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PodcastOne Revenue Grows 24% During Second Quarter

BNM Staff
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PodcastOne Revenue Grows 24% During Second Quarter

PodcastOne has unveiled its financial results for the second quarter, and the report was an encouraging one for the digital audio company.

Revenue for the company was up 24% compared to the second quarter in 2023. In total, the company brought in $13.2 million during April, May, and June, which set a new high mark for PodcastOne.

Despite the record revenue gains, it still featured an operating loss of $1.4 million. The company attributed the operating loss to increased expenses from becoming a fully public company.

“Once again, I am extremely proud of our team’s accomplishments,” President Kit Gray said in a statement. “We’ve seen record-breaking revenue figures backed by our incredible team. By implementing strategic acquisitions, effective marketing efforts, and leveraging long-term relationships with advertisers and brands, it allows us to maintain profitability and worth for both our company and valued shareholders. We look forward to continued growth and success as we prioritize revenue and commit to the future of our business.”

With its second-quarter performance, PodcastOne maintains it is still on pace to generate between $51 million and $56 million during the fiscal year.

Proud Radio To End Its Apple Music Country Run

BMM Staff
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Proud Radio To End Its Apple Music Country Run

Proud Radio, hosted by Hunter Kelly, is ending its run on Apple Music Country, effective with the conclusion of the September 7 show.

Apple chose not to renew the show, which launched in 2020 and featured interviews with LGBTQ Country artists and allies.

The final show will feature Maren Morris and David Archuleta.

Reach Kelly here.                       

Michael Phelps Has Some Rowdy Gaines in Him, Which Should Make NBC’s Transition Pretty Easy in 2032

Mark Kreidler
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Michael Phelps Has Some Rowdy Gaines in Him, Which Should Make NBC’s Transition Pretty Easy in 2032

There’s no way NBC Sports can find another Rowdy Gaines to call swimming, which is why Gaines’ announcement that the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be his swan song is such a gut-punch. We judge most Olympic commentators by how they do once every two or four years, and we make those judgments pretty much snap-instantly – and even by that arbitrary standard, Rowdy is a treasure.

So no, there won’t be another Gaines. But maybe there doesn’t have to be.

There just needs to be a first Michael Phelps.

I enjoyed almost all of NBC’s broadcast work in Paris, but Phelps felt like a revelation. His studio work with Mike Tirico was stellar, and his ability to get into the nuances of the swim competition without drowning people in minutiae allowed viewers to feel that they’d been let through a side door to the venue itself.

Phelps easily broke down not only the races once they’d happened, but also how certain swimmers had trained or adjusted their training to tailor to their Olympic moments, how their race strategy might be created or evolve – even how they scouted their opponents based on past head-to-head competition. He used his own experience to help color all that, and he didn’t hold back about his own adventures at the Games, for better and for worse.

Phelps knows all about this stuff, and he should. He’s the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals, 23 of them gold. At the 2008 Beijing Games, one of five Olympics for which he qualified, all eight medals Phelps won were gold – an all-time record to set alongside his other all-time records.

Still, we’ve seen countless wonderful athletes pull up lame when they got on camera. That’s certainly not fatal – I’d argue that seeing a superstar fail as a broadcaster only emphasizes that the job isn’t as easy as great announcers make it look – but it makes Phelps’ success on air all the more notable.

It’s hard to overstate Tirico’s contribution here, because Tirico excels at making studio mates look good. But Phelps’ authenticity carried his segments. The most fun might have been seeing replays of Phelps in the studio as he watched the swim events unfold on monitors before him. He’s just unapologetically hypnotized by the sport still, and the shouts and fist-pumps accentuated that truth.

In that regard, he’s got a little Rowdy Gaines in him. Gaines’ over-the-top reactions and expressions while calling international swim events have long been documented, and they’re the reason NBC has for years had a Rowdy Cam fixed on him for the big events, including the Paris Games.

