Ep. 39 - Jeff Medders of Geronimo Productions
Behind the Scenes with Jeff Medders
(February 11, 2020) - A Tulsa, Oklahoma, native, Jeff Medders may be most recognized by his unique western voice. Through his company, Geronimo Productions, he has brought to life the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo at home for any one that is unable to attend the ten rounds of rodeo action in Las Vegas, Nevada. Working with the likes of Butch Knowles, Kadee Coffman, Luke Branquinho, Tuf Hedeman, Larry Mahan, and many other legends - it’s no wonder that his show Bullseye, feature on CBS Sports Network, is such a success! As a behind the scenes look at cowboy lifestyle and its unique history, hosts Katie and Rachel chat all things That Western Life in Episode 39!
From Sportscaster to the NFR
“It’s weird where life takes you,” Jeff says with a laugh. “When I got out of college, this is not what I thought I would be doing!”
Born in Oklahoma and raised on a farm in Kansas, he was raised in southeastern Oklahoma and an avid fan of football, he attended Oklahoma State University to be a sportscaster. Working as a weekend sportscaster in Tulsa at an NBC affiliate and a company called Wintercom started with horse racing and then became the largest program packager for ESPN. Wintercom picked up a show called “America’s Horse,” a monthly show that became a weekly show on ESPN - something that could have never happened now.
ESPN in those days was “funky,” Jeff explains. In Round 10 of the NFR with it airing on ESPN and Jim Sharp is on to ride, and they switched to a different showing because time was out. The PRCA reached out to Wintercom and asked if they could do it and they, in turn, asked Jeff he wanted to do rodeo.
“Absolutely!” Was Jeff’s response as he grew up on a ranch and was currently working for Wintercom with cutting and reining horses. He started sportscasting the NFR with Butch Knowles in 1981 and, with great chemistry, they got left as the hosts and analysts.
Becoming a Rodeo Sportscaster
With the goal of being a Chicago-mainstream sportscaster with the NFL and MLB, as soon as Jeff got into the rodeo side of things and back to his roots - those goals changed. His biggest passion is in the cowboy side of things where money hasn’t ruled it all.
“I would go to war with [cowboys] any day of the week,” says Jeff but, adding with a chuckle, “I wouldn’t let my daughter date any of them!”
A focus on the creative side, he likens himself to an actor that turns director. Hosting less and producing cool content more, he is excited to see how that transpires.
Geronimo Productions
Right around the 2000’s, Jeff founded his own production company called Geronimo Productions. Named after part-Indian from the history of that side but also because of Wintercom and having good faith. His goal was to get a big production contract but didn’t realize how hard that would be. Freelancing for ESPN, CBS, and NBC for a couple of years, he was able to get Championship Bull Riding thanks to Tuf Hedeman around 2007. Championship Bull Riding was contracted with RFD-TV and then Great American Country and then on to Fox and that was really the beginning of the production company.
What were some of the challenges of starting?
“I think you have a dream and you know what you want it to look like,” says Jeff. His goal was to come up with three to four really good cowboy world clients and didn’t realize how hard it was. He was fortunate to freelance as a host and keep his name in the cowboy world.
Getting that contract and buying equipment all gave him the ability to expand it. Karl Stressman was the commission of the PRCA at that time and he knew that Jeff’s goal was to get off the plane in Vegas and have his company cover the NFR. Karl listened to his pitch and really gave him that opportunity to do so.
Why focus on a small company?
A part of it is talent and Jeff has surrounded himself with very talented people. Reaching a point that if he grew beyond the size that they are, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to deliver what he had in his head. Fortunately, that the core of his company are really talented people he optimistically believes that in the next twelve to eighteen months you’ll really get to see the creative talent and unscripted content ability of his team.
“I didn’t want to grow beyond rodeo,” says Jeff. The other side was a strong sense of comfort and confidence that when they showed up they could do anything equine better than anybody else in the business. Between the team and the experience of the last 30 years is unmatched in the western lifestyle.
“We can show up to anything with a horse in it and do it really well,” says Jeff. Focusing on his strength and then spreading out from there is a testament to the strength of focusing on one item before growing.
Getting on to Prime Time Television
Between the NFR and Bullseye both being aired on CBS Sports Network, it was an adventure for Geronimo Productions to get rodeo on mainstream television. Wintercom was still doing the NFR when he had first started working with the PRCA but it wasn’t the same management that Jeff had worked with that had been sold multiple times.
Pledging to be a person who would think about it year around, the NFR was on ESPN but only televised rounds 8, 9 and 10. Then it became all rounds but it was only two hours but there would be numerous times where team ropers and barrel racers wouldn’t even make the cut and cameras wouldn’t be running.
