Keith Hirschland joins Jeff Tracy to delve into the rich history of the Golf Channel, sharing behind-the-scenes stories from its inception. The conversation reveals how Hirschland played a significant role in shaping the network, discussing the challenges and triumphs faced during the early days. He recounts the pivotal moments that defined the channel's identity, including the groundbreaking Arnold Palmer Golf Gala that showcased the network's potential to cable operators. Hirschland reflects on the influence of iconic figures like Arnold Palmer and the innovative decisions that propelled the Golf Channel into a successful future. This episode is a nostalgic journey through the evolution of golf broadcasting, highlighting the dedication and vision that made it all possible.

Links referenced in this episode:

• paintedhillsbeef.com
• birdieball.com
• keithhirschland.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Golf Channel
• ESPN
• Westin dealerships
• Universal Studios
• Peacock
• Painted Hills Beef

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy

Speaker A: 00:00:25

It's time for grilling at the Green.

Speaker A: 00:00:27

Join Jeff Tracy as he explores the golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass.

Speaker A: 00:00:32

For the hackers, new sweepers and turf spankers.

Speaker A: 00:00:35

Here's Jeff.

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:36

Just open up the door, and let's take good times, and tomorrow's gonna be better than today.

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:47

Hey, everybody.

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:48

Welcome to Grillian's Green.

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:49

I'm jt.

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:50

How's your golf game this week, if you actually can get out and play in North America this week?

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:56

Got a great guest today.

Jeff Tracy: 00:00:57

He's been on the show several times before, but not for, I don't know, I think about two years.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:02

Keith Hirschland is with us today, and I asked Keith specifically to come on the show so we could talk about the history of the Golf Channel.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:11

He was very instrumental in all of that, and I know he's got some great stories in there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:18

I might have to prod him a couple times to get a couple of them out of him that I know of, but we'll work on that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:23

Keith, welcome back, buddy.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:25

Thank you, sir.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:26

It's a pleasure to be back.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:27

And, yeah, you're right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:27

It's.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:28

You know, I was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:29

I was feeling like I, My, my party invitations had been lost in the mail, but it's, it's nice to.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:36

Actually, I probably didn't have a whole lot to say, so it's probably you.

Keith Hirschland: 00:01:39

You were smart to not invite me back, but I'm really happy to join you again, and it's always fun.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:46

You're welcome anytime, anytime.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:49

Sometimes I'm the one who gets lost in the mail, not my guests, you know, so you were there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:57

You were.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:57

You were there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:01:58

And it's become such an integral part, whether you love it, hate it, or anything, because people have all kinds of different opinions about Golf Channel, and especially some of the commentators and stuff.

Jeff Tracy: 00:02:11

I don't care about that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:02:12

But what was it like at the beginning to kind of get started?

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:18

Oh, man.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:19

Well, first of all, I have to say two things.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:22

One is it was 30 years ago, so I may have forgotten some of this.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:27

I'm not getting any younger, and neither is my brain or my memory.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:31

But just.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:32

And real quick, and I'm.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:35

We may or may not get into it later on, but a good friend of yours and a, you know, a huge influence on my career, Mike Whalen, I know, is having some struggles right now with his health, so I just want to really quickly just give a shout out to him.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:49

He was the creative force behind the Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:52

He hired me.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:54

He hired pretty much everybody.

Keith Hirschland: 00:02:56

From the production talent side that started Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:03

you know, when we launched in: 1995

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:06

So I have nothing but.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:09

But a ton of respect for Mike, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that he gave me.

Jeff Tracy: 00:03:16

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Jeff Tracy: 00:03:18

Do you remember walk.

Jeff Tracy: 00:03:20

Remember walking in the door the first day, Keith?

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:22

Gosh, I do.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:23

I actually do.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:24

I remember, you know, there was a little bit of a.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:29

A telephone back and forth with Mike and myself before I actually had an opportunity to walk in the door.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:36

And, you know, I would.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:38

I had done ESPN's golf.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:42

Been a part of the ESPN's golf production for about four years before golf Channel came about.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:50

And I was up in Bristol working for ESPN, working on ESPN2.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:56

And, you know, we kept.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:58

This was the beginning of j.

