Call me a homer, but this week I’m going to be rooting for the homegrown team. They’re betting on their hometown and their home state, and that kind of trust and commitment is inspiring.
The greatly anticipated launch of Birmingham-based digital sports show extravaganza, The Next Round, is finally here and the grand new adventure of sports-talk personalities Ryan Brown, Lance Taylor and Jim Dunaway goes live at 9 a.m. on Monday morning. They got a “Rockstar” on payroll, too, so we all know it’s going to get a little crazy.
Download The Next Round app to tune in, or play it on nextroundlive.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, Spotify, or just about anywhere stuff is streamed on the Internet. Terrestrial radio is the one place where you can’t find The Next Round, so don’t go spinning the dial trying to hear the familiar voices of Birmingham’s biggest sports fans.
Brown, Taylor, Dunaway and Sean Heninger (aka “Rockstar”) were on 94.5 Jox FM for years, but they’ve gone into business for themselves in the hopes of growing their dream of self-ownership into something sports fans throughout Alabama and the SEC footprint can enjoy. Their show was called Roundtable on Jox, so now, naturally, they’re onto The Next Round.
Scared?
“Oh, yes,” Heninger said.
They shouldn’t be, though. If there is one thing that Birmingham does well it’s love those who love this resilient town.
“Sports connect us all,” Dunaway said. “It brings every part of our community together. It’s magical and it makes Alabama special and that’s why so many people around here love sports so much.”
Amen.
GOODMAN: Alabama might be overrated but it has an unselfish edge
These aren’t the guys on the radio who think they know everything*. These are the other guys. These are the guys who everyone knows from way back in high school. Dunaway went to Thompson. Taylor is from Homewood. Brown, who practically grew up working for Jox, is as blue-collar as they come. Rockstar, who claims he graduated from Vestavia, is the essence of what makes Birmingham great.
“We think Rockstar is the thread that holds us all together,” Dunaway said. “He will say one line in an hour, and it will change the course of the rest of the show.”
Rockstar’s journey to this point in his life reads like some kind of psychedelic American Dream. Producer of The Next Round, he stumbled into radio while attending UAB, and then dropped out of college to work for Jox full time while pursuing a career in music.
Amazingly, that plan actually worked out, which speaks to his natural talent and persistence. These days, most people might better recognize Heninger as an accomplished musician who plays in the regionally famous Black Jacket Symphony.
Fun story about Rockstar, of which there are many. He’s a musical genius who plays everything by ear, but that didn’t really jive with being a traditional music major at UAB. He couldn’t read music in his first music class, so his instructor told him to quit before even trying. Left-handed, he taught himself how to play a right-handed guitar upside-down and backwards.
That brilliant, organic ingenuity pretty much sums up The Next Round. These are the guys who stuck around town and worked hard — and maybe went about things a little backwards — but have now made something for their city and state to celebrate and love. When it comes to the magical blending of college football and culture in Alabama, there isn’t going to be a show that communicates that insane, borderline toxic, irresistible love affair any better.
The Next Round studio is inside the Blue Lake Center on Blue Lake Road, and that’s extremely clutch because right up the hill is one of Alabama’s most famous barbecue joints. Ultimately, The Next Round has plans to build a podcast network that reaches across the South to a wider audience. Nationally, that digital model is making terrestrial radio less relevant by the day.
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“Anyone in their craft, a guy who is a chef at Ruth’s Chris, ultimately wants his own restaurant one day,” Taylor said. “If we fly the plane into the mountain, it’s on us.”
Just don’t take out Miss Myra’s while you’re mixing metaphors, Lance.
“Say a silent prayer for us that all the cameras and mics are working on Monday morning,” Dunaway said.
Charles Barkley’s Redmont Vodka is already a big sponsor of the show, and others will be revealed this week. Sports gambling will be featured prominently, and maybe even some local beer. Taps are being built into the new studio (so y’all know where I’ll be at happy hour).
Everyone loves a party when the next round is on the house.
*OK, Lance Taylor might actually know everything.
Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr. His first book, “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s ‘Ultimate Team’,” debuts in November.
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August 15, 2021 at 06:46PM
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