Lower Merion native, and graduate from Temple University’s Klein school of Media and Communications in Philadelphia, Daniel Wilson, also known as “Buzz” in the world of Philadelphia Sports radio, has had a drive to be immersed in Philly sports since childhood. Today he is a producer, and sports talk show host that many fans hear on the radio, in the car, on Spotify, or streaming on YouTube.
If you listen to “94 WIP SportsRadio” you most definitely have heard his voice. He has debated with fans, discussed predictions about scores and players, insights of analytics, talked about conferences but what he does best is talk about sports.
On one recent day Wilson wakes up, grabs a refreshing beverage, suits up for the day and out the door he goes. He and his teams day can starts from 7 in the morning to 6 at night.
It includes talking about score points, trades, injuries, interviews of other interviews, positive outcomes of games, negative outcomes of games, discussing or debating fans, and keeping listeners up to date.
Wilson is a sports journalist and radio producer and of SportsRadio WIP but before he can be on air, he and his crew make sure that sound is working adequately on stage and for the radios, make last-minute adjustments to the film cameras, mics are sound and lighting, so they are finally ready to have discussions, questions, points, and ideas to be discussed between the hosts and the interviewees.
Wilson not only has these conversations with fans on the phone or sit down interviews, but also is a sports journalist for the radio station. He writes takeaways from all the Philadelphia sports teams.
When writing articles, Wilson must make sure that his statements, numbers, locations, statistics, scores, player names, player numbers, and any past occurrences are accurate. t
Wilson has been working for the radio five years since the end of graduation.
Wilson’s story starts when he was 5 years old. when he would listen to the radio and found himself being introduced to the culture of sports. Wilson then went on to play little league along with flag football as early as he could, even furthering his knowledge of the sports world..
One of the key elements that would shape Wilson’s future is when he and his classmates were asked to
write in their 5th grade yearbook what they wanted to grow up to be in the future. He wrote “ I want to be a sports broadcaster!”.
He adds “My dad would drive me to school or drive around to a little league game wherever we would be going, he would frequently listen to WIP in the car. If I could just do whatever it took to be one of those guys I would be nowhere else.”
During Wilson’s high school days at Lower Merion, he sometimes anchored the school’s morning announcements and persuaded his teacher into allowing students to talk about Lower Merion’s basketball or football team. This would be one of the main contributions to his success.
Daniel chose Temple University because of the strong journalism and media programs that Temple’s Klein School of Media and Communications offers.
At Temple, Wilson would join “Temple News”, Owls sports Update”, and “Inside the Nest” along with getting involved with play by play, anchoring, writing, and basically involved himself with anything related to sports. He wanted to come to Philly because of its sports and its subculture.
During senior year Wilson worked on something called the “Street Team” that related to WIP where he would go somewhere like “Chickies and Pete’s” and be energetic for WIP in the hopes of networking leading into a dream career after graduation.
“It was fun, interesting, and I was pursuing that childhood dream.. I didn’t have any idea how I was going do it but you go as you go. This is an industry that is built on networking and you can’t be self-centered or be someone who is unwilling to shake somebody’s hand.” says Wilson.
One of the challenges that Wilson faced was to engage in different types of conversations with higher ups from big industry sports networks.
“That can be uncomfortable but I had to force myself to do it. It’s not always natural. It was not in my natural skill set to want to do that but I had to work on that for a long time and get over the fear of shaking that person’s hand.”
Wilson overcomes nervousness by remembering that a big boss, at the end of the day, is just a person.
Wilson now speaks to thousands when the microphone comes on. One show can be up to one to four hours starting at 9am when he is on the air, depending on the subject matter. Despite the nervousness of being on air at times, Wilson makes points, answers questions, and even owns up to mistakes made on the show with humor and humility.
The practice of speaking with many callers, listeners, and strangers through the years has prepared Wilson for conversations that are low which comes from the “fear of the unknown” engine to always be physically, emotionally, and mentally prepared to keep the show running.
“I prepare like crazy for my shows. I want sound smart. I want to sound like I have an opinion. I want to be interesting. One of my biggest fears is that someone is going turn on and not like me. It’s impossible for everyone to like you and at the end of the day you can’t consume that too much but you want to be generally liked but no one expects you to be perfect” says Wilson.
Despite phone calls on air from some heated fans with rude comments, Wilson keeps in mind that it’s nothing personal.
“The Jaguars. When the team sticks, they kind of tune them out. No one ever tunes out anything here, especially the Eagles. If you live in Florida and the team stinks, you kind of go to the beach and tune them out. If you live in Philadelphia or Boston and your team stinks, it’s cold out half the year and you grew up living and dying with these teams you’re not going to tune them out. It’s just not the same here So there is a real level of intensity in this city.
Professionally, Wilson and his team are able to challenge their viewers with facts from current and past sports seasons and legitimate questions such as “They made it to playoffs last year and the year before that and the one before and they got better here and here so you tell me why I am the idiot?” One of the tactics that Wilson and the WIP team use is the “Show your work” method to have an engaging and legit conversation with fans to keep other fans interested.
One of the most basic but clever tactics that Wilson and many podcasters do is also have follow up questions to bring even more depth in conversations, interviews, and discussions that eventually get more involved as well. Asking questions signals to Wilson’s audience that they are being heard.
“You remember what you’re doing and you remember that it’s fun. You don’t take it too personally and you roll with it,..” Describes Wilson. He remains calm by taking a deep breath and remembers that the spirit of Philadelphia is like no other.
Wilson has hosted hundreds of shows because of his consistency and because of his motivation to do what he loves.
The reruns are on Apple Podcasts and Spotify so that people can go back and listen after that show was already on the radio.
He continues to be open to opportunities and ways to grow as a host. His advice to everyone is to be willing to learn more and “Get as much work as you physically can through jobs or internships. Whatever experience you can gain is all valuable. Even if you don’t enjoy the experience, at least you know you don’t want to do it. It takes lots and lots of practice. Get really good at writing. Go cover as many sporting events as you can and have someone critique your writing.”