The Best Show You've Never Heard Of

Origins of The Original Sports Show up and close with journalist, sportswriter, radio host, OG, playboy and motivator, Leopold Geans.

By Justin Johnson

Describe your show Leopold the OG Sports Show

"It's about sports, life and love and talking about what you don't want to talk about."

Talking about what I don't wanna talk about, like what, for example.

"Like the recent wave of resentment on that terrorist, racist, confederate flag, I've been screaming that s**t for years, I've lost Facebook friends over their misunderstanding of this flag. The double standard of our justice system, blatant racism and getting away with it. I call you out on your bullshit, white people hate talking about that and don't talk about it because they don't have to, their world is great and white privilege is so embedded in their daily lives they don't even see it, I could go on forever and never run out of material."

You have 19,551 listeners and counting how would you define your fan base?

"I hate stupid conversations about demographics and who's listening or who should listen, my show is for everybody. The only requirements are that you gotta love America with a passion you gotta love unedited humor, bullshit and double standards get picked on daily, you can hate me or love me either way, I ain't lyin' which is the whole premise. I'm actually telling the truth. Some call it 'keepin' it real.' I hate n*****s and racists equally and call them both out on their bullshit."

What makes your show unique or special?

"Think of a black guy with an attitude and integrity walking through life telling stories about daily life. And not a black guy talking down to black people which are the only ones accepted in mainstream media and radio. Not a black guy that tries to be white like blaming a black guy who's been murdered for being murdered, you know the guy that's like, 'it's your fault for being shot in the back or that's what you get for going to store buying skittles, you deserve to die little black boy for eating candy!' but a black guy that is deliberately black and is shameless about being black. For example if something is racist, I call it racist. If a black person is killed, maimed or cheated they won't be blamed as the victim by me. I know you're not black so you might not get it, which is usually the problem but I'm here to make you get it, I'm here to help you face your demons and be a better person inside, also the music, I recently did a whole country music show and it got more plays than some of my hip-hop shows, I'll play Zeppelin one day Slick Rick the next and Mickey Guilley another, it depends on how I feel that day."

Your roots are in Venice Beach but you now reside in DTLA is there a difference?

"Yeah, I love Venice the OG people from Venice are some of the best friends in the world but I needed a change after my ex left me and took my son who I raised for 8 years away from me without saying a word. I got depressed I had people looking at me like I was crazy because I did go a little crazy. I would just walk around barefoot in and out of bars trying not to cry, (laughing) I needed some change so I moved to DTLA and I really love it, it doesn't stop, new people, new friends, DTLA is like Venice on crack. I can walk outside and go to like 20 bars or clubs all in walking distance, women from all over the world come here it's been amazing and good."

What's with you and "internet dating, as you call it?

"I've never been on an internet date, it freaks me out. I just recently found out about backpage, didn't know you could order p***y on the internet and I'm still learning about all the weird s**t the internet has to offer, but it's just not tangible, not real, chicks post pics from the head up and be 300 pounds, everybody is lying about something, it's just a bunch of weird s**t if you ask me."

You talk about the Marine Corps often on your show, how big of an impact does the Marines have on The OG Sports Show?

"It has a huge impact these are stories you can't make up, some of the funniest tales ever. Sometimes people think I'm ranting but I'm very disciplined and scripted with my topics."

I listened to your 'Recruit Kim' story last week did he really learn how to speak English in five hours?

"(Laughing) Well I'm sure he learned little by little throughout boot camp but the guy really couldn't speak English and Drill a Instructor Sgt. Washington was a very mean man, probably the only man that ever truly intimidated me in my life, but he took recruit Kim into the mountains and thrashed him all-day, he came back all dirty, face was black with dirt, speaking fluent English and sang the Marine Corps Hymn in front of the platoon, we were blown away. It showed us that you can do anything if you focus and put your mind to it, with proper motivation."

You spoke briefly about your son you raised and how he was taken away from you by your ex, how does this impact your show?

"It's pure motivation, my son Isaiah saw me bust my a*s everyday year after year and all I really wanted him to do was hear me on the radio. I wanted him to know that I made it, that hard work pays off. She left without saying a word and three days later I got my first radio gig on CRN Digital Talk, it killed me because I wanted him to see what hard work could do, I wanted him to experience it with me because he saw me create my brand from scratch. I do my show everyday hoping that he's listening. I see him listening in my head and wish we could've at least been friends. I always thought I'd be in his life but new boyfriends control ex-girlfriends and they're not allowed to be friends with me anymore."

Wow, that's a tough one, you've also won some writing awards from the Football Writers Association of America and others beating out some noteworthy sportswriters.

"Yeah, I won an Honorable Mention in '09 for 'Best Editorial' I basically placed third in the country and graded out higher than all the LA writers. I felt like the King of LA. I mean these are the best editorials from the entire year from over 600 sportswriters I beat Plaschke, all the Sports Illustrated guys and all I had was a little website called ogsportsshow.com they were all like, 'who the f**k is this guy?' (Laughing). To get acknowledged like that was tremendous.

Why don't you go to bigger publications you have excellent credentials?

"I've never applied to any other newspaper except the Los Angeles Sentinel I have a great relationship with my editor Ken Miller, I can write for them anytime I want but I have applied for a few online sites like Yahoo and Bleacher Report and a couple others but they never return my calls so f**k 'em."

You talk about stereotypes and racism so much, why?

