A Brief Q&A With BassFan's Jay Kumar

Yesterday ESPN Outdoors announced details of its BASS Saturday programming. New shows include BassCenter, Loudmouth Bass, Bassmaster University and BASS Tech. Within those details, it also announced that BassFan founder and CEO Jay Kumar would be one of the two hosts of Loudmouth Bass.

Since BassFans are curious about Kumar's involvement with Loudmouth Bass, BassFan staff sat down

with him for a brief Q&A. Of particular interest is the nature of his new relationship with ESPN.

BassFan: So you're a loudmouth now?

Kumar: (Laughs) I guess so – on TV, anyway. To be a good journalist you need to listen a lot more than you talk, but this show is about opinions – stating opinions – and that's what I'll be doing. But Mark Zona is a lot louder than me. A lot louder than pretty much everybody (laughs).

You've said you're not a big fan of TV. Why did you decide to do the show?

Well, when ESPN approached me to do it, I was interested and also skeptical. Maybe it's the reporter in me to be that way. I was interested because it's always fun and usually good to have new experiences. But I was skeptical about it because I'm not a big fan of TV and I didn't know whether this was going to be about glorifying BASS – meaning not objective.

In the end, ESPN convinced me that the show would be objective, so that was good, and if it became successful, it looked like another chance to help the sport move forward, which is what BassFan has always been about. So I said okay.

What do you think about the concept for the show? And what's your gut feeling – will it fly?

I think it's interesting and could fly. A completely in-studio show about bass fishing is different enough from the norm to get me interested. Whether it works or not, only time will tell. I really don't have a gut feeling about it because I don't have TV experience, but I hope it does work out. I'll be trying my best to help that happen.

Does this mean BassFan and ESPN are now partners?

No. I'm strictly a hired gun.

Is BassFan helping ESPN with these shows?

Not as a company, no. I'm a hired gun and that's it. Other than that, ESPN does what it does without any substantial help from us. That's the way it stands right now.

BassFan is critical of ESPN and BASS where criticism is due. Will this change?

No, with a capital N and a capital O. Nothing about this affects the way BassFan operates or the way I operate in the context of BassFan. If it did, I never would've agreed to do it.

Will Loudmouth Bass cover BassFan and be critical of it if appropriate?

That's a good question. I don't know. On the one hand, I'd assume so since BassFan is the publication of record in bass fishing and is one of the three big entities in the sport. But on the other hand, we're not athletes or leagues so we're different than FLW or BASS. But I can't really say since it'll depend on the topics Loudmouth Bass covers, and those decisions will ultimately be made by ESPN.

What do you think about BassCenter? It sounds like ESPN's version of BassFan.

Well, it might look like ESPN has seen what BassFan has done and is trying to do something like it, and that might be a fair conclusion, but they're really doing their own thing. BassFan isn't a part of it, of BassCenter, I'm not a part of it and anyway I don't think anybody could do BassFan TV but BassFan.

But on the first part of the question, my feeling is, more power to them. We've been trying for a while to get companies interested in a BassFan-like TV show, but no one would pay for it. If I had to guess – and that's all it is, a guess – I'd guess that ESPN hasn't had companies beat down their door to give them money for BassCenter. They're just doing it, taking a chance, and they're the only ones with the wherewithal to do that on TV.

So like I said, more power to them – even though they're stuck with Velvick (laughs). (Editor's note: Byron Velvick is the BassCenter analyst. If not obvious, that's just good-natured ribbing.) If it works and helps the sport, everyone will benefit.

What can TV do for pro-fishing coverage that other media can't?

The jury is still out on that, but as BASS and FLW telecasts have gotten better, I think some people – non-anglers and people who control corporate marketing budgets – have gotten more clued in to the sport. Is that good? Maybe. Is it necessary? I don't know.

TV reaches a lot of people, but bass fishing isn't ideally suited to TV – at least not the way it's been done. And anyway, the Web is the fastest-growing medium in the world, and soon, probably real soon, the Web and TV will merge. So in couple of years that question might be an entirely different one.

Notable

> Although ESPN owns BASS, it says BassCenter and Loudmouth Bass will objectively cover the sport – meaning the shows will cover FLW Outdoors topics, too.

> BassFan knew of Kumar's involvement with Loudmouth Bass prior to yesterday's press release, but as a matter of courtesy let ESPN announce the staff for both shows first.