Blog 8: Early Broadcasts Online: You've Got to Start Somewhere, Sometime

Problogue: As I've gotten older I've gotten a lot more bolder than I used to be (hey, I quoted Bob Segar last week and here's another--although opposite--reference to a Segar lyric...hmmm).

I believe in taking chances, perhaps failing but often succeeding.  I believe that you have to try, hesitating rarely produces anything of value.  I believe that when you get in to a car to drive, you have to push down the accelerator, not just keep your foot on the brake.

Early in the internet era, I believed the idea of sports broadcasting online was a tremendous opportunity.  Not bragging, but I was right, and it's kept me employed in sports broadcasting the last 20 years and counting.

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It used to happen to me a lot.  But that was a couple of decades ago, before the internet ruled the entertainment industry.  When Netflix mailed movies.  When YouTube was only about sharing home  video.  

Fans would come up at games and ask me where they could see or hear the broadcast (since they were actually at the scene of the contest, the question itself struck me as odd).

I would reply that the we were broadcasting on the internet (I don't think anyone used the term "streaming" or "online" much then) and not only would it be live, but it would also be archived to be watched later.  I'd tell them the website address.  And then I would cringe thinking about the next thing that was going to happen.

Because it always did happen.  

Whether they said it to me, or scowled at me (perhaps both) or just said nothing at all and left me to accept the silence, it always did happen.

"You mean...it's ONLY on the internet?"

It's that insinuation...that tone.

Pretty sure what they meant was:

• "You're not on a radio/TV station?"
• "You're not talented enough to be on a radio/TV station?"
• "An internet broadcast is not nearly as meaningful as a broadcast on radio/TV."
• "People don't care about/won't listen or watch anything not on mainstream media.
• "No one will sit in front of their computer for an entire game."
• "You won't do as good a job as a real broadcaster."

Like I said, that was several years ago, and of course things have changed. 

Considering it all, the broadcasts of sports online (from single camera school broadcasts all the way up to big time professional sports) far outnumber the network presentations of sports.  

And that opens big time opportunities for sports broadcasters.

If you really want to broadcast sports, you can have your own station overnight.  Over a nap, even.

And if you think you have that fire, you have no reason to wait.  

Start your own station...start your own network...don't worry about viewers/listeners right now...you don't need much money to start...just start.

And this...I will be happy to help you if I can!  I just love doing it.

Reach out to me:

rickcolebroadcaster@gmail.com

816.589.8500