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NBC Sunday Night Football Records Sixth Consecutive Audience of More Than 20 Million to Start NFL Season

BSM Staff
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NBC Sunday Night Football Records Sixth Consecutive Audience of More Than 20 Million to Start NFL Season

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Not even Mother Nature can slow down the NFL when it comes to television audience size. Despite a 90-minute severe weather delay, the Sunday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers on NBC averaged 20.3 million viewers. This makes it six consecutive games to open up the season that Sunday Night Football has seen an average audience size of more than 20 million.

Not only was the start delayed, but the game itself was a low scoring affair with three field goals the only scoring in the first half. It was a 7-6 Steelers lead going into the 4th quarter when the Cowboys outscored them 14-7 in the fourth quarter to earn the 20-17 win. Both teams are now 3-2.

Sunday Night Football will have the New York market involved the next two weeks. This Sunday, the New York Giants are hosting Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals followed by Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The final broadcast in October will see the Dallas Cowboys at the San Francisco 49ers.

Sunday Night Football on NBC features Mike Tirico on play-by-play with analyst Cris Collinsworth and sideline reporter Melissa Stark.

News Podcasts Take Top 5 Spots as Dan Bongino, NPR Shows Continue Success in September Podtrac Rankings

BNM Staff
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News Podcasts Take Top 5 Spots as Dan Bongino, NPR Shows Continue Success in September Podtrac Rankings

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Podtrac has released its September podcast rankings, and the news genre was well represented with shows from NPR, Dan Bongino, and The New York Times taking the top five spots.

The top three places in the rankings were unchanged as The Daily (The New York Times), NPR News Now, and Up First from NPR finished in the same order as August.

Dateline NBC from NBC News rose one spot in the U.S. Unique Monthly Audience rankings to finish fourth. The Dan Bongino Show dropped one spot to fifth place. Morbid (Wondery), Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard (Wondery), Fox News Hourly Update, Pardon My Take (Barstool Sports), and Stuff You Should Know (iHeartPodcasts) rounded out the top 10 spots.

The Ben Shapiro Show dropped two places in the Podtrac rankings to finish the month in 11th place. The biggest movers in the top 20 was the comedy podcast Bad Friends jumping to 15th, up nine spots, and ABC News program 20/20, which vaulted five positions to end the month in 16th.

In the Podtrac industry rankings, iHeart Audience Network and iHeartPodcasts took the top two spots for largest monthly audiences by group. Libsyn was third, followed by Wondery, NPR, Acast, The Walt Disney Company, Vox Media, Paramount, and DailyWire+ in the top 10.

CBS Sports’ Seth Davis Partners with InsideHook to Launch Paywalled College Basketball Site ‘Hoops HQ’

BSM Staff
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CBS Sports’ Seth Davis Partners with InsideHook to Launch Paywalled College Basketball Site ‘Hoops HQ’

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Seth Davis, a longtime college basketball insider who has worked for Sports Illustrated, The Athletic and CBS Sports amongst others, will be launching a new venture later this month per a report from Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. Davis is partnering with InsideHook and will launch a paywalled college basketball site, ‘Hoops HQ’ with an expected launch date of October 28.

Davis told McCarthy the site will have in-depth coverage of men’s and women’s college basketball. Davis said he has hired Lyndsey D’Arcangelo as senior women’s correspondent and Alex Squadron, formerly of Slam as the social media editor. McCarthy notes the financing for ‘Hoops HQ’ will come from billionaire Steven Klinsky of New Mountain Capital.

In McCarthy’s report he says Davis plans to add paid contributors as the site grows but it will get most of its content with the access Davis has from being around college basketball over his 30-year career. He wants the site to own the college basketball space all throughout the year and not just when it gets to March. Davis said he was not sure at this time what the cost will be to get the content from the site.

Davis started with Sports Illustrated in 1995 after graduating from Duke a few years prior. He was laid off from the company in 2017 and started working at The Athletic.

