I have had a fun couple of weeks of interviews. I really enjoyed talking with Phil Mackey and Dan Seeman from Hubbard’s SKOR North in Minneapolis. I also had the chance to talk to two different agents who represent broadcasters, The Weiss Agency’s Heather Cohen and WME’s Josh Levy. I was incredibly surprised that the chats with the agents tied in so well with the feature on Dan and Phil. Yet, there I was spending a lot of time talking digital distribution with all four.
When I ended the zoom with Dan and Phil all I could really do was shake my head. First and foremost, because of what they have built, how it happened and what it turned into. Secondly, I just cannot understand how more people have not stolen the idea and gone for it like they have done in Minneapolis.
Read these words from Seeman, Hubbard Minnesota’s Vice-President/Region about what their 1500 AM signal turned into when they went almost exclusively digital, “This idea was so crazy, it might just work, and it worked, and it is working. I look at revenue and I look at profitability. It works.”
Now, read that again. And again. And again.
Just keep reading it until it sinks in.
If you are in any decent sized market and you don’t have a full digital strategy for your brand, get out now. No other way to put it, get out. Sell. You have zero opportunity to succeed in the future. Your station is what people commonly refer to as ‘Dead Man Walking’.
SKOR North has been doing digital distribution, and doing it well, for several years. The person responsible ultimately for what happens with it is telling you “It works!” so why aren’t more of you listening? How far are you willing to fall behind?
What is it going to take for operators to understand it’s the NOW?
In my conversations with the two agents, both brought up the number of opportunities they are seeing through digital distribution and how they are getting their clients to understand the importance of having that digital presence. And remember, the agents are the ones talking to the networks, talking to the major digital distribution outlets and all of the others, so they generally know what is coming before the rest of us. I can assure you based on what I heard, there is only more and more coming.
And, of course, we are seeing more and more athletes bypass the media and create their own outlets. Do you think they are going to need your sports radio station to help them with that? It will end up the other way around if we aren’t careful enough and they will have the audience that sports talk radio needs.
Marc Cuban had said last year that the business world is now made up of two types of companies – those who have become great at artificial intelligence and then everyone else that those companies passed up long ago.
It’s the same with an all-digital or almost all-digital offering. There are those excelling at it now like SKOR North and some that are getting ready to go all in and then there’s everyone else. Seeing the decline year after year after year but choosing to not change until the last dime has been sucked out of radio.
It will not be that long until many of you will just be left holding your signal license, begging someone, anyone to help bail you out because you didn’t act fast enough and jump in where the water was warm for a long time, but you chose to stand on the deck and watch everyone else swim away.
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The Best/Worst Thing I’ve Heard/Watched/Read Recently
The best thing I’ve heard recently has been any game Kevin Harlan is calling. Whether it is on television or radio, whether it is basketball or football, he is simply one of the best. I feel like almost everyone I talk to that is in the business or connected to it agrees with me. His mechanics, his consistently smooth calls and most of all his passion.
When I listen to Kevin Harlan call a game, especially on radio, I always feel like I am on the emotional roller coaster of the game with him. The ups, the downs, the strange, no matter what is happening I can sense it by the way Kevin is talking.
While I also love Al Michaels for very different reasons, he would be an example of someone that sometimes it is difficult to tell right when you tune in if it is a good game or a bad game based on the way Al is calling it. As he has gotten older, you definitely know when it is a bad game because he usually says so, but the call of the game stays somewhat the same.
Harlan is instant offense to me, and I was glad to see Amazon plans to add him to their NBA coverage. He is one of those people who I hope never retires or we figure out how to clone. His passion during a broadcast should be bottled up and sold.
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In Case You Missed It
Andy Masur recently posted his monthly feature, ‘Anatomy of a Broadcaster’ and this month he featured Noah Eagle. Let’s just be honest about this, Noah Eagle is a superstar in the making. As Andy mentions in the feature, Noah realizes he has had certain advantages because of who his dad is. But if anyone actually thinks he gets hired by NBC and put in the positions they are putting him in because his dad is a great broadcaster is either a complete idiot or is paying no attention at all. Noah Eagle is one of the best play-by-play guys in the business and he just recently turned 28.
Masur wrote, “His voice is mature beyond his years. He sounds poised, confident, authoritative and much older than he is. There’s a polished quality to his broadcasts that you normally hear from seasoned veteran broadcasters. His voice is smooth, yet commanding, another element to a broadcast usually reserved for those with much more experience. It’s rare that young broadcasters possess more than one of these traits, but that’s the case with Eagle.”
I highly recommend checking out the full feature if you have not already by clicking here.
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Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
