Jason Barrett returns to answer my sports related questions. Normally I don't bring Jason on until this first week of September when we look forward to the new NFL football season and talk about Sports broadcasting. However, these are not normal times for Sports radio and now is a good time to unpack what's going to happen. Jason's company, Barrett Sports Media has unveiled two initiatives to help us through, including a podcast called "Managing the Crisis" and his Membership Directory which connects you to sports radio programmers and executives. Jason made reference to the Fox station in Sioux Falls,, Iowa that dropped it's local sports show. You can find that story here. Also - the genesis of this podcast was Jason's first blog after the crisis hit. You can find that here. I believe I mentioned that Jason's sports media updates by email were awesome - Here is the link to Subscribe to them.

Jonathan West is passionate about a few things, including two of our favourites, hockey and radio. We eliminated all the hockey talk from the podcast but I will bring him back at some point on "The Other" podcast to chat it up in February when the playoff races take hold. It was good to catch up with Jonathan at the Conclave, and he mentioned he was going to be at Morning Show Bootcamp, so he promised me an update on that and I would pass along my Podcast Movement notes to him. Aside from being a talented radio personality, Jonathan is also a great hockey writer, which is where I first encountered his work. Californian born, southern raised and a hockey goalie. Quite the mixed bag. He's covered a lot of hockey and pointed out that 13 of the 14 outdoor NHL Classics have ended in losses for the home side. Sorry gang - this podcast is all radio and music. And we had some "real talk" about our business which says that it believes in talent, yet 4 in every 10 on air personality goes without an air check. We think that is unacceptable and if you don't get regular air checks, you can come to Canada where the health care is free - and the air checks are free. UPDATED! (May 7, 2020) We caught up with Jonathan West and talked about his new streaming offering to radio which you can sample here.

Logan Anderson is the host of the Say the Damn Score Podcast. He loves being a sports broadcaster and found out that podcast was a great way to network and meet new people in his field. Guests have largely been the familiar voices that call games for places like Fresno State, South Dakota, Ball State, and Bradley. But there's also the Milwaukee Brewers and National icons like Bob Costas and Ian Eagle. It's more than just a podcast; his blog features lots of great insight and information like calling "buzzer beaters" (yes there is an art to it), and his thoughts on the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash. (Full disclosure: I did not know that he had written the blog piece before I asked him on the podcast) After exchanging phone calls every few months over the last few years, Logan and I met at the Conclave Summer Learning Conference in Minneapolis last month. Minny is now home for Logan and his family. If you have a sports opening at your station in the area - do not hesitate to hit him up if you like what you hear. In this episode, we talk Conclave, Sports, our favourite play-by-play callers and what networking is like these days. The episode is powered by Promosuite and also NLogic UPDATED: (May 8, 2020) We catch up with Logan! #sports #minny #conclave #podcast

Dana Marshall loves radio, loves the music of Prince, and has found the perfect audio life balance with both. He does mornings and is program director at 103.3 WKFR in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is currently seeking a co-host for that morning show, so if you think that is you - apply within. Much like Melz On the Mic, who was a guest on the podcast in June 2018, Dana knows local, social and vital. Our meeting at the Conclave in 2018 led to a discussion about podcast which then led to the creation of the My Prince Story Podcast. The show is now in its second season and is the 4th most downloaded amongst the 14 we work with. Dana and I also get into the weeds about what ails radio, but also why we get excited about it too. He also challenged me to think about how we would have handled a pandemic in 1995 without solid internet. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I loved recording it! It's a wonderful discussion. Dana is the host of the My Prince Story Podcast. If you love Prince, you will love meeting new fans just like you. Scroll through the podcast and check out the episodes. Please subscribe or follow the podcast if you enjoy it. Finally, this is episode 200 of the podcast. We had other plans for 200 including a live show and some other bells and whistles that were going to take place in Toronto over the course of Canadian Music week, but alas it has fallen victim to the Corona Virus Pandemic. While we are disappointed we didn't get to do a live recording in front of a studio audience, we will save this idea for another date and another time.