But Gaines’ histrionics wouldn’t matter if he weren’t so good at his job. His uber-preparation for these events extends well beyond the U.S. swimmers to the international field at large. He could humanize foreign swimmers in such a way that American viewers, who’d likely never heard of most of them, still could find something to be interested in – even a rooting interest, sometimes. At the least, Gaines let them know more about the person that their favorite U.S. swimmer was trying to beat.

Gaines will be 69 years old by the time Los Angeles 2028 rolls around, and after those Olympics, he said in a recent Instagram post, “I’m riding off into the sunset of full time grandparent.” He’ll thus be concluding his NBC service four years from now in the city where he won three swimming gold medals himself at the 1984 L.A. Olympics, a perfect and well-earned sort of symmetry.

It’s never easy to replace someone who has become synonymous with the Olympic portion of a sport. Gaines and rock-steady play-by-play announcer Dan Hicks have handled the swim venue for NBC together since 1996, a remarkable run when you consider the vagaries of staying in broadcasting at all, much less in a coveted niche, for nearly three decades.

In Phelps, though, the network has a logical, worthy successor – someone who knows the sport, brings full gravitas to the job and isn’t fazed by being on camera. The network has four years to walk up to a transition that won’t really occur for four years after that, and if Phelps is interested, they’ve also got a significant head start on the process.

Fighting the Urge to Throw in the Towel And Staying Positive in Radio

Bob Lawrence
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Fighting the Urge to Throw in the Towel And Staying Positive in Radio

It’s hard to watch even more RIFs in the industry over the past couple of weeks. If you’ve been in the industry for any length of time, over the years, you know people who have been sidelined, or you have experienced it yourself. It’s difficult to scroll through social media and see the heartfelt posts from those who are victims of the most recent rounds. It’s not easy watching friends and colleagues go through it – sometimes twice.

It is almost as difficult to see some in the industry tear at the very fabric of what we do every day. There is no doubt that things have changed – some of which is for the better and some, admittedly, for the worse. The problem is that young talent also sees what we say about our own industry. Many complain about the changes but fail to realize the impact on those still considering entry into the business.

When I was growing up, my folks would say the only things guaranteed in life are “death and taxes.” Today, we all recognize that “change” is an inevitable truth we all must either accept or simply throw in the towel. I have come to realize that we are all responsible for much of this change. We have done a rather poor job at marketing radio and letting listeners know what we can actually add to the lives of our consumers and advertisers. We all know that the world of OnDemand has created a sense of immediate gratification, especially among young demos. After all, why wait to hear a favorite song on the radio when you can just ask Siri or Google to play whatever you want at the moment?  There is little argument which can be made to combat that issue when fighting a music battle. While music remains a worthy element of content on the radio, the advantage radio offers over pure play, and DSP is the unique, compelling, local content no one else can provide.

Very few question this valuable advantage we hold.  Sadly, as an industry, we are not very good at marketing these true points of differentiation. Young people still think of “radio” as a dinosaur desktop/bedside device from their parent’s or grandparent’s generation. We have never really marketed our relevant, new forms of radio. Have promoted our streams within the confines of Apple and Google devices, yet you rarely hear talk of the industry’s need for talent who creates video, audio, podcasting, and social media content. We need talent on all levels, including sales, marketing, and management. The argument from many was that there’s no revenue in these areas. To some degree, we have let our level of importance in the minds of the consumer be usurped. We need to create opportunities that go beyond what radio has traditionally offered over the past 100+ years.

Many companies have avoided the word “radio” and made the switch to “media” or “audio,” but the content has had a difficult time keeping up with the demand created by GenZs and Millennials. The competition in today’s arena is fierce, and many have not been proactive in local talent development. In fact, many continue to eliminate talent. This, in turn, has led many talented people to simply “throw in the towel” and leave the industry. 

What can each of us do? For starters, I would certainly recommend a positive industry outlook in public and on social media. It’s troubling to see legendary talent complain about the state of the industry and do little to affect change and educate young people. That is something we can all do. We must all make a concerted effort to inspire, educate, and empower young people who possess a variety of talent and let them know this is still a fun, exciting business with many wonderful opportunities. They’re just not the same opportunities offered to us all those years ago.

