Cumulus has released the financial results of its first quarter, showing a slight overall revenue decline during the first three months of 2024.
During the first quarter, the company posted net revenue of $200.1 million, which is a decline of 2.7% compared to the same quarter in 2023. While the revenue declined, Cumulus also limited its year-over-year losses in the time period. In 2023, the company saw a net loss of $21.5 million, while that number shrunk to $14.2 million in 2024.
While radio revenue was down, the company saw a 7.3% increase in digital revenue. Broadcast radio revenue stilled 5.6% from $148,010,000 in 2023 to $139,735,000 during the first quarter. Digital grew to nearly $34.5 million.
The company also extended maturities to 2029 and reduced the principal amount of outstanding debt by nearly $33 million during the first quarter
“While our Q1 revenue was in line with guidance and a marked improvement from 2023 trends, it is also reflective of the uncertainty that continues to weigh on advertisers,” said Cumulus President and CEO Mary G. Berner.
“With the advertising environment still unsettled, these new terms provide us additional time and flexibility to execute against our key business priorities – accelerating digital growth, reducing fixed costs, and continuing to de-lever our balance sheet – each of which is foundational to our ability to build long-term shareholder value.”
Many key local advertisers increasingly turn to radio on-air personality endorsement ads to enhance brand visibility and attract potential customers. It has been termed the ‘superpower’ of advertising. Securing the right radio endorser can significantly boost an advertiser’s credibility and reach among listeners. However, selecting the proper radio personality requires careful consideration and strategic planning. Here are some specific steps a local car dealership, for example, could take to hire a radio endorser and some insights on their effectiveness.
Step 1: Goals and Targets
Before hiring, define your marketing objectives and identify your target audience. Decide whether you want increased brand awareness, showroom visits, or website hits. Don’t expect all of it. Lift sales now or build them for tomorrow? Understanding this will help select a radio endorser and identify what the endorser should be talking about in their spots. Try short-term sales lift ads at the end of the month and brand-building the rest of it.
Step 2: Research Local Radio Personalities
Start by researching radio personalities in your market with a strong presence and influence among your target demographics. Listen to different radio stations and shows to familiarize yourself with the hosts’ styles, tones, and audience engagement. Consider factors such as ratings, time slots, and formats. AM/PM drive time hosts on news and sports stations often reach upscale males who are hard to reach other ways.
Step 3: Evaluate Credibility and Audience Connection
Judge the credibility and rapport of potential endorsers with their audience. Look for personalities who have built trust and reputation through their on-air presence. Ask around. Do the on-air personality and your values align with your dealership’s brand image and messaging?
Step 4: Consider Audience
Make sure the station’s demographics align with the dealership’s target market.
Step 5: Establish Contact
Reach out to express the dealership’s interest in collaboration. Provide details about your marketing goals. State precisely what you are looking for and what you want to sell. Selling luxury cars at a sports station is always a hit. Schedule a meeting or phone call to discuss potential partnership opportunities and gauge the endorser’s interest.
Step 6: Negotiate and Collaborate
Finalize the partnership agreement with the radio endorser. Ensure compensation, contract duration, endorsement frequency, and exclusivity agreements are in place. Ensure that both parties have a clear understanding of expectations and deliverables. Consider including a vehicle for part of the compensation.
Step 7: Create Engaging Radio Scripts
Work with the radio endorser and their team to create engaging and memorable radio scripts that effectively promote the dealership and your offers. Lay out several ideas so the endorser has plenty of direction. Provide key messaging points, brand guidelines, and any specific creative elements to be included in the ads. Keep it fresh and ensure the endorser is authentic, not just reading a script.
Step 8: Stick With It and Monitor Performance
Track the performance of the radio endorsements by monitoring the feedback you receive personally, website traffic, and sales. Ensure your sales staff knows the relationship and invite the endorser to sales meetings. Make it a 12-month program and be patient.
Hiring a radio endorser can be a potent strategy for local car dealerships aiming to amp their brand and connect with their target audience. Radio endorsers can be your ‘superpower’ in achieving your marketing goals.
Perched high above the field in the radio broadcast booth at Yankee Stadium, John Sterling had a largely unobstructed view of a national pastime every summer. Sterling called 5,631 Yankees games over parts of 35 seasons as the radio play-by-play voice of the team – 5,420 in the regular season and 211 in the postseason – along with five World Series championships. This includes every one of Derek Jeter’s 3,465 hits, all 652 saves by Mariano Rivera and every one of Bernie Williams’ 287 career home runs.
In mid-April of this year, Sterling officially retired from the job and was honored by the organization with a pregame ceremony, messages from former players and personnel and gifts to commemorate his career.
“When a pitcher would be ready in his final inning, Mel [Stottlemyre] would tell him, ‘Empty the tank in your final inning. Empty the tank,’” Sterling recalled. “I retired because my tank is empty. I have emptied it by being on the air 64 years, so that’s why I left and I’m really happy about it.”
