After refusing to participate in a debate unless former President Donald Trump joined, Nikki Haley will now appear in a standalone town hall event with CNN.
Both CNN and ABC News had debates scheduled before the New Hampshire primary. However, after Haley’s refusal to debate unless Trump — who hasn’t participated in any debate event in the leadup to the primaries — and Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign, Gov. Ron DeSantis (FL) was the only willing participant for a debate.
Haley will appear at the town hall from New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire on Thursday at 9 PM ET. Jake Tapper will host the event.
In a statement, CNN made it clear it would continue to attempt to schedule other events with candidates remaining in the race.
“We will continue to pursue other opportunities as the campaign season progresses through 2024, including candidate Town Halls,” a network spokesperson commented.
ABC News has canceled its scheduled Republican Presidential primary debate after a series of events left Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the only willing participant.
After finishing fourth in Iowa, candidate Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his campaign. Following her third-place finish in the Hawkeye State, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley declared the race was down to two candidates — insinuating she and former President Donald Trump, the victor of the Caucuses, were the only viable options.
Haley informed ABC News she would not participate in the debate unless Trump joined the event. “That’s who I’m running against…there is nobody else I need to debate,” Haley said during an appearance on CNN.
Trump has refused to participate in any debates, citing a commanding lead in the polls as the chief reason for avoiding his opponents.
After the culmination of each event, ABC News declared the debate would not take place.
“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. “While our robust election coverage will continue, ABC News and WMUR-TV will not be moving forward with Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.”
DeSantis was critical of Haley’s decision to not participate, saying “I committed to it. She is now saying that she’s not going to debate. I understand why,” referencing her third-place finish in Iowa.
The ABC News debate was scheduled for Thursday at 9 PM ET. David Muir and Linsey Davis was scheduled to co-moderate the event.
The final five episodes of Inside The NFL for this season will have a new home on Netflix.
The streaming giant announced on Tuesday that the remaining episodes through the week after Super Bowl LVIII will premiere on the platform starting at 3 PM ET.
The highlight show, powered by the magic of NFL Films, had aired each week so far on The CW, which is licensing the program to Netflix for the final five episodes.
???? INSIDE THE NFL is coming to Netflix! ????
The final 5 episodes of this season will premiere every Wednesday at 12pm PT in the US — through the week after the Super Bowl.
The series features NFL stars Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder, Jay Cutler, Chad Johnson, and Chris Long.…
Inside The NFL rose to prominence thanks to its presentation of unseen angles of the games and mic’d-up players. The show originally aired on HBO and Showtime before finding its way to Paramount+.
Ryan Clark hosts the show with contributions from Channing Crowder, Jay Cutler, Chad Johnson, and Chris Long.
Hall of Fame quarterback and Monday Night Football analyst Troy Aikman has been extremely blessed with his career in broadcasting.
Aikman was a guest on The Stephen A. Smith Show on Monday, and the former Dallas Cowboy was asked how he felt about his broadcasting career on a personal level. Troy said it’s exceeded all expectations.
“It’s beyond anything that I could have imagined quite honestly,” Aikman said. “When I was playing, first of all, the players in the locker rooms we didn’t talk about going into television. I think most players in most locker rooms around the league now do talk about, ‘Hey I’m gonna go into television. There’s a lot of opportunity there.’ And that’s not uncommon. When I played that was not the norm.”
Aikman added that prior to retiring after the 2000 season, a few offseason assignments calling NFL Europe games for FOX changed his tune about what life would be like after his playing days were done.
“I had no interest in going into television, but I went over to NFL Europe and I did some games and I enjoyed it,” he said. “I was told by FOX at that time, when I retired that they would have a job for me, and things worked out. I got paired with Joe (Buck), and here we are 22 years later, he and I are working together and we’re at ESPN and it’s been an amazing ride.”
Troy Aikman said the gig with FOX not only allowed him to be more present at home post-playing, but it also reinforced the idea that he needed to keep broadcasting.
“This profession afforded me an opportunity to be a single dad and not miss too much with my girls,” Aikman said. “So I’m forever grateful for that chance. But never in my wildest dreams could’ve imagined that I’d be doing it this long.”
“I thought I would do it for a couple years and the move on to something else,” he added. “I always thought that when I was playing that eventually I’d go to work in a front office. And there’s always been a part of me that wanted to see if I could put together a roster that was capable of winning a championship. I think that opportunity has sailed at my age, which is fine. I love where I’m at with ESPN. It’s been a great place for me to work, and I’m hopeful that I’m able to do it for a lot longer.”
Stephen A. said that Aikman’s skills as an analyst have drawn comparisons to the late John Madden, particularly in how Troy doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Smith asked Troy if he liked being characterized as someone who tells it like it is.
