Recently, I was talking to a friend that is looking to make the jump from music radio into sports talk. He is a bright dude and he recognizes that if he wants to stay in radio, talking for fifteen seconds between songs isn’t where it’s at. So, he wanted to pick my brain to see if what he thought he could offer matched up with where I see the format going.
One thing he told me was that he didn’t want to do a typical show. He wanted to innovate and “push the boundaries of the format.”
When I asked what that meant, he said “No Xs and Os at all. There may be some days I don’t even talk about the local teams.”
That is where I told him to press pause. Take a breath and think about what he just said.
Then it dawned on me that this could be a pervasive problem. As we look for fresh voices and young talent, how much are we considering their motivations and visions? In an age where so many young broadcasters want to be the next Dan Le Batard or are inspired by podcasts and not traditional sports talk radio, how many otherwise talented people are being derailed by thinking about the show they want to do instead of the show their listeners want to hear?
Let me be clear. I am pro-innovation. I love Le Batard. My sports podcasts of choice are The Right Time with Bomani Jones and Shutdown Fullcast, two shows that definitely do not mirror a traditional sports talk format.
The stuff that we find boring isn’t always useless. Look, sometimes your audience just wants to hear you talk about special teams or shooting percentages. Entertainment means different things to different audiences, and a sports talk radio audience wants to hear you talk about sports.
Do you understand why interviews are important? It isn’t about what is being said. It is about piquing interest.
You’ll hear people call ratings an inexact science and act like they are some kind of mysterious puzzle that cannot be solved. That’s not false necessarily, but ratings, particularly in a PPM world, are more of a math problem than we sometimes let on.
PPM is all about appointment listening. Creating more appointments strengthens your chances to increase ratings. Interviews are the most basic of appointments in sports talk radio. Whether it is who is on or what they are talking about, interviews are a pretty tried-and-true way to create interest for staying put or checking back in with the show.
How many times have you been told to play the hits? It is one of the cardinal rules of radio regardless of format. Give the people more of what they are telling you you want to hear.
Good hosts know the right topics. Really good hosts know how to be creative with those topics. Great hosts know that there is a balance you have to find between being creative and having fun and connecting with educated sports fans.
Many of us have been in radio for a long time. Nearly all of us have been watching sports most of our lives. It makes sense that playing the hits may not excite you the way it once did.
Have you ever been to a John Mellencamp concert? He doesn’t play “Jack & Diane” the way it sounds on the radio because he has played it so many times that it bores him.
You know what else you hear at a John Mellencamp show?
A lot of people that paid for tickets complaining that “Jack & Diane” doesn’t sound right.
The hits in sports radio aren’t just the topics and teams your listeners care about. Some times it is the way those topics are presented.
Think of it this way. Do you like chicken? For the sake of this column, let’s say you do.
Chicken Cordon Bleu is great. Chicken Marsala is delicious. When chicken is prepared in a decadent way, everyone is happy. But you know what? Chicken strips make everyone pretty happy too. Do you think great chefs are jazzed to make chicken fingers?
Interviews, X and O sports talk, and other “old school” vestiges of sports radio are the audience’s comfort food. If comfort food is all you do, you’re show is going to be pretty boring. You better know how to do comfort food though, because it is part of what keeps the audience coming back.
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.