Sterling had signed a contract extension with WFAN, the team’s flagship radio station since 2014, to continue calling Yankees games in 2022. This came with a reduced schedule that implemented less travel on the road but still included trips to Citi Field, Fenway Park and Oriole Park at Camden Yards, along with every postseason game.
During that season, Sterling made sure to travel to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas to watch superstar outfielder Aaron Judge break the American League single-season record for home runs. This, of course, was a change for Sterling, who had been resisting calls to diminish his workload for several seasons. He had called 5,060 consecutive Yankees games and did not miss a sporting event for which he was scheduled in 38 seasons total, a streak that predates his days broadcasting in the Big Apple.
When Sterling was younger, he remembers listening to The Eddie Bracken Show on the radio, a Sunday afternoon comedy program that entertained audiences around the country. It was not Bracken, however, that stood out to him on the air. Instead, Sterling wanted to emulate the sonorant announcer who exclaimed, “Live from Hollywood, it’s The Eddie Bracken Show, along with Eddie’s special guests.” Sterling developed a resonant voice of his own and focused on doing what was necessary to make it behind the microphone.
“From that point on, I knew it was going to be on the air, and it was very important to me because I never had to worry in school – and I should have because I was a terrible student – but I knew what I was going to do,” Sterling said. “When I became an adolescent – 12, 13 – there was no question in my mind what I was going to do to make a living.”
Throughout his youth, Sterling consumed and scrutinized over various broadcasts and announcers, including Mel Allen, the former voice of the Yankees. It helped that he grew up a fan of the team and had an understanding of what he was listening to. Moreover, he learned how to equip his voice to thrive in different scenarios, something that would prove to be invaluable as his career proceeded.
“I had spent my life listening to every broadcaster I could listen to,” Sterling said. “My favorite was the then-WNEW-AM – that station was considered the darlings of Madison Avenue – and they had personalities and newscasters, and boy did I want to be on WNEW-AM.”
Although Sterling took classes at Moravian College and Boston University, he never finished his undergraduate studies after his mother passed away due to heart issues. As a result, he was left to fend for himself and ultimately returned to the classroom at Columbia University’s School of General Studies. One of those classes was taught by the program director of WNBC, in which Sterling earned an “A” grade. Soon thereafter, he compiled an audition tape and took a broadcasting job in Wellsville, N.Y. at the age of 19.
“The funny thing is it was a very small station, so the morning man got up before the crack of dawn and did the morning show,” Sterling said. “The midday guy was the general manager, so whenever he finished his show at 12 or 1 – whenever he finished it – he left to sell the merchants on the street, and my first day on the air, I was alone on the radio station. Can you imagine?”
From there, Sterling began to work at a variety of radio stations in the Northeast region of the country before landing a job as an overnight disc jockey in Providence, R.I. Once he began broadcasting in 1964 on WCBM in Baltimore, Md., he was an early adopter of new technology allowing for radio hosts to implement live callers on the air.
“I had been doing a general talk show in Baltimore on radio and TV, and I didn’t know what the heck I was talking about,” Sterling said. “I kept putting sports into it, so I finally got a little bit of a sports rep in Baltimore.”
As listeners became familiar with Sterling’s knowledge of and passion for sports, he began to elicit more opportunities in that realm despite the lack of an all-sports radio format. In particular, Sterling had been noticed by Baltimore Bullets broadcaster Jim Karvellas, and he eventually called a year of games for the team in addition to Baltimore Colts contests.
• 5,631 Yankees games called. • 2016 NY State Broadcasters Hall of Fame Inductee. • 5,060 consecutive games called from 1989-2019. • 12-time Emmy award winner.
In 1971, Sterling returned to New York City to host a sports talk show on WMCA, a heralded means of employment that he believed represented what he should be doing. Additionally, he used vacation days to fill in for Frank Messer announcing New York Knicks games on radio for two seasons, including the championship 1972-73 campaign with stars such as Walt “Clyde” Frazier, Earl Monroe and Willis Reed on the court. Even though he was situated in New York City and also called games both for the Knicks and Morgan State University college football, he perceived his program as having a broad focus.
“I wanted my show to be about everything,” Sterling said. “I wanted to talk about every team, and I had an opening like that. So [sports radio has] evolved where WFAN came in and then every single city had to have a sports talk station. It’s a very good format to combat the music.”
When WMCA became the radio home of the New York Nets in 1975, Sterling continued to host his sports talk show and also became the team’s play-by-play announcer in its final season within the American Basketball Association. The team moved to Piscataway, N.J. beginning in the 1977-78 season and became the New Jersey Nets, but Sterling still remained on the broadcasts, nonetheless. While balancing both of these roles, he was also calling New York Islanders games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island but stopped working on those broadcasts after the 1977-78 season finished.
Sterling eventually departed New York to work in Atlanta, Ga. to host a sports call-in show on WSB Radio and also began his astonishing streak of perfect attendance. This started in 1981 while calling games for the Atlanta Hawks for Turner Sports on TBS. Once the baseball season commenced, he was on the air for Atlanta Braves games and translated his panache and ebullience to baseball games.
