In sports radio, there is no direct route to guaranteed success. It takes hard work, dedication, time, and some luck. A mixture to develop a formula for lasting success in any market. The Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN has called morning drive home in the land of 10,000 lakes for nearly 25 years. Chris Hawkey, Cory Cove, and Paul “Meatsauce” Lambert have found the formula over time that has become the go-to destination for radio in the Twin Cities.
“We’re a full-service morning show. If something big is happening in the world, especially locally, we’re going to cover that and make sure people are up to date with it,” said Chris Hawkey. “More than anything, we are an entertainment show.”
Hawkey and Cove began working together on The Power Trip nearly a quarter century ago on KFAN. Hawkey, coming from a rock and roll background, was in search of finding a way for a passionate fan of music to share it with the world. He grew up a devoted listener of Gary Burbank on WLW. Using that example, he wanted to create a show of friends that genuinely liked one another. A show created by guys who hung out together outside of work.
“It creates such a good feel and allows the listener to let themselves feel like they’re part of the group,” said Hawkey. “That old-school radio mentality that you’re one of the listeners, but you’re also part of the show is something that we’ve been able to pull off.”
Sincereity Is the Secret Sauce
Hawkey teamed with Cove just five months into starting The Power Trip on KFAN. Cove originally desired to be a writer, going to school at the University of Minnesota, but found an internship at KFAN on a whim. Nearly 25 years later, he feels the reason for the program’s success is based in its honest approach.
“The sincerity of our show is why the listeners have been drawn to us over the years. They know that we all truly get along,” said Cove. “All of us get to be ourselves, and nobody’s doing a performative job like a handful of the national guys that get paid a ton of money. I think all of us are genuine, and that helps.”
For a show that admits that sports have become a smaller part of the content over time, the listeners have rewarded The Power Trip with their time. For the first time in the history of the program, The Power Trip finished the spring ratings period (April–June) with a 30 share in the coveted demo of Men 25–54— a massive mark of success that few programs or stations ever achieve.
“If I said it was a dream come true, I’d be lying. I would never have dreamed that we would get a 30 share,” said Hawkey. “It really is a testament to learning how to do radio incorrectly and doing poor radio for a long time. We’re going to be 25 years old as a show. There were a lot of years where we were doing it wrong.”
The Power Trip credits their success to the belief from station management to allow the program to fail and grow by continually trying to find the correct path for the show.
“Not only were we allowed to grow with a small sheer number, we didn’t even know what we wanted the show to be. The first couple years of the show, it’s the polar opposite of what the show is now,” said Cove. “If we hadn’t been allowed to fail, we wouldn’t have had time to figure out what bores us as hosts, let alone the listeners. We had so much time to figure out what kind of radio we wanted to do.”
KFAN Program Director Chad Abbott credits The Power Trip’s dedication to hard work. He believes it is a large reason for the success of the program. A show that models the blue-collar mentality of the people of the Twin Cities. A show that resonates in both terrestrial and digital success.
The Power Trip Evolves With the Times
With an evolving landscape in how the consumer reaches content, The Power Trip continues to build their brand in the digital space. With one of the most downloaded podcasts among local iHeartMedia talent in the company, The Power Trip has long understood the nature of having to always play where the people are going.
“They [younger demographic] know what live streaming and what podcasts are. They’re used to finding content on YouTube; they just have to know where you’re at,” said Cove. “Doing improv and being a little less sports-focused makes our [on-demand show replay] podcast a little more evergreen. A lot of listeners use our show like a standard podcast. If they miss it by a day or two, it’s not the end of the world… If we were stuck doing nonstop sports, I don’t know how podcast-able we would be.”
Cove noted that the recent spring book Nielsen data showing there is power in having digital metrics meet your terrestrial ones.
“The [Nielsen] number is just a validation of all the other numbers we’ve been tracking the last couple of years,” said Cove. “Our podcast numbers have been through the roof. So has our streaming number. When Nielsen isn’t reflecting that, it’s like, well, this doesn’t feel right. Even though the 30-share kind of blows us away, we remember 20 years ago what that would’ve meant. Now it’s just a validation that all the other metrics we’ve been watching are the truth.”
Why Sports Isn’t Always the Answer
The Power Trip has used sports as the vehicle to keep their program moving. There’s not a focus solely on talking sports. There is an understanding of the need to have sports discussion throughout the program. However, the secret sauce is in the entertainment and power of personality behind The Power Trip.
“It’s funnier if one of us mispronounces the name of somebody. We would rather not get the sports score or the sports information right. We laugh at that. That’s what we do it for. It’s more for me to screw up and then everybody else kind of piles on,” said Lambert, who is known as “Meatsauce” on the show.
“There is a certain amount of tune-out when you start getting too deep in the weeds with people who are either true sports fans or casual sports fans,” said Hawkey. “One of the things that we’ve done—as we learned early on—is if you’re not an expert about something, don’t pretend to be.”
The Power Trip enlists the time of a roster of ancillary in-studio guests throughout the week. Former players, current broadcasters, and members of the media join as in-studio guests throughout the week. Adding experts as personalities to meet the expectation of sports talk, but with a genuine feel that shows the personality of the program.
“The camaraderie of all the people that we have on the show helps that number [ratings]. It’s kind of like a snowflake—it’s a different thing every day,” explained Lambert. “It helps having the people [on the show] that we do.”
The program understands maintaining a 30 share is likely not a standard to repeat time and time again. The Power Trip aims to continue to not rest on their laurels. With the NFL season nearing, the pressure to perform and entertain is only heightened. Heading into the fall and winter months, with more opportunity to grow.
“With all the different options people have every morning when they wake up to. Listen to podcasts, an audiobook, music, or SiriusXM radio,” noted Hawkey, “For that amount of people to choose us as their option, that’s a really huge honor. I’m really proud of it.”
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. 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. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
