Welcome back to JR Sunday on WJR - Live from the Trion Solution Studio. Once again, Mark Hollis:
And welcome back to JR Sunday. Jeff, it's great to have you here.
Thanks for having me.
Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of Startup Nation. Also founder of SportsCaster. Uh, a partner with WJR right here with high school football and Drive to the Game. Talk a little bit about how that started. We're gonna be talking with, some of the college students that are, are part of that program, including your daughter, uh, Lyric Sloam.
Yes. So look, you know, I'm constantly watching for trends out there. You know, being in the startup ecosystem, you're looking for broad areas of opportunity. You're looking for trends. You know, for example, you know, something like social media comes along, certainly AI recently. Those are the kinds of things that change industries, change culture, change lives, change society. And when that happens, opportunities open up opportunities present themselves. And the great entrepreneurs are those that discover and pursue those lanes of opportunity when they do open up.
And so I try to stay on top of all the movement going on out there in society and business and so on, and you take a look at, you know, as I say, lanes of opportunity that opened up as a result of change. And one of those things I've noticed, I know many have, but certainly I have, is that in sports, sports is a booming field. The business of sports is, it is booming as we all know. But more specifically, young people. Young people are looking for ways to engage, in sports, in new and novel ways. Uh, and, and they're looking for support and facilitation to be able to do that. And not everyone can be the star quarterback or the star guard on a great basketball team, you know, but lots of young people have ambition, as I say, to be more deeply engaged, through their fandom of sports, in sports.
So I saw an opportunity to, uh, open up a lane for people to be a voice in sports in a way that really brings the contemporary approach to media today as a result of social media in combination, in balance with some basic professional good journalistic standards. Uh, so it's not the wild west of social media sportscaster, uh, it it, it's really a blending of taking advantage of social media, but. Coupled with really good journalistic standards. And so what we've done at Sportscasters, we provide a platform. People can come in, establish their brand, open a channel much like you can on a YouTube or others, but this is sports broadcasting specific. Uh, and it's a community of like-minded, passionate people who either A, want to have a career in sports broadcasting. Simply wanna establish their voice, as I say, as a fan, get more deeply involved and have their voice be heard and have some fun recreationally. Either way, either's fine. Uh, you start to produce content, you publish it there. Our team not only helps you produce the content, but it helps distribute and promote the content via our social media channels, which now are blowing up millions and millions of impressions now being generated on our content.
Well, that's incredible. Incredible. Yeah. That's incredible, Jeff. Really appreciate the conversation and the comments of Jeff Sloan, he's the founder and CEO of Startup Nation, along with SportsCaster. Three young aspiring broadcasters are joining us now, it's great to have him with us. Two of them are still in the hunt for college football playoff, and one of them is with a pretty good. College basketball team. Let's start with her first Lyric Sloan, it's great to have you with us, along with Cooper Schomberg and Carter Lutz, all local kids that are off, uh, doing their studies and learning their trait to become great broadcasters themselves. Good morning Lyric.
Thank you so much, Mark, for having me on. I appreciate it.
Absolutely. Our be our football season's over, but you know, as we always say, coach is Ozer and we have college basketball. How is your education at Michigan State linking with the opportunity that you have through SportsCaster?
Well, that's a great question. I mean, I think that Sportscaster really set me up for success up at Michigan State. I recently just debuted my Big 10 Plus, so now I'm able to cover those games and I am so grateful for it because SportsCaster, with the experience I got previously, I think I'm able to excel more in the games and now I'm getting lots of coverage, which I'm extremely passionate about, and really grateful to be doing.
It's amazing. Uh, Cooper, Schoenberg, um, IU obviously, uh, and an undefeated football team, they're going in to play the Buckeyes and the championship game. Has that level of excitement that's taking place at Indiana University brought you some opportunities in addition to the work you were doing here in Detroit.