Elon Musk Tells Tucker Carlson: Government Will Pass Laws to Ban X if Kamala Harris Wins Election

BNM Staff
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Elon Musk Tells Tucker Carlson: Government Will Pass Laws to Ban X if Kamala Harris Wins Election

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Elon Musk has been vocal in his support of Republican nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, the billionaire shared that he’s fearful of what could happen to the X platform should Kamala Harris win.

During a wide-ranging interview, Tucker Carlson asked Elon Musk about how the United States government can allow the X platform — which Musk purchased in 2022 — to continue to operate as the free speech platform he purports it to be.

“In its current role in American society, they won’t,” Musk said. “They will try to shut it down by any means possible.”

“What do you mean by any means possible?” Carlson questioned.

Musk then noted he has been the subject of litigation from the Department of Justice that, in his opinion, feels politically motivated. He added that he wouldn’t be surprised to see similar action taken against the social media platform.

“They’ll try to pass laws. They’ll try to prosecute the company, prosecute me. The amount of lawfare that we see taking place is outrageous,” Musk said. “The Department of Justice, for example, launched a huge lawsuit against SpaceX for failing to hire asylum seekers. Not those granted asylum. Asylum seekers.

“There’s also a law called International Traffic and Arms Regulations that — because SpaceX develops advanced missile technology that can be used in nuclear ICBMs — we have to be very careful with who we hire. We can only hire someone if they’re a permanent resident or citizen. That’s what the ITAR law says. Then there’s another law that says that you cannot discriminate against asylum seekers.

“So we’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. We’re failing to hire asylum seekers, even though it is illegal for us to hire asylum seekers under ITAR rule … We have so many laws that it is actually impossible to do business, impossible to operate without being violating some law, because you have laws like the ones I just gave you, where both things are illegal. Yes, they contradict one another. They contradict one another,” he reiterated.

Elon Musk stated that the DOJ can only launch so many lawsuits per year, and questioned why that particular case was launched against his company.

“Because you own X,” Tucker Carlson replied. Musk agreed.

Will ESPN Save the SEC and College Football From Themselves?

Demetri Ravanos
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Will ESPN Save the SEC and College Football From Themselves?

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

I was in school at the University of Alabama for some really lean football years, but one thing I never thought twice about was that we would beat Vanderbilt. We had not lost to Vandy since I was two years old. Since 1957, the two teams have finished in a tie more often than the Commodores have beaten the Crimson Tide. 

That all changed Saturday night. The Dores beat the top-ranked Crimson Tide 40-35 and fans celebrated by taking the goal posts out of Vanderbilt Stadium, which is currently an active construction site, through downtown Nashville, down Broadway, and eventually throwing them into the Cumberland River.

It was the biggest win in Vanderbilt football history and it should mean something. In the age of the BCS or even the four-team College Football Playoff, it would likely mean Bama would be playing from behind all season as it tried to climb back into the championship conversation. In the age of the twelve-team Playoff, it is still meaningful to the bigger picture, but we have to wait and see just how meaningful.

If the SEC and the Big Ten get their way, and secure multiple guaranteed bids in future editions of the College Football Playoff, moments like this, something so monumental in the sport that it even warranted a hat tip in the opening monologue of this past weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, will go from a typhoon to a fart bubble in the bathtub.

ESPN cannot let that happen.

College football, more than any other sport, follows the lead of its media partners. FOX and ESPN’s relationships with the Big Ten and SEC respectively can result in those networks spitting out some serious propaganda and framing it as analysis. 

It’s a great example of why we ask so many questions about where the power lies in these TV deals. Does ESPN have the power to dictate whether or not the ACC and SEC each add a ninth conference game and what that would be worth or do the conferences have the power to tell ESPN that they each have a price in mind and if the network doesn’t agree to it, there will be no ninth game? 

