Meet The Podcasters is a special 9-week series created in partnership with Point to Point Marketing. Our second feature is on founder and CEO of the Locked On Podcast Network, David Locke. Follow along with the series, and revisit former conversations by checking out the entire category.
During his earlier days as a program director, Locke’s foresight into the world of podcasting attempting to serve local audiences has led from a scale of a single podcast surrounding the Utah Jazz to over 210 daily podcasts in 92 markets. Locke hosts his own Locked On Jazz podcast, while he also serves as the radio play-by-play voice of the Jazz since 2009.
In this edition of our ‘Meet The Podcasters’ series, we dove into the inception of the Locked On Podcast model, as well as how talent are recruited on a local scale. David also discussed the 2021 acquisition by the TEGNA media company, and how it transformed the Locked On business model for long term and sustained success.
David Locke spoke with Barrett Media on his way to call the latest Utah Jazz basketball game.
*Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.*
John Mamola: Locked On has been around since 2016. Tons of traffic with a number of different brands in each individual market. Let’s go back to the initial concept. You’ve been a radio guy for a long time. What made you think of something like Locked On? Are you stunned or do you feel this exactly how the plan should’ve happened based off what your initial idea was for the podcast network?
David Locke: The initial idea was that people are doing podcasts, and they’re all doing them on a national level. I was a program director for sports talk radio for many years, and knew that as great as Jim Rome was, and as great as Dan Patrick was; the local shows always got better ratings. The fans are fans of a team before a league. That was the original idea.
With podcasting, local is where fans are. You’re a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and not of the NFL. That was the thought was, that would drive the audience because they want to talk about their local teams.
Part two was at that time when we launched Locked On, there had never been a local podcast that had been able to make money. We had to figure out how to make a local podcast make money.
So I used a Jim Rome or Dan Patrick model, which was if we get Jim Rome in 52 different markets and they sell over 50 markets and that’s how they’re selling it. we can do the same thing. We’ll take all of our NBA shows, and sell them as one entity. That allowed the client to get the best opportunity of audience.
Then if you start to dig into the third layer of it, I realized the sports radio listener is really attached to their local sports talk radio host. That’s a pretty important person, because you listen to them a lot in your daily life. So, we produce daily content, and just again put it into context. This was before the New York Times’ The Daily, and before NPR’s Up First. Very few people are doing daily. There were a few but they weren’t a big box type of show that are now daily.
We thought we could create that same connection between listener and host by being daily. The last piece of the puzzle was that’s incredible for a client. The client has maybe 30 live reads being read from 30 different hosts. Which is a little nontraditional, and it took a long time to get people to understand that. They’re getting a live read from a host just talking about the listener’s favorite team, who they’re with every day who they’re incredibly connected with. We knew we were going to be able to provide in incredible results for clients.
That kind of foresight was how we thought it would play. It was the idea. That was the vision. The truth is like my kids were super expensive, and I needed to pay for some of their activities. The vision was never this. Where we are today is mind blowing.
We didn’t do it because we thought it was a bad idea, but I’m not sure I ever thought we’d hit these numbers. We’re the largest sports podcast network in the country. I’m not sure I ever envisioned that. It’s pretty surprising where we are, but I actually think we have a whole quantum jump from where we are today to where we can go. That’s the most exciting part.
John Mamola: I saw the graphic Locked On posted regarding Super Bowl week. 9.9 million listens and views combined. The network’s largest views and listen day ever. Congratulations on that.
You talked about going into each individual market and having people that identify with the fan base of those individual teams. That’s a huge challenge. You’re recruiting talent in each individual pro and collegiate city. What is the process of recruiting talent on such a massive scale to attract people to come to Locked On? Do talent reach out, or do you reach out to talent? Is it a combination of both? What requirements do you think fit for somebody that you welcome into Locked On?
David Locke: I want someone who is smart and passionate. That is the qualification. That will carry most things in life. They could be an expert on their team, but truly smart and passionate. We pride ourselves in being the most talent-friendly media organization in the country.
That’s our goal.
When I say talent friendly, that doesn’t mean you just get to go do whatever you want. Talent-friendly is we’re going to support you; we’re going to give you coaching. We’re going to work with you so that we give you a chance for success. We’re going to provide AI platforms for you. We’re going to provide resources for you. We’re going to research the industry to know what works. Then advise you on how to do things, and give you every chance for success possible.
We’re hopefully the best atmosphere talent can find.
I’m talent, still. I’m not an entrepreneur. I’m not a CEO. Everyone else is propping up at this point, I’m talent. I want this to be the most talent-friendly organization out there. You got to show up for work. You don’t get carte blanche, but we’re going to support you like you’ve never felt in any other organization you’ve worked for.
