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.
Mike Ricordati has been hosting programming on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus, Ohio since December 2003 and will be attending the BSM Summit for the first time. Ricordati has been in the afternoon drive daypart since late 2008 and will begin working with Tim Hall on the airwaves starting on Monday, May 12 after a run with Jonathan “T-Bone” Smith. On the first day of the event in Chicago, he will take part in the “Afternoons in the Morning” panel with Marc Silverman, Matt Spiegel and Laurence Holmes.
Prior to the BSM Summit in May, Ricordati spoke with Barrett Media about his anticipation for the event and topics that he hopes are addressed on stage.
*Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.*
BSM Staff: You are attending the BSM Summit for the first time this year. What are you looking forward to this year as the event makes its return to Chicago?
Mike Ricordati: I guess just meeting some people. I’ve had the same job for 22 years, so I don’t really get a chance to mingle with other people in the industry, and that’s, I guess, the curse of job security is that you get to sort of be in your little cave, but it’ll be nice to get out and talk to the people and see what they’re doing in other markets.
BSM Staff: What is the value for industry professionals to leave the office and attend the BSM Summit?
Mike Ricordati: I think just knowing how things are working in other markets. Audiences are different, styles of shows are different, and I think the old-school consultants back in the day would say there was a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it, and I think that the talk radio landscape, especially sports talk, has changed so much in the last 20 years that there really is no right and wrong. It’s just whatever is working for you, and it’s good to pick up little ideas as to how other people are succeeding.
BSM Staff: What does it mean to represent 97.1 The Fan and the sports media industry by being a speaker at the event?
Mike Ricordati: It’s great. I was laughing when I saw the list because I know all those guys – I don’t know them personally – but I know their work in Chicago, and I made the joke that the panel should be called, ‘Four Guys from Chicago and You’ve Heard of Three of Them,’ because I’m quite sure that they’re familiar with each other and they’re familiar with the landscape, and I made the decision to leave knowing that it probably wouldn’t be the right time for me to ever come back and I’d make my name here.
But I think that representing what we do here in this market – my show is very unique. I think it’s different than most other shows, and that’s not to say that it works for everybody, it just so happens to work for me, and if I can share those ideas and somebody gets something out of them, then I guess that’s a win.
BSM Staff: How do you feel the subsets of the sports media industry as a whole can continue fostering additional synergy and work together to ensure growth?
Mike Ricordati: I think we have to just to survive. There’s times where we are looking at what other people are doing, especially on the digital platform. We were a little late to adopt that, and you look at this station and say, ‘Oh, what are they doing on YouTube? How are they doing it? Are they monetizing it?,’ and there’s really no secret sauce. I feel like people are very willing to talk about what’s making them successful because I think every radio station’s rooting for each other because we’re constantly being told. I’ve been told since I started in this business that radio’s dying, and yet we’re still here, and I think it’s the willingness to share ideas with each other is the reason why we are still here.
BSM Staff: As you view the return on investment with the BSM Summit, what do you hope to take away from the event and bring back to your station?
Mike Ricordati: I guess maybe a little recognition of what we’ve been able to do here. We’re not the biggest market in the world, but the numbers we’ve been able to do here, the revenue we’ve been able to do here, I think that that’s something that other stations can look at and say, ‘Well, if they can do that, then there’s no reason why we can’t do that,’ and I hope that we can help other stations achieve those goals, but really just shining a spotlight on a bunch of people that I think deserve some recognition. Not necessarily me, but other people that work here and shape what we do.
Purchase your tickets to the 2025 BSM Summit here, and for more information, visit BSMSummit.com.
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