Approaching The Summit is a series of special interviews created in partnership with Point to Point Marketing featuring speakers at the upcoming 2025 BSM Summit in Chicago, IL. Follow along with this series as prominent names surrounding the event coming up on May 8-9 at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) inside the Edlis Neeson Theater and share their insights and expectations for what’s to come in the Windy City.
Mitch Rosen is the Vice President of Programming for 670 The Score in Chicago and the BetMGM Network. He joined Audacy in 2005 after beginning his career in radio in 1988 at WGN Radio. Rosen has been ranked at or near the top of the annual BSM Top 20 Program Directors rankings for a major market every year since Barrett Media began the rankings, and has kept 670 The Score as one of the highest performing sports radio brands in the country.
Rosen has attended each of the annual BSM Summits and will be speaking at the event next month. He sat down with Barrett Media from his offices in Chicago, IL.
*Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.*
BSM Staff: You’ve been to every BSM Summit since the beginning. What are you looking forward to most this year?
Mitch Rosen: It’s going to be a great for the Summit to come back to one of the greatest cities in the world. The fact that Jason Barrett launched the summit here a number of years ago, I just think it’s great.
The city will welcome the Summit, and I think people really look forward to coming to Chicago in May. Hopefully the weather is great, but I’m looking forward to a great summit.
BSM Staff: As a frequent participant and speaker at previous Summit events, what’s the value of the BSM Summit in your opinion?
Mitch Rosen: I think the value is a number of reasons. Number one it’s great for networking. People either in my position at my stage of my career or an eager college student interested in sports media. I think that’s what makes it special. It’s not just for ‘you have to have this requirement to attend.’
It’s really open to anybody that is in the business. Someone that has been in the business. Someone that’s looking to get back in the business, or somebody that’s looking to break into the business. I think that’s what really makes it special.
I think you go to conferences a lot and they’re so specified to ‘this is the requirements’ compared to this where it’s very wide open. Then it’s seeing old friends. I get to see people usually once a year and luckily, it’s in my hometown. It’s people in the business that you talk to or might be on zooms with, but it’s different than shaking somebody’s hand and participating in something with them, looking him in the eye asking how are you doing. I think that’s what makes it special.
BSM Staff: You mentioned you were part of the first BSM Summit when it was housed in your building at Prudential Plaza in Chicago. How have you seen the Summit evolve over the years?
Mitch Rosen: I think the high-level quality of the speakers and guests. The panels are great, where you’re with your peers talking about the industry. Some of the keynote speakers over the years featuring high-level executives from major media companies are truly vital to the success of the conference.
I think that’s what makes it special, and I think that’s how it’s evolved over the years.
Remembering back to Chicago, not in a negative way but I don’t remember who the standout speaker was. Then you fast-forward through the years and whether it’s Colin Cowherd, Jimmy Pitaro, or Chris Oliviero’s of the world; that it really the quality of guests and speakers, and to me is the key to the change in a great positive way.
BSM Staff: Entering this year’s Summit, for you as a person that’s been in the industry for a long time, what do you think will be the biggest opportunities and/or challenges that the industry faces that you would like to see discussed at the Summit?
Mitch Rosen: You always try to find what’s next? Technology, social media platforms, and that’s ever changing. That’s always intriguing to me. Also talent, producers, networking, and talking to people is key.
I’m really looking forward to those items and hearing great speakers. I’ve seen some speakers that Jason Barrett has put out there through social who are interesting people, and that’s what I’m looking for.
BSM Staff: You just mentioned some different subsets of the sports media business that will be represented at the Summit. Sports radio, sports television, social media, digital publishing, sales and management. How do you see these subsets of the Summit leading to conversations about how we can synergize our efforts more to work together cultivating better growth for all?
Mitch Rosen: I really don’t believe it’s a sports media or sports radio conference anymore, I think that’s what it was when it started out. Now it is about content, content distribution, and all the different tentacles of content. Sales, promotion, content generation, content origination.
To me if you really narrowed it down, what business are we in? We’re in the content distribution business, right? We create content over the air, and then how do we distribute it? We contribute it on our Audacy App with audio, distribute it via Twitch and YouTube.
To me it’s about content distribution. Specifically, obviously in this case sports, but to me that’s really the key.
BSM Staff: What’s the one item that you’re looking forward to the most that you hope is discussed in detail at the Summit next month?
Mitch Rosen: I’m very bullish on sports media and sports content, specifically audio and how we distribute that. I’m curious in different ways. I think Phil Mackey in Minneapolis a couple years ago talked about how they launched a stream only station in Minneapolis. I brought back some ideas from that as an example.
Innovation is key and then it’s all about distribution and things like that. Specifically, the sports format I think continues to grow. I’m all about local interaction and local content and I think that’s what our format does best.
Purchase your tickets to the 2025 BSM Summit here, and for more information BSMSummit.com
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