Classic Rock 97.7 South Bend, IN, has returned to its roots, bringing back the 97.7 ZOW branding.
Brad King made the announcement on the station’s social media. In it, King said that despite the name change, on-air talent Frank Gasko, Clint Marsh, Gary Hegland, and Rod Morgan would remain with the station in their current positions.
Previously, the WZOW and ZOW branding was on the station from 1997 to 2006. The station is owned by Sound Management, which also operates Top 40 U93 and Throwback 102.3, as well as two stations in Bloomington, IN.
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Nick Cattles has joined the Locked On Podcast Network where he will be hosting the Locked On Patriots Podcast, adding to his work around the sports media business. Cattles, who is a former sports talk radio host at Sactown Sports 1140 AM and ESPN Radio 94.1, has been working independently over the last year as the host of the Everything Pats podcast, a venture he will continue in addition to the new role.
Furthermore, he will continue working part time for 98.5 The Sports Hub, remaining on the terrestrial airwaves in the Boston-Manchester market after a previous stint with the station in the early 2010s. Cattles shared the news on social media concurrent with the debut of his first episode on Monday.
Cattles joins the podcast network as it continues to provide coverage of various professional and collegiate sports teams around the country. In a previous interview with Barrett Sports Media, he explained how he was trying to distinguish himself from the rest of the competition while hosting an eponymous podcast, which was branded as The Nick Cattles Show at the time.
“You draw a difference between yourself and what other people do,” Cattles said, “and I think just my presentation and how I look at things and how I deliver topics and all of that, I think that there’s a line of separation between me and many of the other outlets and shows that people get to listen to around here.”
Mike D’Abate, the managing editor of Patriots Country and a former beat writer and lead reporter for various media outlets, previously served as the host of the Locked On Patriots Podcast for the last six years. Earlier in the week, he announced on social media that his time with the network had come to an end and thanked the audience for listening to the show. D’Abate also took the time to acknowledge founder David Locke, NFL channel manager Ross Jackson and other Locked On colleagues for their professionalism and support throughout his time with the outlet.
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The National Championship Game within the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament between the UConn Huskies and South Carolina Gamecocks averaged 8.5 million viewers on ABC, marking the third most-watched iteration of the game on ESPN platforms. The game was down 55% compared to last year when South Carolina won the national championship with a victory over Iowa and averaged 18.9 million viewers. Furthermore, the contest was down by 14% from the tilt between LSU and Iowa from two years ago. Viewership for the UConn-South Carolina game, which ended in a victory for Paige Bueckers and the Huskies, peaked with 9.8 million viewers, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research. Full numbers for the game will become available on Tuesday.
ESPN platforms have presented the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament since 1996, and the company agreed to a new eight-year media rights deal last January that includes expanded championship coverage surrounding the sport. The company presented an alternate broadcast featuring WNBA legends Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi on ESPN that averaged 703,000 viewers on the night as well. As a whole, the audience for the game was up 75% from the same matchup in 2022 when the two teams faced off on ESPN. The company started broadcasting the tournament National Championship Game live on ABC for the first time in 2023.
The UConn victory caps off the third most-viewed NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament on ESPN platforms since the company acquired exclusive rights for the proceedings in 1996. Preliminary audiences for the tournament were also up 22% from two years ago, and the company registered 8.5 billion minutes consumed for all of the tournament action.
An average of 3.9 million viewers tuned into Final Four action on ESPN, representing the third most-watched occurrence of the round in history. Even so, the viewership metric was down 64% from the previous year when the round averaged approximately 10.8 million viewers. March Madness games on ESPN platforms last year averaged 2.2 million viewers, which was up 121% from the 2023 edition of the tournament. Final viewership data for this year’s tournament has not yet been released, but preliminary audiences are currently up by 22% from two years ago.
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MSNBC has named Madeleine Haeringer to oversee the digital, audio, and long-form content for the cable news network.
Haeringer had previously spent 22 years at NBC News working as the Senior Vice President of Editorial. After departing NBC News in 2022, she served as the Executive Vice President and General Manager of Crooked Media.
“I’m thrilled to be rejoining the MSNBC team and am eager to dive back in alongside such a talented group,” Haeringer said. “This is a real opportunity to contribute to a new vision and growth for MSNBC and I can’t wait to get to work.”