“Let’s face it – you’re looking at one great job after another,” Sterling said. “Anyone in the business would have loved the [W]MCA thing with all the sports I did, and then I got to Atlanta and I start doing the Hawks and Braves. Who wouldn’t want that job?”
When Sterling first started broadcasting Yankees games during the 1989 season, the team featured stars such as Don Mattingly, Rickey Henderson and Dave Righetti but struggled to consistently win games. The team ended up finishing last in the American League East division with a 74-87 record and continued to have losing seasons through 1992. From that point on though, the organization did not have another year under .500 while Sterling was behind the microphone, an unprecedented run of consistent success that continues to this day.
“I live life by the seat of my pants; I broadcast by the seat of my pants,” Sterling said. “Whatever happens, happens. When you think of it, my career has been at its best when the jobs are extemporaneous. Think of it – disc-jockey shows, talk shows and play-by-play. It’s all extemporaneous, and that’s what I do best.”
The origin behind Sterling’s maelstrom of signature home run calls that have punctuated blasts by The Bronx Bombers for most of his career was merely happenstance. Over the years, baseball fans have been treated to his creative ingenuity for stars such as Aaron Judge, Robinson Canó and Curtis Granderson among others. Early in the 2024 regular season, Sterling coined the phrase, “There is a Soto photo” for home runs hit by new superstar outfielder Juan Soto, and also began to sing, “He’s Juanderful, marvelous” on the air as well.
“There was no process,” Sterling said of his calls. “Bernie Williams hit a home run and I exclaimed, ‘Bern, Baby, Bern!,’ and it kind of took off from there. It was never expected to be a cottage industry where I had to do a home run call for everyone; however, it became so popular, I should have been doing that.”
Ahead of the 2018 major-league season, the Yankees traded for Miami Marlins outfielder and reigning National League most valuable player Giancarlo Stanton, who was coming off a season where he hit .281 with 59 home runs and 132 RBIs. The trade prompted Sterling to call Berlitz, a company that provides Italian lessons and classes to those looking to learn the language, in a quest to devise a signature home run call for the new slugger. It was a rare moment where he had scripted one of the exclamations ahead of time.
“I spoke to the Italian mistress, [and] I told her I wanted a phrase,” Sterling said. “I said, ‘You probably won’t be old enough to remember this, but a phrase like, ‘Ronzoni, sono buoni,’’ and she came up with, ‘Giancarlo, non si può stoparlo!,’ which means you can’t be stopped, so that kind of worked out. Anyway, the home run calls have been kind of a fun thing, and it was very good for my career.”
Sterling makes time to listen to sports programming and keep up with the latest news, something that has been easier without his broadcasting responsibilities. With a preponderance of young players entering the league, consistent roster alterations and expanded interleague play, part of his responsibility was to stay aware of everything going on.
“As every player comes up or every pitcher or whatever, I try to give a little scouting report to give an idea of what they can do and what they can’t do,” Sterling said. “And of course, Suzyn [Waldman] is great at all that [with] finding out the background of the player. I mean, she’s phenomenal at it.”
The partnership Sterling has forged with Waldman, the first voice to be heard on WFAN when it launched in July of 1987, permeated through the airwaves for many fans listening to broadcasts. As was customary over the years they worked together, she brought him onto the air with the resounding introduction, “Stepping up to the microphone is the voice of the New York Yankees: John Sterling.” Sterling would then follow the parlance by saying, “Well, Suzyn, I thank you,” before proceeding to discuss the matchup on the field.
Sterling first met Waldman while he was filling in for Pete Franklin on WFAN after he had suffered a heart attack. As a guest host for the week, Waldman quickly observed that Sterling did the entire four-hour show standing up while placing his hand over his right ear. Working together on the Yankees radio broadcasts for parts of 19 seasons, the duo has made an indelible impact in team history, resulting in a custom-made talking bobblehead giveaway, T-shirts and other memorabilia. The synergy and rapport they shared consistently permeated through the speakers, adding to the nuanced verve and nostalgia offered through the radio medium.
“We became buddies and then we were buddies all those years when she was working for WFAN as being the [Yankees] beat reporter,” Sterling said. “The only radio station I know of that would have a beat reporter like a beat writer, and she was great at that, and I knew she’d be great as my partner and she was, so it all worked out.”
Sterling officially announced his retirement in mid-April, concluding his run of 36 seasons serving as the radio play-by-play announcer of New York Yankees baseball. In the past, he had stated that he would never retire and knew that his voice remained strong enough to continue calling the games. While he acknowledged that he was nearing the end of his career during the team’s opening homestand, the decision to move on from the job took time to actualize.
