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Brian Roberts: Paris Olympics is ‘One of the Proudest Moments’ for Comcast Since Owning NBCUniversal

BSM Staff
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Brian Roberts: Paris Olympics is ‘One of the Proudest Moments’ for Comcast Since Owning NBCUniversal

NBCUniversal has had a strong start to the Olympic Games Paris 2024, attaining record-setting advertising revenue and strong viewership on both linear television and digital platforms within the United States. Retaining the traditional broadcast and prime time coverage, hosted by NBC Sports broadcaster Mike Tirico, along with new, innovative viewing options available through Peacock, the network is maximizing the U.S. media rights it renewed with the International Olympic Committee for 11 years and $7.65 billion. In a recent interview with Squawk Box on CNBC, Brian Roberts, chairman and chief executive officer of Comcast Corporation, described the Olympic Games as being akin to a laboratory for research and development.

The company is coming off record-low prime time viewership of the Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the first five days of coverage of the Paris Olympics, the network has garnered an average total audience delivery of 34 million viewers within its Paris prime time (2-5 p.m. EST) and U.S. prime time (8-11 p.m. EST) broadcast windows, which is up 79% from the iteration of the event in Tokyo.

The company premiered its Gold Zone whiparound show, which features compelling Olympics action in real time, and more than doubled its viewership between its debut on Saturday and this past Tuesday. The current U.S. media rights deal for the Olympic Games allows NBCUniversal to handle all aspects of the technology, thus granting more room for innovation.

“It’s definitely unique,” Roberts said, addressing the Olympic Games as a whole. “It’s one of the proudest moments, I think, since we’ve owned NBCUniversal. The Olympics, really done perfectly, you reimagine our society. It’s the whole world coming together, putting their arms down, trying to celebrate the incredible personal achievements, team achievements, and French government and President Macron, they welcomed this whole operation that we have.

“Three-thousand people working to bring this broadcast – Peacock, Xfinity, NBC all working together – and then when it works and you have innovation like Gold Zone… and the Eiffel Tower and surfing from Tahiti – I can’t think of anything that makes me prouder, and the results so far are very reason we do this.”

Within its most recent earnings report, NBCUniversal divulged that Peacock helped its media division return to adjusted EBITDA growth and that paid subscribers increased 38% year-over-year to a total of 33 million. Additionally, revenue for the network’s direct-to-consumer service increased 28% to $1 billion, marking the best year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA for any quarter since its launch in 2020.

Earlier in the year, Peacock carried the most-streamed event in U.S. history when it presented the AFC Wild Card Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. The Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony recently drove significant multiplatform viewership, accounting for the most-streamed entertainment event in the history of the Peacock and most-watched iteration of the event since 2012.

“This was a milestone moment for our company, and I’m so proud we delivered,” Roberts said of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. “That playoff game with Kansas City was the largest streamed event in history. That’s what this is now becoming, and so what imagines in the future, whether it’s betting or whether it’s camera angles or whether it’s higher depth quality or more choices, we want to be the company to bring you that.”

NBCUniversal reached a media rights deal to present live game broadcasts of the National Basketball Association, returning the league to its platforms for the first time since 2002. The 11-year agreement, reportedly worth $2.45 million, includes distribution of up to 100 NBA regular-season contests per league year, half of which will air on the NBC television network. Peacock will present an exclusive doubleheader on Monday nights during the regular season, while NBC will broadcast State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, the NBA All-Star Game and one of two Conference Finals in six of the 11 years.

“We’ve added more customers in Peacock than people have cord cut in the last 12 months [and] the last 24 months,” Roberts said. “We have a plan to make it to the other side, the digital side, and then being sports as essential.

“One of the reasons the NBA makes so much sense for us, and I believe we got the best package because we have the most regular-season games and the most playoff games, and if you’re looking for continuity when you buy a streaming service, you want to have the NFL on Sunday night. Now you have the NBA the next quarter on Sunday, then you go into an Olympics or a Premier League or a Tour de France, then you go to college football and on and on and on.”

Roberts expressed that he wishes the media rights deal with the NBA would start a year earlier but is nonetheless excited about the direction of the sport. Warner Bros. Discovery and its Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary filed a lawsuit against the NBA after the league did not match its exercise of matching rights in an attempt to continue broadcasting games. Although the resolution of the case remains unknown, Roberts looks forward to the return of the league to NBCUniversal and its platforms.

“I think the NBA’s super thorough in how they do their work,” Roberts said. “We’ve been very impressed with everything Adam Silver has organized.”

Mike Cavanagh, president of Comcast Corporation, articulated that the company has strong businesses within its overall portfolio and does not consider itself a laggard in any area. The company pushes its teams to determine where it should grow and invest, and it reinvests significant capital back into its business.

Last quarter, Comcast returned $3.4 billion to its shareholders despite declines in its movie studios and theme parks businesses, resulting in an approximate 1% decline in EBITDA to $10.17 billion. The blend between traditional broadcast coverage and streaming has been a point of convergence in which NBCUniversal has performed strongly. Cavanagh emphasized that driving business and innovation, combined with returning capital to shareholders, is a formula that is working for the company.

“And so when we look around at the chess board that everybody wants to ask us about, inheriting a lot of other people’s problems is, it’s a tough way to do it versus go build around the great assets we already have,” Cavanagh said.

Jeff Rickard Named Sports Format Captain at Radio One

BSM Staff
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Jeff Rickard Named Sports Format Captain at Radio One

Jeff Rickard has earned a promotion. WFNZ’s program director and midday host has been named Sports Format Captain at Radio One. The role includes oversight of both WFNZ in Charlotte and 93.5/107.5 The Fan in Indianapolis.

Rickard maintains a home in Indy and has been going back and forth between both cities since becoming PD at WFNZ in May 2022. A number of people at the Indianapolis station have worked with Rickard before so familiarity should benefit all involved.

It’s a return to his former station for Rickard, who hosted and programmed at The Fan from 2015 to 2021 before leaving for Boston to lead WEEI. The station at that time was owned and operated by Emmis Communications. It was sold to Radio One in 2022.

Respected programmer David Wood had been pulling triple duty for the cluster, managing WIBC, the Indiana News Network, and The Fan in addition to working on podcasting initiatives. The move allows him to focus on the company’s dominant and important news properties while working alongside a former colleague who he’s had a good relationship with.

Rickard is expected to start his new role on Monday August 3rd. An announcement went out internally this week.

Scott Shapiro is Taking FOX Sports Radio Through the Olympics and Into the Future

Demetri Ravanos
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Scott Shapiro is Taking FOX Sports Radio Through the Olympics and Into the Future

The people that said they were boycotting the Olympics were either all lying or they are the only people boycotting. The ratings have been phenomenal. Not only has NBC seen a major rebound from the disappointing performance of the 2021 Games in Tokyo, but each night, the network is enjoying audiences of more than 20 million. What happens in Paris is the biggest story in sports right now and Scott Shapiro knows it.

