Silver Tribe Media has announced the promotion of Jack Rose and the addition of Nick Liberator to its growing team.
Jack Rose — who joined the management and production company in 2021 as its first hire — is being elevated to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Despite his promotion, Rose will continue to service his list of clients. As COO, Rose will continue to report to company founder Michael Klein.
Additionally, the company has promoted Dave Katzman to Head of Talent while Luke Gilman is promoted to Manager of Strategy and Operations.
Silver Tribe Media is also announcing the hiring of Nick Lberator as Head of Commercial Strategy. He joins after previously working as the Commercial Director for Sorare, a blockchain gaming company. Other stops included time spent at CAA where he worked with Klein, DAZN, and WWE, among others.
The company currently has offices in both New York and Los Angeles.
The podcast industry has seen impressive expansion in recent years. Those who have been longtime users of the on-demand programs prefer to listen to their favorite shows, a new Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights study shows.
In a survey of more than 600 weekly podcast listeners, 39% of what were called “podcast pioneers” — those who have been listening to podcasts for four years or longer — prefer audio-only versions compared to 29% who say they’d rather see video versions that you can play in the background or minimize. An additional 32% say video editions of podcasts that they can actively watch are their preference.
Those numbers change slightly when podcast users who began consuming content in the last 12 months were surveyed. 30% say they prefer audio-only episodes. That figure lags behind “video you play in background/minimize”, which garnered 37% of support. 34% said their top choice was video you actively watch while listening.
“YouTube is definitely the discovered platform, but it’s not a walled garden,” said Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard of the findings. “People will start and discover a podcast on YouTube and then migrate and consume that podcast on other platforms. That’s what makes podcasting unique in that it is a media that folks can use either listening or watching, or some combination of the two.”
While many new users prefer video alternatives, for advertisers, the results varied. 47% of respondents said they keep their eyes on the screen “all or most of the time” when commercials play during a video podcast. 24% said they “occasionally” look at the screen during ads, while another 11% said they do not watch commercials of any kind during video shows.
MSNBC continued to air breaking news coverage Monday morning in the wake of former President Donald Trump being shot at a Pennsylvania rally Saturday, rather than air its standard Morning Joe program.
A report from CNN’s Oliver Darcy claims the network decided that the breaking news coverage was a more important choice for its viewers than featuring the commentary usually provided by former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough and his co-host Mika Brzezinski.
“Given the gravity and complexity of this unfolding story, NBC News, NBC News NOW and MSNBC have remained in rolling breaking news coverage since Saturday evening,” a network spokesperson said. “As we continue to cover this story into the week, the networks will continue to cross simulcast, alternating between NBC News, NBC News NOW and ‘MSNBC Reports,’ so there is one news feed covering this developing situation.”
After the assassination attempt Saturday, many turned their attention and vitriol of the situation to the media, especially toward those who have been overly critical of Trump. The Morning Joe hosts are some of the most vocal critics of the 45th President, with some now arguing its critical coverage has gone too far.
The choice to remove Scarborough and Brzezinski isn’t an unprecedented one for the cable news network. After the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel last year, MSNBC removed three of its Muslim hosts — Ali Velshi, Mehdi Hasan, and Ayman Mohyeldin — from its airwaves, which led to criticism and questioning from both observers and those working alongside the trio. The network denied the allegations that it had sidelined the hosts and reporters. However, it later completely canceled Hasan’s show, leading to his exit from the network.
You do not win a special award for being first with major news events on social media.
You do not gain anything by spreading rumors and speculation and conspiracy theories in the wake of a major news event.
There is no race to be the first. There is no prize for being right or wrong.
The best thing you can do when something like Saturday’s shooting at the Trump rally takes place is to shut up and wait for legitimate, verifiable information. The exception is if you’re reporting on the incident and are working rock-solid sources; if that’s what you’re doing and you have verified information in your hands, yeah, go ahead, report it. If not, shut up.
Oh, and nobody will remember if you were right, but if you were wrong, it’ll haunt you because it’ll be dredged up in screen shots every time you post an opinion about anything on Xitter or Facebook or wherever.
None of this is new, of course, but it struck me when looking at the reactions to the shooting that talk radio hosts have a unique position among all of this. They’re paid to have opinions. Everyone’s talking about the event. The expectation is that talk hosts are going to voice opinions on whatever everyone’s talking about. How can you NOT offer opinions as soon as things happen?
Well, for one thing, while your job is to entertain, it’s not to misinform. Your listeners are already forming conspiracy theories of their own. You don’t need to add to the chaos. It’s okay to say that you don’t know the details of what’s happening, and that while you think (insert probably incorrect assumption here), you have not confirmed it and caution listeners to wait for the truth to emerge. You don’t want to get caught up in the Reddit/X frenzy of identifying a suspect before it’s confirmed, because, as everyone should have learned from the Boston Marathon bombing, the first names are almost always wrong, and some unfortunate innocent person ends up being branded and harassed.
I’d add here that talk hosts should resist branding everyone on the “other side” as if they’re all responsible and guilty, but I recognize that division has become part of the job and that you’ve probably been banging that drum for your entire career. It sucks that talk radio has played a role in making political discussions toxic, but to use a cliché I can’t stand, it is what it is. I could ask you to resist, but you won’t, although you should. It’s one of the unfortunate things about talk radio in 2024: the talk is practically designed to alienate half of your available audience. Maybe this time, try not doing that. It’s not necessary, it’s not going to help your ratings, and it’s certainly not going to be good for the nation or, really, anyone.
