The road that Andy Roth took to being the Brand Manager at Audacy in Cleveland included stops in Philadelphia, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Buffalo.
After moving around a bit, Roth landed in Cleveland in 2011 to launch 92.3 ‘The Fan’ and it’s been quite a run.
“There’s no way that this doesn’t happen unless everyone is geared for success,” said Roth. “And then everyone performed right, and it was just great. It’s been awesome.”
A big reason why it’s been “awesome” is because Roth knew right from the get-go what was going to work in Cleveland. As far as sports radio is concerned, what works in one market may not necessarily work in another market.
For ‘The Fan’ to be a success, they had to be “hyper-local.”
“I knew that when building the station, every talk show had to have one tie to Cleveland no matter what,” said Roth. “You just have to make sure that the guys perform and that they’re having fun. If they’re not, then you have to make sure that they’re having fun and they’re performing.”
Along his journey, Roth picked up important knowledge at each stop that he made. One of the most important pieces of advice he received was when he worked at WFAN in New York and was able to absorb some knowledge from legendary Program Director Mark Chernoff.
It was at WFAN where Roth learned not just how important it was to listen to the radio station but also how to listen.
“They key is to be a good listener,” said Roth of what he learned from Chernoff. “He did give me one really good (piece of) advice as we started which was don’t listen in your office all the time. Make sure you walk around or drive around so that you’re not distracted, and you can hear what people are hearing.”
Sometimes it’s not a good idea to bring your work home with you, but Roth also tried that listening advice with his family and that worked out for him as well.
“I have two kids and a wife who are huge sports fans,” said Roth. “Being able to listen with them and see when they perked up was a big thing.”
After his time at WFAN, Roth moved on to Major League Baseball where he helped launch the first all-baseball radio station “MLB Radio” and that’s where he learned about technology that has become so important today for the sports radio format.
It was at MLB where Roth could see that digital content was going to be a big part of the industry.
“I learned quickly that, despite the fact that there’s a slight internet delay, the reach of what the internet can do were two things I had never even thought of when I worked at WFAN,” said Roth.
“We quickly realized what we can do with it and clipping stuff and made it a part of MLB.com.”
Roth brought that digital content back to radio with him when he moved on to run WGR in Buffalo from 2002 to 2011. His time in Western New York meant a lot to him and it was really his first taste of what he would eventually install at ‘The Fan’ when he got to Cleveland.
It was in Buffalo where Roth really learned about “hyper-local” coverage.
“When you lived in Buffalo and you didn’t wake up and know what the Bills did on Sunday, you weren’t a part of the conversation on Monday,” said Roth.
In moving from Buffalo to Cleveland, Roth already had a feel of what was needed to serve sports fans that represented the DNA of the city and its sports teams. The fans in Cleveland, just like the fans in Buffalo, live and die with their sports teams and they also share another common trait.
They pay attention to what other markets are saying about them.
“I think people care so much about these teams but also, they have their ears up for what the nation says, and I think that may be some of the things that other people see and hear about Cleveland,” said Roth. “Clevelanders don’t like it when other people say bad things about their teams and maybe a little more than others.”
Just like WFAN in New York and WIP in Philadelphia, ‘The Fan’ in Cleveland continues to be successful because they’ve been able to inspire people who want to get into the business and to be able to work at their hometown sports radio station.
More than a decade into their existence, ‘The Fan,’ under Roth’s leadership, has been able to turn passionate listeners into talented hosts.
“We’re 12 years old but people remember the first generation of our guys,” said Roth. “Now the people who are coming through the people who were listening to us when they were 12 and 13 or 15 or in college and now, they’re part of our radio station.”
Depending on where you live, markets in other parts of the country can be labeled in different ways.
You could have a city with great sports fans, an area with average sports fans and even a market with bad sports fans.
There was probably a time when Cleveland could have been labeled, whether it was justified or not, as a bad sports town. Today, that could not be any further from the truth.
Cleveland is as good a sports town as you will find because they fought back when they were kicked in the teeth.
“I think you can put Clevelanders, especially because of what happened with the Browns, as part of the best sports fans,” said Roth.
“They are the ones who forced action and the city of Cleveland forced action to make sure that the Browns played here. I don’t think that you find more people who identify that Cleveland sports helps define a city. Sports resonates in this city because that’s what people talk about.”
And ‘The Fan’ has been the place for fans to talk about Cleveland sports because the station was built the right way by Andy Roth.
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.
