John Shrader teaches sports media and broadcasting courses, specializing in all aspects of sports media and broadcast presentation, reporting and writing. He is the coordinator of the Sports Media and Communication major.

He teaches American students in Spain in the summers. He teaches honors courses in Diversity in Sport and Culture, Ethics and Issues in Sport as well as Introduction to Sports Media, Sports Broadcasting and Sports Writing.

As a long-time observer of sport, Shrader’s scholarship focuses on broadcast presentation and representation, national identity of sport, ethics and social media, innovation in sports media, including soccer presentation and broadcasting.

Shrader came to Lincoln in 2017, after six years at Long Beach State where he taught journalism, sports and broadcast classes. This is a return to the university for John, who got his bachelor’s degree here before embarking on a career in sports radio and TV that lasted more than 35 years. [He is a proud alum of KRNU, one of its former Sports Directors.] After stops in TV in Kearney (NTV Network) and Hastings (KHAS), he worked for more than 30 years in San Francisco.

His Bay Area resume includes 15 years at KNBR, one of the top sports radio stations in the country where he was one of the first radio reporters to cover a professional team full time. Shrader covered the San Francisco 49ers year-round for nearly a decade, in addition to his other duties as an anchor, reporter and talk show host. He covered Super Bowls, World Series, and Major League Baseball All-Star Games. On television, Shrader was an announcer for the Oakland Athletics and Golden State Warriors. He won an Emmy Award for his work as a host and reporter on Comcast Sportsnet’s Game 7 playoff broadcast of the San Jose Sharks. He worked for more than ten years as a sports anchor on Bay Area TV stations, KNTV and KICU.

Shrader has done regular media criticism and commentary on KTTV television in Los Angeles and KCBS radio in San Francisco. He has reported for NPR affiliate KCRW in Santa Monica and has done soccer play-by-play on FS1 and FS2.

John was the long-time voice of both the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer and San Jose State football and basketball. He has produced and hosted a radio show and podcast “Watch the Media” since 2013. He produced an award-winning documentary film, “Conflicted: The Barry Bonds Home Run Chase,” about the media coverage of Bonds’ chase for the all-time home run record. Shrader’s other documentaries include “Baseball’s Social Gathering,” an examination of the new digital and social media reporting responsibilities of those who cover MLB.

His radio piece on The Immigrant Experience and Sport in Small Town Nebraska won the outstanding radio sports report in the 2019 BEA Festival of Media Arts. He won an Eric Sevareid Award in 2020 for his radio documentary “27 Hours a Week” about local radio host Chris Schmidt, who does a three-hour news show in the morning and a two-hour sports show in the afternoon, and a weekend show as well. John has been featured on Nebraska Public Media. While in Long Beach, his radio documentary “Four Stations, Few Listeners” examined the sports radio market in Los Angeles.

Among the topics of his published work: Diversity in eSports (2024) Future of Sports Journalism (2020); American and British soccer announcers in the US (2019); The battle for the hearts and minds of young Mexican American soccer players (2017); Twitter and Sports coverage of the 2014 World Cup (2016).

Shrader has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a Master’s degree with honors in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.

John and his wife Tina live in Lincoln. They have two grown children, a granddaughter and two grandsons.

Curriculum Vitae