The other thing to remember is not to assume that this will still be the topic du jour two weeks from now. It might even be gone sooner. The news cycle keeps getting faster and faster, and while an attempted assassination will be remembered well into the future, other news will supplant it on the front page. Talk about it as long as you know your audience is talking about it and know when to move on.
And the very best use of social media in these circumstances is to not use social media. Okay, if your station or site is covering the news, you can link to the coverage. Otherwise, the aftermath of a major news story, especially a traumatic one, tends to bring out the very stupidest takes and insane conspiracy theories. The conversation is not the most rational or educated. You’re best served by staying out of it. You don’t need to be part of that, and nobody will notice that you’re not saying anything. I took my own advice this weekend; nobody needed my commentary, and nobody complained that my accounts were silent.
Actually, I don’t post much anymore, and I think it’s helping lower my blood pressure. You should try it.
Welcome to the brand new BarrettMedia.com! I’m excited and proud to show you what we’ve been working on for months. My thanks to Andy Drake, Alex Reynolds, Stephanie Eads, Dylan Barrett, Dave Greene, Garrett Searight, and Jeff Lynn for helping make this a reality. I think you’ll agree that the site feels big, looks strong, and has tons to offer. Our sports and news media coverage remains unchanged, so BSM and BNM readers, have no fear. However, we have added music radio, podcasting, and tech coverage. Though we are far from done, this is a strong start. I hope you love reading the site as much as we enjoy creating the content. Tell your friends.
Today’s column shares what’s new, what lies ahead, and why we made this change. If you’re a first time visitor, thanks for stopping by. We’ve covered the media industry for nearly nine years, and feature close to thirty people on our team. Our coverage includes daily columns, features, news, and timely originals. If something happens in your career or at your brand that you think we’d care to cover, email me – Jason@BarrettMedia.com. You can also visit the website and click the Tip Box up top on the left side of the main page.
I’ll dive into the details shortly, but first, I want to thank Point to Point Marketing, MRN Radio, and the voice artists listed below for supporting our expansion. Great marketing and consulting partnerships help us make this possible. Covering the industry has been our focus for nearly nine years. Our traffic, reach, influence, and ability to help partners grow their businesses is supported by our results. We belong on your radar if you are marketing a product. Our website, newsletters, conferences, social media, and connections, allow us to create many solutions. To learn more about our opportunities and how we can help, email Stephanie@BarrettMedia.com.
Why The Change?
Growing a brand requires constant examination, and knowing when to stand pat or pivot. I launched BSM in 2015 because I saw a hole in the way sports radio was covered and believed I could fill it. We built a loyal audience, and expanded by increasing our attention on sports television, and digital, and then hosting conferences. We dove into news media coverage next in 2020. Radio, TV, and digital received limited coverage, and I felt we could improve it. So far, so good.
During this same period, I saw Front Office Sports, Axios, Sportico, Sports Business Journal, Puck, Awful Announcing, Outkick, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, the New York Post, and others invest more in covering media. Just last week, CNBC announced plans to dive in too, which followed John Wall Street raising capitol to do the same. I think this is great for the industry, but it also requires outlets to ask themselves ‘what sets us apart?’ I love sports and news media, and remain firmly committed to covering both, but I also know that growing a business requires studying the marketplace, making adjustments, and pursuing openings when they appear.
Music media coverage has been part of my plan for years. I registered BarrettMusicMedia.com two years ago, expecting this to happen. I just thought it’d be between 2025-2027. Then, All Access shut down in August 2023. Joel Denver and his team did a great job serving this industry, and their exit left a gaping hole. I expected an existing outlet would invest and fill the void, but it never happened. So I began asking questions to many about the opportunity and risk. I surveyed hundreds, wanting to make sure my instincts were correct. I needed to know if business could be generated, if we did this right. If it didn’t make sense, we’d pass.
Many believed what I did. There are too many stations with stories to tell that are currently untold. If not us, who? Original content is what we do best, and with that big of a hole, it made sense to dive in. We prioritize news, industry conversations, and analysis/opinion. If we can deliver those three things consistently, I think we can become a daily destination for music radio professionals. Check out Ron Harrell’s first column today, and our debut series, “20 Brands in 20 Days“, featuring a conversation with 96.5 KOIT’s Brian Figula.
New URL and Website Look:
We have a new logo, URL, and fresh new look. BSM and BNM looked great, but hadn’t been modified in a few years. It was time. Our long-term plan of becoming one brand, rather than a series of different outlets presented itself, so a logo change was also necessary. Our events and newsletters remain the same, except we’re now using the new logo instead of promoting three separate branches. Making this move was part of my long-term vision for the company. However, the asking price previously for the domain name didn’t make sense. That changed in March (night before the BSM Summit) so here we are.
If you’ve been reading BSM or BNM and bookmarked our former URL’s, have no fear. Typing in those web addresses still leads you to BarrettMedia.com. This is just shorter, and easier.
