Watch the Media with John Shrader

TROY CLARDY is a veteran PxP announcer based on the West Coast. He has worked in sports talk radio, live sports production. He is one of the few African American PxP voices working in the U.S. He talks about that, about hustling work in a busy and expensive market, and the process getting where he is and how he manages the work. 

JAKE BARTECKI AND CAELAN DEBBAN WORK AT RADIO AND TELEVISION OUTLETS FOR FLOOD COMMUNICATIONS IN NEBRASKA; BARTECKI AT KWBE IN BEATRICE, DEBBAN AT KUSO/US 92 IN NORFOLK. THEY BOTH COVER NEWS AND SPORTS FOR NEWS CHANNEL NEBRASKA. THEY TALK ABOUT THE IMPACT OF LOCAL RADIO, THE VALUE OF DOING TELEVISION AND THE PASSION THAT DRIVES THEM TO GET BETTER. SHOW NOTES: 1:50 Can you imagine how much you’ve l...

Guy Harrison is Assistant Professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. His book On the Sidelines: Gendered Neoliberalism and the American Female Sportscaster was published in 2021 by the University of Nebraska Press. Harrison writes about the current state of women in sports broadcasting, the challenges and the double-standards, and provides some suggestio...

MIKE WOITALLA Has covered soccer for more than 35 years for Soccer America magazine. SHOW NOTES :40 World Cup in Qatar and the US in it and how it impacts MLS 4:00 US should have good showing in Qatar 5:45 Does world take US soccer more seriously? 13:40 Clubs around the world want a piece of the US market? 18:50 Who is driving the increase in soccer interest in the US 22:00 USA still the standard...

DAVID BERRI Economics Professor, Southern Utah University July 2022 David Berri researches and writes about sports economics. In this conversation we break down the changing economics of college sports.  Show Notes: 1:30 History of NIL 4:00 College athletes and why they choose schools (hint: it’s changing) 10:00 Will college athletes begin to collectively bargain? 14:30 Will athletic departme...

STEVE SIPPLE worked at the Lincoln Journal Star for about 30 years, the last 15 as a columnist. His primary beat for much of that time is Huskers football. In June 2022 he left the Journal Star to work for On3, the newest of the sports sites dedicated to college athletics, mostly recruiting but not exclusively; the others are 247 Sports and Rivals. He has a long-term contract to do what he’d been...

Adrian Martinez and Geoff Exstrom host the podcast Athletes Unfiltered . They are both recent graduates of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Geoff with a degree in Sports Media and Broadcasting and Adrian in Business. Martinez has since transferred to Kansas State to play his final year of football. They talk about their podcast, how it got started, what they’re trying to do with it and where th...

Gary Sharp hosts the morning show with Damon Benning at 1620 the Zone in Omaha. He talks about the chemistry he has with his partner; also, the difference in planning and delivering an early morning show and a midday show. A little more pop culture in the morning and a little more sports in the middle of day. 

MARK FAINARU-WADA has been on the investigative team at ESPN for 15 years. He and his brother Steve Fainaru often collaborate and did so on a piece released April 14, 2022, “Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai is the face of NBA’s uneasy China relationship.” John got Mark on the line within hours and recorded this conversation about the story, about the task of reporting on the ESPN's business partners,...

DAVE RAYMOND enters his sixth season as the television play by play voice of the Ranges. He was the lead announcer of the Houston Astros for seven seasons. The Stanford grad and Nebraska native says it's great to be back after the lockout. He says baseball is taking on its challenges, such as its style of play, which has affected the pace of the game. He says MLB also has a consumption problem, co...

KEVIN FRANDSEN in 2022 starts his first year as the TV analyst for the Washington Nationals, after two seasons as an analyst on Phillies radio broadcasts. Frandsen played for the Nats and says he thinks his time as a player in DC helped set the tone for his hiring. He thinks baseball should be concerned about its style of play, its TV blackout rules and he likes a good number of the enacted and pr...

KEN KORACH has been the lead radio voice of the A’s for 17 years, and with the club overall for 27 years. DAVE RAYMOND is the lead TV announcer for the Texas Rangers, going into his sixth season. He spent seven years with the Houston Astros in the same capacity. KEVIN FRANDSEN is entering his first season as the TV analyst for the Washington Nationals after two years in the Phillies radio booth. A...

