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The saddest day of 2009 for any Ravens fan was also the day that I saw the state of the world had changed for WNST.net via the instant power of our text service. On the 4th of July at 4:17 p.m. I was sitting at home watching midday holiday baseball when I got a tip from a friend that Steve McNair had been murdered.

After receiving that quick text, I jumped onto the computer and saw that every Tennessee TV station was reporting his murder within the previous five minutes. At 4:21 p.m. more than 3,900 people received a WNST Text reporting the only facts we knew: “Tennessee media is reporting that Steve McNair has been murdered. More to come…”

At 4:50 p.m., ESPN finally reported it. And at 5:37 p.m. – a full 76 minutes later, The Sun finally had it on their website.

While I was blogging feverishly, looking for any information I could get from Nashville in the first 30 minutes on a sweltering holiday summer day – monitoring all of their TV stations and newspapers and fielding a wide variety of emails, Tweets and texts – apparently the 3,900 people on our WNST Text Service had taken matters into their own hands in forwarding our message to tens of thousands of other people like a game of virtual phone booth. More than 23,000 people had visited my blog by 8 p.m. on a premier national holiday on a day when virtually no one was in front of a computer. They were all coming from the palms of theirs hands via their mobile devices.

THAT – in the previous 25 years of my media existence — would have been impossible in the old, dinosaur world of local news. And it certainly would’ve been exclusively the area of the three local TV stations and, probably, WBAL Radio. But in the new world, they were all coming to the local source of the breaking sports news: WNST.net.

But the one thing about our WNST Text Service that often goes without saying is this: when we report it, you KNOW it’s true. Through our own goodwill, hard work and credibility, we have established a reputation for never, ever being wrong on a news story. And there are now more than 5,200 of you on the WNST Text Service.

Join the WNST Text Service…

And it goes without say that “timeliness” and the element of surprise is, in fact, the essence of what makes it “news.” News is immediate. News is shareable. News is eternal.

And, clearly, not all news is good.

But the depth of our content was also apparent on that sad, summer day. Ironically, we had video of Steve McNair joining about 1,200 Ravens fans in Nashville to greet them from January of last year before the big playoff game in our You Tube video vault. It’s a really weird clip — especially given it was the last time he’d do anything with his Baltimore roots. We raised $5,000 that night last January for the Air McNair Foundation and the Baltimore Ronald McDonald House. I had given very little thought that night at Limelight in Nashville that I would never see Steve McNair alive again.

Like most breaking news stories – and all tragedies – it was completely unpredictable that Steve McNair could die like that on the 4th of July. But when those things do happen, WNST.net has become a trusted source for the confirmation of any news event in Baltimore.

As a guy who has dedicated his life to journalism, it was a proud day for me and for our company that we got the story first, right and the follow up was extensive and thorough. And if you were one of the thousands who was forwarding our WNST Texts through mobile cyberspace, we really appreciate it.

The No. 1 way our company grows every day at WNST is when Facebook and Twitter and Text users tell and “share” our information, blogs, news and links to other folks via their computer or mobile devices.

If you “care” about WNST.net – and you think we’re doing a good job and trust us – the best thing you can do to help us is to share our content and spread the word that we’re doing a great job with Baltimore sports, community and conversation.

And it’s SO easy to share it. Look at ANY blog in our sphere and at the top of every story is a “SHARE” button – to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc. If you read something you like or something you think your friends would like it, simply spreading the word is a click away.

So, here’s your question of the day: Who do YOU trust in the Baltimore sports media? And where do you turn to get your Baltimore sports news? And what could we do better at WNST.net to serve you?

Fill out our “WNST State of Baltimore Sports Media Survey” here for a chance to win a Panasonic 50-inch HDTV…

It’s what this blog series and our survey this month is all about – getting your honest feedback and trying to create a “perfect” version of WNST.net. If you haven’t filled it out, we’d really appreciate it if you took a few minutes and help us get better by answering our questions about your current habits.

