With no major sports leagues in action many sports talk radio stations have been struggling for content.
Most of the well know nationally syndicated talks shows went through an initial wave of uncertainty as to what to talk about on-air with no games to speak of but the likes of Colin Cowherd, Jim Rome, Dan Patrick and others have all seemed to settle back into their groove and have been producing some really interesting radio over the past few weeks.
All three of those shows have been churning out excellent interviews with the A-List of sports and entertainment calling in to chat. However, there are quiet a few local sports talk shows across North American that appear to have run out of gas on-air with seemingly nothing else left to talk about it.
We’ve heard all about their favorite Netflix selections and every top five best of list imaginable; so now what?
Driving home this week from my own radio shift, I was skimming through the dial and came across two separate classic baseball games being aired. Sportsnet 590 The Fan was playing a classic Blue Jays game while WFAN New York was replaying a classic Yankees game.
The Blue Jays game caught my attention for about 30 seconds because it was great just to hear the voice of the now retired Jerry Howarth echoing through my radio. Howarth was the voice of the Blue Jays from 1981 until his retirement in 2017. However, after a few seconds the novelty had warn off. I knew the outcome of the game and had no interest in pretending to play along for another three and a half hours.
Its understandable why these stations have chosen to replay some classic games. What else can their hosts talk about instead? Well, now may be as good a time as ever to allow new talent an opportunity to provide content on-air.
When a major league baseball game is a blow out, you’ll often see the manager allow the utility infielder who hasn’t played in two weeks the chance to bat clean-up because the score is 16-2 in the eighth inning. We may even see the left-fielder come into pitch for the first time in his career (save the Jose Canseco jokes please).
The year 2020 has been the biggest blow out ever to the sports media industry so why not allow some fresh voices an opportunity to occupy the airwaves who may not have had the chance to do so otherwise?
Most mid-sized to major market radio stations all have multiple producers, board ops and interns who work tirelessly behind the scenes to produce good radio for the station. Why not give them a chance to create an hour or two on-air?
There used to be a sports TV station in Toronto called The Score which ran from 2000 up until 2012 (when it was sold) that used to take viewer and listener demo tapes to see who was good enough to get their own show. The show was called “Drafted” which led to a number of young broadcasters getting their chance to create on-air content. One of the winners of “Drafted” was Jackie Redmond who has gone on to have a successful career working for the NHL and MLB networks in New York.
In times like these when sports talk radio is struggling for content, why not open the door for new voices to be heard?
Chris McKee is a Toronto based broadcaster and writer. He does play-by-play for CBC Sports & TSN radio with the CEBL as well as PXP for One Volleyball, OSBA & Orangeville Prep, the premier high school program in Canada. He also works as a traffic reporter for TSN 1050, News Talk 1010 & Jewel 88.5 and was recently the Social Media Director for Golf Talk Canada on TSN. Prior to working in sports, he was an award winning music agent and concert promoter for 20 years producing tours for the likes of Rihanna, The Black Eyed Peas, Wu-Tang Clan, 50 Cent, The Roots and many more. He is the author of the book “Life on the road with the Wu-Tang Clan.” He can be reached on Twitter @MrMcKee.
