Flipnosis is no more.
The nickname KFAN's Paul Allen coined for Timberwolves exec and coach Flip Saunders was the most creative ever. Saunders, who had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, died after being in a coma for nearly six weeks, sports legend Sid Hartman reported.
On Monday, PA remembered Saunders, "my first local sports friend," with some Barry White music and a couple of great sound bites. Saunders always requested Barry White bumper music for his scheduled radio appearances with PA.
"I love you, and everything else, but you are not our personnel director," Saunders said in one clip. Saunders was famous for calling the station's hot line and blowing up when PA said something with which the coach disagreed. In the another clip, Saunders was bleeped as he remarked he didn't want to hear any more crap from, I assume, know-it-all sports reporters.
PA got word of Saunders' death while doing a play-by-play of the Vikings-Lions game in Detroit.
"Sports, no matter what is happening personally or professionally, is designated as the ultimate diversion. And that's really what it was for me. The Vikings won. It was a joyous locker room and then we got on the airplane and we started soaring back to Minneapolis and it just really hit me, all of the intimate personal stories with Phil from Minneapolis."
That was Saunders' first KFAN nickname when the station wanted a framework in which to deal with the coach's unexpected calls to the hot line, said PA.
As for the origin of Flipnosis: "When he would call the radio show 'PA & Dubay,' at that time, as frequently he did, the Wolves were playoff-bound basically every year, Flip was Flipnotizing the audience, and his nickname here became Flipnosis," said PA. "As one of my bosses here, Gregg Swedberg, told me right before the show: When your nickname is Flip, you're probably a fantastic guy. … [comedian] Flip Wilson seemed to be a super affable guy, as was Phil from Minneapolis."
