FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2015
For more information call:
(865) 207-6479
Erik Ainge Joins RTI
In just its first full year of existence, Rocky Top Insider took Vol Nation by storm in 2015 by providing sensational coverage of University of Tennessee sports across multiple digital-media platforms. With the recent addition of Erik Ainge, RTI is well positioned to turn even more heads in 2016.
Beginning January 11, the former NFL quarterback and Tennessee standout will be hosting RTI Radio with Erik Ainge every Monday and Tuesday from 4 to 6:00 pm. The show will be broadcast live from RTI’s digital studio in Alcoa and can be heard on 1180 am WVLZ in the Knoxville area, or by streaming it on the Rocky Top Insider app which has already been downloaded over 11,000 times. RTI beat writer Daniel Lewis will be co-hosting with Ainge, as well as holding down the hosting duties on the Wednesday-through-Friday installments of RTI Radio. All podcasts of RTI Radio are posted daily to both the app and to rockytopinsider.com.
“We’re excited to have Erik on board,” said John Cave Osborne, co-founder of Rocky Top Insider. “We already have a robust website that garners 130,000 unique visitors a month. We also have a vast social media footprint, including our 25,000 Twitter followers. But in adding Erik, we’ve added a well known, proven and top-notch talent. And that will do nothing but make us stronger.”
Osborne’s business partner and Rocky Top Insider co-founder Bob Baskerville agrees. “In Erik, you have a unique talent who’s not only done radio before, but who’s done radio at a high level with great success. For nearly three years, The Erik Ainge Show redefined morning sports talk radio in Knoxville with one-of-a-kind insight along with a little irreverence mixed in for good measure. We believe Erik’s afternoon drive show with RTI will provide that same mix of entertainment and information for fans all across Vol Nation.”
But radio won’t be the full extent of Ainge’s contributions to RTI. He’ll also provide his insight for the group’s weekly newsletter, The Inside Skinny, as well as occasional contributions to RTI’s website.
“Joining Rocky Top Insider made all the sense in the world,” said Ainge. “I’ve known Bob and John for a long time and this thing just kinda came about naturally. It’s a perfect extension of everything I’ve got going on right now. I guess you could say it’s a natural fit.”
And a natural fit is important to RTI. “That’s our whole deal,” said Osborne. “Finding things that fit. Things that make sense together. Whether it’s with sponsors like Sugarlands Distilling Company, Rice Buick GMC, Alumni Hall and Fieldhouse Social. Or whether it’s with the folks we want to work with. It has to make sense to pan out. Decisions make themselves all the time and that’s what happened here. Erik makes sense for Rocky Top Insider and Rocky Top Insider makes sense for Erik.”
Now that the two have joined forces, look for Rocky Top Insider to make plenty of sense to a lot of folks across Vol Nation in the years to come.