FOX Sports Radio was built on being in touch on the stories sports fans are talking about. Usually, that means the NFL or the NBA, but Shapiro knows that from now until August 11, his staff will need to know the names of the best swimmers, gymnasts, and runners too.

“There’s always stories at the Olympics that captivate the whole country and they become talking points,” Premiere Networks’ Senior VP of Sports Programming says. “A lot of times in sports, it has to be debate driven, controversial topics that we deal with in football and basketball and baseball. And the Olympics, yeah, there can be some of those, but the beauty of the Olympics is we may know the big names going in and which athletes are going to rate, but there’s always these storylines that become talking points. It’s unlike any other topics that we cover the rest of the year. Usually we’re celebrating an achievement. We’re kind of in awe of something that we saw, whether it’s in America or not.”

Scott is one of the best programmers in radio right now. Over the years, he has heard any number of talents dismiss the Olympics as too niche to bother acknowledging on air. He says that’s a mistake.

“There’s always something that happens that that kind of debunks that [idea that a host can ignore it] and makes for a good conversation,” he says. “I always love it because you never know exactly what it’s going to be, but frankly, especially when you look at the viewership on all of the different NBC channels and streaming, this is highly consumed, so we’d be doing a disservice if we just ignored it.”

If you’ve ever seen Scott speak at a BSM Summit, you might know his swimming pool philosophy. He echoes those old Pontiac ads. “Wider is better”. He wants FOX Sports Radio hosts to be thinking about swimming the length of the pool on the biggest topics and doing as much as they can with the biggest stories instead of trying to dive down into the minutia. 

With the Olympics, it’s no different. Instinct may tell a host that they need to really explain what it is that listeners are seeing. Shapiro would rather his hosts live in and enjoy the moment with their audience, because this is a rare opportunity for sports radio to introduce itself to a new audience. It’s not about making gymnastics or swimming moms care about the Dallas Cowboys. It’s about something PDs and consultants in every format say a dozen times every day – just play the hits.

“It’s our job to play the hits, but we’re not the ones necessarily dictating those hits. It’s the audience dictating the hits. So we need to have a pulse of the audience and keep up,” Shapiro says. “In sports talk, we have to know what the audience is talking about. Even if it’s for a brief little stint.”

There’s more to Scott Shapiro’s day than thinking about how to connect with fans of Simone Biles or Stephen Nedoroscik. He’s gotta think about the short term and long term health of his network. 

We’re still three years away from what will be the biggest shakeup he has faced in a long time. Last year, Dan Patrick announced that he had signed a new contract with Premiere, FOX Sports Radio’s parent company. The broadcast legend said it would be his last. He will retire  when the contract ends in 2027.

That doesn’t mean Scott gets to take it easy and not think about the future of the network’s late-morning time slot for a few years.

“We live in the moment, but we also live for the future, even for shows without a set expiration,” he says. “And this one is so rare. It’s not normal in radio when there’s an announcement that ‘four years from now, here is the end.’”

He won’t get specific about what conversations he and Don Martin, iHeartMedia Sports’ EVP of Programming, have had, but rest assured, they are talking.

“We always have folks on our radar. We always have our targets. You know, this just makes it a bit more public. It telegraphs it.”

In the more immediate future, Shapiro is thinking about one of his afternoon shows. Actually, that isn’t entirely accurate.

Doug Gottlieb turned some heads earlier this year when he announced that not only will his FOX Sports Radio show continue, but he was also going to make time to coach the men’s basketball team at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. Talk about breaking new ground!

Scott is only concerned about one side of Gottlieb’s new double life. He isn’t rooting against the Phoenix. It’s just that their record or whether or not they make the NCAA Tournament doesn’t affect him the way a slip in the quality of The Doug Gottlieb Show would.

“The onus is going to be on Doug with how this works, and I don’t just mean for us,” he says. “You know, the athletic director there at UWGB, he’s got a list of requirements. He’s got some mandatory elements that Doug needs to achieve for them. Some of those, of course, are wins and losses, but some of the attention and energy focus. So, in all honesty, we’re all going to see what happens. We’re rooting for Doug both here and there. We’d love to see it succeed, but ultimately it’s going to be on Doug.”

Shapiro isn’t anticipating a major problem. In fact, he says that thus far, Gottlieb has managed his relationships with both the school and the network very well. What he does say is that Doug Gottlieb knows what the expectations are and he’s confident the coach/host can meet them.

It’s not just his hosts. Scott Shapiro has expectations for FOX Sports Radio affiliates too. After all, sports radio is entering its version of the holiday shopping season. 

FOX will make some changes to its weekend lineup to make sure it offers the best possible football coverage. It’s weekday shows will be bringing on the biggest names in both college football and the NFL. That all takes a lot of work. Scott wants to know that the local stations that carry his programming are really benefitting from it all. There’s a list of things that affiliates should know and can communicate to the network to make sure everyone is pulling in the same direction.

“More than anything, you want to be in sync,” he says. “I think knowing their audience, speaking to their audience, being aggressive, being very mindful of what the topics are and aren’t working are all important. So is working hand-in-hand with us. A lot of that goes to cross promotion and synergy. But ultimately it’s really having a good idea of who your audience is, knowing what works and not being afraid to cut. You know, no one’s perfect in this business, and you have to be smart enough to know that if you’re making mistakes, if things aren’t a hit that you can pivot quickly, move on and find the hit.”

There’s never a boring day in Scott Shapiro’s world. Whether it’s delivering the best content around a once-every-four-years event or tackling the challenge of a brand new approach to a host’s sports media career, there’s always something on his plate. So far, he’s shown everyone at FOX Sports Radio that it isn’t too much for him.

Ethnic, Gender, and Sex-Related Humor Does Not Belong in Broadcasting Booths, Especially the Olympics

John Molori
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Ethnic, Gender, and Sex-Related Humor Does Not Belong in Broadcasting Booths, Especially the Olympics

There have already been some breathtaking performances across various networks in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but controversy has definitely stolen some of the luster from the athletes’ medals. Some of this has been related to rosters, some has come from various sports broadcasting booths.

It all began before the Games even started with Indiana Fever star rookie Caitlin Clark not being selected for the US Olympic Women’s Basketball team. Clark is a once in a generation player and media sensation. She has single-handedly, and yes, I said single-handedly raised the multimedia profile of women’s college basketball and the WNBA.

Her presence, play, and performance has shined a light on both teammates and opponents. One of the excuses given for her exclusion was that there would be controversy if she did not get ample playing time. Clearly, the Women’s Olympic basketball brain trust is lacking in both brain and trust. Brain in that it does not take a genius to figure out what Clark would have done for the TV ratings of the games, and trust in that they have no faith in Clark’s ability to fit in nicely with the team regardless of playing time. As the Games began, reports surfaced that USA Basketball now regrets not including Clark. Right, especially if they wanted people to watch.