Plan job fairs, go to universities, speak to high school students, invite groups to visit your facilities, do high school contests to keep students interested in the medium, and keep us relevant. Work with your state broadcast association outreach programs. The number one thing we should all do is be positive about what we do. Someone you come in contact with could represent exciting, positive change for the future.

Seller to Seller: Thom Abraham, 97.7 ESPN The Zone

Dave Greene
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Seller to Seller: Thom Abraham, 97.7 ESPN The Zone

For many years, in multiple southern and southeastern markets, Thom Abraham has worn multiple hats. Not only does he host and produce the content that he has put out, but he has also sold the advertising for his show as well. Abraham has been heard in Nashville, southwest Florida, and for the last couple of decades in Huntsville, Alabama. 97.7 ESPN The Zone owner Wes Neighbors saw the success Abraham was having selling his own show and worked out a deal to make him the station’s Sales Manager so he could teach the other on-air hosts to sell their shows as well.

According to Abraham, since taking over the sales team in 2019, the station is doing three times the revenue it was previously bringing in. He believes there are a few things that have made the biggest difference. One, is simply the passion with which the hosts/sellers are out selling with since they are mostly selling something they should be very comfortable talking about – themselves.

Another is that the station was able to get the rights to air Alabama athletics through a partnership with Learfield, which used to be across the street with Cumulus. And also, sports is what their company does and what they sell, there is no big corporate cluster to worry about or music sellers just throwing in sports and lowering its value.

“The sports station was always an afterthought,” Abraham said about working for companies with multiple stations in a market. “It was always a throw in or value-added where now, all we do is sports.”

Almost everyone who is on the air at the station is responsible for selling advertising for the station. As the manager, Abraham is able to create sales opportunities for the team, which he would be doing anyway for his own show. “Now, I share it with the rest of the group and create the same packages for everyone,” he said. “I manage all of our sellers, it’s six people, and everyone has an air shift.”

Abraham said the station has tried to hire traditional sellers but cannot find anyone who can sell the station with the same passion as the on-air team. “We’re passion sellers,” he said. “That’s the term I use with the guys all the time. We’re not selling numbers. We’re not selling ratings or cume. We are selling passion for sports.”

Abraham says the talent is limited to two-hour air shifts, so everyone has plenty of time to sell. “We have to move pretty fast throughout the day,” Abraham said.

While the station uses the ESPN moniker, it airs a lot of local programming. They do air The Paul Finebaum Show and Abraham says his team has been able to sell some local endorsements where Finebaum has worked with them to cut commercials for local clients.

“We’ve had great success selling live endorsements all the way across the board,” Abraham said. “We just found the secret sauce has always been when you can walk into a business or call a business, and they answer the phone, and they recognize who you are. You’re halfway done, you’re halfway to the close. We’re in a market that has 40,000 businesses. We need to have 60-70 clients on the radio station to be successful. So, you just keep moving. The idea is it’s a numbers game.”

When asked about how difficult it was to get the talent to buy in to selling their own shows and the station, Abraham said, “They bought in when they saw me doing five live reads on my show. and they bought in when they saw the success that we were having with relationship selling. They realized that they could increase their income significantly.”

With the hosts doing the selling, they are able to talk about how they will do the endorsement ads, when they can make appearances, post on their personal social media or things an Account Executive may not be able to do.

“When an AE goes out and sells an endorsement deal, is the talent really committed to that product?” Abraham asked. “Maybe, maybe not, but when the talent themselves goes out and sells a particular product, now they’re committed to it because that’s their client. Not only are they making a talent fee, they’re also making a commission.”

Abraham said with the air talent out selling, it has also led to very little attrition because the talent is working hard at keeping a relationship with the clients. They are now seeing for themselves how difficult it is to get a client, which makes them work even harder to retain the ones they have.

