Today’s guest columnist is Kelli Turner, president and CEO of Audacy Inc.
In August 1921, listeners to radio station KDKA in Pittsburgh gathered around their living room receivers to hear the first-ever major league broadcast: the Pirates rallied to beat the Phillies, ushering in the new age of sports broadcasting. More than a century later, you might think that sports radio would be a nice relic from a bygone era, like silent movies, the telegraph, or The Charleston. But as diehard sports fans can tell you, you’d be very wrong.
Streaming platforms, podcasts, satellite radio, social media, YouTube, TikTok, gambling apps, and the advent of AI-generated personalization have all wildly expanded and changed how sports are consumed and enjoyed today. But amid so many choices, sports audio’s place is as secure and relevant as ever—in fact, it’s thriving. Audacy, the company I lead as CEO, launched the sports talk brand 97.1 The Fan in Los Angeles last Monday. That gives us sports brands in each of the 10 largest markets in the U.S. and more than 30 sports stations nationally, including KDKA, which is still the Pirates’ on-air home. Building on our radio roots, we’ve doubled down on sports and are creating thousands of hours of sports content a day, more than any other company. We’ve done this for some very simple—if under-appreciated—reasons.