I don’t know if there is a concrete policy or hierarchy that dictates all scenarios. Both sides want the other to be successful because that would ensure they are successful too. There aren’t a lot of times that the network has to act like the parent and tell the conference that getting their way may feel good now, but it will hurt everyone in the long run.

This, however, is one of those times.

I have written before about the networks’ responsibility to protect college sports. Investing so much in the enterprise and not stepping in when it is waving a proverbial gun around screaming “I’m gonna shoot myself in the balls!” is a disservice not only to fans, but to the networks’ business interests.  

Usually, ESPN can rely on FOX to be aligned in any decision made to protect college football, but not this time. That’s why ESPN has to throw away any allusion that it can be a cool mom. The only way to win is authoritarianism.

What the Big Ten and SEC are proposing is a guarantee that four teams from each conference will be included in the College Football Playoff. For all of the handwringing about an expanded playoff watering down the regular season, this is what would actually do it. This is what would turn a literal once-in-a-lifetime victory into just another Saturday.

For FOX, the move may add some serious value to the Big Ten race. While very few schools across the country can boast Ohio State’s success and no one is a bigger TV draw, there are fewer superpowers in the conference than in the SEC. The race for spots two, three and four would be a valuable promotional vehicle for FOX and its Big Noon brand. 

Plus, if the SEC and Big Ten don’t see the College Football Playoff immediately acquiesce to their demands, I would imagine someone at FOX would be ready to sew seeds of discontent. 

Why wouldn’t the network make sure the two conferences get the message that it would play ball on the creation of a “Power Two” postseason if the Big Ten and SEC want to abandon the CFP entirely? It’s just smart business.

Disney has put a lot of money into the SEC. It has put just as much if not more into the creation and execution of the College Football Playoff. Why would the company not flex its considerable muscle here to stop anything that could threaten the value of its investments?

Fans like big brands. Why does Stephen A. Smith talk about the Cowboys even when they are clearly not a threat to win anything of note? Why does every NBA story get filtered through the lenses of Steph Curry and LeBron James? For the same reason that Alabama and Georgia get prime placement every Saturday. They have the power to capture the casuals. 

It makes total sense that ESPN would want as many of those iconic helmets involved in what are usually some of the network’s biggest broadcasts of the year, but to manipulate a month of programming at the expense of an entire season is crazy. That’s why I cannot see Jimmy Pitaro and his staff sitting back and letting the Big Ten and SEC dictate terms of the future of the sport. 

I may root for one of the most tradition-laden programs in college football, but I loathe the marriage to “the way things used to be” in this sport. I promise you, if the Rose Bowl were discontinued tomorrow, Touchdown Jesus crumbled to the ground, or animal control confiscated Bevo from the University of Texas, the sport would be just fine. We may be sad, but no one would stop watching. Tradition is good but meaningless. Evolution is necessary. 

The point of moving first from a free-for-all to the BCS and then from the BCS to the College Football Playoff was to ensure the college football season always ended with certainty and real stakes. The last game of the year would always see the two most deserving teams playing with a trophy on the line. We may not be smart enough yet to do away with polls, but merit was more important than conference relationships. 

Yes, even last year. I don’t want to go off on a tangent, so email me and I can explain to you why anyone that says Florida State deserved the four-seed over Alabama is dumb and wrong. 

The SEC and the Big Ten are proposing going backward and not in a good way that could benefit traditional or geographic rivalries.

As I write this, it remains to be seen what the conferences will decide and/or how ESPN will react. I don’t love how much influence the networks have in the sport on a day-to-day basis, but when that influence can be used to save the sport from itself, I think it’s valuable. 

My friend Ryan Nanni has recently launched a new podcast called Who Killed College Football. It’s an anthology series that looks at six different culprits responsible for the sport looking less and less like the one so many of us fell in love with. Episode one was all about television and it is very good.