“We have very little attrition,” said Abraham. “It’s amazing how little attrition we’ve turned over in Alabama football. In the four years now that we’ve had it, we’ve only turned over two spots. We sold it out in six weeks, and there’s only been two clients move out and we sold those two spots again right away.”

97.7 ESPN The Zone also has done well with high school sports, starting a high school network online where they work with local high schools and provide what is needed to broadcast their games. The schools compensate the station and then are able to turn around and sell the inventory. Abraham said it has been a win-win-win with the station making some digital dollars, the schools making money off the sales to their boosters and the fans get to hear their team’s games online, plus some promotion throughout the week on the radio station. The idea came from Neighbors, who was a two-time All-SEC player at Alabama and has a financial background.

“On a Friday night, we are now producing six high school football games,” Abraham added.

This type of outside of the box thinking is what has the tide rolling for Thom Abraham and the team at 97.7 ESPN The Zone in Huntsville.

Behind The Voices: Anne Vydra

Jeff Lynn
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Behind The Voices: Anne Vydra

Anne Vydra is a Nashville-based Voice Actor. Her website describes her as specializing in TV Affiliate Promo, Radio Imaging, Automotive, and Commercial voiceovers. Her style is relatable, conversational, and oh-so-effortless. Anne delivers fast turnarounds and professional audio from her broadcast-ready home studio.

She is represented by Atlas Talent Agency.

Anne is today’s featured Voice Actor.

Jeff Lynn: Well, we have to start with the background. If we don’t know where we’ve been, it is hard to know where we are.

Anne Vydra: Well, it all started back in the 1900s. But really. I got my first on-air job in 1997 at KTOZ in Springfield, MO.  Overnights!  Remember those?  I was in high school. This went on to eventually ruin what was going to be an amazing college time. Why go to college? I decided that at 17, after meeting the band Reel Big Fish that THIS was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life working.  

My parents were REAL proud.  

Anyway, I eventually went on to Kansas City (KQRC), New Orleans (KKND), and Dallas (KDGE).  

2013 was when the proverbial fork in the road was met. I had gotten married, and my husband (nor I) wasn’t in the mood for a life of picking up and moving every time another gig came along. So, we decided to move where a bunch of our friends were: Nashville. And I set up a VO shop. We’ve been here ever since. And no, it wasn’t this crazy when we moved here. That happened about 5 years later.  We just like the outdoors! There’s awesome camping/adventuring all around. (We have a pop-up camper; we have an REI membership. We’re crunchy granola). Broadway is a crazy phenomenon we did not see coming. Go figure.  

JL: So, you set up shop and had to build a studio. Everyone has a particular passion when it comes to the studio.

AV: Of all the things I bought, I’m most excited about my MacMini. Holy cow. Friends tried to get me to buy into that for years, and I’m so glad I switched. That thing is a POWERHOUSE. I know this is a question about gear and DAWs but seriously, you want something that isn’t going to fail on you… so again. The MacMini. Did I mention I love my MacMini? Ok.  

I have a handful of mic’s I can switch out to when needed but I’m pretty much always on my Sennheiser 416 shotgun. I have a UA Apollo Twin Interface hooked up to ProTools. And this is where I have to plug the fact that I live in Nashville and have the best audio engineers in the world as friends. Kazuri Arai and I have known each other since 2008, and she helped me find and hang all my baffling, answers my calls when things go haywire, and knows all things sound. She even still teaches online at Berklee, where she graduated, and uses my audio! I will never miss an opportunity to uplift another fabulous woman in audio. Should you need an audio engineer, look no further.  https://anythingkreativ.com/

JL: In the vein of uplifting women, what client haven’t you landed that you want to?

AV: Hi, I’m Anne Vydra and I want to be the voice of your News/Talk Sports station. For real. I don’t have any on my roster! This is what I do. I voice TV News Affiliates. It’s what I love. Let me share my passion with you. Is it because I’m female?  

