Watch the Media with John Shrader

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, women’s sports, and the so-called Olympic sports. 

Recorded June 10, 2025

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.

Recorded June 5, 2025

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 29, 2025

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

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 Charlie Hustle: The Rise andFall of Pete Rose and the Last Glory Days of Baseball.

Recorded April 25, 2025

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 recorded April 23, 2025

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 partnerships and how they impact the journalism [22:40]; young people working in the sports media business [24:30]; women in sports media, particularly at ESPN [28:30]; transparency and access [31:45].

Recorded April 15, 2025

Season 11, Episode 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 television, and it went right down the wire before they got a goal.  This conversation also includes bigger-picture topics about how soccer is broadcast in this country and abroad.

This is one of two episodes.

Recorded February 25, 2025.  

Part 1   30:50

Part 2   33:30

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 television, and it went right down to the wire before they got a goal. [No spoilers here.] 

This conversation also includes bigger-picture topics about how soccer is broadcast in this country and abroad.

This is one of two episodes.

Recorded February 25, 2025.  

Part 1   30:50

Part 2   33:30

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. He talks here about his career, including the somewhat inexplicable decision by MLS not to bring him back in 2024. [He goes into detail starting at the 28-minute mark he goes into detail about the end of deal with Season Pass.]

Recorded February 26, 2025

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.

Recorded February 28, 2025

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.

Interview sources: Martie Cordaro, Dominic Casciato, Rashid Nuhu, Blake Malone, PxP calls courtesy USL/CBS

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, hockey and gymnastics.

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

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 January 30, 2025

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. That too is Ross’s alma mater.

Recorded January 14, 2025

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 January 13, 2025

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Recorded November 11, 2024

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 in California.

I think you will find this conversation interesting as Lalas talks with depth and nuance about his role as a performer and the things he believes in, and “what’s going on in the greater world,” as he describes it.

Recorded October 30, 2024

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

LARRY PUNTENEY is a state champion bowling coach & a health care consultant AND a sports broadcaster. All at the same time, sort of. An interesting life for a Council Bluffs, Iowa native who has made his way in Lincoln, Nebraska [and beyond.]

Recorded October 2, 2024

BEN STRAUSS covers the media business, including the sports business and sports media for the Washington Post, which includes the networks, the RSNs, the personalities and innovators.  He talks about the ‘tenuous’ nature of sports journalism and the strength of sports media.

STEVE PHYSIOC is a now-retired sports broadcaster who will soon be publishing his fifth novel.

He was with the KC Royals from 2012 to 2022. He has also broadcast games for the LA Angels, Cincinnati Reds and San Francisco Giants, as well as football and basketball games on various outlets over the years.

We talk here about the Royals, writing books, the decency one brings to the business, and the personal things that have guided his life.

Steve's books are: The Walls of Lucca, Above the Walls, Walks with the Wind and Catching the Wind.

Recorded October 5, 2024

CALLUM WILLIAMS broadcasts soccer for Apple TV's MLS Season Pass, ESPN, CBS, DAZN and other outlets in Europe and around the world. He has broadcast for two MLS clubs Sporting Kansas City and Minnesota United. The Birmingham, England native first came to the US in 2011 as a 21-year-old just to see what it was like living and working in the US. He went home for a few years but is now firmly committed to living and working in America and to MLS.

We talk here about the state of American soccer, the 2026 World Cup, the growing soccer broadcast opportunities in the US and much more.

Interview was recorded August 21, 2024

JACOB PADILLA has been covering sports in Nebraska for about a decade, since graduating from Creighton. He covers Nebraska volleyball, Creighton men’s basketball and high schools sports. Jacob talks about the Huskers annual hunt for a national VB title, its coach John Cook and the recent ESPN E60 documentary about the team.

Recorded August 26, 2024

STU POSPISIL has been a sportswriter at the Omaha World Herald since the early 1980s. He was the 2022 Nebraska Sports Writer of the Year, from the National Sports Media Association.  Here in 2024, Pospisil starts his 41st season covering high school sports for the biggest newspaper brand in Nebraska. He provides insights into how the coverage is put together; how to keep track of about 300 high school programs; a little history lesson on 8-man and 6-man football in Nebraska; a look at the transfer policies and practices in Nebraska; and how his passion for the work drives his approach to the job.

Interview recorded August 16, 2024

JEN KARSON STRAUSS is Director of the ESPN E60 documentary “No Place Like Nebraska,” which airs August 25, 2024 at 5:00 p.m. ET on ESPN and will then be available on ESPN+. This is the story of a Nebraska volleyball season that started with 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium and ended with a loss in the NCAA title game in Tampa.  This conversation focuses on how she and her colleagues put this project together and delivered the hour-long documentary about a college women’s volleyball team in the middle of the country.

DENNIS DODD has been with CBS Sports since 1998, reporting on college football.

We chat here about the upcoming season, the biggest story [it's the playoffs!], the national picture, the two big conferences, the changing nature of the business, Scott Frost, Huskers and Matt Rhule, and more.

Interview Recorded August 14, 2024

CHRIS SCHMIDT co-hosts the Morning News for three hours at KFOR radio in Lincoln and the Hail Varsity program, two hours of sports talk in the afternoons on KFOR and other stations around Nebraska. He also is part of three podcasts talking about sports in various formats. He does more than 25 hours of live radio and streaming every week. We talk about the challenges, covering the Huskers, the upcoming election and much more.

