John Keating loves seeing his face on Chris Osgood’s ties.
He’s less comfortable being called “the face” of Detroit sports broadcasting all these years. But the reality is that that’s exactly what he has been, greeting Tigers and Red Wings fans all over Michigan night after night since he returned to the area in 1996 to be the primary reporter and host game broadcasts on PASS, then Fox Sports Detroit, and now FanDuel Sports Network Detroit.
Keating’s on-air time will end in 2025. He announced on social media early Friday morning that he would retire after the Red Wings season, capping a 45-year career in broadcasting. In the ever-changing and volatile business of regional sports networks, Keating is doing it on his own terms, every broadcaster’s dream.
He made the final decision over the summer, after extensive discussions with his bosses, as well as his wife of 40 years, Linda, and their three adult children. In recent years, Keating regularly bounced between her home in Canton and Grand Haven, where Linda lived, while she cared for her parents. Grand Haven will now become his permanent home and house his 20 Emmys, his collection of credentials and his endless supply of dad jokes.
“She’s very upset about having me around all the time,” Keating said of Linda, with his typical deadpanness. “She would like the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup if only to keep me away from her a little longer.
“I’ve had a great run. I don’t know if I’m the face of anything. We have a great team, and the fact that I’ve been a part of it and seen the things that I I saw it, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
“Everyone says, ‘I wish I was younger.’ I don’t have that. I wouldn’t trade what I’ve been through.”
Keating, who turns 68 in January, grew up in Madison Heights and attended Bishop Foley High School, before graduating from Grand Valley State.
He began his radio career in Grand Rapids, then transitioned to television, serving as a weekend sports anchor at WZZM in 1980. He stayed there for five years, before moving to Denver in 1985. Denver lasted 12 years. included the birth of the MLB’s Colorado Rockies and the Colorado Avalanche’s Stanley Cup victory in 1996.
In late 1996, he returned to Detroit to work for PASS (Pro-Am Sports System), as host of “Game Night”, and quickly covered two more Stanley Cup championships, by the Red Wings , in 1997 and 1998. covered four Red Wings Stanley Cups, the Pistons’ championship in 2004 and two Tigers World Series appearances, in 2006 and 2012.
Interestingly, shortly after returning to Detroit, Keating was unsure if he had made the right choice. Fox Sports launched in Michigan in 1997 and quickly acquired the rights to the Tigers and Red Wings, then eventually the Pistons. Fox Sports quickly put PASS into bankruptcy, and there was no guarantee Keating would make the transition. But newly broadcast Fox Sports needed a host for the first broadcast, a Red Wings preseason game, on September 17, 1997, Keating replaced him and Fox Sports acquired his contract. The rest is history. Since then, he has been the primary pre-game, post-game and studio host for Tigers and Red Wings games, being a constant in the changing landscape over the years from Fox Sports Net Detroit to Fox Sports Detroit, to Bally Sports Detroit and now to FanDuel.
“It was a really interesting time for everyone, and it worked out for him,” said Jeff Byle, vice president and executive producer of FanDuel Sports Network Detroit, who has worked alongside Keating for more than two decades. “This is the man who has been our face and the essential part of who we are for over 25 years now. Every time it came to telling a story for anything, something special , a special ceremony, special teams, documentaries, in memory of our fallen sports heroes, it’s him.
“He was the guy who wrote and, really, gave us an idea of what it was like.”
Keating said his interest in broadcasting dates back to when he was 10 years old, and a friend of his turned on a radio — and blasted the voice of legendary WJR host JP McCarthy. Radio was always the goal, until a news director named Jack Hogan gave him a chance on television at WZZM, where, at first, Keating swears he was “horrible.” (He was also Steve Knight on-air at the time, because the radio station where he got his start, WZZR, already had an on-air host named John, and the bosses didn’t want any confusion – (and he couldn’t exactly have an on-air host named John (a different name on television than on radio) was difficult, Keating joked.)
Keating landed his first job in television, fell in love with the industry and took him on the adventure of a lifetime, including meeting some of his childhood heroes, like Ernie Harwell, who was broadcasting games on PASS when Keating came back to town. , before eventually returning to radio, and Mr. Tiger Al Kaline. A signed Kaline jersey is a treasured possession, and a treasured memory is when Kaline sought out Keating at the ballpark to offer condolences after his father passed away. Keating’s father was a big fan of Kaline and would have been upset by this story.
Choosing your favorite Detroit sports figures is complicated because there are so many. Choosing your favorite Detroit sports teams just got easier.
He gravitates toward the 1996-97 Red Wings, who ended a more than 40-year Stanley Cup drought, and the 2006 Tigers, who made baseball fun again in Detroit. Of late, the Tigers’ magical run to the 2024 playoffs stands out.
“It’s the same joy that everyone is feeling with the Lions right now. It’s been so long,” Keating said. “That’s the feeling I suppose I’ll take with me to my grave. It’s the kind of thing you can’t write down.
“Those are the feelings I’m going to hold on to.”
By the way, speaking of script, yes, a lot of Keating’s jokes – the more they laugh, the more they bomb, the generally better they are, a bit like Johnny Carson – were written in advance. You could tell at any moment that Osgood would burst out laughing before Keating even said the phrase, because Osgood had seen the words on the studio teleprompter during the Red Wings pregame shows. Soon his stable of jokes will be reserved for his family, including two grandchildren; there’s a third on the way.
“I can hear their eyes rolling into the back of their heads,” Keating said of the typical reaction to his father’s jokes over the years from his three adult children, raised by Linda and John in Bloomfield Hills.
“I just think they’re brilliant turns of phrase,” he joked.
During his career, Keating also covered three Super Bowls (including XL in Detroit in February 2006) and the Winter Olympics in France in 1992, and his time working in the Detroit market saw 15 head coaches different for the Pistons, 13 for the Lions. (the only local team not in the RSN; the NFL is entirely national), six for the Red Wings, eight for Michigan State football, six for Michigan basketball, five for Michigan State football Michigan and just one for Michigan State basketball. (Tom Izzo, yo), as well as 10 different Tigers managers.
Keating praised all of his colleagues over the years and made special mention of Red Wings TV man Mickey Redmond, who, when he learned of Keating’s plans to retire, asked him to reconsider his decision.
He also thanked the fans who welcomed him into their home, from the dawn of the RSN era to today, at a time when RSN’s business model remains fragile and uncertain. Keating will often be approached at matches, on the set or in the lobby, often by a fan who points out that they have watched Keating on television his whole life. Keating can’t see the viewer through the camera, but the viewer sees him, and that puts things into perspective.
The sports media business can be tedious, especially when it involves travel; for most of his career there was. But no matter how stressful the workday was, Keating tried to find time to remember that he was doing what he loved. It’s easier said than done. Love, passion, they can be forgotten, in the midst of the daily rigors of the profession. Keating has been thinking about it a lot lately, as he prepares to retire around his family and Lake Michigan sunsets. The sunset photos that flooded his social media feed in recent years made it clear that this day was approaching.
“There have been occasions where I’ve walked into a baseball stadium or arena, and someone has stopped me: ‘John, you have a great job!’ And you might get jet lag,” Keating said.
“But then it hits me, yes, you can go work in an arena or a baseball stadium.
“This is as good as it gets.”
tpaul@detroitnews.com
@tonypaul1984