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How Radio Sellers Can Be the Solution For Small Business Owners

Jeff Caves
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The landscape for small business owners is rife with challenges, often leading to a cloud of negativity about their future. Radio sellers can be a ray of light.

The September NFIB Small Business Optimism Index reveals that 57% of these entrepreneurs do not expect improved business conditions in the next six months.

Despite improvement in their outlook from last year, this pessimism is still at recession levels. The majority of small-to-medium businesses are concerned with Top of Form inflation and labor shortages. We must get on The Energy Bus and help turn these negatives into positives.

The survey conducted among small business owners laid down the reasons for their negs:

Economic Uncertainty: A significant percentage expressed concerns about the unpredictable economic landscape, making strategic planning and decision-making difficult.

Inflationary Pressures: The rising costs and inflationary trends have worried them about maintaining profit margins and sustaining operations.

Labor Shortages or Quality of Labor: Finding and retaining quality employees amidst the ongoing labor shortage has emerged as a considerable challenge, affecting business operations and growth prospects.

In the face of these challenges, putting on a positive perspective can become a guiding light for SMBs.

See the Concerns and Offer Support

Address Their Worries: Acknowledge their concerns about the uncertain economic climate, rising costs, and labor challenges. Don’t let them drag on and on about it. But make sure to show some empathy and understanding towards their situation. If appropriate, share experiences of other station clients’ challenges and how your solutions or products have helped them navigate similar situations. Watch their ears perk up when they realize they are not the only business having issues.

Be a Partner: Position yourself as a partner rather than just a salesperson. Offer insights and strategies you have heard or read about that can help them navigate through these challenges. Be well-read and a resource for change.

Present Solutions

Highlighting the Power of Radio Advertising: Showcase how your proposal can boost visibility, reach target audiences cost-effectively, and drive sales. Ensure you have a few different price point proposals that fit their budget. Don’t tell them to spend their way to success, especially on credit cards.

Success Stories: Share success stories of businesses similar to theirs that overcame challenges through effective radio marketing. Demonstrate how strategic advertising helped these businesses thrive despite economic uncertainties. This is your most powerful ally, and you must ask all the salespeople to share any success you can pass along.

Instilling Hope and Encouragement

Inspire Positive Vibes:  Share uplifting anecdotes and stories of resilience to inspire hope and instill optimism in small business owners. Emphasize that challenges are temporary and can be overcome with the right strategies and a positive mindset. Recall how you watched businesses go through the same thing 2007-09. Please read up on those stories and pass them along.

Continued Support and Engagement: Maintain regular communication and send them stories you find. Stay engaged and offer hope by consistently being there for them.

The concerns SMBs have are valid. There is no argument there. However, amidst this negativity, we can play a transformative role. Before you go down this road, make sure you find the things to believe about why this business will succeed.

Focus on those positives. You are the person who is on the street dealing with dozens of local SMBs just like them. You are the voice of reason. Your positivity and support can drive their renewed optimism, and you will forever be seen as part of the Solution, not the problem.

Dan Le Batard on Sports Betting and Journalism: ‘We’re All in This Changing Game’

BSM Staff
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As sports betting continues to assimilate itself into the sports media space, questions surrounding the ethics around gambling for media professionals are continuing to be asked. League insiders such as Adrian Wojnarowski, Shams Charania and Adam Schefter are privy to information before it is released to the public, wherefore their decisions would not be seen as objective per se; that is, according to on-air host Dan Le Batard.

On Thursday’s edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, Le Batard began a discussion about the relationship between gambling and journalism. As a former member of ESPN, Le Batard has seen the launch of ESPN BET, a company-branded betting platform being operated by PENN Entertainment in 17 different states around the country.

Mandating that a large swath of people cannot bet on sporting events can be difficult to enforce because some people are more apt to break rules and engage in the practices regardless. For example, news of LeBron James’ business manager, Maverick Carter, admitting to using an illegal bookie to bet on basketball and football games in a federal investigation in 2021 was reported last week by The Washington Post.