The US Men’s Olympic Basketball team roster has also had its share of controversy, namely, the fact that Celtics’ star Jaylen Brown, MVP of both the Eastern Conference and NBA Finals, was snubbed by the team. USA Basketball Managing Director Grant Hill doubled down on the controversy by adding Brown’s Celtics teammate Derrick White to provide more defense.

What? Anyone who has watched the United States Olympic basketball team compete since the Dream Team of 1992 knows that defense is the least of its worries. They regularly rack up 30- or 40-point victories over their opponents. The omission of Brown from the Olympic roster ignited ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith to reiterate his assertion from unnamed sources that Brown is disliked among his NBA counterparts.

This prompted Brown to respond. During the Celtics’ post-title victory parade, cameras caught Brown wearing a T-shirt that read “State Your Source.” Smith and Brown subsequently engaged in a social media battle. Brown has also admitted that his distaste for Nike, the sponsor of the US Men’s Olympic Basketball team, was another reason he was left off the team.

The perceived anti-Boston feelings were compounded when Head Coach Steve Kerr did not play Jayson Tatum in the US vs. Serbia game. When questioned by reporters about the Tatum benching after the game, Kerr called himself an “idiot” and said that it is hard to get playing time for every player. Well, he got the first part right anyway.

Regardless, the omissions of Clark and Brown are the real stories. It’s interesting that the most compelling female basketball player and the best men’s basketball player throughout the NBA playoffs are both sitting at home watching the Olympics. 

Controversy has also hit the Paris Olympics with the comments of Eurosport broadcaster Bob Ballad. Following the Australian Women’s 400 Free gold medal swimming performance, Ballad, while waiting for the team to get to the podium, stated, “Well, the women are just finishing up. You know what women are like…hanging around, doing their makeup.” Ballad’s broadcast partner Lizzie Simmonds rather angrily retorted, “Outrageous, Bob. Some of the men are doing that as well?”

In the aftermath of the exchange, Ballad was fired. This takes me back to 2013 when, during the BCS National Championship game, cameras caught a crowd shot of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s then-girlfriend, Katherine Webb.

ESPN play by play commentator Brent Musburger stated, “When you’re a quarterback at Alabama, you see that lovely lady there? She does go to Auburn but she also is Miss Alabama and that’s A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend. … You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman. Wow.”

Musburger and ESPN apologized amid the post-comment furor while Webb was a good sport and probably saved Musburger’s job saying that he did nothing wrong and she was flattered by the comments.

Another similar controversy erupted during the 2006 ALCS between Oakland and Detroit. FOX analyst Lou Piniella said that the surprising play of Oakland’s Marco Scutaro was akin to finding a wallet.

Subsequently, Piniella used the terms “en fuego” and “frio” in his commentary. His fellow analyst Steve Lyons then stated that Piniella was “hablaing Espanol” and added, “I still can’t find my wallet. I don’t understand him (Piniella) and I don’t want to sit too close to him now.”

FOX received numerous complaints. The remarks were also perceived as controversial because Piniella comes from Spanish descent. Lyons, a three-time Emmy winner and FOX’s number two baseball analyst, was fired while on the plane ride home from the game.  

It should be noted that Lyons’ firing may have been an offshoot of two previous treks into controversy. One involved a FOX camera shot of a fan wearing special glasses during a 2006 Mets-Dodgers NLDS broadcast. Play-by-play man Thom Brennaman and Lyons made light of the fan who, as it turns out, was 85% blind.

Another incident involved Dodger Shawn Green’s dilemma of sitting out a game during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in 2004. Lyons joked that Green was struggling with the decision, and he never had a Bar Mitzvah, so he couldn’t even take advantage of receiving money as a gift.        

In 2020, Thom Brennaman, himself, was relieved of his duties as Cincinnati Reds’ play by play announcer because when coming back from a commercial break, audio caught him saying an anti-gay slur.

These past dismissals and the Ballad firing hit at the heart of viewers’ collective psyches. Some are ticked off that these men were let go or punished for their words. Others feel that their fates were justified. Both sides have a point, but what this is really about is venue and intelligence.

There are appropriate places for ethnic, gender, and sex-related humor – the recent Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix is an example. In that venue, all bets are off and there should be a no holds barred expectation in terms of content. That is not the case in the sports broadcast booth, and this is where the intelligence part of the issue comes into play.

Simply put, Ballad along with Musburger, Lyons, Brennaman and others before him should know better. They are all veteran broadcasters, well aware that comments carrying even the slightest possibility of being viewed as sexist, racist, or offensive in any way are best left unsaid. Ballad’s comments were stated in the ultimate wrong place at the ultimate wrong time.

The Olympic Games Opening Ceremony on NBC set off another much-discussed controversy. In an extremely dramatic, epic, and history-themed program, one of the vignettes featured drag queens and dancers re-enacting the famed Last Supper painting.

The performance and image sparked incredible controversy throughout all forms of media. Defenders of the Christian faith were outraged. Similar to the Ballad firing, this controversy was about venue, but also about taste, which makes it unsolvable. What one person finds offensive another person finds opulent. What one person finds inspiring another person finds insulting.

In any form of media, however, religion is a touchy subject. Social media blew up noting other Last Supper parodies that did not spur controversy, namely, The Simpsons, The Sopranos, and comic book depictions. Religious parody and humor have long been a part of stand-up comedy and other forms of media and entertainment, but should it be used in an Olympics opening ceremony?

Again, we get back to the idea of the venue. The Olympics are an international event, but should never become an international incident. We have seen this with the tragedies of 1972 in Munich and 1996 in Atlanta, as well the 1980 US boycott. Are the Olympics about sports or statements, personal bests or politics? You decide.

ESPN’s Pat McAfee gave his answer to this question by suggesting that more “sports people” need to be involved in the Olympics planning so that such controversies do not detract media attention from the real show and stars, namely, the games and the athletes.

Radio Station Imaging: When Is It Time to Make Changes?

Peter Thiele
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Radio Station Imaging: When Is It Time to Make Changes?

Change can certainly be tempting, but how do you determine that it is time to reimage your radio station? I love listening to radio stations across our country. There are some that have not changed their presentation in decades, others seem to update the sound every couple of years. I personally think that both approaches are problematic. I will explain.

If your station has a stable line-up, here is how I would evaluate the need to update the station’s sound. Does your station sound stale? This is a feel thing. If you are a NewsTalk station that is on A.M. Radio, I would carefully evaluate the presentation.  A 46-year-old was born in 1978. Does this sound relevant for him or her? Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana hit the radio when this individual was 13. Think that through… Is your station aggressive enough? Can it be too aggressive?

If your station’s imaging has not had a real facelift in over 5 years, it is definitely time.  You may say that the imaging is updating all the time. There are new liners, promos etc. How does it sound? Have you produced new liners with the same presentation?

