Welcome to the shortest workweek of the calendar year: the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s the lone week when many talents in sports radio skip using paid vacation because the days off are already built in. More people are on the roads, more families are in the car, and sports dominate television.
It’s also a time where nearly every full-time sports radio personality finds themselves sitting at the table instead of behind a microphone
For all the talk about how the industry can evolve for a new generation, this week is the perfect opportunity to build those bridges. Yet many programmers look at the holiday meter counts and choose the easy path with syndication or best-of programming. How can sports radio claim it’s hard to find tomorrow’s talent when the opportunity sits right in front of us?
No one prefers to work on a holiday weekend, but plenty of people itching to enter the business do. Programmers and talent across the country often recall the moment they first wanted to crack the mic. Today, opportunities are more limited than ever because of budget cuts and syndication deals, which makes these holiday windows even more valuable.
Find Your Future
That doesn’t mean the future of your station should be denied a shot. Podcasting and digital media may have pulled some attention away from traditional radio, but what better time to re-ignite passion for broadcasting than a week already built for experimentation?
The part-time producer holding a weekend shift or the staffer logging hours on play-by-play broadcasts has dreams far beyond their current schedule. Have they told you? If not, ask yourself why.
If they have, this week is their moment. Create it for them.
Will they be the perfect fill-in for your top-rated morning show? Maybe, or maybe not. But when do you want to find out if they have a shot to be? The easy answer for most programmers is the holiday book, a throwaway for most sports radio stations as it typically doesn’t matter for the revenue line.
Wouldn’t you rather test a new voice during Thanksgiving week than hand them multiple days or weeks later without knowing what they can do? Full-time hosts stack their vacation time for the holiday book because it doesn’t affect their bonuses, even with the NFL in the stretch run.
If the kids are out for Christmas or New Year’s break, most marquee sports radio hosts are too.
Programmers should be thankful for the Thanksgiving two-day opportunity to plan for later this year and beyond.
Get Creative
Gather your targets and craft your pairings like a fantasy radio competition. There are no limits to this. Get creative.
Pair that part-time producer you’ve noticed with a full-time producer begging for more on-air reps. Look at the local podcast scene and identify who knows your teams and audience. A simple DM or asking your producers how to reach someone could open the door to meaningful cross-promotion.
Sports writers and columnists guest on radio shows every week. They know the rhythm, understand the audience, and appreciate the validation that radio exposure brings. Plus, they could be a full time talent in the station’s future.
Don’t worry about budget. It’s a holiday. A small gift card from a client can go a long way for someone outside your building. Concert tickets are often easy to secure. Stations have plenty of giveaways. Use them.
The job isn’t over for programmers. Listen and provide real-time feedback. You don’t need to monitor every second, but thoughtful coaching shows an investment in their future — and the station’s. That same care is what allows them to share their future with you.
That’s how I got my start in sports radio, and it’s why I’m still here nearly two decades later. I’m living proof that, when given a shot, amazing things can happen. It’s something I’m forever thankful for.
Useful Opportunity
Sports radio embraces this week as an industry built on connection. It brings families together through the love of sports. It provides an escape during traffic jams and last-minute runs for cranberry sauce. A week where bickering in the car on Black Friday gives way to a laugh about the Cowboys on Thanksgiving.
Live, local, and connected — everything sports radio must continue to be, no matter who sits behind the microphone.
If sports radio truly wants to evolve, it can’t wait for perfect conditions or perfect timing. The future is built one rep at a time, one show at a time, one unexpected voice at a time. This Thanksgiving week, give your next star the runway. Give your station the lift.
Most of all, give your audience the live, local connection they deserve. That is how the format grows — and how it survives. Be thankful for the opportunity presented.
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.
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.
