The state of the radio industry is unstable, but no one can blame any company doing what is best for its business. Large or small, every business has a responsibility to make the best decisions for its stake-holders. If that business is a nationally syndicated radio network, the best thing for everyone involved is to get your programming on as many stations across the country as possible.
What is best for the network isn’t always what’s best for the individual markets it serves though. While iHeartMedia may be celebrating Cumulus’s Nash FM 106.1 in New Orleans flipping to FOX Sports Radio, I wonder if sports fans in the Crescent City feel the same way.
Most Louisianans care more about LSU than Morgan Wallen, so I don’t think the majority of people that can hear the station are booing, but I wonder how many that tuned in on day one will still make the new 106.1 The Ticket a regular destination in 90 days.
iHeartMedia is a business and any business has to do right by its investors. For those people, what is best is for iHeart to be able to tell its Progressive, Coors Light and other advertisers that FOX Sports Radio is on in another top 60 market. I totally get it and I am not insinuating that the company is doing anything wrong. I am just not sure that this trend is helping anything.
Hell, this isn’t even an iHeart station. If anyone is doing anything wrong here, it’s Cumulus.
FOX isn’t alone. Plenty of sports stations around the country have launched as straight, uninterrupted feeds of ESPN Radio, VSiN and CBS Sports Radio too. The goal is always the same – tell advertisers you have added more ears. If I were an advertiser though, I might wonder how many of those ears new ears will actually be hearing my message.
Sports radio is the format most reliant on local identity. That could mean listener interaction or it could be as simple as talking about the local teams. On an the Monday after an NFL weekend, most national shows will be talking about Patrick Mahomes or the Dallas Cowboys. The people of New Orleans will be looking for conversations about the Saints. Would 106.1 The Ticket be able to hold their attention for very long?
It’s hard to remember a more volatile time for businesses that chase advertising revenue. There is just less money to go around for media outlets of all kinds. Every radio station or network is competing with each other, TV, the internet, and anything else that could hold the audience’s attention for fifteen minutes. It would be irresponsible to not do something that could make you more appealing to the agencies and businesses trying to figure out where to spend their money.
This new station is just the latest incarnation of 106.1 The Ticket. The station existed from 2012 until 2015 when it flipped to Alternative and then dropped that format for Country in 2017. This will be the sixth format change for the station since 2000.
Maybe Cumulus has looked at the footprint of 106.1’s signal and decided that there isn’t a case for significant investment. It doesn’t serve New Orleans so much as it does the Mississippi/Louisiana border. Historically, it’s had trouble supporting any format.
Some stations are going to be in that situation. I get it. I just don’t know that those stations turning on a syndicated sports format is worth celebrating.
By this time next year, I could be eating my words. Perhaps an uninterrupted stream of the FOX Sports Radio schedule is just step one and local shows are coming. Cumulus could have its eyes on becoming the radio home of LSU, the Saints and the Pelicans but have decided to crawl before it runs. I hope that is what happens.
While there are more outlets than ever for people that want to talk about sports, there are fewer paychecks and in a lot of cases, the paychecks that do exist in the markets outside of the top 50 are pretty small.
I’m glad that New Orleans, Hartford and Jacksonville are adding new sports talk stations, but I will save the celebration for when they start adding and supporting local content. That’s when the audience will care.
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.
