Welcome To Outkick The Show

In the one year that I've been off daily radio, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the future of radio and talking to smart people in the media universe to gauge their thoughts. My question has been pretty simple: what will radio look like in five years? And I keep coming back to this answer -- radio won't look like it does now, not even close. We're rapidly moving towards an era when all media is on demand at the exact moment that the consumer wants to see it.

That's how my kids already consume all of their media, they expect every television show and movie ever made to be watchable at the exact moment they want to see it. The idea of scheduled programming is absurd to them.  

I talked to tons of people about what my radio future should be and everyone under the age of forty said to not even worry about being on a radio dial, just do a podcast and let people find it. For months I wrestled with the decision of whether to do national radio show or do a daily podcast. But then something crazy happened, technology leapt ahead this spring. The first time I went on Periscope I saw the future.  

Which led to some thrilling new opportunities. 

That's why I'm excited to announce my "radio" future. 

Starting soon we will debut Outkick the Show, a daily one hour show that will broadcast live on Outkick, Fox Sports, Periscope, Facebook, and YouTube -- replete with all your live comments -- as well as turning the show into a daily podcast that you can download to listen to at your convenience. 

The plan right now is to broadcast live each weekday at 12 eastern, 11 central, 10 mountain and 9 pacific. The show will air from my house, which means that I probably won't even wear pants. I will, however, be able to take calls, interview guests, and conduct all of the typical business of a radio show without traditional commercial breaks and with live video as well as your streaming comments which I will respond to in real time, in typical Periscope press conference fashion.

Oh, and there will be no FCC restrictions on this show.  

In addition to a daily weekday show we will also be doing post-game shows outside of that regular time spot that are flexible in nature. Some will be scheduled in advance, others I'll decide to do on the spur of the moment. Big game ends in a controversial manner? Bang, we're live with Outkick the Show. Coach retires or is fired, player arrested, it's live show time. And it won't just be sporting events either: presidential debates, VMAs, the Oscars, you name it, we'll have a live show for you just after the broadcast ends for most big television events.

I'm also thrilled to announce that we will do a regular Sunday night "Game of Thrones" show recap that will air immediately after the show ends. 

Honestly, I can't wait to get started and I'm thrilled the crew at FoxSports.com Pete Vlastelica and Matt Schnider among them, are as excited as I am to make this happen. 

I appreciate all of you who have been waiting so long for the announcement and I hope you're as excited about this as I am. To be honest, I expected to do a national radio show when I left 3HL last fall -- and I've had an offer to do a national radio show for over a year -- but the more time I spent thinking about the evolution of "radio" and the opportunities ahead, the more excited I was to do something that no one else had ever done before.  

This isn't the safest choice, but it's definitely the most exciting option and I think it's the future of entertainment. 

Nearly five years ago I launched Outkick with the idea that writers could control their own content and distribution and produce a substantial audience in the process. That is, who you wrote for didn't matter when it came to distributing your content, it was about serving and growing your audience online. Thanks to you guys, I was right. We draw millions of readers a month to Outkick.

Now I'm convinced that radio and TV will eventually be run through online sites too, that is, every person can distribute their own radio and TV shows.

At one point you needed a physical radio station with a large antenna to speak to the masses. Now you don't. One of the reasons Cumulus, the nation's second largest radio station, is rapidly approaching bankruptcy is because they have the fixed costs of an expensive distribution apparatus that is now antiquated. All I need to reach the masses is a wifi signal. 

Now we may be a few years ahead of the curve and it may take a while for the advertising market to catch up to the audiences we can deliver, but I'm convinced that traditional radio now is the equivalent of newspapers when the Internet began. It's a broken business that's about to be destroyed by technology. And I'm totally convinced that eventually all entertainment will run through our phones -- or the wearable tech devices that may one day be replacing our phones -- at the exact time that consumers want them. 

Basically I want to make consuming Outkick the Show as fun and easy for you guys as possible. And I think this is the answer. If you have a wifi connection or a phone, you'll have access to Outkick the Show.   

I'll share the start date soon. 

In the meantime, let's all pray Jon Snow isn't really dead.