While the McNair story is a sad and morbid one, it does tell the tale of what the modern media is all about: getting the story right and getting the story first and then getting the story into people’s hands as quickly as possible.

In the industry, it’s called “content” and “distribution.”

In the three years since we began our WNST Text Service in January 2007, according to the Baltimore Sun (and every other media outlet in the marketplace), we’ve NEVER, EVER broken a story – NEVER.

There have been literally dozens of occasions when I’ve gone surfing other media sites looking for another verified source that confirms the information we know before we send our official WNST Text only to see nothing on their respective websites, Twitter feeds, etc. Just to make sure someone else isn’t reporting what we already know.

I have never, ever seen any “as first reported by WNST” in any medium at any point. Only our Twitter users or Facebook friends will say “WNST is reporting (blah, blah, blah)…”

Sadly, in a ridiculous set of Tweets last month, one of The Sun’s reporters had the audacity to accuse us of “stealing a scoop” when it was publicly announced that the Ravens were wearing black uniform tops vs. the Bears. It’d be laughable if it weren’t so sad – but everyone in our industry is sensitive to the timeliness of information.

Like winning a football game or any sports competition, getting it “first” is “winning.”

And much like Bear Bryant, “I ain’t never been nuthin’ but a winner.”

I’ve always had a different set of rules and a heavier cross to bear doing radio on the AM side of the dial and being a “blacksheep” of the Baltimore sports media kingdom. I get it. I’ve been doing this for more than 25 years as the arrogant underdog “self promoter” from Dundalk so being “kicked around” or “unrecognized” as a news source is what I’ve come to expect from our competition. Honestly, there’s a sick part of me that really likes it. It gets me out of bed every morning and inspires me to have to prove myself and prove what WNST.net stands for every day.

But as we said yesterday, it’s now apparent and inarguable who gets stories first and who has the most people reading them or watching them or listening to them via the web. It’s the internet in 2010. It’s measurable. It’s definable. It’s trackable. It’s easy to investigate.

So who is doing it fast and doing it well and with integrity? What is good journalism in 2010?

What is fair criticism and what’s a “low blow”?

What could possibly be left in the sports media universe that is unethical and inappropriate in a world where guys stick cameras in female sportscasters’ hotel bathrooms, TMZ.com posts drunken pictures of athletes with girls in random clubs and fans verbally assault and stalk players and coaches into scenes like Rex Ryan’s latest fiasco in Florida where one middle finger becomes a tabloid journalism wet dream in a place like New York?

And of course the internet can seem like one giant message board with anonymous idiots having instant access to write anything vitriolic or profane — like a giant, virtual bathroom wall of graffiti with no eraser.

Lord knows, I’ve had my fair share of lies, stalkers, weirdos, death threats and virtual garbage written about me over the years. And it’s amazing how quickly the nasty garbage spreads in the world of new media. Most of the time these accusations from cowards was accompanied later that afternoon by a call from The Sun’s Ray Frager looking to indict me and end my career and everything I’ve built on one Jimmy The Greek or Al Campanis moment where I might’ve “slipped” and made a foolish mistake.

One reporter from The Sun went through the Baltimore media crew and the Ravens’ locker room trying to convince people I was gay a few years ago in a brazen attempt to besmirch my name.

(By the way, if I were gay I’d be the proudest gay man on earth but the truth is that I prefer women. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…)

The point is this: when I began in this business 26 years ago, only a handful of people at the newspapers, radio and television had the “reach” or “distribution” to send any information to the masses – good or bad. And it could make or break any career or reputation.

Now, via Twitter, Facebook, message boards and the internet any one anonymous person can write or transmit any message on a bathroom wall for an audience of tens of thousands if it’s placed in the right place and shared. For better, or worse that’s the way of the world in the new millennium.

