After nearly three years in operation,
a Rockford-based broadcast company with an innovative
method of airing high school sports is still going
strong.
Michigansportsradio.com
uses streaming audio via the Internet so long distance
fans can keep up on area games. "Our games are listened to all
over the world,"
said Brock Konkle, who helped launch the business in
2005. "Mlive has picked up all of our feeds as well.
This has gone a lot farther than I thought it would."
Former announcer and Rockford
resident Ross Maghielse has helped to expand the unique
method of athletic exposure on the east side of the state. "He's
going to Oakland University and he has taken this to
the Detroit area, where it's going great," said
Konkle.
On any given Friday, six different
games throughout the West Michigan area are broadcast
through Konkle's business.
Last year they broadcast
a game in the Upper Peninsula between Kingsford and Coopersville
and drew 1,500 listeners. Last year approximately 12,000
listeners tuned into a broadcast between Rockford High
School and Muskegon, their "biggest audience by
far" according to Konkle.
The business is supported through
advertisers who benefit by transmitting their message
to their target audience: parents, family and friends
of the players.
Konkle is a 1983 graduate
of Rockford High School and sports nut who saw a chance
to bring more exposure to local athletics while also
allowing anyone just about anywhere in the world to keep
up. "We
provide an opportunity for people who can't get out
and go to the game an opportunity to listen to high
school athletics," said Konkle. "We like
the fact that people like what we do. I do it for the
love of the game."