Well, maybe it’s time to stand out… just something to consider.  

JL: I like to take everyone’s temperature on AI. Voice cloning, etc.

AV:  I don’t see it impacting me or the jobs I want to take. I think as long as we bring personality, intention, and humanity into it, then no.

I was talking to a fellow VO about this, and a while ago, I did one of those jobs where I had to say every name from A-Z and every number from 1-to 200 and every percentage and every other variable asked of me. Pay was great, but I wanted to hit my head on the wall at the end of each day. Can AI take THAT job? Eh. Let’s just say ‘I wouldn’t be missing THAT work, Bob.’

JL: I used to live in Nashville. There are seasons and allergies and even snow. Do you worry about getting sick and missing work?

AV:  I do.  And it happens. This will sound really hokey (but hey, I’m crunchy granola) but ever since I started eating local honey a few times a week, my incidents of colds/coughs/the crud has reduced IMMENSELY. I have a theory, and I think it’s based on some science or fact, that since it’s local, you’re giving yourself some of that pollen that can make you sick.. thereby making you IMPERVIOUS.  

Also, Flonase works when you’re in a pinch!  

Here Anne’s demo here. Connect here.

Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer for Cumulus Media and Westwood One, Still Bullish on 2024 Political Ad Dollars for Radio

Krystina Alarcon Carroll
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Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer for Cumulus Media and Westwood One, Still Bullish on 2024 Political Ad Dollars for Radio

As election season comes into full swing, everyone is looking to get a piece of the advertising revenue pie. E-marketer has forecast political spending to pass $12 Billion or triple the 2016 election spending. While radio historically has received less than 3%, Cumulus Media and Westwood One’s Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard believes there’s great advantage to selecting radio.

“What’s happening is they’re overspending on linear TV,” Bouvard told Barrett Media. “They’re overspending on YouTube and Facebook and underspending on radio, underspending on podcast. So, there are great opportunities to reduce frequency and grow reach by reallocating the excess of spending on TV into podcast and radio.”

With no Democratic primary, the bulk of election spending will be in the latter part of this year. Another notable difference from 2016 and 2020 is that no billionaires tossed their hat into the political ring.  Bouvard explained, “You had Michael Bloomberg coming in as an independent. There was another billionaire, Tom Steyer, also running. So, there was a lot of activity in the primaries four years ago. Obviously, there was very little activity in the primaries this year. So, year to date spending for radio is pretty light.”

Historically for radio the bulk of spending starts in October, and Bouvard believes it will come. “The one clue that we have is there’s been a huge amount of fundraising on both sides,” he said. “Harris just came off an eight-day, $325 million haul. Trump has obviously raised a lot. So, it bodes well.”

While early voting might change when spending happens, Bouvard noted to get those undecided independent voters you need radio. “Nielsen did a major study earlier this year, they revealed that if you want independent voters, if you want undecided voters, radio in the media plan drives significant reach with those people,” he said.

With podcasting becoming more popular, it could infringe on some of radio’s political revenue, but Bouvard believes there is one problem with political advertisements in podcasts. “You can geotarget to certain voting districts,” Bouvard explained. “The problem is, once you start narrowing down geographically, the impressions get pretty thin. But from a reach standpoint, podcasting has much more scale than it used to. I just don’t know how easy it is to buy for the campaigns.”

While 3% of the predicted $12 Billion is a pretty penny, everyone is reaching for more. Bouvard believes there is one way radio can grow the percentage points, saying “If local television and YouTube and Facebook truly get sold out in those battleground states, that will kind of be the driver, because unfortunately, we’re not considered a primary media platform for politics. We’re considered kind of a tertiary platform, or we’re considered a platform that solves small problems.”

Bouvard, a board member of the Library of American Broadcasting, noted that over the years money has gotten so much bigger, in part because of political PACs. “I think the difference from 40 years ago is you used to have the campaign, and they would raise money, and they would spend it,” he said. “Now you have political action committees that are raising money. You have all sorts of interest groups that are raising money and then turning around and spending that. So, the sources of fundraising have grown, and the volume of fundraising has grown.”