Keith Hirschland: 00:03:59

This was the beginning of: 1994

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:01

And we kept hearing all these rumors about a, you know, there's going to be a new.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:04

New television network devoted entirely to golf 24, 7, 365 days a year.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:10

And I had heard about all these folks that were, you know, getting job offers and, you know, thinking about going down to.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:19

To work for the Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:20

And my phone didn't ring.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:21

And I was, you know, I was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:24

But finally it did, thanks to Mike.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:26

And he called.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:28

This was September of: 1994

Jeff Tracy: 00:04:32

Yeah.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:32

And they actually were in an office building near Universal Studios.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:40

And I got off the airplane and got on the tram at Orlando International Airport that takes you from the terminal to the baggage claim.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:51

And there was also another gentleman, a guy who.

Keith Hirschland: 00:04:57

With whom I had worked at ESPN Golf.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:00

He was one of the best technical directors.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:03

The guy who punches, actually punches the buttons on the switcher that puts the pictures on the air was getting on the same tram and I said his name was Emmett Loughran.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:12

And I said, emmett, you know, what are you doing here?

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:14

And he looked at me and he goes, keith, what are you doing here?

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:17

And I said, well, coming down, I have an interview with.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:21

With Mike Whalen at Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:23

He said, well, I have an interview with Paul Farnsworth at Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:27

So we had worked together on ESPN's Golf.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:30

And now they were interviewing Emmett to be the director, and they were interviewing me to be the producer for all the live tournament coverage.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:37

So that was an interesting little thing before we even offices.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:41

And I gotta tell you, it was not very impressive.

Keith Hirschland: 00:05:47

They were in an office building, and I can't remember the exact floor, but I got off the elevator and I walked in and there was a young lady there named Lori Dawson, and she was the Only person I saw, and I was like, my name is Keith Hirschland.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:02

I'm here to interview with Mike Whalen.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:04

And she said, oh yeah, let me go back and get Mike.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:08

And they had like three offices, Mike and, and Mike was the vice president of production and, and another gentleman named Bob Greenway, who also came from hbo was the senior vice president of production.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:23

And they were sharing an office because the, you know, the network hadn't even contemplated where they were going to initially, you know, eventually be located.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:35

So we walked in and Mike said, okay, let's get out of here.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:40

We're going to go have our interview on the golf course.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:43

So I hadn't brought clubs.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:46

I was wearing slacks and a, and a, you know, a sweater and dress shoes.

Keith Hirschland: 00:06:55

I was as far from prepared to play golf as you can imagine.

Keith Hirschland: 00:07:01

But we went out to Metro West, a golf course in Orlando, and we played nine holes and, and talked about whether or not I wanted to be part of the Golf Channel.

Jeff Tracy: 00:07:14

And obviously you said yes.

Keith Hirschland: 00:07:17

I said, I said I need to go back and talk to my wife at the time, because I had just moved her and a one year old and a three year old from Los Angeles to Farmington, Connecticut eight months earlier.

Keith Hirschland: 00:07:35

So I was about to upend their world again and say, well, we're moving, we're packing up the kids and going to Orlando, Florida to take a chance on this fledgling network devoted to golf that everybody in the industry said was going to be a complete flop.

Keith Hirschland: 00:07:57

So I had to convince her that it was the right thing to do.

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:03

She agreed.

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:04

And yes.

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:05

Yes.

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:05

I said I wanted to say yes immediately when Mike made the offer.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:10

So you guys hadn't even unpacked yet, Keith?

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:13

That's right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:14

That's right.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:17

Probably still had boxes in the garage and upstairs or something, for sure.

Keith Hirschland: 00:08:22

Luckily we didn't have to repack those.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:25

Well, that saved 20 minutes right there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:28

Did all that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:29

So, yeah, that's, that's really interesting because, you know, I, I have a friend, he's no longer with us, but he was a GSM at the local CBS station here in Portland.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:43

And he was an avid golfer.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:44

He would, I mean, Brian, Brian was just Mr.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:49

Golf.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:49

He didn't have much interest in anything else but food, his good looking wife and playing golf.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:55

And he had a great life, trust me.

Jeff Tracy: 00:08:58

You know, But I remember him telling me back in the 90s that because his wife worked for me at the time, okay, so we were always doing stuff together and he said, yeah, there's this Arnold Palmer.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:15

I kind of it was kind of a sporadic story, if you will.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:19

Now it might have had a few beers in between or something, you know what I mean?

Keith Hirschland: 00:09:23

But best usually do.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:25

Yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:25

And he's like, yeah, there's this thing coming up called the Golf Channel.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:29

And, and you know, they couple of guys have asked us if we, if I would put some money up.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:35

And he had a friend, really close friend, Mick Dowers, who worked for the, was the marketing director at the Portland Trailblazers for years.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:44

And Mick always wore a three piece suit, you know, unless he was on the golf course, he was wearing a three piece suit.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:49

Right.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:50

So anyway, I remember that story years later.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:54

We got to take a break here in a second.