“When Karl and I were talking about he said, ‘If you were taking over the NFR what would you do?’ and I said ‘Take it off of ESPN.’” That took the PRCA management off guard and he explained how he would move it to Great American Country, which was currently hosting Championship Bull Riding.
Explaining his reasoning, he showed how it would be the perfect collision of country music and rodeo, colliding in Vegas. It allowed them to create a pre-show before the NFR and expand it to three hours. They went from fifteen plus contestants not making the television cut to less than five with the theory, “if it goes long, it goes long.”
The issue was the switch to HD and, after three years, they failed to do so, and the NFR found it’s new home on CBS Sports Network. That ten-day run, no matter if it was GAC or CBS, it was the highest ten-day consecutive run of the year.
Building the NFR Co-Host Team
Over the past few years, we have seen a growth in the NFR hosting team.
“I inherited Butch Knowles,” Jeff says with a laugh, adding that “he would be nervous right now thinking that I am talking on a podcast and he has no defense whatsoever!”
“He is the greatest guy in the world, he’s an incredible analyst,” says Jeff about the former National High School All Around Champion competing in almost all of them in college as well. Without much of a weakness, Jeff doesn’t know what he would do without him by his side in rodeo sports broadcasting.
“He gives me a great amount of comfort when it comes to live television,” says Jeff.
Next to join the team as a regular is eight time world champion Joe Beaver but Jeff’s teaser is that the after the show show is even better! To grow the team, he took the idea of bringing in top contestants to commentate from the American’s set-up.
Adding Steven Peebles in 2018, he took command in 2019 and was a ton of fun. In 2018, Jeff had Charmayne James come in to commentate barrel racing but, unfortunately, television runs the rodeo and there wasn’t enough time to analyze a round. Donny Gay was a bull riding analyst, JW Harris two years ago and Tuf Hedeman in 2019 - they like to shake it up and do it a little bit different. Kadee Coffman does side interviews after runs as well and Jeff told us we had to ask her about the “pancake story.”
Each person’s goal is to bring in something a little bit different to keep it interesting.
interested in listening to some of our round conversations about the 2019 NFR?
NFR After Dark
A time for the super fans, Katie and Jeff chat about the conversation for a post show. PRCA creating ProRodeo TV and one of the ways that Jeff thinks that they can utilize it is to use the pre-show set and find four or five funny guys that are outspoken and not afraid to “call a spade a spade” and do a show live during the NFR.
For example, when bareback comes to an end, you can do the highlights they can talk about what happens and bring the winner out on the set while steer wrestling is going on and really have fun with that. As of now, this isn’t a thing but we think it would be!
Our suggestions for hosts? Ryle Smith! Who can forget how fun he was in our podcast?
Bullseye
How do you pick the stories to tell?
“Some of them are easy,” says Jeff and explains how he was excited to have Billy Etbauer in Season 1. He also has Cody Ohl and Fred Whitfield on his list but they “managed to duck me” throughout the season one filming.
Knwoing when his kids are watching “8 Seconds,” they always ask questions about Tuf Hedeman. In fact, Tuf was one of the pilot episodes and ended up being two shows. Who else ended up being two shows? Trevor Brazile!
Currently they are sitting down with the likes of Dusty Tuckness (aka the bullfighting batman), Sherry Cervi, JR Vezain, and many more!
“I like getting a mix of the generation I liked watching in the ‘90’s and a lot of the great young guys right now,” says Jeff.
How much goes into producing a show?
“It’s all fun! That show is just really fun to do and I wish I did one a week!” Says Jeff.
Sometimes it’s hard to work with Hollywood footage (ex: Larry Mahan’s academy award), when they go on Late Night Television or the PBR - they charge per second. These make it hard to build shows for the different contestants that competed in a variety of competitions and performances.
One thing Geronimo does have is the entire PRCA digital library because they were the ones that converted it to digital. No easy task, they had to truck old school film wheels with a refrigerated semi-truck from Houston, Texas to Oklahoma. A lot of old 1”, 2”, and ¾” film it was “quite a project” says Jeff. “It was fun at the time to try and figure it all out … but I wouldn’t want to do it again.”
The Future of Bullseye
Trying to personalize the shows which have been straight FUN as some of these stories have never seen the light of day. Some of the shows we kind of know but not enough! A lot of them are great fun as Jeff gets hands on with roping with Trevor Brazile and steer wrestling with Tyler Pearson.
“Trying to get [the guests] out of their comfort zone and give them a chance to show off what they can do. I just want to make fans.”