If your station is going through a line-up change, DO NOT REIMAGE YOUR STATION! Here is why… If your station has a disruption to the currents shows/hosts, a reimaging is like advertising that the station is new and improved. It’s like if McDonalds released the McRib and the packaging is for a Big Mac. It is terrible branding. You want to sonically create packaging that tells your audience that the station is New, Better and Different. You want to create a buzz. A new sound creates a buzz. The sonic presentation of your station allows you to create a more contemporary version of your brand.

Don’t change the imaging too often. The sonic presentation of your station is a part of the glue that marries your audience to the brand. One of the temptations is that we listen to our station more than anyone in the audience except for the shut-ins.  I love people who are there 24/7, but these people are a huge minority. If you look at your Nielsen Data, the total number of people listening to over 100 quarter hours is rare. You want to create glue with your target listeners. If your station does not have this developed, stop what you are doing and complete this task.

I used to have a programming Vice President that would get burned out on things that certainly have not burned out yet. If there is a personality promo, sometimes the shelf life is very short (a week or two) and sometimes this can run up to 4 weeks. Depends on the content and the number of promos that you have running for a particular show. There is this old rule that some think is gold and others have discounted… It takes 2-7 times for a verbal message to even be acknowledged in a radio ad.

The average person according to Nielsen in PPM Markets are listening for an average of 12 minutes per listening occasion. The Data shows me that there are 12-15 tune-ins per week for spoken word stations. Your data may be a little different. This is settled science, there is something to this ‘Less is More’ stuff.   

What about News, Weather, Traffic music beds?  If your news intro sounds out of the 1980’s, it is time to update it. These beds should be running for years. Now, let’s talk about your station’s target listeners… These should be a tad younger sounding than that person. For a simple reason, NewsTalk has gained the reputation of sounding like your parents or grandparents’ station. We must be very sensitive to sound contemporary. I would aim for these themes to a listener 5 – 10 years younger than your target listeners’ age. Sonic changes should be there for a long time. Pick one that will not sound old in 3 years. Be very careful.

Beds for liners… I always put a bed under my liners. This is especially important for network shows. These signatures become part of your brand. Obviously, syndicated shows are a part of your brand. I can also assure you that sonics will not be set for your station’s target listener. Make sure that everything sounds like your station. Here is what I pick, and I think that it has been a good rule to follow. Pick beds for the attitude of your station. I have programmed stations and none of them sound alike. Your station is a living breathing entity. Make the station sound like your target listeners’ lives.

I usually find music from the alternative space. Frequently, you can find unique beds that capture the attitude that you wish to share. I avoid country, it does not speak to the majority of NewsTalk listeners. Classic hits can sound too old. Remember, it is about attitude. I was asked about the research of the music in my bumper rotations. My reply was this… We are not a music station. Bumper music and beds are to create an attitude of the station’s target listener.

Frequently, programmers use the show’s theme as a bed for promos. I realized that this was a bad idea. Someone may not like a host for a variety of reasons. The theme bed would automatically be a turn-off for someone who is not a listener to the show. Promos are there to promote the show. I use a bed that I developed for that show only.

Your station’s imaging voice… Does this individual make the station sound alive? Has the voice been on the station so long that it blends into the background? This is taste. Generally, if I am doing a big update to the sound of the station… I want a new voice. It’s not an easy answer. It has to be about that feeling. Your station’s voice (narrator) is essentially a living representation of the words that you have written.

Ok, I may have created more questions than answers for you at this point. Your station is ALIVE, make it sound that way!

Radio Needs A Better Listener Measurement System

Robby Bridges
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Radio Needs A Better Listener Measurement System

Recently, we highlighted ten areas for improvement that I believe the radio industry as a whole needs to address right away. Another outside of its direct control deserves a review: the efficacy, quality, and transparency of listenership data, i.e., Nielsen’s radio ratings.

Let’s start here: The diary system is inefficient, clunky, and unreliable compared to digital measurement. This becomes more so dependent on the demographic group. The response from Nielsen is the cost of meters and finding panelists is too cumbersome and too expensive in medium and smaller markets. Then what the hell is the six-figure cost to operators in those markets going toward, especially when agencies have digital data in most of the top 60 markets for television and digital content platforms? Unacceptable. Further, the plan to move to an online platform takes an imperfect science and makes it even more complicated and frustrating to an understandably passive panelist, especially so when each member of the household is required to participate, and we all know it’s often one person filling it out for all

The sample sizes and weighting in “hard to target demos” are far too small in both diary and PPM measurement, and this is why you’ve seen concerns and, at times lack of accreditation by the MRC (Media Rating Council). The data can often be akin to a schoolteacher scaling a test for a class from a D to an A. This is only further complicated by the market maps used to define the MSA and some even the TSA (Total Survey Area) often concocted at the insistence of one or two owners in a marketplace to better the chance their station will rate highly as its signal or popularity is best in the favored area. In government and politics, that’s called gerrymandering. And their strong-arming in policies, including “Rating Distortion,” which recently made headlines, is beyond the scope of influence a vendor should give

Yes, competitors came and went (most gone for many years), and yes, Eastlan serves a number of markets and does an admirable job as an alternative available to some, but essentially, Nielsen has a monopoly on radio listenership data and wields that power in cost, by discouraging competition and often forcing programming and sales strategy to operate based on their parameters to succeed in their system to which the only alternative is not to subscribe (bow tie clocks, anyone?)

This is not an attack but a reality check on Nielsen and listenership gathering in radio in particular. Nielsen needs to improve, and radio needs to demand competing services, which would only improve the system. Regardless, a completely digital cell phone-based app that registers listening in real time, akin to how digital content platforms can show advertisers clicks, must come to broadcast radio and its streams.

Anatomy of a Broadcaster: Bob Uecker

Andy Masur
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Anatomy of a Broadcaster: Bob Uecker

As legend has it, when Bob Uecker was sent down to the minor leagues in 1961 after breaking camp with the Milwaukee Braves, manager Charlie Dressen told him, “There is no room in baseball for a clown.”

That’s a take that didn’t age very well, I’m afraid.

Bob Uecker has been entertaining audiences in Milwaukee and across the country since 1971. That’s the year he first cracked the mic on a Brewers broadcast, and though his schedule has been cut back a bit, “Ueck” is still in the booth and going strong. Chances are pretty good that if you’re a Brewers fan of any age, Uecker is likely the only announcer you’ve really ever known.

Not bad for a Milwaukee kid, who signed to play for his hometown Braves, only to find a second life in the game as the play-by-play voice of his beloved Brewers. Uecker is a fixture in Milwaukee and a treasured voice throughout the sport. But it isn’t just baseball fans who admire him. The man has appeared in movies, had his own television show, and was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

PLAYING DAYS

Uecker often jokes about his professional baseball career. He signed a contract with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956. He bounced around for six years, playing with affiliates at various levels. In his first year he played in Class C, with the Eau Claire Bears in the Northern League and Boise in the Pioneer League. Between both of the clubs, he hit 19 home runs.

