What is it about sports radio that draws in listeners and eventually makes them P1’s? For 92.9 The Game hosts Steak Shapiro and Sandra Golden, it’s conversation that goes beyond the scope of sports.
Shapiro said one listener pointed out on Twitter that interpersonal banter and watercooler talk mixed with a healthy dose of sports makes it super relatable from a human standpoint. He went on to add that trying to incorporate politics or religion isn’t the way to go draw more listeners in.
“Folks are dealing with enough stress, anxiety, vitriol in their lives, right?” Shapiro said Thursday. “The last thing you want when you turn on a radio station like ours is to get more stressed out. Radio around political talk is just stressful. So to me, the number one thing is, are you laughing, are you entertained and are you having fun?”
“Did you learn a little something along the way?” Golden responded. “And it might be about IPAs or bagels, but it also might be, ‘Gosh I didn’t know Dansby (Swanson) was just barely at .200 until recently.’ Those kind of little nuggets.”
From a broader perspective in Shapiro’s eyes, hyper-local has always been the rule of thumb in radio and on TV. He said sports talk doesn’t get more local than that.
“The sports is the most hyper-local,” he said. “That’s just what sports does. It galvanizes a community.”
