In the fall of 2018, ESPN Radio 1500 host Phil Mackey sat in a room with Hubbard Radio Minnesota Vice-President/Region Manager Dan Seeman and Senior Vice-President of Programming Greg Strassell to brainstorm what the next big thing in local sports media would be.
What would they call it?
How would they produce it?
Is it radio or podcasting?
What they came up with was SKOR North, a compilation of shows and podcasts as they eventually migrated all of their programming from ESPN 1500 to a podcast network that has grown steadily since its inception.
“Five years later, from an audience and revenue standpoint, it has blown away my expectations,” said Mackey. “It was deemed risky five years ago to essentially move off of terrestrial radio and we kind of did it in steps.”
In rebranding from 1500 to SKOR North, Hubbard Broadcasting continued to produce six to eight hours of live radio each day, but eventually after the pandemic, 100% of the content was transferred to digital media. Podcast listening trends and YouTube consumption trends have skyrocketed in the last five years. Since ESPN 1500 did not have an FM signal and didn’t have any major sports rights, they had to find a way to reach an audience under 50 because it was hard to retain that desired audience with just an AM signal.
“Looking back, I think the risk would have been not doing it,” said Mackey. “It’s the most fun I have had in my 20-year career doing this. We do consider it the new model for local sports media.”
And that model is not just for programming because it’s also been highly successful from a business standpoint. Five years ago, when SKOR North launched, they did have an audience because they brought shows over from ESPN 1500, but what they didn’t have was any podcast revenue. Not one dollar.
“We were starting at ground zero from a business standpoint,” said Mackey. “Podcast revenue now for Hubbard Minneapolis makes up a significant chunk of the annual revenue in just five years’ time.”
By turning their attention to a podcast model and leaning hard on YouTube, SKOR North was able to gain access to feedback from the 18 to 35 and 18- to 44-year-old sports fan communities. They were also able to examine, in real time, what works and what doesn’t work. The data would also show them who is consuming the product and who isn’t and they would be able to make quick decisions on the fly.
Minnesota is clearly a Vikings town so it doesn’t come as a surprise that Purple Daily, SKOR North’s 7 day a week and 365 day a year Viking show is the most listened to show on the network. But just like having to map out 16 segments a day on a four-hour radio show, SKOR North also has to find a way to integrate the other teams in town like the Twins, Timberwolves, Wild and University of Minnesota into their daily programming.
“You would want to make sure you’re touching on as many different topics as you can while still leaning on whatever is the most popular,” said Mackey. “We probably spend 60 to 70 percent of our time on Vikings because that’s where the most ravenous fan base is at. This is a Vikings town first, second and third.”
At the end of the day, the success of a sports radio or sports podcasting operation is based on a number of things including having great hosts providing entertaining content and the audience finding where that content is located. But, none of that matters if you don’t sustain the product from a business standpoint and that means bringing in advertisers.
So, how has SKOR North been able to attract advertisers when radio ratings have been replaced by download numbers, subscribers and views?
“That’s a great question,” said Mackey. “Because ultimately at the end of the day, we’re building a business and for many years, the business has revolved around a certain type of audience measurement, mostly Nielsen measurement.”
But Neilsen ratings don’t apply to podcasting and YouTube so Mackey and his team have been hard at work finding ways to show advertisers that the target audience has been consuming the SKOR North product.
“As much time as we’ve spent trying to build and hone our processes for how do we create content in these new spaces, we’re spending just as much time, if not more, having face-to-face conversations with local advertisers and even educating them on the podcast space,” said Mackey. “The best part about it is that it works for advertisers.”
In podcasting, the audience has to go through multiple steps to find the content that they are looking for. They have to pick up their phone and go to their podcast app or to YouTube in order to listen to the content. Because that audience are willingly seeking out the shows they want to listen to, they are also pouring that same passion into the advertisers that SKOR North has been bringing in, creating the ultimate community for everyone involved.
“We have found that with almost every advertiser that we’ve brought on board over the last four or five years, our audience is thrilled to help support them,” said Mackey. “It’s amazing how the audience takes pride in supporting these advertisers.”
Mackey is also consumed on how the entire sports radio and sports content industry is doing, so he pays close attention to annual Barrett Sports Media Top 20 lists to see how other broadcasters, radio stations, content providers and executives are stacking up with peers from other markets.
“I love the Top 20 lists,” said Mackey. “I think it’s really fun to see where people in the industry rank and grade their peers and it creates some competition too. If you don’t make the list one year or you drop down on the list, it creates some friendly competition. I like that we’re shining a light on some of the most talented people in the industry.”
Mackey is also looking forward to the upcoming BSM Summit March 13th and 14th at The Alley Theatre in New York City. It’s an event that brings the sports radio world together and to highlight individuals who have made a significant impact on the industry.
“It’s one of my favorite events I look forward to every year,” said Mackey. “It’s such a great melting pot of strategy and wisdom and I love being able to walk in the room where there’s a bunch of people that are further along the path than I am and I get to ask them a bunch of dumb questions for three days and learn something. If I can stumble into saying something that somebody learned something from too, awesome.”
There’s no question that the sports radio industry has gone through some changes over the years. In fact, as Phil Mackey points out, it’s not really just a sports radio industry anymore…it’s really a sports content industry. And with Hubbard Broadcasting in Minnesota having the vision to convert their sports radio programming from ESPN 1500 into the SKOR North podcast network, it very much sums up how the industry has evolved.
“The sports content industry…I don’t think it’s ever thrived more,” said Mackey. “Sometimes, there’s a divide between sports radio and sports podcasting but ultimately, it’s just sports content. We’re all playing the same game so to speak of create entertaining content, build a community of audience and find a way to connect that audience to advertisers or find other monetization engines.”
In the words of the great Bob Dylan, “Times They Are-A-Changin’”.
Peter Schwartz writes weekly sports radio features for Barrett Media. He has been involved in New York sports media for over three decades, and has worked for notable brands such as WFAN, CBS Sports Radio, WCBS 880, ESPN New York, and FOX News Radio. Peter has also served as play by play announcer for the New Yok Riptide, New York Dragons, New York Hitmen, Varsity Media and the Long Island Sports Network. You can find him on Twitter @SchwartzSports or email him at DragonsRadio@aol.com.
