The name Bruce Gilbert carries weight in the sports radio world. Great programmers and marquee talent alike credit him with molding their careers. Lucky for attendees of the BSM Summit, Jason Barrett is one of those people and Bruce is a regular at the event every year.
Maybe you heard them directly from Bruce. Maybe they have been relayed to you via any number of retellings or presentations. However you became aware of them, if you work in sports radio, you know Bruce Gilbert’s list of deadly sins. They are rules he developed during his time at ESPN for ensuring both the host and the listener got the most out of every segment.
At last year’s BSM Summit, Gilbert revisited and revised some of those rules. It ran a little long, because how could it not? A contemporary reframing of one of sports radio’s best known how-to manuals is the kind of thing people go to the BSM Summit to hear.
“It was fun to share those common traits of success, the ‘ass-kicking attributes,’ as we called them,” Gilbert says with his trademark modesty. “You know, every business has its best practices, and it was really fun for me to be able to collate those and aggregate all those together and present what you hope, if you do a long enough list, is 1 or 2 that actually can help somebody be a little more effective in their abilities moving forward. That, to me, is what it’s all about. So that’s why I just keep making the list longer and longer. Hopefully at least one of them will be good.”
For Gilbert, the BSM Summit was the ideal place for presenting the next chapter of something so engrained in the way talent and programmers think. The event is something he says sports media needs, particularly as audiences change and new mediums spring up.
“There is a feeling of comfort in knowing that you’re not on this road by yourself and that others are trying to accomplish the same thing you’re trying to accomplish,” he says. “Others are running into similar speed bumps that they need to understand and work through. So, there is this power in gathering that comes out of Jason’s conference that I find to be motivating and reassuring in many ways. There’s strength in numbers and there’s power in information and there’s an unbelievable benefit to sharing it.”
If he wanted to, Gilbert knows he could be a little more guarded. He could be a little more stingy with his expertise. He works for Cumulus and Westwood One. People from his company will be in the room, but so will people from Audacy, ESPN Radio, iHeartMedia, and more.
Gilbert echoes one of his most successful protégés, ESPN Radio’s Justin Craig, with how he views the state of the radio industry right now. If something is working, there isn’t much value in keeping the secret sauce a secret.
“I think we’re kidding ourselves if we put ourselves in this really small bubble with Cumulus and iHeart and Audacy and Townsquare and name all the other radio ownership groups, because we’re not just competing with those people at all. We’re competing with every digital property that does sports across the globe. To think we only compete with other radio stations is myopic and I think ignorant. And nothing makes competition better than talent and success. And it doesn’t matter if it’s coming on a radio or on any platform available for fans to consume. We need to learn from that because it’s what makes us all better.”
There are all kinds of things Bruce Gilbert wants to hear about when he goes to New York in March. It’s not just about how to compete with digital platforms for ever-shrinking ad dollars.
He’ll want to know how radio can make the most of its own digital platforms. What trends are talent seeing from management that have shaped their opinions, both positive and negative, about the state of the business? Does social media bring the value to brands and individuals that it did a decade ago?
Some of those thoughts and insights will be shared by his old friends and people whose careers he has touched in some way. Some of it though will come from voices he hasn’t heard from before. That is what Bruce Gilbert comes to the Summit for.
“I usually find myself being most blown away by somebody I’ve never met before. I go into their session or I listen to their words with an open mind,” he says.
Modesty may be the name of Gilbert’s game, but he knows there will be plenty of people that want to bend his ear at the BSM Summit. He’s a good friend to have and all of the hosts, producers and programmers with upward aspirations know that.
His advice for them is to come say hello, but don’t stop at “hello” and don’t stop after meeting him.
“Talk to everybody, meet everyone. Get phone numbers, get emails. That’s what this is all about, because relationships still matter tremendously,” he says.
“The opportunity to learn from as many people as possible is valuable because what we do is quite subjective. What one person tells you you have to do someone else will tell you ‘you shouldn’t do that.’ In the end, you’re going to learn to form your own views, and you’re going to learn to find your own path. That’s where success comes from. It comes from listening to a lot of different voices, taking in all that information, but then still being true to yourself and formulating that information in a way that you’re comfortable with for your brand and for what you’re trying to achieve.”
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.
Always A TRUE PRO AND READY TO LEARN AND HE FOLLOWS THROUGH-MEET HIM