Mr BioFile Interviews by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Status: Sports broadcaster.
Early Broadcasting Memory: Getting my first job in April 1974 at WJM-TV/radio in Lansing, Michigan. I had no experience but was strongly recommended by Michigan State sports information directors Fred Stabley and Nick Vista for whom I’d worked. I was still a student at MSU when I started at WJIM – for $2.50 an hour!
Broadcasting Inspirations: Detroit TV sports anchor Al Ackerman, radio announcer Bob Reynolds and, nationally, Howard Cosell, Mike Wallace and Paul Harvey.
Favorite Movies: Not a movie fan.
Last Book Read: The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead.
Childhood Dreams: I knew I was different from everyone else, always thought I’d be well known for doing something or other. My first dream was to become a famous baseball player, later to be an MLB umpire, and also a folk-rock musician with my Detroit-area group in the 60’s.
First Job: Shoveling sidewalks in Livonia, Michigan for 10 cents each!
Greatest Moment Of Career: When I was put on Yankees games by MSG in 1989 and sent back home to Detroit to host a series on New York TV. Bob Sr. had taken me to my first game at Briggs Stadium in May, 1959, the legendary doubleheader, ironically, versus the Yankees. To be standing on that same field, now as a New York MLB reporter, almost brought tears to my eyes. Dad had died in 1965. If he ONLY could have seen me!!!
Most Painful Career Moment: Being fired at least four times for speaking the truth to the fans!
Funny Career Memory: While also reporting news for Lansing TV, besides sports, I was dispatched to married housing at Michigan State. They had a continuing cockroach infestation which the University refused to do anything about. So the residents actually caught hundreds of cockroaches and staged a cockroach RACE! I did play-by-play while my cameraman recorded it!
Embarrassing Career Memory: Too many to recount! How about the time I breathlessly announced on WJIM Radio that Pacers star George McGinnis had just signed a multi-million-year contract?!
Random New York Memory: I’d been on MSG only months. In the press box before a game I glanced at WPIX’s booth. “The Scooter” Phil Rizzuto was waving at someone. THEN I realized he was waving at ME! And wanted ME to come down! “When I foist saw you, I said, ‘there’s a cocky young man,’ BUT I’m now yer biggest fan!” I coulda DIED!
Favorite Artists: As an ex-musician, way too many to list here. I’ll just say that for my Woodstock Generation the Beatles changed everything! We all wanted to learn to play guitar and start a band too! I did that.
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: I live a very healthy lifestyle; do not eat ice cream.
Strangest Interviews: When I was still working in Detroit the Yankees came to town in the late 70’s. Rumor was that owner George Steinbrenner was about to fire manager Billy Martin. I found out where the team was staying, then somehow found out George’s room number. I had my crew roll the camera and knocked on his door. He opened it but only peeked out a few inches. I interviewed George through the open space!
Funniest Interview Subjects: Bill (Spaceman) Lee, “Oil Can” Boyd.
Favorite Athletes To Watch: Many from my youth, not many now, though players are bigger, stronger and better than ever before.
First Famous Person You Met Or Encountered: FIRST one? My band when I was in high school played on Detroit’s “Oopsy the Clown Show.” Oopsy for me! Much later I met four presidents and interviewed three of them: Gerald Ford briefly and George W. Bush and Donald Trump at length before they became POTUS.
People Qualities Most Admired: HONESTY and the guts to tell the truth!
Career Accomplishments: Magna cum laude graduate of Michigan State University; Began career in 1974 at Lansing, Michigan’s WJIM-TV and radio; Worked 12 years in his hometown of Detroit at various stations, winning a national cable ACE award for co-hosting the show Sports View Today; Relocated to New York City in 1988 to accept the MSG Network position for which he was twice nominated for the ACE award as best in-studio sports host in the United States; Nominated for a New York Emmy in 1990-91 for outstanding on-camera achievement; In January 2019, sportscaster Eli Zaret launched “No Filter Sports Podcast,” a one-hour show on controversial topics in sports and sports humor – program features Bob Page and former Detroit Tigers star pitcher Denny McLain and is also heard on iHeartRadio, carried by stations in Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. It is produced by Red Shovel Network in Detroit.
