Colin Cowherd, Jim Rome, Joy Taylor, Don Martin, Sam Pines and Amanda Brown to Speak at the 2023 BSM Summit
7 Years of BSM and The Official Announcement For The 2023 BSM Summit
The Podcast Movement Conference Made a Mistake Rejecting Ben Shapiro
Barrett Media Announces 3 Additions, Social Media Changes
Barrett Sports Media To Launch Podcast Network
Anatomy of an Analyst: Ray Ferraro
Anatomy Of A Broadcaster: Jason Benetti
Anatomy of a Broadcaster: Joe Davis
Anatomy Of An Analyst: Gene Steratore
Anatomy of a Broadcaster: Ian Eagle
Barrett Sports Media’s Top 20 Original Sports Podcasts of 2021
Barrett Sports Media’s Top 21 Specialty Selections of 2021
Barrett Sports Media’s Top 20 Mid Market Sports Radio Stations of 2021
Barrett Sports Media’s Top 20 Major Market Sports Radio Stations of 2021
Barrett Sports Media’s Top 20 Major Market Sports Radio Program Directors of 2021
Meet The Market Managers: Vinny DiMarco, Good Karma Brands New York
Meet The Market Manager: Mark Glynn, iHeartMedia Seattle
Meet The Market Managers: Jay Davis, Cumulus Media Oklahoma City
Meet the Market Managers: Steve Wexler, Good Karma Brands Milwaukee
Meet The Market Managers: Michael Spacciapolli, Audacy Pittsburgh
Jason Barrett Podcast Episode 7: John Kincade, 97.5 The Fanatic
Jason Barrett Podcast: Colin Cowherd, The Volume and FOX Sports Radio
Jason Barrett Podcast: Paul Finebaum, ESPN
Jason Barrett Podcast: Jim Rome, CBS Sports Radio
Jason Barrett Podcast: Michael McCarthy, Front Office Sports
Seller to Seller Episode 10: Seth Resler, Jacobs Media
Seller to Seller: Terry Volbert, BHB Solutions
Seller To Seller: Dean Lamb, CDW
Seller to Seller: Reza Hariri, MyMelo & Estrella Media
Seller to Seller: Gary Sarner, ROI360 Plus
Sports Talkers Podcast: Ryan Ruocco, ESPN
Sports Talkers Podcast: Jason Fitz, ESPN
Sports Talkers Podcast: Damon Amendolara, CBS Sports Radio
Sports Talkers Podcast: Bob Wischusen, ESPN
Sports Talkers Podcast: Carl Dukes, 92.9 The Game
Jerry Jones Wants to Take Phone Calls From Frustrated Cowboys Fans on 105.3 the Fan
Ken Carman: An NFL TV Partner Is Going to Move to Strictly Streaming
JRSportBrief Kicking Off 2022 Media For The Movement Tour Next Week
Sandy Clough Retiring From Full-Time Role With 104.3 the Fan
Boomer and Gio: Amazon Prime Video Worked Fine At Home, Horrible at Bar
Michael Kay: ‘Will Be Bummer’ If YES Network Not On Aaron Judge Historic Homer
Chris Fowler: ‘Wasn’t Good Enough’ During Ohio State/Notre Dame Game
Troy Aikman: ‘Real Comfort’ In Monday Night Football Debut
ESPN Pushes Up Start Time of College Football Playoff Championship Game
FOX Considered Leading Candidate For LIV Golf Media Rights
Peyton Manning, Jimmy Kimmel and Cousin Sal Strike Production Deal
Erin Andrews Relives Frightening Experience While Interviewing Aaron Rodgers
Jomboy Media Secures $5 Million In Latest Fundraising Round
ESPN Targets Gen Z with Launch of ESPN Creator Network
Anaheim Ducks Launch Audio Streaming Network
Bill Spadea Facing Defamation Lawsuit
Charlie Kirk: Dana Bash Doesn’t Ask Tough Questions
Sen. Rand Paul Introduces Broadcast Deregulation Bill
iHeartMedia’s BIN Has New VP of Operations, Managing Editor
Chris Stigall: When Athletes, Celebrities Complain There’s a Problem
Soledad O’Brien Details Racist Comments From Former Producer
Sunny Hostin Presses Alyssa Farah Griffin For Proud Boys Claim
Don Lemon: Move to Mornings A Promotion
Chris Hayes: Student Loan Forgiveness Policy ‘Does Real Good’
ABC News, George Stephanopoulos Launch Docuseries on Hulu
Tomi Lahren: Brian Stelter Harvard Fellowship ‘Worse For Our Country’ Than CNN Show
Jason Whitlock: Corporate Media to Blame for Rise in Violence
Keith Olbermann: Maggie Haberman Withheld Info To Put In Her Book
Jonathan Turley: The Washington Post ‘Accommodating’ Of Hillary Clinton
Jason Whitlock: Meghan Markle Podcast Numbers Will Go Down
To the credit of Cumulus Media (in full disclosure, my employer), they stood up for one of their own (Daily Wire is partnered with Westwood One) and cut ties with the Podcast Movement
Unfortunately, major corporations pushing back against ridiculous, woke, social-media-driven hysteria is rare, but to the credit of Cumulus Media they did just that this week.