“The integrity of the results – even though we’re talking about the refs every day and they have a disproportionate impact on the games – the integrity of the results have to be something you trust,” Dan Le Batard said. “Ultimately – and this is weird for gambling to have been in the shadows and illegal and shamed for a long time – you have to trust that nobody has insider information that’s illegal to have gathered, and so you have to spread a blanket around a lot of employees.”

Jeremy Tache added to the conversation, saying that an interesting aspect related to the entire ordeal is how Wojnarowski and Charania do not share social media posts affirming that a player is about to be selected in the NBA Draft. Instead, they use more vague, ambiguous language that implies that the pick is likely, but far from a guarantee.

Charania moved betting lines last year when he posted on Twitter that Scoot Henderson was “gaining serious momentum” at No. 2 with the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA Draft. In the end, the Hornets drafted Brandon Miller, allowing the Portland Trail Blazers to take Henderson third overall. “FanDuel is not privy to any news that Shams breaks on his platforms,” the company said in a statement to Action Network after backlash.

“That ultimately can heavily influence the way that people are gambling because the lines don’t change instantly on who’s going to go to what time,” Tache said. “That’s the stuff where we saw ESPN sort of institute, ‘Hey Woj, you can’t tweet out draft picks before they’re actually made,’ but I wonder how much that actually had to do with gambling more so than even spoiling the draft for people.”

The reason Le Batard started the conversation was because of Meadowlark Media’s content and distribution deal with DraftKings Network. Matt Barnes’ and Stephen Jackson’s All The Smoke Productions recently inked a contract with the two entities as well, bringing their popular podcast, All The Smoke, and other programming to the platform. Le Batard’s program is also now available to watch using the new Bleacher Report Sports Add-On through Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max streaming service.

“There are so many impeachments on integrity that can come from so many angles,” Le Batard said. “Never mind just referees; it’s everybody now. We’re all in this changing game [where] something that has been stigmatized is now legalized, and we all play by a set of rules that are different for me [and] that are different for you.”

Mike Ryan Ruiz, producer of the program, argued that regulation pertaining to sports gambling is a good thing, conveying how several leagues themselves have demarcated the behavior. The NFL has issued suspensions to players for gambling, along with college football – perhaps most noticeably surrounding the Iowa and Iowa State sports betting scandal. The action of wagering on games has seamlessly assimilated into a penchant for sports fans, and more advertising and convenience projects the industry to further boost these companies.

Determining how to keep the objectivity of journalism and subjectivity of wagering disparate is an ostensible reason why employees at media outlets are limited in these practices. Moreover, Dan Le Batard insinuated that an athlete could do a friend favors by prioritizing how they play for monetary gain, something Ruiz pointed out has been happening all over Europe and that the sports world is dealing with.

“Yes, it’s more accessible now, but gambling scandals are as old as sports are – be it Black Sox; be it Pete Rose,” Ruiz said. “This is something that sports have always had to navigate, and it’s actually easier now with their league partners playing ball with them.”

Dan Bernstein: Media Reaction to MLB Winter Meetings Outrageous

BSM Staff
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The MLB Winter Meetings have come and gone, without the sport’s biggest fish — Shohei Ohtani — being caught by any one team. Several MLB writers shared their displeasure with the lack of movement by players at the meetings, which dumbfounded 670 The Score host Dan Bernstein.

During Bernstein & Holmes Thursday, Dan Bernstein shared his sentiment that the expectations from MLB national media members bordered on ridiculous.

”So many people had a problem with (the Winter Meetings). ‘Do something! Entertain us! Do something!’ and this whole group of seemingly unionized national reporters are echoing this ‘How dare that not do something!’ (sentiment),” Bernstein said. “Other sports have a salary cap. That’s the difference. And if you’re advocating for MLB to have a salary cap, you’re doing Rob Manfred’s work for him, and that doesn’t make any sense.”

After co-host Laurence Holmes mentioned that a player making a decision on their future home required due diligence and time, Dan Bernstein continued by claiming that the idea that Ohtani needed to pick a destination during the Winter Meetings to appease the national media showed a lack of empathy from reporters.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me. How dare Shohei Ohtani be careful and deliberate and exercise power when he’s the most powerful person in baseball right now,” said Bernstein. “He’s deciding his professional future. How dare he! What does he owe you?”

