Broc Glover has always been an opinionated person, especially when it comes to the topic of two-wheels. If you were a six-time AMA National Motocross Champion and one of the most accomplished riders in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame, you’d probably also have a unique and critical perspective. Fortunately, the “Golden Boy” now has a weekly platform for his point of view on the all-new Bike Week Radio Show.
Beginning on June 17, Glover will be hitting the airwaves alongside sports radio fixture Bobby Wooldridge on Sunday mornings from 9-10 a.m. on Southern California’s XX1090 AM.
We caught up with Glover to hear more about the weekly program, which will also stream online at www.BikeWeekRadioShow.com. He filled us in on how the show came about, what kind of topics he and Wooldridge will be discussing, and how it will fit in with his already busy schedule. Glover also shared his thoughts on the AMA Motocross Championship to this point, including James Stewart’s controversial crash at Thunder Valley. Read on for a taste of the two-wheeled world according to Glover.
Tell us about Bike Week Radio Show?
I’m really excited about doing this show. It’s based right here in San Diego at the XX1090 studios and, although we will be streaming it online at the same time, it’s a true terrestrial signal that covers all of Southern California. XX1090 AM has been the leader in sports talk radio for a long time. I’m a huge sports guy and this station is something I tune into on a regular basis so I’m super excited to be able to have a talk show about motorcycling on an all-sports station like XX1090 AM. Plus this is a great opportunity for the motorcycling community to capture an audience that normally would not be exposed to our sport and possibly appeal to the motorcycling market of the future.
A fact that many motorcyclists don’t know about you is that you’re an all-around sports enthusiast – not just a motocross guy.
Yeah, I mean, motorcycling has been my life and what got me some recognition, but I’ve always been a passionate sports fan. As a youth I participated pretty seriously in the more common sports such as baseball and football. Later, I actively participated in many other sports from triathlon to cycling and running events. I still do a lot of other sports besides just motorcycling. I love to golf, surf, watch my beloved Chargers; I try to catch as many Aztec basketball games as possible, heck, I even tune into the Padres with regularity, and lately that is not something that is easy to do [laughs]. So I’m glad to be part of a station that’s home to true sports enthusiasts.
How did the offer to host Bike Week Radio Show come to you?
A friend of mine in the motorcycle industry also happens to have a background in radio. I also co-hosted a previous radio show with Rob Buydos called Rocket Rob’s Two-Wheel Power Hour. I’m also friends with Patrick Osburn [VP Director of Sales for XX1090 Sports Radio] so the relationship was already there. Heck, he and I took our kids to the last-ever Padres game at Qualcomm Stadium together before they built Petco Park. It’s just something that one thing led to another, and we all felt that the Southern California market would support a weekly radio show about motorcycling.
You’re at Supercross and AMA Motocross races regularly. How is the show going to work with your schedule? Will you still be at the races on the weekends?
Yes, I will be. First and foremost, my job at Dunlop is my highest priority and my focus there will not change. The professional Supercross and Motocross races are on Saturdays and the show is on Sunday so I’m just going to have to modify my post-race travel schedule a little bit so I can be in the studio as often as possible. When I’m not in the studio I’ll be calling in from a remote location. Bobby Wooldridge, who has a background as a successful radio show producer and on-air personality, will be there in studio and he’ll be holding down the fort. Sometimes it will be a call in but most of the time I’ll be there in the studio.
Speaking of the Nationals, what’s your take on the 2012 AMA Motocross Championship thus far?
It’s been very exciting racing. To have Stewart come back on a different team is very exciting. For me, personally, it was great to see him back on Dunlop tires [laughs]. I always want to see the very best riders that the world has to offer out there racing. James Stewart, Chad Reed, Ryan Villopoto, Ryan Dungey – I would like to see them all out there, all the time. Unfortunately injuries are part of the sport, but anytime we can get the best caliber racers out there, it’s always exciting. Unluckily Stewart had a little incident that caused him to injure his wrist. I don’t know the full extent of his injury, but hopefully it’ll be good enough to ride hard at High Point. Plus the 250 class has been amazing racing. Three races so far and three different overall winners.
What is your opinion on the James Stewart incident at Thunder Valley? Fair or foul?
That’s really hard to say; nobody is in James’ head. Nobody can say what they would have done in that situation. Going the speed James is going, you come over a blind jump, there’s a photographer out on the track… He was on the inside and James was going to go outside, but still, it takes your eye off of what you’re focusing on for just a split second. I do know that James was still searching for a better line through that section from the previous laps. That outside line he had taken on the first lap was real muddy and slippery from the rain and he almost went down so I am fairly sure he was looking for a better line through that section. But when he came into the section on lap four and there’s a guy standing toward the inside… I mean, in a blink of an eye it changes what’s going through your mind. Again, at the speeds they’re going, a split second is all it takes to change the outcome of a successful corner or an unsuccessful corner. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Is it a coincidence? He happens to fall in the same corner where there’s a guy standing on the track? I don’t know. I’d have to say that it had to have been a distraction. I know it would have been for me. Did it cause the crash? I don’t know and neither does anyone else but James.
Some people have criticized Stewart, saying he should have been more focused. What do you say to that?
Really? Anyone can be an armchair quarterback. But how can you say that about somebody who seven days earlier had Dungey breathing down his neck for an hour and 10 minutes of racing and didn’t make enough of a mistake to lose even one second? James was obviously able to focus at Freestone. He was obviously able to focus at Hangtown. I think that’s hard to take a shot at a guy like that. I think these top guys are all just amazingly fast riders who continue to push each other to limits none of us thought were possible, and when you push the limits in just about anything, stuff happens.
Are these the types of things you’ll be discussing on Bike Week Radio Show?
We will be talking about anything and everything that has to do with motorcycling. I really want to broaden my horizons on this show. It’s true I spend most of my time around dirt bikes but that doesn’t mean that this is a dirt bike show. This is a motorcycle show and we’re going to be talking about everything from commuters’ streetbikes and how the laws affect them, to Supercross/motocross, off road, and road racing, to dual-sport and recreational desert riders. We’ll even bring some politics into it. Currently the California off-highway vehicle green sticker fund is on the verge of being raided by politicians who wish off-road motorcycles would go away. They think that green sticker fund is just there for them to grab and spend on any budget deficit or social program they want. It’s a big issue for off-roaders in California right now and many people are upset about it. So we’ll be bringing all that up, and we’ll have special guests and point-counterpoint conversations. We’ll have all sorts of different things. Basically, anything out there two-wheel related is fair game for conversation on Bike Week Radio Show!