in New York, so I'm a de facto not a fan of billionaires. If billionaires want something, I generally go the opposite of that as a general life guidance rule. No, I don't think ā I mean the consolidation for ā if you're a sports fan, it's sort of TBD.
The reality is like the combination of CBS's properties and Warner Brothers Discovery properties would give them the second best set of sports ā kind of, you know, sports properties behind DSPN. But the reality is they're not going to be able to keep all of them because they have to ultimately re-up with the NFL.
And, you know, Paramount, David Ellison, NFL officials, they've already sort of indicated to you that they're going to, you know, they're going to opt out early and they're going to resign and extend that contract early. So if I had to guess, I think there will be some Warner Brothers discovery properties that go to the open market. Like, you know, could that be like the French Open?
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Chapter 3: What challenges does Kevin Harlan face in balancing multiple broadcasting roles?
And a ton of people lost their jobs. So that's what will happen. Generally speaking, you will see people at Warner Brothers Discovery or CBS lose jobs. We may not know their, they may not be front facing. So they may not be famous people per se, but there will be people who lose jobs. And then inevitably the consumer usually pays
somehow at the end of this because the sports rights go up and they're going to pass that on to the consumer. So if you have something like Paramount+, I would expect the price of that two or three years from now to go up. Generally speaking, when it comes to media mergers, the consumers end up paying and people lose their jobs. That is just a history of what happens and that's what I'd bet on.
Richard, a couple of baseball things. First TV, then we got a radio question for you as well. So I think I have it straight now with baseball this year that NBC slash Peacock will have the Sunday night game. Fox will have their Saturday games with our guy Adam Amin. Of course, Jason Benetti on the NBC call. ESPN will have weekday games. TBS will have Tuesday games.
Have they sorted this out properly? Who's the real rights holder? And who's your favorite broadcast team out of this bunch?
Yeah, the winner of all this is Rob Manfred who just used the gift basically of the guy like throwing money into the air and like catching it because that's what MLB has always done. They don't really have a consumer-friendly national policy. You have to have multiple different outlets to watch all this stuff.
Now, away from the traditional greed of all sports organizations, I think some of the names you mentioned are great. I love Adam Amin, like you guys do. I'm a big, as we say in wrestling, I'm a big Jason Benetti mark. I think that was a great hire by NBC. You guys obviously know him in your market. He's great. with the White Sox.
That's a great hire, and that feels already to me like a big broadcast, and I expect NBC to put on a good show for that.
I'm glad to see ESPN remain in baseball because I think it's important for the sport to have a relationship with ESPN because even though SportsCenter is not the same as it used to be and ESPN is not the same, you still want to have them be interested in your sport because they're just too powerful an entity where you don't want to be buried. And MLB's got a really good story to tell.
So I think, you know, of all the sort of the teams you mentioned, I think they'll all be fine. I guess the one thing I'll just be paying attention to, this is more of like a nerdy kind of sports media thing, is Benetti's not working with a singular partner. Every one of those games, he's going to basically be working with local analysts. And it'll be interesting just to see how that sounds for
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