There are few markets that have had a more successful 2025 than sports fans in Seattle, Washington. “The Emerald City” was at the doorstep of the World Series, followed by a surprising start to the season by the Seattle Seahawks. It’s been a special run for fans to witness, and Mike Salk of Seattle Sports guides the Seattle sports fan through every weekday morning.
“This is why you get into it. These are the years where you feel like they shouldn’t even be paying you,” explained Salk about the fun of 2025 in Seattle sports. “The Mariners run was a blast. It came out of nowhere, and sometimes those are the most fun… It goes to show you none of us know baseball.”
Salk has been the morning voice commanding Brock & Salk on Seattle Sports for most of the past decade. Alongside his co-host and former NFL quarterback Brock Huard, the morning duo has set the table for what has been a memorable 2025 so far in a town where it’s easy to celebrate the wins but more difficult to deliver through losses.
“Seattle is not interested the day after a loss. That has been our history, what we’ve seen with ratings and other concrete metrics,” said Salk. “Losing is death for us in Seattle sports radio.”
Understanding Your Audience
While Salk held his position as the morning voice for Seattle Sports. He also served as the station’s program director at one point during his career. He recalled gathering focus groups while serving as the brand’s leader to ask why the station’s most dedicated following was so turned off following a team loss.
It was feedback that he still recalls some aspects of to this day when crafting his program and content approach.
“You can’t let the audience tell you what to say. You still have to talk from the heart and say what you believe,” noted Salk. “Seattle doesn’t need to be as up and down as some of the East Coast markets. If a team is winning, like the Seahawks have so far. When they lose a game, it doesn’t mean the world is coming to an end.”
Every morning, Brock & Salk look to provide a healthy balance of sports conversation, mixing in familiar benchmarks and a roster of exclusive guests. The show has gone through change since debuting together over fifteen years ago, through multiple splits, digital recreations, and Salk leaving at one point for a short stint at Boston’s WEEI, only to return to his landing spot in Seattle.
Through all the changes and disruptions. The chemistry between the two continues to be the glue that listeners gravitate to every morning.
“At the heart of it is a familiarity of two guys talking to each other who enjoy each other’s company. Our former program director Brian Long once told us when a person buys a Coke, it better taste like Coke,” explained Salk. “When someone comes to the show, it has to be the show. We’re finding different ways to create Coke every day.”
An added ingredient to that formula this year is Huard’s departure from working play-by-play for FOX Sports. For the first time, the added workload of travel and preparation for a nationally televised football game was no longer in his purview, instead opting to take a coaching position with his son’s high school football team.
Salk says despite his radio partner handling his television duties extremely well for so many years, he never felt the show ever suffered then and won’t moving forward.
“I never felt like he was never focused at all. That was never a concern for me,” said Salk. “It’s just another evolution. Instead of getting stories from the road, I get stories from him about coaching and lessons learned… That’s one of the ways the show stays fresh. We’re learning more things in the rest of our life that we can apply to the show.”
Buying In & Thinking Different
Seattle Sports has been evolving for some time. In many cases, the Bonneville station began evolving well before many sports radio brands around the country evolved to appeal their content to a more on-demand and digital audience. The radio station has built a massive social and video consumer base with content housed in every corner of the digital content world.
Salk credits Bonneville for being “ahead of the curve” as traditional sports radio outlets continue to expand to new audiences and new revenue streams for success.
“We’re not just a radio station. We are a sports media company that creates content,” noted Salk. “I’m not in the sales department, but it sure feels like digital sales are the biggest growth portion of our business. Radio sales are the biggest declining portion, especially for Bonneville. It feels like national sales are not nearly as big a part of the business plan as local. The ratings don’t seem to be as important to the local folks. So, if we’re sacrificing ratings in order to be where the audience is, I don’t know how much it hurts us, if any.”
Despite their digital growth, Seattle Sports is a traditional ratings success. The station finished the October book as the top radio station in overall persons, capitalizing on the Mariners postseason run and early Seahawks success. For Salk, as a student of the industry, he understands that the definition of success will change as we move further into the future.
“If we call it the radio industry, it’s probably not that healthy. If we refer to it as the content creation business, especially for talk and sports radio, I think we’re doing great. There’s no shortage of audience,” said Salk. “People sure seem to know the show and station around the city. Whether Nielsen says that or not, I don’t really care. It feels like people find the content they want wherever they want it. We just have to figure out as an industry how to sell that.”
Enjoying Seattle Success
The opportunity to be the first voice deciding what the news of the day will be is something Salk doesn’t take lightly. He thoroughly enjoys the advantages of the West Coast time difference, with no game going past his bedtime. Although he left the market once before to chase an opportunity, Salk doesn’t ever see himself attempting that again.
“This is home and where I’m raising the kids… I like it here,” noted Salk. “It didn’t go well in Boston. I didn’t do a very good job. It wasn’t a very good fit. If I were to do it again now, there are a lot of things I would do differently. There were other issues at the station [WEEI] that had nothing to do with me. It was a bad enough experience to let me know that the grass isn’t always greener.”
Instead, Salk looks to continue building on the success of the morning program alongside Huard, entertaining audiences and growing a connection with a city where the best times are all the time, celebrating success through a passion for sports.
“I really love working with Brock. That’s really the number one thing,” said Salk. “It does feel comfortable because of the crew I work with every day.”
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. 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. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