Jeff Tracy: 00:09:55

But years later Brian said, you know, I wish I had to put up the 25 grand like that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:10:03

So anyway, we're going to take a break here on Grilling at the Green.

Jeff Tracy: 00:10:06

We're going to be back with Keith Hirschland.

Jeff Tracy: 00:10:08

Excuse me.

Jeff Tracy: 00:10:10

And talk some more about the origins of the Golf Channel right after this.

Keith Hirschland: 00:10:15

Hey there.

Keith Hirschland: 00:10:16

I'm Jared Doerfler from Hana Golf.

Keith Hirschland: 00:10:18

You're listening to Grilling at the Green with Jeff tracy.

J.T.: 00:10:34

Hey, everybody, J.T.

J.T.: 00:10:36

here, you know, every week on Grilling at the Green we bring you a travel tip and that is brought to you by the Westin dealerships.

J.T.: 00:10:42

I've known those guys since I was a kid and they have one way of doing business.

J.T.: 00:10:46

It's called the Westin way.

J.T.: 00:10:48

It's family oriented and there's no better people to deal with.

J.T.: 00:10:52

Check out Weston Kia on Southeast Stark in Gresham, Oregon.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:05

Welcome back to Grilling.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:06

It's Green.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:07

I'm jt.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:07

We've got my buddy Keith Hirschland with us today.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:10

Keith was there, I guess you would call it, you were the second wave at the Golf Channel, if you will.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:19

But Keith went to work there, so I know what it means, or at least I think I do after all these years.

Jeff Tracy: 00:11:27

But explain to people what exactly a producer at that level does.

Keith Hirschland: 00:11:35

The.

Keith Hirschland: 00:11:36

A producer, a television golf producer basically is responsible for telling the daily story of the golf tournament.

Keith Hirschland: 00:11:47

So you know the way that when the, when the tours come through the truck and I'm asked to give a, you know, the elevator pitch of what I do.

Keith Hirschland: 00:11:56

It's basically most stick and ball sports on television are director sports, right?

Keith Hirschland: 00:12:02

If the director is pointing the camera at the ball, he's covering the event.

Keith Hirschland: 00:12:09

You know, a producer in football, a producer in baseball, a producer in, in many sports is completely different than a producer in golf because the producer in golf in Golf, there are, you know, in most stick and ball sports, again, there's one field of play, there's one offense, there's one defense, there are TV timeouts when there's, there are natural stoppages of play for, you know, that, that allow you to take comm commercial breaks.

Keith Hirschland: 00:12:41

Sure.

Keith Hirschland: 00:12:42

But in golf, there's none of that.

Keith Hirschland: 00:12:43

Golf, there's 18 fields of play in, you know, in a PGA Tour event, there may be as many as 154 players in the field, you know, 72 of them on the golf course at a time.

Keith Hirschland: 00:12:56

Live golf league, there's 54 all on the golf course at the same time.

Keith Hirschland: 00:13:02

And the producer is the one that has to decide what shot to show at what time and whether it's live or previously recorded.

Keith Hirschland: 00:13:11

And then since there are no whistles blown, there are no stoppages of play, there are no coaches timeouts.

Keith Hirschland: 00:13:19

The producer also has to decide when he's going to go to commercial, which is usually, in my, my experience, usually after tee shots because guys are walking to their balls in the fairway or after second shots as they walk to the green.

Keith Hirschland: 00:13:38

And occasionally, depending on the golf course, it could be after a putt as they walk from the green to the tee before they get to the next tee box.

Keith Hirschland: 00:13:46

So, you know, the producer in golf has to decide all of that in a split second.

Jeff Tracy: 00:13:53

Do you also say like, hey, Steve Sands, I want you to go talk to Tiger or some, you know, because they always do little pressers and stuff afterwards.

Jeff Tracy: 00:14:06

But do you say, steve, I want you to cover this and Rich, I want you to cover this at the desk, so on and so forth?

Keith Hirschland: 00:14:13

Yeah, there's, I mean, you know, it's a lot of that is, is kind of predetermined.

Keith Hirschland: 00:14:18

There are production meetings before you go on the air, so that kind of the general story of the day is discussed and, and what the guys in the, in the commentary box are going to be talking about in general and which groups the on course announcers are going to be following.

Keith Hirschland: 00:14:37

Those are kind of decisions that are made early.

Keith Hirschland: 00:14:39

And then obviously you have to adjust if the story doesn't go the way you think it's going to go.

