Loyal listeners were treated to an evening of food fun and up close conversation with some of their favorite ESPN 97.5 personalities Thursday evening as part of a Listener appreciation event put on by the station.

The station opened their doors at 6 p.m. to a line of excited fans who were ushered up an elevator to the Gow Media lobby where they were treated to catered food, an open bar, and an opportunity to sit in on a live broadcast of The Blitz with Fred Faour and AJ Hoffman.

“I was great to see them talk in person because you don’t ever get to see it,” Michael Chan explained. “Seeing it in person, like some of the arguments and when they go back and forth, it’s a lot of fun.”

On top of the food and drink, listeners had the opportunity to meet and speak with many of the station’s on air personalities including Faour, Charlie Pallilo, Raheel Ramzanali, and Lance Zierlein.

“Whenever I first started getting into media I knew fairly early on that radio is the closest to the one-to-one medium.” Pallilo remarked. “When done well it feels more like interaction from the host or hosts to the individual listener.”

Pallilo entertained guests on one end of the Gow Media lobby by successfully fielding guest-submitted sports trivia questions in an attempt to stump the daytime show host for prizes. Across the same lobby, Faour and Hoffman mingled with fans in familiar territory: a poker table.

The entire station was fair game, and guests were encouraged to weave their way in and out of the production side of the building, giving listeners the opportunity to see just where and how their favorite shows are made.

“No business can have 100 percent customer satisfaction, no sports opinion I have is going to have 100 percent agreement; I wouldn’t want that,” Pallilo added.”But this event, I think got close to--if not--100 percent satisfaction.”