“Looking back, I have a great boss in Chris Oliviero,” Sterling said. “He’s so nice to me, so good to me. I should have told him March 1 – I knew then. I should have told him March 15 – I knew then – but I figured I have to do the final exhibition game so I’m on the air, and they were going to Houston and Arizona. So I went on that trip, and afterwards [it was], ‘I don’t want to do this anymore – I’m tired. I’ve done this long enough.’”
Sterling explained that Oliviero would have allowed him to only call the home games, a proposition that initially did not sound bad.
“I just didn’t have the desire,” Sterling said. “Like today, to get up, make myself beautiful and go to Yankee Stadium to broadcast a game – I want to sit back, lie on my bed and watch hockey, basketball and baseball together.”
While Sterling is no longer present at Yankee Stadium during games, he continues to watch the Yankees from afar, along with a variety of different sports both locally and nationally. The grandeur, erudition and devotion to the craft made him the voice of several generations of baseball fans and woven into the fabric of the 121-year history of the New York Yankees.
Although Frank Sinatra’s hit song “Theme From New York, New York” is played at the conclusion of a home game regardless if the team has won or lost, the Yankees have added a new wrinkle into the mix. Following home victories, a sound bite plays over the stadium speakers with Sterling delivering his signature call declaring a Yankees win. The gesture further cements Sterling’s enduring legacy in The Bronx and underscores the eminence, deference and veneration for which he has garnered among sports fans worldwide.
“Suzyn told me about it when they were last home, so that’s a nice thing,” Sterling said. “End of the game, ‘Yankees win! Theeeee Yankees win!,’ so if it makes them happy, it makes me happy.”
For 35 years, Tom Cuddy has set the programming tone in New York, 12 of those at 710 WOR. However, the radio veteran never wants attention or credit. He says it belongs to the different teams he has worked with over his career.
“So I believe that, if you can bring someone to the microphone who is well versed in all the issues of the day, but can also bring some humor to it to balance it out, that has worked for us,” Cuddy told Barrett News Media over a Zoom call.
His dream began as a preteen when Tom Cuddy received a tour of WBZ through a school project, “And it looked like the disc jockeys were having so much fun on the air. I said, ‘I would like to do that one day as a career.’”
By his freshman year of high school, Cuddy had his own show on a commercial radio station. He has always worked in radio since then. Some notable positions and stations he’s worked at included WPLJ-FM, overseeing programming of the ABC-owned FM stations, and was Executive Producer of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem.
It’s this very same passion he looks for in his team. “I get a lot of applications from people early in their careers that do not show passion and do not show the commitment to homework.” To be a part of the team takes a lot of work and dedication.”
Cuddy pointed to Mark Simone as one of the most dedicated people in the craft.
“Mark came to New York right out of college in the 70s, and he’s been on New York radio since the 70s, which in a business that does not promise you stability or longevity. He is one of the unique talents that has survived.”
Cuddy went on to say, “[Simone] is out every night of the week, having dinner with newsmakers, celebrities, politicians, and people whisper things in his ear that he knows that no other talk show host knows. Then he’s able to share with listeners. He is truly engulfed in this city, and he does it with a very dry sense of humor, which people enjoy.”
Tom Cuddy believes being well-read and versatile is also an important part of being in news and on the radio. Another key member of the WOR team joined just last year, News Director Larry Mendte. Cuddy has been a fan of the 97x Emmy Award winner for many years.
“So, when the opportunity popped up for him to work with Len and Michael in the Morning and all of us at WOR, I was ecstatic that we were able to bring in a talent of Larry’s caliber.” Mendte was also the original co-host of the syndicated Access Hollywood.
It’s personalities like the above that makes WOR so special and loved, but it’s not always just a passion for radio that makes a team great. It’s the collective knowledge of the group that brings so many listeners to the AM station. “When we put together our morning show, Len Berman had been successful for over 30 years as a sports anchor in, New York television, and Michael Riedel had been successful for decades as the most read Broadway columnist.”
Tom Cuddy went on to say, “So both these guys had successful careers doing something else than what they’re doing. And they both have second careers in radio as a talk show host, even though none of them had searched out.” What many of WOR’s voices have in common are dynamic personality and humor. “It’d be a boring radio station if they have a lot of cloned-sounding, personalities and people who are very similar in many ways.”
Making sure there is a variety of personalities helps appeal to many listeners but comedy is essential to keep them coming back. “Morning shows and music stations are known for their humor and comedy. Not so much on talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, who’s the biggest talk host that this format has ever had, he was very successful in trying to intersperse humor in what he does. But there’s so many talk people who host shows across the country, it’s all serious, serious, serious. So at WOR, we try to combine the two.”
Over the years Tom Cuddy has seen a technological shift in the industry, some of which has aided radio stations, like social media. “Social media, like any other tool that you have, can be misused. But I think as far as getting people’s attention, it has been a a good thing for us. We certainly have noticed it. When we post something on social media that has just happened, we’re going to delve into a breaking story or an exclusive interview. We can see, through the numbers that we can track on streaming.”
