LAST MINUTE: Panthers making a change at Stadium DJ

[LinvilleGorge]

Just now, Donald LaFell said:

I assume Tepper’s the one that pushed that stupid Wolf of Wall Street clip. Absolutely demented. 

I think I was at the game when they rolled that out for the first time. Everyone in the stadium was just kinda bewildered. It was uncomfortable. Then it was like a collective understanding to like... okay, moving on. We're just going to continue on as if that never happened. LOL

[Icege]

14 hours ago, musicman said:

Thx guys, it was me. 14 seasons. Had a blast. Now I can be a true fan and just support the team. Looking forward to hanging with the Roaring Riot pregame tailgates and who knows from there.

Thanks for helping make our family trips to the games more enjoyable!

[musicman]

6 hours ago, PanthersATL said:

@musicman Since you're here, can you tell us some more about the process of picking stadium music and choosing when to play it and other technical details?

Looking for the overall production behind-the-curtains stuff. Like... do all the different stadium music teams get together to discuss what songs are the next big thing? Which teams get exclusive music for touchdowns (Boom Boom has been ours, for example)?  How do you do sound checks to ensure fans can actually hear the audio? Do you have a set schedule of songs for every game of the season in advance...?

What it was in the Cam days to now, it's totally different. Back then, I picked 99% of the music and when to play it. Boom Boom Boom was picked by Mr. Richardson's son. And "I feel good" by James Brown was my choice after I received a personal post note from the Big Cat saying he liked that song I played. 

When Cam came back in 2018, the intro of the team was the only time ever we did a song special for 1 player. In fact, Cam helped get music in the tunnel for players getting ready to come out for intros and he would actually email songs (and special edits) he wanted. Cam and so many other players gave me feedback of what they wanted. I remember JNo coming to my office (others too) and making special edits for them when they made a play. So much fun. 

I have nothing to do with volume. I tried to play different songs every game and even only once or twice in a season. The last 2 years was a lot of repetition (3rd down, KO, etc). I made the new TD edit but hated it (it's not what I would have done). 

And for all you anti-Tepper people, he had nothing to do with anything music related and was actually very cool to interact with. Nicole had some input but was great to work for. They get a lot of slack for everything, even if it's not them. I liked them a lot. 

Ask questions, I'll share. 

[PanthersATL]

On 2/11/2025 at 4:29 PM, musicman said:

Ask questions, I'll share. 

How planned out is music on game day?

How many clips/songs are in the library?

Any rules about songs you're told not to play (ie 3 blind mice during instant replay reviews?)

Did you have the ability to be impromptu with song choices to fit a specific unexpected game situation? (Thinking how a baseball stadium organist might change things up based on the game play)

What are the music playback rules with regards to when to hit play or pause a song during a game?

Ever have a "whoops" moment (ie playing an inappropriate song immediately after a player injury)

How integrated are you with TV production vs stadium production and how is that handled?

 

 

 

[musicman]

On 2/12/2025 at 11:38 PM, PanthersATL said:

How planned out is music on game day?

How many clips/songs are in the library?

Any rules about songs you're told not to play (ie 3 blind mice during instant replay reviews?)

Did you have the ability to be impromptu with song choices to fit a specific unexpected game situation? (Thinking how a baseball stadium organist might change things up based on the game play)

What are the music playback rules with regards to when to hit play or pause a song during a game?

Ever have a "whoops" moment (ie playing an inappropriate song immediately after a player injury)

How integrated are you with TV production vs stadium production and how is that handled?

 

 

 

Videos and prompts have music pre-planned and embedded. It use to be I would get the run down a week before and get ideas of what to play during certain breaks (fan cam, dance for your diamonds, etc). I use to pick like 3 different songs for each part and see how the game unfolded to see which one. Now it became just play this song (and sometimes it was picked for me). Everything else was impromptu.

I had thousands of clips but their system updated 2 years ago wiped out my access and I had to rebuild with a new system (political in my eyes).

Mr. Richardson was big on nothing derogatory so it was always respectful. Still is.

I use to have the freedom to adapt. If I didn't like the call I would play "What's going on" or "blah Blah Blah". When Cam would break a sack and run for 1st down, I would platy like "I get knock down, I get up again..." and so on. Players gave me songs they liked. Mike Tolbert wanted Wrecking Ball when he got a 1st down. Thomas Davis always wanted "Vice Versa" and I played it every game and even every outside appearance I was at with him. Cool stuff like that.

We followed the play clock very closely and all audio has to be stopped by 20 second left on the clock or when the center touches the ball. If he stood over it, I could keep it playing to try and disrupt their communication at the line, but once he started going down towards the ball, it had to be out.  We needed fans to keep the noise once that the audio stopped and when the crowd wasn't in to it, it sounded like a buzzkill drop. When the kicker kicked the ball, it had to be out before it was caught. 

My whoops moment was when Luke knocked down Tom Brady's pass in the end zone to win the game in 2018 and I started to play Sweet Caroline and then there was a flag. Jumped too soon. I had others.

TV dictates what we did as to timing, so our production was secondary to that. Tough when there was an injury and they would go to commercial and we couldn't do our breaks so we would play catch up all game. That happened 90% of the time. 

The behind the scenes was stressful, lots of moving parts and most you could not control. Many times I bailed out the video side as it was the wrong video or the audio wasn't right and I had a second to play something that kind of fit the situation so I was always ready to play something. 

In fact, after every play, especially when on defense, I had to have several songs ready go. They go a 1st down, we made a big stop and it's now 3rd down, interception or fumble recovery, did we get a sack, penalty, etc. 

As things changed the way to was run (nothing to do with the Teppers) it just wasn't fun anymore. There's a lot of layers there.

[Candler Cat]

One video & song combo that worked well was with the Fall out Boy song, if the video timed the hits with the percussion in the music I thought it was pretty cool, only recall that being used around '15

[PanthersATL]

@musicman thanks for the answers and insights, and feel free to keep telling stories

For anyone who thinks "oh, nobody wants to hear about boring work stuff" -- it can be super fascinating to those of us who are interested in the production world of how things come together behind the scenes

Flying back from the Munich game, spent some time chatting with THE guy in charge of the NFL-provided video boards at Allianz (and after that, at major music festivals and conferences and things like the Grammys). Allianz didn't have video to the level of what the NFL wants, so they had to bring in temporary signage.  Nifty things you learn along the way