Hi there. Welcome to the Biz Communication Show. I’m your host Bill Lampton, the Biz Communication Guy. In our eighth season of hosting outstanding business communication professionals who share tips and strategies that will boost your business. And today it’s an extreme pleasure and privilege to welcome Mike Sammond from the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. For the past 13 years, Mike Sammond has been the President and CEO of Gwinnett Business RadioX, a company that produces, distributes and markets online radio shows and professional podcasts for businesses of all sizes in the Atlanta area. Mike Sammond is an award-winning radio and television sportscaster. It’s impossible to mention all the places he has been a headliner. I can mention CNN Headline News, ESPN, he’s been a sports highlight reporter and broadcaster, announcer for Olympic Broadcasting services, and they have heard his voice and his expertise in faraway places like Vancouver, London, Rio, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Singapore. In fact, there are quite a few people who say that they have worked internationally, but they may have crossed the border once. Here’s a guy who has been an international voice and presence for 13 years. Mike Sammond’s play-by-play experience, uh, covers all sports, baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. He’s announced games for Major League Baseball, Arena Football, International Hockey League, Southeastern Conference, and the list, as they say, could go on. Additionally, Mike has been a minority owner in professional minor league sports, such as hockey and Arena Football while serving as a top executive in sports management. So, I know you will be excited as I am to welcome Mike Sammond. Hello, Mike, how are you doin’? Hey there, Dr. Bill. How are you? You know, it would have probably been a lot easier just to say, he’s a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. Uh, that would have been inaccurate, sir, because you are a master of many. I’ve had the wonderful privilege of being with you when you first started Business Radio X. I remember very well, a Gwinnett Business Radio X. I remember very well a reception that was held after your first year or so, and it was so impressive, the number of leaders that you had brought into that program, and many of them now have their own network of listeners and admirers. The the first thought that comes to me today, Mike, is with all of this and looking at the fact that at the University of Georgia, where I once taught speech communication, your bio on LinkedIn shows that you were a broadcast journalism major. So, the thought comes to my mind, and I’m sure to our viewers and listeners, exactly when did you start getting interested in journalism as a professional? I sometimes wonder if maybe in your baby crib there was a camera and a microphone. What what really stirred your interest? Was it maybe watching some highly competent broadcasters or sensing the impact of the media? What what really got you into this exciting and dramatic business? It’s it’s funny, Dr. Bill, because you see people today and like my my kids, you know, and they’re in their 20s now and, you know, when they were going to college, they didn’t know what they wanted to do or had no idea. I I didn’t have a a microphone or a TV camera with me in the crib, but I kind of knew at a very early age, growing up, uh, outside of Boston. I was a big-time hockey fan, and so back then, I used to watch the Boston Bruins. And this was back when they had, uh, the great Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito and the big bad Bruins. And then, and then I I played hockey every single day, and I loved it. And for some reason, you would think a young kid in New England, uh, who loves hockey, would wanna grow up and be a professional hockey player. But for me, watching the telecasts on TV, I wanted to be Fred Cusick and Johnny Pierson. Those were the announcers for the Boston Bruins back then. And I thought, “How cool is it to have a job where you’re paid to go see hockey or paid to go see sports?” And so, for whatever reason, I just decided as a young kid, now going back and knowing how much they get paid these days, I probably should have gone that route, but I, you know, I never had the big size or anything like that, and I was a decent hockey player, but I wasn’t good enough. Uh, so from the age of six, seven, eight, nine years old, I knew I wanted to be a sportscaster of of some way. And when I was a sophomore in high school, my dad took a job in Atlanta, so we moved, uh, down south to the Atlanta metropolitan area, Alpharetta. I’m a graduate of Milton High School. And it turns out, I didn’t know at the time, but I was very fortunate that to move down here because UGA and I’m sure you know this, had one of the top journalism schools in the the country. Uh, back in the day, back in the the late 80s, if you wanted to be a broadcaster, you would go to Syracuse was the number one school. That’s where Bob Costas and all the great announcers came from. But the other top schools were Missouri and the uh, Henry Grady School of Journalism at UGA. So I was very fortunate to move to this area with Georgia right down the road. And so I went there, got my broadcast degree. As soon as I started college there, I worked at the campus radio station, and I did as much as I could. Um, got to call a lot of sports at the campus radio station. That turned into a job with a commercial radio