Content Additions/Changes:
The site features seven stories in each section, with Sports, Music, and News prominently displayed. Scrolling further down the page leads you to seven pieces of content from our Business and Podcasting categories, plus Tech has a featured story, with the ability to scroll to the right for more. Featuring fresh content on our main page is vital, but those who seek more will visit specific sections. News readers for instance can click the News Radio, News Television or News Digital tabs up top to get much more. Sports media folks and music radio pros can do the same in their respective sections.
We’re putting a greater focus moving forward on quality over quantity. Covering every single story sent in by brands is unrealistic. We want to prioritize news, business, and high-profile drama because they perform best. Generic reactions and smaller scale business stories will be reduced because readers are less interested in them. Send tips and pitches to myself and our editors. Reach Dave for sports here, Garrett for news here, and Jeff for music here. My email is up above in this article.
Writers:
We have twenty four (24) writers on this site, not counting myself or our digital director Alex Reynolds. Our columnists and reporters can be found in the sports, news, music, and business tabs up top. Main page visitors will see seven new pieces of content each morning, before scrolling down to the various sections on the site. We’ve also juggled our lineup to feature strong perspectives from all three lanes (sports-news-music) and conversations with people inside the industry.
The hard part of change is that while it means an opportunity for some, it means the loss of one for others. We’ve hired a lot of people over the years. Our weekly writers don’t get rich here, but they’re all paid for their contributions. When you’re in my shoes footing the bill for everyone, it adds up. I have to manage a budget too. I’m thrilled with our team, but sad to lose some folks who I hold in high regard. I wish all of them well, and appreciate everything they did for us in recent years.
Newsletters:
Barrett Media now distributes four daily newsletters. Sign up for the ones you want by going here. The 8@8 goes out at 8am ET to sports media readers. The Rundown reaches news media professionals daily at 9am ET. The Pulse hits inboxes at 10am ET each day for music radio pros. If you receive either of those three newsletters, you’ll automatically receive the Press Pass. It goes out nightly at 6pm ET, and features a blend of our sports, news, and music stories, and important articles from other outlets across the nation.
Social Media:
Barrett Media is available on 3 platforms – Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn. There are no longer news pages and sports pages, everything is now rolled into one. Go here to follow us on Facebook. X users can find us here on that platform. And on LinkedIn, we’re accessible here. We will only post content on these channels. We are scheduling posts through the end of July on our other channels, notifying followers of the transition, with plans to discontinue those channels at the end of the month. Though it’s a short-term inconvenience, we’re hopeful folks join us in our new locations.
Voices:
A new addition to the website is our brand new Voices section. We’re grateful to have Steve Stone,Jim Cutler,Matt Fogarty,Dan Levy,Loren Raye,Matt Anthony,Neil Wilson, andAnne Vydra on board as partners. Be sure to listen to their demos. There are many great voice talents across the country, and we wanted to create a paid section on the website where we could showcase the best in the business. Given how many decision makers we have reading us daily, it made sense to connect both sides, and open the door to future business. If you’re a voice talent interested in being featured, email Stephanie@BarrettMedia.com for details.
Memberships and Database:
Supercharging our Memberships is a priority. THANK YOU to all who have rode with us so far! Promotion for our members will continue in the newsletter, along with on-site profiles for resumes and demos, and discounts on tickets to our industry conferences. But we’re also adding a few ads on our pages to showcase our members, and introducing quarterly zoom calls with industry folks later this fall. If you’re investing in yourself and our brand, we want to help you back.
That’s not all though. One major addition to the website is our brand new Industry Database. This high powered section of the site will make it easier for people to reach others across all areas of the industry. I loved that part of the All Access site, and wanted to do it too, except with increased access to folks in television, tech, betting, digital, advertising, etc.. We’re starting with about a thousand people in the system, and will add more each week. 20,000-30,000 people will be in it by the end of the year.
Here’s the part some may not love. This section is only available to members, and consulting clients. It takes a lot of time and resources to track down thousands of people let alone key people in each company. All you have to do to gain access is sign up for a Membership. $149.99 per year gets you database access, 10% off Summit tickets, promotion on the website and in our newsletters, and invites to quarterly zooms with industry folks. Those same perks minus the zoom calls, and website/newsletter promotion can be enjoyed monthly for $14.99. It’s more than worth the price.
Jobs:
Promoting industry openings on our websites and supporting them with newsletter and social media has long been part of what we do. Charging for Job placements began in January 2024 because we deliver the right candidates to help brands fill key positions. Visit other trades, and you’ll find it costs $250-$1000 to promote a Job opening. I’ve bought ads myself on Indeed, and LinkedIn, and they’re not only more expensive, but they attract a lot of the wrong people. We keep costs low at $99 per month. That earns you placement on the site for 30-days, one-week of newsletter promotion, and additional social media support. Companies aiming to hire the right people, click here.
Stocks and Upcoming Events:
News media readers have seen our Stock Ticker before, but if you’ve never read BNM, it’s simply a way to stay aware of each day’s stock price for the nation’s top media companies. It displays right under the menu on the main page, and is updated M-F.
Additionally, when you click on a story, you’ll notice to the right an Upcoming Events Calendar. This is built to notify you of key business conferences, and industry events. We try to update it monthly, so if you have a future event coming up and wish to be added, please email the information to Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
What’s Next?
We expect to hit a homerun with our news media conference, the BNM Summit in September. George Washington University is where we’ll be on September 4-5, 2024. Tickets are on-sale now. Another big addition to the show will be announced tomorrow. I’m excited to unite the industry, and hope you’ll join us if your schedule allows. It’s worth the trip.