Troy Aikman felt like it was a badge he didn’t hate wearing.
“I don’t mind it,” he said. “What I hope isn’t the case is I have enormous respect for the participants that take the field, the coaches that coach, and the officials that officiate. I’ve got enormous respect for everyone involved, and I know that what they do is not easy because I was a part of it at one time.”
“And so I would never want any comments that I make to take away from the respect that I have for them,” he said. “So I’m a little guarded in that regard, but if I feel something I tend to say it. And some people I think like that, and some people don’t. But that’s true of any analyst whatever their style may or may not be. I’ll take it. I wouldn’t say it’s unfair if that’s how people see me.”
Throughout the last fiscal year, The Walt Disney Company underwent a strategic reorganization that divided its business interests into separate, distinct entities. Shortly after this change, the media conglomerate sought to slash $5.5 billion in costs wherefore it eliminated nearly 7,000 jobs, equating to approximately 4% of its global workforce. Just before the start of July, ESPN laid off several members of its on-air talent roster, including Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy and Suzy Kolber.
These drastic job cuts came several months before Disney released financial data for its sports division, revealing that annual revenue within the segment equated to $3.8 billion, up 1% year-over-year. Preceding the move was the cancellation of the ESPN Radio morning program, Keyshawn, JWill & Max, and it ultimately led to Max Kellerman and Keyshawn Johnson also losing their positions at the company.
Johnson, however, had recently inked a multi-year contract with ESPN and therefore could not join another network. After a few months went by, he and the network reached a settlement that allowed him to officially sign on with FOX Sports to appear on FS1 as a new member of Undisputed. The morning show opted to implement a rotating panel of analysts after the departure of Shannon Sharpe, who had been with the show since its launch in 2016. Johnson is on the program five days a week as its co-host and is continuing to grow accustomed to the program within its second quarter in the revamped format.
“It’s a conversation and not necessarily entirely about debating as much as it is about conversation,” Johnson said. “Whether you like something or not, it’s a conversation to discuss.”
Johnson’s new podcast is titled Undisputed Presents: All Facts No Brakes with Keyshawn Johnson, joining the portfolio of original digital series at FOX Sports. The show will post new episodes twice per week and provide his opinions on a variety of topics both in and out of sports. Rather than talking about the nuances of the games themselves as is done on Undisputed, Johnson will instead focus on how the game will be discussed. In this sense, Johnson is operating in a derivative manner as someone who will proffer commentary and give consultation in the court of public opinion.
“I believe I’m good at what I do because I’m not sitting around not trying to be objective,” Johnson said. “I’m as level-headed across the board as everything because if you get into this business in general, whether it’s a podcast or Undisputed or an NFL Countdown for FOX on Sunday, whatever it is, and you can’t be objective, then you’re probably in the wrong business.”
This project will be the first podcasting endeavor Johnson embarks on. In watching active and former players explore the space, along with various media personalities, he is certain that it will give him a space to penetrate more niche topics. The nonlinear program also allocates more proprietary control over the format, layout and style, although it will not be completely extemporaneous. Whether he is talking about one of his former organizations, teammates or coaches though, Johnson will bring that objectivity and seek to remain a credible source.
“[FOX Sports executives] kind of put me in a position to be able to utilize this platform to talk about things other than what is on Undisputed every single day, and that’s kind of what I’m going to be able to do,” Johnson said. “Have fun with it; enjoy it; poke fun at guests; guests can poke fun back at me, and we can just enjoy the conversation.”
Johnson won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following the 2002 season, a momentous achievement in which Johnson was firmly embedded for his offensive prowess and leadership. Akin to participating in athletic competition, Johnson has continued utilizing his instincts and making adaptations in real time, effectively reacting to and providing opinions about breaking news or ongoing developments.
“It’ll be planned out,” Johnson said of his new podcast. “Not necessarily a tight and buttoned up rundown, but you’ve got to have a sense of format; a sense of control. You can’t just be winging things. I’m not sticking solely to a script in the rundown so to speak.”
Shortly after his retirement from professional football, Johnson began working at ESPN as an analyst where he appeared on various NFL studio-based programs, such as Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday NFL Countdown. Within his formative years in sports media, he created a unique segment on the show titled, ‘C’mon Man!,’ in which the panelists would select a moment from the previous week to laugh at and/or criticize.
“Having been on both sides – to understand the game and having tons of relationships in this business – you just bring a different perspective,” Johnson said. “I’ve been in this thing for a while, so I’ve got a lot of personal friendships and just different things that I am privy to and adhere to things that others aren’t, so that in itself brings a different level to the viewers.”
