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Photo courtesy of The Next Round.
From left, Ryan Brown, Emily Grace McWhorter and Jim Dunaway stand on the Rose Bowl field following the University of Alabama's College Football Playoff game against Michigan in January.
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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Tyler Johns, a producer for The Next Round and native of Chelsea, works on the show April 12.
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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Scott Forester, video director and content manager for The Next Round, works on the show Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
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Erin Nelson Sweeney Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Vestavia Hills natives Reade Taylor, Scott Forrester, Sean “Rockstar” Heninger, and Taylor Korn, at The Next Round on Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Taylor Korn, director of social media for The Next Round, monitors the show and comments to share to social media Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
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Erin Nelson Sweeney Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Reade Taylor, president of Disrupt Media, works at his computer Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Sean “Rock Star” Heninger, executive producer for The Next Round, works on the show Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
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Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Jon Lunceford, operations manager for The Next Round, works on the show Friday, April 12, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Show merchandise from The Next Round has been spotted in parts of the world thousands of miles away, even in parts of Europe.
There may not be many regular listeners of The Next Round across the pond, but it does serve as an example of the digital show’s constantly increasing presence.
The Next Round is based in Birmingham and is live from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday, led by the trio of Jim Dunaway, Lance Taylor and Ryan Brown. The three of them, along with producer Sean “Rockstar” Heninger, have been together for well over a decade, joining forces on the radio side in early 2011. They primarily talk sports, but they mix in a little bit of everything along the way out of their studio in the Blue Lake Center.
They branched out in 2021 and took a leap of faith to start their own venture, what is now Disrupt Media. It’s been a steady climb ever since.
Things have evolved, grown and changed plenty in just a couple years’ time. But one thing has remained pretty constant, even as the show’s reach has increased, and that’s a commitment to the Birmingham area. Out of the 12 people currently on staff, 11 of them hail from the area.
“That’s why we’re such a good, tight-knit family,” Dunaway said. “We can reference little things like James Spann in his suspenders on a stormy day, and everyone knows what we’re talking about.”
Heninger, Scott Forester and Taylor Korn are all graduates of Vestavia Hills High School. Jon Lunceford is a Homewood guy through and through. Reade Taylor went to John Carroll Catholic High School. Tyler Johns attended Chelsea. Tim Melton is from Gardendale, while Kelsey Dollar calls Springville home.
The only staff member who is not from the area feels right at home in their midst.
“I’m the Georgia girl and all of the sudden, I’m being adopted into this Birmingham family of people,” said Emily Grace McWhorter, an in-field reporter for The Next Round.
Forester worked in television for nearly 20 years, much of that time at ABC 33/40 in Birmingham. He was recruited to join the company at the outset and serves as the director of content and video.
During the first year, Forester did much of the heavy lifting of the show’s video and social media content. Half of that has since been taken off his plate with the hiring of Korn as the team’s social media director.
Korn is a recent graduate of Auburn University. She learned quickly her job was far from a conventional “eight hours behind a desk” type of job.
“This is my first job, so I don’t have anything to compare it to,” she said. “I didn’t know what to expect, because I was given so much freedom, because there was no one doing my job before me. They let me do what I think is best.”
Korn, a star soccer player during her high school days, still finds a way to fuel her competitive passion. When she is able to create and distribute content from The Next Round that gets shared by larger platforms, that’s a win in her book — as long as the show gets credited for it.
“That’s when I get very excited,” she said.
Dollar is able to compete in her own way as well as the director of sales. She has worked with the show’s hosts dating back to their radio days. Securing sponsorship for a last-minute trip to cover the University of Alabama’s recent Final Four run is right in her wheelhouse.
“I think we all have a little bit of that competitiveness in us,” she said.
Reade Taylor is the president, but he downplays the title. He has experience working with on-air talent and on the sales side, so he’s able to blend the two together, and he said the people that he has helped bring on board in the last couple years could not have worked out any better to this point.
“We’re trying to do something where we can all have fun but still build something special,” he said. “We’ve fortunately hit home runs on everything on the employees we’ve got.”
Tyler Johns is sort of a utility man these days. He started with The Next Round as a summer intern and never left, eventually securing a spot on staff.
“That was the plan, to try and work as hard as I could to see if there was a spot for me somewhere,” he said.
When needed, Johns can fill it for Heninger, Forester, Lunceford and probably others on any given day.
Melton and Lunceford’s time as coworkers has come full circle. They both worked in radio for many years and got the opportunity to do a late-night show called the “Midnight Meltdown” together in 2012. Ironically enough, Dunaway was one of their listeners back then and called into the show a few times.
Now, the duo is back together and has started the “Meltdown” on The Next Round’s platforms.
“Tim and I like all things movies, entertainment and pop culture,” Lunceford said. “We wanted to approach it instead of sports with entertainment secondary, it was entertainment with sports secondary. It’s growing every day.”
“These guys have been very supportive and see the vision,” Melton added. “That right there alone is enough to motivate you.”
A chance meeting in Auburn led to McWhorter landing with The Next Round team. She covered the Texas-Alabama game in her first week on the job and has greatly enjoyed her time to this point, although she knew nothing of the crew from Birmingham before she was hired.
“I could never dream this up. The Lord has guided my steps in that,” she said.
The number of times that The Next Round’s team, outside of the three hosts, get recognized by strangers is evidence of the platform’s growing audience. The show has incorporated cameras and microphones on the other side of the glass, allowing listeners to hear from Heninger, Forester, Lunceford and Johns on a daily basis. Korn and McWhorter pop into the studio from time to time to fill in as well.
“Having been in TV for close to 20 years, I was kind of a nameless, faceless kind of person,” Forester said. “But now people every once in a while can see me [on the show]. And every now and then, someone will recognize me in public.”
Those face-to-face encounters are not uncommon for the audience that lives in the Birmingham area.
“Everyone has a home, and our home is Birmingham,” Dunaway said.
