Cyrus Saatsaz

Cyrus Saatsaz was a multimedia journalism professor at Laramie County Community College,[1] the University of Houston[2] and in the Journalism & Media Studies department at San Diego State University. Saatsaz is the host of the podcast The Dog & Surfer Roadshow and was formerly the host of WaXed, a surf talk radio show that aired on ESPN 1700 in Southern California. Saatsaz is the author of the book Dogwild & Board: Stories, Interviews and Musings from a Surf Journalist,[3] and was a multimedia journalist for The Huffington Post[4] and the Adventure Sports Network[5] which was associated with Yahoo Sports. Saatsaz was a Senior Editor with USA Today[6] for nearly 10 years and was the host and Editor-in-Chief of The Extreme Scene, the world's first action sports radio talk show.[7] In addition to writing for The Huffington Post,[4] Saatsaz is an award-winning journalist,[8] having been published in newspapers, magazines, books and websites including the San Francisco Chronicle and its official website SFGate.com,[9] USA Today,[6][10] AOL.com, Sports Illustrated,[11] Future Snowboarding Magazine, Fuel.TV,[12] The Great Book of San Francisco/Bay Area Sports Lists,[13] and many more. Saatsaz was the founder and owner of a surf shop/bookstore/art gallery in San Francisco called San Francisco Surf Company.[14] Saatsaz also worked for KNBR in San Francisco and The Mighty 1090 and ESPN 1700 in San Diego for 14 years, serving as a host, sports anchor, Creative Director and Executive Producer.

Career

While a student at San Francisco State, Saatsaz was hired by KNBR as a programming intern. Saatsaz quickly impressed management, and immediately after graduating college was hired full-time, first as producer for The Razor and Mr. T and a short time later was promoted to Executive Producer for The Rick Barry Show. It was during this time that Saatsaz began his on-air career, being brought on for various bits and special segments.

During this time, Saatsaz thought up the idea of an action sports radio talk show, and together with an old friend and roommate from San Luis Obispo, Steve Blankenship (who had previous experience as a pro snowboarder), they created The Extreme Scene, which debuted on KNBR 1050 in August 2003. Their first guest was Kelly Slater, who came in-studio to promote his book Pipe Dreams.[15] Former KNBR producer Tony Rhein was originally part of the show, but backed out last minute because he didn't want to sacrifice time from playing music.

A short time after the debut of The Extreme Scene, Saatsaz was asked by KNBR management to write a blog on the station's website about action sports. The blog quickly drew a following, and even drew the ire of skier Jonny Moseley, who was called "Jonny Sellout"[16] in one of Saatsaz's blogs because an event Moseley was hosting called ICER AIR decided to start charging people for attendance. The two quickly resolved their differences, and Moseley has come on his radio show many times since then.

Saatsaz's blog also drew the attention of action sports industry editors, including an action sports website started by AOL called Lat34.com. As a freelance writer, Saatsaz conducted exclusive interviews with big-name athletes like Tony Hawk.[17] Saatsaz wrote for the site for a year and was promoted to Senior Editor before joining Fuel.TV as a writer, where his stories drew the highest amount of traffic on the site. During this time, Saatsaz was also hired to write stories for Future Snowboarding Magazine. Saatsaz eventually left Fuel.TV and was hired by USA Today's action sports website BNQT, where his stories once again drew the website's highest traffic numbers.

The John London Not Just Sports Show was cancelled after three years, but Saatsaz was kept on by KNBR as a Senior Producer[18] and was promoted to Creative Director in March 2007. During this time Saatsaz became KNBR's main fill-in sports anchor, in addition to filling in as host of Sportsphone 680.

Saatsaz founded a surf shop/bookstore/art gallery in San Francisco called San Francisco Surf Company, wrote columns for The Huffington Post, wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, SFGate.com, and USA Today, authored a book called Dogwild & Board: Stories, Interviews and Musings from a Surf Journalist and hosted various nationally syndicated action sports radio talk shows including The Extreme Scene and WaXed.

References
  1. "Cyrus Saatsaz". lccc.wy.edu. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  2. "Cyrus Saatsaz". uh.edu. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  3. "Dogwild & Board". Dogwildandboard.com. Archived from the original on 6 February 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  4. "Cyrus Saatsaz". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  5. "Cyrus Saatsaz". adventuresportsnetwork.com. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  6. "BNQT". Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  7. "The Extreme Scene - The First and Only Action Sports Radio Talk Show and Website". Theextremescene.com. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  8. "Region 11 Mark of Excellence Awards winners announced in San Francisco, California | Society of Professional Journalists | Improving and protecting journalism since 1909". Spj.org. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  9. "City Brights: Cyrus Saatsaz". Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  10. Lieberman, Rich (2009-04-20). "Monday Media Minutia - City Brights: Rich Lieberman". Sfgate.com. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  11. "Sports Illustrated: Cyrus Saatsaz". Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  12. https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090601183235/http://www.fuel.tv/HobNobbinCyrus. Archived from the original on June 1, 2009. Retrieved June 18, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. Bruce, Damon (2009-04-28). The Great Book of San Francisco Bay Area Sports Lists. ISBN 9780762435210. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  14. "sfsurfcompany.com". Sfsurfcompany.com. Retrieved 2016-02-06.
  15. Kelly Slater (2003-07-29). Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey. ISBN 9780060096298.
  16. "Icer Air Goes Broke, Stiffs Riders - The Extreme Scene - The First and Only Action Sports Radio Talk Show and Website". Theextremescene.com. Retrieved 5 February 2016.
  17. https://web.archive.org/web/20090811003907/http://www.craveonline.com/sports/article/the-birdman-cometh-tony-hawk-63881. Archived from the original on August 11, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2009. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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