Columns

"A hit is a hit" should never become an excuse for lazy programming, suffocating rotations or a library that sounds identical every day."

"After 30 years in sports media, the most valuable lesson I've learned is also the simplest. The audience falls in love with people. The business falls in love with numbers, and the numbers always win."

"The real challenge isn't adding great content. It's convincing consumers to change habits they've spent years developing. Netflix is learning in real time that paying for exclusive access to content people already enjoy elsewhere doesn't automatically persuade them to open their wallets. SiriusXM now faces a similar test."

Shark Week works because it's built, engineered, and marketed

This is a genuine damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't situation.

"FM is just one distribution point in a much larger ecosystem that includes streaming, podcasts, satellite and whatever comes next. The goal is no longer to own a frequency. It's to own every moment a sports fan wants to listen."

"It may start with a conversation with a co-host, but then do you bring in the listeners?"

"The most demoralizing outcome is asking talent for creativity and then letting their ideas disappear into a corporate black hole."

Being a contrarian can absolutely work for a host. It grabs attention, and it can build a brand. But real skill shows up when a host takes a popular topic somewhere unexpected instead of somewhere predictable.

"Like it or not, change is a constant in big-time media, and ESPN will continue moving forward. Entertaining and energetic talents like Williamson are helping forge that new path."