The people that said they were boycotting the Olympics were either all lying or they are the only people boycotting. The ratings have been phenomenal. Not only has NBC seen a major rebound from the disappointing performance of the 2021 Games in Tokyo, but each night, the network is enjoying audiences of more than 20 million. What happens in Paris is the biggest story in sports right now and Scott Shapiro knows it.
FOX Sports Radio was built on being in touch on the stories sports fans are talking about. Usually, that means the NFL or the NBA, but Shapiro knows that from now until August 11, his staff will need to know the names of the best swimmers, gymnasts, and runners too.
“There’s always stories at the Olympics that captivate the whole country and they become talking points,” Premiere Networks’ Senior VP of Sports Programming says. “A lot of times in sports, it has to be debate driven, controversial topics that we deal with in football and basketball and baseball. And the Olympics, yeah, there can be some of those, but the beauty of the Olympics is we may know the big names going in and which athletes are going to rate, but there’s always these storylines that become talking points. It’s unlike any other topics that we cover the rest of the year. Usually we’re celebrating an achievement. We’re kind of in awe of something that we saw, whether it’s in America or not.”
Scott is one of the best programmers in radio right now. Over the years, he has heard any number of talents dismiss the Olympics as too niche to bother acknowledging on air. He says that’s a mistake.
“There’s always something that happens that that kind of debunks that [idea that a host can ignore it] and makes for a good conversation,” he says. “I always love it because you never know exactly what it’s going to be, but frankly, especially when you look at the viewership on all of the different NBC channels and streaming, this is highly consumed, so we’d be doing a disservice if we just ignored it.”
If you’ve ever seen Scott speak at a BSM Summit, you might know his swimming pool philosophy. He echoes those old Pontiac ads. “Wider is better”. He wants FOX Sports Radio hosts to be thinking about swimming the length of the pool on the biggest topics and doing as much as they can with the biggest stories instead of trying to dive down into the minutia.
With the Olympics, it’s no different. Instinct may tell a host that they need to really explain what it is that listeners are seeing. Shapiro would rather his hosts live in and enjoy the moment with their audience, because this is a rare opportunity for sports radio to introduce itself to a new audience. It’s not about making gymnastics or swimming moms care about the Dallas Cowboys. It’s about something PDs and consultants in every format say a dozen times every day – just play the hits.
“It’s our job to play the hits, but we’re not the ones necessarily dictating those hits. It’s the audience dictating the hits. So we need to have a pulse of the audience and keep up,” Shapiro says. “In sports talk, we have to know what the audience is talking about. Even if it’s for a brief little stint.”
There’s more to Scott Shapiro’s day than thinking about how to connect with fans of Simone Biles or Stephen Nedoroscik. He’s gotta think about the short term and long term health of his network.
We’re still three years away from what will be the biggest shakeup he has faced in a long time. Last year, Dan Patrick announced that he had signed a new contract with Premiere, FOX Sports Radio’s parent company. The broadcast legend said it would be his last. He will retire when the contract ends in 2027.
That doesn’t mean Scott gets to take it easy and not think about the future of the network’s late-morning time slot for a few years.
“We live in the moment, but we also live for the future, even for shows without a set expiration,” he says. “And this one is so rare. It’s not normal in radio when there’s an announcement that ‘four years from now, here is the end.’”
He won’t get specific about what conversations he and Don Martin, iHeartMedia Sports’ EVP of Programming, have had, but rest assured, they are talking.
“We always have folks on our radar. We always have our targets. You know, this just makes it a bit more public. It telegraphs it.”
In the more immediate future, Shapiro is thinking about one of his afternoon shows. Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate.
Doug Gottlieb turned some heads earlier this year when he announced that not only will his FOX Sports Radio show continue, but he was also going to make time to coach the men’s basketball team at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. Talk about breaking new ground!
Scott is only concerned about one side of Gottlieb’s new double life. He isn’t rooting against the Phoenix. It’s just that their record or whether or not they make the NCAA Tournament doesn’t affect him the way a slip in the quality of The Doug Gottlieb Show would.
“The onus is going to be on Doug with how this works, and I don’t just mean for us,” he says. “You know, the athletic director there at UWGB, he’s got a list of requirements. He’s got some mandatory elements that Doug needs to achieve for them. Some of those, of course, are wins and losses, but some of the attention and energy focus. So, in all honesty, we’re all going to see what happens. We’re rooting for Doug both here and there. We’d love to see it succeed, but ultimately it’s going to be on Doug.”
Shapiro isn’t anticipating a major problem. In fact, he says that thus far, Gottlieb has managed his relationships with both the school and the network very well. What he does say is that Doug Gottlieb knows what the expectations are and he’s confident the coach/host can meet them.
It’s not just his hosts. Scott Shapiro has expectations for FOX Sports Radio affiliates too. After all, sports radio is entering its version of the holiday shopping season.
FOX will make some changes to its weekend lineup to make sure it offers the best possible football coverage. It’s weekday shows will be bringing on the biggest names in both college football and the NFL. That all takes a lot of work. Scott wants to know that the local stations that carry his programming are really benefitting from it all. There’s a list of things that affiliates should know and can communicate to the network to make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.
“More than anything, you want to be in sync,” he says. “I think knowing their audience, speaking to their audience, being aggressive, being very mindful of what the topics are and aren’t working are all important. So is working hand-in-hand with us. A lot of that goes to cross promotion and synergy. But ultimately it’s really having a good idea of who your audience is, knowing what works and not being afraid to cut. You know, no one’s perfect in this business, and you have to be smart enough to know that if you’re making mistakes, if things aren’t a hit that you can pivot quickly, move on and find the hit.”
There’s never a boring day in Scott Shapiro’s world. Whether it’s delivering the best content around a once-every-four-years event or tackling the challenge of a brand new approach to a host’s sports media career, there’s always something on his plate. So far, he’s shown everyone at FOX Sports Radio that it isn’t too much for him.
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.