Boomer Esiason: Joe Benigno Was Just Doing His Job

BSM Staff
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Boomer Esiason: Joe Benigno Was Just Doing His Job

Former WFAN host Joe Benigno continues to make headlines after he revealed sensitive text messages he had with New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh. Despite the controversy, Boomer Esiason believes Benigno was simply doing what was necessary.

After Boomer & Gio played a clip of Saleh saying he “still likes Joe B.”, Esiason argued that Benigno was doing his job by revealing that Saleh “didn’t like” Jets quarterback Zach Wilson.

When fill-in update anchor Chris Lo Presti pointed out that Saleh wouldn’t call Benigno by name — referring to him as “Joe B.” — Esiason said “That’s cause everyone knows who he is”.

“Good for Joe B. for letting everyone know who he is,” Esiason said. “That was his job. And I guess still is his job to some point. But man, I would think that Rob Saleh was pretty floored by all of that, I’d imagine.”

Co-host Gregg Giannotti agreed, questioning if Jets owner Woody Johnson spoke to Saleh about ceasing texting with the former WFAN host.

After originally revealing the text messages, Benigno has shared he wishes he hadn’t mentioned the comments made by Saleh in private. He later clarified that he took the coach’s statements out of context and misinterpreted them.

New Sports Illustrated Owner to Staffers: ‘No One is Important’

BSM Staff
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Following reports of artificial intelligence writing articles for Sports Illustrated and posting them under human pseudonyms, there have been changes pertaining to the executive leadership of its parent company. The Arena Group’s chief operating officer Andrew Kraft and president of media Rob Barrett have been fired, which took place before a conference call with company staff on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Michael McCarthy and A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports, the protracted conversation lasted more than 90 minutes and featured majority owner Manoj Bhargava, who also owns 5-hour Energy. Sources told Front Office Sports that the departures of Kraft and Barrett, however, were unrelated to the AI report from Futurism.

Throughout the call, Bhargava emphasized that he has control over Sports Illustrated and other outlets owned by The Arena Group. This came after the Sports Illustrated Union released a statement that conveyed how writers were “horrified” by the Futurism article and demanded “answers and transparency” from its parent company.

The Arena Group laid off 17 employees earlier in the year as Sports Illustrated looks to solidify a transition from print to digital media, which included a 21% growth in the sector within its third quarter earnings report. Moreover, the company’s sports properties reached the No. 2 sport in the Comscore sports properties rankings on the quarter, something it called “a milestone achievement for the brand.” It was concurrent with a 600,000-follower increase on social media during the quarter as well. Nonetheless, comments from Bhargava revealed his thoughts on the publication, which included a plea for employees to “stop doing dumb stuff.”

“No one is important,” Bhargava said to staffers, according to what a source told Front Office Sports. “I am not important…. The amount of useless stuff you guys do is staggering.”

After the meeting, The Arena Group provided a statement to Front Office Sports about what transpired and the nature of Bhargava’s involvement in the discussion. Furthermore, the source stated that no mention of the Futurism article was made over the course of the meeting.

“Today, Manoj [Bhargava] conducted a virtual town hall and spoke with the staff of The Arena Group, and took questions,” The Arena Group said in a statement. “Also today, some adjustments to the business have been made to improve the efficiency and revenue, and also some changes to senior management have been made.”

Bhargava, under his venture capital company Simplify Inventions, purchased a 65% stake in The Arena Group for $50 million, along with a five-year, $65 million advertising pact. The Arena Group was previously known as TheMaven, Inc., and consists of more than 265 media brands within the categories of lifestyle, finance and sports. As part of the deal, Bridge Media Networks, a Simplify Inventions subsidiary, was also added under The Arena Group portfolio, and Simplify Inventions also received $25 million of preferred stock in the Sports Illustrated parent company.

Anthony Lima: People Will Watch NFL Games No Matter Who the Quarterbacks Are

BSM Staff
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Anthony Lima: People Will Watch NFL Games No Matter Who the Quarterbacks Are

As the NFL begins week 14 with a Thursday Night Football matchup that pits a pair of backup quarterbacks against one another, 92.3 The Fan morning hosts Ken Carman and Anthony Lima agree it doesn’t matter who’s under center, fans will still be tuning in.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are slated to face the New England Patriots as Mitch Trubisky and Baily Zappe will start at quarterback for each team. During The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima Thursday, the hosts agreed they’ll still watch the broadcast.