But, much like the quality and growth of our WNST Text Service, the content and accuracy and credibility of the message is everything. At this point, if the web comment is signed by “Hugh G. Rection” or “Jack Mehoff” it’s generally taken for the mud or venom that it is by any thinking person, much like a bathroom wall that says “Call Suzie for a good time.”

BUT…if it says “WNST.net is reporting…” you know you can trust that it’s true. We’re proud to sign our real name on anything we write or say.

As for the actual news — not the slander — in the old days “PI” – pre-internet — it wasn’t considered “news” until it was in The Sun. Period.

The newspaper had the power of distribution and the power of being the ONLY place for depth of content.

If a story broke at 10:30 in the morning – let’s say a trade or tragedy like the death of Len Bias in June 1986 – the radio would initially own it until (or unless) the TV went “live” to a press conference or a site to present “breaking news.” So, if the Orioles could get WBAL-TV to dump “Days of Our Lives” for a “We’re signing Jimmy Key press conference” they were a gigantic winner that day for free PR during the offseason. Then, the 6 o’clock news would have an “exclusive” with the newest local hero/athlete/millionaire.

The next morning – still a pretty “fast” turnaround in the old world of dinosaur media — The Sun would provide a recap and in-depth analysis with a Q&A, some quotes, personal information, hobbies, quips, etc. There would be no other immediate source or place to turn for this written information – nowhere in the world to turn that day for this almost exclusive set of facts and content. The Sun would have the smiling press conference picture, the main columnist’s analysis of it, various predictions of success (always the case) and the happiness and joy that surround the off-season sale of baseball optimism.

No one else COULD win. Unless you had a printing press and deep pockets and could put a newspaper on folks’ doorstep the next morning, there was no other source for this kind of sports information other than TV and radio. But The Sun in its monopolistic form in the 1990s, was the ONLY place to get this content in the written form.

But over the last decade, the newspapers have become “olds papers” very quickly.

Most days during the late 1990s and the early part of the century as my radio career evolved, I actually had the day’s news before The Sun. I was at practice most days – for Orioles batting practice or Ravens practices in season – and I went on the radio at 4 p.m. with the latest tidbits, injuries, etc. and the paper didn’t hit the streets until 5 a.m. the next day. And the WBAL-AM 1090 pre-game show didn’t come on until 6 p.m. So I always had the lineups first, the injury reports first and if any “breaking news” like a trade or an arrest happened, I was the first place that had the news and the only place where a regular Joe could call in and opine publicly about whatever the subject matter. But again, you couldn’t read the standings or the box scores on the radio dial.

The Ravens’ emergence in 1996 and the passion for NFL information and the lack of local resources who really knew the league changed the need for the distribution of sports media in Baltimore. People here didn’t really know that they shouldn’t cheer on offense after a generation of football was absent. Early on, I actually had buffoons call and say that Johnny Unitas should be the offensive coordinator or that the Ravens should keep Jon Ogden at guard. And people here certainly didn’t know the salary cap or a lot of the new-world strategies in regard to the inner workings of the game.

Luckily, I had guys like Jim Schwartz and Pat Hill and Marvin Lewis and Kevin Byrne and David Modell teach me about the NFL circa 1996 and I was in a format that was longer than 12 inches of newspaper space or a two-minute highlight reel on the 6 or 11 o’clock news so I could use the information and knowledge and format to my advantage.

While I had a “long format” edge to opine, educate and entertain in the 1990s and early part of the century, television still had the ultimate “big news” monopoly – and still does with some events like the blizzards, trials for crooked Mayors or police chiefs or the crazy Joe Palczynski saga. But the world is now turning to social media to see what their Facebook friends are saying about issues and what people on Twitter are “trending” on a topic.

And, as we’ll discuss at length tomorrow, I think smart people are very, very skeptical about what they’re seeing in modern, corporate-run broadcast American media these days because these entities have censored information and lied to them for so long.