The appointment of Madeleine Haeringer at MSNBC comes as the network begins to build its news operation separate from NBC News and Comcast. The channel is being spun off from the parent company into its own separate entity along with the other cable assets from Comcast into a new entity called “SpinCo.” When that officially takes place, MSNBC will no longer have access to the resources from NBC News.
Haeringer isn’t the first hire that new network president Rebecca Kutler has made since taking over for Rashida Jones earlier this year. Last month, MSNBC named Scott Matthews as its new Senior Vice President of Newsgathering in advance of the network being placed inside SpinCo along with other cable assets like CNBC.
Additionally, the separation is becoming more apparent in the on-air talent between the cable and network branches of NBC News. Last week, Steve Kornacki inked a new deal to remain with NBC News, but will no longer be a part of the roster at MSNBC.
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iHeartPodcasts and the National Basketball Association announced today the launch of Dub Dynasty, a new limited-series podcast that explores the behind-the-scenes evolution of the Golden State Warriors’ four-championship run over the past decade. Produced in collaboration with the NBA Podcast Network, the series highlights the franchise’s transformation into one of the most dominant dynasties in modern professional sports. Furthermore, it also looks ahead to the team’s future as it gears up for the 2025–2026 NBA season.
Hosted by veteran sports journalist Israel Gutierrez, Dub Dynasty traces the Warriors’ cultural and competitive impact on basketball. In addition, it explores the challenges the team has faced both on and off the court. The episodes will surround the storylines of Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and many more faces of the Warriors’ run to glory. Notably, the debut episode is available today through the iHeartRadio app and everywhere podcasts are heard, with new episodes being published every Tuesday.
Gutierrez currently is a sports commentator for Meadowlark Media. Before joining Meadowlark, he was an NBA reporter for ESPN. Prior to that, he covered the Heat for the Miami Herald and The Palm Beach Post.
In the premiere episode via iHeartPodcasts, Gutierrez reflects on his own early memories of discovering the NBA. He then delves into the story of how a franchise that hadn’t won a title since 1975 began piecing together what would become a historic team.
Moreover, the episode takes listeners back to the 2009 NBA Draft Day, when a series of events nearly prevented Stephen Curry from joining the Warriors. Gutierrez provides a detailed look at the tense moments surrounding that day, along with insights into why some critics initially doubted Curry’s potential to become a superstar.
Dub Dynasty adds to iHeartMedia’s growing lineup of basketball content produced in partnership with the NBA. As part of that lineup, the new series joins other fan-favorite shows such as NBA DNA with Hannah Storm, Four Years of Heat, and Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties.
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The Florida Gators secured their third NCAA Men’s Basketball championship last night, defeating the Houston Cougars deep in the heart of San Antonio, TX. This year’s viewership figures for the men’s tournament were, notably, on par to be the best in many years. In fact, the Final Four secured their best viewership in eight years this past weekend.
Meanwhile, Danny Parkins of FS1’s Breakfast Ball program shared his insights on his viewing experience of last night’s championship game, which he was ultimately disappointed in.
“I appreciate sports, I know this is college sports and not professional,” Parkins noted. “I really don’t think a two-point game to decide a national championship could have been a worse viewing experience than last night.”
The FS1 co-host noted that the contest was a better viewing experience in the first half. According to Parkins, the teams were allowed to just play basketball. However, as the game progressed, Parkins just couldn’t get into it due to what he considered a lengthy second half and below-average play.
“I thought that was a terrible game, and I thought it was a terrible watch. I kind of resented that I stayed up for the full game,” said Parkins. “By the time this game was done, we had had two teams that couldn’t crack 40% from the floor, combined to shoot 37%. Making less than one out of four threes, 22 turnovers, 26 second half fouls. There was no flow to the game.”
Although average viewership numbers have yet to be released, the NCAA decided to begin airing the game at 8:50 p.m. on the East Coast, which is 30 minutes earlier than in previous years. Even with the earlier broadcast time, Parkins felt that the quality of play—with a championship on the line—was sub-par.
“I didn’t tune into a national championship game to watch a ref show,” complained Parkins. “Congrats to Florida and the resiliency, and we’ll talk about the Gators here in a minute. But that was not a good game. I really did not enjoy it.”
“I thought that was a terrible game. And I thought it was a terrible watch and I kind of resented I stayed up for the entirety."@DannyParkins wasn't a fan of how the NCAA national championship game played out pic.twitter.com/sw1UZFHox9
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CNN has announced that MJ Lee will shift from serving as a Senior White House Correspondent to now focusing her time as a Senior National Enterprise Correspondent.