This means the everyday person, “[is] subjected to a barrage of TV ads and YouTube ads. I think while the media owners love it, I think everyday people kind of get overwhelmed with the political clutter.”

The passion Bouvard has for radio began in high school. “I was at a 10-Watt little radio station in Massachusetts and that kind of lit the excitement of radio,” he said. “I got part time summer jobs in Boston radio. I went to Northwestern and took communications classes and worked at the radio station there. And, while I was at Northwestern I interned at Arbitron in their Chicago office.”

Bouvard then worked under John Coleman, “who’s like the ‘Father of Radio Research.’ His next position was in the analytics arm of TiVo and then he had another stint at Arbitron before joining Westwood One almost 10 years ago.

Getting to the top is hard and the expert of insights offered three points of insight for those looking to succeed not just in the media industry but all industries. “The first major recommendation is read the trade publications of the industry you seek to enter. The reality is, most of what is taught at colleges and universities is not very up to date on what’s happening today in the industry. So, the smart way to really understand what’s happening right now in an industry is to read the trade publications.”

Bouvard notes this first step will do two things. “It will first tell you what companies you should be trying to get work within because you read about companies you maybe haven’t heard of in these trade publications. Secondly, when you interview, your knowledge of the industry and the current issues will make you stand out.”

“The second major recommendation that I have for people is join the industry associations. Every industry has multiple associations where they have conferences, webinars and opportunities to meet people in the industry. Not only do you learn what’s going on in the industry, but also you get to meet people and start your network and form relationships.”

Bouvard’s final recommendation comes from a venture capitalist column about ’50 cups of coffee.’ “Meet people in the industry, not to ask for a job, just to learn about what they do in their job? How does it work? Because what people don’t realize is how complex and how many jobs are available in an industry. And that helps build your network, but it also teaches you about the industry.”

Former WCBS Newsradio 880 Programmers Tim Scheld and Harvey Nagler React to Audacy’s Bold Decision

Garrett Searight
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Former WCBS Newsradio 880 Programmers Tim Scheld and Harvey Nagler React to Audacy’s Bold Decision

Reactions poured in Monday after Audacy announced it was ceasing operations of WCBS Newsradio 880. Many shared their appreciation for the legacy brand. Dozens shared they were saddened by the news. Former Program Directors Tim Scheld and Harvey Nagler were members of that group.

The station will sign off from its all-news format on Monday, August 26th to make way for Audacy to lease the signal to crosstown rival Good Karma Brands, which is moving its ESPN New York brand from 98.7 FM to 880 AM. WCBS ending operations on that Monday will leave it two days shy of its 57th anniversary of launching its all-news format. Longtime CBS newsman Charles Osgood, who died earlier this year, was one of the original anchors alongside broadcasting legends like Ed Bradley and Pat Summerall.

Barrett Media reached out to past programmers like Tim Scheld — who stepped away from leading the brand in October 2022 after serving in a multitude of executive roles with the station for more than 20 years — and Harvey Nagler, who programmed the station for a decade before ascending to the role of Vice President of Radio for CBS News where he retired from in 2016.

Both shared that they were slightly taken aback by the bombshell announcement Monday.

“It’s like a gut punch. My friend, a former colleague, described it as it’s like finding out your house was destroyed in a tornado, a sudden impact event like that. It was a sudden shock,” said Scheld. “I have to say, I wasn’t totally shocked by it. The company was obviously struggling to operate two news properties. I saw that while I was there. They didn’t really know what to do with WCBS. I’m not sure they had a great plan for it, anyway. So when an opportunity came up, they made a business decision that seemed to make sense and give the signal up and put all their resources into 1010 WINS.”

Harvey Nagler shared similar sentiments.

“I was surprised,” he bluntly said before noting that, despite being gone from the outlet for more than a quarter of a century, he is still familiar with many employees there due to living in northern New Jersey. He shared that he hired some of the 23 employees who have seen their positions eliminated by the decision. And that is the disappointing part for him.

