Approaching The Summit is a series of special interviews created in partnership with Point to Point Marketing featuring speakers at the upcoming 2026 Barrett Media Audio Summit in New York City. Follow along with this series as prominent names surrounding the event June 30-July 2 share their insights and expectations for what’s to come in the big apple. The Summit takes place at the SVA Theatre on West 23rd Street. For tickets and hotel room reservations, click here or visit the Summit section at the top of the website.
Damon Amendolara is the host of The D.A. Show with Babchik on Mad Dog Sports Radio. Previously, Amendolara previously served as the lead host of the morning show on the CBS Sports Radio. Prior to CBS, he hosted shows on local stations in Boston, Miami, Kansas City and Fort Myers, FL. He also served as the sideline reporter for Major League Soccer telecasts of the New England Revolution and he has been a contributor to the NFL Network, MLB Network, NFL Films, SNY and NBC Sports Boston.
Amendolara is scheduled to be speaking at the event next week. He sat down with Barrett Media from his office in New York City, NY.
*Editor’s Note: Answers have been edited for clarity and length.*
John Mamola: What are you looking forward to the most in attending the Barrett Media Audio Summit this year?
Damon Amendolara: The industry changes so dramatically every single day. If you miss a summit or an annual gathering of like-minded people, talented people that are always considering the industry, its evolution, or the future. You feel like you’ve missed way more than a year.
If you miss a year, it feels like you missed five years. So much changes at such a rapid rate. Technology is so dramatic, AI and how it’s used. It’s a daily process that keeping up with everybody once a year is kind of the minimum.
I just find it so enlightening and encouraging to just get around people that are considering the same things I’m doing. The opportunity to pick their brains, but specifically not to take too much time off doing it.
Every year is kind of the minimum check-in point about all these really important benchmarks that are happening in the industry.
John Mamola: From a talent perspective, how would you explain the value that the summit provides to someone who may be in attendance for the first time?
Damon Amendolara: You’re in the room. When I was just graduating college, the dream was to get behind a microphone and have somebody employ and pay you for it. So, I just drove to the baseball winter meetings in Boston with a friend of mine who also wanted to become a broadcaster. We just wanted to be in the room.
It was just about shaking a hand, making a connection, getting a business card. Just so the next time you emailed or called them, at least you had met them in person. So, that you were in the room with some familiarity.
Being in the room of really powerful executives and really smart people helps elevate your understanding of the industry. What’s expected. How other people work, and how to handle yourself. It kind of is all those things.
Then when you hear people speak and you watch the panels, it gives you a broader sense of what the job entails. It gives you a broader sense of what bosses look for. It’s one thing to be somebody who’s well read and well researched. You can make a lot of calls, or do a lot of viewing on YouTube.
But it is different when you’re in the room soaking in what people have done for many years. How they think. How they approach it, and how they feel. Networking is everything. Being in those rooms is such an important piece of the networking part of it.
John Mamola: Is there a specific issue that you’re most looking forward to at the summit?
Damon Amendolara: It’s AI, because some people are so embracing of it, which I am. Then some people are so fearful of it, because it’s like the impending doom. I’m really interested, because I think there’s validity on both sides.
I would really like to hear people’s perspective on it, because it feels like this is the thing that’s hanging over the heads of so many creators, creative types, and so many technological industries. That part of it is to me super exciting just to hear what people’s perspective on it. Just because it could be so dramatically different. It’s never going to be one size fits all.
Then the natural drumbeat of the last five to seven years, or maybe even longer. Certainly during the Barrett Media Audio Summit era, but the technological advances of distribution of audio. Is it Podcast, streaming, visual? Could it be YouTube, Spotify, on television, on a smart TV, your phone? Is it in a car?
I love that, because that’s not just philosophy. That is true people figuring out in real time how the job works. I always find that fascinating. There’s high-level people that are dealing with this every single day, and they’re bringing that knowledge and intellect to all of us.
John Mamola: You’ve had the opportunity to speak at the summit previous. Do you have a specific approach when you walk into being a part of a panel at the event?
Damon Amendolara: It’s interesting balance. By nature, I like to command a microphone and speak extemporaneously. I host a radio show. So, I like speaking long-winded and explaining things in detail. Yet you’re around really talented people that all feel the same way, but it’s a limited time. So, you can’t kind of fill up the room too much.
You have to understand your timing. It’s got to move quicker, and you got to give space for other people. It’s a tough thing, because I could be asked a question about the NBA and of course I have a thought.
But I’m most passionate about the things that are talked about at the Barrett Media Audio Summit. Those are the things I really consider every day that are really my life. Forget three hours, like I could do three days talking about all the nuances of the industry. It makes it tough, because I’m so excited to talk about everything. But I know I can’t just overwhelm the conversation with the panel. I have to reel it in a little bit as well.
John Mamola: This will be the first year where Barrett Media has all three industries represented at the summit. Is your plan to tap into anything within the other two days of the summit for nuggets that could apply to your day-to-day?
Damon Amendolara: Absolutely. If I can make my way over there for the other two days, I want to certainly do so.
It’s really valuable to find perspectives from outside our silos and see how the approaches are. Sometimes they don’t fit. Sometimes it’s not relevant to my daily considerations, but sometimes it’s really cool to see how a different part of the industry views it.
I always found, when I was in local radio, talking to the music people was so valuable because they looked at clocks differently. They looked at hooks differently. They use music where we use talk, just in terms of content itself. It was so interesting how they branded what their promos sounded like.
How they did live events, and how they wove in celebrity interviews.
When you’re in the sports media world, especially sports radio, it oftentimes sounds the same. There’s a little nuance here, there’s a little gray area here. People are unique and creative, and there’s personal flourishes.
But you tune into sports radio, it’s like you kind of know how everything goes. It’s really cool to hear somebody that’s outside of your purview that looks at this and says, “Oh, you do it that way. Well, that’s interesting. This is kind of how we do it.”
Maybe there’s things that you can take, or there’s things that you just never consider from that perspective. It’s putting on somebody else’s eyeglasses. You’re just seeing it from a totally different perspective. I really dig that. The best programmers are ones that can jump between those worlds.
So, as a talent, I’d love to have some of that versatility to understand all the different worlds as well.
John Mamola: You mentioned AI and audio distribution. However, what’s the one opportunity or challenge that you hope is part of the discussion during the summit this year?
Damon Amendolara: Distribution is the $10 million question that it feels like every executive, host, board op in the industry is hanging on. In 10 years, how are the things that we produce consumed?
I certainly have some thoughts, but I get asked the question a lot. I don’t have anything cement or solidified. It’s more of just a theory. I want to hear the people that are employed to do this address that. This is what 2026 looks like. What 2031 looks like, and what 2037 looks like.
I want to hear the vision on how people are considering this, because it’s all of our future. But it’s also the present.
When I get around a room of people, I listen first and to talk second. That’s the coolest thing about the summit. I get to listen a lot to people that are doing the things that I think about, but I’m not actually doing. There’s people working on this every single day at the highest level, and that’s what’s really cool.
There’s a lot of summits out there, and conventions. Rarely do you get the very highest level of thinker, executive, decision maker, or power broker all in the same room with you.
Purchase your tickets to the 2026 BSM Summit here, and for more information BarrettMedia.com
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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.
