The Drive with Spence Checketts

The Drive with Spence Checketts is sports talk radio out of Salt Lake City, and its podcast feed is cut into guest conversations. The episode titles show the pattern: a guest's name or social handle, a string of subjects, and a closing '+ more'. Spence Checketts runs the conversations, and the subjects follow Utah's teams wherever the week takes them. Basketball brings Howard Beck, introduced as being from The Ringer, into the run twice. One call sets an almost comic scene, with Memphis sitting 12 players, the Jazz sitting eight, and lottery odds riding on the last home game. It turns into a bit about whether Will Hardy would hand the host 15 minutes, and what a 10-day contract pays these days. The other call is more serious. Checketts admits he is getting greedy for a Jazz team that will actually try to win, and Beck answers that the team will be whoever it drafts. Sarah Todd, who covers the Jazz for the Deseret News and takes the radio shift when the host travels, gets a direct question. Did Austin Ainge keep his preseason word about not managing lineups for lottery odds? She says she saw a lot of it, and the exchange allows that the Ainges probably meant well rather than setting out to mislead. Real Salt Lake gets a guest of its own in Jason Kreis, introduced as president of soccer. Before he joins, Checketts lays out the stakes: the club's second-best start ever by his count, a crowded Western Conference, San Diego in town after an earlier 2-2 draw, and Lionel Messi coming soon after. Kreis explains a moved match in plain logistics, pointing to Seattle's CONCACAF Champions Cup run and a FIFA limit on games played on the grass installed for the World Cup, which the host notes is only weeks away. Hockey puts Adrian Denny in the studio as Stanley Cup playoff games head to Salt Lake City, a sentence the host says he never expected to say out loud. The talk turns to crowd noise for the Vegas games, and a message from a staff meeting that boils down to two words: be louder. Golf lands with Paul Pugmire in the week after the Masters. Checketts raises reports that the Saudi-run Public Investment Fund is about to pull its financial backing, and Pugmire finds it fascinating that the conversation is about that rather than Rory McIlroy's repeat at Augusta. Throughout, the register is warm and chatty; guests are buddies, and Todd's fondness for staying indoors earns some gentle teasing. For a first listen, 'Sarah Todd(@NBASarah) on Jazz Reg. Season, Roster, Offseason Checklist + more' captures both the local focus and the easy rapport.