Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 10 No. 1 | August 2017

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10 Inside Hokie Sports
Every aspect of our world evolves, and
we only can hope that our personal reaction
to that evolution leads to success and
satisfaction in life. Are we the types of people
who aggressively track new technology trends
and ideologies, or do we stubbornly cling to
things in our lives that provide us comfort?
If you resemble me, you find that answer
somewhere in the middle. This provides
opportunities for growth, but also moments
of frustration and a nostalgic lament for
reliable methods of the past.
Therein lies the challenge that we all face
in a rapidly evolving world. Things seem
to be moving at a break-neck pace, and
resistance to the new normal at times seems
futile. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it
isn’t. Those conflicting thoughts keep rattling
around in my head, as I survey the current
landscape of multi-media distribution and
the ways in which those in the profession
construct content.
At the end of July, my high school (Chaska
High School in Minnesota) held the 20-
year reunion for my 1997 graduating class. I
couldn’t make it back, unfortunately, but it
certainly made me reflect on how different
the world looks now. I vividly remember the
senior party after our graduation and the
registration book for people to write down
their email addresses in the interest of staying
in touch. I also remember what I wrote—“Jon
Laaser—phone number—if you need me, call
me, and we will talk about it.” It seems that I
wasn’t quite ready for the upcoming massive
changes in communications methods.
My class was one of the first to flirt with
computers in high school, but it certainly
didn’t permeate everything we learned and
how we interacted, as it does with students
today. Quite frankly, I remember great
anxiety when a college professor required an
assignment to be completed online. I found
much more comfort with a college-ruled
notebook and No. 2 pencils. We were a few
more years away from the obliteration of
the print media business model and the rise
of social media, but technological evolution
started in full swing during my college years.
But we were still in a transitional phase.
In my first few jobs in sports, I remember
such tasks as formatting the postgame
fax distribution list, clipping the morning
newspaper and magazine articles and touting
the impact of traditional media marketing. I
was certainly not among the first to embrace
Facebook, Twitter and all the platforms that
followed. And I certainly wasn’t on the cutting
edgewhen it came to imagininghowtheywould
revolutionize the communications business
model. Full disclosure, I still sometimes
opine for the time before everything became
available with a tap of my smartphone. I miss
the feel of the newspaper in the morning, and
yes, highlights on ESPN.
I realize that I live in the “tweener”
generation. Our formative years began at
the very beginning of the first tech bubble.
We are young enough to understand and
manipulate new platforms, but didn’t grow
up with computers in our classrooms and a
smartphone in our hand, and therefore, we
lack the instinctual ability that only comes
from youthful repetition.
I used to see this as somewhat of a
disadvantage. The sheer speed at which life
is disseminated by millennials can seem
daunting. I imagine that is only magnified
for those who represent generations prior to
mine.
However, I came to embrace that space
in the middle. I find that lodged in between
can be an appreciation of more traditional
mediums, while also understanding rapidly
changing consumption patterns because of
the proliferation of content options and the
speed at which they become available.
It is that internal compromise that I try to
lean upon, as our team attempts to shape the
future presentation of Virginia Tech athletics.
We need to explore new frontiers, while also
respecting the reliability of some of our core
franchises. Those core franchises include our
radio game broadcasts and “Tech Talk Live,”
which people listen to across the Virginia
Tech/IMG Sports Network.
This is anareawhere I refuse tocompromise.
I continue to believe that the network of
affiliates needs to be maintained, and in some
cases, expanded. I diligently make an effort
each year to extend those relationships and
add other key markets. You will continue to
hear that in the years to come, with extensions
brokered with what we call our “anchor”
affiliates located in major and mid-major
markets. The same holds true of our weekly
television show “Virginia Tech Sports Today,”
and this magazine, of which I continue to
with
Jon
Laaser
The Evolution of Everything