Brian Hagberg
WARREN, Pa. — Podcasts continue to grow in popularity, and there is no shortage of sports-themed podcasts available. Most are hosted by people who fall into one of two categories; former players/broadcasters or fans looking to take advantage of a new outlet to talk about “their” teams.
Joe Bees isn’t like most hosts.
Bees, the host and creator of The Beehive Sports Podcast, can give his listeners a unique look into the world of sports due to his education and career.
“I got into the Sports Administration program, graduated, and I did an internship down at UT-Chattanooga,” Bees said.
Despite the education and experience, Bees quickly realized there were precious few open opportunities in sports. So, he pivoted to something completely different.
“Following (the internship), it was just really difficult to find a job,” Bees said. “I bounced around and then settled in. I always found police work fascinating. It was just the route I ended up taking. I’ve been doing that for seven years now here in Warren.”
Now, he’s using the experience he’s gained in both arenas to The Beehive Sports Podcast to provide the type of insight not available anywhere else.
“I was actually an intern in creative services,” Bees said. “But there’s not a lot of jobs, even though there are schools all over the place and with an internship under my belt. My job at UT-Chattanooga was to live stream events. I live-streamed men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, wrestling and softball.”
A full interview with Bees on a recent edition of In Between the Lines:
Bees can apply his experiences as a police officer in his “Things That Sting” segment, which focuses on the darker side of sports. Most of those moments feature athletes involved in some kind of legal issue.
“Being in law enforcement a lot of the things, different players getting arrested for different types of things, I have a different outlook,” Bees said. “I can read into what’s going on with that and have a better understanding than maybe the average fan who doesn’t have a lot of education in the law side of things.”
Life, as it often does, came full circle as one of Bees’ college friends started a podcast focused on pop culture. Speaking with that friend showed Bees that the opportunity to fulfill a long-time goal was within reach.
“Basically a friend of mine launched a podcast,” Bees said. “He explained to me how he did it, the way he’s recording. I was like, ‘This is the opportunity to have my very own sports show.’ Which is something I always wanted.”
The Beehive Sports Podcast released its first episode in March. Using a play-on-words seemed like a natural fit for the title, especially given where the podcast is recorded each week.
“‘The beehive’ is what I call my little man-cave in the basement which is where I record,” Bees said.
At first, much of the Beehive’s focus was on Bees’ favorite teams, the Buffalo Bills and Houston Astros. Deep in Pittsburgh black-and-gold country, that combination of favorites seems out of place. While Buffalo probably holds down the No. 2 spot among NFL fan favorites in Warren County, the number of Astros fans likely only numbers in the single digits.
A play-on-words nickname, similar to the one used for the podcast, got Bees locked in on the Astros.
“The ‘Killer Bees’ were the Houston Astros, with Bees as my last name, that grabbed my attention as a kid,” Bees said. “Craig Biggio was my favorite player. But my golf bag looks really funny with Astros headcovers, Bills headcovers, people give me looks like ‘How did this happen?’
“Then the Bills, in the early-90s was when I was in Little League and playing sports at a young age, the Bills were really good then,” he continued. “I kinda went against the grain of my entire family who is Pittsburgh everything.”
Now 10 episodes in, Bees is looking to expand his content sphere. This expansion includes a “permanent” co-host, special guests, and more. The ultimate goal is to just keep growing the audience.
“I’ve found that conversing with someone makes it easier,” Bees said. “Kylie Munch, who’s been on two episodes and will be on the next, I’m almost considering him a part of the show at this point. He’s no longer a guest.
“There are literally millions of podcasts and to make yours special isn’t easy,” he added. “It’s not something I intend on being able to retire from a police officer or anything like that, but just a hobby that if I can get it out to as many people as possible and have a little bit of a following. I think that would be pretty cool.”
The Beehive Sports Podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Radio Public, iHeart Radio, and more. The link for each episode can also be found on the podcast’s Facebook page.
