MARTY LENZ has for eight years been the co-anchor of Colorado’s Morning News on KOA Radio in Denver. The 100-year-old, 50,000 watt radio station puts it programming on AM, FM, the IHeart app, as well as Alexas and Siri. Such is the business in 2025.He talks about what they do, how they work to reach younger audiences, to keep the older, more established audience and do it with the same kinds of news standards in place for many of those 100 years. Recorded January 27, 2025...
Jul 02, 2025•36 min•Season 11Ep. 24
CHRIS MYERS has been a play-by-play announcer andstudio host at Fox Sports for about 25 years, after spending a decade at ESPN. He does the NFL, NASCAR, Major League Baseball and hosts the Westminster Dog Show. Among his jobs at ESPN was four years as host of the interview show Up Close . His book That Deserves a Wow was published in 2024 by William Morrow. He talks passionately about many experiences of his life, both professional and personal. Recorded June 19, 2025...
Jun 25, 2025•37 min•Season 11Ep. 23
MICHAEL BRUNTZ has been with Husker247 for 14 years now. As Senior Writer he covers baseball, football, recruiting and whatever else comes up. He started a Husker baseball podcast in 2025. He talks here about what the Men’s College World Series means to Nebraskans and particularly the people of Omaha; the new direct payment of athletes, covering the Huskers baseball program; the 12-month, 24/7 nature of covering Huskers football; and much more. Recorded June 18, 2025...
Jun 19, 2025•34 min•Season 11Ep. 22
DAVID BERRI is professor of economics at Southern UtahUniversity. He researches and writes about sports economics. His latest book is Slaying the Trolls , co-authored with Nefertiti Walker, focused on women and sports. About 75 percent will go to football, 15 percent to men’s basketball and the other sports will divide what’s left over. Berri says there will be victims of the new world, most likely starting with coaches’ salaries. Questions remain about the impact this will have on facilities, w...
Jun 12, 2025•34 min•Season 11Ep. 21
STEVE SIPPLE has now been with Husker Online for nearly three years after more than three decades with the Lincoln Journal Star. We catch up on a few things here: Matt Rhule’s tenure at Nebraska, covering the Huskers 24/7 and 12 months a year, three hours of radio every day, the grind of doing daily journalism, and much more. He drops in a tidbit about Scott Frost and why he probably should not have taken the Huskers job, and the relationship he had/has with many other Huskers football coaches. ...
Jun 05, 2025•39 min•Season 11Ep. 20
SEAN CALLAHAN is the owner and publisher of HuskerOnline, which is a media company covering Nebraska football, affiliated with the On3 Network. We talk here aboutcovering Huskers football, which is the biggest and most popular game in the state; about the access issues all journalists are dealing with; about his new book; Scott Frost and much more. Callahan is a native Nebraskan who also covers Huskers football for other outlets in the state, including KETV, KFAB and NPM. Interview conducted May...
May 30, 2025•52 min•Season 11Ep. 19
TYLER CAVALLI has worked for the Nebraska Rural RadioAssociation [NRRA] for more than a decade. He has anchored news, done sports broadcasting and is now operations and programming manager in Lexington. KRVN and 14 other stations are owned by the NRRA, which is owned by farmers and ranchers in Nebraska. Tyler talks here about what he does, the values of rural radio, and how radio can and should be innovated. Interview conducted January 29, 2025 Posted May 15, 2025...
May 15, 2025•45 min•Season 11Ep. 18
KEITH O’BRIEN is a journalist and author. In April2024 he wrote a piece in The Atlantic , “You’re Going to Miss Sports Journalism When it is Gone.” In this conversation, recorded in April 2025, he says not much has changed in that year to make him optimistic about where the business is going. We talk about the conditions in the industry, about young people and their interest in it, some ideas about how the information is and how it should be imparted, and muchmore. O’Brien’s latest book is Charl...
May 05, 2025•35 min•Season 11Ep. 16
This episode is mostly about TAYLOR TWELLMAN . We chatted on the phone about his life and career. How that career ended and why he is so committed to making people aware of TBI (traumatic brain injury.) He talks about his broadcast career, its process and so much more. You can read more about Twellman in a Soccer America profile I wrote, at socceramerica.com. JAKE ZIVIN is Taylor's broadcast partner. A conversation with him follows the Twellman interview. Twellman recorded April 18, 2025 Zivin r...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr•Season 11Ep. 15
PAULA LAVIGNE is in her 18th year at ESPN, doing investigative reporting, working with the Enterprise andInvestigative unit. Paula, a Nebraska native, has worked at daily newspapers all over the country and has settled in nicely at ESPN. In this conversation we talk about what she does, how she does it and how the industry is beinginnovated [32:45]. We also chat a bit about how sports are covered in Nebraska [13 Minutes]; about what is so important to her about this job [18:30]; ESPN’s partnersh...
