The Locked On Podcast Network is a circle of more than 150 commercial sports podcasts produced in the United States providing daily news and commentary at the team and league level about

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

. The network also provides coverage of collegiate athletics for approximately 30 American institutions of higher learning. Initially launched in 2016 by David Locke, radio play-by-play announcer for the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

, Locked On Sports was purchased in 2021 by

Tegna Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publi ...

, an offshoot of the

Gannett Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation. It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...

newspaper group.

History

Origins

The Locked On Podcast Network — also commonly known as Locked On Sports — was established in June 2016 by David Locke, the radio voice of the

of the

.Todd Spangler
"Tegna Buys Locked On Podcast Network, Startup Focused on Pro and College Sports Teams,"
''Variety,'' January 27, 2021. The network began as a single audio

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

, ''Locked On Jazz,''"Delivered Daily: An Interview with David Locke, Founder of Locked On Podcast Network,"
Podcast Movement, October 30, 2019. the name of the show (and eventually the network) being an obvious play on the surname of the founder and host. In a 2019 interview, Locke observed that after having been named play-by-play announcer of the Utah Jazz, he came to realize that "the job had changed" and that he could no longer simply call 82 games without fan interaction. He indicates that ''Locked On Jazz'' emerged as a vehicle to "create a relationship with the fan base, year-round, so that you’re talking to them on game day but also communicating with them on Twitter or Facebook." The company established headquarters in

Park City, Utah Park City is a city in Utah, United States. Most of the city is within Summit County, Utah, Summit County, with some portions extending into Wasatch County, Utah, Wasatch County. It is considered to be part of the Wasatch Back. The city is sou ...

Development

Locked On Sports was largely a self-financed enterprise by founder David Locke, with only a single infusion of $750,000 of

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

announced in 2019. Investors in the fledgling network included Bruce Gordon, formerly the

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

of Disney Interactive Media Group, focused podcast investor Podfund, and Summit Capital, a Utah-based private equity firm. The Locked On network grew to encompass podcasts targeted to fans of every individual team in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL),

(NBA),

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL), and

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) as well as to the sports programs of more than 30 American universities.

Sale to Tegna

In January 2021 the Locked On Podcast Network was sold to communications giant

, a digital and broadcasting spin-off of the

newspaper group. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed at the time of sale. Under terms of the sale, Locked On's

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

David Locke, COO Carl Weinstein, and four other full-time staff members were hired by Tegna. Locke remained president of the Locked on Podcast Network as of early 2022.

Move to YouTube

In May 2021 Locked On Sports expanded from audio to video podcasting when it launched its first

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel.Tegna
"TEGNA’s Locked On Podcast Network Grows Audience and Expands Video Offerings,"
company press release, February 10, 2022. The move spurred growth of the network, with Tegna reporting a 48 percent gain in audience during 2021, for a total of 115 million podcast listens and views. During that year Locked On Sports produced about 700 podcast episodes per week.

Footnotes

{{reflist, 30em

External links

Locked On Podcast Network company website

Locked On Sports on Twitter
* Matt Pacenza
"David Locke: The Voice of the Jazz (And Sports Fans Everywhere),"
''Salt Lake Magazine,'' September-October 2021. New media 2016 podcast debuts YouTube channels launched in 2021 Audio podcasts Video podcasts Interview podcasts Talk show podcasts