The story behind The Valley podcast

A behind the scenes look
Kyle McDonald | Sports editor | @kylesportsbias

When former Utah Valley University student Matt Baiamonte was a junior, he started broadcasting for UVU sporting events. However, after working with David Locke of the Utah Jazz during an internship, Matt wanted to put a bigger stamp on interaction with the fans.

“I saw all the stuff that the Utah Jazz broadcasters do to get content to their fans,” Baiamonte said. “And I was like ‘I need to do a podcast. I need to do as much stuff as I can to build my career but there are a million podcasts out there. What could I do to separate myself?’ I thought about my connections at UVU and realized that there was really nothing out there for the UVU fans.”

Baiamonte got his start in broadcasting during his time in elementary school when he would set up his Madden video game, let the computer play itself and then he would do the commentating for the game.

“He would do that,” Kyle Bruderer, the other voice of The Valley podcast said. “He would record it and practice doing that [commentating]. So he was into that way before I ever was.”

The two worked together during their time at Pleasant Grove High School where they would broadcast games on the school’s radio station. During their senior year, Matt was broadcasting games by himself and asked Kyle if he wanted to join him and Kyle jumped at the chance.

“We started doing that and that’s how it kind of started,” Bruderer said. “I thought it was fun even though I wasn’t very good at it but Matt sounded like a pro right out of the gate because he had been doing it already.”

The Valley podcast started after the two conjured up a variety of shows, which included ‘Sports and the Spoken Word’ which was based off of ESPN’s Around the Horn. Once they started broadcasting together at UVU, they decided that they wanted to come up with a podcast to cover UVU athletics.

“The UVU athletics doesn’t have a podcast,” Bruderer said. “And Matt and I are both BYU sports fans and they have their own sports radio shows, TV shows, podcasts because they have a fan base to listen to it. Utah Valley is still developing that but right now I think Utah Valley is a train that you want to hop onto especially with how the fan base is growing.”

After corresponding with the sports editor at the UVU Review, Baiamonte and Bruderer struggled to come up with a name for the podcast that would appeal to readers and fans. They felt like they were some kind of train going around and covering the various sports at UVU. They wanted people to jump on and go for the ride as they recapped games and spoke about athletes and teams that were doing well.

“There was nothing that gave fans an inside look at the program or provided a little opinion or context,” Baiamonte said. “I wanted one [podcast] for myself but I really wanted to provide something to people that you can’t get elsewhere and I really think that is what this does.”

The podcast isn’t just about UVU sports. Baiamonte and Bruderer have knowledge of the NFL, NBA, college football, and college basketball and they feel like they have some pretty cool inside scoops on what’s going on in the sports world and that they have insights to offer that people would want to listen to.