Uecker made his Major League Baseball debut as a catcher with the club in 1962. He wasn’t known for his offense, finishing with a career batting average of .200, with 14 homers and 74 runs batted in. He was generally considered to be a very good defensive catcher. That however changed.

In 1967, despite playing only 59 games, he led the league in passed balls and is still on the top 10 list for most passed balls in a season. Why? Well, he spent a large chunk of the season catching knuckleballer Phil Niekro. The pitch was not easy to receive and Uecker joked many times that the best way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up.

Uecker also played for the St. Louis Cardinals, winning a World Series Championship in 1964 and the Philadelphia Phillies before returning to the Braves, who had by then moved to Atlanta. His six-year Major League career concluded in 1967.

Perhaps the biggest highlight of Uecker’s career was when he hit a home run off future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, after which Uecker joked that he always feared that home run would keep Koufax from getting into the Hall of Fame. He also hit home runs off Hall of Famers Ferguson Jenkins and Gaylord Perry.

BROADCASTING/COMMERCIALS/MOVIES/TV

After retiring from baseball, Uecker started a broadcasting career, which included local radio, national television, comedy, commercials, movies and sit coms. It’s hard to say what made him the most popular or recognizable. There’s so much to unpack.

In the 1970’s and 80’s, Uecker became a regular on late night talk shows. Appearing many times with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, it was there that Carson facetiously dubbed him “Mr. Baseball.”

In 1969 Uecker’s broadcasting career began with WSB-TV, on which he did television work with Ernie Johnson and Milo Hamilton. Uecker was able to parlay his humor on a broadcast to actually doing standup. He got a break at Al Hirt’s nightclub in Atlanta in 1969. Hirt was so impressed with Uecker’s dead-pan comedy that he arranged for him to appear on Carson’s late night talk show.  

“They said I did a hundred ‘Tonight Show’s,’ Uecker told Fox Sports in an interview done by Tom Rinaldi before the All-Star Game. “I don’t know if I did or not, that’s what they said.” “I did it because I got along so good with Johnny. I was actually scared to death really but the show went well. And as we were saying goodnight, I hear Johnny say to Ed McMahon, … ‘Did that guy really play baseball?”

In addition to those appearances, he worked as a national color commentator for ABC and NBC baseball telecasts. Uecker wasn’t your typical former big leaguer doing baseball games on television. He was recognizable from everything that was going on in his post playing career.

Uecker co-hosted a variety of television shows in the 1970s and ’80s, among them ABC’s The Superstars, Battle of the Network Stars, and Bob Uecker’s Wacky World of Sports. 

Uecker had additional fame outside of baseball, including Miller Lite commercials. The famous ‘Tastes great. Less filling.’ debate spawned many hilarious ads. Most popular was probably Uecker’s “I must be in the front row” commercial. As he brags about the perks of being a former player, calling up the front office for great tickets. He’s informed he’s in the wrong seat by the usher, then utters the iconic line. The punchline, he winds up in now what is called the “Uecker Seats”, in the way back of the upper deck.

Next, Uecker moved into television, starring in an ABC sitcom, “Mr. Belvedere,” as George Owens. The show aired over 100 episodes from 1985-90.

Some younger readers may know him more from his role as play-by-play announcer Harry Doyle in the Major League franchise. Doyle was the larger than life, sometimes drunk, announcer with very witty commentary. The Doyle line of “Juuuuuust a bit outside,” which described a very wild pitch, is a huge part of popular culture. 

WHAT MAKES HIM GOOD?

Ueck may not have that typical play-by-play guy’s voice, but it doesn’t matter. Why should it? While the style may not be the same as most, Uecker offers so much more in a broadcast because of who he is. There aren’t many that can tell a story during a game like he can. His comedic timing works so well within the framework of a game. It never takes away from the action, but rather it’s enhanced. He combines wit and a wry sense of humor to make listening so enjoyable.

The energy level is still there for a guy that just passed 90-years-old. The fact that he’s from Milwaukee, played for Milwaukee and loves Milwaukee comes shining through in every game he does. There is just a joy in his voice, whether the Brewers are winning or losing. The fans love him, and he thrives on that fact, not in an egomaniacal way, but by showcasing his talents, as ‘one of them’. It’s a stage not many get to perform on, he does and takes ‘homer-ism’ to a unique place. By that I mean, Brewers fans love it, and fans of other teams don’t hate it. That’s a tough balancing act.

Uecker was honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame with its 2003 Ford C. Frick Award in recognition of his broadcasting career. In his nearly 20-minute speech, he showed all sides of his personality. Some gratitude, some humility and of course some humor. Like this excerpt:

“But as these players have bats, gloves…I had a great shoe contract and glove contract with a company who paid me a lot of money never to be seen using their stuff. Bat orders…I would order a dozen bats and there were times they’d come back with handles at each end. You know, people have asked me a lot of times, because I didn’t hit a lot, we all know that, how long a dozen bats would last me? Depending on the weight and the model that I was using at that particular time I would say eight to ten cookouts.”

Uecker began his 54th season calling Brewers games this season making him the second-longest tenured broadcaster among active MLB announcers. Only Denny Matthews of the Royals has been with his team longer.

DID YOU KNOW?

Uecker is also a member of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2010. In March 1987, he appeared at WrestleMania III as the ring announcer for the match featuring Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant.

He returned in 1988 at WrestleMania IV as a ringside announcer and commentator during the opening Battle Royal and backstage interviewer. One famous WrestleMania segment saw André the Giant choking Uecker.  

Uecker didn’t sign a broadcasting contract with the Milwaukee Brewers until 2021. 

Before then, it was handshake agreements with owners Bud Selig and Mark Attanasio.

WHAT IS NEXT?
Uecker was asked by Rinaldi in that FOX Sports interview before the All-Star game about retirement. He had a funny (not surprising) retort.

“Tom, I don’t have anything else to do, for one thing. That’s the other thing,” Uecker said.

At 90 years-old Uecker is slowing things down a bit, by scaling back his schedule with the Brewers, but is showing no signs of retiring anytime soon.

“Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” that’s Uecker’s call when a Milwaukee Brewers player hits a homer, but that’s not a statement on his current plans.

The man just keeps on going.

From Internship to Mentorship – Courtney Landrum’s Morning Show Journey

BMM Staff
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From Internship to Mentorship – Courtney Landrum’s Morning Show Journey

It all started with MTV. An Illinois teen wanted to be a video jock a la Martha Quinn from the moment music television hit the airwaves.  “I loved radio and media and was obsessed with pop culture and then MTV exposed me to all different kinds of new music,” says Courtney Landrum, host of St. Louis’ “The Courtney Show.”   

She graduated from Althoff Catholic High School in 1986 in Belleville, then “studied” for a year and a half at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

“I majored in sorority. My mom and dad made me come home,” she says.

While at Mizzou, Courtney was a TV news intern at Channel 5 and that’s where her dream to work in television fizzled.