Yeah, you know, there's a certain buzz around campus and it really just has to do not only with the culture, but on the sports scene. I mean, in 138 years of this school's existence, we've never really had a football team to root for. With so many fun and exciting opportunities, they're getting us involved in so many different ways. I know a buddy of mine has a management group, Chris Management group, uh, that I work on the marketing side of. And we just partnered with the football team, had about 14 players. Went out to the local elementary school and the kids absolutely loved it. The players on the team were so humble. It was such an amazing experience, and it's really just a community in Bloomington right now. Like every, everything is intertwined, you know, the kids know what's going on, the faculty knows what's going on, and the players realize just how big of a role and factor they play, uh, in this community's morale.
That's incredible. Um, Carter Lutz, uh, Miami, um, it's snowing up here. I don't know if you're up here on Thanksgiving break still or if you're back at at campus, but, uh, tell me how the sportscaster platform, uh, has helped elevate what you're striving to do, both through your past experiences as well as the academics that you're getting at Miami.
Yeah. Well, thank you for having us on this morning. Uh, it's a pleasure to be here and I'm, I'm still. In my living room watching the snow fall down. So no stunning Miami warm weather yet. But in regards to sportscaster, we talk a lot in the broadcasting world and you hear a lot about being well versed, being comfortable in front of the camera, and that's exactly what sportscaster has done. I was able to go to Miami, uh, lay the foundation, you could say in play by play, and a little bit of on camera work. But I was able to get in touch with Jeff and the rest of the sportscaster team, me, Cooper, as well as Lyric. We've just gotten so much experience and so much opportunity, and really that's what makes you a better broadcaster, uh, getting those reps in. And it's unique. It's not just a classic play by play call. Uh, we're doing things in a way that's, that's different from the typical journalistic standards. So it's unique, it's fun, and it's helping us grow and get more comfortable in front of the camera. And on the mic
lyric, I wanna come back to you. Um, I am post 60. Okay. I'm in my sixties. When I grew up, the Detroit Tigers were the team. You knew every player. You knew every position. They weren't moving on to other contracts or other teams, college kids. It was a four or five year process. Today, things are moving, and I'm finding especially younger fans, even younger than you guys are not so much aligned with a team, but they're aligned with their team. It might be a fantasy team, it might be something they're, they're doing. With that said, what do you see the future of, of sports broadcasting go specific to the games themselves, but then maybe some of the, the commentary or the opinions that people have, uh, post games. Is it, is it are, are fans today focused on sitting down for three hours or are fans more focused on the, the buzz that comes out of maybe the competition?
Well, I think that's a great question. I know for a fact that people are very opinionated and people wanna share that, and I think that sportscaster gives a great opportunity. To take your hot takes and share them, whether that's with the Tigers, with the Pistons, with their huge winning streak. Lost a couple games but won yesterday. Great. But people love to talk. People love to give their opinions, and I think that in this day and age, you have a phone, you have a hot take, you wanna record it, you wanna take it, you do it. But also, I wanna extend a little bit, the inspiration that I've gotten is. Something I could never asked for. I cannot imagine stepping on to the football field for high school sports and being so inspired and I think that. Other people can feel inspired in that way as well, because beyond pro teams, beyond college teams, you can have opinions on high school sports as well. I mean, we've got the state championship today and I'm sure that a lot of people have a lot of buzz around it Will cast tech take a two peak will Detroit Catholic Central, you know, get the revenge from the semifinals they lost to CA tech last year. So I think that people are very opinionated and I think that that is the future. Are people being able to have their own voice, anybody, not just sports broadcasters. And I think that's a really beautiful thing.
And Cooper K kind of playing off that as you're broadcasting today, you might have, let's say 10 10 of uh, a ratio, but 10 of the listeners are just general sports fans. Two of the listeners are just off the walls, super Uber fans. How do you broadcast in a way where you're able to compliment both the general fan and somebody who's just an absolute fanatic?
