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10 Things Radio Needs To Fix Now

Robby Bridges
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10 Things Radio Needs To Fix Now

10 ways to improve your radio station that you can do today!

I’d like to first thank Jason, Stephanie, and the team at Barrett Media for the professional platform to voice the thoughts I’d probably otherwise opine on my socials. I’m pleased to share, engage, and interact here on a wide swath of topics in radio, both on the business at large, programming, personalities, and music radio practices at a more micro level. So, where to start? Where we are! And so from the home office here in Providence, Rhode Island, the top ten things radio needs to fix and get right ASAP!

At #10) Digital supplements the mothership of terrestrial radio content, OR you aren’t a radio company anymore. Any company should sell to an operator that wants the broadcast business model, not a digital-first one.

On to #9) Mostly live, all local. Period. Very few examples where a syndicated product will shine brighter than local touch and feel.

#8) Market and promote your station and be everywhere. Go!

#7) Don’t be afraid to program to 55+, the demo that most uses, rely on, and love radio and holds two-thirds of America’s wealth. Side note: hire AEs who’ll get that.

Simple at #6) Program to 12-34 with music radio stations again and engage them.

Well, at #5) Embrace new music and artists beyond record label agenda times and then see above again and re-read.

Now #4) Content. Nationwide contest liners, generic-sounding phoners, celebrity gossip, and factoids from Reddit. Dramatically add to it with your personality or don’t do it at all. What happened to local flavor, edge, comedy, sharing the excitement of the music experience, and selling the station benefits? Too few and far between. Listeners don’t mind talk; they mind DJs who say a lotta nothing.

Ok #3) Stop AI. Regulate it, use it strategically, and keep it at arm’s length.

At #2) Passion. If executive leadership doesn’t care, if programmers and sales managers are under-resourced, and talent and staffers are demoralized, why should an audience care?

Honorable mentions? Make sure your stream sounds as good, clean, and processed as your over-the-air feed. Get your top talent content podcasted.

And #1) Spot loads, in short, they’re ridiculous on most stations. Not only are they the number one turnoff and turnout (particularly among the under 35 demo), but they offer diminished value to the advertising, who may well get no results as spot 9 of 18 and then assume the campaign didn’t work, adversely impacting radio yet again.

So, no big deal, right? Let’s go! Talk to you next time.

Kevin Rolston Is Living The Radio Dream With the KVJ Show at 97.9 WRMF

BMM Staff
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Kevin Rolston Is Living The Radio Dream With the KVJ Show at 97.9 WRMF

Dreams don’t always come true in radio, but they have for Kevin Rolston. He’s not only living the dream as a top-rated and beloved morning show host, but he’s also receiving the coveted Kid Kraddick award next month from his mentor and idol Dave Ryan of KDWB-FM in Minneapolis. (Ryan’s the reason Rolston got into radio.) The torch will be passed at the Morning Show Boot Camp Awards at the Hard Rock in San Diego.

The 51-year-old Logan, Ohio native, graduated from Ohio University. He’s married to Kim, who he calls “The Mexican Queen.”

They have a 16-year-old son, Cannon, and 26-year-old twins, Colin and Caitlin. He’s a sports and family fanatic and spends most of his time off-air enjoying both.

Loyal Hosts, Loyal Audience

Part of the reason Rolston’s so content is that he’s curated a show with co-hosts who’ve got chemistry, and they’ve been together on the airwaves for 25 years on the KVJ Show, (for Kevin, Virginia, and Jason), now on WMRF-FM weekdays 6-10 am in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Chemistry and Clicking

“You have to build a show with people that you click with. Chemistry with me was the number one thing. Because I had been on shows that did not have that and it was tough. So I wanted a show where people had the same sense of humor and the same sensibilities and agreed on how they want to do radio.”

Rolston found his co-host, Virginia, in 1999. He says, “It took 5 years to find Jason, so when we found him, it all came together, and we all hit the ground running. And found a groove.”

The show succeeds, Rolston says, because “the characters are very defined, and everyone plays a signature part on the show.

“And then it’s grown into respect and love and everybody on the show is like one big family, and it’s what we do. And it’s really important. Our kids have grown up together and we’ve really spent our whole lives together and grew up together. 25 years. We are where we are and we love it. We love each other and that’s how it comes across.”

