I started in radio in 1997. I hadn’t quite turned 16 years old, but I already knew it was what I wanted to do forever. One of the older jocks told me that if that was the case, then there were two things I needed to know. First, the job will never make me rich, so I better truly love it and second, it’s rare that anyone goes to a market and gets to stay there forever, so I needed to be prepared to move around the country, especially if I wanted to do sports.
It’s been thirty years since I had that conversation and while most held true, one big part did not. What happened to market mobility, particularly in sports radio?
That mobility was supposed to be the meritocracy. I always liked the idea that if you proved yourself in a top 100 market, you would get an opportunity in a top fifty market. Prove yourself there, and it was onto a top twenty market and so on.
Market mobility, when it existed, was the sign of a company and boss that took an interest in what came out of their listeners’ speakers. They understood that investing in great talent was the surest way to make their product better.
Nowadays, I’m not sure I believe that’s still the case. I’m sure those companies want to improve their products, but given the state of the industry, it seems that “who’s around?” gets asked before “who’s best?”
My wife made it clear a few years ago that she does not want to leave North Carolina, so I’m off the hamster wheel these days. I’m not constantly checking the Barrett job board to see who needs a PD or host anymore.
There was a time, though, when I was having lots of conversations and making it to second, third, and final rounds of interview processes only to be told that the station decided to prioritize local ties or institutional knowledge. At least twice, I walked away confident that the desire not to pay for someone’s move is the only reason I came up short.
Experiences like that always left me wondering what the place in this business is for those of us that grew up in small places that wanted something different out of life. If market mobility is becoming less and less of a thing, where does that leave those of us that are from places where there is little or no local sports radio?
A local identity is important for a radio station. I never faulted anyone that made it their priority, but I always thought that settling for less because someone less creative or less qualified knows how to pronounce the name of that road that is named for the Polish family that used to have a restaurant on it was shortsighted.
The obvious problem is that insisting on local ties or institutional knowledge limits the pond a station can fish in. I am sure everyone at Audacy will tell you that listeners would have rejected any new voice on WEEI that did not sound like it came from New England, but I would point out that Fred Toucher and Mike Felger aren’t Boston natives. Even if they had a history in the market before getting into sports radio, they did have to start from 0 at some point with the locals and they succeeded because they are among the best at what they do.
Boston isn’t alone. Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and other markets won’t hire a host that doesn’t sound like his or her listeners. The stations may be limiting their talent pools, but they are major markets.
I’ve had this conversation before with stations in Memphis, St. Louis, and New Orleans. Not only are those not major markets, they are places that are actually getting smaller. When that’s the reality of the market, it doesn’t really seem like you can limit your search.
Americans have never been more likely to move away from their hometown. Sure, plenty stay in the city or county of their birth their entire lives, but interstates, airplanes, and various other transportation innovations of the last century have made moving away less scary, and a lot of people are apt to take advantage.
In fact, there are plenty of markets where it’s not easy to find a native. The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill market, where I live, is one of them. In a place like this, I’m not sure it matters that someone knows the Lenovo Center was the RBC Center. There’s a large portion of the audience that wasn’t here then.
More than anything, I think this idea that local ties trump all does not take into account our current times. The world has never been smaller. People in their thirties cannot remember life without the Internet. It’s been eighteen years since Apple made smartphones ubiquitous. Getting information – any information – is easy. Why do so many companies and hiring managers act like it isn’t?
If a company or station finds its ideal candidate, it isn’t hard to fill-in the gaps in their knowledge. All it takes is time and direction.
A local identity is what makes sports talk work. That’s true for all audio, so I get why a station wants its talent to feel connected to the market. Audiences prioritize themselves though. They just want to be entertained. And I think they would be forgiving of someone not sounding like them if the content is reliably strong.
You probably can’t get away with that in your lineup from top to bottom. But if you have locals up and down the lineup, why not take a chance with a talented outsider? It’s a small step a lot of stations need to take to revitalize their sound.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
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.
