Good Karma Brands CEO Craig Karmazin offered insight this week into why his company stepped away from the Green Bay Packers radio network several years ago and shared his perspective on iHeartMedia’s recent decision to flip 97.3 The Game to a music format.
During an appearance on WTMJ’s Wisconsin’s Morning News, Karmazin said the move away from the Packers wasn’t a reflection on the team or the network, but rather a business decision driven by economics and opportunity.
“A few years ago, the Packers changed it [sales opportunities] and took that in-house,” Karmazin explained. “The Packers radio network sold all of those advertisements. All we had at WTMJ was the ability to sell just the commercial breaks. So, when Wayne Larrivee was saying, ‘Oh, they’re in the red zone, brought to you by…,’ we weren’t selling any of that anymore. There just wasn’t as much value for advertisers.”
He added that the costs imposed on Good Karma Brands for maintaining the rights were not aligned with the revenue the company could generate leading to the decision to part ways.
“The amount of money they wanted to charge us for it wasn’t commensurate with the value that we could bring back. Losing a lot of money in this day and age as a media company is really difficult to do. So, it just didn’t make sense. Especially knowing that between ESPN Milwaukee, The Truth, WTMJ. We have so many great content creators that we could do great pregame and postgame coverage where we could sell all of those things,” said Karmazin.
He then emphasized that the decision was grounded in financial prudence rather than a lack of commitment to Packers coverage.
“It was a lost loser,” he said bluntly. “You could argue people think you have the Packers, you’re getting rich off of that. The Milwaukee Brewers will argue much better that they should be a loss leader. The Brewers have 180 games a year. If the Packers are losing a million dollars a year for you in those 18 games. There wasn’t really an opportunity to make that back. Moving on while still providing comprehensive Packers coverage was the better move.”
Karmazin offered he knows nothing of the current agreement the Green Bay Packers radio network has with iHeartMedia. However with the recent format flip of the now defunct 97.3 The Game, which served as the flagship radio station of the Packers. Karmazin says he would “absolutely” be interested in discussions involving a return to Good Karma Brands calling the Packers “an incredible brand.”
Regarding the recent changes at iHeartMedia. Karmazin cautioned against assuming that 97.3 The Game’s format flip signals failure on the part of the staff of the radio station.
“Let’s not assume, ‘Oh, The Game is unsuccessful, so they had to do this or that,’” he said. “They’re a large publicly traded company with billions of dollars of debt. Decisions being made in Milwaukee may have nothing to do with Milwaukee at all. They may have been wildly successful at The Game, but overall budget cuts for the company may have impacted them.”
Karmazin’s comments highlight the difficult balance radio operators face between local audience service and financial sustainability. While Good Karma Brands opted to pivot away from a high-profile but financially draining property. The company continues to leverage its resources across multiple platforms to maintain strong local sports coverage.
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