“One of the things you find about life is that it’s not your career necessarily, but it’s your colleagues and the friendships that you make along the way that are everlasting,” Nagler. “And so I spoke to many of them in the last two days, and they were as surprised as I was at the turn of events.”

Neither Tim Scheld nor Harvey Nagler thought it was an inevitability that Audacy would eventually be forced to choose to keep one of WCBS Newsradio 880 or 1010 WINS.

“Some people are saying that, but when I was there at the time, we only shared about 20% of the audience with each radio station,” said Nagler. “Which basically meant that 80% of the listeners did not listen to the other radio station. So in a market of probably 16 million people in the tri-state area, I thought there was enough to go around for two radio stations. But, obviously, other people disagree with that thought.”

“I don’t know if it was inevitable,” Scheld added. “Remember, we existed under one roof for a really long time.”

In Scheld’s opinion, the two heritage news brands worked well as competitors before Westinghouse and CBS merged. When they joined under one banner, he called the situation “very uncomfortable.”

“It was difficult because it was hard to compete against your sister station, even though you did every day. And it was very awkward,” he shared. “I think there was a very awkward period where the people who owned the company we’re always asking questions like, ‘What would the future be? Why do we have two all-news stations? How can we operate effectively and how can we perfect the revenue model where both stations can exist?’ Because it’s expensive to do news. And those stations that decide to do news in local markets across America deserve a lot of credit because they’re spending a lot of money to do it.”

Ultimately, Scheld believes the legacy of WCBS Newsradio 880 will be one of excellence.

“I think it was one of the best local radio stations in our generation,” he stated. “The legacy will be that WCBS was a friend. Was a comforting, reliable, responsible voice across generations to help a city get to work, understand their lives, deal with their weather, deal with the tragedy, celebrate their sports teams’ victories, and see historic moments. It’s amazing all of the things that the radio station helped the community experience.”

Nagler couldn’t have agreed more.

“Well, it is a fabulous legacy. It’s had an enormous legacy,” Harvey Nagler shared. “The station at its height was cuming millions of listeners. It had great ratings. It was a fabulous, journalistic radio station. Particularly in retrospect, this was a time when people could go to WCBS, know they would get news — objective news, not polarized, not slanted, they would get all the elements like traffic and weather, and all the other elements that go into a great all-news radio station. And it was very popular. People loved listening to this radio station.”

Scheld noted that, overall, he was sad. Not only because the station that he spent nearly two decades leading was ceasing operations but because so many talented journalists were going to be out of work. However, he took solace in the ambition of the hundreds of employees who helped grown the brand into what it became before it’s ultimate demise.

“I spent the whole day (Monday) on the phone either talking or texting to former colleagues, current colleagues, all of whom expressed the same sentiment of sadness,” he admitted. “If nothing else, we believed in that brand. And what really drove that radio station for many decades was the passion of the professionals that worked there. That were driven to do as good a job as they could because it was WCBS. You walked into that radio station every day and you felt the pressure of having to live up to the legacy. And that’s why it was such a special place to work. Because we all felt the legacy of that radio station.

“It’s very sad to see it go. But we’re also all filled with pride that we were able to be a part of it. What a privilege. What an honor to manage it for so long, in my case,” Scheld concluded. “That’s a radio station that I spent an awful lot of time at. It’s definitely a piece of my heart and it aches today.”

Mike Felger: The Consistency of 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ratings Are “Unheard of and Unprecedented”

BSM Staff
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Mike Felger: The Consistency of 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ratings Are “Unheard of and Unprecedented”

As 98.5 The Sports Hub celebrates their 15th anniversary, many of the shows have talked about what they believe are the formulas that have led the station to being one of the most successful in the sports radio format. As Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti discussed the history of the station during Felger & Mazz Tuesday, they looked at the remarkable consistency of the station as it relates to both employees and ratings.