National Finals Rodeo
Getting the Pitch
“The best part of my pitch … they didn’t want to be the administration to take the NFR off ESPN,” says Jeff. The NFR got “no love” and it was time to get it somewhere where it was appreciated and he thinks that was the best part of the pitch. “Karl and I have a great repertoire … we listen to each other and that laid the groundwork for a really great relationship between Geronimo and the PRCA.” With the leadership change of new commissioner and CEO George Taylor, it’s been successful in working with that new leadership to get questions answered.
“I think that [the Cowboy Channel] is really good for the association. It’s a whole different model, it’s a rites deal…[in comparison with the Golf Channel for Golf, NFL Channel for NFR, etc.],” says Jeff. “The only question, a little bit for me, is the NFR.”
His first reaction was that he thought it was going to be “fun” for a network dedicated to rodeo with no time constraints. The downside on the NFR side is if you’re walking through the airport in December and you sit down at Chili’s, it won’t be on there unless you are in Milford, Utah. That’s the only negative that Jeff see’s so far and will require a lot of building awareness.
Challenges with the move to Cowboy Channel
Money will have to be spent on advertising and social media to get fans outside of the western lifestyle to check out the Cowboy Channel and the NFR. Hopefully, once you get them in, you’ll have them! This was one of the biggest perks of GAC and CBS because you got the non-rodeo fan base exposed.
PBR has done a really great job of creating an outstanding television product that is on almost every single weekend. In the age where everyone criticizes you for everything you say, the PBR has done a great job of building a sport where the top stars don’t really speak english.
The PBR is very calculated and their research is great and they don’t miss much when it comes to television and bull riding. They also do a great job of building the fan base around the PBR bucking bulls, something that Jeff mentions how the PRCA used to have until more recent times. We are finding that the PRCA fans are getting back to it a bit and especially with timed event horses such as Louie in the barrel racing and Scooter in the steer wrestling.
Working with the NFR General Manager
Boyd Palhamous ran the NFR for the first and maybe only time in 2019 and Jeff explains how the relationship he had with the previous NFR GM Shawn Davis was great. Very tough but also fair, Jeff could sit down with Sean who would listen to his side and weigh it before giving a response.
“I had a fine year with Boyd this year,” says Jeff, “it was his first, I guess and maybe his last year?”
2020 NFR Changes with the Cowboy Channel
“That’s a good question,” says Jeff who has been talking about a lot of long term plans with Patrick Gotch who is the owner of RFD and Cowboy Channel. “I think Geronimo offers a lot in terms of what I can do as ‘stress-free television.’ I think that they are in uncharted territory… season rodeos is a little give and take with multiple ways to do it… when you get to the NFR … it’s a very complicated animal.”
“It’s the only major event in America where the television runs tv,” says Jeff who has faith in his team that has been together since the nineties. “Right now I’m optimistic that we are going to have a great year and it’ll be beneficial for both sides.”
Future of Rodeo
Working on a couple of reality TV projects with Taylor Sheridan, the producer and director for Yellowstone and the Run for the Million, who is probably the most powerful men in the industry right now. What they are looking at doing is doing more than just “preaching to the choir” when you put everything on a cowboy specific network.
“I see the industry side of it and the purist side of it, [Taylor] sees the greater base of it,” says Jeff. Optimistic about what will come to fruition and is his biggest project right now besides the dance with the Cowboy Channel.
Rodeo Rule Change, Addition or Modification
A conversation Jeff has had multiple times with Joe Beaver after the NFR, he likes what they have introduced in Calgary that when all four legs leave the ground you are flagged out and when you make a motion to be done with a run, your time stops. Logic doesn’t always prevail and when you look at what is controversial in rodeo, you make rules, even if there isn’t much difference, to make it a little more Kosher and environmentally friendly.
Fan Questions
How do you suggest someone get their foot in the door in rodeo broadcasting?
Jeff suggests that you work for a local television set where you do everything from shooting, to production, to editing, to writing - you’ll have a different feel after a year or two of that. He references Janie Johnson and how she had reached out after college about getting involved and he hired her as an AP at the NFR. Then she did features for him for the National High School Finals she got to showcase her pizzazz and personality. Currently she’s on the PBR Velocity Tour with Ride TV and has become a very good broadcaster but Jeff jokingly warns that “you can borrow her but eventually we will get her back!” There is no substitute for experience and there isn’t a lot of people that know both the cowboy side of things and the television side of things.How do you handle your notes for the NFR?
“I cheat!” Jeff says with a laugh who keeps a notecard of research for every contestant in the order of go, ready to go. That way he has all the information that he needs at his fingertips.What do you want your legacy to be?
Being able to make the cowboy side of the industry easier through storytelling on the professional side and making their life a little bit easier. On the personal side, he wants to get up every day and grow the sport.