JB LONG has been the voice of the Rams since they returned to LA in 2016. He’s a Notre Dame grad who grew up in Northern California. The Rams won the Super Bowl in their home stadium in February 2022, an event Long says could be a once in a lifetime honor. Long says his role is as much about calling the games as it is helping the club grow a new generation of fans in Southern California.

Josh Planos is Director of Public Relations and Communications for the Better Business Bureau AND a freelance sports writer. He’s written for Sports Illustrated, Washington Post, and others. Most of his work now appears in the sports vertical of the Nate Silver founded site, Five Thirty Eight. He also does regular hits with CNN Philippines. He talks about the dual life in the media business and ho...

JEFF CARLISLE is a former software engineer who learned the craft of journalism along the way, and is now a Senior Writer covering soccer - mostly Major League Soccer and the national teams - for ESPN. He has seen MLS grow, as he says brick by brick. He has seen the interest in soccer grow in this country, but he says they still need to do a better job of making the game available to everyone.

BILL DOLEMAN  He is working his fourth Olympic Games in 2022. By his own estimation Bill has done 30-40 different Olympic sports on television. He has worked in Houston and Denver. He has broadcast all the traditional American sports on regional and national television, and worked a number of sports and events in his native Nebraska.  We spend a lot of time in this conversation talking a...

JOHN BISHOP and JOSH PETERSON have been co-hosting the afternoon radio show “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” at 1620 The Zone in Omaha since August 2014. They talk about the process of the show, the rough early patches, the entertainment value of what they do, and much more.  This is a frank conversation about the show, its history and its hosts. Show Notes Chapter 1 The show and who they are (to 12...

JOHN BAYLOR has been the voice of the Nebraska volleyball team for nearly 30 years. He's a broadcaster, a teacher, and an entrepreneur. He is philosophical in this conversation about where we are in this country, and how sports and sports broadcasting fit. He has a unique broadcast style and a big picture view. A Stanford grad who wanted to be an actor who then stumbled into mentoring students, an...

GRANT WAHL , who spent 25 years at Sports Illustrated, is now publishing his world-class soccer journalism at Substack. So, from one of the storied brands in American journalism to the new world. He shares his story with us on Watch the Media, including an inside look at the process of getting his work published at GrantWahl.com . He says soccer is 'cool' for young people and provides some advice...

At the end of 2021, MIKE’L SEVERE left his job as co-host of the morning drive show on 1620 the Zone in Omaha. Severe has been on the media scene in Omaha for about 25 years, much of that time doing sports radio. He says it’s time for a new challenge. He talks about why he got out of radio, the media market, and much more.

Dave Tepper is the Program Director and Operations Manager of Altitude Radio Sports in Denver. He is a former PD of 1620 The Zone in Omaha (2015-2018) where he worked with most of the management and talent who are still there. He talks about the business, its process, molding talent and much more in this conversation.

The Oakland Athletics created a streaming audio network in 2019, and called it A’s Cast. They send all their programming, including live PxP to the stream while some of it still airs terrestrially. Chris Townsend is the founder, host and producer of the enterprise. Cody Elias is multimedia producer and editor. They both joined us in Fall 2021 to talk about the innovations they use to create a new...

Danny Burke is the host of Rush Hour on VSiN, The Sports Betting Radio Network (5-6 p.m. CT) live from the Bet Rivers Sports Book at the Rivers Casino in suburban Chicago. He also does the Chicago CityCast podcast daily, as well as other media appearances in and around Chicago and nationally

Kevin Kugler, who broadcasts for Fox Sports, Big Ten Network and Westswood One Radio, talks with the students in the Sports Broadcasting class at his alma mater, the University of Nebraska Lincoln. He offer career advice, broadcasting tips and some anecdotes. 

Julian Rodriguez is a graduate of the UNL College of Journalism and Mass Communications. Ten years ago, he founded the Hispanic Media Initiative at UTA. He has one of the most prominent programs in the country dedicated to teaching students broadcast journalism in both Spanish and English, for both the Spanish- and English-language markets. He talks about the current state of multilingual journali...