Lee began covering the White House in 2021 and helped lead the network’s coverage of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris running for President in 2024. In 2024, Lee was part of a CNN team that earned an Emmy Award for its breaking news coverage centered on the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.
Before moving to the role of Senior White House Correspondent, MJ Lee worked in the network’s New York bureau, covering the 2020 presidential election as a political correspondent. She focused on the campaign of Elizabeth Warren before shifting to reporting on the campaign of Biden after he won the party’s primary.
Lee originally joined CNN in 2015. Prior to her tenure with the network, she worked as a finance and political reporter at Politico.
In her new role as Senior National Enterprise Correspondent, Lee will continue to be based in Washington D.C. She’ll cover human impact stories across the nation on a variety of platforms for CNN.
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Is a radio signal as valuable as your largest social media platforms in 2025? I mean, sure, finding your frequency on the dial requires a listener to know way less about you than finding your videos on YouTube or TikTok. Maybe the respective algorithms will feed them to that audience eventually, but it is going to take a lot of training and previous actions to teach the algorithm that they like the kind of topics you cover.
On the other hand, YouTube and TikTok are always in your listeners’ pockets. That means they always have access to whatever you put there, whereas they have to be tuned into your broadcast signal at the exact right moment to consume that same content via your radio broadcast.
So that brings up a question: should you be programming your brand with digital platforms instead of the radio signal at the top of your mind?
It’s 2025! The answer is yes, but that answer brings up an even bigger question: If you make the digital world your top priority, how does that change the way you think about your brand?
Who Is Your Audience?
The vast majority of radio content is made for a specific market. Discussions of the NCAA Tournament championship are going to sound very different on Houston radio versus Tampa radio regardless of the outcome. Terrestrial radio has a very specific reach, so it’s talking to a very specific audience.
But if you’re a digital brand, exactly who is your audience? Does a host based in Houston have to talk about what the game means to Kelvin Sampson’s legacy in college basketball? That YouTube video or podcast episode is just as easy to stream in Seattle as it is in Houston. Does that mean he or she should approach the game with a more national perspective?
That’s a massive mistake that I fear that brands and hosts in markets like Raleigh/Durham (where I live) are way more likely to make than hosts in places like say Cincinnati. So few people that live in Raleigh have deep family roots here. It’s a market full of transplants that surely welcomes discussion of the biggest teams from around the country, right?
Sorry, but no.
I trust that my friend Adam Gold knows a lot about the Carolina Hurricanes and about the failure of Duke’s amazing freshman class to seal the deal with a title. If he were to start talking about LeBron James or the Philadelphia Eagles, I’m sorry, but I’m out. There are other people on these same digital platforms whose opinions and insight on those topics carry so much more weight.
Your position of strength is your position of strength regardless of the size of your space. Maybe the “big fish in a small pond” nature of local radio feels confining, but look at it this way. Imagine you’re the fisherman. In the pond, your little rowboat works just fine. There are only so many places the fish can go and your bait is easy for them to find. You’ll probably get bites all day long. If you go into open water though, there is a lot you have to compete with to catch a fish – other fishermen in bigger boats, ocean waves that you can’t row against, bigger fish or even alligators that also want to eat the fish you’re trying to catch, etc.
So what is the best way for that fisherman to succeed in the open ocean or in a giant bay? It’s to find his advantages. Go fish in mangroves or near reeds where fish are known to be, avoid crowded areas, get away from those bigger boats or professional fishing vessels built to do things you simply can’t.
There are so many videos on YouTube and TikTok and so many podcasts on Spotify and Apple. You will starve trying to fish in the same waters as ESPN, Barstool and FOX. Sure, people from all over the world can find your digital content easier than they can find your broadcast signal, but the audience in your market will always be the one most likely to go looking for you.
What Does Your Content Look Like?
Plenty of program directors have asked if there is a better way to structure sports radio than three or four-hour long shows. Some have invested in two-hour blocks, but even then, very few people in the audience to start the show will be there by the end. They have jobs and lives.
Think about how digital content is structured. Instagram Reels are capped at 90 seconds. TikToks perform best when they are between 21 and 34 seconds. For YouTube, it’s between 7 and 15 minutes. You can post a full three hour radio show as a single video, but all of these platforms allow you to program with short attention spans in mind and the numbers say that is the right way to do this.
