Every few months, I see a clip I’ve seen 25 times and still chuckle.
It’s from the Today Show back in 1995 — three years before I was born — and host Byrant Gumbel is reading off an email address like it’s some ancient Mayan hieroglyphic. He’s confused about how to pronounce the @ symbol. He doesn’t realize you say “dot com,” not just “com.”
“What is internet anyway?” Gumbel asks.
It is an insane sentence to hear, knowing what we know now. But it also gets you thinking about everything people were either wrong about or slow to come around to. Tons of folks were concerned about cars and airplanes. Even in the late-1800’s, people heard about the telephone and thought it was the work of the devil.
The point is: One can either adapt to innovation … or look really silly in 15 years.
That’s why I’m so pumped to join Bronco Nation News and get on board with what B.J. has built over the last 20 months. BNN is new media. It is the template for how websites will operate in the future, blending great journalism with live shows that meet the audience where they’re at — YouTube, Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, Tik Tok, whatever.
I am still biased to the written word, but the options BNN has for the most casual to the most diehard Boise State fan is exceptional. There are daily morning shows. Pre-game shows. Post-game shows. There are message boards and golf tournaments. There are late-night shows and shows hosted by the best basketball player on campus.
My goal is to simply add a few floors to the skyscraper of content already available at Bronco Nation News.
Boise State is an interesting place. It is a university with quirks and complexities, an athletic department that is both ahead of the game and a million miles behind. It is a place built on tradition and also very bad at celebrating that tradition (How the heck is Kellen Moore’s number still not retired?!?)
It is a relatively young institution that never expected to be on the platform it reached. When the original Bronco Stadium was built in 1970, Boise State was only a year removed from playing NAIA football. And you wanna know why it takes a half-hour to get into Albertsons Stadium? It wasn’t built to hold very many people .. and, well, somehow workers built the entire stadium in less than 10 months.
There is so much about Boise State that fascinates me — and that’s what I want to express in my stories for BNN. I want to write thought-provoking, compelling, fun articles that fans find interesting, that they can hopefully learn something from.
And what a time to do that.
I can’t guarantee that Boise State will win a Mountain West championship, or that its basketball team will win an NCAA Tournament Game, or that Boise State will join the Big 12. But I do know we at Bronco Nation News are going to have one heck of a time talking and writing about it along the way — and we’d love it if you’re along for the ride.
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