The Clear Channel Days: From 700WLW To Tri State Internet Sports

My radio career started in 1999 when I applied for and got a part-time position with 550 WKRC-AM. I was running taped shows in the evening from 6pm to Midnight. After a couple of months, I was asked if I wanted to run live shows on 700WLW. I jumped at the chance. I started working on SportsTalk with Andy Furman and nights with some guy named Bill Cunningham.

When the Spring of 2000 came around, I started working as the Network Producer on the Reds Radio Network. I think you know the gentlemen in the picture above. Getting to know Marty and Joe was one of the highlights of my Clear Channel career. In the Fall of 2000, Clear Channel got the broadcast contract for the Bengals. I began working on the Bengals Radio Network as the Network Producer. In all, I spent 7 years between 55KRC, 1530Homer and 700WLW.

It was during this time that my children were growing up and getting involved in sports at Gallatin County High School in Warsaw KY. My two youngest played basketball and my son played baseball. In watching these games on my nights off, I noticed that there really wasn't any media coverage of many of their games, other than the local weekly paper. In seeing other schools in the North Central KY area, it was the same story. I thought I might be able to do something about that.

I approached the Athletic Director of Gallatin County about the possibility of broadcasting the Boys Basketball games for the 2005-06 school year. After approval from the Gallatin County School Board, we were given the go ahead. Tri State Internet Sports went on the air November 29th, 2005 as the Wildcats took on the Trimble County Raiders.
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2006-2007 - Expansion: Girls Basketball & Football

After the first year of Boys Basketball was over, we took on Football and Girls Basketball. My son Andrew, who had been with me as my color man for the Boys Basketball season continued with me for the added games. We did 4 home football games and also a total of 30 games in all. We also for the first time broadcast games from Eastern Kentucky University as Gallatin County's Boys Basketball Team went to the All "A" Classic State Tournament in Richmond, KY.

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2007-2008 - The Northern Kentucky High School Sports Report

In the 2007-08 school year, we left Gallatin County and expanded to All of North Central and Northern kentucky when we created the Northern Kentucky High School Sports Report. A 2-hour talk show that aired on Saturday mornings on a local radio station. We also created the website for it which you can get to by clicking the logo. The show took place throughout the school year and covered all of the sports within the school year. We actually did the show on the road during the All "A" Classic Basketball tournament in January 2008. We got to know a lot of coaches and teams through the year. The show continues today online at Tri State Internet Sports Radio.

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2008 - Back to Game Broadcasts

After a successful year of the weekly show, we decided to do game broadcasts starting with the 2008 Football season. These were aired over the radio station we were working with. The game broadcasts were very successful in my opinion. We covered not only the bog programs, but also in accordance with our mission of promoting kids from all of our local schools, we did games in the smaller communities as well. We were able to chronicle the first varsity game ever for the Walton-Verona Bearcats Football Program and also called a game for the first year school Cooper High School in Boone County. We also called the Class 6A State Final Football game with the Simon Kenton Pioneers.

It was during the Football season that I really got to know our Vice-President Aaron Stamm. He had e-mailed me when we were looking for broadcasters for the games and asked to come on board. Aaron has a journalism background and really added a lot to our game broadcasts. We also had added Adam Kiefaber, a sports writer for the Community Press newspaper in Northern Kentucky. In all we completed 14 Football broadcasts and headed into the 2008-09 Basketball Season.

We had started to broadcast basketball games over the radio when the season started, but at the end of December, we seperated from the radio station and went back to an internet only broadcast.

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January 2009 - A New Look

In January 2009, we re-launched Tri State Internet Sports. Going back to our original name and maintaining our mission to assist our local student athletes to get to play at the next level through everything we can to promote them. We were able to complete a total of 63 game broadcasts in the 2008-09 school year. We capped off the year with coverage of the Holmes Bulldogs Regional Championship win against the Boone County Rebels to head to Rupp Arena where they would become State Champions in Kentucky High School Basketball.

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July 2009 - Tri State Internet Sports Radio

In July 2009, we launched Tri State Internet Sports Radio and Tri State internet Sports Radio.com. An internet Radio Station geared solely to our game broadcasts and weekly show. We set up all of the 2008-09 game broadcasts on a loop and it has been running ever since. Also with the start of the 2009 Football season, the Internet Radio site is where we stream all of our game broadcasts from this point forward. We will be modifying the stream in the future to allow for more diverse programming to incorporate more local sports since the big radio boys decided that local sports needs to take a back seat to their "Other Programming".

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November 2009 - Present - Tri State Internet Sports, Inc.

That brings us to today. We have incorporated our company into Tri State Internet Sports, Inc. A Kentucky Non-Profit Corporation whose charitable purpose is to assist our local students and student athletes to achieve their next level goals, whether that be in the classroom or on the court or field. Tri State Internet Sports, Inc., will soon be providing scholarships for our local students and student athletes through our sponsorship revenues and other fundraising ventures.

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January 2011 - Tri State Internet Sports Foundation.

In January 2011, we will begin our fundraising activities that will fund our scholarships that we will be presenting to the students and student athletes. It has been a goal of ours to provide scholarships to all of our schools and to our student athletes We will accomplish this through our efforts.