After several years of working in various facets at the network, Johnson was relieved of his duties on Sunday NFL Countdown and other platforms. Shortly thereafter though, he made his return on the air that included hosting a new weekday morning show on ESPN LA 710 alongside Jorge Sedano. The radio program allowed him to appeal directly to a local market, but it was work he had to balance with obligations in other areas at the network. There were times he would frequently appear on SportsCenter and other daytime programming in addition to the radio show. Upon Sedano moving to afternoon drive, Johnson continued working with LZ Granderson and had Travis Rodgers join the program in 2018.
Keyshawn Johnson was part of the revamped edition of NFL Live, which relaunched ahead of kickoff for the 2020 NFL season. Working alongside host Laura Rutledge and analysts Marcus Spears, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky, Johnson added his esoteric perspectives and offered his analysis on the show. Within the same quarter, Johnson became a co-host of Keyshawn, JWill and Zubin with Jay Williams and Zubin Mehenti. The program aired on the national ESPN Radio platform and was simulcast on ESPN2, and the cast of the program quickly developed a working chemistry with one another. Because of these new roles, his time hosting the local morning program on ESPN LA 710 was over and he relocated to the East Coast.
“It was real different, and so a lot of the views and the takes may have been different from what people were used to because they’re just not used to certain things,” Johnson said. “When you’ve been stuck [in] a place for so long as a viewer and something new comes up, it takes a minute for that cycle to come around, and I thought we did a tremendous job with that cycle. It was a fun show to be on; those guys were fun to work with.”
When Johnson ultimately learned of the network’s decision to include him in its layoffs, he was not entirely perplexed. Instead, he simply wanted to be able to continue working in sports media rather than earning the remainder of his contract under its provisions and limitations. Sitting on the sidelines and being paid without an occupation was a reality Johnson did not want to face, and he worked to ensure it would be remedied.
“Starting with Sunday and Monday [Night] Countdown straight off the field and getting [to work] with Hall of Famers – Mike Ditka and Chris Carter and Tom Jackson and Chris Berman – so I was always confident,” Johnson said. “I wasn’t worried about it at all.”
Although ESPN opted to remove him from the air, Johnson conveyed that it was a decision based on the financial status and projections of the company. Within the interim period in which he was trying to determine his next step, he continued maintaining a strong belief in his on-air qualities and acumen. Having been in the business for over 17 years on programs across various platforms, Johnson’s internal maxim pertaining to his own self-efficacy remained staunch in optimism and anticipation for his next chance.
“As far as my ability as an analyst and a broadcaster, I’d put mine up with anybody,” Johnson said. “Anybody across the board on any given day on any given level. I feel that way; I still feel that way.”
Conveying his genuine self to the audience rather than utilizing a hackneyed, fictitious persona allows Johnson to concisely articulate what he is feeling and how he perceives facets of the material. Through it all, he also wants to maintain perspective about his job.
“A lot of times in this space, people get caught up,” Johnson said. “All it is is entertainment, man; it’s not that deep. The [world is not] going to end.”
Working with Skip Bayless every weekday, Johnson has aimed to remain true to himself while keeping viewers both informed and entertained. Although the program is typically classified as a debate-based show, Johnson finds that much of the discourse is conversational in nature. Before he even took the air, there was debate in the public forum as to whether he and Bayless would be able to establish chemistry in the mornings and work well together.
“Working with Skip is interesting because he’s an older guy with a lot of energy and [is] very smart,” Johnson said. “He’s got a lot in his brain from like, forever. It’s fun working with him, talking about the details and just having normal conversations.”
Johnson will record his podcast from the network’s recently unveiled digital studios in Los Angeles, Calif., and all episodes will be available for consumers to watch and/or listen. Rather than signing with another company to host and produce a podcast, he quickly found that FOX Sports was committed to the sector of its business. Additionally, the network had spent time yearning to perfect the craft and ultimately perpetuated the most effective value proposition.
“I’m not looking to be a star; I’m not looking to all of a sudden own the digital space,” Johnson said. “Some people are looking to do that, and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with it, [but] that’s just not who I am. I’m satisfied and happy with my broadcasting career.”
Whether it has been on the field or behind the microphone, Johnson is aware that he is part of a larger team collectively functioning towards a common goal. Receiving auspicious feedback from his bosses emphasizing his performance and other abilities on television plays a significant role into the equation. The other part of the paradigm is ensuring his own well-being and contentment with the company while doing everything he can to make sure he does not fail.
“[If] they’re happy, I’m happy,” Johnson said. “I’ve always looked at everything that way. If they’re happy, I’m extremely happy.”
