Next Gen Talk Radio

So if you establish this is how they get their info, why wouldn't you want to influence it

I sat in Destin, Florida, at the SEC meetings in the mid 1990s and listened to my colleagues rail against talk radio. They lacked journalistic background. They let anyone get on and say anything. They were the end of the gentile sports world as we know it.

Fast-forward a decade. Talk stations are credentialed to SEC media days, complete with a "radio row" for coaches and players to appear. We have not one, but three national sports talk radio networks. One of the great launching pads for the world-wide leader in sports was its radio network component.

Are there still problems with talk show hosts? Yes. Do we regulate appearances? You bet. But the best of breed are knowledgeable -- and responsible -- members of the sports media community.

That didn't happen overnight. It took people deciding to reach out on both sides of the equation. I see where we are with the new media and Web 2.0 sites as very similar to that mid-90s tipping point with the sports talk format.