station in Athens, and I’ve been in sports broadcasting in some form or fashion, uh, ever since. Every time I host someone, I I find some common ties that that I didn’t know about. Mike, when I was at, um, on the speech communication faculty at the University of Georgia, my first year there, uh, they launched WWOOG, the campus radio station. So I listened to it for a year, and after a year, I went to the station manager, who was a student, and I said to him, “You’ve called this a campus radio station, but you’re leaving out a significant factor. It’s all students who are doing the broadcasting. I think they’re doing a fine job, but what about having a faculty program?” And so they agreed, and for a couple of years, I started hosting a weekly one-hour interview show. And I interviewed students, I interviewed faculty members, I interviewed some of the star football players of the time. The name of the program was “Dialogue,” because that’s what I wanted. It was it was a wonderful experience. And in those days, maybe not later on for your era, but in those days, to continue in broadcasting, we had to get a broadcasting license. I remember having to study for that and go to downtown Atlanta and take a um a written test, and I had no idea what what some of the terminology was, but I had had to learn, did did you have any entrance uh, qualifications like that into radio? We didn’t need any kind of a license or anything like that to be a broadcaster back then. Um, yes, our days of WWOOG, uh, so you’re familiar with walking up all the stairs to the top of Memorial Hall. Oh yeah. Yeah. And and and I I was fortunate as a freshman, I I came in and again it was it was a student-run station. So what a great benefit, uh, for the students that wanna be broadcast majors. And I started in news, I got to work sports. Uh, my senior year, I was the station manager of of the campus radio station, and my only goal was not to screw it up and to make sure we stayed on the air. I probably wasn’t the best general manager. Um, but I got so much great experience that when I left UGA, I was able to get a job right out of school, uh, as a sports director at a TV station, uh, because of the experience I had, the hands-on experience. So, you know, my advice to anybody that wants to get into the field of broadcasting is take any job, whether it’s news or sports, it doesn’t matter, you want to get your foot in the door and just get on air as much as you can. And it’s okay if you’re not good. You’re not supposed to be good when you start. Don’t, you know, I I we were on a campus radio station. I also worked on some AM radio stations, so a lot of people probably didn’t hear a lot of the things I did, which is probably a good thing. But the more reps you can get, the better. So you always want to do as much as possible. And, uh, it’s it’s been a great experience at my my my four years at UGA were a lot of fun, and it laid the groundwork for the rest of my career. It reminds me of a um of a subsequent radio show that that I was privileged to host. I I moved to uh, professionally, to a small town in Kansas, McPherson, Kansas. And they had a very small population. They had one radio station. So after I’d been there a couple of months, I decided that there wasn’t much else to do on weekends, and I loved radio. So I went to, um, a friend who took me to the station manager. The station manager interviewed me and we talked a little about my radio experience, and he wanted to find out, of course, how I would sound on the air. So, this was maybe on a Wednesday, and I can still remember him saying at station KINX, “Okay, you’ll start Saturday morning. Be here at 5:30.” And, uh, like many of us who start in the media, I ran the AM and FM station from for 12 hours on on Saturdays, and that was in the days of reel-to-reel tape. One of the fun things about it is thinking back to some of the early mistakes we made, not you, of course, but I I can remember some that I made, but like in any profession, we learn from our mistakes, don’t we? You’re going to make mistakes. We’re human, and that’s fine. Uh, I make mistakes to this day, but you’re you’re never going to be perfect. If you shoot for perfection, you’re you’re going to fail. Um, but those are the fun days. Uh, you know, I I did, you know, when I was at UGA, we learned how to do reel-to-reel, cutting the actual tape with a razor blade. Yeah. Yeah. At UGA, we played records. Um, you know, when I was working at WRFC, the commercial radio station in Athens, while I was a student, um, I was doing the obituaries every day. We would get the, uh, the Athens newspaper and I would talk about Dr. uh, Joe Smith passed away at the age of 86. His memorial service will be tomorrow night at, you know, and I was, you do whatever it takes to get in there. You’re going to make mistakes. Um, but again, that that lays the whole foundation for everything you do. And I will say this as well, whether, you know, for those that want to get into the the broadcast business as well, a lot of people say you got to have the great voice. Now, we’re not all gonna have the Dr. Bill, voice of God, that that you have. Um, but you don’t have to have the great voice. Just do your homework and and and know your stuff. Um, you know, I’ve called a lot of games and I will prepare for days and days and days for a two-hour broadcast. And 90% of the stuff that you prepare, you’re never going to use on air. Um, but if you’re prepared, it shows because I’ve been in the business, when