Breaking In with Kevin Fishbain: A Sports Media Podcast

In episode 52, Kevin chats with John Fanta, broadcaster at NBC sports where he does play-by-play for college basketball and the NBA, along with sideline reporting, in-studio hosting and podcasting. Fanta has been with NBC full-time since last summer, and has become one of the most beloved personalities when it comes to college basketball. Fanta grew up a sports-obsessed kid in Northeast Ohio watching all the Cleveland teams and took his broadcasting ambitions to high school, where you'll hear about all the work he put it in to broadcast high school sports, and what led him to Seton Hall, which opened more doors for him thanks to his willingness to take on every opportunity. That led to an internship at Fox Sports, and then a job with the Big East. Hear how John Fanta broke in.

In episode 51, Kevin chats with Jason Benetti, who was just named the lead play-by-play broadcaster for Sunday Night Baseball on NBC and Peacock. Benetti will remain the television voice of the Detroit Tigers, a role he has held since 2024. Prior to that, Benetti spent eight seasons as the voice of the Chicago White Sox and he was a national broadcaster for baseball, football and college basketball on Fox Sports. Long before that, Benetti was a high school student at Homewood-Flossmoor when his voice got recognized as he announced his marching band. He worked at the radio station there before heading to Syracuse and getting jobs calling Syracuse minor league baseball, High Point basketball while going to law school at Wake Forest, along with high school sports before he got his first big break with ESPN. Hear how Jason Benetti broke in.

In episode 50 — yes, 5-0 — Kevin chats with Laurence Holmes, radio host at 104.3 The Score in Chicago, where he's worked for nearly 30 years. Holmes, whose own podcast, "House of L," helped inspire this one, also teaches aspiring journalists at DePaul University, giving him plenty of perspective on how to break in. You'll hear about what got Holmes into radio, how he got started at his high school in a south Chicago suburb, and the steps along the way that led to him having his own show in a market like Chicago. For Chicagoans, you'll appreciate hearing about all the people who Holmes worked with, and for everyone else, he provides some valuable insight into the industry. Hear how Laurence Holmes broke in.

In episode 49, Kevin chats with Dave Revsine, lead studio host and basketball play-by-play broadcaster at Big Ten Network. He is also the author of “The Opening Kickoff: The Tumultuous Birth of a Football Nation.” When BTN launched in 2007, it was Revsine who introduced the network to the masses, and he's been the voice of the channel's coverage ever since. Prior to that, Revsine spent 11 years at ESPN, and he'll describe the journey that got him to Bristol, one that began at Northwestern University, took him to Dublin, a one-year stint working in finance, before TV jobs in Texas and Iowa. Hear how Dave Revsine broke in.

In episode 48, Kevin chats with Eric Edholm, lead draft writer for NFL.com. Edholm has covered the NFL for more than two decades, including 11 years at Pro Football Weekly, where he overlapped with Kevin for the 2010-12 seasons. Edholm got his journalism start at his town’s local paper when he was still in high school, and had a unique Missouri journalism experience. He’ll also discuss how he got his first job at the Sporting News and some of his adventures reporting on the NFL. Hear how Eric Edholm broke in.