Rolston’s loyalty to his co-hosts is matched by the listener’ devotion to the KVJ Show. One fan shaved “KVJ” onto the back of his head. Others convene, yes, at 6:00 in the morning, to hear the show together.

They sold out their latest live event in twenty minutes. 300 fans packed the Black Box Theater in Boca Raton for the live version of the KVJ Show, which Rolston describes as a vaudevillian show including live music and stories as well as an in-person, interactive version of the segments they feature on their show.

“A big part of our live show is about connecting and creating in-depth personal relations with our audience. We cultivated a loyal fan base and we really work on it. They’re a part of us and we’re a part of them. All of our listeners have my phone number so I get texts and calls from people randomly,” he says.

Fans may have gone too far, though, when the show ran in Miami. When station changes required the KVJ Show to play music and fit a Hispanic format, the audience balked. They flooded social media and even put explosives in the station’s mailbox.

“At that point they said you know you guys probably have to go. So we sat out the rest of our non-compete.” Fortunately, they ended up right where they wanted to be, at WMRF-FM in West Palm Beach, which, Rolston says, “goes down to Key Largo and covers West Palm Beach and most of Florida.”

Connection

The connection with listeners is strong and the KVJ Show’s community outreach tentacles are many. The show has a clearinghouse of “Go Fund Me” pages for listeners in need called “KVJ Cares.” What’s more, they have a community wing, The KVJ Volunteer Army.

“We really believe we should be giving back to our community. People love to give back, but they don’t really know how, and there are a lot of hoops to go through. We made a volunteer army taking a Saturday morning, and you can come out and easily help for 90 minutes to 2 hours, tops, and we walk you through the motions of building a house, cleaning up the beach, or cleaning up the street or other projects. Families come out so kids see what it’s like to volunteer.”

Inane and Intimate

Rolston’s morning show is a mix of the inane and the intimate. Inane: co-host Jason put on 47 pairs of briefs under his trousers. On World Record Wednesday, they tried to beat the record for breaking matchsticks in 30 seconds. “Do It, Bitch,” “Little Kid or Drunk Adult,” and many more morning show bits keep the audience in stitches.

Personality with Vulnerability

But it’s the day-to-day discussions about real life that really hook the listeners. Everyday topics like the price of orange juice draw you in because, Rolston says, the co-hosts aren’t like your average Joe. They’re interesting people, and their idiosyncrasies and vulnerabilities make them very relatable. “Listeners like to hear your opinion on things and your emotions about things and they’re emotional about it as well,” says Rolston.

Rolston showed his vulnerability live on air after his 74-year-old mother died of COVID in 2021. Rolston calmly shared the news of his mom’s passing with the audience.

“Those are the kinds of opportunities where you can make a deeper emotional impact with somebody.  We’ve all chosen to share those kinds of things, and that’s what is relatable, and most people are going through the same problem. We’re all here together in this old thing called life, and when you hear how others are doing, it helps you as well.”

“The best email and the best feedback we get,” Rolston says, “is how we help someone through a tough time. We’ve had people on their way to chemo, dealing with divorces or loss or in a dark place, and we provide them with humor, and we also connect with them.”

Embracing New Platforms

While some more crusty radio veterans are averse to new additional multi-platform responsibilities (you can’t just show up and talk in the mic anymore), Ralston likes “the challenge of where we are in media now where it’s multiplatform, and there’s so many different ways on each platform to connect with the audience.”

The KVJ show is available everywhere as a podcast, and it shares content on social media like YouTube and X. This allows them to engage listeners with questions like: Do you have a fear of driving over a bridge, and how do you cope? What big moment did you see in person?

As for the future, Rolston wants to do what he’s done for 25 years. “I love what I do, and I love who I do it with and I’m not planning on leaving here any time soon.” He trusts God, he says, to light his path.

Words of Wisdom

What does a radio star at the top of his game, who’s winning the coveted Kid Kraddick award, have to impart to those struggling to make it in media?

“If it drives you and you have a passion to connect and to inform then you keep creating. Say yes, keep plugging away. If you’re not swinging, you don’t get a hit.”

20 Brands In 20 Days: Cat Thomas, X107.5, Las Vegas

Jeff Lynn
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20 Brands In 20 Days: Cat Thomas, X107.5, Las Vegas

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 Beasley’s Cat Thomas. Cat is a Las Vegas market veteran and OM for Beasley Las Vegas while programming X1075 Extreme Radio.