I’m listening to Sports Talk radio here in Atlanta, I can tell who’s prepared and and who’s who’s kind of winging it, if you will. And and quite honestly, I got out of sports radio six, seven years ago because I kind of lost that desire to spend every waking moment watching every sportscast. I, you know, I I wanted to have a life and my my priorities have changed as I got older. Um, and and and I felt like I was just taking up the time when I was working at Sports Radio in Atlanta, uh, that someone young and up-and-coming really deserved the spot more than me. So I stepped aside because really, you have to do your homework. You have to eat, sleep, drink, eat sports if that’s what you want to do. So there’s there’s a major commitment there. Yes, it’s not an ad-lib business. No. No, you you and and you can’t fake it. I mean, if if if you don’t do the homework and you don’t know what you’re talking about, people people can see right through that. And, um, like I said, I I can tell, you know, who’s done their homework because of having been in the business when I’m watching, you know, a TV show, uh, broadcast or listening to a radio show. Mike, I want to feature next um what Gwinnett Business Radio X is all about. We’ll talk about that in just a few seconds. All right, Mike, I I know as we said in the introduction, it was 13 years ago that you started along with your colleagues, Gwinnett Business Radio X. It seems to me, I read in the last day or two that there are 130 million people a day listening to podcasts. I’m not sure if that’s accurate, but I I know it’s it’s vastly popular. Tell us what goes on with Gwinnett Business Radio X. The number I’ve heard by the way, for this year, that this is the first year where 100 million people are listening to a podcast each each week. I don’t know if it’s every day. It could be every day. The average podcast listener listens to seven podcasts a week. Um, you know, our the founders of the company, Business Radio X, started this about 20 years ago before podcasting was even a thing. And they tried to figure out a way to help the the small business owner, to how to how to use this platform to help the small business owner. And they came up with a way to give a voice to small business. You know, small business is the backbone of of every community. And so we take a lot of pride in being the voice of business in the communities that we serve. So, uh, I have a station here in Gwinnett County. Uh, we have studios throughout Atlanta, and we have several others across the country. And we give that business leader a chance to come on and talk about the great work they’re doing. Um, and and no cost. Uh, we want to hear their story, we want to help get the word out. We want to level the playing field for those small business owners. But we also offer an opportunity for those business owners to have their own podcast, uh, which checks a lot of boxes. You’re creating content. You’re becoming an authority in your field. Um, you’re establishing relationships in the studio with the people that you meet. Um, in our 13 years of doing shows here in Gwinnett, we’ve had over 3,500 business leaders, including people like yourself, Dr. Bill, uh, come on our shows and talk about the great work they’re doing in the community. And you meet everybody and anybody. Uh, so it’s been very rewardful for me. It’s uh, been a lot of fun. I get to talk for a living. I’ve met so many wonderful people, uh, yourself included. Uh, so it’s it’s something that we are giving back to the community, we’re giving a voice to small business, but we’re making a little money as well by having businesses of all sizes. We have banks, we have um, um, health coaches, we have financial planners, we have attorneys that have their own shows, and they come to our studio and and and and we produce their shows for them and that’s how we make our living, uh, here. So, it’s been a it’s been a lot of fun. It has to be, for me to be having done this for 13 years now. One of the things I’m curious about is what is the the major time and place that people listen to podcasts? Now, I I will give my my own experience with it. Uh, I travel some still and I’ve got a daughter in Columbia, South Carolina and one in Savannah. And I travel some on business still. When I traveled for many years, I would play some of the popular music that I liked, and uh, through Spotify, I still will do that occasionally. I did find out, though, that after a while, I heard it all several times. So I started listening to podcasts. And and for me, the five and a half hour drive to Savannah becomes much more fascinating, and of course, informative because I am listening. And I remember way back when we first got, I guess it was called books on tape at the time, and I would be listening to a book driving along alone. Um, I remember when I’d go to a rest stop, I would get back to the car quickly. I wanted to uh, I wanted to hear it. In addition, what what do you know uh, is the the listening place and time and habit that most people have who listen to podcasts, Mike? I I think you kinda nailed it right there. A lot of people, their first of all, they’re multitasking. Um, people are on the treadmill, they’re exercising, they’re taking a walk, and they’re listening that way. Uh, obviously, most more people listen in cars than they do, you know, sitting in an office on their computer. The the iPhone has changed everything. And that’s that’s, you know, you ask why is podcasting become so popular? If