Imagine, for a moment, that the sports radio industry operated like the NFL. Each year, station owners would gather in a high-profile setting—maybe Vegas or Nashville—wearing tailored suits and branded lanyards, clinking glasses over catered lunches while hashing out the future of the business. There’d be press conferences, controversial votes, rules passed (and tabled), and endless speculation. Sure, it’s ridiculous, but play along with me.
The NFL’s annual owners’ meetings are a mechanism for relevance. Team owners and executives tweak the rules to make the sport more entertaining, competitive, and aligned with the modern fan’s expectations. Meanwhile, radio is mostly playing the same game it did 30 years ago, just with fewer players on the field and a shrinking crowd in the stands.
So, what if sports radio had a rules committee? What if the best minds in programming, sales, marketing, and tech got together every year and said, “What needs to change?” And then—here’s the key part—we actually changed it.
For 2025, here are three rule proposals this fictional committee might want to seriously consider:
Rule Proposal #1: Video for All Programming
In a world dominated by TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, video isn’t a luxury anymore—it’s the way people consume content.
If every show, segment, and special guest had a video component, even as simple as a static camera in the studio, hosts would no longer be invisible, and we would have a fighting chance in this new ‘attention economy’.
It’s not about replacing the on-air experience, it’s about extending it. The future of radio is streamed and seen.
Rule Proposal #2: Cut Commercial Breaks—Even If It Hurts
Let’s call this one the ‘Listener Retention Rule’. Commercial breaks are essential as we all need to keep the lights on. But the current ad load on most stations is flat-out brutal. Six, seven, even eight minutes of back-to-back spots is a guaranteed tune-out. Listeners have options now, and every time we overstuff a break, we’re inviting them to take a permanent detour somewhere else.
The proposal isn’t “no commercials.” It’s smarter commercials. Fewer, better, shorter. One of our biggest competitors now is podcasting where there are a few, very short, breaks. Take a lesson from that, but also get more creative and integrate ads into content.
I have never understood why stations do live endorsement ads inside of a break. That is not the most successful way to do those ads. Work them in during the content and hosts need to get GREAT at transitioning from content to an ad seamlessly so it takes the listener a few seconds to realize it just became an ad read.
Rule Proposal #3: Every Station Gets a Dedicated Social Media Staffer
This one might sound like a luxury, but it’s really a necessity. Every radio sports radio station should have a full-time person (not an intern, not a part-time jock) whose job is to translate what happens on air into compelling, shareable content for social media. Every day.
Just like football teams have special teams coaches, sports radio needs digital content pros who can turn a great caller into a viral clip, a sports update into a graphic, or an interview clip into 15 seconds of internet gold.
The goal isn’t necessarily to ‘go viral’. The goal is to be visible. To stay relevant. Social media is today’s street team, it’s how people discover you exist.
Of course this will never happen. Some legacy execs would scoff, budgets would be challenged. But isn’t that the point of an owners’ meeting? To make tough calls? To push the industry forward?
The NFL didn’t stay on top by clinging to old ways. sports radio and radio in general needs a serious game plan. And maybe, just maybe, what we need isn’t another panel or webinar—we need a rules summit.
Perhaps something for JB to work on for the next Barrett Media summit…
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The Best/Worst Thing I’ve Heard/Watched/Read Recently
New Heights, the sports/comedy/pop culture podcast from the Kelce Brothers needs no help with any promotion. With that said, if you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend the latest episode with Scott Van Pelt.
SVP is great when he is on ESPN whether he is at the desk or hosting golf programming. But when he is in a setting like a laid-back podcast, he is content gold. I don’t want to ruin any of it for you, but I will say it is one of best episodes of a really good podcast.
You can watch the episode by clicking here and you will laugh almost immediately.
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In Case You Missed It
Earlier this week John Mamola wrote a column, ‘What Sports Radio Can Learn From Jon Gruden‘ and it was right on the money. The column centered around Gruden, but Mamola tied it into local sports radio stations and how they can take a marketing lesson from the content the old coach has been producing lately.
One of my biggest pet peeves are stations that just give up. Corporate doesn’t give the station a marketing budget so the station assumes they cannot do any marketing. That’s ridiculous. There are so many ways radio stations can get publicity and marketing for free if someone just puts some effort into it.
Get creative, get resourceful, THINK! You are a media outlet that has an asset a lot of people want, figure out how to use it to your advantage. Go create something fun, do a meet up, get a sponsor to make merchandise – DO SOMETHING!
You can read the full column by clicking here.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Dave Greene is a former Editor and Columnist for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting.
