Over the past month and a half BSM has given tri-state area college students an opportunity to qualify to win free tickets to the 2020 BSM Summit. The rules were simple, students had to attend a school within 90-miles of NYC, and send in a video up to 2-minutes in length explaining why they wanted to attend the event. They were also encouraged in their video submissions to tell us what they’ve been doing during their college experience to prepare for a career in sports media.
I asked Cumulus Media and Westwood One’s Senior Vice President of Programming Bruce Gilbert to help me with the process. The two of us watched each of the videos submitted, and I am pleased to share that our two winners for the BSM Summit College Contest are Dominic Capone of Fordham University, and Derek Futterman of Hofstra University. Congratulations to both guys. Bruce and I look forward to seeing you at the BSM Summit on February 26-27.
For industry friends looking to attend the conference, tickets are still available. We’re running a special holiday sale thru Christmas Eve, so if you’d like to save $75 on the ticket price and make sure you’re in attendance for the show, visit https://BSMSummit.com. We also have a few sponsorships remaining. Companies interested in being associated with the event can reach out via email at JBarrett@sportsradiopd.com.
The lineup is coming together little by little, and I am thrilled to share a few new additions to the conference. FOX Sports Radio Vice President of Programming Scott Shapiro, 105.3 The Fan Program Director Gavin Spittle, Edison Research President Larry Rosin, and Front Office Sports Senior Writer Michael McCarthy have been added to the schedule. We’ll have more speaker announcements in January, so stay tuned.
One thing I do want to tease in advance is a special Tuesday night Kickoff event prior to the start of the Summit. It’ll be a 1-hour gathering, starting at 8pm ET. We’ve got a really cool guest host for it too. We’ll share that with you in January. To make the event fun and more relaxed, there will be one simple requirement – no suits and ties allowed. Dress casual, and have fun interacting and hearing our special guest host weigh in on some of the interesting twists and turns of his media career.
Additional announcements still to come include the winners of the Jeff Smulyan, Tony Bruno, and Mark Chernoff awards. I’ve enlisted 12 well respected radio executives to help determine our 2020 winners. The PD’s nominated for the Mark Chernoff Award include Chris Kinard, Spike Eskin, Chad Abbott, Ryan Hatch, Mitch Rosen, and Jeff Catlin. Our nominees for the Tony Bruno Award are Mina Kimes, Pat McAfee, Dave Portnoy, Nate Burleson, and Nick Wright. The executives list is 6-7 deep. The official results for all three awards will be revealed on Monday January 6th.
The holidays are supposed to be a time for unwinding, but it never works out that way for me. I just secured our location for Wednesday night’s private cocktail party following the first day of the Summit, retained a videographer to film the show, and ordered our very first batch of BSM t-shirts. Next on the to-do list besides Summit work is finalizing the BSM Top 20 voting, and working on a year end podcast with the BSM crew looking back at the 10 top sports radio stories of 2019. I’m hoping to release the episode on Monday December 30th.
You’ll notice lighter activity on the BSM website between December 24th and January 5th. The majority of our crew will be enjoying a break for the holidays. If you’re following along on social, we’ll use the time to feature some of our best content from the past few years. Feel free to check out some of it in your leisure. In the meantime, thanks for your continued support of BSM. I wish you and your family a great Christmas/Holiday.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