This week, Sheryl Worsley from KSL Radio in Salt Lake City. While being a news director for around 20 years, she shifted in 2015 to audio and audience development in the Bonneville cluster's digital space. Sheryl and her team saw the value in podcast when a news series they were putting together was better suited for podcast than radio. Thus the hit podcast COLD— a true crime series covering the case of Susan Powell, was picked up by podcast powerhouse Wondery and soared up the podcast chart rankings. The podcast series covers every aspect of the case, every detail, every piece of evidence. In this episode, we spoke about the nature of working on a hit podcast like COLD, the early plans, the numbers, and what's next. Also, COVID-19’s impact on listenership on both podcast and radio. Finally, we wondered what the radio workplace is going to look like post-pandemic. Sheryl also tipped shared that KSL is working on some new podcasts - keep this page bookmarked to see their latest. Two podcasts of note that the station produces that are thriving in this COVID-19 era include Corona Virus Q&A And hey Canada - This podcast is one we love. Because. Hockey. Jay Stevens has the Utah Puck Report. KSL’S COLD OPTIONED FOR SERIES DEVELOPMENT For Immediate Release SALT LAKE CITY, UT – COLD: Susan Powell Case Files: The Untold Story, a production of KSL Podcasts in partnership with KSL Newsradio and KSL-TV, has been optioned for series development by Nina Tassler and Denise Di Novi’s PatMa Productions. “We are fortunate to be part of an organization at Bonneville/KSL that embraces innovation and is nimble enough to move quickly on good projects. We had a lot of interest in COLD and were very selective in who we moved forward with as a partner. PatMa’s commitment to quality content and focus on issues was an important factor for us. They have an outstanding team, we are thrilled to work with them.” said Tanya Vea, Senior Vice President, Bonneville International, Salt Lake. “We are excited to be partnering with KSL Podcasts on this very important story,” say Tassler and Di Novi said of PatMa Productions. “We know that this podcast has inspired people to speak up about domestic abuse, and in turn, it is helping to save lives. KSL Podcasts received hundreds of emails from women who were inspired by Susan’s story to leave their own domestic violence situations. We hope that by bringing this story to the screen and to a broader audience, it will do the same.” COLD has more than 38 million downloads to date, and over 35,000 reviews on Apple Podcasts, with an overall 5-star rating. KSL Investigative Reporter, Dave Cawley hosts the podcast, which he created with Sheryl Worsley, Director of Audience Development for KSL. In Season 1 of COLD, made up of 23 episodes (including 5 bonus episodes), Cawley used case files, journal entries, and recordings - all gleaned during a years-long investigation, to detail the case of missing Utah mother Susan Powell. Cawley examined Powell’s marriage to Josh Powell, revealed domestic abuse, and described shocking behavior from Josh and his father, Stephen Powell. “More than 1 in 3 women and more than 1 in 4 men in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Home isolation, however vital to the fight against this pandemic, is giving still more power to the abuser and reports of increasing rates of domestic violence are surfacing around the world. Now more than ever, we feel it is important to raise awareness of all types of intimate partner violence and provide resources to those in need,” states Tassler and Di Novi. Susan vanished in December 2009, without her children - and without explanation. In the 10 years since Susan’s disappearance, no charges have been filed and her body has never been found. Her husband, who was named a person of interest but never charged, subsequently killed himself and their young sons in a murder-suicide amid a custody dispute with Susan’s parents. Tassler, Di Novi, Joan Boorstein, Dave Cawley, and KSL Podcasts will executive produce the project, possibly a limited series, which will be taken out to the marketplace shortly. Subscribe to the podcast by searching “COLD” or “Dave Cawley” in your favorite podcast app. You can also click HERE. The COLD podcast is free and available via KSL NewsRadio smartphone apps, KSL TV Connect TV apps, Apple Podcasts and Google Play. And OMG - KSL Radio makes hockey podcasts for Canadians!

This episode is a little different. Over the weekend, a 22 people lost their lives in a mass murder spree that covered 100 kilometres in Nova Scotia. Monday morning, Q104 in Halifax and a number of Stingray radio stations came together to pivot programming towards the hearts of their listeners. To understand what it takes to make those changes, you need to understand the people affected. Nova Scotia has had more than its fair share of disasters in the last century, and radio has been there to weather every storm and see its listeners through.This is what radio does best. In this episode, I shelve my original plan of talking about the 1,000,000th podcast to go into Apple Podcasts and react to the great radio I listened to on Monday on Q104 in Halifax, and 89.3 K-Rock in Kentville. We explore how connected Maritimers are to one another, using myself as an example having lived there for 5 years. There are about 2 degrees of separation in every relationship - or at least it feels that way. We also speak with Q104 program director Trevor Wallworth spoke to me about how he and senior management at Stingray, Steve Parsons and Steve Jones formulated a plan to get the Maritimers healing. Also Darrin Harvey who appeared on this podcast episode recently, shared parts of his show from Monday too. Meet Some of the people in this episode. Kerri Gaskin-Fowler went to Acadia University and founded Coverdale Counselling. She appears on my Facebook feed on a regular basis and shared some of her thoughts which found their way into this podcast episode. Kerri resides in Moncton, New Brunswick. Here is the interview Darrin Harvey and Sue Smiley. This is all about grief and I thought it was important to put this into the episode because so much of what we are experiencing these days is grief. Whether it is the loss of a loved one, or the anxiousness of COVID-19, this is some of the best 4 minutes of therapy. Trevor Wallward is the program director of Q104. He wrote me an email after the episode was produced and said: "When I left the office on Friday night we had lined up our music and imaging for 4:20, National Weed Day. A few hours later the world turned upside down. I am blessed to work with some of the best in the country if not the world and I’m so great full we can come together and make a difference."

It's no wonder that Kipper McGee wound up in radio have grown up in between two great radio markets in Milwaukee and Chicago. He's a broadcast consultant, author and host of the Brandwidth on Demand podcast alongside David Martin. The show has been in production for as long as this show has, and it has an A list of broadcasters appearing for what turns out to be, "not your average quarter hour". In this episode, Kipper and I spoke about his years in places I have never been to. Des Moines, San Diego, and Orlando which I just recently went to for the first time. Asking innocuous questions about those places gave me some insight into the radio that was made. You won't be able to see Kipper in his usual places this summer because like the rest of us - he's at home. But you can connect with the podcast on Google and Apple. I was a guest on the podcast back in August of 2018.... (Where does the time go?)