Of course, things could have been very different for The Sports Hub back in 2017. That is when Audacy had to make a choice to keep either 98.5 or WEEI. They chose WEEI and The Sports Hub ended up with Beasley Media Group.

“For us to be surrounded by all the people we’ve been surrounded by here, me to be surrounded by you guys, incredibly fortunate, incredibly lucky,” Felger said. “Think about if they had made the other choice, you know? So, how lucky we are, and I know there’s a lot of challenges in the radio business and the Beasley’s and everybody else in radio is facing a lot of challenges. I’m not telling you it’s perfect or peaches and cream, but we should all consider ourselves extremely lucky that we landed with the Beasley’s and Mary Menna and the group that we did.”

The hosts talked about the limited number of people that have turned over in management and most of it was due to the switch from one company to another, otherwise it has been a lot of the same people throughout the station’s history. “That continuity is just incredible,” Felger said. “And what also is incredible, I very rarely, and we very rarely, almost never mention the ratings, but since it’s our 15 year [anniversary], I’ll just do it quickly.

“The consistency of the ratings of this station are, I’ve got to assume unheard of and unprecedented, and I’ll just give you our show because I track it.”

Felger pulls out some papers and says, “This is every monthly and quarterly rating. I started in January of 2010. We came on in August of 2009. Since January 2010, I’ve logged every single monthly and quarterly rating book.

“The last time we here in the afternoon lost a quarter, lost a ratings book was 2012. The spring of 2012. EEI finished second. We finished third. So, we have won every quarter since the summer of 2012, that’s 47 consecutive ratings periods. And not just winning, beating EEI, number one. We’ve been number one for 47 consecutive quarters. If you want to break that down by months, it’s basically 119 months. We’ve been number one, not just beating EEI, but we’ve been number one in the market for 118 of the last 119 months.”

Later, Felger would add, “So that is, like I said, that’s the Felger & Mazz story. I’m sure the other shows can tell you something pretty damn similar. And the station can tell you something pretty damn similar. And so that’s something to be proud of. Like that doesn’t happen in radio like that. A lot of shows can have a flash. A lot of shows can come on and have a run, but to grind it out and keep it together for that amount of time, that takes something, that’s a skill in and of itself. Cause a lot of shows burn themselves out, blow up their spot. Just can’t keep their crap together. Can’t keep the relationships together. That takes a whole different skill in and of itself. And so that’s something to be proud of here at the station too.”

Boomer Esiason: I Spoke With Ian O’Connor for Aaron Rodgers Book

BSM Staff
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Boomer Esiason: I Spoke With Ian O’Connor for Aaron Rodgers Book

An upcoming biography on Aaron Rodgers, written by Ian O’Connor, is set to be released later this month. Boomer Esiason revealed he participated in the book.

While Boomer & Gio were live at New York Jets training camp on Tuesday morning, Rodgers sat down for an interview, when Gregg Giannotti asked about the book, questioning whether or not it is an authorized account. After calling it a rhetorical question, the quarterback admitted he spent two hours with Ian O’Connor for the book, thanking him for the extensive research he did on Rodgers’ grandfather and his military service during World War I.

Boomer Esiason — a former New York Jets quarterback — joked that there was plenty of material to discuss about Rodgers both off the field and on the field. He added that of all the players to have played the position, Rodgers thinks differently than virtually everyone else. When expectations of what the book would entail, the Jets QB wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I had a conversation with Ian, and I commend him,” said Rodgers. “He was trying to do a really good job by getting the entire picture. But you have to put everything into context. I don’t know what kind of book he’s going to write … I’m sure it will be an interesting read. He talked to a lot of people. That I know and love.”

“He spoke to me,” Esiason quipped. “He did. It was interesting because of my history here and watching you try to go through all of this and unfortunately get hurt the way you did. The amount of press and the amount of attention you’ve brought to this organization, it’s exactly what they wanted.”

“Out of the Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers” is slated to be released on Tuesday, August 20th.

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