Keith Hirschland: 00:14:45

You know, again, another difference in other sports is our commentators, especially the folks in the booth.

Keith Hirschland: 00:14:54

You know, if you're, if you're Joe Buck, you're, you're at the 50 yard line looking at the football game and calling the football game.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:02

Steve Sands or Arlo White or Brian Hammonds in my day, and Denny Shriner, who started with Us in the very beginning were sitting in a.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:11

In a trailer watching a monitor.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:15

And the only thing they had to go by what we were showing on television was what was on that monitor.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:21

So they had to trust me when I said, we're going to Carl Paulson's second shot of 14, that Carl Pulse Paulson second shot of 14 was going to show up on the screen.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:32

And then I had to trust them that When Carl Paulson second shot of 14 showed up on the screen, they said, this is Carl Paulson second shot of 14.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:40

So, you know, golf has a lot of different, you know, moving parts.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:44

And, you know, the announcers that do golf are, you know, and I'm biased, obviously, but sure, some of the best in the business because they have to.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:54

There are, you know, there are so many balls in the air that they have to continually juggle.

Keith Hirschland: 00:15:59

And, you know, for the most part, all of them do a fantastic job.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:03

Oh, yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:04

And I mean, if people have never seen an event where the Golf Channel is set up, you've got some towers around selected holes and you've got somebody reporting from in that tower, and usually right below the tower or as part of the tower hour, you got a camera and a camera operator there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:23

And then you've got some people, the on course people walking around, people like, you know, Dottie Pepper or whomever.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:31

I just say mention Dottie because she's been on the show.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:35

And then you've got a trailer, which I gotta say, the one they bring to Portland looks like it was World War II surplus because it's painted green and it's kind of tucked in the.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:50

In the woods there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:51

Y.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:52

It's, it's.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:53

They.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:53

They make it so it's out of the way.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:55

You know, they obviously, but they do that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:16:58

It's this kind of glossed over army green, if you will.

Jeff Tracy: 00:17:02

And it sits there, but that's where you're, you know, that's where the desk is.

Jeff Tracy: 00:17:07

That's where the operations are.

Jeff Tracy: 00:17:08

Of course, you got the trucks on the other side of the course in a compound that's different, but it's just kind of what they see on TV and how that gets there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:17:19

It still fascinates me.

Jeff Tracy: 00:17:20

Even after I've been around this stuff for 30 years, it still fascinates me how all that works.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:26

It is.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:27

It is fascinating.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:28

And it's a technological marvel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:30

I mean, the, you know, the.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:31

And I will say that I, I think.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:35

And again, being biased, because golf is really the, you know, for.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:39

For the past, gosh, couple weeks, 40 years, it's what, you know, it's what I've, I've done other sports, but golf has been my main, My main love and my main, My main profession or my main sport.

Keith Hirschland: 00:17:53

And the tech, the advances in technology have really affected the way golf is broadcast on television more than any other sport.

Jeff Tracy: 00:18:02

Yeah.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:03

You know, the ability to, to not have to cable the entire golf course.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:08

You know, the ability to have recording machines that aren't your.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:13

The old time, you know, things where you had to hit play and record and, and then stop and then rewind and that, you know, now they have these, these instant, instant cueable digital recording devices that can record four things in the same machine, can have four inputs and four outputs.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:32

So you can be doing.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:33

You know, there's.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:34

I used to do this job called the ISO producer.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:37

When I first started, which was your responsibility was getting.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:41

Recording every golf shot on the golf course that the producer didn't get to live.

Keith Hirschland: 00:18:46

And when I first started doing that job, we had four tape machines and they were, honest to God, like I just real to reel recording, reel to reel tape machines that you hit play and record, you had to roll through the shot, give them enough pad at the end of it, stop it, rewind it, and then you could sell it to the producer.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:09

As you know, you have.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:10

When the producer was on Tigers putting for birdie, you were recording Davis Love hitting his second shot at 12 and Freddy Couples chipping at nine and.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:23

And one other shot.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:24

Because we only had these four tape machines, and one was always dedicated to the program in case we had to replay something that was shown actually on the air.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:35

It was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:36

I lived in fear, and I still do to a certain point, but I lived in fear of missing the most important shot of the golf shot of the golf tournament every day.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:46

Yeah, because.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:47

But now everything on every hole is recorded somewhere.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:54

It's almost right now.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:56

It's in this, in the way that it's done now.

Keith Hirschland: 00:19:59

It's almost impossible to miss a shot.

