Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Football preseason just started. MLB playoffs around the corner. NBA training camp about to begin.

In 1995 at Tommy Boy Records — my assistant Jeff Diones and I built a database of music supervisors at NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL venues.

We started calling. Before email. Everything by phone.

We sent care packages of Jock Jams CDs to every arena we could find.

Here's what we discovered — a lot of these venues weren't even playing recorded music yet. They still had organ players.

So us introducing recorded music to stadiums was completely new.

Most music supervisors had never heard from a record label before. Nobody had done this systematically.

Once we started — every other label followed.

As far as I know — we were the first.

And every time you hear music drop in a stadium — there's a little piece of that story in there.

Subscribe for more music industry stories from DJ Riddler — Director of Entertainment at Warehouse Live Midtown Houston.

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