Who could use some good news?
I’m sure we all could, seeing as the year 2020 has been an emotional and trying time that we’re all doing our best to navigate.
But there are good things happening in this country. Even better is that some of those things are happening because of the sports radio industry. The role in the local community for sports radio hasn’t changed. In fact, it may be more important than ever before. It’s extremely comforting to see that so many executives, PD’s and hosts are using the platform to help out those in need.
The most recent example is how ESPN Wisconsin and Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton helped raise over $200,000 for Covid-19 relief during an 11-hour on-air Radiothon on May 21st.
Wisconsin’s biggest sports stars, such as Aaron Rodgers, Matt LaFleur, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Christian Yelich, to name a few, were just some of the athletes that came on the air and promoted the raising of funds to donate to Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin, Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin and Connaughton’s With Us Foundation.
So how do you pull of an all-day event where thousands of dollars are raised and the biggest sports stars in the region join your local programming, all in an 11-hour window?
“I would give a lot of the credit to a company called Capture Sports Marketing,” said Brad Lane of Good Karma Brands. “They come to stations like ours and given whatever is going on, they say, hey, do you guys have any big causes or charitable things that you would like to highlight more? Obviously, when they approached us, we were like, yeah, absolutely. We were all on board.”
That’s where Connaughton, who participated in this year’s NBA Slam Dunk Contest, comes in. Capture Sports Marketing often facilitates the relationship between the athletes in their stable they have done charitable endeavors with and local business who are willing to partner and help out. In this case, Connaughton seemed like the perfect athlete to partner with, seeing as he’s extremely well-known in Milwaukee and is a very community-minded individual.
Essentially, ESPN Wisconsin gave Connaughton a Comrex unit to use from his house, where he joined all the shows as a co-host during the all-day Radiothon.
“We did that so he would sound more like one of the hosts, rather than just dropping in on the phone,” said Lane. “Pat had a couple of pre-recorded interviews that he did on his own and he was on every show across ESPN Wisconsin, which includes both Milwaukee and Madison. We worked quite a bit on a lineup of guests that would join him on these different shows. Our hosts would do their show but they would make it sound as Pat was joining them as their co-host for the day. Structurally it was the same shows for the day, we moved a few around, but it wasn’t a huge shift in terms of what we were doing.”
The day was truly a win-win for everyone involved. Money was raised, morale was lifted, athletes and coaches were humanized and the content over the air was as rich as it’s been all year long.
“Matt LaFleur, head coach of the Green Bay Packers, joined us 5:45 in the evening and says, hey, where are we at with fundraising?” said Lane. “We said, we’re at like $195,000 and he says, I’ll give five more thousand let’s get $200,000. So it was that kind of stuff that took on its own momentum as the day wore on. People were telling stories and trying to match each other, in terms of gifts and how charitable they can be. It was really a true partnership.”
ESPN Wisconsin had all the right intentions in mind when it partnered up to help raise money for Covid-19 relief. That deserves all the praise you can give. But with that, comes advantages that the station will likely enjoy down the road. One of those, is a significantly better chance to land the big-name stars that came on the airwaves during the Radiothon. By giving them a chance to speak on something that’s important to them, those high-profile stars are certainly more likely to re-appear in the future.
“No doubt and I’ll even give you a great example,” said Lane. “Matt LaFleur hates doing interviews. He hates doing media, especially radio. When he came into the job his first year, last year, our news talk station WTMJ, which is the flagship of the Packers, when LaFleur signed on he refused to weekly appearances on the station. We were kind of incredulous, because the head coach the Packers usually does that show. It’s been going on since the days of Vince Lombardi.
“He’s a real close-to-the-vest guy and doesn’t do a whole lot of media. But he agreed to do the interview on the Radiothon and we were given some parameters, such as, not asking about the Jordan Love situation or Aaron Rodgers. He just wanted to talk about the Radiothon, raising the money and how much he believes in causes like this. We honored that and did that. He then came back on this week with Wilde and Tausch to talk about football. So that gives you an example that once you take care of these athletes and the coaches who are, to a certain extent, skeptical about going on shows, because not that they want their hand held, or for people to be easy on him, they just want shows that are going to be fair.”
Highlights of the day included Antetokounmpo talking about where the nickname “The Greek Freak” came from and Connaughton and Yelich discussing what dunks were going to come in the later rounds of the Dunk Contest, seeing as Yelich was a prop for Connaughton during this year’s event. To Lane’s knowledge, outside of the day he was drafted, Antetokounmpo had never done a radio interview before. “It was a breakthrough moment for both him and us,” as Lane put it.
The final amount raised was $212,625.78. That’s more than anyone involved could have predicted or hoped for. Sure, the money given is the main story, but the escape from reality and positive vibes it spread was a reminder of what this country is still all about – helping each other and banding together during times of need.
“We didn’t have a number in mind,” Lane said. “But someone came on in the morning and said that they’d be happy with 100 grand. We more than doubled that expectation. It’s cool because we went in not really knowing what to expect. I can tell you $205,000 on the day of the Radiothon is 1000 times of what we thought it could be. And that was kind of a fun part. It was really thrilling to see that number rise throughout the day. Especially we, as sports fans, who are used to scoreboard watching. The whole day was really fun and inspiring.”
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.
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