Keith Hirschland: 00:20:01

It may be hard to find it, but it's going to be on, you know, on a recording somewhere in the compound.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:09

There you go.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:10

We're going to take another break.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:11

We're going to be back with my buddy Keith Hirschland, formerly of Golf Channel and still doing great work out there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:18

Stay with us.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:19

We'll be right back.

J.T.: 00:20:20

Hey, everybody, it's jt.

J.T.: 00:20:21

You know, I talk about painted hills all the time, and we always say beef the way nature intended.

J.T.: 00:20:27

But it's more than that, because each bite of painted hills will make your taste Buds explode.

J.T.: 00:20:32

Put a big, bright smile on your face, and whoever's at your dinner table will have a big, bright smile on their face.

J.T.: 00:20:38

And you can thank me for that later.

J.T.: 00:20:40

Just go to painted hillsbeef.com and find out more.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:44

You won't regret it.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:55

Welcome back.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:56

Grilling.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:57

It's green.

Jeff Tracy: 00:20:57

Hey, we want to thank Weston Kia, by the way, for that last segment there.

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:01

We've got Keith Hirschland with us today.

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:03

And Keith was there at the start of Golf Channel.

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:08

Had you met, like, Mr.

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:11

Palmer prior to going to Golf Channel?

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:15

And if you hadn't, what was it like when he first walked into the new.

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:19

The quote, unquote, new building?

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:21

At some point, I was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:23

I was fortunate enough to be able to answer yes to that question that I had.

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:28

I had met Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:29

Palmer through my previous work with ESPN Golf and all my communications who produce the Skins Games and the Senior Skins Games.

Jeff Tracy: 00:21:43

Okay?

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:43

So I know not only had.

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:45

Had, you know, the good fortune of meeting Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:47

Palmer at golf tournaments that ESPN televised, but also in a more intimate setting at the.

Keith Hirschland: 00:21:53

ifetime because I was born in: 1955

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:01

My parents played golf.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:03

My mother used to say that Arnold Palmer was the only man that she would ever leave my father for.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:09

He was my hero growing up.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:12

He remained my hero throughout my professional career at the Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:17

He was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:17

I mean, the stories that you hear about Arnold Palmer are all true, Jeff.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:21

You know, he.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:23

Every single person who's ever met the man has said that he makes you feel like the most important person in the world, even the first time you meet him.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:32

And that was true throughout the course of our dealings together.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:37

And I will say there were a couple of really, like, mind blowing experiences that I had with him.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:47

One was we were on the practice tee at a Senior Tour event in Pittsburgh.

Keith Hirschland: 00:22:52

And, you know, I had been with the Channel for a number of years, and I was producing the event, and I walked up, I wanted to say hello, and I walked up to the practice tee and he was hitting.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:06

He was hitting balls.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:07

And I walked over and I stood there for a minute and.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:09

Because you never want to interrupt them when they're actually, you know, practicing.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:13

But he had finished and he turned and he looked at me, and I took a step forward and reached out my right hand And I said, Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:20

Palmer, I'm Keith.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:21

I said, Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:22

Palmer, I'm.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:23

And he looked at me, he goes, I know who you are, Keith.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:26

And that was like, holy cow, Arnold Palmer.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:29

Knows who I am.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:30

So that, that was like, you know, a mind blowing thing.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:33

And the other was in the early days of the Golf Channel, as you know, and you know, when, when it first started out, it was a pay.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:39

It was a pay.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:40

It was, it was designed to be a pay television network, much like HBO, where subscribers would pay 5, 7, $10 a month to get the Golf Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:54

To.

Keith Hirschland: 00:23:55

To his credit, Joe Gibbs, the Alabama businessman who started golf channel with Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:00

Palmer, saw very early on that that model was not going to work.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:07

There just weren't enough people that were going to pony up the monthly fee to get the Golf Channel, which is crazy.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:14

Now as you look at things like Peacock and.

Jeff Tracy: 00:24:16

Right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:17

All the subscribe, you know, Netflix and all the subscriber base based entities that are out there.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:22

But he said, you know, he went to bat for the network and went to all the cable operators and said, we want to switch our model from pay to basic cable.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:33

And we don't even, we don't want a penny from you.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:37

In fact, we will pay you 10 cents a subscriber to carry the Golf Channel on your basic cable server.

Keith Hirschland: 00:24:46

ld Palmer Golf gala, which in: 1997

Keith Hirschland: 00:25:12

And that was the introduction to these cable companies to say, this is what the Golf Channel can provide you if you put us on basic cable.