If you buy their argument that TV is at least partially to blame, this is ESPN’s chance at redemption. The SEC and Big Ten are ready to turn to the Dark Side and follow Emperor Palpatine’s plot for galactic domination. ESPN, viewed by so many as Darth Vader, can show everyone that Anakin Skywalker is still in there and is willing to do what is right.

Election Coverage Tips For News Talk Radio

BNM Staff
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Election Coverage Tips For News Talk Radio

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Here we go! The election you never thought would arrive has. Early voting is underway in many states and as we approach November 5 news and talk radio shows need to get their ducks lined up.

Here’s a list of things to prepare and some details to keep in mind. It’s by no means comprehensive. You’ll have more ideas of your own and probably improvements to mine. These are thought starters.

BETWEEN NOW AND ELECTION DAY: (Managers, show hosts, producers, reporters, writers, and editors)

  1. Develop assignments for street reporters and newsroom staffing for Election Day and night. Designate inside reporters to provide specific live coverage from the studio and/or newsroom.
  2. If you haven’t already, establish relationships with expert resources such as state and local elections officials and college political science professors. Get them on the air as often as practical leading up to Election Day and hourly on November 5. If you have one or two who are especially sharp and articulate invite them into the studio on Election Day and evening.
  3. Hosts, explain to your audience how early voting works and when it begins and ends in your state and county. Do this often. Make more information including polling station searches available on the station’s website.
  4. Though we usually have a good idea of who will win the major national elections shortly after the polls close on election night remind people that these are unofficial results even with 100% of all precincts reporting. The process of certifying final tallies can take days or even weeks, as we’ve seen in the past.
  5. Prepare your audience to be targeted on Election Day by misinformation aimed at discouraging certain groups of people from voting. Social media can be a sewer of calculated and just plain ignorant misinformation. Remind listeners that there are forces that will intentionally circulate false information about voting times and locations, for example, or the presence of law enforcement at polling
    places. There might also be false or exaggerated claims of long lines and violence at voting precincts. Urge listeners to report fake news or suspicious information and rumors to official election hotlines. Follow up on the predominant ones and report the facts you’re able to establish.
  6. Several journalism organizations offer guidance and training on confronting election misinformation. Check out the American Press Institute’s Guide to Covering the 2024 Elections. Joan Donovan, research director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein
    Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy    , outlines six strategies for combatting misinformation. One of them is: Construct a “truth sandwich.” That means stating what is true, followed by the misinformation you’re setting out to refute, and then
    stating the truth again.

PRODUCERS:

You are the link between your hosts and the constant flow of information developed in the newsroom. Prepare to interrupt the show with breaking information delivered by you, street reporters, and/or phoners with outside officials. Chase down those leads. More
voices make your show more compelling and allow your hosts a couple of moments to regroup.

Breaking news can be delivered on the air by any member of your news team unless union contracts prohibit it. Producers, editors, and writers should be ready to go without a script and give even a bare sliver of developing information with a promise to follow up
asap. Just tell it. Nothing says breaking news like hearing the hosts learn new information at the same time the audience does.

“Freda Ross is in the newsroom with some breaking news. Freda, what’s going on?” This should be how your news and talk shows work every day, not just during elections. Writers and editors are often mic-shy or reluctant to jump on the air without first taking time to gather the whole story and write it up. That defeats the purpose which is to get the information on the air transparently and lightning-fast while impressing listeners that your station’s news team is a dynamic professional organization. If you wait until a story can be written and inserted into the news queue it loses its impact. This is something that should be standard procedure, especially during developing events such as election coverage.

TALK HOSTS:

On Election Day stick to the business at hand and respect the process. You can still be your opinionated self but tamp down the fiery rhetoric and focus on discussing election news as it develops in your community, state, and across the country. Don’t lose sight of
the fact that your job is to react to news and explain it, not create it.

A FINAL PRO TIP:

I began to prepare this piece this past Saturday, October 5, by trying to learn how many U.S. states were already accepting early votes. I prompted the question, “How many U.S. states will have begun early voting in the general election as of October 8, 2024?”
Here’s what I was told:

– The New York Times informed me that 31 states were already accepting votes.