“TV didn’t feel creative to me. The Gulf War broke out, and everybody was excited about that, and I was like, I don’t want to be excited about a war.” Not a newsie.

Focus on Radio

She enrolled in the Broadcast Center of St. Louis and actually studied this time. Her focus? Radio. Before she completed her courses, she landed an internship in 1991 with the biggest morning show in St. Louis, “The Steve & DC Show,” on WKBQ-FM 106.5. Two months later, she was producing the program and part of the on-air team, where she continued until 1997. That’s when she was asked to host her own morning show at Emmis Broadcasting Alice 104.1 in St. Louis, then a modern AC format.

“I jumped at the chance, and it was a lot of fun. We had about a year until they flipped it to XTREME radio,” she recalls. That was the end of “The Courtney and Joe Show.” The only consolation, she says, is that she was replaced by Howard Stern.

Next step was “The Phillips & Company” morning show on Entercom’s (now Audacy) KYKY  Y 98, a hot AC station in St. Louis. There, she would grace the airwaves and wake the folks up from 1999 to 2018. In 2018, Y 98 asked her to create a morning show, and “Courtney & Company” aired for two years. She was laid off in December 2020.

Less than five months later, she was back on morning drive at competitor The Arch, Hubbard Radio’s WARH St. Louis, to host on 106.5 FM.  “The Courtney Show” was born in 2020, during the COVID pandemic. She chose St. Louis personality Brando as a co-host. “I liked Brando a lot. He’s a dad with four kids, so I knew he’d be great.”

She told her then co-host at Y 98, Tim Convy, about her new venture and he suggested she reach out to his brother, Hollywood producer Chris Convy, to join the show.

Chris Convy’s projects include The MTV Music Video Awards, The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for Humor TV special, and shows with comedian Nikki Glaser. (Glaser’s his girlfriend. They met when he produced MTV’s “Nikki & Sara Live” talk show.)

“Everything shut down in Hollywood for COVID,” Courtney recalls, “so I took a gamble thinking, long shot. He ended up coming to town. We did a couple of shows, and he just had a gift. He was incredible. He packed up his life in L.A. and moved back to St. Louis, where he’s from.”

Glaser moved to St. Louis, too, as chronicled in her TV show, “Welcome Home Nikki Glaser?” on E! in which Chris co-stars. Later, Tim Convy would join his brother, Brando, and Courtney, and that’s “The Courtney’s Show’s” current winning lineup.

 COVID worked in Courtney’s favor to snag Chris Convy as a co-host. She says the pandemic was also a huge factor in the program’s popularity.

“Our show started during COVID, and we assumed no one was listening. We threw a lot of darts. I can tell you that they did tune in.” Courtney says there was a closeness, a “we’re all in this together” camaraderie.

The Importance of Morning Shows

“I think morning radio is still very vital and important locally in each market. Morning shows are a great way to be a part of a community on the air. Our listeners are the best, and we have inside jokes, and with podcasting, they don’t have to worry about missing anything.” 

They steer clear of politics. “We’re a politically free, safe space for you to laugh a little bit or hear a really kind story.  You can’t win,” says Courtney. “It doesn’t matter how you present people hear what they want to hear.” Leave that to the political shows, she says.

What listeners do hear on “The Courtney Show” includes the station’s music mix from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today. “You Never Know What You’ll Hear Next” The Arch’s motto. But the real meat-and-potatoes are bits like “Listen to My Strong Opinion/Time to Bitch” where they vent about various topics (like the wolf turn in gymnastics).

 “Curbside with Courtney” featured special guests who drove up to the station during the lockdown.

“That was when you couldn’t have anybody in the building, and we had (NFL legend) Dan Dierdorf and local St. Louis celebrities with a crazy long microphone, interviewing them in their cars. It was silly but funny. We were just trying to find some happiness during that time.”

Listeners loved it, and they also came up big last year when “The Courtney Show” raised over $50,000 for Children’s Hospital of St. Louis. The show held a twelve-hour on-air marathon where the hosts did just about anything for donations. Courtney and Brando even sang, “I Got You Babe” for the financial benefit of sick kids and listener laughs.

What the audience finds most powerful is personal anecdotes. Courtney says she overshares on air. “I give a lot of my life and tell terribly embarrassing stories about myself, but the biggest compliments I get is from women listeners who say, ‘I feel like I could be one of your best friends.’ They get me.”

 The Passion Persists

After thirty years on air and at 56, Courtney’s passion for radio and music persists. She also loves the Cardinals, beer, dogs, and cats. She’s still sad over the loss of her beloved shelter mutt, Peabo Bryson, and lives in Fairview Heights with cats and her boyfriend of twenty years, Nick Sansone.

She met Sansone, a salesman for a security integrator when she was 35. “He keeps me on my toes. He’s way funnier than I am.” Sansone surprised Courtney recently when he and the morning show gang played a game with trivia about Courtney on air while she was vacationing on a girls’ trip. Courtney’s co-hosts’ significant others are often part of the show, including Nikki Glaser.

Attitude of Collaboration

Courtney attributes her longevity in the business and her shows’ successes in large part to the chemistry with and the professional generosity of her co-hosts. While some radio personalities want to be the only light that shines, Courtney’s circle is wide. She learned that, she says, as an intern on “The Steve & DC Show.”

“One of the most valuable lessons they taught me is that we all have stories in our lives, and they come from a different perspective,” she says. “You get credit for the show being good. Who cares who gets the laugh. I love it when everybody contributes a personal story or finds something that they want to talk about because they have passion for it. You’ve got to open it up.”  

When a listener wrote an especially funny letter, she recruited him for the show. Just as Steve and DC did for her, she elevated a former intern, who says he owes his career to Courtney. Kevin “the Intern” Berghoff worked with her on “Phillips & Company.”

“He was always just dubbing tapes. I said, let’s find out what this kid is all about because he could be gold, and he was, and he’s still there at Y 98, going by the moniker ‘Kevin the Intern’ but not actually still an intern (because that’s what happens in radio). He’s a great writer. He’s an odd guy, and his stories are great because of his oddities,” says Courtney.

Her former intern says Courtney “lets you be you.”

Radio landscape

Courtney laments that the radio landscape has changed for aspiring radio pros.

“It’s sad that there aren’t as many internship programs because it not only helps the person decide what you want to do but it helps us. Internship programs were huge for on-air shows with multiple people.”

If you can’t get an internship and you love radio, she says, “Find a way to get in, whether that is with a street team or promotions. If being on the air is something you want, make it known at the station.”

“The Courtney Show” host says Chicago and other larger markets have offered and she’s declined. “I like my market; they get me. I am content and happy creatively. I have a great job that I love and know. It’s about the people around you and having fun in the studio. I have great people around me, and I feed off of them,” she says.

Her mother, brother, and sister live in Belleville, and she likes being close. Her father passed away five years ago.