Sunni Puric works weekdays apart of the Joe Clair Morning Show on Rhythmic/CHR radio WGPC 95.5FM. Her journey to radio is unlike any other. This marks the first time I have asked what it was like spending your teenage years in a refugee camp in Bosnia. While the world saw a picturesque Yugoslavia during the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics, it was 12 years later that th country fell into civil war. Sunni was open about sharing her times in the camp, and about her family's pathway to America. In this episode, we spoke about moving from Bosnia to Hamtramck, Michigan where she caught the radio bug listening to WJLB in Detroit. learned English watching Mama's Family, and found her way into WJLB as an intern at the age of 18. Sunni moved to Miami to work at Power 96, then went to New York before landing in the midday spot at WGPC and then on to the morning show with Joe Clair and Guy Lambert. Sunni also does a weekly hit with Fox 5, and is great Twitter and Instagram follow. Remember that if you are having a hard time with staying inside and self distancing, you might want to think about people who have had it harder in the 40's with blackouts, rationing and being forced to move. Or Sunni's experience about teenage years in a refugee camp. Adversity can really shape someone, and Sunni learned that she was a storyteller. If you are looking for some additional reading..... Her book, "Still I Shine" is available from Amazon. The Washington Post wrote a piece on Sunni back in 2014. Sunni makes a regular appearance on the local FOX 5 in DC. She was also featured in a bio piece on that station. FROM REFUGEE TO RADIO STAR: You may know Sunni And The City from WPGC radio, but you may not know her inspirational journey from Bosnian refugee to DC radio star. I've never been a big fan of how the parent company of WGPC distributes their content. It can be pretty tough for an American to access and even harder for a Canadian to listen to these great radio starions. A lot of it is buried in apps and behind walls. I am a believer in being everywhere and creating the shortest route possible to connect to the radio station. I thought it was counter-productive to have all Entercom stations removed from TuneIn, thus preventing recall on smart speakers. Like seriously, we just got the radio back into the house and you want listeners to take a detour? That's not congruent with how they behave. Anyhow, for the purposes of this podcast, I use TunnelBear as a VPN to enter the United States, and registered for a Radio.com membership to listen to all their stations. The VPN costs me about $60 a year but it's my way of jumping the wall.

It's been nearly 20 years since radio has had to shift into crisis mode. The Corona Virus or COVID-19 has arrived and broadcasters find themselves having to re-write rules, redo formats, get more information sourced, while dealing with a staff that have children coming home and everyone faced with the challenge of working from home. In this episode, I spoke about the importance of working from home, and get down to the nitty gritty of what it means to be a broadcaster during a pandemic. I have had to listen to radio talk about how important the medium is in an emergency. That the medium is important, and in an emergency, critical. We are never truly prepared for this sort of thing. The company I worked for in 2009 had us go through some extensive H1N1 training in case we all got sick. The scenarios included mock infections, staff elimination and working from home. It was really good practice. Ten years later, the technology is more advanced and working from home is easier than ever. When all this is said and done, (and no one really knows when that is) Broadcasters are not going to be lumped in with the Doctors, nurses, scientists and hospital support stuff who are on the front lines. You are the messenger and the news and information you have to deliver is not always good. We live in an era of social media with a world leader who calls the virus a hoax, and provides information that runs counter to the doctors and the nurses. That makes your job harder. You've already brought your work home, plunked a makeshift studio into the den and have to perform with kids in the house. You are indeed heroes for doing this and you certainly have my admiration. Here’s the article from Perry Michael Simon I was talking about. Here is the Infinite Dial Study from Tom Webster and everyone at Edison Research. Register for the Jacobs Media Tech Survey which was supposed to be revealed March 26 at the World Wide Radio Summit. The summit is postponed but the data lives!

I missed my first chance to meet Irish Dave. I wasn't going to miss my second. In the days after a Saint Patrick's Day that fell on a Sunday, I caught up with the U93 morning show host and learned a lot about the show host I have listened to on and off over the last 6 months. Now I knew that he was marrying his co-host Christine, but learned more about how they met. Originally, I connected with Dave on Twitter; likely chatting about radio. We failed to connect at the Conclave; in fact I had no idea he was there until.. Twitter. We finally got to have the conversation I wanted to have on this episode and we spoke about how he got to South Bend, Indiana, (home of the Fighting Irish) what radio in Ireland is like, and how do you do a morning show with your future wife? Oh and you need to be her boss too. As it turns out, there is a pretty good formula to it which includes the alarm ringing before 3am. Dave also has a love for flying which he was happy to talk about as well on the podcast. You can check out his progress as he aspires to become a pilot, by following him on Twitter. By the way, Dave also mentioned during the podcast how he wound up with so many Twitter followers. Turns out it is who ya know, but I will let him explain that to you. UPDATE! (March 2020)