As Johnson works to establish the podcast in the sphere of FOX Sports digital properties while continuing his work on Undisputed, he is grateful for the position he finds himself in. Maintaining the trust of consumers and retaining a platform to express his opinions comes in presenting an indefatigable work ethic with an unwavering drive to succeed. Johnson is focused on being at his best for FOX Sports and taking part in worthwhile, insightful conversations.
“I don’t get all caught up in feelings about players and statistics and, ‘This guy was better than you,’ and, ‘That guy’s better than him,’” Johnson explained. “I don’t subscribe to that type of behavior because when you’re confident and you are happy within your own skin, you don’t get caught up in those types of things.”
As Bill Belichick contemplates his next few years of work, we can save some time and skip the question about whether he’d be a fit with one of the NFL’s partner networks as a broadcaster. That’s an easy yes. If Belichick wants to do TV, both a slot and a contract will open up immediately. He’s in.
A more interesting question is how Belichick would fit on TV. And I think the answer is complex in ways that the coach’s surly, almost pointlessly uninterested posture during media scrums would never suggest.
In short, Belichick could be a network’s dream — if (and only if) that network is ready to create a role that plays to his considerable strengths, and then be willing to coach the coach. I’d gladly watch the result, if only because it would so confound the folks who think they know Belichick from watching his pre- and post-game pressers.
Belichick can jump right back into coaching if he wants. He can put the New England era in the rear-view and go for a quick turnaround gig with the Falcons or Chargers, or maybe the Commanders, with their ambitious new owners. There are jobs; he’s a coach.
Choosing network television is more of an unknown, and the history of the NFL on TV is certainly littered with the failures of former players or coaches to translate to the broadcast world. But it’s underestimating Belichick to assume he’d be a tough watch.
It’s all about the fit. Belichick doesn’t belong in a two-man booth on game day, no argument there. But that’s the tip of the iceberg. There’s a great chance that Belichick could shine in a studio setting, especially if some smart execs figure out how to really deploy his encyclopedic knowledge — not merely of the mechanics of the game or this season’s personnel, but of the sport’s history and the league’s own evolution through the decades. Those are the things he loves, the things he studies.
We’ve seen that on display from Belichick, but only occasionally. It usually gets lost under layers of snark and snip. But he won an Emmy (no, an actual one) for his work as an analyst on NFL Network’s “NFL 100 All-Time Team” series just a couple of years ago, and that production really showed off the coach’s understanding of NFL history and what made individual players great in their respective eras.
Belichick said more than once how much he enjoyed working on the series, and that’s exactly the kind of stuff he should be doing for a network. It doesn’t need to be so elaborately staged, either; simply mining the coach’s knowledge of the NFL as it currently exists — including his appraisals of why certain teams right now are succeeding or failing — is a start.
Every NFL network partner has plenty of football programming, but some setups are more obviously enticing than others. Installing Belichick on a quick-hit, rapid-fire pre-game panel sounds like the kind of mistake some network might make. But consider an alternative like, say, Football Night in America, NBC’s Sunday Night Football pregame show.
That’s the kind of show that could position Belichick to succeed. Its more leisurely pace would provide room for the coach to be placed into one-on-one segments with a host, who’d set up Belichick to either break down specific players and plays from that day’s NFL action, explaining why something worked or didn’t, or talk about a trend in football and get into detail about how it evolved.
Belichick can do all that, especially when he’s teed up. We’re just so accustomed to his grumblin’ mumblin’ stumblin’ routine with the media, particularly the New England media, that many folks assume that’s the way the coach behaves normally.
Now, here’s what he would need:
—A gifted host who can find open lanes for Belichick to do his best work.
—A network willing to coach him out of his tendency to mutter (and drop his volume almost completely before he ends a sentence).
—An editor to help Belichick fine-tune topic ideas, so that he hasn’t explained everything he knows in the first few weeks of a season.
And none of this answers the great unknown, which is whether Belichick would find broadcasting enough of a challenge to actually take it on. We also can’t know whether he would want to ramp up to TV energy level every week — and ask anyone who’s been in a studio, that level is real, and it’s an energy unlike what many might imagine. It is a different sort of pressure.
I don’t think anyone is clamoring for Bill Belichick as a color analyst on game day, because it’s such an obviously terrible mismatch with his strengths. Belichick on a show where he’s allowed weekly to open that encyclopedia of a brain and zero in on specific players, play calls, coaching decisions, league strategy — that’s a different animal.
When Tony Romo retired from football, he immediately jumped into a broadcast booth, and for the first several years of his broadcasting career viewers benefitted from the fact that he still knew the league. He anticipated play calls. He knew rosters on a personal level. He still thought like a quarterback, not a TV analyst.