After one of the more bizarre stories in recent media memory (which is saying something), Ben Shapiro’s appearance at the Podcast Movement’s annual event in Dallas, Texas resulted in full-blown controversy and an apology from the organizers.
His appearance was unannounced, and apparently upset a handful of attendees at the event, who actually bullied the Podcast Movement into apologizing for Shapiro’s mere presence at the event.
“Hi folks, we owe you an apology before sessions kick-off for the day. Yesterday afternoon, Ben Shapiro briefly visited the PM22 expo area near The Daily Wire booth. Though he was not registered or expected, we take full responsibility for the harm done by his presence,” said Podcast Movement in a since-deleted tweet.
What kind of “harm” was done by his presence? Check out the menacing photos, like this one below.
The claim of “harm” is so ridiculous! @benshapiro and everyone from the Daily Wire were kind, gracious, and professional. PM missed out on a HUGE opportunity to serve conservative voices. pic.twitter.com/9Hn86bt3Fl
It was one of the worst possible examples of caving to a cancel-culture mob that you will find today, and that’s saying something.
To the credit of Cumulus Media (in full disclosure, my employer), they stood up for one of their own (Daily Wire is partnered with Westwood One) and cut ties with the Podcast Movement, saying in a statement, “At Cumulus Media, our tenet is that Every Voice Matters, and we support conferences and trade events where differing political viewpoints can be expressed and received with respect.”
Their statement went on to note, “As such, we were dismayed and disappointed by Podcast Movement’s handling of the reaction to our partner, top podcaster, and conservative talk leader Ben Shapiro’s mere presence at Podcast Movement.”
Believe it or not, this actually led to an apology from Podcast Movement, who came out one day later with a statement that read in part, “As we stated, we’re continuing to evaluate our policies guiding social media & events with inclusivity, diversity & respect for all. We have to start by sincerely apologizing to Mr. Shapiro for our reaction when he visited a booth we sold his company. That wasn’t right.”
It wasn’t right.
And while we will never know what role Cumulus’ decision played, when major corporations like Cumulus are doing what is right, and that’s just asking for all participants of any event to be treated with the same respect, it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Cancel culture is wrong, no matter what direction it’s pointed. But on top of that, cancel culture has been specifically pointed in one direction, oftentimes against those with more conservative beliefs. And in too many cases, major corporations have gone along with it out of fear.
I, as do the majority of Americans, want diversity of thought in the workplace, in board rooms, at podcast conferences, and everywhere in between. I often believe my own show is better when a caller or guest disagrees with my opinions in a smart, meaningful way. This makes us all better and allows us to grow and challenge our own thoughts and beliefs.f
And it’s not just broadcasting companies who can take a page out of Cumulus’ playbook, it’s every major American corporation who has kowtowed for too long to a small subset of the population who believes they can banish people who say or believe things they don’t agree with.
It’s a dangerous path that we’ve been going down and I’m grateful Cumulus stood up for what was right.
Pete Mundo is the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. He graduated from Villanova University, and has worked for FOX News Talk Radio, WCBS Newsradio 880, Bloomberg Radio. WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WEER 88.7FM, ESPN 1230/1320, and, K-1O1 and Z-92. He has also won an Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters small-market award for his coverage of the Bobbie Parker trial in the summer of 2011. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
Radio Hosts Need To Stop Talking About Donald Trump
Dennis Prager Continues To Seek Out His Interests
Soledad O’Brien Details Racist Comments From Former Producer
Sunny Hostin Presses Alyssa Farah Griffin For Proud Boys Claim
Tomi Lahren: Brian Stelter Harvard Fellowship ‘Worse For Our Country’ Than CNN Show
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
BNM’s Pete Mundo writes that News Talk needs to get into the influencer game and have its brands have a presence on social media.
So, you host a talk show. You do your talk show, you call it a day, you prepare for your next day’s talk show and around and around you go.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Ah, never mind. Actually, there is.
