In professional sports, an athlete’s career often ends between 25 and 45. When the last game is played, some move on to family life, passion projects or embrace new challenges in business. Others look to stay connected to the world they once knew. They give their knowledge back through coaching, broadcasting or creating content. The accrued years of wisdom is valuable to the next generation of players, and teams invest in continuing the relationship to make sure the next crop of talent is given every advantage to succeed.
That sounds like a pretty smart formula for growing a business, right? Except in the media industry, we don’t do that enough.
An accomplished executive in our business accumulates skill and decades worth of experience. But when they move on, the line to retain them to help future broadcasters is small. It doesn’t matter if they’ve seen it all and done it all, the bottom line becomes the focus. While the sports world has larger dollars and budgets, they find ways to continue partnerships with their best. More importantly, they celebrate those who helped their franchise enjoy success.
The greats of the sports media game often sign off and vanish. As an industry we haven’t done enough to celebrate those who create impact on-air and in programming. That’s especially true in sports and news/talk formats. It’s why BSM partnered with Premiere Networks to create the annual awards ceremony at each year’s BSM Summit. If we don’t lead this charge, who will?
We’ve recognized some incredible people since 2019, connecting them to awards named after proven difference makers. Jeff Smulyan and Mark Chernoff are two of those professionals who changed the sports radio business and I look forward each year to having them with us to celebrate others who are moving the industry forward.
Kraig Kitchin, Dan Mason, Traug Keller, Julie Talbott, Mitch Rosen, Rick Radzik, and James Powers are all past award recipients. So too are Al Michaels, Mike and the Mad Dog, Felger & Mazz, Pat McAfee, Clay Travis, Jay Glazer, Adam Schefter and Keith Murphy and Andy Fales. Great work should be highlighted. Even more importantly, the people involved deserve the recognition for their life’s work.
Which brings me to today’s reveal for the 2024 Jeff Smulyan Award.
This gentlemen helped develop and build one of the finest sports radio networks in the industry for two decades. SiriusXM is now a monster, offering everything from internally produced national talk shows, programming from national sports radio providers, league focused content on individual channels, and play-by-play of every game that matters. They’ve become a force in sports talk by luring and building top talent and programmers, and creating hit shows. The man charged with bringing the vision to life and cementing SXM’s position is Steve Cohen, our 2024 recipient of the Jeff Smulyan Award.
Steve will join us Thursday March 14th to accept the honor from sports radio format founder Jeff Smulyan. The ceremony will take place at the Ailey Theater between 11:40am-12:15pm.
Upon learning of the honor, Cohen said “The first check I ever received as a full time radio employee was signed by Jeff Smulyan. To say I’m honored and humbled to receive this award would be an understatement. Our sports talk radio journey began in 1987 with the vision Jeff had to create this format. I’m incredibly grateful for being recognized as someone who helped evolve, grow and nurture Jeff’s original vision for the last 36 years at WFAN and Sirius XM.”
Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan added, ““It’s a great thrill for me to present the Jeff Smulyan Award to Steve Cohen. Steve has had an incredible career at Sirius XM for many years, and before that he started his career with us at WFAN. As Steve noted, I signed his first paycheck at WFAN, so receiving this award brings it full circle. Congrats to Steve on a very well deserved honor.”
Tickets for the 2024 BSM Summit are on-sale now through BSMSummit.com or by visiting the BSM Store. Full details of this year’s final agenda will be posted online at the end of February.
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.
