D-C Radio: MASN Names New Hosts for Nats Pre/Post-Game Shows

Johnny Holliday (Andy Ockershausen photo)

For the first time in more than a decade, the Nationals pre- and postgame shows on MASN won’t be anchored by local radio, TV legend Johnny Holliday and former major league player and manager Ray Knight.

Their full-time replacements should be familiar to fans who have followed the team since its first playoff berth in 2012, according to The Washington Post.

The Nationals and MASN announced Friday that Dan Kolko, who spent the past five years as the on-field reporter during Nationals broadcasts, is moving to the studio for the half-hour shows that bookend every game. He will be joined by analyst and former Nationals third base coach Bo Porter.

Kolko assumes the host role previously held by Holliday, the longtime voice of Maryland football and men’s basketball, who announced in December that he was stepping away from the network after 13 years to spend more time with his family. Knight served as Holliday’s unfiltered, heart-on-his-sleeve studio partner since 2007, but his 2019 contract option wasn’t picked up after he was involved in a verbal altercation with a member of the MASN production team last season and pulled off broadcasts in mid-September.

Holliday  began his radio career at WBBN in Perry, Georgia, then worked at WFEC in Florida, WVRM in Rochester, New York, WHK in Cleveland. He worked closely with Murray the K at WINS in New York City and hosted the station's final music broadcast in 1965. This led him west to Top 40 giant KYA in San Francisco where in 1965 Holliday was named America's number one disc jockey by the Bill Gavin Radio "Gavin Report."

His radio work is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In connection with the station he hosted record hops and concerts, including co-hosting the final concert by the Beatles at Candlestick Park in 1966.
Holliday moved to Washington, D.C., in 1969, handling morning drive time duties for WWDC until 1978, and sports for WMAL from 1978 to 1991.