I found it interesting in a recent staff meeting to find out that social media influencers were becoming bigger and bigger players in the local advertising market and were taking money away from what might be considered more traditional media, which of course would include radio.
As we came to the obvious conclusion of our meeting, radio has the original “influencer” with its hosts. Whether it’s a favorite talk personality or a favorite music DJ, they are personalities, and yes, influencers, who are there every morning, afternoon, or evening, in the lives of their listeners.
Reading an endorsement spot is being an “influencer” in trying to best convince your customers to purchase products or services from your loyal advertisers. It’s the same thing as an Instagram celebrity promoting his/her shoes, clothing, makeup and more.
So if we started looking at our personalities as influencers, what are we not doing that we should be doing?
The answer, especially in the News Talk world, is a more active social media presence. And that’s not just Twitter, which is a staple of many in the news space as it becomes the “hot take” medium to argue with those across the aisle. But a robust Facebook “fan page” for your audience to interact with you and your show after you are off the air, Instagram to potentially share a different side of your personality with other interests, social gatherings and more.
All of these three major social media platforms are not just great ways to keep the conversation constantly going with your audience, regardless of whether or not you are “on the air”, but also to build an audience and build a brand on these platforms, to entice and prove to advertisers that your reach extends beyond the radio.
In fact, if the industry put more of a premium on this, and we proved we could build our personalities’ social platforms, then we would be proving to agencies what we know to be true: we are the original influencers and we remain influencers.
We already have built-in audiences in the tens or hundreds of thousands, heck millions, depending on the market size, and should be leveraging those audiences as best we can to drive people to our social platforms to interact with the audiences beyond the radio. This will also help them keep our stations top of mind as an entertainment vehicle for them.
The key, and what will be the harder part, is selling and convincing the personalities to be super active on these platforms. The top social media influencers are who they are because they are consistent. They view their job as 24/7/365.
We need to make sure our personalities are feeling the same way as well. Posting sporadically will do nothing for building on other platforms or engagement with the audience.
There are no more “air shifts”. There is a personality for the brand. That’s the job. And the “air shift” is a component (admittedly the largest) of that.
The sooner we can convince ourselves to get out of that kind of thinking, the faster we can make the move into “radio personality” and “influencer” being synonymous once again.
Pete Mundo is the morning show host and program director for KCMO in Kansas City. He graduated from Villanova University, and has worked for FOX News Talk Radio, WCBS Newsradio 880, Bloomberg Radio. WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WEER 88.7FM, ESPN 1230/1320, and, K-1O1 and Z-92. He has also won an Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters small-market award for his coverage of the Bobbie Parker trial in the summer of 2011. To interact, find him on Twitter @PeteMundo.
“I want to know how Home Depot started. How did Pez come about? I have a lot of love for the lives other people have lived.”
When Lee Habeeb tells stories, and he tells quite a few, he doesn’t delve into the salacious or dark side of life. There’s already too much of that crud. Habeeb also believes in walking-the-walk in life. Believe in the things you say, and realize them.
Habeeb is the host of Our American Stories, a daily two-hour talk show that profiles American heroes and icons from history, industry, entertainment, sports, and culture. The show is distributed by Premiere Networks.
“In the end, be a sermon; don’t give a sermon,” Habeeb said. That causes me to think of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. You can’t talk about integrity if you have none. Some people have lapsed for a moment, a bad voice in their heads. I just want to forgive those people.”
His faith is part of everyday life, but it came to Habeeb later.
“I observed things that can’t be explained,” Habeeb said. “I used to be skeptical of religious people, but I discovered how much good faith has done in this world. The abolition movement doesn’t happen without people of faith.”
At one point I started to not like some things about myself and I needed a change. Christianity changed a lot of men’s lives I respected later in life. Many never talked about it. I want to know what changed them. If someone is ready, I want to talk with them about it.
He said he’s never astounded by the worst actor in a company or business. On Habeeb’s show, one out of three stories is faith-based because faith drives the lives of so many good people in America. Two out of three stories reflect people’s lives.
“I love people. I love my neighbors. I don’t have any answers on the show we do. The world is what it is – we think it is better than what the news says it is. Much better.”
On Our American Stories, Habeeb is a student of history. Through our past we can understand our actions and dreams.
“On our show, we talk about days in history,” Habeeb said. “One day it will be a show about Arnold Palmer, James Madison, the War of 1812, sports, and business. We care what the average person thinks. If we’re talking about free enterprise, we want to know how they formed their thoughts on the subject.”
It’s the small things that people might wonder that make the show. Ideas come from everywhere.
“I want to know how Home Depot started. How did Pez come about? I have a lot of love for the lives other people have lived.”