Jeff Lynn: So, what makes X1075 Xtreme Radio extreme?

Cat Thomas: Well, what’s funny is we signed it on in 1996. I was there when they signed it on. I wasn’t the program director, but I was in the building.

Mike Stern signed it on. It was the notion that the music style that the station played wasn’t on the radio anywhere. It had an edge to it.

The station, in general, has a kind of nuance of being that friend who says the things you’re thinking but is afraid to say them. And so that’s reflected a lot in our imaging and that kind of, we don’t give a crap type of mentality. We’re not going to be politically correct. We’re going to be what we are, which is why you love us.

JL: You always want to have that friend and, or at least, like you said, somebody you know who’ll say the things that you’re thinking about but don’t have the guts to say.

CT: We have a new music show called “It Hurts When I Pee” and similar things. It’s our reverence for imagery and that type of stuff as well. And it has grown up, obviously. The station has been a brand since 96.

Our listeners, who were 16 to 28 years old when we were edgy, are still fans of the station. We take them back to that day. We still play music that fits, whether it’s Falling in Reverse or Papa Roach, which tends to live more on the active rock chart than the alternative chart.

We can play newer music from bands like Pierce the Veil and others that fit that rock edge. What we try to avoid is hot AC-ish tracks that maybe don’t fit the station. We try to stay with a little more rock edge than most alternatives.

JL: How important is music discovery in your mix?

CT: It’s important to discover the right song. It always has been. I don’t think it’s changed. I think people and times change, and there are different ways to discover music now. And I’m sure a lot of our listeners find other ways besides us to discover music. So, it’s important to kind of give them the best of the new stuff that they may not know about or may not have time to go search out and that type of stuff.

It’s just part of the whole brand. It’s kind of like saying which part of cooking spaghetti is the most important: You have to boil the water first. You got to put the spaghetti in. You have to check it to make sure that it’s cooked at a certain point. Then you got to serve it, and then you got to heat the sauce and all that type of stuff to make a great dish. There’s not one step you want to skip, but you need more than one to make it great.

JL: I was talking in probably more of an alternative straight-ahead play than you are to Tommy [Mattern] at The Point in St. Louis for this series. He said, “Honest to God, I may look at the chart once a month and play what is right for St. Louis.”  How about you?

CT: Tommy knows his shit on that. I understand why The Point is a successful brand in St. Louis; it adheres to the market. Now that we brought X here a year and a half ago, it led me back to what made this station so successful in the first place.

When we signed it on in the mid to late 90s it was about what people locally wanted to hear. So, we got it back from Audacy, we tried to kill it with too much talk, and then we just decided we needed to go back to what the brand is and people love. And that is an alternative station that fits the listeners of Las Vegas.

I think Tommy’s right in a lot of that. And that it is a station that, fits Las Vegas. If you dropped it somewhere else, it might not be as successful, but listeners in Las Vegas love the brand.

The big advantage I have in the market is having Carlota on board., Carlota was here when we had Stern in the morning. Carlota did midday. She was a big part of the growth of the station. She went to another station in the market when she left CBS. Luckily for me, she was available when we decided to get back on track, and I could bring her in here.

She’s been a big part of that success as well. We work really well together, like brother and sister. She has a little more edge to her in that, and I have a little more mass-appeal sensibility.

JL: Las Vegas is a 24-hour city. In many ways, I don’t know of another one like it, at least not in the United States. You’ve got to have a 24-hour sensibility. How do you deal with that?

CT: It’s interesting you say that, because we do. But even when I first got to Las Vegas in the late 80s, and I was doing nights on KLUC, there was still only a certain portion of the population. There’s a reason that the third shift doesn’t have as many workers as the second shift or the first shift does. And so, it’s a more exclusive audience during those times. Obviously not as large, but, we try to continue to do things.

We got Pauly working at night until midnight, so we do actually have a night show. Pauly did nights on X for years until Audacy became more music intensive.

We’re trying to bring, , personalities back, trying to make personalities matter. And I think there’s a great night jock, and late night jocks in this market have a distinct personality that fits the people that are listening at that time. So I think that the short answer to that is, that people who are on middays or mornings or afternoons are different personality-wise than people who are on at night because people who listen at night usually have a slightly different schedule.

