Watch the Media with John Shrader

JOSH PETERSON is the co-host of the “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” radio program on 1620 The Zone in Omaha, weekday afternoons. He’s a graduate of the University of Nebraska’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He and John Bishop have done the show for more than 11 years now – entering their 12th football season together. Josh has a growing podcast and Patreon effort, I-80 Club . He and Jac...

MITCH SHERMAN enters his seventh season coveringNebraska athletics for The Athletic. Mitch is a Nebraska native who before his time with the New York Times owned publication worked at the Omaha World Herald and ESPN. He is a native Nebraskan, a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He talks here about his job covering the biggest sports brand...

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 ne...

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 experie...

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 nat...

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 likel...

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 ha...

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...

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...

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 abo...

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 p...

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...

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 McDerm...

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 McDermo...

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

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....

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 Range...

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, includ...

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 Spor...

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 d...

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,...

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...

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 w...

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...

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