A network could similarly benefit from Belichick, both here and for the next few years. But they need to get started right now — and they’d need to be willing to coach the coach.
Today’s edition of Social Studies features Jomboy Media’s Director of Social Media Kyle Kondor. Kyle joined the team at Jomboy during 2020 at a critical point for the company. Jimmy “Jomboy” O’Brien and his partner Jake Storiale had established the brand as a destination for baseball fans but it lacked a uniform look across social media platforms. Kondor helped get Jomboy to that point.
Kyle discusses the growth of Jomboy on social media and how the digital brand measures success. We also examine strategies for different platforms and why posting baseball highlights is more than just a way to score likes.
Be advised our 30+ minute conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity. For the extended interview, visit Barrett Media’s YouTube channel.
Alex Reynolds: Tell me about the explosion of Jomboy Media content and what it looked like from your perspective on the social side.
Kyle Kondor: I honestly think that I came in after Jomboy had already laid the groundwork. The Breakdowns were the big thing that took him from this Yankees guy to a national baseball guy.
I came in after that and I knew from day one, that this is going to be something that continues to grow. It was just a matter of when we felt like doing it, and when we felt like adding more people. I think I’ve helped us become more of a brand because when I started we didn’t have branded social media accounts. It was basically just Jimmy and Jake’s accounts and the Jomboy YouTube page. So, I’ve taken a lot of pride in making sure that people recognize the brand.
AR: Why is it important to have a brand and a brand message on social media?
KK: It’s all about recognition. Everybody knows what Bleacher Report is, but you don’t have to know who the writers are. I see Bleacher Report. I respect it. I know that they’re in this world and it’s going well for them. So anything they post, I should be taking seriously.
Any accounts they have, I should just click the follow button because I know it’s going to be good. It’s going to be reliable. It’s not just some joke. I think that’s what’s important to have established for Jomboy Media because you want people to see it and think, ‘I may not love everything about it, but they’re respectable and their pages are worth following.’
AR: Tell me about the team that you work with right now. What’s your process like on a regular day?
KK: I am the Director of Social Media. There are currently seven of us on the social media team at Jomboy. That’s fluctuated a little bit. We’ve been anywhere from six to 10 people over the last year and a half. And during the first two years of my time at the company, it was really just me.
Our day-to-day is pretty wacky. It’s tough to describe. We all have different shows that we are associated with. So somebody has ‘Talkin’ Baseball.’ When the show comes out, they [promote] “new show.” They have to clip certain parts of the show and post it.
Jolly Olive does all these baseball trivia videos. We have editors take parts of his videos and repurpose them for socials. When the editor is done with it, I take it and schedule it or post it right away.
Jimmy’s ‘Breakdowns.’ I help him upload those. He does them, sends them over to me and says, ‘Hey, you know what time is best and how to title it and do the description.’
The other part of it that’s big is we do shifts. So that way somebody from our social team is online at all times, and ready for things to happen. During the MLB playoffs, we have two people on a shift because we want to make sure that we’re covering the playoffs to the best of our ability.
And then if anything else happens, whether it’s breaking news in baseball or something crazy on Monday Night Football, we have enough people online who are ready to go.
AR: What in your eyes does success for Jomboy on social look like?
KK: Followers are first and foremost, subscribers. That comes from your likes, your comments, your reposts, your shares. But it has to happen in a way that it’s not people wrecking you.
Now that happens because it’s the internet. The bigger we get the more it happens and you can’t post anything without upsetting someone.
But that’s first and foremost where it starts. But truth be told, it is a business. We have to feed ourselves. So you try to think of all the different avenues where you could bring in revenue. We always say that the way you sell on social media and your platforms is based upon how large your floor is because you have to tell the brands that want to advertise with you, ‘Hey, we’re going to guarantee you this many engagements on a post all the different platforms have a button you can hit and it says how many people have seen it.’
That’s what the advertisers want to know. How many people are seeing what you’re posting?
Now, you might have something blow up. That’s really good for followers because you’re going to have people latch on and be here to see the rest of your stuff, but that’s not what you can tell an advertiser.
AR: Do you have any campaigns or content that sticks out in your mind as being super successful at hitting those key metrics?
KK: So, the ‘Breakdowns’ are the cream of the crop at Jomboy. That’s what everybody knows us by. If you don’t like anything else, you like the ‘Breakdowns’. People who hate sports, like the ‘Breakdowns.’ Those who think baseball is boring, don’t think the ‘Breakdowns’ are boring.
We’ve recently started turning the longer ‘Breakdowns’ into 30 to 60-second TikToks and sharing those everywhere.
