It’s still college football season, right?
I ask, because like so many others in the business, it feels like an eternity waiting for the bowl game to arrive for the local team. If the main focus of your show is covering a college football team that’s playing in a bowl, it means the last time they stepped on the field was either late November or early December. That feels like a lifetime when the team isn’t playing again until late December or early January.
During this time, it’s hard to replicate the flow and success you had with the college football season in September, October and November. The news cycle coming from each program becomes increasingly slow and you find yourself begging for any quotes or injury information leading up to the bowl game.
The real challenge is choosing how to spend the entire month of December. Do you give a hardcore breakdown of the matchup each day? Kind of hard to do that when information is sparse leading up to the bowl week. Plus, things can become really stale if you spend four whole weeks constantly using the same points to talk about the same game. Do you ignore the game entirely until the week of? Well, that doesn’t make sense either, especially if you’re in a college football market that craves it every day.
So what do you do?
The new early National Signing Day on December 19th helps out with football coverage, but recruiting on the radio is also not for everyone. Trent Condon has seen this problem before. Covering both Iowa and Iowa State in Des Moines, there’s no local pro teams that can be used as a buffer while you wait for the bowl game. The Hawkeyes and Cyclones are always topic No. 1. Especially when both football teams are in postseason play.
When I contacted Condon, I had no idea he was in the middle of a transition we see so many times with hosts in the month of December. He hasn’t done a show in a few weeks, because he accepted an on-air position with 1460 KXNO and is waiting for his first day back behind the mic. It’s the station he’s always strived to be at in the state of Iowa and I couldn’t be happier for him. So, that means the point of this article stayed with how you keep your listeners engaged throughout the long game-less drought of December in a college football market, but also how you can stay fresh while in a job transition.
Starting January 2nd, will be Miller and Condon on 1460 KXNO, every weekday from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Luckily, the duo won’t have to worry about filling hours during the lull of no football games, but being in the market for 15 years, Condon still has an idea on how to handle such things.
TM: Since there’s such a long stretch since both Iowa and Iowa State have played their last game, how do you keep the momentum of college football season going during the month of December when neither team is playing games?
TC: Really, the best news for both programs is that the basketball teams look to have taken a big step forward. What Iowa did in New York City, beating UConn and a ranked Oregon team to win their tournament, as well as Iowa State winning a couple of games in Maui despite having injuries and suspensions. Both teams missed the NCAA Tournament last year and it looks like both will be back there. Because of that, it has helped build a bridge and has brought us the opportunity to really cover the basketball teams before we get to the bowl games.
TM: How much did you initially start talking about Iowa State vs. Washington State and Iowa vs. Mississippi State after the games were announced? Did you hit on them big, take a break and plan to come back to it? Or has it been full-coverage for the last three weeks?
TC: It’s funny, because you have your initial thoughts. For Washington State, it’s Mike Leach and they throw the football around. There wasn’t a deep dive into things, but more of an overview with things. Same thing with Mississippi State, really good defense with couple of guys that are first-round talent. You just give the overview without going with a real deep dive in.
I think here in the next week is when you really start to get into the matchups and go even deeper into things with the X’s and O’s. I think that’s how you try do it because you don’t want to do everything right away, but you do want to keep filtering things in throughout. Another good component has been the excitement from the Iowa State perspective. The Alamo Bowl is not a New Year’s Six game but this is the biggest bowl Iowa State has played in since the Peach Bowl in the 1970’s. The excitement that has gone along with that, including the way that fan base travels, how many people that are making the long trip, that’s also been a huge talking point, the excitement of this fan base and how pumped up they are.
TM: Building on that, have you found that the conversations over the air have also been about the bowl destinations themselves? Like talking about San Antonio and Tampa Bay and what’s to do in those cities during bowl week?
