CzabeCast · Steve Czaban

On Trying Too Hard, And Not Even Being Allowed to Try

April 7, 2026·1 hr·4 clips

Steve Czaban explains why he couldn't ignore his non-compete clause, even though many said it was unenforceable.

1. CzabeCast, hosted by Steve Czaban, covers the expiration of his iHeartRadio non-compete, sports media observations, and a long interview with UW Green Bay basketball coach Doug Gottlieb. 2. Czaban is the sole host; Doug Gottlieb — former ESPN analyst and current head coach at UW Green Bay — joins as the episode's main guest. 3. The episode's central thesis is that persistence and hunger matter more than institutional backing, applied both to Czaban's own radio career and to Gottlieb's coaching rebuild. 4. Czaban explains that his six-month non-compete with iHeartRadio expired on April 7, 2026, and argues that fighting such clauses legally is financially irrational because billable legal hours consume any potential earnings faster than the clause itself. 5. He describes how a new iHeart regional VP who replaced a retiring executive decided to shut down 97-3 The Game in Milwaukee in October, after which the station became B-97, a music station playing 'feel good music from the 80s till today.' 6. Czaban notes that Odyssey Inc, which owns 106.7 The Fan in DC where he does fill-in work, also recently collapsed its management structure in a round of layoffs, illustrating what he calls 'the ice cube that's melting' in traditional radio. 7. On photography, Czaban argues that Ken Griffey Jr.'s acclaimed Masters photography is less a testament to skill than to having a Canon EOS 5D body, a 600mm prime lens costing up to $12,000, and Augusta's perfect lighting and scenery — 'subject matter and lighting is nine-tenths of pretty much everything.' 8. He praises wildlife photographer Matt Addington as a contrast — someone who actually earns a living from photography by hiking into mountains for elk and grizzly bear shots — to make the point about what real photographic skill requires. 9. Czaban argues that Giannis Antetokounmpo is 'being a total tryhard' by demanding to play out the Bucks' lost season when the team is asking him to rest a leg injury heading into an offseason trade, calling it a 'stupid' move that risks re-injury. 10. He catalogs the concessions the Bucks made to Giannis: keeping brothers Thanasis and Alex on the roster, firing Adrian Griffin when Giannis was unhappy, hiring Doc Rivers, and trading for Damian Lillard — then frames sitting out 10 games as 'not a big ask.' 11. A response from an account called 'IKE Bucs Podcast' tells Czaban he is 'just trying to pay your bills' with 'trash takes,' while a second reply from a 115-follower account calls him a 'shit faced fucking moron' and tells him to 'go to hell.' 12. Czaban coins the response 'peak provincialism' — defining provincialism as 'concern for one's own area at the expense of national unity' — and says sports radio has always had a 'you're not from here' gatekeeping instinct. 13. Gottlieb describes his first year at Green Bay as 'everything that could go wrong did go wrong': leading scorer Anthony Roy broke his ankle, the program was on academic probation (costing one practice day per week), and Gottlieb says the staff was too inexperienced. 14. The turnaround started with a staff rebuild: Gottlieb brought in his former high school coach Andy Ground (who moved into Gottlieb's house to keep costs down), defensive coordinator Skill Gans from Northern Michigan, and 73-year-old Carrie Rupp who had been fired from Oregon State and Detroit Mercy. 15. Gottlieb notes that four of the five starters in the 18-15 season began college as walk-ons, and the fifth, Marcus Hall, had almost no scholarship offers — framing the entire roster as built around hunger rather than pedigree. 16. On the Miami Ohio upset of SMU in the NCAA tournament play-in game, Gottlieb calls SMU 'the worst incarnation of college sports' — a small private school that paid its way into the ACC, has a history of football death penalty violations, and he says 'BS'd the committee' by hiding an injured player's status to secure a better seed. 17. Gottlieb confirms Frank Martin's claim that the MAC and similar mid-major conferences are being structurally squeezed out of tournament bids, noting that his league played three guarantee games against non-D1 opponents last year while the MAC plays none, which depresses their metrics. 18. The interview is conversational and occasionally turns into a two-way rant, with Czaban and Gottlieb finishing each other's thoughts on college basketball corruption; the tone is candid and at times profane. 19. Listeners who enjoy frank sports media industry criticism, college basketball mid-major basketball, and personal career storytelling will find this episode engaging. 20. Listeners looking for breaking news, game analysis, or content focused on a single sport or team should look elsewhere.

As heard by us

A loose return built around a six-month non-compete, snow, travel, and a steady season turnaround.

The episode opens with a return after a six-month non-compete and settles into a long coach conversation that moves through family logistics, Oklahoma travel, California memories, and the 27-inch snow total at home. The shape stays loose, which fits the back-and-forth on air.

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Why you'd press play

For the day the six-month non-compete ends and the sports talk gets loose again.

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