The other thing is that you just sit and wait for moments. We interviewed Aaron Boone this year. Those were awesome all year long, and as much as people were critical of the way we talked to him or critical of the things he said on the show, we could post what he had for breakfast and people were going to go crazy.
That said, you never know what’s going to be your big win. So this year when the camera zoomed out and showed [Boone] sitting crisscross applesauce while talking to us, I knew that people were going to enjoy that. That’s because they enjoyed (or hated) everything he did or said.
We posted Aaron Boone sitting crisscross applesauce, and it ended up getting millions of views across the platforms, and that just goes to show, you never know what your wins are going to be. But, you’re not going to get the wins if you don’t try at all.
AR: X Instagram, and TikTok have exploded since you’ve been there. What are the different strategies you use for those platforms and what you’ve seen so far.
KK: Twitter is your big one for news. Everything and anything can go on Twitter. Whether it’s a player getting injured, or you have a new podcast episode available. That can all go there.
Instagram is similar, in that you can just spam links in your stories. And you can post news on your feed or reels on your feed.
The other ones start to get a little more niche. You could post highlights on your TikTok, but then everyone’s going to love that and bury your original content. So I’ll keep our TikTok to our original content because that way if people like it, they’ll keep getting fed our original content. That’s how it works. TikTok is all algorithm-based, and it’s only going to feed people the things that they want to see.
Facebook is really odd. Obviously, it’s a different audience. It’s kind of an older audience, but it’s important to hit every single age bracket and demographic. We understand that we can’t just tune out the 45 and older crowd. People love the breakdowns over there.
YouTube is our bread and butter for longer shows. So, like I’ve been bringing up a bunch, it’s the Jolly Olive trivia videos. The warehouse stuff we’re doing is biggest on YouTube. We have now 250,000 subscribers on that.
You just have to make sure you’re not absent on a platform. You’ll see people and they’re just on Twitter and it’s like, why are you just on Twitter? You might as well post on the other platforms too, man. You’re limiting yourself.
AR: What advice would you give to smaller-scale brands that are trying to have a social digital presence?
KK: What I would say is be careful where you set the bar. You have to give your followers an expectation and then know that when they follow your page, you’re going to be able to keep it coming. What I’m saying is you don’t want to do too much that you can’t keep up with it because people will say ‘this is the sloppiest social media page ever’.
Make sure that you set an expectation for yourself and that you can keep going consistently. People are going to be able to follow this page and know that this is what they’re going to see.
If you’re going to be a football guy, you better cross off your Sundays and be at your laptop working all Sunday. If you’re going to be a college football person, clear your Saturdays. If you’re going to be a Mets guy, buckle up for 162 because if you’re there for 73 of the 162 games, you’re not going to win in that space.
So that’s my best advice. Set an expectation and make sure you can keep up with it. If it’s one post a day, that’s fine. If it’s one great post per week, wonderful. But don’t do seven posts on Monday and not come back until Thursday.
AR: How do you balance that original content that you’re talking about with reposting memes and videos from other sources?
KK: That is the biggest challenge because of course people are more interested in the Adolis Garcia home run than Talkin’ Jake giving his opinion on the Adolis Garcia home run. However, you want to build up your platform that way you can sort of infiltrate it with original content. If I was just posting podcast clips of Talkin’ Jake and Trevor Plouffe going back and forth about how amazing Corey Seager is, we’d get a following, but not as large a following as if we were posting every one of Corey Seager’s home runs.
A Corey Seager home run is more engaging than the podcast clips. If you can get people to come for the Corey Seager home runs and stay for the podcast clips, then your clips are going to get three times the amount of engagement that they would had you never posted the Corey Seager home runs.
You may get some trolls, but many times it’s like, yeah, I came here for the Corey Seager home run. I’m at least somewhat interested in hearing what someone had to say about it. So it’s just all about building up your following that way you can infiltrate it with your original content. Now people start to say, ‘Oh, Jomboy. The guy behind this page that posts every single baseball highlight. He’s got 750,000 Instagram followers. He must be doing something right. I better listen to what he has to say.’
Cookies, the sweet treat for online advertisers, have just been devoured by Google. Critics say the move will give the search engine — which is facing an anti-trust lawsuit for having a monopoly on internet searches — a larger portion of the ad space market share. The bigger concern regulators should be worried about is if social media companies follow suit.
For 30 years, cookies were used to track what websites users have visited, how long they spent on the site, and what products they viewed. The “sandbox”, which replaces cookies, places users into assigned groups. Google says these groups are created according to the interests and latest searches of the user. The tech giant also claimed the sandbox is less invasive than cookies allowing for more privacy.