There is no flowing from topic to topic. No need to develop a topic by asking what the interactive element to follow the initial conversation. Programming for digital platforms allows you to create full stories and discussions in shorter, self-contained segments.
All of those formatics that PPM says are important and that so many great talents dismiss anyway (teasing, resetting, etc.) go out the window and so do the arguments that come with them. All that matters is what is happening in the timespan of that one video. It’s the whole universe.
Digital platforms can do two things better than broadcast radio. First, between shares and comments, it can give advertisers an idea of how entertained the audience is by what it sees. They took the time to comment. They share it with their friends or on their own social media pages. It’s tangible proof that the content connected.
The other thing it can do is deliver a number that is easy to understand. Don’t get me wrong. The numbers are still inflated and skewed to make the platform look more valuable to its advertisers, but put yourself in an advertisers shoes.
If I don’t work in the media, am I more likely to perk up when I hear that your station has a 5 share or when I hear that your video has 25,000 views? The view count is simple to understand. It’s delivered in layman’s terms. That’s disarming. I don’t need an education to know if the information I’m being told is good or bad. Plus, the number is verifiable. It’s right there on the screen, so I don’t have to question if you are trying to pull a fast one on me.
Forget the future being digital. We’re well past that. Radio brands have to figure out how to shift from valuing filling hours to generating truly valuable content.
No one is just going to abandon their air signal in favor of making content in ten minute chunks, but ten minute chunks may have more value than the full hours they come from. Maximize the value of those shorter chunks of content. You have all the tools. You just need the strategy and the buy-in of the people around you.
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Last week, 700 WLW announced that Thom Brennaman — who made a name for himself as a television sports play-by-play announcer at outlets like FOX Sports and for teams like the Cincinnati Reds — would replace Mike McConnell in morning drive at the iHeartMedia Cincinnati station.
The move raised eyebrows, as Brennaman had been largely out of the public eye after being captured using a homophobic slur in a hot-mic moment in 2020. But even more than that, Thom Brennaman has almost exclusively been a sports media figure, and the move to news/talk maybe didn’t feel like a natural one to the average observer.
But he admitted that the opening in morning drive at the venerable Cincinnati news/talk brand was a perfect storm too good to pass up.
“To a lot of people that sounds cliche, but when you don’t have a job for four years, if you can get a job in your hometown at a place that is such an iconic name and brand of WLW it’s incredibly exciting,” said Brennaman. “And thank God for it.”
Brennaman shared that he was keenly aware that his return to a full-time position in the media world would be reliant upon someone understanding the baggage he came with. But nearly five years after his viral hot-mic moment, the right opportunity came up at the right time, allowing him to jump at the chance of signing on with 700 WLW.
“The old saying is that beggars can’t be choosers. I mean it’s not like I’ve had people beating down the door to hire me the last four years,” said Brennaman. “I knew all along it was gonna take somebody who was not going to be afraid to take a chance. It wouldn’t be easy. I totally understood the standpoint that There might be 10 other guys out there every bit as good as Thom Brennaman. And with the other guys, we don’t have to deal with the baggage that came along with it from what I said, almost 5 years ago off the air. This is a full-time job and it’s not something that I’ve had in years. And I can’t think of any other place on the planet I’d rather be doing it.”
Thom Brennaman isn’t joining 700 WLW with a lack of knowledge of the brand. The 61-year-old has been affiliated with the station — in one way or another — for 51 years. His father, Marty, is enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame for his work as the radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds, of which WLW serves as the flagship.
Additionally, he said one of his first jobs after graduating from Ohio University was working as a morning sports anchor at the station while longtime host Jim Scott helmed the daypart.
Thom Brennaman had stayed in touch with Joe Fredrick, who leads up the national sales effort at 700 WLW, in recent years. He said Fredrick had “always kept pushing” station management to give the former FOX Sports announcer an opportunity on the station. After iHeartMedia Region President DJ Hodge and Program Director Scott Reinhart gave Brennaman the chance to fill in on various programs, he continued to run with the opportunity.
With a history working for Major League Baseball teams like the Chicago Cubs, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Cincinnati Reds in addition to calling NFL, MLB, and college football broadcasts for FOX Sports, hosting a morning drive show on a news/talk station like 700 WLW is wildly different from anything else Thom Brennaman has ever d one in his career.
And he knows that.
