Last week the Atlantic League tried something that got sports radio talking. At the league’s All-Star Game last Wednesday night, balls and strikes were left up to a computer system run off of a black box hanging at the top of the stadium behind home plate. It wasn’t perfect. That’s why there was still a human being standing behind the catcher. Umpire Brian deBrauwer wore a pair of Apple AirPods to receive the computer’s decision.
Seam-Heads lost their minds. I listened to Golic & Wingo, whoever happened to be filling in for Dan Patrick, and a couple of different local hosts all have the same debate: “Are we ready to give up the human element in baseball officiating?”.
There’s nothing wrong with that topic. It’s shooting fish in a barrel on the one day of the year with absolutely no major sporting events going on i9n the United States, and it is the easiest way to turn this story into content. Maybe that isn’t the only way sports radio should have been looking at this though.
The real story isn’t about robot umpires or even baseball. This is a story about evolution. In our field, any story about evolution is something worth paying attention to. In the content creation world, evolving is something we have to do constantly to make sure our message is heard by the most people.
Evolution has come to sports radio in a number of ways. The most popular hosts aren’t the best connected or most versed in every sport they talk about anymore. They are people like Colin Cowherd and Dan Le Batard, who may be those things, but they’re more concerned with packaging their opinions and knowledge in the most interesting ways.
There’s even been evolution in what is interesting. Mike & The Mad Dog brought personality to sports radio. Personality turned from shouting about the games into being willing to talk about anything and everything entertaining.
That’s why Petros & Money talk about movies. It’s why the Two Live Stews did a hip hop report. Sports radio may still be a niche format, but hosts, PDs, and sales managers no longer view their shows as being unable to grow beyond niche appeal. Why can’t ours be the stations most men turn to in each market to be entertained?
We’ve also seen evolution in how content gets delivered. Just being on air isn’t enough. Just putting out a podcast replay of your show each day is starting to not be enough.
Dan Patrick kicked the door down for radio/TV simulcasts. Mike Golic Sr and Jr have built a podcast presence around their family. The aforementioned Le Batard and his crew have mastered creating content specifically for Instagram, while hosts like Cole Cubelic at WJOX and Mike Rutherford on 790 KRD have made their Twitter feeds an imperative part of their public persona.
Evolution is an inevitability in entertainment. The special effects in Spider-Man: Far From Home are far more realistic than the ones we saw in 2002’s original Spider-Man. Desus & Mero and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson are both late night comedy shows, but they have very little in common.
Technology improves. Tastes change. Options increase.
Doing your job the same way now that you were doing it five years ago puts you at a disadvantage. You have to make changes to your content and the way you present it as the world changes around you.
It’s perfectly understandable that you may not be eager to accept change. Baseball fans are reacting harshly to computerized ball and strike calls for a reason. It’s something different and maybe even a little threatening, but change can be exciting and is almost certainly necessary. The Atlantic League, an unaffiliated minor league featuring players that most fans have never heard of knows it has to try new things that create interest in their product. Maybe you don’t need a challenge to renew your passion for your job, but you do need to be open and aware of where it makes sense to make tweaks or explore new ground.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