6+ and 12+ Ratings data will be added this week thanks to a new publisher partnership with Nielsen. BSM and BNM readers enjoyed our quarterly reports on Men 25-5 and Adults 35-64, but data mostly comes in when the news is good. Advertisers know the truth, and so does your employer. Consistency matters. We have to be fair to all groups, markets, and stations. Thousands of radio stations battle for audience, in numerous formats, all chasing different demos, and goals. Some groups have even unsubscribed to Nielsen in larger cities, making it harder to showcase their performances. As we expand, featuring all markets, using 6+/12+ data, and writing ratings recaps when new data comes out makes the most sense.
Other future possibilities include adding Airplay charts. If people want to see them on the site I’ll consider adding them. I do want to add Podcasting Charts as Edison, Triton, and Podtrac all track performance. When? I’m not sure yet. A weekly tech newsletter is planned for the 4th quarter of 2024. I’m aiming to launch it in October or November, and distribute it on Friday’s. More on that in the future. Advertising content is another area of interest. We won’t touch that though until we’ve got our current process firing on all cylinders. Doing it requires adding more writers, and we’re not ready to do that just yet. We’ll see if it makes sense for 2025.
Closing
I’m 50 years old, have tons of energy and passion, am well connected across the industry, and plan to cover this business for years to come. It is challenging, but I love it, and so does our team. Millions read us annually, hundreds of thousands do so monthly, and that’s not including the millions of monthly impressions we generate across social media platforms. We create content for a specific audience, delivered by experienced professionals who know the business they write about. It involves talking to broadcasters and executives regularly, staying educated, and making sacrifices to be on top of the news cycle.
I said this in the third paragraph, and it bears repeating – we belong on your radar if you’re marketing a product. Period. End of story. The only question is, which project are we working on together? What you see on this website, and in your inbox through our daily newsletters is the result of passion, investment, love, knowledge, and hard work. We’re better today than we were last week, and will continue to grow as long as I’m alive, and physically capable of doing the work.
Thank you so much for supporting our journey. September marks our nine year anniversary, and it’s been a hell of a ride. But we’re not done yet. The best is yet to come!
To support the launch of the new Barrett Media, we’ve created a special series titled “20 Brands In 20 Days”. We are highlighting successful stations across the country in various formats by conducting conversations with their brand leaders. First up is Bonneville’s AC 96.5 KOIT, San Francisco.
KOIT is a ratings behemoth in the Bay Area. Brian Figula is the station’s Director of Programming and Operations, guiding the station since September 2013. Brian explains the strategy, and his keys to long-term brand success in today’s conversation.
Jeff Lynn: You have dominated the San Francisco ratings for years, not just at Christmas; what is the secret sauce?
Brian Figula: The secret sauce is being great at the fundamentals. Without giving you the KFC Colonel ingredients, the overall theme is being great at the fundamentals. That is the right answer. That’s what we are great at.
JL: With credit to Bob Lawrence for stealing his expression, what is KOIT’s “addictive experience?”
BF: Every time you turn on the radio station you’re going to be lifted up and you’re going to feel good. That goes not just for the music but the content. The things between the songs are going to be uplifting and positive. They’re going to be informative and unique.
For example, 7/11 day. We’re not touching it. A lot of stations will mention 7/11 day, that’s low hanging fruit to us. We want to look at content that goes above and beyond, something they can have as a takeaway. When they go to work, they are going to be in the kitchen talking to a co-worker, saying I heard this thing today on KOIT. Something that they wouldn’t have heard anywhere else.
JL: San Francisco is a melting pot city. What opportunities and challenges does that present?
BF: Programming a station in San Francisco is complex due to the complexity of the ethnic composition. When the population of Asians is over 20 percent, Hispanic is around 25 percent, and think about the fact that the African American population is only about five to six percent here. In most cases, you are trying to build brands that will bring everybody together. What has been so special about the success of KOIT is that it has always been a blend and always brought people together. With great music, great content, events, and never putting stuff out there that is going to offend and push one group, male or female aside.
JL: PPM vs. Diary. Can you still impact ratings and listening, especially in a market as large as San Francisco, by being out and in the market with the listeners?
BF: The answer is yes. I think the Coleman Insight Pyramid is still valid today. Where community is still past of the recipe. Successful brands, the biggest brands today, have a great presence in their local communities. Not just KOIT but all of our brands throughout Bonneville are heavily involved in all the communities that we serve. An example is (Top 40) 99.7 NOW, KMVQ does weekly high school takeovers where they actually go to high schools and they’re engaging in the future listeners of radio.
JL: How do you get talent to understand that being out in the community is still essential and keep them motivated?
BF: We say that to talent, but also, we should be telling that to our future APDs and our current APDs who want to be PDs. We need to be telling them that they should be doing that internally. At some point they are going to need the people around them to do things. Air talent needs to invest in the community and the APDs, and the behind-the-scenes people need to continue to build relationships within their company. At some point, when they get to be PDs, they are going to need to motivate people to do things.
JL: I’ve always been impressed when talking to Bonneville OMs and PDs that you are charged by ownership for taking your brands and doing good things with them.