He did note others think it takes a little of the mystique of ration away. “[Before social media] you might not always known what the disc jockey looked like and now it takes a lot of that imagination away, that we had, for most of our careers.” However, he believes it is a great asset to news talk radio.
As for the future of radio, he believes technology will only help AM radio stations. “The thing that has changed in our radio industry recently is how people use it. Being in an AM radio station [we] don’t have the cumes of FM stations. AM stations have not sounded as good technically as an FM station. A lot of that is changing now with smart speakers.”
Cuddy believes another positive is streaming. “I think that’s something which has been a big positive for AM radio because if you listen on your phone it sounds as good as FM. So, that technology change, I think, has been a shot in the arm to AM radio.”
For those believing the Washington hype of discarding AM radio for other services, Tom Cuddy doesn’t believe AM radio will wither away. “I really think that AM radio will always be able to offer things that FM won’t.”
I could call it the little show that could, but that would be an insult to the talented professionals behind the scenes and in front of the camera, so let’s instead go with hidden gem. I am talking about CBS Sports HQ Spotlight on the CBS Sports Network, a daily panoply of news, analysis, interviews, commentary, and slick repartee.
While HQ Spotlight does not have the over-the-top notoriety of ESPN’s SportsCenter, its quick pace, variety of topics covered, and most of all, strength of its on-air talent, should make it appointment viewing on your sports TV roster.
On the Monday, April 29 edition, host Chris Hassel drew me in with an off the cuff, good natured teasing of co-host Amanda Guerra. Apparently, Guerra, a Dallas Stars fan, attended Game 3 of the Stars-Golden Knights NHL playoff game in Vegas and left before the overtime period. Guerra’s Stars won the game 3-2 in OT.
Hassel lightheartedly chastised Guerra for leaving the game early, but the feisty Guerra came right back at him, saying that she knew he was going to give her some back talk about it because there was no set topic in the show open script. Personally, I love it when hosts tear down that wall of perfection on a production and give viewers an inside look at the inner workings. It is in the mode of the legendary David Letterman.
Mind you, this was the start of a network sports show. There was no trite “Let’s get to the highlights” or “This is what’s happening in sports.” Instead, Hassel doubled down on the subject teasing Guerra for traveling all the way from South Florida to Las Vegas to watch her favorite team and then leaving before overtime.
Guerra looked into the camera as if to get support from the viewing audience and responded that she knew her Stars would win, plus she was in Vegas and wanted to hit the strip with her friends. Her sarcastic and casual retort was wonderful.
After the fun exchange, Guerra adeptly segued into a discussion on the Minnesota Timberwolves with CBS Sports NBA analyst and cohost of the Beyond the Arc podcast Ashley Nicole Moss. The pair focused on Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and veered into a discussion on the Phoenix Suns being swept by the Timberwolves. This was a really good exchange between Guerra and Moss.
From there, the show moved back to Hassel and an interview with NFL Draft analysts Ryan Wilson and Pete Prisco. Hassel, who joined CBS Sports in 2017 after an impressive run at ESPN, carries a tremendous on-air presence. The square jawed, blue-eyed, strong-voiced host looks the part of a TV maestro and proceeded to conduct an informative exchange with Wilson and Prisco.
I really enjoy watching Prisco’s regular turns on HQ Spotlight. He is an old school football writer who takes no guff and pulls no punches. His commentary is gritty, down to earth, and bare bones – no flash or flowering, just straight up truth.
HQ Spotlight also effectively uses graphics to back up what the personalities are discussing. It was really refreshing to be just 15 minutes into a show having already enjoyed humorous host banter, NBA playoff talk, and NFL Draft chit chat. On many Monday sports programs, the hosts are still droning on about what they did over the weekend or stuck overanalyzing the same topic.
HQ Spotlight holds a frantic yet rhythmic strength. Hassel and Guerra effectively move things along with insightful commentary, lively debate, and pure enjoyment for the audience. Hassel continued the pigskin parlance talking with former NFL defensive lineman Leger Douzable about rookies who could make an instant impact for their respective teams in 2024.
Again, efficiency was the watchword as Hassel and Douzable offered deep and solid information in a relatively short segment. I learned something without the conversation dragging on ad nauseum. Hassle is a dominating presence on the screen, combining wit and wisdom in the mode of Rich Eisen.
Guerra provided some quick-hitting headlines on NFL signings as well as golf highlights from the Zurich Classic adding another sport covered in less than a half hour of viewing. In addition to Guerra and Hassel, HQ Spotlight features some really interesting commentators ably plying their wares. Joining Moss to talk more NBA hoops were Tim Doyle and Chris Walker. They brought personality, enthusiasm, and knowledge to the table, and I really liked listening to their different points of view.
It might not seem important, but the talents on HQ Spotlight really seem to truly like each other. This was evident at the top of the show with the Hassel-Guerra back and forth and runs throughout the production. At one point, Walker said he had to remove his glasses because they were steaming up due to the hot takes from Moss and Doyle.