She’s been fortunate to interview celebrities such as Hugh Jackman, Tom Hanks, and Ricky Gervais. As a music and MTV maven, she’s been thrilled to speak to Sting, INXS, Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20, and countless other musical idols of hers as well.

The bumps along her radio road have been few. She says as a “music snob,” however, she was shocked that she ended up having to work at stations where she didn’t like the tunes.

“I remember thinking I’m only going to work at formats where I love the music, and I didn’t get it.” She does, however, feel comfortable with the current, all-over-the-place mix on “The Courtney Show.”

 “I love it. I can be a part of it now because it’s all the music I grew up with,” she says.

“I’m also a generous jukebox player when I’m out in public in a bar. I look around, I size up the crowd and I try to play a little bit of everything on Touch Tunes. I really try to make the whole crowd happy,” Unselfish. A crowd pleaser even in her leisure, Courtney Landrum’s a smooth pro who entertains her eager and appreciative audience every weekday morning from 6:00 to 10 a.m. on 106.5. The ARCH in St. Louis.

Social media strengthens the connection. Podcasts ensure the listeners don’t miss a trick. 2,500 members of the Facebook fan page, “The Great Taste Gang,” interact online with “The Courtney Show” to share their delight. The show’s Instagram page boasts 6,500 followers, with videos and posts allowing the folks to get even closer to the hosts.

20 Brands In 20 Days: Jeff Connell 107.1 Hank-FM, Boise, ID

Jeff Lynn
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20 Brands In 20 Days: Jeff Connell 107.1 Hank-FM, Boise, ID

To support the launch of the new Barrett Media, we’ve created a special series titled “20 Brands In 20 Days.” Highlighting successful stations across the country in various formats by conducting conversations with their brand leaders. Up next is Lotus Communications Jeff Connell. Jeff is Regional PD and PD of Country KTHI (Hank 107.1)/Boise, ID. The station we are highlighting today.

Jeff Lynn: Tell me how 107.1 Hank was born.

Jeff Connell: We had it in Classic Hits for many years as K-Hits. Over the last couple of years, we’ve been really making a concerted effort to breathe some life back into K-Hits.

We’ve kind of had the roller coaster ratings and we just couldn’t seem to pop into the top 10. And that market was really well served by our competitor. So, we knew that it was going to be a battle, but we were trying.

We just did not have the luck of seeing that come together. Ultimately, we did some research and found that those who loved it loved it. The music was on point; it was exactly where it should be.

So, it led us to really explore; perhaps the appetite just isn’t there. And what might we do instead? We had launched Hank FM Seattle, and we’re seeing some early results with that.

As we looked at the market and what we perceived to be some holes, it kind of made sense to go. Should there be a Hank in Boise? And from there, it moved quickly to yes, and let’s go.

JL: Describe the brand, starting with the musicality.

JC: The difference, certainly, and the big differentiator that we were most excited about was that it’s centered on what we consider real Country. The research that we saw showed a clearly defined split between modern, pop, bro, whatever categorization you want to use for Country, and what was perceived as real Country-centered in the nineties and early 2000s.

The entire idea is that the whole first station is crafted around that and identifies the appetite for that real Country. We felt like that was an identity that Idaho was missing. So, it’s positioned as Idaho’s Real Country, and it’s a different listen from the moment you give us the first segway.

JL: The first time I turned it on, I heard “Holdin’ Heaven” by Tracy Byrd. Will a lot of that 90s product come through all the time?

JC: Yes. That’s delivered in the core.

JL: What about 80s?

JC: Those are present and there as well. We go back to the sixties to some of the true Merle classics. We’ll reach up to about 2010, but it’s musically centered in the 90s and early 2000s.

JL: Let’s talk a little bit about stationarity as it pertains to imaging. You’ve got a great name. How do you support that name with your between-the-records stuff?

JC: It’s deliberately a little bit arresting and different. So, it’s not unheard of or unknown to even the market because there’s Jack, there’s Bob. But the Hank personality really, I think, is goofy, but with a little bit of sensibility of when life was a little easier, when we could make jokes that you could smile at and know that everybody was kidding, and it was equal ground. It has an Idaho sensibility in the way that we’re writing that one.

And the Hank FM people are giving us a great starting point and a strong group identity license to use.

JL: I know you’re on the air, but tell me about your morning show.

JC: Mary Kennedy is our morning show, and she has been on K hits, but this is the music she grew up with. She was just outside of St. George, Utah, in a city called Beaver, Utah. And so, she’s got a real strong tie and identity to growing up on these songs.

As do I, for that matter, because I was in Seattle, but I worked at KMPS, and Young Country, all in the cluster I was in. So, it all makes sense to us. And these are kind of the songs that were our center as well.

She’s having a lot of fun just playing songs. We try not to be intrusive; Mary and I see ourselves as Hank’s helpers. We’re not trying to supersede the brand in any way.

We just want to compliment it.

JL: I love Classic Country music because it puts me in the backseat of the car with my parents going to Grandma’s house on a Sunday. It’s that warm feeling you talked about when times were simpler.

JC: I think that’s crucial. The formats that we’re seeing have the best opportunity to change the radio landscape are the ones that can offer nostalgia, a little more of a true component of this is who I am and a little more identity and belief to it.

There’s something about Christian radio, Country radio, and Classic Hits that, as people use the medium in this new world, I’m glad we’ve aligned with a format that speaks to that world.

JL: I’ve seen pictures of everything from your trucks to your banners to your shirts, and it all carries that same branding message, color, and everything else. It’s very true to Hank.

JC: That’s very intentional on our part to try and set it up the right way. I’m glad it’s coming through that way. That’s the red, white, and blue, which I think is just a real obvious thing. Having a guitar and the logo made a lot of sense.

I think we’re in an era where expecting people to sample you if they don’t have a good idea of what you might be is not a guarantee, and we can’t take that for granted. So, our attempt is to have the product clearly who it is every time you see it or hear it.

JL: It looks like you’re already out hitting the streets and being with the people.

JC: We’ve had good luck. My GMs on both sides were very supportive of getting vehicles wrapped and kind of playing the old-school game. I think it’s important in this era. With these formats, it’s important to get out and be where your listeners are. I think that pays dividends for the credibility of the brand. We’ve been very intentional and very supportive in doing that.

This is an encouraging sign to me. We’re doing Hank hats. People not only seem very excited to wear that item when we give it away free, but we’re also offering the chance to text in and get it. I’ve never seen more enthusiasm for a brand. That’s non-scientific, but it’s a good sign to me that people want to wear the brand, so we’re enjoying that.

JL: Give me a little taste of your social media presence and how you’re doing that.

JC: We did a full reset on that one. We’re really rebuilding, and it’s very small right now, but our intention there is to celebrate Idaho’s brand of being Idaho’s real Country by showing off Idaho’s real beauty.

