Sports fans won’t confuse the new Dino Costa Show, billed as “uncensored, unscripted, and unlike anything in sports radio today,” for formulaic “hot take” punditry or milquetoast broadcast-by-program-director that bores listeners to death. As Dino puts it in a discussion with Breitbart Sports, “my show is where political correctness goes to die.”
Five months after walking away from radio, Dino Costa returned, like Willis Reed walking through the tunnel to play Game 7, this week with a new program that airs from 9 p.m. to midnight Eastern every weeknight. Breitbart Sports caught up with him to get his thoughts on the politicization of sports media, the biggest sports stories of 2015, and why the mic talked him into talking again.
Dan Flynn: What made ESPN become MSNBC and Sports Illustrated Mother Jones?
Dino Costa: I think it starts at the very top. Time Warner, which owns SI, owns and operates CNN, and the liberal fiber that makes up that organization permeates down through virtually every property they own and operate. As far as ESPN is concerned, you’re talking about the Disney Company, and you’re talking about one of the leading organizations in the world that not only fosters liberal ideology, but they also seems hell-bent on enthusiastically endorsing political correctness on all levels. ESPN seemingly has a non-negotiable insistence that you either read exclusively from their script or you’ll suffer the consequences of being banished by them. ESPN has lost its soul over the years. They consistently neuter free speech and independent thought—and employ a zombie-like crew of people and personalities who sell themselves out in return for the security of having the ESPN logo on their business cards. Compounding all of this is an infiltration of talent who have been weaned on liberal orthodoxy all their lives…so they fit seamlessly within the ultra PC culture that ESPN loves to cultivate.
Dan Flynn: What made you decide to return to the airwaves?
Dino Costa: It’s more a matter of self-preservation than anything else. For five years, I fashioned a tremendously successful show on SiriusXM, however, internal disagreements about the direction of the show and it’s future culminated in an unfortunate separation. At that point, I knew that gaining re-entry into the industry would be difficult, given my provocative style, given that the broadcast arena has been scrubbed clean of independent thought with personalities who have their own ideas and who refuse to kowtow to the establishment mindset. I could do a number of other things in my life, and I have, but I can’t imagine not being on the air in some capacity. I relish the renegade feel and the flavor that my show possesses, and the opportunity to be the push-back, so to speak, against an avalanche of media platforms who are all parroting the same company line. This is invigorating on many levels. I love doing extemporaneous, organic, spoken-word radio, and I love each day that affords me the opportunity to deliver a one-of-a-kind, unique, and non-conforming platform. I think The Dino Costa Show, with all of the rare and exclusive features it possesses, is in its own way, as important and as crucial as any program on the radar. I have no doubt that if my show was ever given the support and the backing of any credible person within the industry, and if it was provided with the kind of exposure and visibility vehicles it’s deserving of, my show would explode across America and capture a gargantuan audience. I’m just skeptical that there’s anyone smart enough in the industry who is able to recognize this. For the time being, I’m more than content to grow the online product.
Dan Flynn: This year has witnessed a Triple Crown winner, a massive spat between the NFL’s commissioner and the face of the league, and the most profitable prize fight in history. What important, “undercovered” sport stories are fans missing amid all the attention on the big news?
Dino Costa: I’m not sure there is anything that is truly under-covered. I truly despise any form of fantasy sports and I know it has changed the way people process sports and process games over the last 15 or so years. Also, maybe the fact that Redskins owner Dan Snyder has held firm and has courageously defended his team’s honorable nickname in the face of various intimidation tactics, all of them comical, and all of them that have failed.
Dan Flynn: We’re coming up on the end of 2015. When fans look back on this year, what will they remember? Who put their mark on 2015 as athletes in an indelible way, positive and negative?
Dino Costa: I can’t speak for other fans, but for myself, so far as a positive is concerned, I’ll look to the organically grown Kansas City Royals finally coming together and culminating in a world championship. It’s been inspiring to see that long-time baseball town spring back to life the way that it has. As for negatives, the precedent that was established with the repulsive University of Missouri situation speaks to me the most. The galling lack of leadership by university officials as they capitulated shamelessly to a bunch of entitled athletes was pathetic. How their head coach, Gary Pinkel, can ever look in the mirror at himself again is beyond me. And lastly, the media didn’t disappoint did they? The way they articulated a narrative that made those feet-stomping athletes out to be almost heroes was disgraceful. It told me a lot about their own values and morals—the media that is.
Dan Flynn: What can sports fans expect to hear on your new show and where and when can they listen?
Dino Costa: They may access the show online at www.dinocostaradionetwork.com. To put it as simply as possible, they can expect to hear a sports radio platform that is a significant radical departure from the status quo. No two shows are ever the same, and they may be assured that my show is where political correctness goes to die. The show is honest, it’s completely transparent, and it’s always designed around my thoughts and opinions.There is a certain degree of culture shock to some who have been weaned on conventional and predictable sports radio all their lives who have never heard my show previously. The show airs daily from 9 p.m. to midnight weekdays.
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