In theory — because why should we take Google’s word — groups in the “sandbox” could now be divided by age, gender, and race (if you have uploaded photos to Google) instead of cookies, which were left by previous websites users have visited. Many critics and advertisers are concerned this will allow Google to advertise its own products, like the Google Pixel, in lieu of more popular products, like the iPhone. Advertisers and critics have explained their cookie-crumbling plight to regulators but the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom indicated little concern about the sandbox.
If successful, Google’s sandbox, which is only affecting Chrome users right now, could be brought to social media. While social networks, outlets, and communities do filter and customize what pops up on one’s newsfeed, advertisers can still rely on cookies to know if they have the right product for you. If social media outlets were to also remove cookies and adopt the “sandbox” style of grouping users by age, sex, or race, we could see an even worse “social dilemma” than what we already have.
The landmark 2020 documentary The Social Dilemma exposed the negative effects of social media and how much control outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have over what we see. Their algorithms create a customized filter bubble with the perfect profile of you. Removing cookies could now change the profile of who you are to what they want you to be.
The latest Statista numbers show in 2021 social media has 4.26 billion active users who use these sites for an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes a day. Instead of billions of customized profiles, which benefit advertisers, social media could now siphon people into only a few pre-determined silos. The most at risk are teens because their brains are not fully formed.
According to a January 2024 Pew Research Poll, 96% of U.S. teens say they use the internet every day, and 46% of them say they are online “almost constantly.” The study also found the top platforms teens use include TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. Seven in ten teens say they use the latter of the list every day. The owner of YouTube? Google.
When you are done watching a YouTube video, other suggested videos appear, based on your previous searches, which came from cookies. Since there are no more cookies your suggested videos are no longer tailored to you but to the silo to which Google believes you belong to. This could lead to censorship of certain YouTubers.
If you are placed in the “teen boy sandbox”, Google now can push PewDiePie playing video games and prevent someone with a message like Joe Rogan from expanding his viewership. While this example is funny, Google could take a more sinister approach where “teen boy sandbox” pushes content from the far left or far right. Both of these are bad because of the ability to brainwash instead of encourage independent political thought.
For all my tech bros, you might not be concerned about the lack of cookies but you should be. For several years, Apple users have needed to give apps permission to track you (if you’ve said yes to allowing apps to track you, you are a crazy person). Safari and Firefox have also limited cookie access while using their browsers. The fact remains that third-party cookies are still left.
Advertisers are not relying on web browsers to tell them what the customer’s needs and habits are. Google is no longer saying what your needs and habits are but what they think your needs and habits should be.
In short, cookies represent definitively who you are based on your searches. The sandbox is no longer definitively you but what silo Google wants you to belong to. Yes, cookies are invasive, but they are the lesser of two tech evils. Would you rather have no privacy and be free thinking or have privacy with suggested and imposed thoughts?
Legendary sports journalist and broadcaster Jim Gray has some very fond memories from working in this business, but looking back on his time spent covering the NBA on NBC, Gray said some of his best memories involve two of the game’s icons.
In a recent interview with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson, Gray was asked what memories stood out. Jim said Michael Jordan’s run with the Chicago Bulls really stood out.
“To view that to see that, to see that dynasty, that spectacle that the Bulls put on with Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan and all the great players – Dennis Rodman – it was just so much fun, and it was excellent,” he said. “We were seeing excellence personified winning those fourth, fifth, sixth championships.”
When the Bulls dynasty eventually broke up, Gray called it “sad” but reminded himself of all the other incredible players and teams he got to watch while at NBC.
“We saw the beginning of Shaq and Kobe, the Jordan years, Vin-sanity, Tim Duncan and the excellence that was there. Hakim Olajuwon,” he said. “So there was just a lot of great things that happened over the course of time.”
“It was a great time in the NBA, and it was great time to be involved,” Jim Gray added.
Scoop B pivoted to the late Kobe Bryant and asked Gray if it was harder for him to develop a rapport with Kobe versus Jordan. Jim said the dynamic with Kobe was different considering he knew Bryant’s parents. When Bryant got drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, Gray was already living in LA and so it definitely helped that he had already developed a relationship with Kobe and his family.
“A familiar face to the Bryant family was very fortuitous and lucky for me to have been able to be in that position,” Gray said. “So having a relationship with Kobe was one of the great joys of my life and to see him play. And covering Michael and being able to talk to him and interview him and be on those broadcasts all those years was fantastic too.”
You ever fall down the YouTube rabbit hole? You know what I’m talking about. When you punch it up on your smart TV looking for the latest big movie trailer and somehow four hours later you’re watching an episode of Geraldo from 1988 where the skinheads end up throwing chairs at the audience. I fell down the sports radio YouTube rabbit hole recently, and it was fascinating.
