This profession has its fair share of homers. Guys in every market try to carve out their niche by going all in for the hometown. Tony Rizzo is going to take a boneless wing and beat you within an inch of your life if you celebrate a winless Browns season. Kyle Bailey will be damned if he is going to let Charlotte go without a baseball team while the Rays play in a virtually empty stadium night in and night out.
Are they not aware of how goofy they sound? Do they just not care?
The truth is the answer is probably both. That’s fine. There are fans to be won and entertainment to be rung out of being a homer. And you know what? I can believe those guys really do love their market that much.
I would argue though that really loving a market means sometimes you have to really take it to task for its flaws. I don’t think you’re scoring any points or new fans by launching a deep dive into the lack of good Chinese food in the town. That kind of stuff is good for a segment or two. If you really love your market, you can give a credible voice to the things about it you want to see change.
Let me give you an example.
I grew up in Alabama. My mom and dad moved from Slidell, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama before I even turned 1. It is where I grew up. After high school, I went to college in Tuscaloosa. After graduation (in just a hair under 5 years, thank you very much) I moved in with my girlfriend in Birmingham.
I spent the majority of the first 24 years of my life in the state. Some of my very best friends are there and the food is some of my favorite on the planet. But what I saw in Talladega on Sunday is exactly why I wanted to leave.
While NASCAR is receiving praise in the national media for making a sincere effort to eliminate Confederate flag imagery from its tracks and grandstands, my home state was the setting for a VERY different kind of reaction.
A caravan of pickup trucks shutdown the interstate leading to the Speedway on Sunday. All of them were flying Confederate flags from their truck beds. A plane towing a Confederate flag and a banner that read “Defund NASCAR” flew over the track. Bootleg souvenir stands just off Talladega Super Speedway property sold plenty of Confederate flag gear. And then, the cherry on the sundae, if all of the above wasn’t enough, came when a member of Bubba Wallace’s crew found a noose in the one and only Black full-time driver’s garage stall.
Every single stereotype of Alabama was on display for the country to do what it so often does – point down south and say “look at all the dumb, racist hicks.”
Imagine the power on Monday morning in hearing a host in Birmingham say they are disappointed that someone decided to represent the state and the South the exact way that causes people to draw the absolute worst conclusions about every single Alabamian. Imagine the gravitas of a host in Huntsville playing Marty Smith’s emotional reaction from Sunday night’s SportsCenter and saying they are ashamed.
This is the example I am using because it is the place I grew up and those are the emotions I felt watching these scenes and reading these stories. Your market, I am sure, has fallen short at times too.
Not every flaw is worth damning the town over, but understand just how powerful of a voice you have and understand how defining a moment like that can be for a host.
Shouting “I hate this place. I’m the only one here that is not a dumbass redneck!” isn’t what I am talking about. Your listeners think of you as a number of different things. You’re their entertainment. You’re their companion in the car. You’re their point of reference when they go to a bar (remember when we could do that?) and argue with a stranger over free agency.
They are invested in you. They choose to be a part of your conversations everyday. They have proven over and over again that they trust you. When you say that the market or the state has flaws that need to be addressed, your audience will listen to you even if they disagree because you’re their guy.
You can be a homer. There is nothing wrong with that. Just know what a homer is and what kind of power a homer has. If you have the goodwill of your audience and know how to communicate, being on a sports radio station is an easier place to have a meaningful conversation about fixing a community’s flaws than any political forum.
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.
