Shoutout to the SportsCastr Community: SPORTSTALKNY
During his testimony before Congress, Mark Zuckerberg noted repeatedly that Facebook was founded in a dorm room. Though it has morphed from a social network for college kids into a global information portal, Facebook’s core ethos sustains: “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.” Regardless of any value judgment one might make about the 2+ billion member social network, Facebook was developed to let me see you through pictures, updates, tastes and group affiliations, and to let you see me the same way. An early commentary on Twitter was bewilderment at why anyone would care what someone else ate for breakfast. It turns out a lot of people care about that sort of thing, and whereas the identity-sharing mechanics that actuate Facebook’s community all but require self-curation, Twitter’s community fosters a culture of off-the-cuff-ness and has done so since its inception. Neither Facebook nor Twitter cultivated these structures by accident, nor did they do so with algorithmic trickery. (Trickery came later, and for different purposes.)
A social network, digital or IRL, is first and foremost something built by a person, or most often by a few people. Facebook’s early developers designed it for one purpose, Twitter’s designed for another, and from day one we have set out to make SportsCastr a platform that helps people feel rewarded for being honest, loyal sports fans.
If people tended towards deceptive motives when rooting for a team, the Cleveland Browns wouldn’t have sold a jersey since… Bernie Kozar? And if being a sports fan weren’t an act of honest devotion then a grown man like myself wouldn’t have shed tears on December 31, 2017, when the Buffalo Bills clinched a playoff spot for the first time in the 21st century. Sincerity is at the heart of any fan-team relationship. That’s why we, the team behind SportsCastr, direct development of the platform in order to foster a culture of sincerity. Since fans are earnest in their love of their favorite teams and sports, SportsCastr itself must reflect those very values. Among our dedicated users is Mark Rosenman, host of SportsTalkNY, a radio show on WLIE 540 that he 🔴LIVE streams weekly on SportsCastr, who exemplifies the spirit of honest, respectful sports-love that we aim to support.
Mark has had extraordinary guests on SportsTalkNY. Pete Rose, Lenny Dykstra, Wade Boggs, Hank Azaria, Sean Avery, just to name a few. Whether Mark is interviewing a Hall of Fame player or a regional commentator, a rookie or a retired player that time might have forgotten, he pays equal tribute to their accomplishments. We have cited on many a Twitter post the delicate attention Mark pays to investigating each one of his guests, attention that manifests in engaged, engaging, unique interviews.
Prior to embarking on a career — a life, really — in technology, I worked in music. I’d been a part of, listened to or read hundreds if not thousands of interviews. I found that, typically, if I heard an artist interviewed on one radio station I’d heard them interviewed on any radio station. Interviews tend to come in template form. The one time I played the part of interviewer, I arrived armed with a small cassette recorder and pieces of notepaper full of questions about a rising indie band for whom a friend of mine was a publicist. It was late on a summer afternoon in the busy lobby of the Ace Hotel in Manhattan. The band members were pretty wiped, having been exhausted by repeating the same stories in response to different versions of the same questions since 8am. I approached the interview as though it were a first date. Fortunately, the band members and I had some chemistry. So instead of a boilerplate interrogation, we wound up having some fairly deep conversations about a number of topics: sexuality (two of the band members had recently come out of the closet), balancing creative curiosity with listener expectations and wearing peculiar personality traits as badges of honor. They were grateful for our conversation, and expressed that it was as though they’d been cleansed by a shower of honesty after a day of superficial plugging and playing. I am often transported to those 90 minutes of my life when watching Mark’s broadcasts on SportsCastr. Mark is not only a lover of sports and a student of its history, but he is an empath. As such, he constructs an environment of sincerity with the guests on his show, Mark typifies the responsible sort of stewardship that fosters a devoted community of listeners and viewers who know that, regardless of who is being interviewed on SportsTalkNY that night, they are going to make a connection with someone.
“You either pat him on the butt, kick him in the butt, or leave him alone.” — Pete Rose on SportsTalkNY
A particularly notable moment on SportsTalkNY occurred when Mark catches Rangers’ standout Sean Avery off guard with a question about Avery’s love of fashion, and whether or not Avery thought his career might have been different had it taken place ten years later than it did, in an era in which players’ style was more broadly accepted. Avery hesitates and stumbles for a moment before saying, “wow… that’s a great question. I definitely would have found a way to get into some trouble, still, regardless of whether I fit in better now or did back then.” This prompts Mark to burst out laughing. It also represents an opportunity for Mark’s audience to catch a glimpse of Avery’s humanity. Having often been criticized for his on- and off-ice antics Mark gives Avery the platform to express his self-awareness.
Similarly, during an interview with Pete Rose, the topic of discussion was baseball — not Pete Rose’s betting on baseball. In doing research for this article I read and watched a number of interviews with Charlie Hustle and not one of them bears the integrity of the Rosenman session. Rose talked about steroids’ effect on the history and future of the game; he expounded on best practices for young managers; and he was given the space to talk earnestly about how to coax the best that any player has to give. “You either pat him on the butt, kick him in the butt, or leave him alone.” While the sports fan in me was getting an education, the VP Community at SportsCastr in me was proud to be a part of a meaningful and sincere conversation.
A social network of thirty members and a social network of thirty million members operate in the same way: by connecting people. Facebook uses photographs and profiles; Twitter uses spontaneous reactions; and SportsCastr uses sincere love of sports. It is a pleasure to see people like Mark express their passion on our platform. As we grow, and as more and more users create SportsCastr accounts, we are committed to continually checking ourselves to ensure that we are promoting the purest version of SportsCastr that we can. And, heck, if we ever make a mistake, do as Pete Rose says and kick us in the butt.
-Nick Schupak, VP Community
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