For Habeeb, it’s about the dignity of work, and he said there’s dignity in every job. If your job is to sweep the floor, sweep it like Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.
“Primacy of work is important,” Habeeb explained. “It provides meaning to our lives. We may think being a garbage man is a tough job. If you think he’s underpaid, go to the city council and bring it up.”
Habeeb loves the word ‘nostalgia’.
“To paraphrase historian David McCullough, we’re walking around in history right now.”
Habeeb isn’t afraid to look at controversial subjects. It’s those discussions that allow us to learn. He talked of Thomas Jefferson owning slaves, which was the disposition of the times, but said you also have to take into account the good things he did.
“He also accomplished many wonderful things,” Habeeb said. “He wrote the United States Declaration of Independence, established the Free Exercise clause, authorized the Louisiana Purchase and the Northwest Ordinance. Everybody owned slaves in 1776, but Jefferson wrote ‘All men are created equal.’ It’s all context.”
Those who signed the Declaration of Independence were men in their 30s, by today’s standards, young men.
“All of those signers had a lot to lose,” Habeeb said. “Dr. Benjamin Rush was one of the last to sign the Declaration, and he had a great quote. He said you could feel the hush in the room. They knew they were signing their own suicide pact, an act of treason.”
Habeeb explained there were three types of opinions when it came to the American Revolution; One-third of the colonies wanted war, one-third was against war, and the rest were under their tables hoping they weren’t going to get killed.
Henry Ford was a known anti-Semite. Again, Habeeb chooses to look at the potential good side of a man.
“He may have believed atrocious things, but Ford’s automotive plants were turned into factories during WWII to create airplanes,” Habeeb said. “It was the arsenal he helped create was used to annihilate the Nazi’s. Most unusual people are used for a good purpose. We push down the dark voices and lift the good voices.”
We haven’t had a Civil War in this country in a while. Does Habeeb feel we may be coming close today?
“Not at all. There may have been 500 hundred idiots who stormed the Capitol and arrested for it, but that doesn’t represent the other 70 million people that voted Republican. The members of Antifa in the protests in the summer of 2020 made them riots with their violence. That doesn’t reflect the ideology of 70 million people that voted Democrat.”
Habeeb presents nice, long, slow stories.
“We’re not trying to create click bait. We’re not carnal or salacious. Nearly everything we do has nothing to do with politics. We want people to talk to each other. Treat humans differently. There’s just so much lack of respect. These are the challenges of the day.”
Habeeb talked about some of the egregious things we’ve done as a society.
“It’s astounding to think when Duke Ellington was playing in a Harlem Club, he had to enter the venue through the back and walk through the kitchen to get to the stage. Blacks weren’t allowed in the club unless they were serving whites. We did a story on General George Patton,” Habeeb said. “He wasn’t using prayer to get to Berlin. I never want to stand in judgment. I like looking at the human spirit.”
Habeeb explained he’s concerned about a lot of things happening in our society. Instead of taking a side and blaming others, he insists on showing rather than telling.
“I’m concerned about young Black men growing up without fathers,” Habeeb said. “The amount and velocity of young boys without fathers is astounding. It’s a curse on the sons and they’re angry. You have one father that was an alcoholic and beat their son. That’s all they knew. We’ve never seen so many out of wedlock birth rates. People tell me the poverty family’s experience is no different than the Great Depression. Those kids had fathers. It’s not the same thing.”
“Habeeb said men didn’t use to father babies and leave. How do we bring that back? It starts with men saying to other men they know the pain they are feeling. They tell them they can make the decision to stop that cycle in your family. You can be a father to a son, be a grandfather, make the right choices and change your life.”
Our American Stories had a show that focused on good fathers. Not perfect fathers, but good men doing their best. Then they had a show featuring people with no fathers, or fathers who drank and beat their kids.
“If you only tell the good father stories, people wouldn’t want to tune in. You need to give equal time. We have to ask what people did to stop the cycle. Those are the stories I want to get. How can we triumph over our circumstances?”
Habeeb said there are two types of people. Some seek happiness in the pursuit of pleasure. Some find happiness in serving others.
“We did a story on Steve Jobs and wanted to find out what made Jobs tick,” Habeeb explained. “We had Walter Isaacson on, who wrote a book on Jobs. He said when he went to Jobs’ house, he was very unassuming. It looked like he’d just moved into the place, which he hadn’t.”
Jobs’ wife greeted Isaacson at the door, no pretense or flashes of wealth. Jobs wasn’t about that.
“He was always chasing the next great thing. He was living like he did in his college dorm. I learned that we all could have purchased stock in Apple and be rich today. I don’t begrudge people who did that. Most billionaires started with nothing. Jobs was an innovator. He didn’t take anything from anyone. Jobs never forced anyone to buy a cell phone.”