BF: The Bonneville purpose is day one, when we walk in, the mission statement is to build up, connect, inform, and celebrate families and communities. We are all in alignment with that, and with that, every day, we create magic on air and off air. We want to do good with our employees and community, and every day, we do that. A lot of stations do stuff in the community, and that doesn’t work anymore. You have to find the sweet spot. What really are the needs in your community? The way to do that is to ask them, ask your listeners. What are the needs in your community? The one thing that comes back to us here every year is the food crisis. So, we do things throughout the year that are part of our “Feed The Bay” initiative. We do events, volunteering and collecting non-perishable food items, cash donations, charity events, and helping food pantries and food backs.
JL: Last question, and this, as a former radio guy, concerns me. There aren’t as many opportunities to get a start in the business these days. Where does the next generation of air talent come from? Where does the next Ryan or Howard come from?
BF: It is a challenge, but I am optimistic because in our company we are finding those people. It’s not coming the traditional way where people are beating down our door for an internship. When you build an exciting brand, great things happen. Think back on your career. What got us interested, and what got some of our co-workers interested?
Mine was my mom. She used to win stuff on the radio all the time and I remember going to the radio station to pick up the prizes and going wow this is really awesome. So, it started with my mom being fully engaging with the radio station. Those people are still out there. We’ve got to take advantage of the passion and make sure that leaders invest properly into the people who are passionate about media and set them up for success. If you build an exciting brand, then I think a lot of good things will continue to happen.
To listen to KOIT, click here. The station is also on Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok. Readers interested in connecting with Brian Figula, can do so by email by clicking here.
For many markets in the country, this week has traditionally been sports radio’s version of a Seinfeld episode. It’s a week about nothing. With baseball taking a break for its All-Star week and no other pro or college football, basketball or hockey games happening, it can be a bit more challenging for show hosts as they are left with no live games to react to. Even the ESPY Awards, which don’t generally create a ton of talk for sports radio, aren’t happening this week due to the Republican National Convention. BSM reached out to several sports radio programmers across the country and asked them what advice they give to their on-air team about being prepared for the week ahead.
In New York, where Ryan Hurley has recently taken over as Brand Manager for WFAN and Infinity Sports Network, he believes the amount of interest fans have in the NFL today has been a game changer for a week like this.
“I know traditionally many think and dub this ‘the week nothing is going on’ in the sports world, but I don’t feel that it is that way as much anymore. The NFL can provide content 24-7 / 365. In New York we have Hard Knocks Off Season with the NY Giants going right now and that has provided some interesting topics for on air discussion. Also, if there are tight races in baseball in your city the trade deadline is right around the corner.
“We are ‘content creators’ so we have to be able to be creative, have creative talent and creative production and support staff. Come up with features that can involve the listening audience in an interactive way, whether that is with traditional phone calls or through interaction with your station’s social and digital platforms.
“Additionally, we need to be able to bring much more to the table than just straight up ‘sports’ talk these days. Pop culture, music, movies, TV, and in many cases personal lives are on the table for discussion as audiences relate to all of those thing, and great talent will know how to balance all of that with the great sports opinions and content to keep an audience interested and develop that ‘fear of missing out.'”
In Columbus, Ohio, 97.1 The Fan Program Director and Operations Manager Matt Fishman concurred with Hurley about football being something that can be discussed year-round and with their Ohio State coverage, his team will have plenty to talk about, including the school having a new Athletic Director. Recruiting is a topic that is now front and center for much of the offseason and with the storylines surrounding college sports including NIL, legal cases and conference realignment, there is a never-ending supply of topics.
Ultimately, Fishman says he gives his team the same advice for this week he does any other week, “Look for the interesting! Whether it is in their own lives with their kids, families, pets, food, etc. Stories that our fans can relate with. Then if something pops in the All-Star Game or Home Run Derby or with the Blue Jackets, then it’s a bonus.”
Mitch Rosen, Audacy Chicago Vice President at 670 The Score and BetQL Network, said, “I’m not a believer in ‘You have to create special content for All-Star Break like countdowns or polls.’ I’m a fan of continuing to play the hits.”
Rosen said in Chicago, currently “both baseball teams are ‘broken,’ so fan interaction will be great to discuss with the audience. It’s also a time for our hosts and producers to stretch out with more guy talk, and some entertainment talk when appropriate. Finally, Bears Camp opens on the 17th! We are counting the days on the air, including a countdown promo that airs seven times a day!”
The promos Rosen mentioned gives the number of days until the team reports to Training Camp and then features voices of various station hosts talking about everything going on surrounding the Bears and the coverage the station will provide. They also include mention of HBO’s Hard Knocks which will be on-site filming the Bears during their camp.
Down south in Birmingham, JOX 94.5 Operations Manager Ryan Haney does not have to worry about what his team will be focusing on this week. “We have been fortunate over the years that SEC Media Days has fallen on this week,” Haney said. He added that no matter the circumstance, the station or the market he is a believer, like Rosen, in playing the hits. “There is always something relevant to the main team, sport, or league that you cover.”
Haney also added a great suggestion for all talent as it relates to content. “With audiences changing by the minute, hour, and day – take the opportunity to revisit something relevant that your core audience cares about,” he said. “Repackage it in a different way. Just because ‘you’ talked about it before doesn’t mean ‘they’ heard it.”