JL: Your senses are constantly bombarded in Las Vegas. How do you cut through?

CT: Great stations compete with themselves. It’s not a matter of how can I be more important to these people than these other things. It’s just more about how we are relatable and how we fit into their daily routines and lives.

And I think that a great station here in Las Vegas lends itself to the normalcy of their life. Growing up in Columbus, the shiny thing happened, and everybody went crazy. Oh, yeah.

There are so many shiny things that it’s almost easier to ignore and stick to your life’s normalcy. And I think that’s the key to success. We have cool stuff here, don’t get me wrong., In Las Vegas, you have U2 playing at the Sphere, not necessarily an X artist, but it’s U2 at the Sphere.

People want to go, so we can tie into those things. For example, we can tie into Vegas Golden Knight hockey games or Raiders football games.

But then we also don’t forget the important things that people do in their regular lives. For example, this week, it sounds stupid, but X-Men, X-Treme Radio, and X1075 is doing tickets to Deadpool and Wolverine. Because what? People like to go to the movies.

The cool part about what we have at the station is that we can send people to Golden Knight hockey games, Raiders games, Metallica shows on the strip, Shinedown at MDM, or U2 at the sphere.

But we also can send them to Cowabunga Bay, a water park. And we can send them to Disney. And we have the ability to fly away people to see 21 Pilots in Phoenix and Imagine Dragons in another city.

So we get the best of both worlds. There’s never a dull moment.

JL: Let’s talk about something I saw on your LinkedIn.

“Wake up, kick ass, repeat.”

CT: It’s the way you approach every day., I love motivational quotes, and people who have worked with me for a while laugh because I have my Cat’s quote for the week type stuff.

It goes back to what I tell everybody. The key to our success is persistence and consistency. In other words, we should be so consistent that we’re almost boring without being boring.

People should count on us. We’re here every day and we make these things happen. So, it’s just a matter of you waking up, going out, and doing your job the best you can, and you just keep repeating it. And that’s how you become successful in the long term.

It’s really not a difficult formula. It’s just that most people—what was the old, is it a Bobby Knight quote? He says everybody wants to be a winner, but most people don’t want to practice hard enough to be a winner. And it’s the same thing.

You keep doing the things that are successful over and over again, and guess what? You pretty much end up successful.

Listen to X1075 here. Find them on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Connect with Cat Thomas by email here.

Commitment to News From 620 WTMJ Enticed Michael Spaulding to Become Director of Content

Garrett Searight
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Commitment to News From 620 WTMJ Enticed Michael Spaulding to Become Director of Content

After nearly eight years with the Good Karma Brands news/talk station, Michael Spaulding was elevated to Director of Content at 620 WTMJ last week.

The ascension for Spaulding was a long time coming since joining the station as a news anchor/reporter in 2016. He later held roles like assignment editor, managing editor, and assistant program director before officially taking the reins as the overall leader of the station.

When the opportunity knocked, Spaulding was more than happy to answer the door.

“It’s really exciting. It’s a great opportunity to be able to lead the station through 2024 and beyond,” Spaulding said.”It’s been quite a journey. It has been awesome for me to be able to be in Milwaukee, to be with the station, and to be able to really grow here and have more and more opportunities. I said I wanted to be challenged and learn something new every day and I certainly do get to do that now.”

When he originally decided to join WTMJ in 2016, he said the station’s commitment to news was a deciding factor.

“You just don’t get a lot of radio stations that do that, even in major markets. So coming here, coming to a station that put news first always and understood the importance of that … understands the value of not only saying ‘We cover news’ but then putting those resources to actually do it in place is really important.”

That commitment to news has remained a steadfast priority of the Milwaukee news/talk outlet. In fact, earlier this year, Spaulding was part of a coalition that put an expanded focus on news, rather than conservative talk, at the station’s forefront.

“To be able to come up through that has been extremely helpful, because as we move TMJ into a new direction earlier this year with a launch of the new lineup, it was to move us in more of a news direction. Not only in our news breaks, but also in our content all day,” the new leader shared. “So having an understanding of what it takes to cover a community like Milwaukee and actually have the experience to be able to do it just made it all that more rewarding to be able to lead the station.”

Few stations around the cultural impact that 620 WTMJ has in not just Milwaukee but in the entire state of Wisconsin. Michael Spaulding joked it wasn’t long into his tenure when he was confronted with that fact.

