SKOR North isn’t like a lot of other stations in America. The Hubbard sports talker re-branded at the end of 2018, dropping the ESPN 1500 name as part of a step towards something more in line with the way fans consume content right now. Sure, the station still wants to create great radio content, but there is a real focus on what makes an impact with a digital sports audience. During a pandemic, when most of your listeners have changed a routine that included listening to your station on their drive to or from work, that digital awareness is paying off.
“They aren’t in their cars as often, but they ARE on their phones. They are glued to their screens,” SKOR North’s Director of Content and Distribution, Phil Mackey says of his audience. “OK, let’s put more chips on some of those tables. The nightly video streams we do (Mackey & Judd w/ Ramie Happy Hour, Vikings Draft Sim with Matthew Coller, Twins Catch-Up with Derek Wetmore, etc.) have all been reaching several thousand people each time we fire one up.”
Mackey says that the station is seeing a surge in its online numbers. In March, SKOR North saw its video views rise 50%. It was also a record setting month in terms of usage of the station’s mobile app. Mackey is expecting the numbers to be even better in April.
“I’m really proud of the way our staff has stepped up and created new segments, shows and other pieces of content during this sports dead zone. To be honest, it’s been a fun challenge. We love it.”
The brand isn’t beyond looking to other outlets for inspiration. Mackey admits within the first ten seconds of a recent video that the idea listeners are about to see is taken directly from ESPN’s Katie Nolan.
The SKOR North crew followed the inspiration of Katie Nolan’s celebrity Zoom chat challenge, where she and other ESPN personalities tried to get big name celebrities to join their Zoom chat without knowing exactly what was going on. For the SKOR North team though, the objective was to keep it local.
Mackey, his co-hosts Judd Zulgad and Ramie Makhlouf, and other station employees made their goal to grab big names in the Minnesota sports community. Mackey admits that he had no idea if the goal was a realistic one.
“I was honestly a little worried that the Zoom video would wind up being me, Judd, Ramie and like one other person. But as it turns out, people are mostly sitting around their homes or offices looking for other people to talk to! So it worked out well once we started spreading the word.”
Some big names joined the chat. Five-time WNBA All-Star and current Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s basketball coach Linday Whalen, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders, and Utah Jazz forward Georges Niang all showed up at different times. To Mackey, the thrill wasn’t just that big names showed up, it’s that they were into the idea of hanging out and being a part of something that was so fundamentally Minnesota.
“The best part of the video is that everyone who entered the Zoom chat stayed for at least 30 minutes,” Mackey said.
I asked Mackey if he started the bit with a goal in mind. Was there one person that he needed to see pop up in the chat in order for him to call it a success? He didn’t hesitate.
“Joe Mauer. And we got Joe Mauer! He’s honestly one of the nicest, best humans on the planet.”
SKOR North, being built the way it is, has taken what others may see as a challenging time and operated with a business as usual approach. Mackey will be the first to acknowledge that just like the listeners, everyone in the SKOR North building wants sports back. But he isn’t sweating it.
As the director of content, Phil wants his team to be entertaining first. Do listeners expect them to talk about sports? Of course, but even if everything were normal, he would be telling his crew to make listeners laugh, a quality more important than rattling off stats from the previous night’s action.
“It’s a buzz kill to lose the Twins, in particular, this time of year, but we have had a blast creating new segments like “Name That Viking”, “Vikings Draft Sim”, “Action Movie Rewind”, “WrestleMania Rewind”, “Let Us Not Forget” and a ton more,” he says. “This is the most creative we have been potentially in our entire careers, collectively, and we are having fun with it. Hopefully listeners and viewers pick up the same vibe.”
In a time when so many stations are racing to figure out how to create digital content that they can include advertisers in, SKOR North is doing what they always do. It’s a station that was built to be consumed differently. It’s a brand that walks into every pitch meeting and shows potential advertisers a half dozen different platforms where it has a presence.
That doesn’t mean SKOR North isn’t also swimming in new waters. It’s just more equipped to jump in without floaties. Mackey says just maybe, the pandemic and current state of the world is forcing the brand to up its game in a way that sticks.
“Ultimately, it’s very likely we come out of this a lot stronger in the long run just based on the new tools and muscles we’ve been forced to use,” he says. “Some companies might be nervously biting their nails. I think we take pride in running toward the fire, so to speak, and pivoting as needed.”
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.