Jim Cryns writes features for Barrett News Media. He has spent time in radio as a reporter for WTMJ, and has also served as an author and former writer for the Milwaukee Brewers. To touch base or pick up a copy of his book: On Story Parkway: Remembering Milwaukee County Stadium, available on Amazon, email jimcryns3_zhd@indeedemail.com.
The most popular TV, radio, and online observationalists somehow feel it’s their right and their duty to tell us what we should be caring about.
For whatever the reason, there are countless of us in this country who are infatuated, captivated, and downright bewitched with all things royal family. We have been since I can remember and I for one find it harmless and even endearing.
The royal wedding of Charles and Diana, then the Royal divorce, and of course the tragedy of Diana’s death and the criticism of the House of Windsor afterwards. On to the boys growing up, Charles and Camila, William and Kate, Harry and Meghan.
I have no doubt missed one or two here.
There’s always something and the American media never misses a chance to cover it all at length.
It’s what we do here.
So, I am forever surprised at the massive criticism, complaining, and head-throbbing whining from the self-styled media pests who want to tell the audience that it’s too much and not what we should be focused on.
The most popular TV, radio, and online observationalists somehow feel it’s their right and their duty to tell us what we should be caring about.
On random Sunday evenings I am often held captive (not captivated) by an evening Midwest complainer of considerable experience whose entire platform seems to be finding unique ways of shouting at the rain and yelling, “get off my lawn!”
Already I’ve encountered this individual wildly lamenting at how much time, effort and expense the mainstream media has been “wasting” devoting coverage and attention to the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the transition into the reign of King Charles III.
Among my many questions lay the following:
“Do you not have Netflix, Hulu, or The Cartoon Network?”
Why are you scolding us for having interests you don’t share?
Is it not in the eye of the beholder?
If beauty is, indeed so should everything be as well.
I never much cared for Sex and the City but my wife was a big fan and I never questioned her interest and devotion just as she never belittled my The West Wing obsession.
We found plenty of common ground in reruns of M*A*S*H, Ren and Stimpy, and every James Bond film except On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. (Actually, Never Say Never Again was pretty much a waste of time, too.)
But seriously, when it comes to the haters and opponents of the Royal media coverage I’m just offering one example here.
There has already been plenty of criticism and questioning of what Americans want to watch and what they want to see in their news coverage. Apparently, the Royals hit a sore spot with some people.
News outlets devote coverage to what they have ascertained the audience wants to see. Focus groups, surveys, social media polls all trying to zero in on what people want. We do it for everything, right down to on-air staff wardrobe and hair choices, story placement, and the content we cover. It’s marketing, it’s research and then we follow the results.
This country loves the royals…we have series television about them, countless big screen films, and horrible, tabloid-like, made for TV movies that a goat with insomnia wouldn’t watch plus more books and magazine covers to count.
There is no shortage of royal sustenance to feed our needs.
Also, not lacking, those with public platforms large and small to complain about that and frankly anything what we in this country want. I believe these are the same bellowing, finger pointers who cry about the ever-present threats to our individual freedoms and try to convince us about a host of other things that shouldn’t be worth our time and attention. In the next breath, they literally and figuratively fight to sell us on the things that go with their agenda.
We may regularly tell you things you don’t want to hear, that’s just the way civilization operates but as a business that follows the laws of supply and demand, you can be pretty well sure you’re going to get a heavy dose of the things you’ve shown interest in.
That keeps you watching and listening and reading and journalism be damned, or it would be if there’s no business platform or stage to set it upon.
Who is anyone to tell an audience what they should be paying attention to or what they should want to see or hear or read?
To be accurate, I’m not watching Royal coverage at length because I don’t share the ardent interest that many Americans have.
I don’t fault those who do, however and the current wall-to-wall reporting does not offend or annoy me.
I believe in choices and we have them.
Feel free to walk on my lawn, kids.
Bill Zito has devoted most of his work efforts to broadcast news since 1999. He made the career switch after serving a dozen years as a police officer on both coasts. Splitting the time between Radio and TV, he’s worked for ABC News and Fox News, News 12 New York , The Weather Channel and KIRO and KOMO in Seattle. He writes, edits and anchors for Audacy’s WTIC-AM in Hartford and lives in New England. You can find him on Twitter @BillZitoNEWS.
Kaylee Hartung Has Studied The Greats
Larry Elder Surprised by How Much He Enjoys Politics
Richard Stengel: Queen Elizabeth II Death Got Too Much Coverage in U.S.