“The tagline of ‘Wisconsin’s Radio Station’ to us isn’t just a line of words. They actually hold some weight and some value. That was made extremely clear to me when I started my career here, both by our management team, but as well as the people in the newsroom and the talent that was on the air at the time.

“One day, I think it was early on in my time here, prior to the primaries rolling around in 2016 and that was when Ted Cruz was in the race. Charlie Sykes was our midday host at the time and he was able to get Donald Trump on the phone. He was able to get Ted Cruz on the phone and to get Scott Walker in studio. He got Paul Ryan at the time in studio. When you see people like that walking through the halls, it doesn’t take a long time to recognize what the station means.”

Earlier this year, WTMJ raised eyebrows when it launched five new shows as part of a daily lineup revamp. Michael Spaulding was quick to give credit to Good Karma Brands for believing in the mission of a more news-focused presentation.

“Look, you don’t get an ownership group that is willing to take risks in this industry very often and is willing to follow the belief that doing something right is better than doing something for ratings,” he shared. “We had a couple of things we really wanted to do. We wanted an opportunity to emphasize more voices on the station, and we wanted an opportunity for the station to look and sound more like the coverage area that we have.”

He noted that in the station’s previous lineup, two WTMJ hosts — Steve Scaffidi and Jeff Wagner — held six hours of station programming each day. Now, the station is broken up into one and two-hour show blocks to better focus on news and allow more voices to opine and report on the daily happenings in the Milwaukee metro and the state.

“The idea behind the whole thing was to put action behind our words of ‘Wisconsin’s Radio Station’ and make it look and sound more like the state is the payoff. I think we’re seeing it this week with the Republican National Convention in town. We have more people on the street now gathering news information, gathering intel, doing interviews, contributing to the news product than we would have had a year ago. So the payoff is really being able to look around at what content’s being put out on our airwaves, our social media channels, and also our website and go ‘Yeah, ok, this is kind of the culmination of what we wanted to be able to do.'”

Milwaukee is currently the center of the political universe as the Republican National Convention takes place in the city. The event will culminate with the appointment of former President Donald Trump as the party’s official presidential nominee. And while the media and political worlds parachute into the Wisconsin city, Michael Spaulding told Barrett News Media that preparations have been ongoing at 620 WTMJ for months.

“Several, several months,” Spaulding said of when the first discussions began of how the station would cover the event, noting that the station had previous experience after the city hosted the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “We spent a lot of time with our leadership team going over some of the logistical things: What does a hard security perimeter mean? How are people going to get to and from the convention? So we had some of that stuff in place.

“Members of our leadership team started talking about the RNC — a year ago maybe is a little bit far away, but I’d say at least six, seven months. And a lot of it was working with the Secret Service to make sure that we were in as much as we could be in and get that information, and working with the RNC and seeing that kind of come out of all the hard work that we put in at the very beginning. It has been super great for us.”

2024 MLB All-Star Game Averages 7.6 Million Viewers on FOX Platforms

BSM Staff
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2024 MLB All-Star Game Averages 7.6 Million Viewers on FOX Platforms

The 2024 Major League Baseball All-Star Game attained a rise in year-over-year viewership, averaging 7.6 million viewers across FOX platforms. On the FOX Television Network specifically, the game averaged 7.44 million viewers and peaked at 7.9 million viewers from 9 to 9:15 p.m. EST. FOX Deportes accounted for an additional 116,000 viewers, which is up 36% over last year when the network amassed an average of 85,000 viewers for the contest.

The presentation was up 6% year-over-year overall after record-low viewership last season, spotlighting stars from around the sport such as Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Paul Skenes. Even though the MLB All-Star Game garnered stronger viewership than other All-Star events in other sports leagues, including the NFL Pro Bowl Games and NBA All-Star Game, it is still the second least-watched iteration of the event. The game is FOX’s most-watched telecast since the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 28 between the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers that averaged 56.6 million viewers.

Rookie phenom Paul Skenes started the contest for the National League, retiring three out of the four batters he faced in the first inning. The Pittsburgh, Pa. designated market area attained a 9.9 rating and a 24 share, leading U.S. marketplaces tracked by Nielsen Media Research. Across the state, the Philadelphia Phillies had six players represented on the National League All-Star team, leading the designated market area to place second with an 8.6 rating and 25 share. Kansas City, Cincinnati and Baltimore rounded out the top five, all cities with MLB teams and All-Star players in the contest.