it was one word, it would be “smartphone.” iPhones, uh, and that sort of thing have have changed everything. People are multitasking, they’re on the go. And the great thing about a podcast, one of the questions I get from a lot of our clients is, “How long should my show be? Can I do an hour? Can I do two hours?” You could, but you’ll probably after 30 minutes, you’re gonna lose half your audience. The podcasts are in, they’re in bite-size samples that people love. Um, the great thing about a podcast, too, there’s millions of them out there. So if you are into anything, if your thing is, you love cats and dogs playing checkers, I don’t know, just something crazy. There’s probably a podcast out there about animals playing checkers. I don’t know, but there’s anything you love. So that there there’s those those uh, niches out there that whatever it is that you love, there’s going to be a show that’s going to be for you. And once you find that show, it’s it’s it’s amazing. And my kids are the same way as you now. They’re listening to Spotify and so forth. They’re not listening to FM and AM radio. Yes. They’re losing the Bluetooth on their phone to to to go into the car speaker. And so they’re listening to their shows and their music that way. So, uh, the landscape is changing, but podcasting, uh, as you say, it it it’s it’s reaching thresholds, 100 million listeners now every week, uh, just in the, I believe, just in the United States alone. Uh, obviously, worldwide and and the US isn’t even the most popular country when it comes to podcasting. We’re up there, but uh, there are other countries where it’s even more popular, but podcasting, uh, continues to to to grow and it’s going to be growing uh, for the foreseeable future. Well, what, and getting to your point about the potential length of a podcast, I’ve I’ve prefer when I’m traveling to a podcast that I’m going to listen to to be at least 30 minutes. If one’s seven minutes, I don’t want to have to stop and and change to something else. 30 minutes is is reasonable, and I believe, as you say, that’s also a um, uh, probably a good standard for how long you will hold a listener on a topic. And um, it is the sweet spot. 30 minutes is the sweet spot because because the average commute for most people is 30 minutes. And that’s why we today have a 30-minute limit. One quick question before we sign off, most of us in any profession have role models, have idols, have those that we admire and learn from. Would there be you mentioned some at the start, but tell us again, who would be the top two or three broadcasters that have influenced you the most? I’ve always gravitated towards the ones that are just well prepared and share the story and it’s not about them and they don’t have any gimmicks. Uh, you know, close to home, a guy like a Pete Van Weeren, long-time announcer for the Atlanta Braves. He was the uh, you know, the PR guy for the Braves, so he he knew everything, he knew all the numbers. Uh, the Bob Costas, the Al Michaels, the guys that just share give a great job of of giving the story and throwing in some facts and things like that. To me, a good broadcaster is one that you don’t even really notice they’re there, like an umpire or a referee in in a football game. If they’re doing their job, you don’t even kind of realize they’re there, but they they make you feel at home. They almost feel like they’re talking to you, that you’re they’re your friend. Uh, you know, I got nothing against the Chris Bermans of the world with the, you know, back, back, back, back, back, back, you know, home run, but I’m not into the the gimmicky, the the loud, shouting ones, the ones that are more subdued a little bit and just uh, let the let the the sport share and and and do a good job, too. There are a lot of announcers that just don’t do the basics. When you’re doing radio, not so much TV, but radio, which is we talked about you and I are, that’s really our our our first love, give the basics. Uh, you know, what’s the score of the game? You know, where is the ball on the field right now? Who’s in the game? There are people that will do a radio and you might listen to a a a baseball game for 10 minutes, and you have no idea what the score is. Uh, a secret that a lot of baseball broadcasters will do, and will actually, in any sport, they’ll have an egg timer with them. And they’ll turn the egg timer over every time. And when that egg timer runs out, make sure they’ve given the score of the game. Just the basics. You know, where are we in the game? It’s 14 to seven, we’re in the third quarter or it’s 12 to 10 and it’s uh, in the seventh inning. Um, so so the broadcaster that just gives the basics and guides me along and tells me what’s happening and and and isn’t overbearing. So the Bob Costas, the Al Michaels, the um, the Ernie Johnsons of the world, just per- just consummate professionals that don’t rely on gimmicks. Those are the people I gravitate towards and the ones I look up to and the ones that I try to emulate when I’m when I’m doing my games. Yes, and we being Georgians, certainly, I think would want to include Larry Munson. who was a personality as as well as a sportscaster and and added so much to uh, University of Georgia football and tradition. Well, Mark, there’s that saying, uh, the old clock on the wall. I see it’s time for us to sort of wind it up. I want to thank you, and I know our listeners and our viewers will want to thank you for sharing your expertise with us today. So, I know there