FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
BRIAN BILLICK PARTNERS WITH WNST SPORTS MEDIA TO LAUNCH WNST.net, AN ONLINE SPORTS COMMUNITY TO BENEFIT THE LIVING CLASSROOMS FOUNDATION
Baltimore, Md. - Baltimore’s WNST Sports Media announces the formation of a new media sports endeavor turning WNST-AM 1570 radio into WNST.net, a place where fans of all Baltimore sports teams will turn online for sports information, news, feedback, expert analysis, participation and social networking. Former World Champion head coach Brian Billick is a key member and contributor to the new partnership, led by company CEO Nestor Aparicio.
Next week’s launch of the all-new WNST.net will transcend all other local media outlets in the marketplace as a one-stop place on the web to talk, chat, hear and see all that Baltimore sports has to offer. WNST.net will essentially be an around-the-clock sports newspaper, and a complete radio and television “on demand” home for the most robust collection of authentic and user-generated local sports content.
Specializing in news and analysis of the Ravens, Orioles, Terps and other participatory local sports from recreation councils to high schools and local colleges, WNST.net seeks to be the preeminent home on the web for anything and everything pertaining to sports in Baltimore and Maryland. It hopes to bring together all local sports enthusiasts into one community with freedom of speech, local authenticity and quality and depth of opinions and analysis.
WNST – the acronym stands for “We Never Stop Talking” Baltimore Sports – is a 10-year brand that began as an AM radio station led by Aparicio’s ownership and fueled by his local passion. WNST-AM 1570 will continue to thrive and serve as the audio focal point for all of WNST.net’s future marketing endeavors with all radio content being made available online via podcasts.
“After nine great years in Baltimore, my wife Kim and I knew that Baltimore is where we were going to stay,” said Billick, who will blog regularly, do three weekly radio segments as well as a live local radio show in the community on the first Wednesday of each month on WNST-AM 1570. “I can’t think of a better way to stay in touch with the passionate football fans here in Charm City than to share my opinions and observations about the game we all love. And, I can’t think of a more authentic forum to do it than with WNST.”
Aparicio, a former sportswriter for The Evening Sun, has been a tireless follower and advocate for Baltimore sports fans for his entire life and has shared his love of local sports with other fans on Baltimore radio since 1991. Billick coached the Ravens for nine seasons, leading the team to a World Championship in 2001 in Super Bowl XXXV and will be working with Fox Sports nationally during the 2008 NFL season as a game analyst.
The two met in Minnesota in early 1999 prior to Billick’s tenure as Ravens coach, and Billick penned the foreword to Aparicio’s 2001 chronicle of the team’s championship season called, “Purple Reign: Diary of a Raven Maniac.” Their relationship and mutual love of Baltimore sports, football, business, media and the local community spawned this partnership.
“This isn’t about Brian or Nestor or WNST or the current state of ‘old’ media as much as it’s about Baltimore sports fans having an honest and easily accessible place on the web to share their mutual love of the community, Baltimore sports and outline the fun of being a fan or a participant in local sports,” Aparicio said. “We’re building an online sports media property that in the future will be the way local people communicate and interact, with local sports and the local teams being the focal point. And we’re doing this at a grassroots level that no out-of-town conglomerate could possibly attempt. We are thrilled to have a partner with the substance, intellect and benevolence of Brian Billick.”