Sports radio generally sounds a bit different in every market. If you asked most people to describe what sports radio is or what it should be, most would describe something similar to what goes on weekday afternoons at ESPN New York. Good, old-fashioned sports talk radio is what I found when I eavesdropped in on the Friday, July 12 episode of The Michael Kay Show and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
The Michael Kay Show team is led by 63-year-old host Michael Kay, who is also the television voice of the New York Yankees and a national baseball broadcaster with ESPN. The co-hosts are 56-year-old Don La Greca, who has also worked on New York Rangers and New York Jets radio broadcasts, and 44-year-old Peter Rosenberg, who also co-hosts the popular Ebro in the Morning show on HOT97 in New York and is involved with professional wrestling working on various broadcasts for the WWE.
The show has been ESPN New York’s lead show for over two decades (July 15 marks 22 years to the day), with Rosenberg having been added in 2015. They have great chemistry and collectively they’ve enjoyed a lot of success. All three bring different styles to the air, which allows them to produce compelling and entertaining content.
Earlier last week, Kay had an exchange with a caller who said, “Michael Kay will never criticize the Yankees.” Kay responded, in part, “I put myself in the crosshairs. I criticize this team to an extent that no broadcaster ever does. I’m in the unenviable — or enviable — position of having a talk show where I have to be honest and I’m also the voice of the team. Don’t tell me I don’t criticize the team.”
On this day, almost before the amazing “Michael Kay is on the radio today…” opening song finished, Kay and the team were off and running and the Yankees were naturally at the forefront of the conversation. Since the Yankees hadn’t won a series in eight tries, things were getting a little tight around the city. In a flash, the trio was in deep Yankees conversation.
“The Rays were giving the game to the Yankees, here take it, take this game,” Kay commented about Thursday’s game. “Yankees wouldn’t do it, Yankees couldn’t do it, Yankees didn’t do it…Judge couldn’t get the big hit. Judge in 8 games has not had an extra base hit and has not had an RBI. It’s a broken record…I gotta be honest, they aren’t playing fundamentally sound baseball.”
Sounds pretty critical to me. And over the next couple of hours, the conversation leaned a lot on what was going wrong with a team that had been the best team in baseball during the first 70 games of the season. Since that time, the team has won about 1/3 of its games.
When a team is winning, everything is right with the world, but when it is losing, fans and broadcasters alike tend to nitpick everything to try and find the answers. They also find humor in things happening such as when Kay points out a Yankees player was recently put on the 10-day IL with the stomach flu. “I haven’t heard of that one…that is some flu,” Kay said.
Sometimes sports radio truly does imitate real life. I was reminded of this as Kay, La Greca and Rosenberg discussed the Yankees-Orioles game on Sunday only being available on Roku. “I think you have to be subscribed,” Kay said to Rosenberg who uses a Roku device but still wasn’t sure if he could watch the game or if he had the actual Roku channel.
La Greca added, “It’s bad form man. I’ll take the hit if I am the only yo-yo that didn’t know. But I have a feeling this is flying under a lot of people’s radar and that’s not a good thing…You can’t have things like this flying under the radar.”
A message came in to Kay to tell him that you can access the game for free, but none were exactly sure how it works between the Roku device and the Roku channel. “Strange, very odd,” Kay said as Rosenberg quickly replied with, “Strange times, Michael.”
Like you would expect with this type of sports radio, the takes and the passion can be off-the charts. After all, Kay, La Greca and Rosenberg are New York sports fans, too. While many stations have backed away from taking calls, Kay and company take plenty and as someone who is not from the New York-area, I found some of the callers rather stereotypically hilarious.
The way some of the fans ripped into Yankees manager Aaron Boone, you would think the season has been an absolute disaster. Fortunately, in this case, you have veteran sports talk show hosts who realize these opinions are a bit ‘prisoner of the moment’ and don’t play into them.
Another veteran move is a great tease to get your listeners to stay tuned. “I’m going to make all of your weekends when we come back,” Kay said as he wrapped up the first hour. “I’m going to give you something that’s going to give you such viewing pleasure, such goosebumps, the hair on the back of your neck is going to stand up and you’re going to thank me for it.”
Now, that is a tease.
Kay was referring to the new Netflix series, Receiver, and when they came back, Kay couldn’t recommend the series enough. “Soooo good and soooo well done,” Kay said. “I thought the Quarterback one was great, too.”
“It’s really good,” Kay continued. “I think you’ll really like it and I think you’ll come back and thank me profusely for making your weekend,” Kay quipped. “They do it very well.”
When the Yankees lineup comes out for that night’s game, Kay notes, “It’s an odd one,” as they get back to talking about who is or would be held responsible for a full Yankees collapse if it continued. After some callers give different opinions on who it should be, Rosenberg adds, “It would have to be someone significant that would have to pay.”
I thought the rest of the conversation was great as to how they broke it down. Kay finally said, “Only two people would be considered significant, [General Manager Brian] Cashman or [Manager Aaron] Boone.”
Kay adds that in his opinion if they fired Boone, they would “just hire Boone 2.0” and if they fired Cashman, “it would be someone from within” who would run the team and very little would change.
“It is a repeat pattern of every season the same thing,” Rosenberg said. “Expectation, great start, start sliding, stumble into the playoffs, no repercussions. It’s just over and over again.”
