By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
When you listened to Frank Harnish before or after Vegas Golden Knights game broadcasts on the radio for the last three years, there was a robust and enthusiastic tone to his pre-game and post-game program voice on the local Fox Sports radio station in Las Vegas.
But in person these days, the tone of Harnish’s voice reveals a sense of betrayal, numbness and anger.
Amid a COVID-19 pandemic that wiped out so much of professional sports and the jobs that go with the industry this year, the local Las Vegas sports radio veteran of 27 years lost his job at Lotus Broadcasting in Las Vegas. Friday will be exactly one month since Harnish was summoned into a Lotus office June 24 and told by three managers he was gone — one of seven workers who lost their jobs at the local radio broadcaster.
The firing broadsided the 61-year-old sports radio man who grew up outside Chicago and came to Las Vegas in 1988.
“I was numb. Is this really happening to me? What the hell will I do? Most places are not looking to hire a 61-year-old guy,” Harnish said as he took his evening walk Thursday night. “I believe this was a corporate mandate. It’s COVID-related. Ad sales were down. They had to dump some salary and my head was on the chopping block.”
Losing his radio job stripped away a big part of Harnish’s identity because he was a pre-game and post-game host for the Vegas Golden Knights radio broadcasts along with Ryan Wallis on Fox Sports radio 98.9FM/1340AM. Harnish also co-hosted the Vegas Golden Knights “Insider Show” with Wallis from 2-3 p.m. Monday to Friday on the radio station. Harnish pointed out the show’s title was, “Vegas Golden Knights Insider Show with Frank Harnish.”
What the hell will I do? Most places are not looking to hire a 61-year-old guy
Now as the Golden Knights prepare for the NHL’s Stanley Cup pandemic playoffs starting August 1, Harnish is left without a job and without health insurance because paying $705 a month for COBRA to extend his medical coverage is just too expensive. The mental strain keeps him up at all hours, and he often takes walks at 4 a.m. an hour before the day’s first light.
Across this country, there are many Frank Harnishes — sports industry lifers who saw their careers decimated because of a worldwide novel coronavirus that has claimed the lives of 146,000 Americans.
“Covid 19 has changed everything in today’s world,” Harnish wrote in a June 25 tweet about his layoff from Lotus.
It certainly rocked Harnish’s world. He lives on the valley’s west side, convenient to both the Lotus radio offices on Flamingo Road and the VGK training center and headquarters at City National Arena in Downtown Summerlin. Harnish is a lifelong bachelor in a condo decorated in Chicago Bears memorabilia and plastic bottles of Gatorade, Coca-Cola and water.
Now I don’t even know if I’m welcome at City National Arena.
During 27 years, Harnish did just about everything at the radio station. His duties have ranged from dubbing radio commercials onto “carts” to setting up promotions to being an overnight jock under the name, “Frank Fredericks,” on 92.3 FM.
But he relished talking VGK hockey for an hour every weekday on the radio and before each and every game.
Here was his tweet from June 25:
Harnish did the work for love, not money, because this type of radio work is not very lucrative. Only one year did Harnish make as much as $50,000. He said he started July 1993 making five bucks an hour and made $24,000 a year as promotions director.
The initial numbness has morphed into a sense of betrayal and hurt because he’s not part of the radio broadcast team that is reporting on the Vegas Golden Knights and their mid-summer quest to win a hockey title. The Knights are considered among the favorites to win the 24-team Stanley Cup tournament that begins in the NHL host cities of Edmonton for the Western Conference and Toronto for the Eastern Conference Aug. 1.
On VGK game days at T-Mobile Arena before the pandemic halted the NHL season March 12, Harnish would be seen pulling a small carry-on suitcase with wheels with his VGK game notes and laptop inside while wearing his Ohio State Buckeyes varsity jacket.
He’s a squatty dude, which doesn’t reveal the fact that Harnish was an active tennis player back in the day when he modeled his game after Bjorn Borg, even wearing the Borg headband. He’s a big fan of World Team Tennis and closely follows the local professional tennis team in Las Vegas, the Vegas Rollers.
The sports broadcasting and media industry has some big egos — which is why Harnish grabs your attention because he’s a humble guy. But his humility doesn’t mask some anger that tinges comments about his lost job.
“I feel betrayed. Lotus talks a lot about being a family. They took away my insurance, they took away my email. They wanted to dump my salary and pay someone hourly without benefits,” Harnish said. “I try to not be too emotional because it’s a business. But after 27 years, they literally escorted me out of the business. I was very upset they didn’t let me say goodbye to the listeners.”
I try to not be too emotional because it’s a business. But after 27 years, they literally escorted me out of the business
Harnish is not completely out of the radio industry. He chatted on a recent podcast with local sports personality Steve Cofield, while also talking with local sports radio commentator Brian Blessing. He noted a Seattle radio station reached out to him to get comments on Thursday’s announcement that the Seattle’s NHL team would be called the Kraken.
“I helped pour the foundation of the (VGK) radio broadcasts. I was so happy talking hockey. I feel my identity has been removed,” Harnish said. “If they win the Stanley Cup and I’m not part of it, I feel like I would have been cheated out of the celebration.”
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