I am not a huge fan of national sports radio. I should just get that out of the way early. It has nothing to do with any particular host. Many of them are phenomenally talented people, it is how they got that job, after all.
My issue is with the concept rather than the execution. National shows try to be all things to all people and that is an impossibility.
If I live in San Francisco, I might get some good 49ers talk but only after I hear about the Yankees, Celtics and Avalanche. If I only have a 30 minute window to listen, I may get all the stuff I don’t want and miss the one thing I wanted. It is the flaw of the format that has stunted it’s universal growth. Jim Rome, Mike and Mike, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd and a few others have found big success but they are the exception.
I also am not a fan of peanut butter. I like it with excessive amounts of jelly on white bread. By excessive, I mean a 3-to-1 jelly to peanut butter ratio. That is my general tolerance to peanut butter.
In a remarkable coincidence, peanut butter and national sports talk have intersected.
One advantage local shows have over national shows is their ability to connect to their audience more intimately. It is why it becomes paramount for national shows to find ways to be more entertaining and less of an audio or video box score. In other words: have a little fun.
I’ll credit CBS Sports Radio’s Andrew Perloff and Maggie Gray for trying that before Audacy’s suits swept in and rained on the picnic. Perloff was simply trying to back up a claim he could eat an entire jar of peanut butter in one sitting. Unfortunately for Perloff, and the show’s audience, the jar of Skippy posed a clear and present danger to Audacy’s legal team.
I can’t believe we have arrived at the point in our world that a stunt as benign as consuming excessive amounts of peanut butter requires legal clearance. By “I can’t believe” what I really mean is this is totally believable.
We certainly live in a litigious society and most of the media world works for large corporations that are looking for any reason to fire an employee and save a salary. That creates an environment of fear, largely void of the spontaneous stunts that once made radio flourish.
The days of spontaneous fun appear to be a thing of the past for major radio corporations. I’m certain they are sued or threatened with lawsuits all the time and that forces them to be acutely aware of anything that could land them in a courtroom. With that understanding, I can’t fathom how a guy, who I assume is acutely aware he has no peanut allergy, eating a jar of peanut butter rises to the level of lawsuit concern.
When it comes to entertainment, careful is not something radio can be. In fact, it is not something any media can be but, those operating in the world of new media understand that concept. Many thriving in the world of new media aren’t constrained by the fears and anxieties of corporate attorneys defaulting to the side of playing it too safe. In many ways, those shows operate in the Wild Wild West. Every time a legacy media company “plays it safe”, it is one more chance to lose a little ground to the shows not having to worry about those types of constraints.
There has never been more competition in the world of sports entertainment and there have never been fewer barriers to entry. No longer does a person need to find a radio or TV station to hire them. Shows on their own platforms are making noise and stealing audience every single day. Often, they are doing this by being willing to do the things radio once did without thinking about it. In 2023 though, most radio stations are no longer are willing to do anything that is “too risky.”
I understand that eating a jar of peanut butter wasn’t going to be the funniest moment in radio history but, if I’m Andrew Perloff, I now wonder if there is I can do without seeking legal clearance first. For Perloff, coloring inside the lines may now be the path of least resistance, the path that keeps him gainfully employed. That might be the way the corporate attorneys want him doing his job, but I can’t imagine it is what his audience wants.
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
