Sports radio rules the roost in the Northeast. The passionate fan bases of lifelong residents spur the most popular stations to victories not just with men, but across all formats in the market. Nowhere is that more true than Boston, where 98.5 The Sports Hub has opened up a formidable lead on all challengers.
The station has been well-represented at past BSM Summits. Fred Toucher, Mike Felger, Rick Radzik and former PD Mike Thomas have all taken the stage in the past to talk about why what works at the Hub has worked so well for so long.
Mary Menna will make her first appearance at the event this year. The market manager for Beasley Media Group’s Boston cluster was instrumental in bringing the station into the company’s portfolio when CBS Radio merged with what was then Entercom.
“I’m really excited to be there this year,” she says. “I always had a lobbying event in D.C. that overlapped with this event and luckily, this year both have moved their dates. It’s great!”
The last time the BSM Summit was in New York was 2022. Menna’s station was well-represented. PD Rick Radzik won the Mark Chernoff Award. Felger & Mazz won the Mike & the Mad Dog Award, plus Mike Felger joined Fred Toucher on stage to talk about the station’s success in Boston.
Those honors were in addition to the way 98.5 The Sports Hub has dominated the BSM Top 20 over the years. The latest polls had the station on top in surveys of Major Market Stations, Afternoon Shows and Mid Day Shows.
You might expect someone leading a brand like The Sports Hub would come to the BSM Summit ready to play the expert. That isn’t Menna though. She will be on stage to answer questions as part of a panel, but it’s the time out of the spotlight that she will value the most.
“I’m really excited to see what you guys do and what you present and to learn from others in the field,” she says. “I’m not an expert in the sports arena, as you very well know, but I surrounded myself with people who are and who are the best at what they do, and so I’m really lucky to have them. So I really always am ready to learn from others.”
Menna will look for that expertise from her fellow market leaders, from executives at some of the biggest companies in the radio industry and other leaders. But she isn’t going in with tunnel vision. She is the epitome of a social creature.
“Like people always say, I don’t know what I don’t know, right?”
She will have a conversation with anyone that wants to talk to her. She will ask questions, listen to their stories and think about what it could mean for her market. Is there a promotion that failed because it was missing an element that 98.5 The Sports Hub can deliver? Is there a programming or sales strategy that has shown promise in a smaller market that could be a game changer for her? She is open to the very real possibility that there is.
Menna also knows that there aren’t a lot of one-for-one comparisons to her situation. That open mind matters because Beasley’s approach to sports radio is so different.
They aren’t trying to be the standard for sports radio across the country. Beasley operates two brands in two major markets – The Sports Hub in Boston and 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia. In some ways, Menna may have more in common with independent operators than with someone running a cluster for Audacy or iHeart.
“We are not in 150 markets as a company,” she says. “And so where we are, we have quality brands and great markets that we’re in. So we try to make those brands really great where we are and not spread ourselves too thin.”
Attendees of the 2024 BSM Summit will get to hear more about that philosophy. Not only will Menna be on stage, so will her friend and boss Caroline Beasley. Menna says Beasley is “a wonderful speaker” and thinks the audience will leave better off for hearing her thoughts on our industry.
Cash flow is the problem everyone at every company in every industry is trying to solve. Radio is no different. Menna says in sports radio, it’s especially important to talk about with one another.
“Our sponsorship fees are pretty hefty. Play by play is not necessarily a money maker. And, we are live and local for so many hours of the day, and talent costs a lot of money.”
Sports talk may be the format best built for a future where live, local radio is less and less ubiquitous, but not every company is rushing to turn on “The Fan” or “The Game.” It’s easily the most expensive format to run and Menna has seen the challenges that come with that grow as the advertising market changes. She hopes sharing her station’s story will be useful for other attendees.
“Certainly if less money is coming in and costs are rising, that’s the problem, right? We found that in the last few years, there isn’t a lot of agency availability. Sports is always an expensive opportunity. It doesn’t necessarily work on an agency cost per point basis. With those agency types of business really diminishing, we’ve had to create new opportunities with new clients and do a lot more direct business in order to keep the lights on.
“Luckily, we have such a great property in Boston that we have been able to do that because The Sports Hub really works, and it works for advertisers of all shapes and sizes. They get a return on their investment and they stay with us for a long time, and we build upon that success. If we just waited for agency avails to be able to fund the operation, it would look like a different operation.”
Mary Menna may not be a sports radio expert, but she takes the format seriously and has had a lot of success both in ratings and in revenue. Next month in New York, she will share what she knows but is way more interested in what she doesn’t.
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.
