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Rocky Top Insider

Rocky Top Insider has become a best-of-breed digital destination where Tennessee fans find the most comprehensive and timely information about UT sports across multiple media platforms. With over 50 years of collective experience in virtually every facet of media, the RTI team provides a robust, year-round offering of Big Orange content through our website, podcast, and social media (@rockytopinsider on Twitter, our Facebook, and Instagram).

Our reach across Vol Nation is massive. But our most valuable assets are the people who make it all work. 

Nathanael Rutherford joined RTI in late 2015 and was promoted to managing editor in June of 2017. Nathanael runs the site and produces a variety of content for RTI every single day, including articles, podcasts, and live videos. A native of Knoxville, Nathanael attended UT and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English in 2015. He started covering the Vols in February of 2014 and brings a multitude of skills to our team.

Ben McKee is our staff writer and co-host of the RTI Podcast. Ben joined RTI full-time in August of 2018 and provides beat coverage of both the Lady Vols basketball team and UT’s baseball team. He is also the co-host and producer of The Swain Event, a morning sports radio show in Knoxville hosted by former Vol wide receiver Jayson Swain.

We also have a team of contributors who help us cover Tennessee football, basketball, and recruiting in a variety of ways.

Orchestrating all the moving parts of the company is RTI co-founder, John Cave Osborne. Before founding RTI, you may have known him as the man who breathed life into Tennessee Sports Radio’s Website – completely rebuilding it, quadrupling its reach, and accounting for almost half of its traffic during the 2013 season. And that doesn’t even count his YouTube efforts which gained national attention. When it comes to Vol Nation, John has carved a quirky spot that’s all his own. He’ll make appearances on the RTI podcast and contribute thoughtful and witty pieces or videos to the site, all the while handling much of the business and behind-the-scenes elements of RTI.

Then there’s John’s partner in crime, co-founder Bob Baskerville. When it comes to media, this is an executive that’s been there, done that. He was one of the founding executives that launched a little network called HGTV. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. He also served as the president of the DIYNetwork for seven years. Did we mention that he basically invented the simulcast of a radio show for television as Head of Production at E! Network when he worked with Howard Stern? These days, Bob is one of the senior leaders in the Digital Technology group at Scripps Networks Interactive, home to power brands like Food Network, HGTV and the Travel Channel. Like John, he’ll leave the daily reporting to the actual reporters, but behind the scenes, Bob will pull from his vast media experience to help guide the RTI team as it negotiates its multi-media approach. 

And that’s not all. Rocky Top Insider will also tap into credentialed experts in various UT sports, including former players, to lend their analysis, “insider” status, and unique perspective on what’s happening. But we’re not merely going to flood you with a world of dry statistical information. Sure, we’ll have just as much skinny as the next guy, but we’ll also entertain along the way.

And, again, this exhaustive and entertaining brand of all things Orange will be available across multiple media platforms. All our content, regardless of medium, will be created from RTI’s own creative team and will be easily accessible at your computer. On the go? Fantastic. Bust out your mobile and download the RTI app. We’re as portable as it gets.

Never before in this region has a Digital Sports Channel offered so much at one location! From the Orange and White Game to National Signing Day to March Madness, we’ll provide a service you can use to celebrate, commiserate, inform, and analyze. Your search for the best, most in-depth and most entertaining UT Sports information — available however you want it and whenever you want it — is over. You found us.

Welcome to Rocky Top Insider!