The mingling of technology and talent on HQ Spotlight is excellent. As the panelists are dolling out knowledge, well placed graphics support their words with lists and stats. While Hassel may be the backbone of the show, Guerra is unquestionably the heart and soul. Her effervescence and smile absolutely explode through the screen.
She is smart, quick-witted, and can dish out the sass as well as take it. There’s just a real comfort to her performance. She welcomes viewers into the conversation and holds them with her ability to ask the right questions. Her clear enjoyment of what she is doing is contagious.
Guerra is also sly and funny. She was in the middle of a conversation about the Chicago Bears with Wilson when Hassel interjected with an unrelated anecdote about Bears QB Caleb Williams and punter Tory Taylor. The thought was oddly irrelevant, and Guerra snidely replied, “OK, do you want to do the segment with Ryan?” Loved it.
As I kept watching HQ Spotlight, I realized that this afternoon sports cavalcade was quite the unexpected pleasure. Draft expert Wilson provided a tour de force on this episode not only dissecting this year’s picks but providing an early look at his 2025 NFL Draft big board with Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders at the top of the list.
Todd Fuhrman joined the program to talk NHL playoff hockey and some betting odds, and once again, the daring Guerra went off script and let the audience in on some inside info. She said that she had two complaints about Fuhrman.
First, she blamed him for telling Hassel that she left the Stars-Golden Knights game early, and second, she revealed that Fuhrman had promised to meet her at the arena wine bar after the second period and was a no show.
Fuhrman tried to wiggle out of it and obviously, Hassel was listening. The show closed the way it opened with Hassel joshing Guerra about going to a wine bar at a hockey game. Guerra took a breath, smiled, and deadpanned the all-important question, “What’s wrong with having wine at a hockey game?”
All due respect to Hassel, Guerra wins this one. I mean, you’re in Vegas. Leave the game early and drink anything you want anywhere you want. That’s a definite, as is my total recommendation to check out HQ Spotlight on CBS Sports Network. It is an all-encompassing look at the news of the day with hosts who understand the fun of sports and pass this fun along to viewers. Find it, watch it, or just head to a hockey arena wine bar near you and toast it.
After just sixteen months, iHeartMedia has silenced upstart Dallas talk station 97.1 The Freak, featuring hosts like Mike Rhyner, and flipped it back to its previous rock incarnation, The Eagle. It was, as I’ve said of mega radio corporations far too often in recent years, shocking but not surprising.
When I arrived in Dallas from L.A. 12 years ago I found a refreshing news and talk radio landscape. Though Dallas-Fort Worth is the fifth largest market in America there was nothing slick or big-time sounding about it. The stations that commanded the most attention from listeners were deeply rooted in North Texas. Local talkers and news personalities were (and still are) mostly homegrown and it showed. For a newcomer, it required some quick catching up but provided me with a rapid initiation into the club.
Texans are known for a lot of silly stereotypes but their reputation for open-hearted friendliness and a welcoming, can-do spirit are real. As a California transplant, it was exciting but sometimes baffling.
“It was very parochial, very insiderish; for some reason, I can’t put my finger on all of that made it more appealing.”
That’s Texas radio Hall-of-Famer Mike Rhyner, talking about the beginning of sports talk radio in Dallas-Ft. Worth 30 years ago. In that time KTCK has since won four Marconi Awards as the Best Sports Station in America.
The Ticket was borne of Rhyner’s vision and created by him with his homeboys, many of whom still work there today. In his 26 years at the Ticket, the Old Grey Wolf as he is called presided over a cast of local personalities who had their early doubts but believed in him. He swiftly led them to the top of the ratings, where they have remained unchallenged since. In January of 2020 Rhyner, approaching his 70th birthday, decided he’d done it all and announced his retirement.
I asked him if it was really retirement or if was it a sly Old Grey Fox stalking a new opportunity.
“At the time it was, it was retirement. I mean, I didn’t make one phone call trying to get another gig. I didn’t talk to one person. I’d stayed in touch somewhat with some of the guys from back in the day, but I didn’t, not once did I say, man, I’d really like to get back into it or anything like that. That changed when the opportunity to do The Freak came along.”
Two years later he was back doing afternoons on iHeart’s 97.1 in Dallas, newly branded as The Freak. His old friends, Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade had convinced iHeart to switch the station to their new style of talk, upbeat, fun, and honest, heavy on local, relatable lifestyles. They brought in several popular local personalities and finally convinced Rhyner to join them.
iHeart believed and supported them until they didn’t, just over a year later.
On my Conversations.buzz podcast this past Monday I asked Rhyner about the too-sudden surrender by the corporation. I said it takes a long time to create and grow an audience in talk. Rhyner agreed.
“If you’re going to get into talk radio you’ve got to have the stomach for the fight. Once they (corporations) get in there they realize there is much, much more to it than they had ever imagined. They lose whatever stomach for the fight they thought they had. The bottom line is you never get the time you really need.”
