From 2006 to 2008, “The Sports Drive” hosted by James Tully is what you heard on your 99.7FM WVYC every Monday from 4pm-7pm. Over the years, several aspects of the show, including the on air personalities, changed. James, now working with TV3 Winchester in Winchester, Virginia, mentored the personalities of Mike Bignami, Ryan Beinstein, Pete Pirone, and Rob Mayer during their time working with “The Sports Drive”. He brought on Mike as a host in 2006, as well as Ryan in 2007. The Sports Drive, starting out as a small time college radio show, soon transformed into something much more. In 2007, Pete Pirone was brought onto the show as a baseball analyst. He was promoted to Executive Producer during the Spring Semester of 2008 in which time he and James worked long and hard in coming up with ideas for promoting the show. Hosts James, Ryan, and Mike began doing pre-game shows and broadcasts of home basketball games. The reason for the show’s success was not only the crew’s wide-ranged knowledge of sports, but their on-air chemistry. In May of 2008, The Sports Drive took its final bow as James Tully graduated, taking the name with him.

During the summer, Pete Pirone, Ryan Beinstein, and Rob Mayer came up with the name “The Sports Take”. They spent countless hours coming up with ideas for the shows and ways to promote it. The Sports Take took over the Monday slot in which The Sports Drive once held. Similar to the Sports Drive, the show offered opinions on the latest news in sports.

Every Sunday, Pete Pirone sits down and makes an outline filled with ideas for topics to be discussed every Monday. Once perfected, the outline is e-mailed to hosts Ryan Beinstein and Rob Mayer. The hosts then look over the outline, and study the information in preparation for the show. Pete then meets with the technical producer, Kevin Granath who finds all the audio needed to keep the show rolling.

The boys meet at the WVYC station around 2pm where they begin setting up microphones and the show prep. Kevin Granath sets up the commercials and the liners you hear in between segments for each show. At 4pm, the introduction to the show begins and that’s when the magic happens.

A reason for the success of the show is attributed to the fact that the guys are such good friends both on and off air. Pete, Kevin, and Ryan all room together, and Rob lives in a room with friends from home nearby. The close proximity of living arrangements allow the boys to discuss sports throughout the week, giving the show great chemistry.

Be sure to check out The Sports Take every Monday from 4pm-7pm on 99.7 WVYC. Also, stay tuned and listen for announcements of the different basketball games being broadcasted.