In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t tuned to sports radio lately, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX to win their second NFL championship in franchise history. The game action, the halftime show, the commercial breaks, and the forever-long pre-game and post-game content all geared to put on one last toast to football as we wrap up another exciting NFL season.
As the game comes to a close and the Vince Lombardi trophy is raised in a sea of confetti, sports radio talent across America are thinking the same idea in unison, much like Mariah Carey rings in the start of the holiday season.
“It’s time.” Welcome to the dead period of sports talk radio.
Every year, immediately following the conclusion of the Super Bowl, sports radio talent are tasked with entertaining their listeners coming off of an NFL hangover. It’s the toughest game for talent to play, making the day-to-day listening experience interesting by diving into sports conversations that don’t garner the attention and connection like the NFL does.
“I’ve always looked at the Holiday Ratings Book (early Dec–early Jan) and February as opportunities to explore,” said Laurence Holmes, who co-hosts Spiegel & Holmes on Chicago’s 670 The Score. “It’s a good time to engage the audience differently.”
Not to say there aren’t sports fans who enjoy regular season NBA, NHL, college basketball, and golf. From a sports radio content perspective, however, the impact of those discussions with the audience doesn’t come close to anything week after week NFL-related.
Sean Salisbury, host of The Sean Salisbury Show on SportsTalk 790 in Houston, believes there is an opportunity to show a program’s range and depth during the time immediately following the NFL season.
“My process for my show is always simple. Adjust, adapt, and prepare. It’s only a slow time if you lean on football as a crutch,” said Salisbury. “We don’t approach February and March as ‘slow times.’ We are even better with other sports. We consider it a strength.”
Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post once wrote that the month of February is the worst month on the calendar for sports. Many sports talk hosts take vacation time following the NFL season for this reason. It’s difficult to find the passion of the sports fan with conversations about sports that are not as consumed as much as the NFL.
Unfortunately, this tends to lead to some discussions that make sports radio talent cringe to fill time, and sports radio listeners consider finding other alternatives.
“The number one topic around this time to avoid is Mount Rushmore talk,” said Joe Murray, who hosts weekday evenings on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. “No one cares about your Mount Rushmore of blank. It’s boring, and I would push away as fast as I can if it gets brought up. I’ll pivot to anything else.”
Just a simple search for ‘sports radio Mount Rushmore’ on any search engine, and you’ll find that topic is discussed amongst the biggest names in the industry and on nearly every platform. For sports radio hosts and their perspective, the discussion is considered repetitive and predictable.
“I hate Mt. Rushmore topics,” added Holmes. “It’s the laziest thing we do as an industry.”
With the lack of NFL action and storylines during the dead period, sports fans are constantly salivating for anything NFL-related to hold their attention through the offseason. It’s required that sports radio talent get creative with ways of continually feeding the beast while no game action is happening.
“Don’t kick football to the curb,” says Marc Ryan, who hosts programs on 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit. “Ninety-seven of the 100 most-watched television programs in the United States last year were NFL games. Your show should feature daily football content, whether you’re in Detroit, Michigan, or Fairbanks, Alaska.”
With a hunger for football content from listeners, talent must also keep a sense of balance when it comes to getting too far ahead with NFL Combine discussions and NFL Draft hype.
“Listeners can only handle so much mock draft fatigue,” adds Salisbury.
The Sports Hub’s Joe Murray agrees with this notion.
“Some listeners aren’t college football fans, so it’s hard to talk about the players in the draft,” Murray added. “The way to steer away from it is to keep the conversation on best player available or biggest upgraded spots.”
Another idea to push through the dead period is for sports radio talent to put more focus on the college basketball season as March Madness nears. The annual basketball tournament continues to draw massive viewership and garners the attention of millions of sports fans around the country.
However, when asking several sports radio talents about their own shift to discussing college hoops, there’s plenty of hesitation to play in the paint.
“I truly believe most hosts, and more importantly fans, have very little familiarity with college hoops teams/players at this point,” says Chris Russell, who hosts mid-days on The Team 980 in Washington, D.C. “With conference tournaments and a good chunk of the season left, none of it really matters.”
Marc Ryan of 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit agrees with that sentiment.
“Avoid a plethora of regular season college basketball,” Ryan said. “That sport has ruined the interest in its regular season with its all-inclusive tournament.”
Laurence Holmes of 670 The Score in Chicago believes that the dead period instead should serve as an opportunity for sports radio talent to re-engage themselves with the sport, instead of avoiding it completely.
“It’s a good time to challenge yourself to find out what’s going on with college basketball,” Holmes noted. “Often hosts don’t, and then the tournament comes around and we get the trope of ‘…well, I haven’t watched a game this season, but here’s my uninformed bracket.’”
The length of the dead period is also difficult to define for sports radio talent. Some debate that the end of the dead period is the start of the NCAA basketball tournament or Opening Day in Major League Baseball. Others argue that, in some markets, the dead period could extend into the early summer months as NFL training camp and college football near.
The challenge is never easy to navigate through this annual spot in the sports calendar for any sports radio talent. It takes patience, vision, imagination, and the willingness to prove your worth as a talk talent.
“I actually enjoy this time of year,” said Chase McCabe, who co-hosts The Chase & Big Joe Show on Nashville’s 102.5 The Game. “It lets your creativity flow and always shows a PD just how talented his staff can be!”
Many sports radio talents approach this time similar to the 2020 shutdown of sports during COVID. The dead period allows talent to open doors, connecting with listeners on a different level than ever before, introducing conversations they typically would not have on a daily basis.
“We consider this time ‘moving time,’ just like a Saturday at the Masters,” added Salisbury. “My show also leans on laughs and real talk that are not sports-related, and it has served us well.”
Chris Russell of The Team 980 finds this time to dive into more niche topics of conversation to connect with his audience.
“The only thing I will do more of this time of year is talk about WWE a bit more and less sports,” stated Russell.
“I’ve found that talking to our audience about youth sports experiences is eye-opening,” added Laurence Holmes of 670 The Score in Chicago. “It’s an underserved topic that is worthy of more discussion. Our audience is going through it with their kids. There are so many branches off that tree: helicopter parenting, lack of refs, what makes for a good youth coach, the money parents are paying, etc. Topic development doesn’t just have to be red meat.”
For sports radio to continue to grow, talent must use opportunities like the dead period to remove themselves from their comfort zone. Jason Barrett wrote about this last week, imploring media executives to do the same to become more effective in their business. It’s no different for sports radio talent approaching the dead period as an opportunity to branch out and embrace a new path of connection with the audience.
Every step forward is a leap towards a bigger goal, and success—even in the dead period—awaits those who dare to try.
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John Mamola is a columnist for Barrett Media. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. Honored to be a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Media and honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL). Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