"Because I experience it daily, when I was studying journalism at El Camino on my GI Bill, I had an adviser who hated me for some reason, she would give me bad grades and I would wonder, 'is this b***h even reading my s**t?' I knew she drank wine while grading papers, hell we even got drunk together at the park with the journalism staff but I wanted to transfer to USC and this b***h was giving me bad grades, so I left ECC and transferred to Santa Monica and competed in the state competition and won 1st place out of 63 writers we covered a live sport event with a deadline and I won 1st place. It's totally anonymous no names on the paper and I won. What was awesome about it was that the writers who got 2nd and 3rd place were both from El Camino College. ECC could have swept the competition if this weird b***h didn't hate me so much. I think she was racist she was gay and didn't really like a big black macho Marine guy writing these eloquent detailed articles I felt like, I'm not your prototype journalist. I also had a blonde English professor who would give me C's and D's and she didn't know I was winning awards for the journalism program at ECC. She came up to me one day and says, 'I didn't know' as if she would have given me better grades if she knew 'who I was' but judging writing is subjective and some people wouldn't know a good article versus a great article if they wanted to, but I understood the tenets of journalism and my military background kept me disciplined and grounded on whatever style of writing I was doing."

I looked at some of your older OG Sports Show podcasts and they're so funny, you were dancing and doing green screen editing, stuff that you normally don't see.

"Yeah, I'm not normal, what I was really doing was doing anything possible to get you to watch, anything possible to get you to tune in, so I got creative, I'd dance, rap anything to get you to watch my show, I was being original."

I heard your "name that rap song," and was blown away I also heard you sing Johnny Cash, "Hurt," and you do this all live.

"Yeah the name that rap song I did one day live because I do all of my talking segments over instrumentals and I was just trying to be original. Johnny Cash has a deep manly voice and I just sang it over the 'Hurt' instrumental."

The instrumentals, that's something I've never heard.

"Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of radio hosts started copying me on that too, hell they've copied everything else I do from discussion topics to using terms I've created like the 'modern era' I've made many copycats great editors for years ESPN would scour my site for ideas and topics. I have the analytics to prove it, why else would ESPN visit my little website daily. I would talk or write about something that never even crossed their minds and see it in headlines the next day on ESPN, my ex would sit there and watch it happen yelling 'that's plagiarism' I'd be like 'no babe it's the dissemination of information they can do that' but I did ask for attribution a couple of times because it was so blatant and they just shined me off but back to the instrumental thing, that started in college because I took a radio class and found out that music stimulates brain waves, so it goes back to wanting you to listen and not being just a boring voice talking all the time. Also the instrumentals are a direct connection with my son Isaiah. I didn't like all the curse words on a lot of hip-hop songs so I would buy instrumentals for my son and he loved it, many of the instrumentals I play are his favorites so it's a connection message I send to him.

You coined the term "modern era?"

"Yeah I thought we needed to separate sports records because we have a whole new athlete in the 'modern era,' I started using it in '00 and a few years later everybody was calling everything 'modern era' just another copycat tactic but like I said I'm in the dissemination of information business so it is what it is. I can't copyright terms or words even if I am a wordsmith."

You're coming up on your 20,000th listener what does that mean to you?

"Man, it's huge for me, a guy that started doing podcasts in a closet because it was soundproof, the ex opened the closet one day and was like, 'what are you doing?' I was like 'I'm recording' she was like 'OK' and closed the closet."

The OG Sports Show how did you come up with that name?

"Original means OG, it's called The Original Sports Show or OG Sports Show for short and it's about being Original, OG topics, OG music, OG babes it's all about being Original."

You talk about politics, sports, religion and pretty much everything else under the sun how did the show evolve over the years?

"I was a features writer. I loved telling other peoples stories and would do sports history lessons on Jackie Robinson and Jack Johnson and people liked it but in the off season from football I would gravitate toward politics and people would say don't talk politics and sports and I would say no, I am gonna talk politics and sports mixing them would agitate listeners but increase ratings. I think sports and politics should be talked about together, look at great athletes like Jack Johnson, Muhammed Ali, Jackie Robinson, politics had a huge impact on their careers so I think it's appropriate."

You've also incorporated a serious dose of comedy on the OG Sports Show, you play comedians like Richard Pryor, reference the Trailer Park Boys often and others.

"Yeah, my goal is to make you laugh. I get deep satisfaction from making people laugh. I was a roadie with a comedy skit group in the 90s called 'The Otha Level' from Detroit we would ride up and down the coast doing shows in San Diego all the way up to Oakland and those are my comedy roots, making people laugh is very important to me."

Looking at the TV & Radio landscape today what's your opinion on the talent pool, anyone you like or dislike?

"I've always been a huge Howard Stern guy, he's a genius he was ahead of his time and OG just like me, everybody else is is a cookie cutter whiteboy just running their mouth filling space.
Networks only put sellout Uncle Tom niggras on TV & Radio, black guys reporting from a white perspective. NEVER a black man with a black opinion and bad attitude but you can be white and rude all day.
And if you are black you only see black guys with white opinions talking down to black people. They're like, 'it's your fault you got shot in the back or it's your fault for eating those skittles and you deserve to die.'
They actually get away with blaming the victim.
So you'll never see a black guy like me, unapologetic calling them out on their bullshit and the common thread they share is the lack of empathy, they're always right even when they're wrong. Not with me, I call every one of them out on their bullshit.
There is hope though thanks to iHeart Radio for letting me do it my way and the OG Sports is on it's way to it's 20,000th listener."

Anything else annoy you?

(Laughing) I can't stand the fact every single sideline reporter in college or pro football is a pretty white girl but that's what happens when white males are in charge of everything half of these chicks don't even know what they're talking about, they're just pretty chicks."

You play an awesome variety of music on the OG Sports Show.

"Yeah, I think the modern mainstream playlist is wack as f**k! These rappers are lame and they play the same song 20 times a day, it's terrible. I haven't listened to FM radio in like two years so I have no idea what watered down s**t is being shoved into your kids brain today."

What's next for the OG Sports Show?

"Just keep producing more shows, keep a tight format and most importantly to keep doing it my way."