Popular Toronto NBA Basketball Talk Show Changes Name

Toronto natives, Dave Mendonca and Audley Stephenson are making a bold move that will forever positively alter their online basketball program, The NBA Breakdown.
 
Jan. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Picture it.

It's August 2008.

Dave and Audley, who just re-connected on Facebook after being out of touch for a few years, are in a Toronto suburb shopping mall food court .

They were not thinking of buying french fries or grabbing a pizza slice.

No, they had hoops on their minds. They were figuring out a way to express their passionate basketball opinions on internet radio.

Back then, the goal of the show wasn't to become famous or make big money.

It was just about delivering hoops talk, the way it should be.

When they came up with the program name, The NBA Breakdown, it just sounded right. They never pursued the NBA's approval because they didn't think their show would be anything more than a fun 'project'.  

Fast forward, over two years, 200,000 global listeners and visits from people in 130 countries to their website later, it became clear this fun 'project' had become something bigger.

"We knew we couldn't ignore the incredible growth any longer," says Stephenson. "We had to make a decision."

Decision? What's the problem? It sounds like their show is going in the right direction.

"As long as we had NBA in our show name, without approval, we knew we might be restricted," Mendonca explains. "We needed to take ownership of our great product, so we decided to approach NBA Canada to find out their thoughts about our situation. We didn't want to hide anything, so that's why we took the initiative to speak with them first."

That meeting proved to be the spark this funny odd couple needed. Although, NBA Canada was supportive, there were still potential future challenges if 'NBA' remained in the program name. Dave and Audley didn't want to take any chances, so they made a change.

"You can now call us The Breakdown with Dave & Audley," mentioned Stephenson. "We wanted the switch to be seamless, so taking out 'NBA' worked for us. We weren't going to go with The Basketball Breakdown or Hoops Breakdown. To us, it sounded too forced and not seamless at all."

For people on the outside looking in, they might think this is a risky move because there's no reference to basketball in their new name.

"Trust us, we thought about this," says Mendonca. "We figured in an effort to look seamless this was the best route. You see, we have a strong online following and a solid public relations plan that will allow people to find us and keep this train moving. We're not concerned about a ratings dip at all. Ultimately, it's our fans who are going to benefit the most because NBA Commissioner, David Stern won't be shutting us down now."

As a result of the name change, they have a new show logo, Twitter page and website address -- www.TheBreakdownShow.com. Be sure to also look out for other exciting program-related changes in the upcoming months.

2011 is already proving to be an interesting year for Dave and Audley. They continue to blaze their own trail in the online basketball talk show world, but that's just the way they like it.

Well, it looks like this fun 'project' does have a bright future after all.

To find out more about The Breakdown with Dave & Audley, you can visit www.TheBreakdownShow.com or http://twitter.com/BreakdownShow.

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The Breakdown with Dave and Audley is a globally popular weekly online radio/video basketball talk show that features funny, engaging athlete, celebrity interviews and NBA news.
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