Raj Sharan has become a reliable presence at the BSM Summits. His first trip was to Los Angeles for the 2019 event at the Grammy Museum. Since then, he hasn’t missed a single one.
Later this month, he will be on stage for the second time. Last year, he discussed his station’s success with promotions that generate ratings and revenue. This year, he will be part of a panel that focuses on programming strategy. People that were in attendance last year in Manhattan may hear Raj say some similar things this year when he’s on stage at USC. He says that is because it is hard to talk about programming without hitting a variety of other aspects of the radio business.
“I think it all kind of interlocks and it all becomes part of one bigger strategy of where you’re going with your brand,” he said. “I mean, at the end of the day, while we may tend to focus on a lot of different smaller goals, I think all of us kind of have the same larger consensus goals. How do we get more people consuming our content? There’s a natural overlap in terms of the strategy of any number of those departments, whether you’re talking promotions, programming strategy, digital strategy, or whatever it might be. They’re going to follow a lot of similar pathways.”
People come to the event to hear from leaders of successful brands in the media business, and Denver Sports is certainly among them. The air staff is full of well-known, compelling personalities and the brand has truly embraced a multi-platform strategy that has yielded success. The significance of going from the audience to the stage at the BSM Summit is not lost on Sharan.
“It’s a real honor and privilege,” he said. “Really, I feel like, Demetri, it more so probably speaks to the work that everyone else on our team here in Denver has done. It’s not so much me. I’ve done a really good job hiring people that are way smarter than I am and are more talented than I am and help me look a lot better than I am.”
If you know Raj Sharan at all, you know that he wears fandom on his sleeve. One look inside his office in Bonneville’s Denver building will show you just how much he loves the teams his staff covers. A conversation with him is always full of Star Wars references.
The guy loves what he loves. Like a lot of us in the sports radio, this business is at or near the top of that list for him.
When you feel that way about sports radio, the BSM Summit can become your favorite fan convention. Just like the people that line up for hours at Comic-Con to meet Mark Hamill or Robert Englund, Raj wants to shake the hands of the people that have meant so much to him, and those people are everywhere at the BSM Summit.
“Last year I pulled Bruce Gilbert aside and I was like ‘You know, you’re my Bill Walsh, right?’” he told me. “He kind of gave me a look. I was like, ‘Well, so many of the people I worked with learned a lot of stuff under you. So I kind of feel like this is like a coaching tree. You know, you’re a real hero to me.’”
Star Wars, Denver sports, sports radio, they were all a big part of Raj Sharan’s life going back to before he ever set foot in a studio. They all made their impression, but maybe nothing has made as big of an impact on him as professional wrestling.
That is something he has in common with Jason Barrett. Both men grew up loving wrestling. To both of them, professional wrestling is so much more than just steroid freaks covered in oil and wearing form-fitting underwear. That is why JB invited Eric Bischoff to speak at the first BSM Summit in LA and why Shawn Michaels will be speaking at the 2023 event.
“Jason’s done a great job booking those guys to the Summit, and I think there’s a lot of crossover between their industry and ours,” Raj says. “We’re both entertainment. We’re both about drawing audiences. I don’t know if there’s a company in the world that’s better at digital and social media than WWE, so there’s a lot to learn from them.”
Even though they won’t share the stage, Raj Sharan is kind of in awe of the fact that he and Shawn Michaels are part of the same program. Sharan does not mince words. That man was his hero growing up.
Raj knows he isn’t guaranteed to get the chance to shake Michaels’s hand or even speak with the Heartbreak Kid, but he is going to be ready if it happens. He told me that he has thought a lot about what he would want to ask Michaels.
So far, all he has settled on is that he doesn’t want to ask Michaels about the infamous “Montreal Screw Job.” He is pretty sure Michaels has been asked about that night and the match against Brett Hart so often that he doesn’t even have to think about his answers anymore.
When I joke that it is the perfect chance to ask Shawn Michaels if it is bullshit that he once shared the World Tag Team Championship with Triple H but never with Marty Jannetty, Raj quickly points out an even more obscene example of The Rockers never receiving the recognition they deserved.
“He has a tag title with John Cena and not Jannetty! How?!? How does this happen?”
If 2023 will be your first BSM Summit, come prepared to learn. Raj says he still refers to notes he took during ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro’s conversation with Barrett last year. Be prepared to learn everywhere though. Sitting in your seat, listening to the people on stage is only part of the experience.
Raj says the conversations he has had in hallways and at cocktail receptions with FOX Sports Radio boss Don Martin and with Mitch Rosen, brand manager of 670 The Score and BetQL in Chicago, are just as important. This is an event that is not only about how you can succeed. It is about how the business can be better for everyone. People will be willing to share their thoughts on just about anything you want to talk about.
“One thing that’s really stood out from those conversations, it’s maybe not a specific piece of advice, but how there is no one right way to do this,” he says. “Everyone has different ideas, different strategies, different objectives, principles, etc. You can learn a lot from someone, even if their goals are a little bit different than yours and pick and choose and take some things that maybe apply to you and help formulate your strategy.”
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