“It’s a 180 from anything I’ve ever done before. I mean a complete 180,” the new WLW morning host reiterated. “My wife Polly said to me when we were talking the other night, my entire career, most of the time — whether it was baseball, basketball, or football — it was always telling people good night. And now it’s telling people good morning. I’ve always worked nights. I’ve always worked weekends. Now, I’m working where the alarm goes off at 3:11 in the morning. And it’s a different world.
“It’s a lifestyle change, without a doubt. That was a big part of the decision. This is the kind of job, at the end of the day, you can’s say no to it. You just can’t. It’s the biggest job in town. It doesn’t mean that I’m the biggest game in town, I’m not insinuating that. I just mean at that timeslot, at that station, the numbers are staggering.”
Thom Brennaman was more than complementary of those at The CW — where he will continue to announce college football and basketball broadcasts after taking the job in morning drive at 700 WLW — and iHeartMedia for allowing him a second chance.
Furthermore, he said that striking out on a new adventure isn’t anything out of the ordinary for the longtime media figure. It’s been a recipe for success earlier in his career, and hopes the same payoff awaits him in morning drive at the iHeartMedia Cincinnati news/talk brand.
“I’ve been really, really fortunate in being a part of something new a couple of times of significance. I had an opportunity to stay with the Chicago Cubs when I was doing the games back at the end of the 1995 season. And along came the Diamondbacks opportunity two years before the team started playing, and to be a part of the franchise or a network from day one,” Brennaman reminisced. “When we were in Arizona, I was fortunate enough to be hired as one of the six original play-by-play guys at FOX. Nobody had ever heard of FOX. Didn’t know what FOX was. You could’ve called a DOG and it had the significance of FOX. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s true.
“Then spinning off of that, when FOX went into a partnership with the Big Ten Network, I literally did the first game ever on the Big Ten Network when Appalachian State beat Michigan. I just think there’s something so exciting about something new. Look at my dad. He spent 47 years with the same team and there is something fascinating and incredible about being able to do that. But there’s also something fascinating and incredible to either start a new venture entirely or to start with a company that’s a brand-new venture.”
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Every journey begins with a single step, and the path is never determined beforehand. While planning and plotting for your following steps is wise, the road to where life grabs your hand and takes you can never truly be planned. For Jeff Austin, a journey which began in Williamsport, PA, now ends in Portland, OR, with many successful steps taken, yet never truly planned for.
Austin, a seasoned veteran programmer for Audacy’s 1080 The Fan in Portland, OR, is ready to begin his next journey, announcing his retirement beginning this weekend — a passion-fueled journey beginning with his humble upbringing as a kid from North Carolina to life experiences to last a lifetime.
“I kind of feel like I was the Forrest Gump of radio in a lot of ways,” said Austin. “I just had great opportunities all the way along. It seemed when I get to a market, whether it was Williamsport, Columbus, Salt Lake City, or Portland, it seemed like I was put in situations where the teams that we were associated with and we’re covering were having unprecedented success at times.”
Austin has served as the brand manager of 1080 The Fan and 910 ESPN Radio Portland since 2008. His previous stops before landing in ‘Rip City’ included time in Salt Lake City, UT, where he was running the Utah Jazz radio flagship — also stops in Columbus, OH, and at WWPA in Williamsport, PA, under programming manager Scott Masteller. While Austin has enjoyed a long run of success, he understands his journey began and continued for as long as it did with amazing mentors like Masteller.
“You have to have the passion, and you have to have the work ethic,” noted Austin. “I was very fortunate early in my career that I was able to cross paths with Scott Masteller, who is my mentor. I replaced him in Williamsport, which was my first job. That’s how I got lucky enough to have Scott hire me a couple times later, and so I learned that from him.”
Finding The Passion For Radio
That passion was born through Austin’s early years being raised in Durham, NC, where a shared love of basketball flows through the town like a river. Growing up in the home of Duke basketball, Austin’s love for radio began as he recalled how his parents took physical record of his growing passion for the medium from an early age.
“I think it was meant to be,” explained Austin. “My parents had a tape recording of me parodying a weather report and a commercial, which probably was something I heard on my mother’s radio in the kitchen when I was approximately three years old. I guess it was destiny that I would end up that way.”
Austin said his interest in the creativity of what he heard through the speakers at an early age led him down a path of pursuing the first steps of his eventual journey. He spoke about his father, who worked at Duke University, inciting his passion for sports as Austin was allowed access to the plethora of options at a major university as a child.
