Damon Bruce
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Damon Bruce is the current host of KNBR's long-running Sportsphone 680, on KNBR, and comes across on 50,000 Watts, live from KNBR's downtown studio. The show airs 7-10 PM Pacific Time, or after the game that night. Bruce has been the host since October 2005.
Along with his hosting duties on Sportsphone 680, Damon Bruce is also the post-game host of the San Francisco Giants, San Francisco 49ers, and the Golden State Warriors. He does his Giants postgame shows from "the bunker," live inside AT&T Park, the Giants' stadium. Damon is also a fan of the Miami Dolphins.
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[edit] Career
Damon was born on March 25, 1975 in Chicago. He attended Linton High School in Schenectady, New York, the same school as Pat Riley. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in broadcasting, Bruce spent one year at KNBR as a producer of KNBR talk shows and sporting events before leaving to be a host on Sports Overnight America, then with ESPN Radio as a network sports anchor. There he met Jason "McGiggy" McBride, a fellow producer and good friend, who often calls in all the way from Denver, Colorado. While at ESPN, he hosted SportsCenter for ESPN International. Later, he was a fill-in host on Fox Sports Radio and Sporting News Radio. Before rejoining KNBR, Bruce was a morning anchor at WOWO news talk radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In October of 2005, he took over Sportsphone 680. On April 21st, 2008,during his show, Damon Bruce announced that he was engaged to his girlfriend Sara.
[edit] The Bigs
Bruce is also the play-by-play voice for the highly successful video game, The Bigs, released in June of 2007 by 2K Sports. [1] [2]
The Bigs 2009 is in development, and will return next season. Bruce returns as the play by play voice[citation needed].
[edit] Rooting Interests
Although Bruce covers the Giants, he is a fan of the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago Bears. However, the one team that his world tends to revolve around is the Indiana Hoosiers. Being an Indiana University alum, he passionately roots for the Hoosiers, especially in basketball, the sport in which Indiana has a lot of tradition and glory. He refuses to adopt any teams even though he has moved out to the Bay Area, except for the Warriors, whom he loves to root for, and could adopt them as his NBA team.
[edit] Catchphrases & Segments
[edit] Sound bites
- Damon's most popular catchphrase on the show is a sound bite of a Spanish-speaking broadcaster's interjection of "Oy Yoy Oy!!!". He typically plays the sound bite when a caller makes a good point (usually a complimentary one) about the team or subject at hand, to great comedic effect. Many callers seem to call in to see if they can elicit an "oy yoy oy!", and some even explicitly ask for it (e.g., "Damon, I'm having a rough night, I could really use an oy oy oy!").
- "Pound it, pound it, pound it", which is taken from a caller, "Annie-Baby" in San Francisco. Though when Annie said it, she was referring to drinking alcohol, Damon often uses the sound bite to suggest sexual relations. The phrase has caught on and has been used by Gary Radnich and Tony Bruno during their segment 10-10:30 AM PT on KNBR.
- The Japanese strikeout sound bite, "Sanshin!", which callers also occasionally request.
- Another sound bite Damon uses is from a certain Tecate Light beer commercial, sampling a Spanish woman's voice saying "Sí, mi hijo." He often uses it in non sequiter, on random calls, or when a caller makes a good point, much like "oy oy oy!!!"
- At the end of every show, Damon finishes with a sound bite from The Usual Suspects: "...and like that, he's gone!"
- "Ray Durham was at Momo's!" Whenever the subject of Giants infielder Ray Durham comes up, Damon plays a short clip of a caller exclaiming that he saw or heard that Ray Durham was at Momo's Restaurant near AT&T Park.
- A recently added soundbite is a clip of someone mumbling, "No sound effects for Dave Feldhouse." Feldhouse is the producer of Sportsphone 680. This clip is played almost every time Damon says Dave's name.
[edit] Popular Segments
- A very popular segment on his show is "A coin, mother, and son of a Bruce." His mother, from Indiana, comes on and picks football games, NFL and college. Damon also picks the same games, and the coin is flipped for its picks. In Damon's words, his mother "puts money in your pocket." During the segment, they double-down on Monday Night Football. They pick the game against the spread , as well as the over-under. The beauty of the bit, his Mother, Linda, knows nothing about football - but nearly hits as many games as the experts.
- Another very popular segment is the Tuesday Trifecta, in which Damon selects 3 questions of a certain relevant theme, and the callers call in and answer the questions.
[edit] Damon-isms and Sayings
- Damon believes and often says "real fans listen late," meaning that die-hard (hardcore) fans listen in the evening/night, right after games, and those shows talk the most about sports. His "SPM," or sports per minute, is (in his words) the highest on KNBR. That is because hard-core fans listen to the games and want to react, and thus the show is very focused on sports.
- He ends every show by signing off with a John Wooden quote: "Sports don't build character, they reveal it." [3]
[edit] Music
- The theme music for Sportsphone 680 is "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine" by The Killers. [4] The theme is played at the beginning of every hour, but different music is played going to and coming out of commercial breaks during the hour.
- A song often played to go to commercial break is James Brown's "I Got the Feeling." [5] Damon will stop and let the "baby baby baby, baby baby baby" play while he sits silently.
- Another song played to go to commercial break is "Summer Madness" by Kool and the Gang.
- Another song that Damon plays is "The 900 Number" by DJ The 45 King. Damon only plays a quick sound bite from it though, whenever there is a racy comment on the show, or some form of innuendo. He plays it commonly when Annie calls in.
[edit] Popular Callers
[edit] Elite Callers
- Discreet from the Streets (of San Francisco), who gives very good information and is very entertaining, also calls The Third Shift on Fox Sports Radio
- Annie baby (from San Francisco), "the official first lady of Sportsphone 680". She is the voice of "pound it, pound it, pound it"
- Salty Balty from Clovis, known on all KNBR shows for his negativity and criticism of all teams (especially the Giants)
- Bob from San Jose, a very smart football caller, "the most dominant football caller of Sportsphone 680"
- Smirnoff in Palo Alto, a minor who is a baseball statistics expert
- Barfighter in San Jose, who starts every call pronouncing Damon's name in a Spanish accent (Daaaa-mon instead of Day-men)
- Sporticus on a cell phone, who consistently offers thought-provoking perspective and a good deal of humor. He ends every call by Damon asking "any declarations?" and him replying "I am Sporticus"
- Scott in Santa Cruz, who starts every call with " What is up, Admiral Bruce!"
- Kareem from Vallejo, a very good caller who often also calls The Razor and Mr. T
- Ronaldo from Palo Alto, "the official soccer caller of Sportsphone 680"
- Mr. McBride, a fellow former-ESPN employee, now a "real estate mogul" in Denver, and "the official brotha' of Sportsphone 680"
- DeShawn from Brentwood and Beauregard from Fruitvale, Two of the numerous "Chodies," a term coined by Bruce to describe these callers who say the word "chode" on the air. Bruce named these callers "Chodies" after the incedent.
- Chris Lincecum, father of Tim Lincecum.
- Smokin' 12 Year Old frequently calls in during baseball season to talk about Giants minor league prospects.
- Rocky from Merced - "Ray Durham was at Momo's!"