Keith Hirschland: 00:25:22

And it was extraordinary.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:24

Who won?

Keith Hirschland: 00:25:26

Arnie and Tiger.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:28

No kidding.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:34

Oh, my goodness.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:36

Yeah, I just, you know, we've heard stories forever about Mr.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:42

Palmer.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:42

I never personally met him.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:44

I saw him here in Portland a couple times, but that you could see as he even walked down through the ropes.

Jeff Tracy: 00:25:51

And people would say Arnie or, you know, whatever, they would call out his name politely and he would always take time to wave or shake a hand or, or, or do something like that.

Keith Hirschland: 00:26:04

Incredible, man.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:05

Yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:05

Yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:07

The, the, the, the journey of Golf Channel.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:12

Keith, over the years it's gotten bigger coverage, more broad.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:17

Now they're doing overseas events, LPGA events, college events, etc.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:24

Etc.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:24

And, and that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:26:26

Did they foresee that when, when you were starting?

Keith Hirschland: 00:26:30

Yeah, you know, and it's funny, we, I was sitting at home the other night and just flipping through the channels and, you know, Golf channels, like the seventh or eighth network on my list and Right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:26:48

They were, you know, kind of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the channel and airing what was the very first program that ever aired on the network called the Approach.

Keith Hirschland: 00:26:58

And it basically was an hour long program that laid out all of basically Mike Whelan's dream in terms of programming.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:12

You know, there was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:13

It was the Golf Central, which was going to be the news.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:16

It was Peter Kessler show, which was, you know, interviewing the stars of the game.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:22

It was all the instructional stuff and it was the tournament action.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:26

And, you know, this was: 1995

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:29

This is when we flipped the switch.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:30

Our first, the first thing that aired after that, it was the Approach.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:34

And then it was Golf Talk Live with Peter Kessler and Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:38

Palmer.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:39

And then I'm pretty sure it was the coverage of the European Tour, what the tournament that actually is going on this week, the Dubai Desert Classic.

Jeff Tracy: 00:27:48

Right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:49

Freddie Couples ended up winning.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:50

So we had.

Keith Hirschland: 00:27:51

Joe had worked out deals with the European Tour, European Tour, broadcasting that GOLF Channel would be the home of the European Tour in the United States.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:01

And he had done deals with the PGA tour, thanks to Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:05

Palmer and the LPGA Tour.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:07

So I think we broadcast live somewhere in the neighborhood of 22 live tournaments that year.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:15

We had seven Nike Tour events.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:17

We had seven PGA Tour events, including, you know, things like the BC Open and the Valero Texas Open, which was at the time was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:27

Was called something else.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:28

And we had seven PGA Tour events.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:30

We had some Senior Tour events, and I think we did 10 LPGA events.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:35

So tournament Golf.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:38

Joe was, was pretty, pretty prescient and pretty firm in his belief that the thing that was going to drive viewers to the network was actually being able to watch the.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:51

In the world play golf.

Jeff Tracy: 00:28:53

Yeah.

Keith Hirschland: 00:28:53

So he made sure that he used Arnold's leverage and Arnold's personality to help get these, you know, these broadcast rights deals done so that we had Tournament Golf on the network from day one.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:10

That was about in the time frame when you did that is when Brandle won the BC Open, wasn't it?

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:17

I'm not sure what year he won the BC Open, so I think.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:20

I think it was like 96 or 97.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:24

Yeah.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:24

He went in Canada though.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:25

Right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:25

The BC Open that we did was the one up in upstate New York.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:29

Oh, okay.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:30

You know that, that, you know the comic strip bc?

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:33

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:35

So, okay.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:36

I didn't get that.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:37

I wasn't fortunate enough to.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:38

To be the producer for Brandtle's win.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:43

Maybe that was fortuitous.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:44

Who knows?

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:46

You never know.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:49

You've got An Emmy back there on your shelf.

Jeff Tracy: 00:29:51

Keith, is that when you were at the Golf Channel?

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:55

It is.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:56

It was the network's first Emmy.

Keith Hirschland: 00:29:58

Extremely proud of that.

Keith Hirschland: 00:30:01

And it was for, you know, the one thing that, that I will give Joe and Bob Greenway and especially Mike Whalen credit for from day.

Keith Hirschland: 00:30:13

And then after Mike, a gentleman named Tony Tortorisi.

Keith Hirschland: 00:30:20

After Tony and, and during Tony's tenure, broadcast legend named Don McGuire were kind of in charge of the production.