As with any good sports talk show, it isn’t just all sports. Successful hosts drop in talk about their lives and on this day, it was La Greca’s weekend dinner plans and how he handles the bill when he and his wife have dinner with another couple that got some fun chatter going. This turned into Kay trying to get La Greca to commit he would watch Receiver while relaxing in his pool over the weekend.
“I’m not going to watch your silly show while I’m floating in the pool,” La Greca said “I’m more intrigued now, but I’ve got bigger fish to fry, and if it’s 93 degrees and not too much humidity on Sunday, I’m out.”
This turned into one of those times on the show where two of the hosts gang up a bit on the other. In total, it happened a few times throughout the show, and it isn’t always the same two on one side. This is one of the great dynamics of the show.
In this case, Kay and Rosenberg went down a rabbit hole of talking about La Greca having beers in front of his kids, which turned into Kay painting a picture where La Greca drowns after having two beers while relaxing in his pool.
“Peter, how did this happen?” La Greca asked to try to get the show back on the rails.
Other than Yankees talk, the day was dominated by the report of Knicks player Jaylen Brunson taking significantly less money to sign a contract this year versus waiting until next year. While a very noble thing to do and something La Greca and Rosenberg thought was a young man making a great, long-term, big picture decision, Kay couldn’t fathom in what world it made sense for Brunson to do what he did. He said he believes Brunson was being taken advantage of. “There’s being a good guy, and then there’s being a guy that is getting taken advantage of,” Kay said.
The back and forth on the topic was outstanding. They didn’t agree on the topic and La Greca and Rosenberg challenged Kay on many points made. They all defended their points emphatically, and it made for great radio. It was one of those topics when you know people listening were yelling at the radio, television, phone or computer in support of one side or the other.
“You know how I know it is a big deal?” Kay asked about the Brunson story. “Because it has never, ever happened before. … It’s unprecedented – he is Gandhi. It is unprecedented what he’s doing. Tell me a player who has come anywhere close to doing this on any sports at any level. Who’s done it? That’s why it’s so startling is because it’s never been done ever…They should build a statue for him outside Madison Square Garden.” He would later add in order to show he was praising Brunson at the same time he was questioning the move, “If you designed him in a lab, you couldn’t come up with a more selfless, beautiful man.”
The Brunson segment was a great way to define The Michael Kay Show and to me, what the format is all about. Great, passionate discussion, smart takes, listener interaction, disagreements, discussion, facts and a bit of humor. I didn’t want the Brunson segment to end, and I didn’t want the show to end.
Friday night in downtown Nashville. You don’t want to get stuck there unless you’re a tourist. I’m not. Taking road detours in congested cities was more empowering before Google and Apple maps. Now we feel defeated when we look at the electronic map and know we’re not getting out of this mess for a while.
I rolled down the window to listen to the sounds of Nashville nightlife. As many times as I’ve heard the music blaring from Kid Rock’s club or Jason Aldean’s rooftop, it creates adrenalin for the driver stuck in moment. You’re watching young fans walk the streets in cowboy boots and visualizing the blisters on their heels when they get back to the hotel room and realize there’s a penalty for wearing those boots for the first time when you’re walking 20,000 steps per day.
As I inched along Broadway, I went to my killing-time pastime: the radio scan button. My car gives me five seconds of the station before scanning to the next signal. Press scan again to stop the scanning. My head turned toward the middle dashboard when it scanned to 92.9 WJXA, the Mainstream AC in Nashville.
Radio professionals familiar with a market rarely have to look at the dial to know what’s coming out of the speakers. Programming leaders know things like their playlists and stopset times, but if they’re really paying attention, they know how it feels and can say, “that’s my station.”
My head didn’t turn due to uncertainty about which station was playing. It turned because of what I heard. Tom Kent. The late Tom Kent of the syndicated Tom Kent Radio network. I was listening July 12th and TK passed away June 24th after a battle with cancer.
I’m a TK fan because he’s one of the great Top 40 jocks from a fading era of hosts and presenters. I liked him personally because of passion for the craft of fun radio, and I was moved because he prepared ahead for his affiliates knowing his time was limited. Suddenly, being stuck in traffic meant nothing when I heard his voice providing in-the-moment companionship to listeners of his Lovin’ Life, Livin’ The 80s show on Mix 92.9.
How are we preparing our brands for next stages? A long illness like the one Tom was fighting gave his organization time to prepare and make sure his affiliates were covered when the day came. Bravo, TK.
The age of voice-tracking, syndication, and dare I say, AI, gives companies and stations more options than we had during the days of full airstaffs. If you’re wondering what I mean by “full airstaff,” there was a time when radio stations had humans in the studio 24/7. Weird, huh?
Photo Courtesy of TomKentRadio.com
The Utility Player is my favorite baseball player. This person can play nearly every position on the field. They’re not superstars with the fans, but they are with coaches and managers because they fill an immediate need for the team. I had one, maybe two staffers who fell into the Utility Player category for Programming, Promotions/Marketing. If a team member resigns, gets downsized or dies, who steps up to fill the gap?
This goes beyond preparing for the worst. It helps us at the beginning when we hire talent who fit the brand in multiple ways. In the cluster world, we’re thinking about a jock who fits on the Country station and can walk across the hall and cover a shift on the CHR or Mainstream AC. Oh, it’s 2024. The referenced “hall” might mean doing the other station from your closet studio.
