Ask 10 people about the current health of the podcast industry and you might get 10 different answers. While the same forces that have damaged longstanding websites and upstart media companies have gutted some podcast networks, there are plenty of examples of those that are thriving. Sometimes, you just have to know where to look.
After The Athletic eliminated several local podcasts in 2023 and SB Nation Podcast Network abruptly shut down in April, it seemed to confirm an idea many people already assumed. Regional and niche sports podcasting just doesn’t have what it takes to break through.
However, that didn’t account for the several sports podcasts that had broken free from SB Nation and thrived independently or in different networks. And it didn’t explain why other sports media podcasts had found success carving out niches in specific markets or fanbases.
Perhaps a big part of the issue isn’t that team or city-specific sports podcasts aren’t viable, but that the companies backing them don’t always understand their value.
“I do think there’s beginning to be a false narrative that non-podcast companies who did local podcasts and didn’t succeed somehow mean that local podcasts aren’t working,” Locked On Podcast Network CEO David Locke told Awful Announcing. “I think that’s a really false narrative.”
After the SB Nation news, the
“We just had our biggest quarter growth and our biggest revenue quarter, so I think things are going well,” Locke said. “I don’t want to sound cocky or boastful, but I do think the narrative that started there because The Athletic, which is predominantly a newspaper company or digital writing company, and because SB Nation, which is predominantly a blogging company, got rid of their podcasts, that somehow there was something wrong with podcasts.”
To Locke, their network’s competitive advantage comes down to three things. Their shows drop new episodes daily, the hosts are experts about their teams and topics, and the podcasts can generate “local passion at national scale.” That then pays off with one of the most crucial relationships any podcast network has: Advertising clients.
“If you’re a sports radio listener or you’re a sports fan, you care about your team every day. Sports fans…want their information every day,” said Locke. “And we’ve had awesome success with our clients because we’re able to take the local passion of a sports fan at the highest level. If you buy our NFL channel, you’re getting a Packers fan listening to a Packers host. You’re getting a Lions fan who’s as passionate as anyone listening to a Lions host. You’re getting a Seahawks fan listening to a Seahawks host. They’re connected to these people, and then we’re just killing it for our clients.”
A deep connection between listener and host can be forged in several different ways. Longevity plays a role, and Locke is extremely proud of the way his network has retained podcasting talent, which in turn ingratiates listeners to their shows for much longer.
“Our talent has now been with us for an extended period of time,” said Locke, who noted that 51% of their podcast talent has been with the company since at least 2020. “That’s because if a host joins our network, they’re immediately into something that we’ve built… It’s like a four-month, 20-week plan where they’re literally having contact points on an almost daily basis with our coaches and channel managers to help them. I don’t think there’s a lot of places left where talent is being developed.”
While hosts come into the network with varying levels of expertise Locke lauds the company’s structure for not only providing them with a template to follow but as a way for listeners to build an expectation for what they’ll get from each show.
“I like to say that we ask our hosts to make sure we know where the front door, the back door, the bathroom is,” said Locke. “They can design the room how they want. We don’t want to be Starbucks. But we don’t want every show to feel the same because we want each talent to be able to be great. But there are some fundamental things that we believe in that are what make the podcast successful. If you take a second and listen to one of our shows, I think you’ll be like, ‘Oh, wait, I just listened to three of these shows and they’re all structured, but they’re all super different.’
“That’s the idea. We’re pretty diligent. We have an incredible staff. We have a director of talent scouting, we have a director of video and production, we have a director of content, We have someone who’s overseeing big projects and looking for better ways to develop moments. We have a staff that’s working to try to make everyone better.”
You might not see a Locked On podcast when you look at the top of the podcast charts, but dig around and you’ll start to notice a lot of them. According to Rephonic, 14 of their podcasts are currently in Apple’s Top 250 Sports Podcasts, with Locked On Bills and Locked On Packers cracking the Top 100. However, as with so many podcasts these days, the network’s biggest growth area is video.
“Most of our growth is coming on video,” Locked said. “We’re on Amazon Fire TV and OTT right now early and had some mammoth results around the NCA Tournament. We have the Apple and Spotify podcast listeners, but those are the two dominant players. But YouTube is now every bit the home of podcasts as anybody else.”
Where Locked On, and the sports podcast industrial complex, go from here, depends on a lot of factors. But Locke is convinced that no matter what, everything runs through the talent and the connection they have with their audience, and there’s a graveyard full of podcasting networks and upstarts to prove what happens when you don’t focus on that.
“This is a talent company. We are a talent company. We are talent first all the time,” said Locke. “Stealing from [restaurant] Eleven Madison Park, we have a line about unreasonable hospitality. We’re supposed to have unreasonable hospitality to our talent, to our listeners, and to our clients.
“Then, the internal slogan, I talk to our channel members all the time is that we want to be predictably extraordinary. You’re here five times a week, predictably extraordinary. Let’s go.”
