Podcast Episode 5: Interview with Henry Thomas Director of Broadcasting and New Media for the Carolina Panthers

February 9th, 2010 Jonathan Piscitelli Posted in Club News | No Comments »

Interview with Henry Thomas: Director of Broadcasting and New Media for the Carolina Panthers:

Show Notes:

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1. 0:00-0:47 Intro/ Plug for the “Best Damn Super Bowl Discussion Period”  Thursday February 11^th at the Dilworth Neighborhood Bar and Grille

2. 0:47- 0:50 :  “Tell us who you are and what you do.”  An homage to Mitch Joel’s interview style from Six Pixels of Separation.

3. 0:50- 5:12: Henry tells us a little bit about his position as Director of Broadcasting and New Media with the Carolina Panthers and his career up to this point.

-Graduated from UNC Chapel Hill…(“When I say Tar…. you say…..Heels!”)

-Worked in newspaper advertising in Memphis Tennesse

-Radio advertising in Greensboro

-Capitol Broadcasting in Raleigh, Capital Radio Division

-Capitol sent Henry to Charlotte to find out about the Panthers

-Henry helped establish Panthers radio from day one.

-Went to work for the Charlotte Hornets to get team-side experience,

-2001 started with the Panthers as the Director of Broadcasting .

4. 5:12- 7:53: Advice for young people interested in a career in Sports Marketing

-Get in the door.

-Take a job at a Minor League Team, get a lot of experience doing a lot of different things

-Find that thing you are passionate about.

-Think outside the box, be creative

5. 7:53- 11:22 New Media and the Panthers

- Panthers are very Conservative

-Like to control “the message”

-Warren Sapp

-Very slow and steady, definitely the tortoisee not the hair

- One of the last NFL teams to join Twitter, started in training camp last year…they now have just under 6.000 followers

6. 11:22 – 15:03: Henry talks to us about how the industry has changed in the 20 years that he’s been in the business

- So easy when it was just TV and Radio

-Paradigm shift in radio, and sports formats

-Competition for time spent with media

-Keeping up with the new technology

-Keeping the new, in-line with traditional values

-The trade off between, risking people talking bad about you on your site, and losing traffic to your site

7. 15:03-19:25 What is the biggest competition for the Panthers as a business, is it other NFL teams, other Pro-Sports, etc?

-NFL profit sharing amongst all 32 Teams, television revenue is at $3 billion

-Compete with NASCAR Head-to-Head, both are on Sundays

-NFL, great at branding themselves

-Appointment viewing

-Other pro sports are the biggest competition to the Panthers as a business.

8. 19:25-20:38 How technology is affecting the way profrssional players play the game.

-Madden: The video games’ effects on the real game.

-Receivers using the Big Screens in the stadium to watch other players location on the field in real time.

-Fantasy Football Leagues

9. 20:38- 21:43:The importance or interacting with and engaging your clients one on one and having fun in the process.

10. 21:43-24:25 Biggest achievement in his position

-2001 Panthers radio network was down to 25 stations

-2009 up to 65 stations

-Added the state of Virginia

-NFL posts big numbers, Super Bowl 44 was the most watched television program in the history of television

-Henry looks at things as a Director of Broadcasting and as a fan.

11. 24:25-29:00 The passion of NFL fans and how that team loyalty becomes a part of the identity of a city. How long until the Panthers start to see that type of loyalty here in Charlotte?

-It’s just a matter of time

-When you start having people growing up with the team

-Charlotte is a city of transplants, and a lot of people move to Charlotte with allegiances to other NFL teams

-Can’t replace 75 years of history

-But the Charlotte Market is growing and leapfrogging other markets

-Fastest Franchise I history to do what the Panthers did in 1996

-Panthers radio now being broadcast on Sirius, so you can listen wherever you are and support the team.

12. 29:00- 11:30: What’s next for the Broadcasting and New Media Department?

-The NFL Network….currently not available on Time Warner, a great opportunity for the Panthers and for Panther fans

-Maximizing new opportunities, Facebook, Twitter, Database Management

- 13 . Ad2Charlotte theme song “Hall of Mirrors” by Bill deRome to hear more of his music go to music.podshow.com.