Welcome to NAB week, where thousands descend on Las Vegas for a multitude of reasons. Some make the trip to showcase the latest and greatest in “broadcast” technology. Others attend the annual event to network and connect with old partners and industry giants. I’ve only attended NAB once in my professional career. In 2024, I was a guest speaker on a panel hosted by the amazing Fred Jacobs of Jacobs Media.
At the time, I considered the invitation to speak at NAB the highest honor. In fact, sharing the stage with people I admire felt like the grandest achievement of my two decades in broadcasting. Financially, the trip wasn’t paid for by the company I represented. Instead, the fees came out of my own pocket. Even so, I couldn’t pass up such an honor and made the trip, regardless of how much it set my savings back.
However, as much as sharing a stage in Las Vegas represented a career high, the experience of being an observer left me unsettled. Walking the showroom floor, I felt an uneasiness. A concern that the audience for the event was less about advancing my industry and more about replacing it.
For me, there’s a romanticism to the broadcasting industry. People enter it with a passion to inform, entertain, and serve as the voice that guides a generation in how it receives content. It takes failure to achieve success, and it takes strong management to accept that success doesn’t happen overnight.
In the end, people have defined—and hopefully will continue to define—how stories are told to a growing population that craves them. From a sports perspective, the rise of podcasting has contributed to the slow, methodical decline of sports radio. Fans now receive news through social media instead of the local newspaper. At the same time, companies continue to invest in AI not to improve performance, but instead to reduce costs, in turn spitting in the face of quality journalism.
Cautious Conscience
Recalling my experience in Las Vegas in 2024, I found my excitement about the future of the sports radio industry clouded by concern.. Automated this and artificial intelligence that. Why pay the overhead of human beings when machines can do what they do—better?
Innovation, they called it. The next evolution in what audiences want. But why invest in technology that helps broadcasters elevate their performance when modern audiences clearly value quantity over quality in every space imaginable?
The National Association of Broadcasters says its mission is to be the voice of the nation’s television and radio broadcasters. Have they been listening to the calls for help from broadcasters themselves?
All three major radio broadcasters went through some form of workforce reduction in the past year. Some cuts were deeper than others. Television personnel aren’t immune to the same concerns. Between mergers and fragmentation, many share the same fears as their radio counterparts.
We’ve already seen the signs in the first quarter of this year. Broadcasting companies scramble under political pressure from the commission set to regulate them, often for an audience of one. AI isn’t just impacting broadcasters; it’s reshaping the advertising industry as well. Fewer people now carry heavier workloads across every segment of the industry, with no guarantee of tomorrow and a fading belief that success is still attainable.
Yet NAB holds this conference every year as the voice of the nation’s television and radio broadcasters—but for whom?
Sports Being Served
Search “sports radio” in this year’s NAB session listings, and you’ll find one session on Tuesday: “Calling The Game,” featuring Allan Wylie, a blind sports broadcaster and radio color commentator for the Delaware Blue Coats.
No representation from ESPN Radio, FOX Sports Radio, or local sports radio talent or management. iHeartMedia, Audacy, and Cumulus Media have a total of four voices combined for the entire event. No local voices addressing what’s happening on the ground across the country.
Is this serving NAB’s mission for sports radio broadcasters?
Search “sports television,” and you’ll find four sessions. Panels on camera-to-cloud workflows, cutting-edge AI technology, and hybrid production models. There’s also a session on how AI is already reshaping production workflows and how teams and companies are finding the balance between automation and editorial judgement.
Are we really having conversations about replacing human judgment? Asking not whether machines can think, but whether people still know when not to let them?
There will be plenty of CEOs, executives, founders, and consultants on stage. Yet no representation of the realities of the industry from the perspective of those on the ground. Instead, there are countless discussions about investing in technology that, on its face, eliminates roles and cuts costs in an already consolidating industry.
Is this serving NAB’s mission for sports television broadcasters?
What’s Missing
Maybe the most uncomfortable truth about NAB week isn’t what’s being said on stage—it’s what isn’t.
For all the talk of innovation, efficiency, and evolution, there’s a noticeable absence of the very people who built this industry into something worth evolving in the first place. Their voice deserves time and place. The concerns they have for the realities of the future are worth showcasing. Those conversations are just as valuable as any new innovation, AI advancement, or new creator lab.
However, the voices aren’t just missing from the panels—they’re being quietly removed from the business model altogether.
Technology should push broadcasting forward. It should make great storytellers better, not make storytellers optional. That’s the feeling I carried with me from my time in Vegas two years ago, and still have today.
Because if this industry forgets that its greatest asset has always been the human voice—the perspective, the instinct, the ability to connect—then it won’t matter how advanced the tools become. There won’t be anything meaningful left to amplify.
If NAB truly wants to be the voice of broadcasters, it may want to start by listening to the ones who are still fighting to be heard.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
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.