We’re doing a lot of posts that just kind of celebrate: This is where we live, and this is what it looks like. We’re posting only the biggest, most essential news stories, but not political stuff. We want to give people a break from that and just be a respite.

We’re trying to have some fun with artists, but we’re trying to have a bigger focus: Idaho. This is where we live, and this is why we love it.

JL: I saw some of those really cool pictures. I think one of them you credited to a friend of yours—that just really, really made me want to visit there.

JC: It’s honestly been really good, even internally too, because all I did there was I asked our staff, I sent an all email, and I just said, if you’ve got any beautiful pictures that I can use and put them up. I’d love to celebrate not only your photography but this great place we call home. And we had about 50 pictures coming from our office. So, I was stocked and ready to go.

I really appreciate that everybody took amazing shots. You see these different places that you don’t even know yet. I hope our audiences, when they discover our social media, are seeing those, too.

JL: I know you got your first book; it looked amazing.

JC: Yeah. Boise is a two-book market. I think we had five full weeks in format. So, to be honest, we really didn’t expect anything too substantial to happen this time. We were braced for it to just get its feet and start to move. Maybe we’d see a little uptick, but we were blown away. I mean, it was far better than we expected. My OM had a quote in his email, and I think this sums it up the best. It seems everybody checked it out when we flipped, and a ton of them stayed and liked it.

JL: Anything I haven’t covered you want to add?

JC: I appreciate that you’re paying attention to it. Look, we’re not declaring victory by any means. We’re the new kid, and we’re just kind of finding our way, but we’re really excited by the results so far and the early enthusiasm, and we look forward to building it out further.

Listen to Hank here.  Find Hank on Facebook.  Connect with Jeff here.

Gary Hoffmann and Shannon Farren Are at the Perfect Spot on KFI AM-640

Garrett Searight
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Gary Hoffmann and Shannon Farren Are at the Perfect Spot on KFI AM-640

It’s no secret that news/talk radio — especially on the AM dial — is overwhelmingly political in nature, and almost universally from the conservative angle. But Gary Hoffmann and Shannon Farren aren’t your typical AM news/talk duo on KFI AM-640 in Los Angeles.

Since debuting in 2015, Gary & Shannon has become the atypical news/talk radio success story. Voted by pollsters as the top major market midday show in the Barrett News Media Top 20 in 2022 and fourth place in 2023, the two very rarely spend their entire 9 AM-1 PM program talking politics the way other hosts and shows do.

And to put it bluntly, they just simply aren’t that interested in making that their entire identity.

“I would drive my car into a bridge abutment if I had to drive into work every day knowing I was going to do four hours of politics,” Hoffmann told Barrett Media. “I would say the style of our show — or one of the things that defines the style of our show — there is almost nothing that we take too seriously. Almost nothing. And politics is probably a great example of that. We have said multiple times over the course of the last eight years, nobody should love talking about politics. If you do, there’s something wrong with you.”

After more than eight years together, Farrenn and Hoffmann are in lockstep in what the show is and what it should be, making preparation a somewhat seamless exercise.

“I hate to use the word easy, but it has felt easy for both of us from the beginning,” Farren said. “We kind of already know what we both wanna talk about going into every show. I think the reason is because we’ve kind of taken the same life trajectory. We grew up in Northern California about eight miles apart from each others, we went to the same college at Chico State, we went to the same radio station after that at KFBK in Sacramento, we both went to the Seattle market after that before landing at KFI, and we were about eight years apart the entire time. We had never met until KFI. Had heard of each other … but it was just easy for me.”

“Our producers probably don’t want to hear this, but if we had to walk in and do a show by the seat of our pants — with nothing really prepared — we could pull off a four-hour show. That doesn’t mean it would be easy, and it doesn’t mean it would be seamless, but I think there’s enough of an understanding of how each other works that we would be able to pull it off,” Hoffman added. “That’s not to say it would be a great show, but it’s possible.”

Gary Hoffmann pointed out that he and Shannon Farren have been forced into that “Fly by the seat of our pants” mode in recent weeks due to the constantly changing news cycle centered around the 2024 election.

And yet, the show hasn’t lost its way during the hectic time. It remains centered on founding principles.

“I would just describe (our show) as a conversation among two friends who happen to be very well informed about what’s going on in the world,” Farren said. “I think that we have our meat and our potatoes and we eat our vegetables, but we also make room for dessert on the show. We don’t shy away from the big stories. We like to break those down and make them palatable for everybody listening. And I think we also make room for the fun stuff and to be silly.

“For me, it’s just the best balance. It’s perfect. It’s our personalities as well. I think when you can be 110% authentic on AM radio, that’s when you’re going to be successful. Because it bleeds through. People know you’re being true to yourself.”

As you might expect, sitting in a studio conversing with another person for four hours daily has turned Gary Hoffmann and Shannon Farren into genuine friends both on and offer the air. And the duo believes it only helps the on-air product.

“It proves to people who are listening that we genuinely care about what the other person thinks about whatever topic we’re talking about. It could be something as dumb as you know, the best variety of apple,” Hoffman said. It can be something as deep as the political ramifications of an assassination attempt and what that means for political division in the country. And if, if they believe that we’re friends and talking about it, I think that they have a deeper investment in that and listening to how we conduct ourselves, especially on those topics where we don’t see eye to eye.”

He added that a quote from Penn and Teller, the famous magician duo, has stuck with him. The two entertainers have worked together since 1975, and believe that their mutual respect for one another has led to their longevity. And that what they do and accomplish together is greater than anything they could have done alone. And Gary Hoffmann believes that’s the perfect analogy for his midday show with Shannon Farren on KFI AM-640.

“That stuck with me because it struck a chord,” he stated. “Especially those times when I’m out or she’s out and one of us has to do the show for four hours by ourselves. That’s a really long monologue and it really drives us insane to listen to our own voices for that long.”

“I think I would not be able to do this show — four hours, five days a week — with somebody who I did not admire and respect, and somebody that has the qualities that I would be friends with,” Farren added. “I think it would be impossible. I can’t be fake, I have no filter. It’s just something I could never do. That would be hell, and it would be not what I would sign up for or last long with.”

Both hosts shared they’ve never felt pressure to stick to the “normal” AM radio talking points that many conservative hosts stick to. Instead of those topics, the former news reporters have a great feel of what information and interests their daytime listeners have and what entertainment aspects those consumers expect.

Despite working together since 2015, Gary Hoffmann and Shannon Farren believe they’re just getting started on their journey together.

“Shannon and I have talked about syndication,” admitted Hoffmann. “We’ve talked about spinning off into the podcast world. I know that I am — and I think I can speak for Shannon — very happy with the success that we’ve had. We just need to make sure that we continue to build on it.”

“(Syndication would not be a big jump for us,” Farren added. “There would be probably no changes. (In Hollywood) there’s a lot of major things do happen here. But it wouldn’t be much of an adjustment. I think that that is definitely something that’s on the table. We feel like this show could be a lot bigger.”

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