LAWTON — Oklahoma Sports Network covers 11 high schools in the southwest and central parts of the state, but there’s still room to grow, company owner Eric Sharum said.
Sharum, who started in sports radio in 1987, suggested possible expansion might include the Tulsa area where several schools are without livestreaming coverage like OSN offers every Friday night during football season. OSN also covers other sports as schedules and personnel allow, he said.
“We cover all of the football games, some basketball, baseball and soccer and even some college rugby and cornhole tournaments,” he said. The coverage also includes pregame and postgame interviews with coaches and players plus special features and a list of scores from recent games.
The network started in 2016 covering Lawton High, Lawton MacArthur and Elgin High sports as Sharum and a silent partner put their plan into action.
“What started off as a hobby quickly turned into a full schedule with coverage of all home and away football games,” Sharum said. “We have room to grow. We haven’t plateaued at all. We want more schools. We’re not limited. This is a digital company in a digital age.”
The livestreaming coverage can be found on Amazon, Roku, AppleTV and YouTube with a coverage of about 28,000 homes for Friday night football.
Sharum believes the product, which he says are the schools, “sell themselves.”
“The schools are the stars, not us,” he said.
Since most of the 11 schools are in military towns, it’s relatively easy to have community support.
“They (communities) give us the support we need with advertisers and the schools are not charged anything (for being a part of the network),” Sharum said.
OSN recently held a Media Day for seven of the schools at The Hangout in Lawton as coaches and players from each school talked about the upcoming football season. The seven schools were Lawton High, Lawton MacArthur, Lawton Eisenhower, Elgin, Cache, Altus and Walters. The other four schools that receive coverage are Midwest City, Del City, Carl Albert and Newcastle.
OSN operates on a contract labor basis for its play-by-play announcers and color commentators who perform the work as a hobby or as a catalyst to a bigger stage, Sharum said. Meanwhile, viewing the games is as simple as downloading the network’s app from its website www.oksportsnet.com.
For more details about OSN, call (580) 512-1695 or email Eric@Oksportsnet.com.