Frank Isola, Clifton Brown and Ben Reiter

Frank Isola, Clifton Brown and Ben Reiter

Episode 16 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features three guests: First, a candid conversation with longtime NBA writer and broadcaster Frank Isola, who was let go this week by Tronc after 25 years of working at the New York Daily News. The second guest is Clifton Brown, an enterprise reporter at the IndyStar and the author of Bearing the Cross: My Inspiring Journey from Poverty to the NFL and Sports Television. The final guest is Sports Illustrated senior writer Ben Reiter, the author of a new book, Astroball: The New Way To Win It All. In this podcast, Isola, the co-host of SiriusXM NBA Radio’s “The Starting Lineup,” and an ESPN TV contributor, discusses how he learned he had lost his longtime job with the Daily News; the impact off the decision on his family; why he feels it happened; what management has said and not said to him; how he feels about the newspaper business in New York City; what it has been like working at a paper with significant financial troubles; his years covering the Knicks and the NBA; praise for Jeff Van Gundy; his analysis of the Kawhi Leonard-Demar DeRozen trade; his professional relationship with Carmelo Anthony; why he enjoys working for ESPN’s Around The Horn and PTI group; his desire to keep writing; and much more. Brown discusses the life of Irv Cross, the first A­frican-American sports analyst on national television; what it was like for Cross when he was first hired by CBS; how he came upon Cross’s story; racism that Cross faced in television; why Cross left the sports television business; how Cross’s health is today, and much more. Reiter discusses how he came up with the concept for his book; how much cooperation the Astros afforded him; how he and his agent created and shopped the book proposal; his reporting and writing process for the book; learning about book promotion and why it is no crime to be shameless pushing your book; the importance of doing book readings at book stores; advice for first time authors, and much more. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more.