Sports
How Phil Mackey Digitally Evolved Sports Radio Into SKOR North
– Advertisement – Since the dawn of MySpace in 2003, social media use in the United States has continued to grow like a runaway freight train. With every new innovation comes another audience to connect to, engage with, and entertain. For over twenty years, traditional broadcast radio has faced challenges in how to grow audience […]



Since the dawn of MySpace in 2003, social media use in the United States has continued to grow like a runaway freight train. With every new innovation comes another audience to connect to, engage with, and entertain. For over twenty years, traditional broadcast radio has faced challenges in how to grow audience through social platforms as the industry gives way to a more digitally educated audience with more ease of search and shortened attention spans. Very few sports radio stations have tackled the challenges of growing on social media like SKOR North, headed by Phil Mackey.
For the last 15 years, Mackey has been one of the leading minds with Hubbard Broadcasting in Minnesota, transforming what was ESPN 1500 into SKOR North, a totally digital sports media juggernaut. Mackey, whose background began in traditional sports radio, understands the mistakes that sports radio stations make in regard to how audiences find content in today’s playing field.
“We think of radio as the only distribution platform that we should pour our energy into, and if we get to the other stuff, so be it,” said Mackey. “The problem is when we half-ass those other platforms—social media, the longer form platforms, podcasts, or YouTube—what we’re doing is preventing people from discovering our content.”
A study from Data Reportal shows that of the 411 million mobile connections that were active in the United States in early 2025, it found 253 million total social media user identities, equating to 73% of the population of the country. The highest user bases are found on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, according to the study.
With Social Media Week underway this week, Mackey discussed how, over his time in the sports radio industry, he has seen stations and personalities be too narrow-minded when it comes to reaching the audiences available on social and digital.
“It’s hard to continue to try and keep the legacy business thriving if we’re cutting off all access to younger people that might stumble into our brands,” noted Mackey. “We’ve got to think more about content and brand across all of the platforms, even if radio remains our core business and our legacy business.”
Evolving Sports Radio Into SKOR North
The approach changed for Mackey in the fall of 2018 as he met with Hubbard Radio Minnesota Vice President/Region Manager Dan Seeman and developed a strategy that would transition a traditional radio programming lineup on ESPN 1500 to a compilation of shows and podcasts that migrated to a podcast network. Rebranded as SKOR North, the station continued to produce between six to eight hours of live radio each day. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country, another transition was made as all the locally created content moved to digital media.
“We thought about radio for decades as the center of the wheel and everything must point back,” said Mackey. “The brand and the content are the center of the wheel, and distribution are the spokes around it. We have to treat all of those platforms, even if they don’t lead directly to revenue right now. We have to treat them as lifelines for the audience.”
For the first time ever, the radio industry’s digital revenue for a calendar year surpassed $2 billion in 2024, according to the latest RAB-Borrell Associates Digital Benchmarking Report. The issue remaining for most sports radio brands is how to truly take a locally produced product for digital and monetize—a struggle that Mackey faced head-on with the transition of SKOR North.
“It’s an education process internally and externally,” explained Mackey. “The content and audience building has been about three years ahead of the revenue building. Early on, we were selling radio spots and throwing in added value for podcast and social media exposure. Now it’s the other way around. Companies are buying the YouTube and podcast product, and we are selling radio completely separately as an ESPN-branded radio station.”
Mackey notes that there is no difference in selling social media or a podcast network compared to a radio program. The characteristics of building an audience, connecting a community, and then connecting the community to local advertisers is the core of how any sales department should approach the task.
“It’s a constant discussion and education process about where media is going and where it is right now,” Mackey says.
Being Social Is No Longer A Choice
While there is no one way to approach how personalities and sports radio brands should always approach a social media strategy, the need to do so is paramount. With so many content options presented to a consumer in a given day, it is becoming more difficult by the hour to connect with audiences and market a product—more now than ever. Instead of playing to just a specific group of social audiences to market your sports radio brand or talent, Mackey notes it’s an all-in competition.
“At SKOR North, we still create content for all of our different platforms, but we prioritize podcast and YouTube as the business drivers, with the other social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X) as marketing tools for us,” said Mackey. “We still put some revenue on those social platforms, but we consider those to be top-of-the-funnel, short-form, discovery-driven strategy versus the longform strategy.”
Furthermore, Mackey suggests that any sports radio talent or show that may have trouble finding which clips to use to market on social platforms should come in with a plan.
“I absolutely think if you’re going into a live radio show, you should be thinking in your pre-prep what are the things, topics, subjects that could be great on other social platforms,” said Mackey. “Always have your radar up for what could translate to more bite-sized or snackable platforms. Quite frankly, if you’re not thinking about that, it’s going to be hard to gain traction on those platforms where the younger audience is waiting to be connected with.”
A Talent’s Job Is To Build On Air And On Social
Sports radio personalities also differ on how they use social media to connect with their audience. Some talent choose to be more open and engage with their following, while others prefer to stray away, fearing too much exposure. Unfortunately, there are dangers and consequences that come from how some talent use social media, with no seven-second delay to protect them. This leads to some in the industry choosing to completely ignore social media usage altogether, which Mackey says would be a huge mistake.
“I think it’s hard to just not be engaging because part of your job is to build that community,” said Mackey. “We pride ourselves at SKOR North saying we are the most fan-friendly interactive podcast in the Twin Cities. If you are a fan with an opinion on something, we will create space for that interaction. If I were to go dark and never reply to anybody in a comment section or on social media, would I really be aligned with our mission statement as content creators? Probably not.”
Under Mackey’s leadership, SKOR North continues to be a model of success for how companies can take a traditional model and reshape it for a new generation of consumers utilizing digital and social media. As he embarks on his fifth anniversary of being named Director of Digital Content Development for Hubbard Radio, Mackey is always on the lookout for the next great challenge as an industry leader in the evolution of sports content.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
John Mamola is the sports editor and columnist for Barrett Media. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. Honored to be a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Media and honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL). Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.