are those who will want to contact you to follow up with you. So, please give us your contact information. I’ll keep it very simple. [email protected]. And if you’re a small business person out there and would like to get the word out about the great work you’re doing in the community, shoot me an email and we’ll get you on a show and we’ll spend 15 minutes talking about, uh, the great work that you’re doing. Mike is the guy. Mike is the guy who has helped so many people find the the magic and the the um, attractiveness, the magnetic attractiveness of podcasting. Do get in touch with Mike. And now that Mike has given his contact information, I’m happy to give mine. My YouTube channel, Bill Lampton, PhD. I’ve been posting videos on YouTube since 2007. Please don’t look at any of those. In recent years, it hasn’t been just my communication um, strategies and tips that I’ve given, but it’s I’ve featured other people. In fact, as I mentioned at the outset, this is the eighth season for the Biz Communication Show when I have wonderful guests like Mike. And then my website, since my tagline is Biz Communication Guy, logically, my website is bizcommunicationguy.com. There, you can subscribe to the podcast. And when you go to that YouTube channel I mentioned, I hope you will subscribe to the YouTube channel. I welcome phone calls, no obligation, no initial cost to hear about your communication problems and challenges, and see how I or someone I know can assist you with those. The co-producer of the Biz Communication Show, I give credit to Mike Stewart. In 1997, I met Mike Stewart through the National Speakers Association, Georgia, and Mike has been a wonderful mentor both in technology and marketing ever since. So, I encourage you to go to his website, localinternetpresence.com. And you’ll find that he is an an incredible resource. Mike, as we wind it up and think of what we’ve covered, what about giving us uh a takeaway thought, 30 seconds or a minute that you would like to leave with us, please? Well, I’m thinking that anybody that might be listening this may be somebody that’s interested in getting into the broadcasting business. Um, it’s a very rewarding business. It’s it’s a lot of fun if you have the passion for it. Um, I would say, do whatever it takes to get your foot in the door no matter where it is. And I’ll give a a real quick story. I’m I I you know, I’m pretty good at dropping names. I haven’t dropped any in this show, uh, but, uh, one of my uh, people that I worked with in my earlier days when I first started in television was Rece Davis. Now, if you’ve watch ESPN now and you watch College Football Game Day, everybody knows who Rece is. Uh, when Rece started at the uh, TV station where we were in Columbus, Georgia, he came on working in news. Um, he covered the City Council meetings, he covered the school board meetings. It’s not what he signed up for or what he wanted to do, but he got his foot in the door. He started doing the the covering those events, and then on the weekends, when we would need some help with college football or Friday night with high school football, he would help us out. Eventually a couple years later, I would move on and go on to do some baseball broadcasting in North Carolina. That opened up a spot in our sports department and Rece was able to move in, eventually worked his way up to Sports Director, and the rest, as they say, is history. So, whatever it takes to get in the door. Sweeping floors, cleaning the bathroom, whatever it is to get into a door, working at a radio station, a TV station. You know, you might have to cover news and even though you want to be sports. Uh, when I started out, I wanted to take any job I could get just to get in the door. It leads to to great things, and so that would be my advice. Uh, do whatever it takes early on. It may not be your ultimate goal, but eventually you’ll get there. That certainly destroys the myth that probably many television and radio uh, fans have is that that guy at the or that lady at the top is always been there. And uh, not the case, and there are many qualified people who don’t get there. But it’s it’s uh from I I remember as a kid, the first time um, to that age group, tape recorders were available, Mike, and and the magic of hearing our voices on tape recorders and you you’d take a tape recorder to a party and everybody would and and you’d listen and that was probably maybe my first introduction to what some type of media could do to attract, excite, entertain, educate, and I still love it. And that’s why I host this show and I have the incredible privilege of hosting experts like you. Thank you again so much for being with us today. Well, Dr. Bill, congratulations to you for doing something that a lot of people can’t do, and that is to force me and to get me to talk about myself because it’s not something I prefer to do or like to do, but because of my respect for you, you’ve always been so gracious, so kind with your time and your talent, and I appreciate you very much that I was willing to do this because I don’t like to talk about myself. Uh, but it’s been a pleasure talking with you today. Thank you so very much, and the the feelings of respect and admiration that you mentioned, they’re they’re so mutual. Thanks to those of you who joined us on the video portion and on the podcast. Invite you to be with us again next week for another version of the Biz Communication Show when we bring you tips and strategies that will boost your business.