Why He’s Interesting: In 2014, football fan David McAllester started BigPlay in his garage with just a microphone and a big dream. Now, nine years later, the company has turned into one of the city’s premier sports media entities, with an office in downtown Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport and a roster filled with former athletes and media personalities showcased on the program.
Content is key: BigPlay really took off four years ago when McAllester and his team moved into the podcasting, video and audio space. At first, it started with him and popular Twitter personality McNeil (@reflog_18) taking calls from drunk Cleveland Browns fans for commentary after games. Fast forward a few years, and now he runs a company that produces 12 sports shows a week with millions of listeners. “It’s been quite the adventure,” McAllester says.
Dwayne D’oh: While McAllester says that he’s just like any other dad of four with a minivan, he boasts an encyclopedic knowledge of Cleveland sports and the athletes who have represented the city, and he counts Nick Chubb and J.R. Smith among his favorites. As for the worst? “It’s Dwayne Bowe. Going into the archives there. He was just here for a paycheck.”
Pretty Fly: After working out of his garage for the first eight years of the company’s existence, McAllester leased space in Burke airport, complete with murals and paintings dedicated to Cleveland sports. “I had never been there before we moved in. It’s an incredible space.”
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