The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Where has our media coverage gone. The ABJ and Plain Dealer barely mention KSU at all. Radio mentions are non existent. This is the worst exposure for KSU football that I can ever remember. Do we have a media director? Do we have a game this weekend? You could not tell if you are in or around Kent.

I hear ya.....looks like the ABJ has opted not to assign a beat reporter to KSU this year, and the PD has a whopping 4 reporters on the OSU beat, leaving the RC (subscription only) as the only coverage source in NE Ohio. Maybe a little run in the Repository?

While I'm sure some of the blame could be pointed at the media director, I also think what the PD is doing with their resources is downright shameful.

(09-09-2016 12:24 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  Where has our media coverage gone. The ABJ and Plain Dealer barely mention KSU at all. Radio mentions are non existent. This is the worst exposure for KSU football that I can ever remember. Do we have a media director? Do we have a game this weekend? You could not tell if you are in or around Kent.

We actually do have a new director of athletic communications, Mr. Brown.

As a former member of the media, I am sad to see newsrooms lose staff and beats get dropped. Unfortunately, that has hurt our coverage in the traditional media. While we have a small staff, we are trying to make up for some of the lack of coverage ourselves, creating more social media graphics and videos, and also using Facebook Live more for live interviews offering fans the opportunity to ask questions.

I know as a former professor you care about Kent State Athletics. We appreciate that. I also know it can be fun to point fingers anonymously on message boards. Please know, though, that you can always call or email us if you would like answers to questions or to make a complaint. You can even ask Greg to contact me. Your son is a friend and I'll always get back to him quickly.

(09-09-2016 02:44 PM)DavidCarducci Wrote:  

(09-09-2016 12:24 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  Where has our media coverage gone. The ABJ and Plain Dealer barely mention KSU at all. Radio mentions are non existent. This is the worst exposure for KSU football that I can ever remember. Do we have a media director? Do we have a game this weekend? You could not tell if you are in or around Kent.

We actually do have a new director of athletic communications, Mr. Brown.

As a former member of the media, I am sad to see newsrooms lose staff and beats get dropped. Unfortunately, that has hurt our coverage in the traditional media. While we have a small staff, we are trying to make up for some of the lack of coverage ourselves, creating more social media graphics and videos, and also using Facebook Live more for live interviews offering fans the opportunity to ask questions.

I know as a former professor you care about Kent State Athletics. We appreciate that. I also know it can be fun to point fingers anonymously on message boards. Please know, though, that you can always call or email us if you would like answers to questions or to make a complaint. You can even ask Greg to contact me. Your son is a friend and I'll always get back to him quickly.

David, I appreciate your response but I was not pointing fingers at anyone specifically about the lack of coverage. It seems to be missing on all fronts. There used to be bill boards around Portage and Summit Counties as well as radio announcements. I can remember the day when the zippers would be complaining because we got much better coverage than them in their own city. I have had visitors from out of town who either live around or are from other college towns actually make comments to the effect that if it were not for the student activity downtown, one would never know that there is an university in the city. I just see this as an area we need to reclaim but I certainly have no answers as to how to get it done. Hope I did not offend you because I have always enjoyed your work and dedication to KSU. If I am wrong in my observations, maybe it can be attributed to the sensory organs degenerating in my advanced age. Good luck in your endeavors and Go Flashes.

Speaking of media coverage, I note that this home game is being carried on ESPN3. Have we upgraded our broadcast capabilities so that all our home games in the revenue sports (for lack of a better term) will be on ESPN3 from now on? I know most of the league has reached that point and last time I heard, only KSU, Akron, and Ohio U had yet to do it.

As traditional media continues to struggle during the ongoing telecommunications revolution, they have continued to reduce staff and coverage for all but what interests most people. Decades ago, they had the luxury of covering programs such as Kent State out of some sense of obligation, even though even then probably few readers/viewers/listeners really cared. Now, out of necessity, they must provide hyper-coverage of, to name just one example, Ohio State football, because if they don't consumers may go elsewhere. It is all a vicious circle of the rich getting richer. That fact is that hardly any college football reporters, experts, fans, students, etc. care about Kent State football, or ANY college football below the "power five", "big time", "Top 25" or however you want to refer to those programs.