Apr 21, 2025•38 min•Season 11Ep. 15
MICHAEL COHEN & DOUG WREN Put together the first broadcast in the history of Major League Soccer. It was April 6, 1996, at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, the home standing Clash (now Earthquakes) and DC United. Early in the 30th MLS season I talked with both of them about that first broadcast. Cohen was the producer, Wren the director. [The announce team of Phil Schoen, Ty Keough and Bill McDermott appear in another podcast.] This game was played in front of nearly 32,000 fans, on national tel...
Apr 04, 2025•34 min•Season 11Ep. 14
MICHAEL COHEN & DOUG WREN Put together the first broadcast in the history of Major League Soccer. It was April 6, 1996, at Spartan Stadium in San Jose, the homestanding Clash (now Earthquakes) and DC United. Early in the 30th MLS season I talked with both of them about that first broadcast. Cohen was the producer, Wren the director. [The announce team of Phil Schoen, Ty Keough and Bill McDermott appear in another podcast.] This game was played in front of nearly 32,000 fans, on national tele...
Apr 04, 2025•31 min•Season 11Ep. 13
JIMMY TRAINA is a columnist and podcaster for SportsIllustrated. He covers the sports media business, including the business part and the celebrity/personality part of the business. In this conversation he talks about his process, about the need for more people covering sports media,and the future of sports journalism. And, plenty more. Recorded January 30, 2025
Mar 25, 2025•33 min•Season 11Ep. 12
ADRIAN HEALEY has been for most of the last three decades a soccer announcer in the U.S. The Marlborough, England native first did radio in the Boston area and then started announcing games for the Major League Soccer side New England Revolution. He then announced games for ESPNInternational, ESPN, Austin FC, and Apple TV+ MLS Season Pass. He is now back with ESPN, doing games in Spain’s La Liga. He talks here about his career, including the somewhat inexplicable decision by MLS not to bring him...
Mar 19, 2025•54 min•Season 11Ep. 11
DAVE RAYMOND has been the television play-by-play voice of the Texas Rangers for more than a decade. The Gering, Nebraska native is a graduate of Stanford University. He was once ‘traded’ to another minor league baseball team, he was an award-winning business journalist, did temp work in the Bay Area. All on his way to the big leagues about two decades ago. We talk about all of that, the new Rangers TVarrangement, some of the great announcers in history, the new baseball rules, and much more. Re...
Mar 04, 2025•51 min•Season 11Ep. 9
Union Omaha, the defending champions of USL League One, are the league's defending champions. The only two-time champion in the league's six-year history. They are also three-time winners of the Player's Shield, which honors the team with the best regular season record. This team sets the standard for the third-tier professional league in American soccer. The team has ambitions, including a new soccer-specific stadium in downtown Omaha. This piece was reported and published in late February 2025...
Feb 27, 2025•9 min
HOWARD MEGDAL founded The IX and The Next to focus on women’s sports. He is the author of eight books, writes for Baseball Prospectus and does some journalism for Forbes.Covering women’s sports and publishing the newsletter and the web site are his primary focus. We talk about women’s sports and why now, and the process of this work. Megdal hosts the basketball coverage on Locked On Women’s Sports daily podcast. His outlets also go in-depth in the following women's sports: soccer, tennis, golf, ...
Feb 27, 2025•32 min•Season 11Ep. 8
PAUL ALLEN is the voice of the Minnesota Vikings, radio host at KFAN and the horse track announcer at Canterbury Park. From the days he talked his way into the horse racing business to his popular radio show and his more than two decades with the Vikings, Allen has been one-of-a-kind.In this conversation he talks about his work and its diversity. He talks at length about his faith. Nobody else does the NFL, radio talk and horse track announcing. Paul Allen is the one. Recorded January 29, 2025...
Feb 13, 2025•58 min•Season 11Ep. 7
BLAKE AERNI is the radio voice of the Major league Soccer team Sporting KC. He is a graduate of University of Nebraska-Lincoln journalism college. In 2025. he starts his second season as the primary announcer for the team, doing all the games on the 810 WHB radio. The home games can also be heard on Apple TV+ MLS Season Pass. He talks here about getting his career started, the passion for soccer, his ambitions, working in a bigger market than most who start their career, and more. Recorded Janua...
