Radio’s Audience is Aging, but Older Talent Can’t Catch a Break (2024)

Over the last several years, Nate Bukaty has earned a plethora of frequent flyer miles through his global travels to call soccer games. Although being away from Kansas City on a regular basis is something he considers to be the most challenging part of his job, he understands that everything comes at a price.

Realizing a sustainable work-life balance is essential in ensuring he can achieve his professional aspirations without sacrificing time with his family, which represents the top priority in his life. Bukaty tries to make his trips worthwhile by doing something unique to the location; in fact, he keeps a map in his basem*nt with pushpins denoting the places he has visited over the years. Aside from his business-related travel, he also tries to take every member of his family on a trip throughout the year.

The amount of travel in sports broadcasting during the season renders it more complicated to remain committed to local Kansas City sports full time. Over the previous year, there had been episodes of The Border Patrol morning show on Sports Radio 810 WHB for which he was absent because of his play-by-play obligations.

On top of that, he is trying to ensure that he is present for his family when he is in town. Bukaty estimates that he is on the road for more than 100 days amid the season, underscored by his role with Apple TV on its MLS Season Pass property. At the end of May, he officially announced his exit from the full-time hosting position on the program alongside co-host Steven St. John and producer Jake Gutierrez, marking a seminal change in the Kansas City sports radio landscape.

“It was very difficult,” Bukaty said. “Talk radio wasn’t something that I necessarily wanted to get into in the first place, and honestly if it hadn’t been for the right fit with Steven and Jake and the rest of our staff, I’m not sure I would have ever done it.”

Bukaty considers himself fortunate to have worked in sports talk radio and is remaining with the show as a regular contributor. Moreover, he is focusing on his role calling games for Apple and hosting SCORELINE for the CBS Sports Golazo Network. In moving away from his position on The Border Patrol after 17 years, he finds it hard to believe that all of the time passed by.

“Just from a time management standpoint, trying to stay up on all of the local sports to the point where I can host a four-hour talk show, let alone the four hours every morning, from a time commitment standpoint cuts into my preparation for getting ready for the games,” Bukaty said. “It was becoming too much, so something had to give, and that was kind of the choice I made.”

Throughout his professional journey, which has been grounded in versatility and consistent adaptation, hosting sports talk radio had long been a constant with an indefatigable mindset rooted in advancement and humility. Part of the reason he decided to make the announcement on his final day rather than doing so ahead of time was that he did not feel it would surprise the audience. St. John, Gutierrez and his colleagues at the radio station were aware of his decision and remained familiar with the process.

“I kept them involved with everything that was happening because I would never want to put them in a situation where I blindsided them because they’ve been so great to me for so long, and I want to stay involved with the radio station because I love the place,” Bukaty said, “so I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything that blindsided them at all.”

Bukaty started hosting The Border Patrol in 2007 upon the departure of Bob Fescoe when he relocated to St. Louis. Moving into a space giving his opinion while trying to remain objective in his other work indicated a new predicament within his work. After providing his authentic thoughts on players, coaches and executives, he would then proceed to cover those personnel shortly thereafter.

“I really loved the opportunity to have access to being on a major league television network and being on a successful morning show, and I loved all those things,” Bukaty said, “but that’s one thing I didn’t like about it was trying to balance two very different jobs at the same time.”

Having worked with St. John throughout his entire time on The Border Patrol, Bukaty regards him as both the funniest and wittiest sports personality in the area. The dichotomy between their personalities and professional backgrounds, he believes, fostered a synergy among the show that facilitated success and captivated the audience.

“We’re not the type of hot-take guys that are going to try to stir up a whole bunch of controversy and get everybody fired up and wound up,” Bukaty said. “We’re more likely to try to make you laugh or put a smile on your face and find a humorous spin on things while still giving people good information.”

Bukaty does not remember having a conversation about the ratings for the show in many years, nor does he believe the station subscribes to the metrics in the first place. In considering competition within local sports radio, including Audacy-owned 610 Sports Radio, he has nothing but respect for everyone at the station. Early in his career, he hosted Bulldog and Bukaty with Fescoe, whom his show has gone up against in morning drive since 2010.

“Honestly, this might sound like B.S. but I swear it’s true, we never spent any time talking about what they were doing,” Bukaty said of 610 Sports Radio. “We just focused on trying to do the show we thought we wanted to do [and] a show that we thought was entertaining, so if we think it’s entertaining, then hopefully the audience does too.”

Rather than measuring success by quantifiable data such as cume, average quarter-hour persons and time spent listening, Bukaty evaluated the performance of the show through the station clientele. While he is not sure it is the right approach, he was interested in ensuring clients received the response from the audience they were looking for. Bukaty always checked in with his clients, who he said felt they were getting a positive return on investment in working with him. An aspect of that success came through their genuine dispositions and candor.

“We have events where we get to meet a lot of listeners,” Bukaty said, “and I think they appreciate we were a couple of authentic Kansas City guys that weren’t really trying to be something that we’re not.”

Starting in the 2015 season, Bukaty served as the lead commentator for Sporting Kansas City within Major League Soccer. A few years later, Bukaty added to his workload by delivering play-by-play for FOX Sports broadcasts of Major League Soccer games and also covered international competitions including the Gold Cup.

“I try to tell my kids all the time, ‘Step outside of your comfort zone – that’s when personal growth happens,’ and I did women’s MMA for a year, for example, and I didn’t have nearly enough education on that at the time and it helped me grow as a broadcaster,” Bukaty stated. “It helped me grow as a soccer commentator by doing that because it caused me to look at things in some different ways.”

Bukaty desires to make an impact beyond the broadcast booth, a principle instantiated by Kansas City Royals play-by-play announcer Ryan Lefebvre. As Bukaty began to experience success, Lefebvre called to congratulate him and then asked what he was going to do with it. After losing a close friend to cancer, Bukaty decided to start the Sean D. Biggs Memorial Foundation to raise money and awareness for cancer prevention research. Throughout the year, the charitable organization hold events and fundraising efforts, along with three scholarships a year for college students to study abroad.

“[The foundation has] also helped me – it was really just a big coping mechanism for me,” Bukaty said. “All the pain I felt when my friend died, it’s not pain anymore. It’s like just this deep sense of gratitude for everything that’s come ever since, which is a nice place to be. I like being in that place better than just being angry.”

Through his play-by-play announcing and hosting ventures, Bukaty is living out his childhood dream and wants to make sure that he does not have any regrets. Yet he also wants to keep learning, remaining attuned to new innovations and aware of what is coming next. He does not subscribe to the common maxim, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” instead asserting that it comes down to whether or not someone wants to learn new things.

“I don’t want to just coast at any point in my life,” Bukaty said. “I just want to keep growing, and that, I feel like, is a good place to be because I think earlier in my career, I probably was a little more focused on, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get this job.’”

Even though Bukaty understands that it will be competitive to earn a spot on the broadcasting roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, being selected for the coveted assignment is a goal that he hopes to realize. If an opportunity to return to sports radio on a full-time basis becomes available, he would never rule it out, saying it would depend on the options, family priorities and other circ*mstances.

“I’m always feeling like, ‘Well, I’m not as talented as everybody else, so I better be willing to outwork everybody and take any opportunities that come my way,’ and I’m glad I’ve done that because the industry changes constantly,” Bukaty said. “It’s constantly evolving, and if you can do more things, then you have a chance of surviving longer and also growing.”