* Cleveland area media covers Ohio State football because they want to cover one good football team and everyone knows that the Browns won't be anywhere near 500.

* Traditional media is dying. First the newspapers, but soon the local TV news. Young people just don't watch that much TV and spend more time on the Hulu or Netflix. They won't be watching the 11 o'clock news either now or as they get older. Everyone will continue to limit what they cover because they can't afford more.

* It's probably much more effective for Kent State athletics to buy ads in the YouTube or to get people to like them in the Facebook. I recently found out that a fellow running to be my state rep was convicted on theft through a YouTube ad. The theft was receiving a stolen Parking Permit at his huge state university. Strangely, after all my positive experience at Kent State with parking, it made me more likely to vote for him. Yes, that will leave the older generation feeling like they aren't doing as much, but the world has changed.

* Frankly, the current structure of college athletics (Big 5) where there is money beyond money beyond money for the top athletic program will collapse in the next twenty years because of the youngers not having cable and there being no revenue stream for the huge TV contracts these conferences get. I don't know what college athletics will look like then, but I don't think it will look anything like it does now.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the rumor that The marketing director or fan experience person was (forced to?) quit literally two weeks before the school year. And I've also heard there are no plans to rehire that position. Not sure if that was true or not but I'm sure that has something to do with the lack of overall marketing you may have seen or in this case not seen.

Bopol, I agree that the system as it now exists can't go one forever. It is like a "bubble" in economics. I recently read that the ONLY sport that really gets good overall national ratings is the NFL. Yet, networks continue to throw outrageous offers to cover sports. Beyond that, the incredible growth in the cost of maintaining football programs, particularly coaching salaries, will eventually cause programs to "give up". Not necessarily drop football, but at least scale back significantly. Even within the "power 5" there are many programs that would be better off in a solid mid-major conference. At the current rate, the "power 5" will refer to teams, not conferences. Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, those types. Look at ESPN. What would happen if rules changes allowed cable users to go a la carte? Millions of people who rarely if ever watch ESPN pay a significant chunk of their bill to cover what ESPN charges.

Muskrat, I would dump ESPN in a second and save myself the $10/month (or whatever it is). Honestly, the only reason we still have cable is my daughters like a few shows. We got Netflix a few months ago and they spend much more time watching that. I have a TV in my room that hasn't been on in six months. I tell you; cable will die if they don't innovate and fast. And when they do, the huge sports tax that every household with cable pays will go away and most of these schools will be losing their shirts.

After watching most of the NC A&T game on espn3, lack of media coverage is a blessing for this program.

Wife and I happen to be at one our regular watering holes tonight, only to look up at one of the many TVs and there I had to watch Terry Bowden on his show discussing the most hated zips. Needless to say, it completely ruined my garlic wings and tall draft. Does anyone know the schedule for our weekly coaches show.

I believe the weekly show is on Thursdays at noon and it is not on tv but can be listened to on 640 and iheartradio.

(09-15-2016 09:38 AM)ilovegymnast Wrote:  I believe the weekly show is on Thursdays at noon and it is not on tv but can be listened to on 640 and iheartradio.

Thanks, i will try to catch it.

You'd think in an internet era they'd archive these things so we could listen on demand.

Just heard today was the Elite 8 reunion. Wish I'd have heard about it earlier.

I live in Portage County and did not know.

I saw it in an email newsletter, on Twitter, and on the KSU sports website a while back and thru the event this weekend.

The old style media is almost dead. The news is out there if you subscribe to the various feeds.

(09-18-2016 12:32 PM)axeme Wrote:  I saw it in an email newsletter, on Twitter, and on the KSU sports website a while back and thru the event this weekend.

The old style media is almost dead. The news is out there if you subscribe to the various feeds.

Well that's a good way to make sure a lot of people who might be interested don't know about it. Honestly, not sure why they would do an Elite 8 event during football season anyway though.

It was part of the Hall of Fame inductions which is why they did it doing the football game.