Checking three AI systems I learned:

“As of October 8, 2024, five U.S. states will have started early voting for the general election.” – ChatGPT

“As of October 8, 2024, at least 14 U.S. states will have begun early voting for the 2024 general election.” – Perplexity

“I can’t help with that right now. I’m trained to be as accurate as possible, but I can make mistakes sometimes.” – Google’s Gemini. (I know. Shocking, right?)

Word to the wise: Don’t depend on AI to provide your details.

Oh, and fact-check the NY Times

George Johns Blazed a Radio Trail, and That Deserves a Toast From All of Us

Kevin Robinson
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George Johns Blazed a Radio Trail, and That Deserves a Toast From All of Us

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

“When you receive enough money sitting at home instead of working, that ain’t liberalism; that’s socialism.” – George Johns – From Geo’s Life Liners Blog

George died last week – on his birthday (BMM 10/4). Unlike how he lived, George went quietly. Not bothering his outward circle with how he felt or his declining health.

For those unfamiliar with George, he was a larger-than-life programmer who blazed trails and set ratings records, some of which hold today.

Readers were introduced to George in my Barrett Media piece on August 27th, coaching Chuck Riley through a seven-word Legal ID. You’ll be reading plagiarized, often NSFW and free of a politically correct filter though George’s Life Liners in this column.

“You are under no obligation to remain the same.”  George was a part-time philosopher.

Geo, as friends affectionately referred to him, cut his entertainment teeth with several Canadian Garage Bands, including The Jury. Their record, “Please Forget Her,” would top the Canadian charts and become one of many of Geo’s firsts.

His flair for being the ‘entertainer’ led him to program CKY in Winnipeg after his rock’ n roll dreams faded. His largest reflection of radio genius was in Indianapolis with WIBC, then WNAP, and KVIL in Dallas with Fairbanks Communications.

“The only thing that can bring a man to his knees without being fearful is a beautiful woman.” George was a lover of the female species.

Geo was a talent-first programmer, a radio magician developing indelible brands while creating larger-than life events and promotions. He would often make his talent – led by his morning team – part of the strategic and tactical programming effort.

As a kid growing up listening to WNAP in Indy, I thought THAT was how radio sounded – everywhere. HUGE personalities like Cris Conner, Buster Bodine, and Fast Freddie Fever set the tone for their insane promotions at The Indy 500 and on The White River with their listener-driven WNAP Raft Race.  Imagine getting THAT by the lawyers – today. Their custom art on both sides of the dial was – wow.

“Can’t is also a bad 4 letter word.”  Geo never gave up.

Geo created the first Adult Contemporary Format in Canada and then placed it on KVIL in Dallas, Texas, with huge success.

That win would only flourish when he recruited Legendary Morning Master Ron Chapman to KVIL in Dallas. Ron, the brilliant storyteller, would become a record-setting machine while placed in several Halls Of Fame. In fact, nearly all of the morning talent Geo recruited and developed are in The Radio Hall of Fame.

The KVIL “Incredible Prize Catalog” contained hundreds of thousands of dollars in prizes over a two-week span. The grand prize often was ONE listener taking away EVERYTHING in the catalog. The Incredible Prize Catalog created a wide amount of industry buzz. Our team in then market #99 – Lansing Michigan – duplicated it over several successful ratings campaigns in the late 80’s.

“Remember when you didn’t know what political party your friends were affiliated with?” George held dual Canadian and United States citizenship and never shied away from a good political discussion.

Moving on to greater things, ‘scientists’ – those who attempt to game the ratings system rather than create fantastic content – destroyed most of Geo’s brilliance.

Geo would continue to invent – ‘firsts.’