Play-by-play announcer Joe Davis and analyst John Smoltz called the game from the broadcast booth, while reporters Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci conducted interviews on the field level. Kevin Burkhardt hosted pregame and postgame coverage of the game alongside analysts Álex Rodríguez, David Ortiz and Derek Jeter.

The American League won the game 5-3 on the strength of a go-ahead home run by Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran, who ended up securing the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award. Durran was one of 32 first-time MLB All-Stars at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas where this year’s festivities were held. The victory marks the 10th time in 11 years that the American League has won the Midsummer Classic.

Spotify Introduces “Livi” A Spanish Speaking AI DJ Service

BMM Staff
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Spotify Introduces “Livi” A Spanish Speaking AI DJ Service

Spotify has debuted a new AI-driven Spanish-speaking feature for its DJ mode. Named Livi, according to her backstory, she is a “Senior Music Editor” at Spotify based out of Mexico City.

A DJ generates a list of curated songs based on the user’s preferences. The AI voice introduces songs like a regular DJ. The service uses Open AI and was introduced last year. Since then, it has expanded to 50 countries in the English language.

Spotify Competitor YouTube recently introduced select users with its own radio DJ generator.

Check out Livi here

Elroy Smith To Host WILD-AM/Boston Reunion

BMM Staff
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Elroy Smith To Host WILD-AM/Boston Reunion

Cox Media Director Of Urban Content Elroy Smith is set to return to his old home to host the Boston Radio Reunion on July 26th at Boston’s Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building.

In the 1980s, WILD-AM in Boston was the hot spot for New England’s R&B scene, solidifying that reputation by breaking bands like New Edition.

“It became a part of the culture of African Americans in Boston,” Smith told the Bay State Banner.

The evening will include an award ceremony with a special appearance by Bernadine Foster Nash, the widow of WILD’s station founder, Kendall Nash.

“As much as the station was on from sunrise to sunset, one would have thought it was a 24-hour operation because it was so powerful,” said Smith, who programmed WILD from 1983 to 1988.

Awardees include JoJo “Cookin’ Kincaid, formerly of WXKS (KISS 108), Stephen Hill of WILD and BET, New Edition member Ralph Tresvant, and Kandi Eastman, who started her career at WILD.

98.9 Wild Country KZPK/St. Cloud, MN adds Kris & Chelsea To Afternoons  

BMM Staff
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98.9 Wild Country KZPK/St. Cloud, MN adds Kris & Chelsea To Afternoons  

Leighton Media Country KZPK (Wild Country 98.9)/St. Cloud MN Program Director Kris Valentine takes over PM Drive after Brooke Stephens’s recent departure. Valentine will team up in afternoons with Chelsea Lee, leaving Kelly Jordan solo in the morning.

Lee and Valentine previously teamed in mornings on Hubbard’s KIKV (KIK 100.7 FM)/Alexandria, MN.

The show is also heard on Leighton’s Country KYCK/Grand Forks, ND.

Stephen A. Smith: I Will Not Talk About Skip Bayless Like He Has Failed

BSM Staff
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Stephen A. Smith: I Will Not Talk About Skip Bayless Like He Has Failed

Earlier in the week, Ryan Glasspiegel of the New York Post reported that Skip Bayless will be leaving Undisputed and FS1 with his final show to take place later in the summer. Bayless, who was at the center of a revamped edition of the program that premiered last September, had previously worked alongside Shannon Sharpe on the show since it premiered in 2016. Sharpe left FS1 last year after tensions with Bayless and joined Stephen A. Smith as a contributor on First Take, earning himself a multiyear extension with ESPN he signed last month. In the process, First Take has eclipsed Undisputed in average viewership, continuing an active streak of 23 straight months of year-over-year growth. Bayless recruited Smith to work with him on First Take, and the duo ended up working with one another for parts of five years.

Smith, who is currently on vacation from First Take, recorded a new edition of his eponymous podcast, The Stephen A. Smith Show, and discussed his sentiments on Bayless’ reported departure from FS1. While he acknowledged that he had not spoken with Bayless in a long time, he stated that does not root against him. Smith explained that although he does not root against his colleagues, contemporaries or friends, he aspires to be more successful than them.