“It was a great place to grow up if you’re going to develop a passion for sports,” said Austin. “I didn’t just go to a basketball game, which I loved. I could go to a football game. I could go to a lacrosse game — you name the sport. It just became second nature for me to be a sports fan and then have that kind of a passion for where I would want to make my life work.”
Moving To ‘Rip City’ And Beginning A Legacy
Eventually, that life’s work would lead Austin to Portland, a town featuring a singular professional team in the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. Since 1970, the Trail Blazers have owned the professional sports passions of the residents of Portland. Although only hoisting one NBA championship banner in their history, numerous legends — including six Hall of Fame players — have taken the court in the red, white, and black.
Austin says his love for the game of basketball made it an easy transition to relate to the Portland sports fan when he arrived in 2008, but he knew success would be sought out in expanding discussions not always in the day-to-day of one team.
“I think I felt comfortable here immediately for a few reasons. As you mentioned, the passion for basketball — I was used to that,” said Austin. “I’ve always enjoyed the sports radio stations that can go off the page and don’t have to exist strictly on x’s and o’s. I think there’s a different perspective on the format on the West Coast that mirrors our listeners here. You might call it a world view, where you can talk about just about anything as long as it’s relatable to your core demo.”
Following his instinct, Austin crafted a dominating sports radio brand in ‘Rip City,’ focusing on local talent and local conversation without the traditional radio broadcasting rights to build dedicated cume. Winning the content game without local play-by-play content has been a model for success for Austin over his years, delivering on being up front both in good and bad times.
“You make sure that you’ve got people working for you who are insiders and have insight. It also gives you a tremendous opportunity to generate credibility with your audience,” noted Austin. “You’re not going to have anybody telling you what the message has to be. If the teams are doing well, you tell your audience that, and you celebrate with the audience. When they’re not doing well, you’re honest with them, and you point out that fact and why they’re not doing so well, and I think that is something that builds trust with the audience.”
Adapting To New Challenges As The Role Evolves
As Austin continued in his role, the challenges of it changed with time. From having day-to-day focus solely on what’s going on locally, the added challenges from the corporate level added a new wrinkle to the craft. Austin stated while many see corporate oversight as a negative, he turned it into a lesson to be learned, adding another layer to his already strong skillset for success.
“I think learning how to not just exist, but also thrive in a corporate radio atmosphere was crucial,” said Austin. “I think you have to be nimble enough to pivot when you think you have your day planned, and all of a sudden you’ve been given a to-do list from the corporate level. The ability to resist seeing that as an interruption and try to embrace it in addition to your plans — maybe even fit it all into the same strategy — I think it’s the key to being able to thrive in the current atmosphere when you’re working for a large broadcasting company.”
The current atmosphere for many in traditional sports radio stations remains a challenge, as job cuts continue to hurt the long-term outlook for the next generation of broadcasters — something which weighs on the soul of Austin, whose life has been dedicated to reinforcing the medium and growing the format. He noted using the examples he has cultivated during his time in Portland makes it an easier task to show the future there is a future.
“For a long time now, the tentpole of our station in Portland has been our afternoon drive show Primetime with Isaac and Suke,” Austin noted. “I think when you have that as a foundation, you can show your other shows as you build. With younger staff, you can try to show them that there is some positive reinforcement there. You don’t have to do it the way those guys do it, but just be the best version of yourself. You work hard and show that you can relate to the audience, then it’s easy to say keep your nose to the grindstone. It’s all going to work out for you.”
The Best Advice Is Often The Most Simple
As Austin’s last chapter of his radio career closes this week, for all the steps he has taken during the journey, he still says the most important lesson he learned was a simple one — and is too far forgotten in the business today.
Always be listening, no matter what challenges pop up from time to time.
“You’re the listener-in-chief,” said Austin. “It’s very easy to be distracted from actually listening, as silly as that may seem. Consume your brand on all the platforms it’s available on — most especially listening to what’s coming out of the speaker. That still doesn’t go away, even if we are a multi-platform business.”
The journey for Jeff Austin was not determined beforehand, and the outcome was never guaranteed. He notes as he wraps up this chapter of his life, he is extremely grateful for all who helped him along the path — with excitement for what’s to come next.
“I have a lot of different interests in life, and I’m looking forward to continuing my passion for audio and for sports,” explained Austin. “I can’t wait for that, and most especially to spend more time with my family.”
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