When you get the YouTube algorithm tuned exactly where you want it, it feeds you. So you can’t blame me when an episode of ESPN’s Outside The Lines from 1995 profiling the rise of sports talk radio popped up in my recommended video’s cue.
I was enthralled — for a variety of reasons — with what I saw on the screen.
And the longer I watched, the more I was taken aback by how much of sports radio has stayed the same. Large personalities, strong opinions, and shouting for coaches to be fired for the slightest misstep. Outside of tweed sport coats, every single station being only on AM and shots of the World Trade Center, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference!
But then it hit me how much different the genre was compared to this moment in time. And rightfully so. Sports talk radio was just an infant in 1995. I’m not even sure if it was potty trained by then (and judging by the tone of some of the segments from Bob Ley and others, I’m almost certain they agreed the medium wasn’t potty trained).
One of the first segments in the hour-long episode was about the prevalence of callers, with one portion of the show dedicated to a specific caller into The Ticket in Dallas, and how hosts like Norm Hitzges and callers into the station became his virtual friends because he worked remotely (sound familiar?).
Today? Good luck finding many programs — outside of The Paul Finebaum Show and The Dan Patrick Show — that dedicate any real length of time to taking calls. I’m not going to call it a “lost art”, because I don’t know how many are clamoring to hear more from Jim Tom in Tuckesee, but it certainly is a drastic change.
Another difference noticeable was both the lack of diversity and the lack of former players on the air. The episode is almost exclusively filled with middle-aged white men as hosts, with former Chicago Bears offensive lineman Dan Jiggets serving as one of the few former players and only host of Color featured in the show.
Now? Sports radio hasn’t completely dealt with its lack of diversity issue, but it has gotten better, especially with Black and female hosts. But former players? Boy have they found a home on sports radio. Just look at 94WIP, for instance, each show is an iteration of “radio guy and former Eagle”. There are all too many familiar stories in major market drivetime shows around the nation. But in 1995? It was whoever could yell the loudest and be the most boastful.
Which brings me to maybe sports radio’s biggest change: the hubris has died down, and thankfully so. I was still watching Barney in 1995, so forgive my ignorance in not knowing if this was how the entire medium was or if it was just dudes showing off about how hip, cool, macho, and braggadocious they could be for the ESPN cameras, but my goodness. A word that starts with the letter “d” and ends with “ouchebag” came to mind several times while watching hosts brag about how they refuse to talk about “chick sports”, how they are “known as the coach killer” in town, and basically just Scott Ferrall’s entire 1995 personality.
Was it entertaining? Sometimes, absolutely. But other times it reeked of that dude who was in your friend group growing up, you weren’t entirely sure why, and his whole personality was to say things that were so outlandish or obscene simply to draw a reaction. We’ve moved past that as a medium, for the most part, and we’re better for it.
So many hosts were proud of how many coaches they got fired. I mean proud of their impact. And while I understand that many sports radio hosts still have large egos, I don’t know how many today would thump their chests about how many jobs they’ve torpedoed, careers they’ve upended, families they’ve uprooted, and friendships they’ve decimated. Again, the format is better for it.
But one of the things that hasn’t changed is the questions from outsiders. Even in 1995, one of the popular questions of hosts was “Is sports talk radio fair?”, which still pops up today. So often you’ll hear charges about the genre — and even the media as a whole — clamoring that this coverage is fair or this coverage isn’t. I personally have an affinity to “fair”, so when one of the first stories was about a radio station discussing the alleged infidelity of an MLB player, and then welcoming his supposed mistress on the air with absolutely no background info whatsoever, no, sports radio wasn’t fair in that instance.
Or when one of the OTL reporters pestered Ferrall about his comments on Michigan running back Tyrone Wheatley being a “wussy” — which is peak mid-90s lingo — before presenting the then KNBR host with evidence that the rusher had only missed two games in his college career, and finished with more than 600 carries in his college career, the host admitted it wasn’t fair, but he didn’t care because it was provocative.
My favorite nugget was the idea that in 1995, coaches, players, teams, agents, and front-office personnel were adamant they didn’t listen to the genre, while the hosts were insistent those same people were utilizing sports talk radio to get their message to the masses.
It’s still a prevalent opinion, but we all know that’s not true. No matter how often those inside the game tell you they don’t listen, we know they do, and they enjoy the discussions just as much as we do.
So…just how different is sports radio today than it was in 1995? In the best ways, its drastically different. The format has evolved and shaped an entirely new medium — podcasting. In other ways, it hasn’t changed one bit. And I like to think, overall, it is in a much better, more palatable for the masses spot than it was in its infancy.