He created the first nationally syndicated promotion, “The Magic Ticket,” in which listeners did not know the experience behind winning the Ticket. Only after the win did the winner hear the backstage or on-stage experience they would receive. Phenomenal theatre-of-the-mind.

Geo also developed the hugely successful “Class” format, landing on more than 40 stations nationwide and placing the “Music Of Your Life” on over 100 stations through satellite radio.

He lived his life like he developed content.

Geo chronicled his epic cross-country train trips with great detail, sucking every ounce of adventure along the way and displaying his NEW friends.

“Things are never as bad as they could be.” Geo was the perpetual optimist.

George Johns left us this week. Most likely an elbow’s reach from his favorite adult beverage. Geo blazed a red-hot radio trail, and that deserves a toast from all of us.

Bart Winkler Brings What He Learned Watching Late Night TV to Infinity Sports Network

Peter Schwartz
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Bart Winkler Brings What He Learned Watching Late Night TV to Infinity Sports Network

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Growing up in Wisconsin, Bart Winkler didn’t listen to much sports radio. Instead, he stayed up to watch late night hosts like David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon and it would be from those legendary personalities that he would learn that you can’t be afraid of trying different things.

Like a bit that Fallon introduced after he took over for O’Brien on the iconic Late Night program. “They did this segment called “Lick it for 10” where he would have people lick something for ten bucks,” said Winkler. “It was so stupid, but I liked it. I thought it was great, but it was so dumb, but I think that kind of mentality where you try something and if it works great but if it doesn’t you learn from it, but you should be able to have the ability to try stuff.”

Today, Winkler is trying out different stuff all the time as the host of The Bart Winkler Show heard nationally from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET on Infinity Sports Network.

Winkler, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, didn’t aspire to be in sports radio. He wanted to be a television sports anchor, but radio turned out to be the better fit and it was watching those late-night shows on television that shaped the way he would want to deliver content to his audience.

“I grew up watching Conan and Letterman,” said Winkler. “I didn’t go to sleep at night. It would be 12:30 or 1 in the morning and I’d have school the next day. I’m 15 years old but I’m watching reruns of The Simpsons, Cheers or Seinfeld. That’s how I see broadcasting…from that lens.”

From August 2016 to August 2022, Winkler was a host for 105.7 The Fan in Milwaukee as part of Chuck & Winkler and the local version of The Bart Winkler Show.  When The Fan ceased to exist, Winkler stayed local hosting podcasts but also embarked on a run as a national sports radio fill-in host.

Part of that run was at CBS Sports Radio, now Infinity, which led to him taking over the full-time late evening to early morning show back in January.

“The show has been great,” said Winkler. “What’s been fun is doing the show that I’ve always done or wanted to do or different versions of past shows but to a completely new audience and a completely different playing field.”

The transition of focusing on hosting local shows to hosting nationally can be a challenge. Winkler has been able to be successful in that transition because he discovered how he wanted it to sound nationally. From predominately talking about the Packers, Bucks, Brewers and the University of Wisconsin, he has been able to find a groove talking about everything going on in sports nationally.

And while the show evolves, his audience is growing as listeners are introduced to the show.

“They’re finding it because I’m on after something else they were listening to whether it’s a Westwood One broadcast or the local affiliate,” said Winkler. “For a lot of people, I’m like the ‘now recommended’ from Netflix after you’ve been watching something for so long.”

Winkler admits that he doesn’t always make a good first impression, but what he’s finding out is that his audience has shown patience and eventually they like what they’re hearing. He’s getting listeners who call the show on a regular basis, but each night is a new adventure when new listeners are tuning in.

“They’ll say at first…I didn’t really like you and now you’ve grown on me,” said Winkler. “I’ve been doing this for 10 months, but there’s a lot of people listening to the show for the first time. While it’s nice to build up some callbacks and recurring bits, it’s like a first date every night where you have to put your best foot forward.”

Winkler has worked with two producers since the full-time show launched on Infinity.

