Barrie finds his spot in ESPN’s lineup

THESE DAYS, YOU can see Matt Barrie during ABC’s “Good Morning America” program, when the ESPN SportsCenter regular delivers brief, fast-paced (and pre-recorded) sports updates for the A.M. crowd. Wee-hours folks, too, often catch him co-hosting SportsCenter’s late-night editions.

It hasn’t been so long ago, though – 2006-08, to be exact – that the quick-quipping Barrie was best known locally for Sports Radio 1400 The Team’s “Matt & Tim Show,” a three-hour (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) smorgasbord of sports and what Barrie calls “guy conversations” about … well, whatever came to his or co-host Tim Hill’s fertile minds.

The two 20-somethings, whose “real” jobs were at WLTX-TV19 (Barrie) and WOLO-TV 25 (where Hill remains sports director), carved out their niche by appealing to broadcasting’s golden demographic, males 18-35. Whether discussing a Steve Spurrier news conference or debating the merits of bar soap vs. body wash, listeners discovered a must-hear destination for their zany on-air chemistry, exemplified by the all-purpose greeting/rallying cry, “Barnyard!”

So it was that when Barrie – now living 20 minutes from ESPN’s Bristol, Conn., studios – learned that in late October, 1400 (then 560) had dumped most of its local sports programming and the people who produced it, the good old days came flashing back … followed by sadness.

“The first thing you think about is the people who lost their jobs,” the 36-year-old said. “The very first I thought of was Teddy (Heffner), who was such a mainstay for so long in that market. I used to wake up with his show and listen on my drive to work … it was such a part of the city’s fabric.”

The Matt & Tim Show came about because Heffner reached out to Hill for fill-in duty. Hill asked, “You mind if I bring in my buddy Matt?” and over the next two years, they enjoyed a never-dull ride.

“They gave us a lot of freedom, which was awesome,” Hill said. “What I liked most was being surprised every day. I never knew what we’d hear from the callers. Almost every time, what became the day’s topic was not what we had thought.”

There was, for instance, the “Great McGriddles Debate”: two and a half hours of pros and cons about a breakfast sandwich. Said Hill, “Who knew (listeners) had such strong opinions about McGriddles?”

“We’d have a random conversation, and the phones lit up and drove the show,” Barrie said. “We thought, ‘Are these people as twisted as us?’ And the answer was: yes.” He laughed. “I guess the market was ready for two bozos to talk about everything and anything.”

Hill says Barrie usually drove the dialogue. “We’d be on the phone the night before, coming up with three poll questions (for the next day’s show), and Matt typically had, if not all three, then two of three.” In the studio, “I’d see him smile like, ‘I’ve got something.’ And every single time, I got that same feeling of anticipation; I couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say.

“I guess that’s why he is where he is now.”

Barrie left Columbia in 2008 for Dallas’ KXAS-TV, an NBC affiliate where he hosted weekend sportscasts and covered the Cowboys, Rangers and Mavericks. Then in 2011, Barrie witnessed ESPN’s launch of the Longhorn Network, and in 2013, when his Dallas contract was up, he was hired to do SportsCenter or, as he puts it, “sports Disneyland.”

“At first I just wanted to keep my head down, learn how to do TV there and eventually get an opportunity to major in college football,” a goal he says comes from his Columbia days. “I got there when Spurrier was going into his first season (at USC),” he said, “so I was in on the ground floor of what he was doing, and I’m forever connected to that.”

Last fall, he hosted “College GameDay” on ESPN Radio with co-hosts Trevor Matich and Brad Edwards, in addition to his SportsCenter duties. Barrie also did a football podcast with veteran college reporter Ivan Maisel and, most recently, co-hosted ESPN Radio’s remote coverage at the Sugar Bowl.

“It took me back to SEC Saturdays with (WLTX sports director) Reggie Anderson and (former director) Bob Shields,” he said. “Now, I do remotes from the biggest games in the country. That’s sort of a pinch-yourself moment.”

Not just for him, either. “It’s absolutely surreal to me to pop on SportsCenter and hear my buddy’s voice and see his face – and I mean that in the most amazingly positive way,” Hill said. “It hit me during last year’s World Cup from Brazil when host Bob Ley would wrap up coverage from the biggest event in the world, and then toss it to my buddy.”

Hill says Barrie’s ego, though, remains in check. “When I bring up his name to people, they’re not quite sure who I’m talking about,” he said. “The compliment is that he did his job and nothing stood out to them, no undue attention. To me, that’s the highest mark of a professional.”

But then, Barrie obviously had to stand out to get to ESPN. One can’t help thinking some of that personality was fashioned back when he and Hill shared a radio studio three hours a day, five days a week, winging it about whatever struck them as interesting or funny, or both.

Such as … Barnyard: “Tim and I had a ‘Name Williams-Brice Stadium’ contest, and decided Barnyard was a raucous name,” Barrie said. “My girlfriend (now wife), Ashley, and I met a listener who brought it up, and later Tim and I told listeners, If you see either of us and say ‘Barnyard,’ you’ll know we know, and vice versa.

“Soon people were calling in saying ‘Barnyard!’ like it was hello or goodbye, a salutation. And it just took off.” Barrie laughed. “Of course, it made no sense.”

Except, that is, to those in on the gag: a fun-loving radio fraternity, with two young buddies in charge.

This story was originally published January 17, 2015 at 12:07 AM with the headline "Barrie finds his spot in ESPN’s lineup."