Keith Hirschland: 00:30:32

And they were always forward leaning and they were always, you know, giving us the rope to try new things and try new technology as long as it didn't cost too much and, you know, do new things.

Keith Hirschland: 00:30:46

And this was the Emmy was because we were the first network, first golf coverage to put the putting line on the green.

Keith Hirschland: 00:30:57

And we called it Aim Point, which, yeah, this was long before the.

Keith Hirschland: 00:31:02

Everybody on the green standing around doing nothing is called Aim Point.

Jeff Tracy: 00:31:06

Right.

Keith Hirschland: 00:31:06

Called it Aim Point because it was where the ball was intended to start on its line when first hit.

Keith Hirschland: 00:31:13

And then it would show the break, and we left it on the screen as the ball traversed the line and, and showed whether or not you could see whether or not right away whether or not the putt was going to go in or not.

Keith Hirschland: 00:31:25

logy up for the EMMY Award in: 2007

Keith Hirschland: 00:31:39

Tony Tortorisi was the only person that went to the, the, the Emmy Awards that year, and he sat at a table all by himself and they announced Golf Channel as the winner.

Keith Hirschland: 00:31:50

And, you know, we were all shocked because nobody thought we had a chance to win the Emmy, but we did, and it was fun.

Jeff Tracy: 00:31:58

Well, good for you.

Jeff Tracy: 00:31:59

We're going to take a break.

Jeff Tracy: 00:31:59

We're going to come wrap up the regular show with Keith, and then we'll get him to stick around a little bit for after hours.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:05

You're listening to Grilling at the Green on multiple radio stations, podcasts, and Golf News Network.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:11

We'll be right back.

J.T.: 00:32:12

Hey, everybody, J.T.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:13

Here.

J.T.: 00:32:13

If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try birdie ball.

J.T.: 00:32:17

Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those, and they work great.

J.T.: 00:32:24

Birdieball.com.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:36

Welcome back to Grilling.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:37

It's green.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:37

I'm JT today we're talking with Keith Hirschland.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:40

Keith was there at the beginning of the Golf Channel, and they are celebrating 30 years right now.

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:46

What's your most memorable moment?

Jeff Tracy: 00:32:51

I know you had tons of them, but there's got to be one or two that just stand out.

Keith Hirschland: 00:32:57

You know, I think the first, just that first time that I got a couple.

Keith Hirschland: 00:33:07

first time it was, it was the: 1995

Keith Hirschland: 00:33:17

And the first time that the Countdown came from Master Control that was giving, you know, the, the reins of the Golf Channel to our little production truck.

Keith Hirschland: 00:33:33

And Joe Gibbs was there and you know, the sense of pride that he felt and just permeated throughout the entire production team that, you know, this thing that he had a vision for, for years was actually coming to fruition.

Keith Hirschland: 00:33:54

That's a moment I'll never forget.

Keith Hirschland: 00:33:57

The other was the aforementioned Arnold Palmer Golf Gala, when you really felt like kind of a little bit like the future of the network was resting on your shoulder to make sure that this thing came off without a hitch.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:12

And afterward, in the bar at the Laurel Valley Golf Course, Arnold's Golf Course, and in Ligonier, everybody was sitting around celebrating and the re.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:26

Air of the, of the golf gala was on and our team walked in and Mr.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:33

Palmer turned and gave us his legendary thumbs up.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:38

And the applause from the room was, was something that, you know, again, something that I'll never forget.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:46

And oh yeah, there were a ton of stories.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:48

There were a ton of things.

Keith Hirschland: 00:34:50

It's mostly the people, Jeff, you know, that, yeah, you know, the incredibly talented people that I was fortunate enough with which to work and, and play and, and, you know, just, you know, fulfill this dream and, and then to see it become, you know, just, you know, this multi billion dollar business was, you know, when, when everybody, and I mean it, everybody in the beginning said I was crazy for leaving espn.

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:21

What was I doing?

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:22

This thing is not going to last five months.

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:25

This is the worst idea in the history of television.

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:27

I can't believe you're giving up your career for this.

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:31

And, you know, thanks to Mike and Bob and Joe and Gary Stevenson and Paul Farnsworth and Matt Scalise and they're, you know, I can name 50 people.

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:43

You know, we just didn't listen to any of it and put our noses to the, to the grindstone and made, made this thing the best that it could be and, and, and turned it into, you know, geez.

Keith Hirschland: 00:35:55

Now, 30 years later, still going strong.

Jeff Tracy: 00:35:58

Do you think it was kind of the model in a way?