A quick aside to make the point: this past week the Radio Hall of Fame announced its list of 2024 candidates, including John Kobylt and Ken Champiou, who worked together for 36 years. It took more than three years for them to earn their following at KFI, Los Angeles. When they got there they never looked back.
In 16 months the Freak in Dallas was just finding its stride. The personalities were fresh, engaged, prepared, and focused. They talked about everything except politics. Sports is a big deal in Dallas, and so is entertainment, and lifestyle. They talked about it all and did so with solid information and engaging professionalism.
The word was out. The audience was growing. But not fast enough for iHeartRadio, which is a disingenuous name for a company that should be called iHeartFastProfits.
Mike Rhyner is a wise Old Grey Wolf. He’s been around long enough to know there’s nothing to be gained by biting the hand that once fed him.
“I’ve been reenergized by this (the Freak). I enjoyed doing radio again and would really like for something to pop up but if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too. Ya know? I’ve had more fun and better times in this game than most. And if nothing pops up for me henceforth I’ll just take my toys and go home and look back and say, ‘It’s been a good ‘un.’”
Of iHeart’s swift execution of the Freak, he is philosophically diplomatic: “We were brought on board to do a job there and we just didn’t get it done.”
To which I add, of course not. You were still hiking up the trail. iHeart hired you and then cut you loose before you could reach the summit. After reading the latest bean count the jury in the boardroom reached a verdict: The Freak was an unproven asset; cut the overhead.
Skeptical and even derisive at first I came around to love the Freak. It was becoming the station of my professional dreams.
More from the Old Grey Wolf:
“Yeah, there are a lot of things that I really did like about it. And make no mistake, I’m not thrilled with what happened and the way it all came down but I think we had a really good product. I think we did some really good radio.
“I know we don’t have the ratings* to substantiate that but as I would make my way around town, I had so many people come up and tell me that they liked it. It was neat to hear that.”
(*The most recent Nielsen ratings show the Freak, KEGL, with the second-highest talk station ranking among five in the DFW Metroplex. All except The Freak, the new kid, have been jostling for position for many years.)
Rhyner continues:
“I do think that we connected with a whole lot of people out there. And I do think that what we did is viable. And I do think that if there is some way that somebody a little bit more equipped, a little better equipped to take on such an endeavor ever wanted to again, then I’d love that.”
I do think we haven’t heard the end of Mike Rhyner in North Texas.
Rhyner’s crew of superb professionals now adrift are a homegrown radio dream team waiting to be enticed into a new chance and a promise: three or four years and a commitment to marketing, guaranteed.
It’s severe weather season across the Heartland of America. For millions of Americans, springtime brings thunderstorms, hail, strong winds, and yes, occasional tornadoes. Last weekend, there were 250 tornado warnings across the United States, mostly stretching from north Texas up to Nebraska, in the most intense severe weather outbreak of 2024 thus far. This should have reminded large and small market radio stations that we are often the lifeline for our audience during these severe weather events.
Specifically, as a News/Talk station, you will be expected to be a go-to resource for those traveling in their vehicles or at home if they’ve lost power and/or can’t access a television.
While it’s ideal to have a plan in place before the spring weather starts its instability, it’s never too late to reevaluate that plan and ensure your station is fully equipped to provide the listening audience with the best coverage possible.
First, depending on market size, have a strong TV partner you trust. This is the easiest way to access severe weather coverage. As long as you have someone capable of potting up your TV partner’s coverage, you can run their coverage for as long as you’d like. And this is better than putting someone on the air who has never done severe weather coverage, or who doesn’t know the market and geography of the region. If you’re not entirely confident in the person who is about to crack the mic to cover properly, then don’t even think twice. Use your TV partner.
I’ve bounced around radio stations throughout the Midwest recently and heard some horrendous weather coverage. Anchors and hosts mixing up counties, state lines, tornado watches vs. warnings, and more. They were disasters. Anchors on air admitting they can’t tell two counties apart. While you’re showing off your lack of geographical knowledge, listeners are turning to you to be experts to tell them whether or not they, and/or their families, are in harm’s way. And I’ll add that this example was in a sizable enough market that they likely had access to wall-to-wall TV coverage. There was no reason to keep the clueless on air to guess.
But plenty of small markets across the midwest may not have proper TV coverage, depending on their location. I experienced this early in my radio career in Woodward, Oklahoma. Oklahoma City television stations would do a decent job but not a great job covering the listening area.
As a result, every on-air staffer at K101 Radio was required to be able to handle severe weather coverage. That meant learning how to read radar, learn the counties in the region like the back of your hand, and understand the different warnings and watches while delivering the information to your audience concisely and coherently. The expectations of the late, great J. Douglas Williams were high.
Still, he knew the importance of being able to relay life-saving information to his audience in Northwest Oklahoma, Southwest Kansas, and the Texas panhandle, where his station was the go-to outlet for severe weather coverage.
While staffs are thin across radio, it’s not an excuse not to have a staff prepared for severe weather during the springtime in the Midwest. And it’s never an excuse not to cover life-threatening weather for your audience. It can be an excellent cume draw, no matter the time of day, and help build trust between your station and the listeners in your market.