Interview Recorded August 5, 2024

DAVID BERRI teaches economics at Southern Utah University. He is the author, with Nefertitii Walker of UMass-Amherst, of the new book “Slaying the Trolls: Why the trolls are very, very wrong about women and sports.”  This is a conversation about that book and its content, which looks at women in sports, including the biases, the challenges, the opportunities, the history.

RECORDED August 9, 2024

MICHAEL BRUNTZ has covered Huskers football for CBS Sports's Husker 247 since 2011. In 2024 he starts his 18th season reporting on the Huskers.

He attended and wrote about the Big Ten Media days in Indianapolis in late July 2024. We talk about that, the coverage of the Huskers and the prospects for the team in Matt Rhule’s second season as head coach. 

Look for the question about 46 minutes in about the Huskers being in the conversation of “Blue Blood programs.”

Recorded: July 26, 2024

NICK BADDERS is the Broadcast and Media Manager for the Omaha Stormchasers, the Royals AAA team in the International League. He’s in his second season with the Chasers. We talk about his progress as an announcer, what he has learned in 18 months on the job in Omaha. The Bay Area native also has some thoughts about the Oakland Athletics moving as well as calling games remotely.

CONNOR CLARK is in his first year as the broadcasting and media relations manager of the American Association's Lincoln Saltdogs baseball team. He spent two summers in college working with the former PxP announcer Michael Dixon. Clark graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in May 2024. We chat here about the job, about getting started in the profession, about his long-term professional ambitions.

MOLLY ROBINSON is co-host of the midday program “Three Man Front” on WJOX Radio in Birmingham, Alabama. She was on the scene when MLB celebrated Negro Leagues baseball and Willie Mays, with the Giants and Cubs playing at Rickwood Field.  The Nebraska graduate and Alabama native talks about her first full time radio job and the impact the game and festivities had on her and her workmates.

 Recorded June 21, 2024

DOUG DUDA - the 2022 Nebraska Sportscaster of the year - is the Sports Director of ESPN Tri-Cities in Kearney, Nebraska where he has been for about 27 years. He's worked in Central Nebraska in 'local' radio for more than 35 years. We talk about what a guy does in the middle of the summer to keep it lively on his "Doug and Daddy" radio show.

AARON OBERHOLSER has been an analyst and on-course reporter for NBC’s Golf Channel since 2013. He’s a former PGA Tour player whose first win came at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 2006. As a junior at San Jose State in 1996 he won six college titles, matching the number of a Stanford sophomore named Tiger Woods. 

Aaron worked the US Open for NBC and the Golf Channel and much of this conversation focuses on that tournament, and its exciting finish and the drama associated with it. And an extension of that is a conversation about LIV golf.

 Recorded June 18, 2024

JACQUI OATLEY has quickly become a fixture in American soccer broadcasting. On Fox Sports, she worked the Men's World Cup in Qatar in 2022 and the Women's World Cup in Australia/New Zealand in 2023. Oatley is doing the Euros 2024 this summer on Fox Sports. She is the lead voice on CBS Sports for the NWSL. The native of Wolverhampton continues to do the EPL and much more TV and radio work in her native England. This is the story of how this woman got into the broadcast business and how far she's come.

Recorded June 12, 2024

GEOFF EXSTROM is the Director of Communications and Media Relations for the Omaha Supernovas of the Professional Volleyball Federation. In his first season as the media relations director, in the first season of the league’s existence Omaha won the championship. We chatted before the season about his new gig. This is an update of a kind of what-did-you-learn conversation.

This interview was recorded June 6, 2024.

MAX OLSON is Senior Writer covering college football for The Athletic. He was one of the early hires there, following a stint with ESPN. Max is a Nebraska native, a graduate of the University of Nebraska journalism college. He spends his time covering the games, the portal, the off-field news including NIL and the new world of directly paying college athletes.

This interview was recorded May 9, 2024.

Michael Serazio researches and writes in the areas of media and communication. He is professor of communications at Boston College. His latest book is "The Authenticity Industries." He's also the author of "The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture." He chats here with John about the condition of sports journalism, the sports media industry, sport and its place in American culture, and a whole lot more.

This interview was recorded May 10, 2024.

Elijah Herbel is the producer and co-host of "Hail Varsiy Radio," from Hurrdat Media.

It is flagshipped at KFOR Radio in Lincoln and heard around the state 4-6 p.m. weekdays.  Elijah started with the show while he was in college at Nebraska and has been with host Chris Schmidt now for about five years. It is fundamentally a show about Huskers sports [with heavy emphasis on football] on the radio but as he explains in this conversation it is expanding.

RICKY LOPEZ ESPIN is a former soccer player at Creighton. He played professionally in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Miami and Fort Lauderdale. He is now a color analyst for a number of television outlets, including MLS, MLS Next Pro, and USL. He’s been broadcasting for about three years and already has aspirations of broadcasting World Cup games.

JOHN BAYLOR will enter his 31st season as the radio voice of the Huskers Volleyball team in Fall 2024. He has added some television work, calling games on News Channel Nebraska for the Omaha Supernovas of the Pro Volleyball Federation. We talk about the Huskers, the new volleyball league and some of the distinctions between doing radio and television.