His first producer was David Sheppard who is now a part-time host on Infinity Sports Network. Sheppard played a huge role in introducing Winkler to the listeners and engaging with Winkler on-air.

“He had been with the company for a long time and people know him,” said Winkler. “We had a lot of great spirited conversations which were fun. I’ve worked with a lot of different people and everyone I’ve ever worked with…some of them are my best friends.”

And that includes his current producer, and new friend, Karlos Ortiz. The chemistry has been through the roof because they like a lot of the same things and they both are not afraid to try different things.

“It just clicks,” said Winkler. “He comes up with ideas and there’s a lot of different things we do on the show now. He’s made the show sound and feel a lot bigger than some guy opening up a microphone and talking for four hours and he’s great to talk with. My name is on the show, but I don’t want it to be just four hours of me.”

Inspired by the greats of late-night, Bart Winkler delivers an entertaining form of sports talk to his listeners each night on Infinity Sports Network. He’s not afraid to try different things and his reward has been building a strong audience and attracting new listeners who are not afraid to give him a chance.

How Chad Lopez and 77 WABC Used the ‘Less is More’ Approach to Return to Prominence

Garrett Searight
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How Chad Lopez and 77 WABC Used the ‘Less is More’ Approach to Return to Prominence

Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. To make sure you’re updated on the latest happenings across the media business, sign up for our newsletters to get the news delivered straight to your inbox.

Since John and Margo Catsimatidis purchased 77 WABC in 2019, the station has soared to new heights. Along with the Catsimatidis family, Red Apple Media President Chad Lopez has been an integral part of the station’s turnaround, and he’s taken an against-the-grain approach to help the station’s resurgence.

The predominant thought process in radio today — especially in the news/talk space — is creating as much advertising inventory as possible for more sales opportunities.

That’s not the playbook utilized by 77 WABC, however.

“We put the product first,” Lopez said. “It really made me look at the product in a different way, where — when you’re selling it, and when you’re managing it, and realizing that if we have the right talent, we have the right names — it didn’t matter what we were doing from the revenue standpoint. Because when I started with John, he said, ‘What’s the vision?’ And I said, ‘The vision is, really, we’ve got to do radio the way radio is intended to be.”

He shared that he believed in the mantra enacted by Clear Channel in previous decades: “Less is more.”

But the station didn’t simply speak those words and do something else. They fully adopted the idea and implemented it. WABC didn’t shift avails around to keep the same units per hour. Instead, it wiped $2.7 million off the books from brokered weekend programming, and added live and local shows. It also shrunk commercial time by a massive amount, helping lead to larger audiences who weren’t disillusioned by constant marketing.

“We went from 21 minutes. It’s no secret, anyone can listen. In most of our hours. we’re down to six to eight minutes from 21 minutes. But to do that, we had to open up other verticals. When John bought the station, it was just WABC Radio. Now, we have a syndication network that’s on 330-plus affiliates across the country that’s taking WABC’s content. We bought WLIR. There are ratings on WLIR now because of the way we’ve been programming it. And we have an advertising agency that we operate out of Red Apple Media Group.

Chad Lopez freely admitted that working for a locally-owned company, rather than a corporate giant, has helped him implement his vision for the station.

“It’s very different when you’re working for someone who’s not beholden, the company’s not beholden to the shareholders. John is the shareholder, and he just wanted a great product,” he said. “If I worked for a major corporation where the bureaucracy would say, ‘No, we can’t do it. We just need the revenue.’ We walked away from it. My salespeople — I mean, even I, coming from a sales background — said, ‘I don’t know if this is good, but alright. Let’s do it.’ And we immediately saw the results once we put in on the weekends live programming.

“Yes, it cost us more. We walked away from the $2.7 million. We took on additional expenses. And then we put on a product and we watched the audience start growing and growing on the weekends. Then it started transcending into the during the week.”

