(March 10, 2015) Every dark cloud has a silver lining. The recent passing of Portland Trailblazers fan favorite Jerome Kersey helped open the door of opportunity for Taylor Danforth. An STAA member, Danforth has been hired to co-host Portland’s only live morning sports talk show on Rip City Radio.
A former afternoon co-host on The Fan in Portland, Danforth recently left the station last month after a five-year tenure that saw him start as a board-op. He was on a golf outing four hours away from Portland in Bandon Dunes when he found out that Kersey had died unexpectedly.
“Management at Rip City Radio reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in coming in and doing a special show,” says Danforth. “I left Bandon at 10:30 at night, got back to Portland at 3:00 am, prepped for a couple hours and did a show from 6-9am.“
The show went well. Shortly after, the station asked Danforth if he would be interested in doing a morning show with Andy Bunker, who was producing Brock and Salk and hosting a night show at 710 ESPN Seattle.
“I can’t stress how lucky my career has been,” says Danforth. “I’ve worked really hard but the timing has worked in my favor. I was hosting a daily show in a top 25 market at 24 years old because of fortunate circumstances. That being said, I was confident in my skills, and I don’t have a mortgage, wife or kids so moving would have been easy. I also knew the incredible resource I could tap into at STAA.
“I mean this is in all sincerity, if STAA didn’t exist I would feel overwhelmed about the job search.”
Danforth is embracing the opportunity to host the market’s only live show in Morning Drive.
“Morning drive in Portland consists of Colin Cowherd and Dan Patrick but no local shows,” says Danforth. “There is way too much happening with the Blazers, Ducks, Beavers and even the Seahawks not to have a local show in AM drive.”
A graduate of the University of Oregon, Danforth has been a Blazers fan since childhood – a fact he acknowledges has helped his career.
“Starting over in a new market would have been a fun challenge but being able to keep the relationships I have built with local advertisers and sports teams should benefit us as we try to build up a new show. Andy Bunker is a great host with creative ideas so it was a no brainer to accept the job.”
(Visit Taylor’s STAA Talent Page).