We have Tom Lee, another great sports radio program director, as our director of talent and scouting. He’s scouring everyone all the time, and looking for people to see who’s out there. Our primary goal is to coach and develop our talent into stars.
John Mamola: Looking back when TEGNA acquired Locked On in 2021. Would you say that acquisition led to more structure of how the business of Locked On is currently? How has TEGNA created more impact for the company?
David Locke: TEGNA has just elevated us totally different levels that we probably couldn’t have gotten to all by ourselves. They’ve given us amazing support while simultaneously not touching the culture of the company for one second.
It’s incredible.
They have pushed us, and given us support. Commanded us to get better, and given us support to do that in great ways. I think in ways we would’ve probably done ourselves; but we’ve been able to do more, and grow faster to reach places we couldn’t have reached without them.
The leadership including Adam Ostrow, our chief digital officer. He’s been amazing. He oversees us, and he advises. Again, he’s never touched the culture of the company which I think is a little different.
It’s talent first. It is unquestionably built and made for talent to have that environment I spoke of before. I’m not sure that there’s a lot of places like that. I’m not the traditional leader in any fashion, because I don’t know what I’m doing.
Carl Weinstein, who is our COO, understands how to run business. Kylie Yong, she’s our head of operations. Those two hold everything together for me. They understand how to actually make a business work, it’s been amazing.
TEGNA has been incredible to us. We thought it was a good mix cause they’re local, and we’re local and we thought it was a nice compliment. It’s been better than I ever imagined.
John Mamola: For a great number of talent around the country, in my estimation they don’t know a lot about the podcasting space. As a talent, what is something that that you’ve been stunned to learn about the space that maybe you didn’t know in your previous life in radio?
David Locke: When you were a program director, your guys are going to break. They got to tease what’s up to keep the listener with them. I think that’s true with podcasting too.
I think the mistakes that are made are when talent think the fundamentals that came from audio, when it was coming through a radio rather through your phone or an app, are not true anymore. If you listen to a Locked On show, and then you listen to another Locked On show.
The way I phrase it our talent is I need to know what the front door is, where the back door is, and where the bathroom is. Those are going to be the same on all of our shows. The middle, and how you decorate that room is up to you. That’s your brilliance, your talent, your greatness.
We need you to have the front door be the same. The back door be the same, and the bathroom be the same. How you design and decorate your building it’s up to you. I’m not sure if that’s entirely different than a really good sports talk show either. I have been a believer from the very beginning it was a different delivery mechanism more than a different space.
John Mamola: Regarding video, a visual presentation of a podcast is more popular than ever. Video is now more than ever a growing way people are consuming podcast content. From Locked On’s perspective, do you ever see a point in time where the video presentation completely outweighs what the demand for the audio product is going to be?
David Locke: You don’t think we’re already there?
Every single one of our podcasts is now on video. That was the biggest thing TEGNA has done for us. It’s a massive part of our audience. I think the question is will we all be listening. We’re still going to be listening in our cars driving. Listening on our runs in our workouts, gardening and doing whatever we’re doing. Is that going to be on a video platform where we just click a button that says audio only? Maybe.
John Mamola: Final question for you. If you’re standing next to a complete stranger who knows nothing about podcasting, and they ask you what’s a podcast?
David Locke: I don’t have any idea. I mean, we talk about it all the time internally. It’s on demand, that’s the only thing I know. It’s on demand content that’s generally, but not always, more niche than what was traditional media. But that’s not totally true.
What I really think is interesting to your question. Check out a Locked On newsletter, it’s kind of like our podcast. So is a podcast written form too? Is a podcast the Snapchat clip I get from All The Smoke for three and a half minutes from all their episodes? They do such a brilliant job of mini formatted content of their podcast
Our goal is to become the local sports leader. We are your local source for local sports as newspapers fade and sports radio companies do whatever they’re doing. We as Locked On can become if you want local sports, you’re getting it from Locked On in every platform form imaginable.
I think the future is that it’s going to all get customized for each of us based on our desires of what we want, and how we want to receive our content. That might change throughout a day. In the morning, you might want to read. In the afternoon, you might want little Instagram reels. In the afternoon, you might want long form because you’re going to go work out. In the evening, you might want video to just sit on your couch.
Our job as Locked On is to be there for you in every single realm of how you want your content, and it all might be the same podcast coming to you in every which way.
To learn more about Point-To-Point Marketing’s Podcast and Broadcast Audience Development Marketing strategies, contact Tim Bronsil at tim@ptpmarketing.com or 513-702-5072.
John Mamola is a columnist for Barrett Media. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. Honored to be a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Media and honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL). Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
