Local Sports. Few things bring a community together like soft pretzels, the wave, and unfortunate referee calls. Cheering for players you know from your community, and the pride you find when their efforts yield success are what make sports broadcasting a dynamic industry.

At Harrisonburg Radio Group, local athletes and teams are something we take a particular interest in. Summers are spent talking about the native roster teams of the Rockingham County Baseball League and the adopted sons from the Valley Baseball League. Spring and Fall are spent gearing up for coverage of James Madison University Football on WSVA with live pregame and post-game shows.

How do we connect with our local sports?

The Daily Sports Feed is the area’s only locally-produced daily sports show with a heavy focus on local and regional teams.

The Daily Sports Feed on ESPN Harrisonburg airing from 12p-1p featuring host Dave Thomas is seeing a rise in both on-air and online listening. Just in the last seven days, the ESPN Harrisonburg website (espnharrisonburg.com) had 1.1k visitors with almost, if not all, users listening to Dave’s Daily Sports Feed Podcast and reading his daily blog posts about JMU Football news. Last week, an interview with potential JMU Quarterback Ben Dinucci was viewed 329 times, and we are even seeing a growing listenership from Australia. (Punter Harry O’Kelly’s family?) There are more statistics we could share, but we doubt you’d want to read a 20 page Google Analytics report.

Watching the growth in the Daily Sports Feed online presence has created an exciting buzz around our station and on-air. As the show and blog take off, we are excited for the opportunities that are going to open for both our listeners and our sponsors.

Be sure to tune into WHBG on weekdays from noon to one to hear the latest sports news directly from your local sports guru, Dave Thomas.