Amy Lawrence ready for new opportunity after working overnight sports radio for decade

Amy Lawrence has been a fixture on Infinity Sports Network’s (CBS Sports Radio) overnights for some time now.

She can be heard on her After Hours show on weekdays from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. While she’s been with Infinity Sports Network since its inception in 2013, she’ll be the first one to tell you that working overnight isn’t for everyone. The hours are “tough,” she tells host Jessica Kleinschmidt of Awful Announcing’s Short and to the Point podcast.

“It’s only the passion. I come back to that over and over,” she says. “I can be dog tired. This week, I was. I had appointments during the daytime, I didn’t get to sleep. Plus, I’m driving back up and back to Syracuse, so I’m gone for a couple of days each week. And so, it’s a lot. The spring is always a lot anyway. I tell people that once I get into the studio and I turn that microphone on, a lot of that goes away because I love what I do.”

But sometimes Lawrence can be “just beat,” she said as much during a recent stretch that included the 2024 NFL Draft, the NBA Playoffs, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“I was wiped out,” she said. “I don’t want to say it’s fake because it’s not fake. But the energy is a little bit like the fake it until you make it kind of a thing. Yeah, it’s a tough schedule. I’m generally a night owl. I’m not a morning person; I stink at mornings. So, the nights fit me a little. Also, I do love — and at some point, I want to change — but I do love going on right after the events happen. And so, it’s kind of cool to be one of the first voices people hear. So, that’s kind of neat. That’s my excitement, my love for sports, what I want to deliver that theatre of the mind.”

Once she’s off the air at 6 a.m. ET, the commute from New York City isn’t exactly opposite traffic—it’s just traffic. And now that she’s married, she’s arriving home when her husband’s just waking up and has a coffee mug in tow. But there’s only a certain point she can go until her energy runs out—which it does.

“I tell people, I sleep when there’s no sports. As much as possible, I sleep when there are no sports,” Lawrence said. “But I flip my schedule every weekend because I don’t want to be sleeping all day Saturday and Sunday — I can’t do that, really. And now, being married and being on opposite schedules, it’s challenging. I told you, I feel like I’ve aged so much over the past 12 years. So, I am looking for a change.”

Torn between security and change, Lawrence has considered switching time slots within her network several times, but the stability keeps her in place. Nights seem to suit her for now.

“I do love nights, but we change,” she said. “We change as people. We change as personalities. My focus is different on the radio. So, I am looking for something different, maybe a different day part or a different kind of focus for the radio show. We’ll see. My contract is up at the end of the year, and I honestly, at this point, have no idea what’s going to happen.”

Short and to the Point with Jessica Kleinschmidt is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.