Mike Murphy (born May 1, 1951) is an American

sports radio Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often- boisterous on ...

personality, who hosted ''The Mike Murphy Show'' on Chicago's Sports Radio 670 The Score. His last show aired on June 12, 2009. He currently hosts a show on WMVP-AM every Saturday from 9am-12pm with Fred Huebner. Mike "Mad Bugler" Murphy was a founding member of the Left Field

Bleacher Bums ''Bleacher Bums'' is a 1977 play written collaboratively by members of Chicago's Organic Theater Company, from an idea by actor Joe Mantegna. Its original Chicago production was directed by Stuart Gordon. A 1979 performance of the play was tape ...

, a group of dedicated Chicago Cubs fans who sat in the left field bleachers of

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...

and rallied the team in the late 1960s and 70s.

Career

Mike Murphy started broadcasting in April 1990 for WLS, a talk radio station in Chicago, hosting a weekly show on Sunday nights called "Fan Talk". Murph would host this show for 18 months, before he was approached by

WXRT WXRT (93.1 FM), also known as XRT and 93-XRT is an adult album alternative (AAA) radio station in Chicago, Illinois. For many years, their slogan has been "Chicago's Finest Rock". "Chicago's Home For Music Lovers" has been used as its slogan si ...

, a Chicago rock radio station, which was founding a new sports talk radio station, The Score. Murph originally hosted a weekend show on WSCR, but eventually moved to weekdays, where he hosted "The Mike Murphy Show". He currently hosts a show on Saturdays on WMVP-AM.

''The Mike Murphy Show''

''The Mike Murphy Show'' aired on Sports Radio 670 The Score. Segments included: *What's Your Beef? sponsored by Brown's Chicken: Callers voiced what was "beefing" them in the world of sports. The best "beefs" deemed by Murph won gift certificates to Brown's. *Tool Of The Week sponsored b
RentalMax
Callers voiced what figure in the world of sports who had, through their actions or words, proved to be the biggest

tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates ba ...

in the past week. The figure with the most votes was deemed "tool of the week". *Stat Of The Week with John Dewan: Chicago sports statistician John Dewan, owner o
Baseball Info Solutions
called Murph every Tuesday to give an insightful sports statistic. *Swami Murph: The

swami Swami ( ; sometimes abbreviated sw.) in Hinduism is an honorific title given to a male or female ascetic who has chosen the path of renunciation (''sanyāsa''), or has been initiated into a religious monastic order of Vaishnavas. It is used eit ...

and his caller guest swamis gave their humorous predictions, always prefaced with "I predict...." *Compressed Columns: Murphy reviewed sports columns of interest to him that appeared in that morning's newspapers, stating that he did so for those who did not have time to read them. *Murph Moment: a personal opinion segment. *Murph Minute: Murphy talked Cubs post-season baseball; also used as a promotional announcement during other programs. *Random Tapes: A segment when an old tape recording, somewhat relevant to a current sports event, was played. *The Fans' Court: "Judge Murphy" took calls from "jurors" on who was to blame for a sports debacle. *Sports Spurts: Originally, callers were required to recite a

grammatically In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domains ...

correct sentence on a sports topic, making various

spitting Spitting is the act of forcibly ejecting saliva or other substances from the mouth. The act is often done to get rid of unwanted or foul-tasting substances in the mouth, or to get rid of a large buildup of mucus. Spitting of small saliva dr ...

sounds for the

punctuation Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...

; however, when brought back after a 5-year hiatus, most of the rules about grammar and punctuation were abolished, the only requirement being one simple sentence. ''The Mike Murphy Shows

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at ...

is sung by Howard Berk. In June 2009, it was announced that Murphy's program would be dropped from WSCR's lineup later that month to make room for Dan McNeil's "Danny Mac Show." It was subsequently disclosed that he remained off the air since then, and that his contract expired in May, 2010. In June 2010, Murphy sued WSCR's ownership, CBS Radio, over a

right of first refusal Right of first refusal (ROFR or RFR) is a contractual right that gives its holder the option to enter a business transaction with the owner of something, according to specified terms, before the owner is entitled to enter into that transactio ...

clause in their contract that prevented him from seeking employment within 50 miles of the station for 90 days before and 6 months after terminating employment with CBS Radio, unless he gave CBS the right to match the offer. Mike Murphy returned to radio on WMVP-AM (1000) on Sunday April 23, 2011 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the baseball season. His co-hosts the show with Fred Huebner, whom he previously co-hosted with at WSCR. On August 30, 2012, a conversation during an episode of the Boers and Bernstein radio show on the Score between Dan Bernstein, Laurence Holmes and Matt Abattacola, revealed that a regular contributor to Murphy's show was fictional. During many of Murphy's shows, Murphy would read emails he said were from a long time listener named Kenny Owens. However, Kenny Owens was a fictional character created by Murphy, whose emails were sent from Murphy's wife's email address, according to Abattacola (Murphy's email screener at the time). Upon finding this out, Rock Mamola, a member of Murphy's production staff at the time, called in using the moniker 'Kenny Owens' and outed Murphy's fabrication.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Mike American sports radio personalities Living people 1951 births