“Being on First Take and wanting to be No. 1 doesn’t mean I wanted Skip Bayless to fail,” Smith said. “[It] doesn’t mean that I want to see him out of the business, not at a profession, and with the news coming down that he’s departing from FS1, I have not called him. I’m not going to because I know what this moment must be like for him.”

Smith articulated that Bayless has a “boatload of energy” and does not want to walk away from anything, conveying that he has extreme passion for sports. There is no way that Smith can see him voluntarily leaving his role, but through the aftermath of the announcement, he has evinced mixed emotions towards the situation. Smith, however, feels sad for his former colleague because he cannot fathom that it is a moment of jubilance or exaltation.

“There’s a lot of positive things going on in my career in the place that I’m in. Skip Bayless has a lot to do with that,” Smith said. “Who knows where I’d be had he not put me on First Take. Yes, we catapulted and we elevated and we became No. 1 together and that’s true, but it doesn’t happen if he doesn’t push to make it happen.”

Despite the shortcomings and reports of Bayless’ departure, Smith does not feel that what he did was an abject failure. Smith reminded the audience that Bayless did not struggle after one year in the sports media business, but rather has found ways to adapt and continuously thrive for more than four decades.

“Is he perfect? No, none of us are,” Smith said. “Is he always right? Hell no. Are there things that most of us would have done differently than him? Fine. But what I’m not going to do, ever, is talk about him like he’s failed.”

Smith acknowledged that there comes a point in time when it is no longer the time for a person at a specific place. Yet Bayless’ reported departure from FS1 does not mean that it is over for him, with Smith outlining that he could have a podcast or may get another show somewhere else. From there, he spoke about how people may have been expecting to hear Smith celebrating the news, but that is not how he is reacting to the developments.

“I’m on First Take – my goal is always to win,” Smith said. “All of our time is up – I’m a Black man. Make no mistake about it. I know it’s going to come to an end for me someday. Nothing lasts forever. I’m under no illusions. I hope in the end when all is said and done, my career will be as long as Skip Bayless’ career has been.”

As he concluded his podcast, Smith made it clear that people can still love someone if they do not agree with them all of the time or even like them or what they do. In this situation though, he is not celebrating and is hoping that Bayless is not feeling any pain. Conversely, he hopes that Bayless wants to leave FS1 and that he has additional plans. Moreover, he expressed that he will call him to let him know when he wants to talk, expressing that it is best to let Bayless reach out on his own.

“I just wanted to speak on it (a) to let everybody know I’m not happy if he’s not happy as it pertains to his situation,” Smith said. “And No. 2, I won’t speak against him. Again, he wasn’t always right. We didn’t always agree. Matter of fact, most of the time; 99% of the time, we disagreed, but where I am, where I’ve been and especially where the hell I’m going with the stuff I got planned coming down the pike in a matter of months, none of it’s possible if Skip Bayless doesn’t extend that helping hand and brings me on First Take. I’ll never forget that. I never have – I never will. You want to hold on to something that I have to say about Skip Bayless? Hold on to that.”

SiriusXM Media, GroupM and Edison Research Release New Sports Audio Report on Female Fans

BSM Staff
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SiriusXM Media, GroupM and Edison Research Release New Sports Audio Report on Female Fans

In the newest Sports Audio Report: Female Fans with Edison Research, SiriusXM Media and GroupM delves into the distinct audio consumption patterns of female sports fans in the United States. It also showcases their involvement with sports beyond the traditional realm of the stadium or arena.

The report found 57% of female sports fans “frequently” or “occasionally” listened to sports audio content in the last year showing that sports audio plays a big role in female sports fandom.

The top findings among women sports fans included that the majority of females of sports fans, with 57% of the U.S. female population age 13 and higher consider themselves to be sports fans. That comes out to an estimated 83 million Americans. 70% of women sports fans agree that sports brings their family closer together and 58% of female sports fans socialize with other people while watching or listening to sports content. 

The top findings among women who listen to sports audio included that 33% of female sports fans listened to sports audio content in the last week and that 37% of female sports audio listeners spent five or more hours listening to sports audio in the last week. 

Another interesting finding was that 35% of female sports audio listeners agree that there aren’t enough sports audio programs that give different perspectives and 34% agree that there aren’t enough audio programs that cover the sports they like or follow. 

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