Yeah, I, I think that's a great question as well. Uh, the way I look at it is you just kind of gotta be in the know. Like I watch a guy like Pat McAfee, I'm on Barstool, a great guy, like brilliantly dumb, and Bob does sports. And all these people are really relatable, right? It, it's not necessarily that you have to, you know, dumb it down, but at the base of it, you know, you're given a topic, you talk about it, and, and you gotta find a common ground where you know that everyone's gonna be able to understand it. Maybe it's a kid who's just getting into sports, or it's a 65-year-old man or woman who's been rooting, you know, as a diehard fan their entire life. Just to be able to talk about the topic as a whole, really break it down. Don't feel rushed. And, and hit all the talking points. You know, maybe given a little background talking about what's happening with the team or the situation and what you're looking at in the future. It doesn't have to, you know, be over complicated and you don't have to give, you know, analytical statistics necessarily. But just to be able to, to have it, you know, be understandable and relatable to all, you know, viewers, listeners, the whole audience I, I think is really important.
And Carter, as you, as you look. To others to inspire you. Jack Collinsworth, who is a son of Chris, is one of my favorite announcers. He did Notre Dame football for a while. He obviously had the advantage of his dad being Chris. But you're looking at folks that inspire you, who's out there, and how do you go about listening to others that are broadcasting games?
Yeah, definitely enjoy listening to others. Um, I have SiriusXM and I try to get all the channels so I bounce around during baseball season, football season. The main thing that I've taken away and learned from other people is that everyone has their own style and everyone's gonna do their broadcasting their way. Nothing's gonna sound the same. So you can take a couple things from certain people, you can notice a few things the way they're, you know, setting up a play while players get to the line of scrimmage or getting ready for a pitch to be thrown from a pitcher. There's a lot of different things that go into play by play specifically. But everyone does have their own style, and you gotta remember that when you're doing your own style.
We have under a minute left, I just want to go around the horn real quick. Uh, we'll start with Lyric, um, one of your favorite announcers. I'm not saying there's one, but gimme one of your favorite announcers and what you aspire to do.
Oh, that's really hard. Um. I might have to name a couple. Okay. Erin Andrews. I admire her success level. Um, she also went on Dancing with the Stars. I used to be a dancer, so I admire her. Melissa Stark, Sunday Night Football. I love her post game interviews. She's supernatural. And I also love Jenny Taft. They call her Gus Johnson calls her the a a g All American girl. She has a great reputation and I love her. How she's always excited to be there in Patrick.
Jenny used to live right here in Birmingham, so they moved out.
I know I would, I would love her. And
what do you want to do, lyric? Um,
my goal, I would love to do NFL Draft Day because it's such a special moment. Um, I would love to do the Super Bowl one day. I just really strive to be the best at what I can be, and I feel like my dad has vicariously showed me that through example, and I,
you have a great leader, Cooper, how about you?
Yeah, I, when I think of my favorite, you know, broadcasters and commentators, Gus Johnson's number one for me, you know, been a little controversial these past couple of weeks, but I love his energy, enthusiasm on the call. Very unique. Love Chris Fowler as well, and then in-house. I mean, I think Ken Daniels is amazing at what he does and George Vaha, I've been watching since, you know, the time I could walk and talk.
So your, your typical broadcasters. I asked for one and each, you've each given me eight, so it's, that's, yeah. No, no. I,
we get really excited about this.
Yeah. What do you wanna do? Uh, what, you know, the dream.
The dream is play by play broadcasting, but I've been able to do, you know, a multitude of things while I've been at school in Indiana. You know, been an anchor for a studio show, obviously have done the playby play and color commentary. I'm about to start a sideline reporting gig, uh, for Indiana men's and women's basketball. So it's a lot of opportunities. Carter,
real quick, uh, gimme the two, two answers.
I'll go with Kevin Harlan. He's got great enthusiasm. Love Kevin Harlan.
Yep.
He's got his own style and he's great. And what I hope to do anything with broadcasting, sportscast has got my back, so I'm excited to see where it goes. I dunno specifically yet, but, we'll,
excited. Well, you have a great opportunity with sportscaster. You have a, uh, uh, a great inspire from Jeff Sloan and, uh, I appreciate all three of you for getting up here on this winter, uh, Sunday. Thank you so much.