Catching Up with SJ Tannenbaum of SidelineSuits Media Live in the Studio

Well, the benefits of being in a really active and amazing Jewish community is you never know who you're going to come across even at the last minute. And the person I just came across who was uh floating around our headquarters here for the last few minutes is somebody that um I really admire. Um anybody who can uh prove to be a good sideline reporter um I think it's a I think it's a skill that I am envious of. Yes, me. I'm envious of those who are good at it. And this gentleman who is in our studio by surprise this was not planned is SJ Tennbam who uh I'm sure has many other distinguished things on his resume but we know him first and foremost as the first and pioneering sideline reporter for the university. Mcabes I think even during the era that Yoshua Seagull was doing playbyplay or not. >> Very much so. We call that a drop. There you go. I'm sorry. No, you're Mike. >> Oh, sorry. >> Perfect. >> Yeah, I was actually about to ask you how your show is doing. >> Show's doing great. >> What's he up to? Give me a quick rundown. >> Well, he's at uh he's head of uh or one of the administrative roles in TVA the TV Yeshiva and you lives in Jerusalem with his wife and two daughters. >> Two daughters. That's okay. That's an update since the funniest thing and you'll appreciate. >> We did a segment on his engagement. We got to do another segment on his uh kids now. >> Was he on the air when he got engaged or he was in the arena? >> He was not doing the broadcast, but we We did a segment congratulating him on his engagement. >> Very nice. >> Um but yeah, we've had oh so many good memories over the years. He's like much like yourself, Yoshua has one of the most like iconic voices in broadcasting. Not just like Yu or Jewish broadcasting, but like broadcasting period. >> Yeah. >> And um >> I am jealous of his abilities cuz I would not be a good playbyplay like everyone says, "Oh, you know, natural he's your son." I go, "I'm telling you, you don't realize he can do stuff I cannot do. I can't be a good play-by-play announcer." >> Agreed. Yeah. I would not be able to be in the booth like playbyplay or color. It just it's such a different skill set than sideline. >> Also, the times make the man. Uh he was there during the era and that helps, you know, when NBC is playing clips of Terrell and it's his voice in the background, you know. >> But the funniest thing, which you'll appreciate, I'm I'm in Mitzpayo and I get there on a weekday morning. I think this was literally the day that Yeshua got engaged. I think it was cuz that that night was the engagement party. So, I landed in Israel and his in-laws live in Mitzpayo. So, I went to see them. figured be a good idea to meet them before the engagement party, right? So, I go I when I get into town, I say, you know, where can I go to shu? And I go to this 8:00 minion in the main shel and a guy comes over to me and he says, "Oh, it's so nice to meet you." And I of course am just thinking it's wow, you know, I have a listener, you know, on this part of the world who knows me. He goes, I I just have to I just have to come over and tell you how much I am such a big fan of your son, Yoshua Seagull. And I'm like, "Wow, I I traveled all this way. Thought the guy was coming over to give us a jam in compliment straight to the Wu Max and Yeshua Seagull." That was funny. >> You'd be surprised how that evens out. There was uh I was doing a postgame interview with Gabe Lifer. And when they when they transition the broadcast from the booth to me, I always thank the broadcaster who like sends it over to me. Sure. And so I've never made this mistake before, but this one particular time when Yoshua transitioned the broadcast to me, I said, "Thanks, Nakam here with Gabe." Accident, not on purpose. I don't know why. I know that he's Yoshua and you're Nakam. I don't know why I called him that. >> That's funny. >> But um it must have been a Freudian slip or something. >> Well, there you go. SJ Tanib is here. Sideline Suits. Is that still an active handle on Instagram? >> Yes, very much so. >> And are you still involved at the Max Athletic Center or you've moved on from that? Uh, great point. So, I I'm no longer involved in any kind of like official capacity. It's a it's a fully studentrun broadcast, which um which I'm I'm very proud of and and really enjoyed my years doing, but they got a new crop of silent reporters who are, you know, blessed to have the same experiences now that I had once before. And um once in a while, I'll pop in for like a special guest segment or maybe, you know, hopefully maybe interview me at halftime. We'll see. Fingers crossed. >> Oh, so we might see you during the season. Yeah, I made some guest cameos, but uh in the official capacities are thank god full with a new crop of talent. >> All right, there you go. So, uh that's it's it's a great era to look back on, huh? I mean, it's just it was a fun time. >> It was a fun time. >> I mean, you were a full-time sideline reporter or number one sideline reporter for what, three seasons? Four seasons? How long? >> I think four. Yeah. I mean, four seasons. It's It's nuts to think about like the memories like you said, like >> three different NCAA tournaments, >> right? going to going to Stockton, >> right? >> Uh against John's Hopkins, >> you know, >> uh going to Boston against Tus, >> going to Atlanta against Emory, Sweet 16. Uh the first team in YU history to play a Sweet 16 game, the you know, the 2020 team got cancelled. This tournament got cancelled before the Sweet 16 game. But like in addition to the tournament, like conference championship games, seeing players break records, um the fact that like for instance like Zevy Sam broke Ryan Terrell's all-time leading uh scoring record and then a week later to the night broke his all-time three-point record. Like just being part of that history. And then you think about like the guys who set rebounds records and then and points records and like >> what about the nightmares that I always relive like when they go to you and the mic wasn't on. That's only happened that's only happened to me 35,000 times. >> Yeah. When you got when you got to switch over to like Morse code or hand motion. Yeah. I remember vividly like >> thank god like the the tech team is is incredible. The technical producers like >> things do go wrong. >> Yeah. It definitely definitely teaches you a lot of impro improvisational skills when >> I remember one segment you had like a a really good segment planned. I remember and it was you know like a good human interest piece. >> Oh. Oh, and it just it it took 15 20 seconds to to get the audio going. >> That could be I also got I remember specifically a great memory. Great memory. It's great. It's an interesting word. It was Sarah and I was doing uh a halftime interview with the coach of ULA, right? >> And so in the booth was in the booth were my brother, you know, Slava Poppers, former executive producer Max Live Legend. Max Live Legend. >> So they go over to me for this interview. The entire interview, you cannot hear my audio. