He died of some terminal illness about ten years ago.He was known respectfully as "Bottom line Bob".I never thought that he got the credit that he deserved.
I enjoyed that radio show. He always threw in information about the "business" of college athletics that I found interesting. I remember he and his partner "adopted" the Loyola-Marymount basketball team one year during their magical tourney run. They interviewed someone from that team just about every day and it was evident the team got a kick out of it. It was good fun. The relationship between he and Dale Brown had many interesting twists and blew up now and again but I can't remember the details anymore. C'est la vie.
I read the book when it came out, so I don't remember a whole lot about it. But I do remember thinking it was a little too much poor, poor, pitiful me. I really liked what he did with our non-conference schedule - scheduling teams like aTm and tOSU.
Some one please correct me if I am wrong about this. I recall during the 80's LSU made a move from WWL to WJBO for some major piece of broadcasting. Whereas WWL was a clear channel AM, capable of reception across much of the lower US (I once heard even in New York at night), WJBO didn't reach beyond BR. This angered a lot of fans who could no longer pick up games. Broadhead was blamed for this action, as it entailed greater revenue.
LSU received a much higher bid from WDGF (FM98) than from long-time former host WJBO (AM1150) to be the host channel for the LSU sports network. WWL and the many other stations always remained a part of the network, to my knowledge. The Manships owned WJBO at the time but later sold it to Clear Channel in the 90's.
Brodhead said that he would have to drive to New Orleans to do a series of shows on WWL. The move of the show to WJBO would garner more revenue for both Brodhead and the university, as well as make it easier for Brodhead himself since he would not have to travel back and forth. This was just for his show, however. I'm not certain about the "flagship" or game broadcast ramifications, though (it could have been in the book, but I finished that about a month ago so it's possible I forgot).
Broadhead was a great business manager, although I disagreed with the radio contract at the time, and a terrible people manager. He alienated pretty much everyone who worked for and with him. One of my best friends dad worked closely with LSUback then and he said there was so much tension the last few years in the AD's office you could cut it with a knife. The secretaries and other support personel pretty much hated the guy. Especially after he wire tapped the phones in the office. There wasn't a tear that fell when he was cut loose. But he did bring LSU out of the dark ages and made more inroads with taking control away from the BOS than any man previously did.