Jeff Tracy: 00:36:02

Teeth were like the Tennis channel, the, the NFL's got its own channel, Major League Baseball's got its own channel, the NBA's got their own channel.

Jeff Tracy: 00:36:13

But I don't remember those channels being around when Golf Channel came on.

Jeff Tracy: 00:36:17

So in a way, you had to be a kind of a trailblazer for those.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:21

Absolutely.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:22

And, you know, I think it's.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:24

I think especially like you mentioned the Tennis Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:27

And, you know, I don't think that they're.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:30

You look at a behemoth like the NFL, that they were always going to have their own television network.

Jeff Tracy: 00:36:35

Sure.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:35

You know what I mean?

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:36

Or mlb.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:37

You know, it's just.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:38

That just made perfect sense.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:40

They want to have and on.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:41

And in a way, you know, I'm sure there were folks in Ponte Vedra that were, you know, not very far away from getting ready to.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:54

To put down the foundation for what would probably be the PGA Tour Channel.

Keith Hirschland: 00:36:58

And then Joe came along and he.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:00

And with.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:01

With Arnold.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:01

With him, you know, they.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:03

They made sure that that didn't have to happen.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:06

It's become a little bit like the PGH Tour Channel these days, which, you know, I think was inevitable.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:13

But, you know.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:14

Yeah, I think that none of, you know, none of these single sport networks, and I'm not going to say they wouldn't have existed because of course they would have.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:24

Oh, yeah.

Keith Hirschland: 00:37:25

But they could look at what the Golf Channel did and say, hey, if they can do it, we can do it.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:33

Yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:33

Because there was always channels that had hunting and fishing shows on them because, you know, that's huge in our country.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:41

And.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:41

But they're not 247 or.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:43

They weren't at the time.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:44

Now they have some.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:45

But.

Jeff Tracy: 00:37:46

But I really think Golf Channel, unless I don't remember things correctly, and that's been known to happen, you know, that the Golf Channel really was the first one that's, you know, stuck a stick in the ground and said, here we are, and we're all about golf.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:03

And.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:04

And I think that that's.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:06

You guys are to be commended for that, too.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:08

Like you said, the behemoth.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:10

Yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:10

They were gonna eventually have their own channels, but maybe you were the impetus for them to do it the way they did it versus, you know, couple of guys sitting in a back office on Fifth Avenue, New York, saying, well, maybe we do this.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:25

You know, who knows?

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:27

Who knows?

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:27

But it's to be.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:28

You're to be commended on that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:30

We got to get out here.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:31

But I did want to mention Keith is also an author, a very good author.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:36

Okay.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:37

He's got a great book.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:39

I think it was his first book called Cover Me Boys.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:41

I'm going in.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:42

That's kind of the story.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:43

His life and television and covers from the time with.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:46

He was with his folks into, you know, espn and.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:50

And were you on the Dating Game or something?

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:54

I don't remember.

Keith Hirschland: 00:38:55

I was.

Keith Hirschland: 00:38:55

It was classic concentration.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:58

Okay.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:58

All right.

Jeff Tracy: 00:38:59

That was it.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:00

That was it.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:00

Okay.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:01

But that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:02

And then to ESPN and then finally the Golf Channel, so on and so forth.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:08

He's got that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:08

He's got Murphy, Murphy and some other ones.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:12

So why don't you give them your website real quick or where they can find those.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:15

We'll talk about it more in after hours, too.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:17

Sure.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:18

It's.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:18

It's simple.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:18

It's just my name.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:20

Www.keith k e I t h dot h Hershland h I r s h l a n d at.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:28

No, that's it.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:28

Sorry, that's my.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:29

I was about to give you my email address.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:31

It's www.keith hirschland.com and.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:34

Okay, you know, again, I gotta give a shout out to my.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:37

My publisher, Beacon Publishing Group.

Keith Hirschland: 00:39:39

They've been fantastic.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:41

Good.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:41

Well, they're good books.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:42

Keith has been generous enough to send me a copy of each book except the last one.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:46

I haven't gotten that one yet, but we'll talk about that.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:50

Anyway.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:51

We'll.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:52

We'll be back next week with another edition of what is the show.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:56

Yeah.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:56

Grilling at the Green.

Jeff Tracy: 00:39:57

And I want to thank Keith for putting up with me today.

Jeff Tracy: 00:40:00

And so go out there, play some golf, have some fun.

Jeff Tracy: 00:40:02

But more importantly, be kind.

Jeff Tracy: 00:40:04

Take care, everybody.

Speaker A: 00:40:05

Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.

Speaker A: 00:40:11

All rights reserve.