TC: I know right away on our drive-time show, the director for the Alamo Bowl was on. I’ve heard various people on the show that are from San Antonio and cover the Big 12. That’s something that’s being done to help the fans. But that talk really has been bigger for San Antonio than Tampa Bay, because it’s the first time Iowa State has ever been to the Alamo Bowl and Iowa has been to the Outback Bowl like four times in the past 11 years. If you’re an Iowa fan and go to bowl games, you’ve probably been to Tampa before. It’s really been more about San Antonio from that aspect.
TM: What about travel-wise for the station? How do you decide what bowl game to cover and be on-site at?
TC: Well, our drive time show is kind of split between Cyclone and Hawkeye coverage. Chris Williams, who runs Cyclone Fanatic, he obviously is with the Iowa State side of things and will be with them in San Antonio. Ross Peterson, who hosts a show that’s been on for decades after Iowa football games, he has the Hawkeye perspective on the show. Those guys kind of split things that way, and because of that, one guy can go to one place, the other can go to the other.
Another thing, is that if you really wanted to and had the budget to do it, you could go from Des Moines to San Antonio to Tampa Bay and back home to make it work. There’s enough days in between to make that work. If you have the budget, of course.
TM: Give us a preview on your new show and what’s going to happen
TC: I’m making the transition over to 1460 KXNO, the longest standing all-sports station here in Des Moines and really, the most well-known sports station in Iowa. I’ll be hosting a daily program from 10 a.m. to noon with Ken Miller. Ken was the one that helped bring sports talk radio to Des Moines. Over 25 years ago, many people in this market laughed at him. You’re going to talk about sports? You’re going to do it at a local level? Those were things he heard.
It has ballooned since then. When he came in here and started this, people didn’t think it would last. Here we are 25 years later and not only has it lasted, but it’s thrived in this market. When I started in this market 15 years ago, KXNO was the ultimate destination. This was the place you wanted to go and be in this state. They have the most listeners, but more importantly, they understand sports and what it takes to succeed.
Ken and I have worked together before and I love it. We’re very simple guys that just want to talk about sports. We’re never going to talk politics or break down the latest craft beer. That’s just not us. We’re hardcore sports and that’s what we bring. I know that’s not for everyone but that’s ok. We’re going to put sports at the forefront of everything we do.
TM: Has it been very long since you did your last show?
TC: It was the last Friday in November. It’s been tough being off that long. We had the Iowa-Iowa State basketball game and at the end there was pushing and shoving going on. I wanted to talk about it! I was sitting there at home one night last week watching an NFL game and someone went for 2 points. I ended up going on a 10-minute tirade while sitting on the couch with my wife and she told me, “You have to stop. You just have to stop. You need to go do a podcast or something.”
Well, I’ve been doing that and Ken (Miller) and I got together last week and did one. I do some Hawkeye podcast with a few of my friends, so there’s a few things that I do to keep myself in the flow of things but I miss flipping on a microphone every day and getting to talk. At my old station, I was on five hours a day. You go from being on five hours a day to none, and you find out how much you miss it. I’m just happy to talk to you right now!
TM: I’m sure you’re not the only host going through this transition of being on the sideline while waiting to join your new station after the new year. Is podcasting the best way to stay fresh during a time like this?
TC: Yeah, I think that’s a perfect way to do it. Especially if you have the ability to do it at the station that you’re about to be a part of, like I have going right now. Because of that, people are still listening to you, even though it’s not going out over the radio.
People think it’s easy to just pop on a microphone and talk about sports. There’s a lot more that goes into it than just that. I didn’t do anything for 10 days when it pertains to talking about sports. When I got back to doing the podcast, it took a couple of times to get revved back up and into it again.
Absolutely, keep yourself involved and engaged to stay fresh. I found myself, a couple of nights, flipping off a college basketball game involving a Big 12 team because it was boring. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but I know I can’t do that for a whole month. You can’t shut yourself out from sports completely, because you’ll come back and be lost. You can’t do that.
Tyler McComas is a columnist for BSM and a sports radio talk show host in Norman, OK where he hosts afternoon drive for SportsTalk 1400. You can find him on Twitter @Tyler_McComas or you can email him at TylerMcComas08@yahoo.com.
