Just over 1,600 days ago, July 25, 2019 to be exact, I wrote a ‘final’ Sports Talk sales column for Barrett Sports Media. I had just accepted a new position, moving from Audacy in Kansas City to Audacy in my hometown of St. Louis. I really enjoyed doing the weekly columns, but felt it was time to let others weigh in with their thoughts and opinions.
Four and a half years later, I’m back and really looking forward to covering the world of Sports Talk, the format I worked in the most during a 25-year media career. I am one week in, however, and I have some burning questions that need answers. Things I will have my eye on as we move forward in 2024 and beyond:
WHY ISN’T RADIO AND/OR TELEVISION MORE OF A DOMINANT PLAYER IN PODCASTING?
Since I left my last corporate radio position in August of 2021, I have spent my time learning as much about podcasting as possible and have had a hand in building a quite successful small podcast network. The main topic of the network is nostalgia, a lot of sports nostalgia and a lot with, of all things, professional wrestling.
Much like my days running stations and sales teams in sports talk radio, the programming is very niche and the demographic very straightforward. Additionally, professional wrestlers were paid to tell a story for a living during their careers, so they are very natural when asked to create podcasting content.
If you look at podcasting, you see a lot of very successful talent, who had no previous radio or television experience. They had an idea which interested their audience, went with it, grew the audience and it hit. Some have turned it in to a career. Some have turned it in to a fortune.
Now, where on Earth would someone find a group of talented people, experienced in broadcasting, who should be creative enough to come up with ideas for great podcasts that generate revenue and keep audiences engaged?
Radio and television should have dominated this space. Every broadcaster has interests outside of whatever format they’re doing or could focus on one subject they typically discuss on air and turn it into a successful podcast.
Perhaps, as an industry, we have failed to get through to our programming people or had the right corporate initiatives in place to take advantage of what seemed to be served up on a platter for the industry. Or, perhaps, we have just simply hired the wrong people.
Radio and television have mostly been reactionary in this space. Podcasting could have been the rebirth, of radio in particular, however it seems most became comfortable posting content already aired and calling it podcasting versus challenging their staffs to create new content and owning the space.
DO RADIO AND TELEVISION TALENT STILL NOT SEE ‘THE FUTURE?’
Remember when it was fashionable to say, “Digital is the future!” Folks, that was over a decade ago. ‘The future,’ in this case, started years ago. If you are a sports talk radio or television talent who doesn’t have a following outside of your air shift, aren’t producing content, or interacting with your audience on the regular, you better hope you hold on to your current position.
Want to know why someone like Pat McAfee can go off on executives at ESPN and, most likely, face little repercussion? Because his audience is going with him wherever he goes. If you are on air talent, would your audience follow you wherever you go? Technology has given us every opportunity to be able to easily create content and stay in touch with the audience.
WHY ARE WE IN SUCH A HURRY TO MOVE ON FROM THE GREATS?
We all know the saying, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone.’ Frankly, as a society, we are often too quick to want to move on from someone we feel has gone past their prime. Let’s slow down.
The most recent example is Al Michaels. I get it, last year’s January playoff game where he teamed with Tony Dungy was not good. However, perhaps the reason was more Dungy and less Michaels. Call me ‘Old School,’ but I miss many of the voices we have lost in the last decade or so. Let’s not rush Michaels out the door. He still sounds spectacular and his teaming with Kirk Herbstreit on Thursday Night Football is, often, the biggest reason to tune in.
At the same time, can someone tell me why everyone wants to put Joe Buck in a Hall of Fame right now? Don’t get me wrong, I think Joe is one of the greats, and any accolades that come his way are more than deserved. Joe should eventually be in every Hall of Fame that honors sports broadcasters, he is one of the absolute best to ever do it.
However, Joe is 54 years old and is still in the prime of his career. He has four children, two of which are only five years old. I thought a Hall of Fame honor was supposed to be about an entire career. Let’s not rush Joe out of broadcasting, let’s enjoy it while we have him and then honor his career to the highest level possible. But Joe getting all these career honors now, makes me feel way too old. Again, let’s slow down!
WHO’S GOT NEXT?
This is going to become an important question as I settle into the CMO role with Barrett Media. Where are the next group of media superstars? It is the personalities and creativity of the talent in our industry that help push us forward. So, where will the next group of people come from?
Look around the sports talk industry and you will see a lot of folks on the proverbial ‘back 9’ of their careers. As the Baby Boomer generation gives way to Generation X in the C-Suite, who are the Millennials that will dominate the airwaves? Stay tuned for more on this and an announcement in the future, where we will set out to find some of the answers with your help.
I don’t expect to have answers right away to any of the sports talk questions I have posed. However, these topics are some of what I come into this position thinking about and hoping to dive deeper into. My goal is to cover our industry with a mindset of how we grow and continue to be relevant to our audiences. How we continue to develop great content and monetize it, while providing a value to those who attempt to grow their businesses by attaching themselves to what we do.
As Michael Jordan famously said in a fax in March of 1995, “I’m back.”
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
