Mike Schopp

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Mike Schopp (right) and Chris "Bulldog" Parker broadcasting from Super Bowl XL's radio row in Detroit's Renaissance Center.

Mike Schopp is the current afternoon co-host on WGR-AM radio in Buffalo, New York. The show he co-hosts is called "Schopp and the Bulldog" and runs from 3 to 7 pm, Monday through Friday. His co-host is Chris "Bulldog" Parker. He is also an occasional weekend and fill-in host on ESPN Radio, which is carried nationally in most markets. In August of 2006, Schopp announced his show in the spring was the highest-rated afternoon-drive sports radio show in the United States, and WGR the highest-rated sports station. The show features regular national experts like ESPN's John Clayton as well as Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres beat reporters. He has a gold tooth.

1 Career
2 Show bits
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Career

Schopp began his professional career at radio station WHTK (1280) in Rochester, New York, where he had served as the station's morning local sports talk host. He also worked as a fill-in at WHAM (1180) on the Bob Matthews evening sports talk show. He left the stations (both owned by Clear Channel in the fall of 2000.

In October 2000, Schopp was one of the founding hosts of radio station WNSA-FM (107.7) in rural Wyoming County, New York (serving the Buffalo, New York market). Adelphia Cable had recently purchased the radio station as a compliment to their now defunct Empire Sports Network. Both WNSA and Empire would broadcast the games of the Buffalo Sabres, then owned by Adelphia's CEO John Rigas.

Schopp was tapped to host the afternoon drive show which he dubbed "Sports Talk for Smart People." One of the recurring segments on the show was called "The Sharpshooters" which featured local hockey media personalities Jim Kelley and Mike Robitaille discussing the Sabres and the National Hockey League. Former Buffalo Bill Steve Tasker was also a frequent guest and contributor on Schopp's show.

Schopp had been offered a job at ESPN Radio while working at WNSA according to reports in the Buffalo News.^{[citation needed]} By the end of his tenure at WNSA, Schopp's Arbitron ratings were consistenly better than his rival, Chuck "The Coach" Dickerson, yet he ended up working daily with "The Coach" when he first joined WGR. It was speculated in the press that WGR released Dickerson from the station because it wanted to gain the rights to Sabres hockey broadcasts, leaving Schopp the lone afternoon host for a short time until Chris "Bulldog" Parker, who came from the morning show as part of a restructuring between WGR and WBEN, joined Schopp.

Schopp grew up in Grand Island, New York and graduated from Saint John Fisher College in Rochester. He is recently married and resides in Grand Island.

[edit] Show bits

Schopp's shows feature a number of recurring segments, which have aired on both WNSA and WGR. They include the following:

Hall of Fame Rejection Committee: This idea was started while Schopp was at WNSA. Each day Schopp and his staff (usually 3 in all) would eliminate one person from the Hall of Fame until only one player, the greatest contributor to the sport of all time, remained. In 2005, the Baseball Committee ultimately selected Willie Mays. Successors included the Pro Football Hall of Fame Rejection Committee (which selected Otto Graham) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Rejection Committee (which is ongoing).

Haseoke: These are supposed to be the lost tapes of former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Dominik Hasek "singing" in a heavy Czech accent and wildly off pitch. The voice of Hasek was never revealed but is believed to be Schopp's former producer, Steve Cichon, who sells the Haseoke tapes on his Web site.

Colorado School of Mimes: A sketch recorded by producer Greg Bauch several years ago, about a school of mimes that attempts to play a game of college football.