Feb 06, 2025•50 min•Season 11Ep. 6
ROSS JERNSTROM was a sportscaster in Omaha for 41 years, first at KETV and then WOWT. He is a UNL journalism graduate who started his career in Hastings but spent only a few months there. In October of 2024 Ross’s wife of 44 years Julie passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Ross talks about Julie and her impact on his life and those of many others. He also talks about his career and what it means to teach high school students now as advisor to the Omaha Westside journalism program. ...
Jan 31, 2025•53 min•Season 11Ep. 5
CHRIS TOWNSEND has been the host and producer of the Athletics A’s Cast since 2019. He and others created a radio station online, where they do most of their broadcast work. The team is moving to Las Vegas, with a three-year stop at Sacramento on the way. In this conversation we talk about that move from Oakland, which caused considerable emotions from broadcasters and fans. We talk a lot about what he has learned in the last five years about how to deliver ‘radio’ in digital form. Recorded Janu...
Jan 20, 2025•53 min•Season 11Ep. 4
GRANT HANSEN is the new radio voice of the Omaha Supernovas, the champions in the first year of the Pro Volleyball Federation. The club is back to defend its title in 2025. Grant is a Nebraska native who works at Walnut Media in Omaha, with a variety of play-by-play duties and he helps oversee the company’s new podcast center, Performance Podcasts. He can be found at @HansenNotHanson on X/Twitter Recorded January 10, 2025...
Jan 14, 2025•33 min•Season 11Ep. 3
DANNY BURKE is a content producer, writer and promoter for the betting and DFS subscription services Stokastic and OddsShopper. He started his career out of the University of Nebraska at VSiN in Las Vegas and has worked in this space for about seven years. He’s a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows around the country. He’s on Twitter/X:@dannyburke5 Recorded January 7, 2025
Jan 09, 2025•28 min•Season 11Ep. 2
ANDREW MARCHAND is Senior Sports Media Columnist for The Athletic, which is a New York Times property. His work and that of many of his colleagues appears in the NYT. He covered sports media for the New York Post and was a reporter for ESPN. Marchand is well known for breaking news in the sports media space. He is well-connected, hard-working and prolific. He also does work independently, including a podcast on his Substack at AndrewMarchand.com. Recorded October 31, 2024...
Jan 06, 2025•39 min•Season 11Ep. 1
The sports industry is a massive industry. At the highest levels it is driven by growing media rights revenues. So, it may seem natural that the sports media beat is growing: More sports media reporters covering the expanding sports media business. This report is based on the following interviews: Ben Strauss, Washington Post Richard Deitsch, The Athletic Andrew Marchand, The Athletic Austin Karp, Sports Business Journal Jon Lewis, Sports Media Watch Published: December 31, 2024...
Dec 31, 2024•21 min
JILLIAN MARTIN Huskers bowler with three pro titles December 31, 2024 JILLIAN MARTIN is a junior on Nebraska’s bowling team. She has won three professional tournaments, including two in 2024. The first of her pro titles came when she was only 17 years old, the youngest ever to win on the PWBA tour. She remains an amateur and is spending this winter break bowling with the US National team competing at the World Cup in Hong Kong....
Dec 31, 2024•9 min
JON LEWIS is the creator of Sports Media Watch [SportsMediaWatch.com], a web site that covers the sports media business and its stars and mega-starts. He says Fox Sports signing Tom Brady to a $375 million / ten-year contract was ‘foolish.’ Also, who is the audience, what are the big stories, who moves the needle. Recorded November 18, 2024
Nov 30, 2024•41 min
AUSTIN KARP is the Managing Editor, Newsletters for the Sports Business Journal. He co-hosts the Sports Media Podcast for SBJ. Now in his 19th year with SBJ, Karp keeps an eye on the sports media business. He is an expert in analyzing television ratings. These are interesting times to be reporting and writing about sports media, with the growing consumer interest and the massive media deals in the major sports leagues. And, a few mega media stars to keep an eye on, to profile and analyze. Record...
Nov 22, 2024•37 min
For the last ten years ALEXI LALAS has been a studio soccer analyst for Fox Sports. Before that six years at ESPN followed a career as a player and an executive in MLS. Lalas was a World Cup player for the USA. He also played in Italy and MLS. Lalas hosts a podcast State of the Union . This conversation focuses mostly on Lalas’ politics and how they play in his role as a podcaster (not much) and on television (not much) and social media (a lot.) He has called himself a unicorn, as a Republican i...
Oct 31, 2024•48 min
RICHARD DEITSCH covers sports media for The Athletic and hosts the popular Sports Media Podcast. He was the first in the sports media podcasting world, creating a pod more than a decade ago when he was a reporter and writer for Sports Illustrated. We talk here about the growing interest in sports media, from reporters and podcasters to the consumers. Recorded October 23, 2024
Oct 28, 2024•46 min