Radio is losing audience share, just like all traditional media is, but one of the best ways to get it back is to quite literally “be there” for people when their lives are, or could be, at risk. It’s one of the great tools that separates radio from every other medium, and leaning into that for our competitive advantage only makes sense to remain viable well into the future.
Major League Baseball has been looking for a new partner for Sunday morning baseball and according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, they may have found it in Roku. ‘MLB Sunday Leadoff’ aired previously on Peacock and while the report says they were interested in retaining the programming, they were only willing to do so at 1/3 of the $30 million per year they had been paying.
Should a deal happen, Marchand says the games would be produced by MLB Network. Last season, the package of games started on Peacock in late April and ran until early September.
WFAN afternoon host Tiki Barber stopped by the WIP studios in Philadelphia today to chat up his old boss Spike Eskin along with Ike Reese and Jason Fritz who together host 94WIP Afternoons. Eskin was the programming boss at WFAN before recently moving back to Philadelphia to host the afternoon show. Barber is in Philadelphia to attend Knicks-Sixers Game 6 with New York leading the series three games to two.
After talking about the game and the series, as well as some football, Ike Reese asked Barber about his relationship with a few people he had been in the news for having feuds with. A couple of months ago, Ryan Clark of ESPN had been critical of Barber for comments he had made about Saquon Barkley and his departure from the New York Giants when he signed a three-year deal with the Eagles.
Barber had previosuly suggested it was preposterous for Barkley to even consider playing for the Eagles due to the rivalry between the two franchises. When Barkley did join the hated rival, Barber claimed the NFL star was “dead” to him.
When talking about what Barber had said about Barkley, Clark said on an episode of The Pivot podcast, “Tiki taught me what I didn’t want to be as a veteran. Tiki taught me how you don’t make a young player feel welcome, how you don’t make a young player feel like this could one day be his team. The way he made me feel as a young rookie and a second-year player, I said I don’t ever want to be that dude. And he’s continued to be that person.”
Ike Reese asked Barber, “Have you made up?”
“I haven’t talked to Saquon; I don’t have his number. But I saw Ryan Clark and we made up.”
“You and Ryan Clark made up? That’s good, because y’all are two of my favorites,” Reese said “I love Ryan and he does a great job on ESPN, but he was a little bit out of line.”
“He was commenting on something that he wasn’t a party to,” Barber responded.
PENN Entertainment reported its first quarter results on Thursday, the first full quarter with ESPN BET as part of its content portfolio. The company inked a 10-year, $1.5 billion deal with The Walt Disney Company to rebrand its betting vertical from Barstool Sports to ESPN, and is eventually looking to yield as much as 20% share of the total addressable domestic online sports betting market in the next four years.
As it pertains to ESPN BET specifically, the interactive segment had revenues of $207.7 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $196 million. Upon reporting the quarterly earnings, PENN Entertainment stock fell by as much as 15% and closed the day down 8.76% overall at $15 per share. The earnings report comes a week after the company announced the addition of Aaron LaBerge as its chief technology officer after spending more than two decades with The Walt Disney Company.
“Our property level performance showed resilience this quarter, with stable trends continuing into April following portfolio-wide severe weather through mid-February,” Jay Snowden, chief executive officer and president of PENN Entertainment, said in a statement. “Meanwhile, ESPN BET continues to drive strong top of funnel demand due to the reach and affinity for the ESPN brand, which led to record online sports betting handle and iCasino gross gaming revenue in the quarter. However, Interactive segment results were negatively impacted primarily by unfavorable hold from major sporting events.
“We look forward to unveiling additional product enhancements and unique media integrations with ESPN ahead of the 2024 football season. Our improved online product offering will help engage, reactivate, and retain our expanding database, while also advancing our strategy to create a highly differentiated experience for sports fans and sports bettors.”
Pat McAfee, who licenses his eponymous afternoon show to ESPN to distribute on linear and digital platforms, was in the midst of another discussion when an ESPN BET advertisement came onto the screen. This led McAfee to state that things are “going great here,” proceeding one of the other show contributors to reply by saying “Not.” McAfee then acknowledged that ESPN BET had been “knocked down” and was encouraging the property to come back, preceded by a remark that the “truth [had] come out.”
“Legit, good luck, pulling for it, because we are on ESPN and obviously we’re a part of ESPN so we would like ESPN stuff to succeed,” McAfee said. “Now granted, ESPN BET, I don’t think ESPN people are running the book. I think it’s somebody with a whole thing. With that being said, let’s go. You got ESPN on – come on.”
McAfee said that it was the fault of show videographer Evan Fox for putting the ESPN BET graphic on the screen since it was something he did not expect. Even though McAfee explained that they never met anyone from the company, presumably referring to PENN Entertainment, he believed that the platform would be fine and concluded the discussion with a round of applause that they would be able to figure it out.
