Earlier this week, at the new studios of 105.3 FM The Fan, Ben and Skin were critiquing a top-10 ranking of the best space movies of all time.
Inside 103.3 FM ESPN’s studio, Steve Dennis and Mark Friedman were discussing how they consume more than one sporting event at the same time.
At 1310 AM and 96.7 FM The Ticket, the guys from BaD Radio we’re doing a hypothetical on whether 10,000 zombie-like fans could come down from the stands and overwhelm 50 professional hockey players.
It’s July. Cowboys training camp is still three weeks away. The NBA and NHL seasons are over. If you try to fill an entire show with only sports talk, it’s going to be a struggle.
“This is the tough time of year, where you start to run out of those things,” said Ben Rogers, co-host of the Ben and Skin show, on 105.3. “But the thing I love about the playbook here at 105.3 The Fan, they allow us to do non-sports.”
“I think it really lets some of the things shine that we’re really good at,” said Dan McDowell from BaD Radio on The Ticket.
In sports radio, each hour is divided into segments, and every radio host knows how many segments he needs to fill, every day. For BaD Radio, it’s eight. For longer shows, like Dennis and Friedo and Ben and Skin, it’s 16.
How to fill those segments is something that consumes these guys every waking moment.
“24-7,” said Mark Friedman, co-host on ESPN’s new midday show, Dennis and Friedo. “But it’s not hard. It’s not like you dread having to think about the show. It’s a great thing to have to have to deal with.”
“All the time, we’re always thinking about something to do for the next day’s show,” McDowell said. “If you think of something, you might write it down in your phone: ‘This might be a good segment.'”
“You never turn off what you’re going to do for the show,” said Jeff “Skin” Wade from the Ben and Skin show. “You think about it constantly, which is one of the reasons why my wife hates my job. I can never put the phone down, I can never stop reading the internet.”
Filling those segments is exponentially harder this time of year, when the only major professional team in-season is the Texas Rangers. Some of the segments that make the cut in July would never be considered during football season.
“I love it way more this time of year, because you can be creative, you can have fun,” said Bob Sturm of BaD Radio. “You can train a chicken – a really talented chicken – but a chicken to do Cowboys talk the day after a game.”
The real challenge is the worst sports week of the year, the week of the Major League Baseball All-Star game. After that game ends Tuesday night, there are no more games, at all, until Friday. Sports talk radio hosts either have to get even more creative, or just go on vacation.
“Absolutely,” Rogers said. “Planning your vacation around the All-Star break is the most coveted time you can get.”
“Here, there’s always something in play. There’s never a down time,” Sturm said. “My wife tells me when I say, ‘I’ll do it in the off-season.’ She says, ‘There is no off-season! You know that!’
“It’s great to be in a four-sport city.”
It gets even greater when the Cowboys get going again.
“Oh, I’m already counting down, late in July,” said Landry Locker, who produces the Dennis and Friedo show. “Two more weeks, training camp starts. It’s perfect.”
Credit to WFAA.com who originally published this article
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
