After leaving the radio airwaves more than a decade ago, longtime sports personality and Humber Broadcasting alumni Sid Seixeiro has made his return to Toronto’s audio landscape with a new podcast.
Best known for his work on Sportsnet’s Tim & Sid show and CityTV’s Breakfast Television (BT), Seixeiro launched a new sports podcast called The Sid Seixeiro Show, alongside his side-kick Jeff Azzopardi. The show, which is a part of Sick Media, features everything Toronto sports with a side of his honest opinions, and passionate breakdowns.
However, Seixeiro said he was unsure of going all in with it at first mainly due to interest.
“I just didn’t know what the appetite would be like to hear me talk about things long form, like I haven’t done that in a while,” he said.
But not long after, that interest spread like wildfire.
Since its debut on Feb. 9, the show’s popularity has grown to well over 10,000 subscribers on platforms like YouTube and Instagram, drawing in viewers worldwide.
In addition to his growing fanbase, Seixeiro also said his friends and family have been “incredibly supportive” of this next step in his career as well.
“I think my folks are more excited than I am about this endeavour,” Seixeiro said.
“They recently got some mugs out of it, and they were over the moon happy.”
Seixeiro also said that the one thing he has been seeing, especially from those close to him is that they find it “oddly more convenient” than tuning into traditional media.
“Even on Breakfast Television when we talked sports it was four and a half minutes, then you gotta go,” he said.
“The one thing I found about BT was the stuff they would put out on me on Instagram and TikTok, it did really well, and I’m noticing the same kind of thing.”
He also said the most memorable show he has done so far was the Canada vs U.S. men’s Olympic hockey final.
“By the end of the game, the game was over and we had - I don’t know what the YouTube number was - but we had close to ten thousand still with us on Twitter,” Seixeiro said.
“It kind of surprised me, people still stuck around to both listen to my takes and to see my pain.”
As of March 26, that live show was the most watched podcast since the first broadcast, which had 22,951 views on YouTube alone. The only other live show that came close to these numbers was the Leafs Deadline live show from March 6 which racked up 21,135 views.
For that reason, Seixeiro said he thought it was good he got back into this space, especially as the digital content sector continues to make its mark in Canada.
“From what I’ve been told from the people I’m now working with, the secret sauce of this is the movement of content when you’re not [on air] is going to be important,” he said.
Seixeiro also said he was excited to return to this avenue of the job because of the opportunities this type of work allows.
“I mean I was basically offered the chance to be my own boss and be a partner in this, and I’m like, let’s see how that goes,” he said.
“So, we’re two months in, I’m really excited about what could happen here.”
Seixeiro, who graduated from the broadcasting program in 1998, also said he has many things to thank Humber for to get him to where he is today, including the audition processes and the interning opportunities.
“I appreciated all the opportunities,” Seixeiro said. “They got my foot in the door and I’ll never forget it.”
In addition to the guidance he received as a young broadcaster and a student, he said he is thankful for what he has been shown now by Sick Media in his new venture.
“The guidance we’re getting from [them] from a sales perspective, it’s the type of guidance we need for sure,” Seixeiro said.
The Sick Podcast Network began in 2013, when founder Sammy Cavallaro launched @sickhighlights, an Instagram account dedicated to everything sports.
The startup, based out of Montreal, quickly grew to two million followers, which later motivated him to create Sick Media, a hub with 10 accounts, 25 podcasts and over six million followers. Cavallaro's latest venture is called The Sick Podcast Network aims to shake up the world of sports podcasting.
Seixeiro also said working with this company has been a “very healthy partnership.”
“They don’t know the Toronto market like we know it, but we don’t know the digital market the way they know it,” Seixeiro said. “So one hand is helping the other.”
“I think I know what I’m doing in this space, and the first two months have been validating that for sure.”
