*** As seen in Twin Cities Sun, July 3, 2020 edition ***
By Joe Kraus
When Bill O’Hare and Dan Hannon ended their “Buckets and Dan’s Sportsland” show on 90.5 FM WSUC at SUNY Cortland six years ago, the duo thought they were done for good. They went their separate ways as teachers, and despite journalism internships, they saw their on-air fun as a hobby.
But that changed when schools closed in mid-March.
With a brand-new format, “Buckets and Dan’s Sportsland” re-launched as a podcast on May 4 with new episodes released every Monday from their studio in Hannon’s apartment and the close friends are thrilled to work together again.
“It’s like we’re back in school again, in terms of the excitement we have after we have a great segment or once we get a great guest to come on,” said O’Hare, a 2010 St. Joe’s graduate.
“You do get the same flashback feelings of when you nail an interview or when we send each other text saying someone big said, ‘Sure, I’ll come on the show,’” said Hannon, a 2010 Kenmore West grad. “That’s actually helped too. It seems like (nobody) has anything going on right now so people are in general are able to hop on. It has been fun.”
Since the reboot, their guest-list has included former Sabres goaltender Martin Biron and former Chicago Bull Rusty Larue – a member of the 1997-98 team that was highlighted recently in ESPN’s “The Last Dance” documentary.
“If there’s no Dan, there’s no Buckets,” said O’Hare, whose nickname came from success playing middle school basketball. “He’s the brains behind the editing and stuff like that. I’m the guy who gets the guests and tries to set stuff up – but when we’re done recording, I leave, and Dan spends a few hours sharpening everything up.”
Before the campus show started in 2012, O’Hare and Hannon instantly connected when they met at a 2010 Goo Goo Dolls concert at Darien Lake and later watched Monday Night Football games together during their first semester at Cortland. And they became quite the tandem around campus, too.
“Right from the beginning of college, we were basically inseparable,” said Hannon. “When we’d be out, if there was one and not the other, people wouldn’t come up and say, ‘Hey Dan, what’s up?’ They’d say, ‘Hey, where’s Bill?’ It was very odd for people when they didn’t see us together.”
Like their days on campus, the co-hosts have a “barroom buddy” style for their listeners, which they both agreed is what makes the best audio content. For booking guests, Hannon simply tells O’Hare, “Keep throwing darts. Eventually one’s going to stick.”
“We are super, super genuinely appreciative of anyone who we ask to come on, even if they give us 20 minutes,” said O’Hare. “When we thank them at the end of the segment, we really mean it. It’s really cool for us, especially because, at heart, we’re really just fans. We look at each other with these big smiles like, ‘This is so cool.’ We’re not really paid media professionals.”
With hopes of school returning this fall, both plan to continue teaching. Hannon completed his fifth year teaching and third year as a physical education teacher and coach in the Ken-Ton School District. O’Hare has been a health teacher in the Eden School District since January after four years at Highgate Heights Elementary in Buffalo.
For the future of the podcast, O’Hare said anything goes at this point – including taping right after Bills games, if there’s a season.
“It would be a challenge but I do think there’s still possibilities where we can kind of dance around it and still make a podcast work, whether weekly or biweekly,” said O’Hare. “I would never imagine a two-hour podcast to be a consistent thing. But I would really hope we could keep it going for as long as we can see fit.”
“We both really appreciate it,” said Hannon of their journey. “Not only Ken-Ton and where we grew up but also Cortland. We want to give back as much as possible.”
To re-listen to their recent shows, visit bucketsanddan.com or stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor and Google Podcasts.
Joe Kraus is a Canisius College 2020 graduate and Journalism major whose work has appeared in the Twin Cities Sun and other local publications in Western New York. If you have any comments or an idea for a future story, please send to joekrausnt@gmail.com
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