Childers reflects on sports talk career

Jul. 20—Matt Childers will be calling it a wrap on the Saturday Morning Sports Rap on July 30 when he hosts that sports talk show on 93.1 The Fan for the final time.

Taking a new job as vice-president of membership and development for the Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce in addition to being executive director of Allen Lima Leadership was one of the big factors in his decision.

"There is a significant increase in the amount of hours I'm working. I looked at the radio I was doing from 8 to 10 on Saturday mornings and took some inventory of that and said, 'Hey, I've been doing it since the 2009 and that's a lot of Saturdays,' " Childers said.

"I've really enjoyed it and I kind of want to leave while I still really enjoy doing it. I'm sure I'll miss it come December. I really love the hoops world. I know I'll miss it when there's a big local game on Friday night and I would have interviewed some coaches on Saturday morning," he said.

When The Saturday Morning Sports Rap first went on the air, it was hosted by Mike Schepp and John Grindrod, then by Ron Williams and Casey Wandell before Childers began his run.

Childers' longest running radio partner was Matt Metzger for 12 years before he left the show in 2020.

Childers, a Lima Central Catholic graduate, said he was first drawn to talk radio when he was a student at the University of Toledo when he listened to J.P. McCarthy, who had general interest talk show, with frequent sports figures as guests, from 1965-1995 on WJR in Detroit.

"I always said I wanted to have my own show, which I couldn't believe I eventually did," he said.

"I got into it first at WIMA. I'd fill in for Dennis Shreefer. I kind of got the bug filling in for Shreefer for two weeks during 9/11 and he was in France.

"I hosted Countdown to Kickoff for high school football and the postgame shows. I feel really lucky, I feel really fortunate that I was able to do something I wanted to do since I was probably 18 years old, listening to J.P. McCarthy at WJR," he said.

"I feel like this was a great run. I don't want to become cynical about it. I don't want to kind of dread it and have to think, 'Man, do I really have to get up and do that again.' I've always enjoyed it and thought this was a good time."

The Sports Rap will continue in its 8 a.m.-10 a.m. time slot on Saturdays with Billy Elvis as its host, 93.1 The Fan station manager Phil Austin said. Elvis will also be the co-host with Jon Cook of 93.1 the station's 4 p.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday sports talk show, which will be renamed Cookie And Elvis, beginning Aug. 8.