This past week, I’ve had the opportunity to spend some time with an extraordinary individual. Someone who to some extent is in a similar position as I am and who covers some of the same elements. Ryan Michael Novozinsky, who is an Allentown, New Jersey resident, is a 19 year old sophomore at Oklahoma State University, and a sports media major who not only has his own website which is featured on Ocolly.com, but his very own radio show “In The Novo”. Ryan Novozinsky not only covers the football team at Oklahoma State, but all the other teams as well and discusses them on his radio show, including interviews with guests such as players and coaches.
When asked how he got started, Novozinsky said that he was feeling “persistent” and “outgoing” one day and decided it was time to make a move. He reached out to the radio manager at Oklahoma State and said “Hey, you know what man? Let’s work out a plan where I can be on the radio.” And ever since then Novozinsky has tackled the subjects of Oklahoma State Athletics head on and according to him it is going “very well”. I then asked Novozinsky what the purpose of his website and radio show was:
“My mission is to get a unique perspective from people week in and week out from people when it comes to college sports, mostly Oklahoma State but college sports” Novozinksy said “But as I go along and gain more prominence as a reporter, as a radio host or whatever it may be, I hope to be at that national level of prominence, to gain the prestige, gain the credibility now and build up to the point where I’m having breaking news and stuff like that, which I’ve done to an extent this year.”
Because he’s 19 years old and still new, Novozinsky says it can be challenging at times, mentioning how not everyone he invites on his show always says yes, which can be real discouraging at times, in my opinion. He calls it an “adventure”, and says how most people he does invite are people that he admires and “looks up to”. He also says it is very rewarding when they do say yes, and he has had LSU football coach Ed Ogeron and Washington State University’s Mike leach on his show, two individuals says he truly looks up to, and describes it as “a dream come true.”
He loves promoting his work through social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and in some cases even Snapchat. I then discussed with him the role social media plays and how a fraction of people spend their time with it, especially with journalism. He describes the role digital media plays in journalism is “vital”.
“My philosophy about new media is that it needs to be intertwined with whatever you do. If you have an article that’s going to be posted in the newspaper, it has to mention some sort of video, digital media aspect of it. For example, If there’s an article about Fantasy Football, why shouldn’t there be a video?” He then continued “If you’re going to be in this field, you need to be a Swiss army knife. As for me, I wanna do radio, but I don’t only do radio, I do television and I’ve done all of them. Novozinsky added “People are online all the time. So for the future going forward, everyone is already on there, so why not have web journalism play a role in it? (media) So let’s just let it do it’s thing. I think, without a doubt, it is the most important thing in journalism going forward.”
Last, I asked Novozinsky what the most interesting and exciting part about his work, and he responded:
“If you have a topic, you’ll start to turn a few heads, and I think turning a few heads is a really fun thing thing because you get people who will want to come with you either to be on your show, or join your site, or even send news to you. I just think It’s a really neat thing.”
He says his favorite part about doing his show is the relationships he has made with his guests, such as ESPN’s Will Cain and Trey Lingo. His advice to anyone who wants to start a blog is to be persistent, and he says to keep going along. I myself would agree with that. Even though I am a couple years older, I really felt that I learned a lot from Ryan Novozinsky, and I hope that anyone reading this will, too. I feel that I have more ideas and most importantly, a plan. I think it doesn’t matter where you’re going, what matters is deciding to get on for the ride.
If you want to hear from him more, you can follow him on Twitter @RyanNovo62 or Instagram @ryannovo
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