The definition of “bought off” means paying money for a certain tilt to a message. And that’s happening every day right under your nose in Baltimore, especially with the Orioles.

The Sun, WBAL, WJZ – pick any local corporate brand of your choice — they’re ALL desperate to keep sales going because their numbers dwindle every year because the eyeballs are going elsewhere in a big web world and mostly because the product doesn’t have the urgency or the “trustability” or the resonance within the culture, especially for the younger “Ipod generation” who’ve never known a tiny world of three local TV stations, one newspaper and a few local radio stations.

Anyone under the age of 30 has no recollection of life without cable TV and hundreds of channels of specialty programming and millions of websites with endless possibilities and voices and opinions.

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were the only ones in the world reviewing movies 25 years ago. Now, every one of your Facebook friends is a critic — a food critic, a TV critic, a chef, a political analyst or a local sports expert.

As Deion Sanders once told me, “Nasty, my critics have critics.”

And as Brian Billick always says to me: “They’re gonna spin it however they want anyway.”

True, true, true…

And sports, more than most of life outside of political issues of a truly serious nature, lends itself to mostly harmless opinions — drawing up sides, expertise, parochialism, conflict, pageantry and fellowship while teaching the most virtuous characteristics of our better selves (teamwork, sacrifice, effort, practice, fairness, competition, etc.) – without taking on the real world of issues of economics, law, racism, religious conflict, torturers and war.

Sports is a “war” where no one gets hurt and everyone comes back again next season to “fight again.” It’s a set of “make believe” regional battles presented as entertainment. It’s a daily soap opera where the drama of the contests and the fervor of civic pride provides a backdrop to captivate America.

The “war” going on now in the media world is about content and distribution. The days of the corporate monopoly and corporate “message” are now over because the paradigm has changed.

There will never be three channels of TV again. There will never be a monopoly in any city for a news agency. And radio – while it pains me to say it – is a dying medium as well.

Take our “little AM radio station” at WNST-AM 1570. For about a decade (and six decades before that) the only media that we could create was blind sound, with a daylight radius of 37 miles during the day and eight miles at night. In the old days, we called it “theater of the mind.”

Now consider that at WNST.net we can transmit that same product on a Listen Live feed, while distributing EVERY blind radio sound we’ve ever made on demand, an endless amount of “written” words on our blogs including standings, scored and news in real time and full color video uplinks from Radio Row at the Super Bowl this week in a matter of seconds.

We’ve gone from being a tiny radio station with limited distribution to a full-service radio, television and real-time newspaper available anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. And we come into the palm of your hand via your mobile device.

That’s a powerful, powerful shift in my world. And I plan to take advantage of that opportunity at WNST.net by serving you the best information, analysis and conversation platform in the marketplace.

So, now the best “critics” or writers or distributors of thoughts and communication will win. That’s the content part.

And the distribution part – where WNST.net comes into everyone’s hands in the world via their mobile device – is now simply about the marketing, promotion and moxie of our quality and trusted content.

We think that’s us, at WNST.net.

If you love what we do, we hope you’ll tell your friends and others who would like our product on the web.

If you don’t like what we do, we hope you tell us so we can try to make it better in an ever-changing world.

Once again, here’s the “WNST State of Baltimore Media Survey” that you can fill out for a chance to win a 50-inch Panasonic HDTV…

While many other “vanity” companies charge for a monthly subscription or their publications, we continue to offer the many, many resources at WNST free of charge. They are all sponsor-supported and this how we feed our families.

If you love WNST, join any or all of our FREE services. And if you see a blog or a text or a video or a link that you like on our site, please forward it to a friend. It’s the best thing you can do to be a “friend” to WNST.

We really appreciate your support over all of the years and hope that 2010 is our best year ever at WNST.net.

One thing for sure: we’ve never had better content or distribution of our content.

Tomorrow’s class: the bought off media and the “rest of the story” you don’t know about how the local news world works in Baltimore.