How Did This Guy Turn This Guy Into Phillys Most Popular Pitchman?
It may be hard to imagine now, but at first Runyan wasn’t an easy sell to the media or sponsors. They said things like “Isn’t McNabb available?” or “Jon who?” In fact, Kaplan was turned down by every radio station until he sold the now-defunct Y100 on a show called Rockin’ With Runyan in 2004. Really, it was a package deal, with Runyan wrapped in a bow. Kaplan had Rockin’ With Runyan t-shirts made, for sale at Modell’s. He delivered sponsors such as Iron Hill Brewery in Media, where Runyan would go after every show to help sell a special brew called Runyan’s Reserve. A dollar from every beer sale went to a cystic fibrosis charity. Runyan got about 20 grand for the season of radio work.
He progressed from Y100 to WXTU and, last year, WIP. His TV work started with short “Runyan Report” segments on CN8. A year later, Comcast SportsNet, which had turned him down, gave him a regular gig.
He’s getting good at it. He knows the X’s and O’s of football, of course. He’s poised on-camera, with a voice that soothes as he tells radio listeners everything’s going to be okay. “He’s learned the most important thing — how to be himself,” says WIP program director Andy Bloom. And he’s funny. Asked on the air about DeShaun Jackson’s goof in the Dallas game, in which the rookie receiver released the ball to celebrate a touchdown before actually entering the end zone, Runyan said, “It’s a pretty simple concept: Spike it in the paint.”
Runyan’s TV commercials have been less about his insight than his magnitude. “Big Jon Runyan,” says Kaplan. “Kind of like the — what is it? Paul Bunyan?” Runyan ran into a regional marketing manager for McDonald’s at former Phillie Garry Maddox’s charity bowling tournament, and Kaplan followed up fiercely. A large coffee for 69 cents? Jon is large, and he’s number 69! The Ford deal in which Runyan battles a truck, well, there was a regional Ford guy whose kids went to the same private school as Runyan’s, and the guy had sponsored Runyan’s charity golf tournament, and Kaplan rammed another gig over the goal line.
All of it is designed for the day when Runyan puts together a highlight tape and sends it off to ESPN or Fox.
“Yeah. That’s the idea,” he says, looking out across the empty Wachovia Center parking lot. “We’ll see how it goes.”
RUNYAN’S WEEK FOLLOWING the Sunday home win over the Steelers was a little less insane than the Cowboys aftermath. Right after the game, he parked his pickup in the back corner of the players’ lot behind the Linc and, as usual, broke out beers and pizza for about a dozen friends, including Kaplan and Jerry D’Addesi, who co-owns the Queen Village restaurant Vesuvio. About four years ago, D’Addesi hired Runyan to show up for after-radio-show parties. Now they’re just buddies, and Vesuvio hosts WIP’s official Eagles Sunday post-game radio show with Gargano.
By 11 on Tuesday morning, local athletes and golfers started arriving at Ramblewood Country Club in Mount Laurel for the fourth annual Jon Runyan Score for the Cure golf tournament, set up by Kaplan, of course. The event broke its record by raising more than $125,000 for prostate cancer research.