Talent adjustments and changes should be part of the standard leadership thought process. What about the bigger cheese movements? Are we thinking about strategic changes?
Go beyond the obvious and include war room conversations about a competitor changing formats or adding a new marketing campaign. Oh, it’s 2024. The referenced “marketing” campaign might be stretching it with some brands and companies.
But seriously, are we paying attention to competitors who use guerrilla digital tactics? Maybe you have zero budget for marketing. It’s a reality for small and large operations. You can’t sit there and do nothing. If you start thinking about it when it happens, you’re playing behind in the game.
Make time for “what if” planning. Include every department and person for which you are responsible. Write it down, challenge it, change it, tear it up and throw it away and start over. Who are the Utility Players and what are the War Room responses?
Does it help when the moment arrives? Of course. The bigger benefit happens when we challenge our decisions and create hypothetical competitive situations. If will expose our current weaknesses we’re more likely to make corrections to our current strategies and tactics.
My traffic jam in downtown Nashville didn’t last much longer and I didn’t think about because I wanted to hear what the late Tom Kent was going to do next on his ‘80s show. Syndicated music show hosts know they have to be generic and evergreen with their material.
Tom was all about the music. I was impressed with TK’s creativity on those same songs he’s been playing for years. Did he reuse material? I’m sure some of those fun and snarky lines were recycled. However, he convinced me he was in the moment and using the line over the Kool and The Gang song intro for the first time. It’s a gift to turn the phrase and speak in DJ non-sequiturs and incomplete sentences. Tom Kent had and still has those gifts.
I’d Ike to have one more conversation with him and talk about his preparation for the time when he knew he would need to call in the Utility Players. He would probably agree to prepare, challenge, change and prepare some more. Thanks for entertaining and challenging us, Tom.
To start off, let me welcome all the new readers from the world of music radio to Barrett Media. I think you’ll find that Jason has put together a fantastic home for news, insight, and learning. If you’re new to the site, let me know what you think about what you read in my column.
I was in a Costco last week and while throwing too many interesting things into my cart (yes, I’m a Costco fanatic even though the nearest one is 55 miles from my home), I noticed that kids’ Halloween costumes were available. I checked both my phone and my watch to determine the date and both answered July 10. And yes, Halloween is still on October 31st each year.
I’m sure the merchandisers at Costco took care of ordering Halloween costumes months ago and have figured out that shoppers want to avoid last minute shopping for their tikes’ trick or treating. For me, this was a trigger to write about Christmas.
For music stations that go all Christmas, you should get ready now as well. As this is a research column, I’m not going to suggest song titles, rotations, etc.. However, if you’re in a PPM market, I’d suggest looking at how All Christmas stations have done in previous years. Sure, the Holiday monthly looked great from a healthy dose of ho-ho-ho, but did it really?
In one of my earlier columns, I explained how to use PPM Analysis Tool (AT) to look at individual days. That information really helps when it comes to Christmas music. Sure, the jingle bell stuff blows all the other stations away in the days around the holiday. The days just before and into Thanksgiving weekend are generally strong as well, but what about all the other days?
When I was with Cumulus, I did a deep dive for a couple of the company’s stations that went all-Christmas each year. If your market runs true to form, you’ll (Yule!) probably find that starting ahead of Thanksgiving week doesn’t perform very well. In fact, you may have less audience than playing your standard tunes. This matters because the December monthly ends on December 4th this year and that’s one third of your fourth quarter. Do you really want to have a weaker December monthly just so that you can be the first in your market with Christmas music even if the audience isn’t ready to hear it? After Thanksgiving week, you’ll likely see a decline in your numbers until you get close to the holiday itself.
I know this will be heresy including disagreeing with one of my favorite people and one of the most respected programmers out there, Mike McVay, but I would not go all-Christmas until Monday or Tuesday of Thanksgiving week unless the data says otherwise. If a competitor goes earlier, let them. However, I’d consider “sprinkling in” some of the best testing Christmas tunes starting around November 15th until the full changeover.
Photo Credit: ChristmasSongsRadio.com
Heresy #2: You may want to consider playing some of your regular music in the first half of December amid the Christmas deluge. It’s different, but if the audience is tiring of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the umpteenth time, hearing a current hit may not be a bad thing.
Deciding what to do is straightforward because you have years of old data to review. Go back and find the day that your station made the switch in previous years. Next, go to AT and run day-by-day estimates for every day until you switched back to your standard fare, which will be just two monthlies. Check the important numbers, AQH persons, AQH share, and daily cume persons and rating. If you like, you can average the days across a few years and you’ll have a very interesting trend of good and not-so-good days for wall-to-wall holiday tunes.
You know how your station performs in key demos, whether on persons or share. Was the share for all-Christmas better or worse than is typical for each day? If my experience is right, you should see positive spikes during Thanksgiving week and especially near Christmas, perhaps starting around December 20th. However, if you changed on say, November 10th or earlier, how did the station do heading into Thanksgiving? I’ll bet it wasn’t so hot. How about the first half of December?
AT offers you the opportunity to see how well all-Christmas performs for your station. If you go early in November on a low-rated rimshot, that’s fine because the ratings were probably poor in the first place. But if you have a top three or top five AC and switching over early is hurting, you may want to think twice. Regardless, you’ll feel much better about having data to back up whatever decision you make, which is why it makes sense to think about Christmas in July.