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> So, you can't hear me or the coach. >> It's just like a 2inut silent interview. Goes back to the booth. I don't know this at the time. I don't I don't know that my audio is mute. Goes back to them and then it's either you swirl or aka that goes, "Well, you know what they say, silence is golden." Uh like such a good line of the moment. >> I got to tell you something. It it it is you know how they say that there was a famous Sports Illustrated video. In my day, there were videos. Now, of course, you know, uh you'd be able to access it online. It was called winning and they had to and they featured the Colombia football team and its entire and its winless season >> because the producers felt you cannot do a uh a documentary about winning and winning teams without showing the pain of losing. >> And that is what makes our industry so amazing. You're right. It's terrible on the spot when these things happen. And obviously they're noteworthy because I'm pointing them out. But it it's what makes the successes so amazing when it goes well because people don't realize how every even here how every time you turn on the mic so or try to turn on the mic something can go wrong. So every time you're able to present a segment normally it's a big victory. >> I'll add on something on to that. What's also very cool about broadcasting which I think you'll appreciate is that it's not like if you mess up everybody automatically knows. Right? If I do a segment that has like six legs to it, right? It used to be that I had to I had to memorize and I had to get every single leg in that segment. Right? >> Over time, as I got more experienced, and this may not sound great on my part, but it's I think it's an interesting little little nugget of inside baseball, >> over time, I realized that if I forgot like the second and fourth leg of a segment, >> no one really knew. As long as I delivered the rest of the segment smoothly and it transitioned well and I wrapped it up and there was a point to it and a story to follow throughout. Yep. >> I don't have to like pause and look embarrassed and like make it so obvious that I forgot the second and fourth legs or whatever they were. It's about like if you can like save yourself. It's about the story that you're showing on the air. Same for like um what's another situation this applies to. So that's for forgetting segments. >> Um yeah, like when my audio when my when my headset just straight up didn't work and I couldn't hear when they were transitioning to me. >> Oh boy. >> We just switched over to like visuals just like let me know. And so >> you could just like give up on the spot. You could just like stand there like nervously and like look clearly like, you know, it's not working. Or you could be, you know, boys the cameraman and he'll know not to pan to you while you're waiting around, but only once you're like ready to go. >> You have no idea. I could talk to you about this stuff all day long. All day long. I can talk I can dissect every one of these with you. It's amazing. >> I'd love to hear your stories. I'm sure there's lots from you. >> I always joke that at this point in my career, the uh any question that starts with has it ever mean like has it ever happened? The answer is yes. you know, everything has happened with every kind of mistake you can imagine. Um, and and of course, you know, I always talk about 9 I I may have written about this in my book. I'm not sure. I I talk about 9:00 a.m. regret. How after every show I regret that something I didn't say something better. I didn't ask a better question this, but as you just said, nobody knows. Nobody knows. The question sounded great. >> You know, I feel like it should have been a better, you know, it should been presented in a better fashion, but >> nobody needs to know that. >> Yeah. I I actually learned that lesson for the first time in a graphic design class in YU. Um for those who need like a more concrete visual metaphor. So when you do graphic design, you have layers and you have like, you know, different elements on top of one another, right? >> Yeah. When you look at all the layers on the side, it looks like a complete mess, but all that really matters is what you can see in the final product, right? No one needs to see all the behind the layers and and all the steps that you took and all the crops and all the things that are in front. >> It's just about the finished product. Amazing. >> And so, yeah, >> I love it. SJ Tanamount is here. Where will you be Monday? Which synagogue do you go to for the big yum kipper day? >> Oh, that's a good question. >> Do you know yet or you don't even know yet? >> I just moved back to TX. So, I'm still like, you know. >> Oh, interesting. >> Maybe maybe by shots. Shout out Dr. Joey Shotskis. Good >> minion. >> I didn't realize he has a minion. >> The backyard minion. >> The man is a is a righteous man. >> Oh, he's a legend. >> Such a cool guy. >> Now, there's no way that uh that he's listening right now because he's so busy. You must tell him that we spoke about him on the air. >> I definitely will. You send me the link in the time stamps. I'll forward it right along to him. Jack Terrell, >> all the big also that Max live team. >> Jack's also at that minion. >> No, but he's he's the guy uh who's the apartment I took over. He's he's a good friend of mine. >> Are you up at YU now? >> What do you mean up in? >> What do you mean department? Which department did you take over? >> No, no. I took over Jack's apartment. That's how I moved here. >> Apartment, I apologize. >> Yeah. >> Jack and I went from uh still best friends, former roommates, now I took over his old spot. So, I'm back in TK under uh under that context. Amazing. Well, I take this opportunity to wish you a happy, healthy new year. Thanks for agreeing on the spur of the moment to come on and talk for a little bit. I appreciate that. >> Yeah, of course. It's a pleasure. I'm at a loss for words that you decided to have me out of the air. >> You kidding me? You're great. >> No pre-show production meeting. No prep. >> Hey, >> we're on the fly, guys. >> This is what we call free form radio. >> Oh, yeah. >> I fit right into the format for the last four plus decades. SJ Tanam, everybody. Sideline suits. Just when you thought that he's no longer wearing fancy suits, that's not the case, he still is. Go to Instagram and follow him and enjoy. 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