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328: Raycom Sports - With Founders Rick & Dee Ray
Manage episode 388787562 series 1405087
We adjust our TV antenna rabbit ears back to the late 1970s for the origin story of one of the most influential firms in modern-day sports media - with Rick and Dee Ray, the founders of televised college sports juggernaut Raycom Sports.
In their new George Hirthler-penned memoir "Unstoppable: A Story of Love, Faith and the Power Couple Who Ignited the College Sports Broadcasting Boom," the Rays rewind the videotape to a time when a new technology called "cable" was still in its infancy, and the American television landscape was largely defined by a web of powerful broadcast network-affiliated stations - save for a handful of scrappy alternative "independent" signals in each market.
While pro sports filled plenty of prime/weekend network TV windows, and individual teams provided a steady slate of in-season games to local indie station audiences - regularly scheduled D-I college sports was virtually non-existent outside of limited national broadcasts featuring only big-name schools.
It was against this backdrop that an entrepreneurially minded local station programmer and a never-say-no ad executive saw an opening for regularly scheduled regional broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball that not only delighted rabid fans throughout the Southeast, but also laid the groundwork for a sports syndication force that would eventually rewrite the rules for college sports media - and beyond.
+ + +
SPONSOR THANKS:- Old School Shirts (promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats
- Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill
- Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
400 episode
Manage episode 388787562 series 1405087
We adjust our TV antenna rabbit ears back to the late 1970s for the origin story of one of the most influential firms in modern-day sports media - with Rick and Dee Ray, the founders of televised college sports juggernaut Raycom Sports.
In their new George Hirthler-penned memoir "Unstoppable: A Story of Love, Faith and the Power Couple Who Ignited the College Sports Broadcasting Boom," the Rays rewind the videotape to a time when a new technology called "cable" was still in its infancy, and the American television landscape was largely defined by a web of powerful broadcast network-affiliated stations - save for a handful of scrappy alternative "independent" signals in each market.
While pro sports filled plenty of prime/weekend network TV windows, and individual teams provided a steady slate of in-season games to local indie station audiences - regularly scheduled D-I college sports was virtually non-existent outside of limited national broadcasts featuring only big-name schools.
It was against this backdrop that an entrepreneurially minded local station programmer and a never-say-no ad executive saw an opening for regularly scheduled regional broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball that not only delighted rabid fans throughout the Southeast, but also laid the groundwork for a sports syndication force that would eventually rewrite the rules for college sports media - and beyond.
+ + +
SPONSOR THANKS:- Old School Shirts (promo code: GOODSEATS): https://oldschoolshirts.com/goodseats
- Website: https://goodseatsstillavailable.com/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoodSeatsStill
- Instagram (+ Threads): https://www.instagram.com/goodseatsstillavailable/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoodSeatsStillAvailable/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@goodseatsstillavailable
400 episode
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