The strategy for Red Apple Media has been a simple one at it’s core: aggregate a large audience, and leverage that listenership to advertisers. And, unsurprisingly, that has been a successful modus operandi.

“We knew that if we take that inventory out, we’re giving the salespeople less opportunity. But we opened the video, audio, podcast and the syndication, and it’s just training our salespeople that that’s part of the radio station,” said Lopez. “It’s part of everything. The revenue will come in.

“I think the industry has gotten away from really managing inventory and holding rate. If you hold rate or the less inventory you have, the higher your rate should go up. And our rates have gone up significantly because our customers know it. And when you look at the ratings and what’s going on, we say, ‘Hey, this is where we are, and we only have eight minutes in this hour. I know you love the show. It sounds great, but we only have eight minutes in that hour.’ We didn’t take it up drastically. We just slowly went where we needed to be,” continued Lopez.

“At the end of the day, it’s a business, right? So we got to make sure we’re covering our expenses. It’s not a not-for-profit company. However, we make sure that it’s not just the money that’s driving the product and revenue that’s driving the product.”

The success of 77 WABC, both in ratings and in revenue, is supplemented by the growing list of affiliates for shows from Red Apple Audio Networks. The syndication arm of the company has more than a dozen shows available to local affiliates. And the affiliates list keeps growing. Stations like KMOX in St. Louis, KDWN in Las Vegas, WGN Radio in Chicago, and 830 WCCO in Minneapolis, along with hundreds of other stations, have added programs from the company.

And while there are challenges that come with operating a syndication company without owning hundreds of stations, Chad Lopez admitted that potential mergers and acquisitions with other groups and stations remain at the forefront of Red Apple Media’s mission in the future.

“Obviously, it’s no secret. Everyone knows we’ve talked to a lot of groups. We’ve talked to all the groups,” Lopez said of potential purchases. “John — and I say this candidly — has the money. He’s not going to a bank to try to get money to buy the station. He’s a billionaire, he has the money, he’ll sign the check. There’s no asking. He could sign the check today if it’s the right deal. So yes, are we looking at FMs? Absolutely.

“It’s not just AM that we’re focused on. It’s the product, and how do we get the product across other platforms. And it’s not even just radio stations. We’re looking at TV stations, looking at social media companies. There’s a lot of people that we’ve been talking to.”

Adrian Wojnarowski Shares Thoughts on ESPN Hiring Shams Charania on The Jim Rome Show

BSM Staff
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Adrian Wojnarowski Shares Thoughts on ESPN Hiring Shams Charania on The Jim Rome Show

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Former ESPN NBA Insider Adrian ‘Woj’ Wojnarowski entered the jungle and was a guest on The Jim Rome Show. Rome asked ‘Woj’ about the news that came down earlier in the day that ESPN had hired Shams Charania as its new Senior NBA Insider.

‘Woj’ said, “Listen, Shams texted me after I announced my retirement and what I told him is what I would say today, that I hope he has as fulfilling and as rewarding of a career as I’ve had. And I certainly wish that for him.”

Charania had written on X earlier, “I am honored to join ESPN as the company’s Senior NBA Insider. I can’t wait to be part of an incredible group of colleagues at ESPN and serve the sports audience worldwide.”

Wojnarowski added in response to that post, “And he’s right about the incredible group of colleagues that he’s going to find at ESPN. The best of the best, incredible reporters, on-air talent. And so, for me, that was always the best part of working at ESPN, were the colleagues who elevate you, you’re around the best of the best. And that was true on the NBA. And then that was true being around [Adam] Schefter and [Pete] Thamel and [Jeff] Passan and those guys. So, wish him the best. And he’s got a great team around him at ESPN. I miss those guys already, but I’m still talking to those guys a lot.”

Charania had been working for The Athletic and FanDuel TV and had recently left Stadium. Previously, he and Wojnarowski worked together at Yahoo Sports. Charania started his career as a sportswriter covering the Chicago Bulls at the age of 17.

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