“Do you think fans are bored by the league with this or are they more interested?,” Carman asked, referencing the Steelers-Patriots matchup.

“Well the ratings don’t show that,” Lima said. “The ratings show that people are going to watch no matter who the quarterbacks are; no matter how bad the teams are.”

Indeed for its Week 13 Thursday night game, Amazon Prime Video recorded an all-time high average of 15.26 million viewers, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. The matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and Dallas Cowboys marked the 11th consecutive week of year-over-year, double-digit viewership growth for the property, and helped engender a 29% increase from last year’s 11-week average viewership.

Carman offered an analogy pertaining to wrestling, conveying how many people are interested in the sport when they are younger. He enjoyed the sport in his youth but it then began to phase out until he went to middle school and became interested again. These phases, however, do not seem to apply when it comes to the game of football.

“We line up for years,” Carman said of football. “There’s people who haven’t missed Monday Night Football no matter what incarnation [it is] for 30+ years. Is it an enjoyable thing to sell all the quarterbacks down?”

Lima is cognizant of what has happened at the quarterback position this year and feels that it makes him want to watch a game less, affirming that the starters on Thursday night will need to earn his attention.

“I think I’ll give it a quarter,” Lima said. “I might even be a little late… [but] I’ll put it on and see where the game’s at.”

ACC Network Adds Chelsea Gray as Women’s Basketball Analyst

BSM Staff
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ACC Network Adds Chelsea Gray as Women’s Basketball Analyst

ACC Network just added another talent to its growing roster, this time adding three-time WNBA champion and former Duke Blue Devil Chelsea Gray as a women’s college basketball analyst.

Gray will make her ACC Network debut on Sunday, Dec. 10 when her alma mater takes on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles live at Cameron Indoor Stadium at noon E.T.

“I’m honored to be coming back home to the ACC,” Gray said. “This conference proves its greatness year after year and I’m thrilled to be a part of it again.”

This won’t be Gray’s first rodeo when it comes to live game analysis. During the 2021-22 season, Gray was a key member of ACCN’s Nothing But Net studio coverage. She also called seven regular season games and three NCAA Tournament games throughout the year.

Along with her on-screen duties, Gray still plays as a member of the Las Vegas Aces, where she helped guide the team to back-to-back WNBA Championships in 2022 and 2023.

“We are very excited to welcome Chelsea back to the ACC Network as a game analyst. She’s competed and won championships at the highest level so her experience and knowledge of the game will be such an asset to our already strong women’s basketball coverage,” said Sara Gaiero, vice president of production at ESPN.

Fred Toucher: What Did Joe Benigno Think Would Happen By Revealing Robert Saleh Texts?

BSM Staff
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Fred Toucher: What Did Joe Benigno Think Would Happen By Revealing Robert Saleh Texts?

Earlier this week, former WFAN host Joe Benigno raised eyebrows by revealing that New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh “doesn’t like” quarterback Zach Wilson. 98.5 The Sports Hub morning host Fred Toucher was dumbfounded by the entire situation.

During his morning show Thursday, Toucher questioned the motive behind Benigno sharing the text exchange, saying the former New York host “crossed the line” by revealing the coach’s texts.

“So what is it what is Joe Benigno thinks gonna happen? He comes on the air, he says he’s texting with Robert Saleh. He’s not lying,” said Toucher. “So if you’re Robert Saleh, you have this maniac old man texting you… You gotta be like ‘Alright dude, thanks. I shared with you my vulnerability and this is how you pay me back, you unempathetic prick. I expressed vulnerability to you, I showed you that I was concerned.'”

Fred Toucher did note that he actually likes Benigno and considers him a friend of the program, despite calling him a “psycho”.

“He’s an old guy. He’s a big-time Jets fan. Like, he loves the jets. Like really, really loves (the Jets),” Toucher said. “He’s on Zoom and he looks like he’s in his bedroom from like 1962. It looks like a little kid’s bedroom. There’s Jonathan Vilma jersey, it’s like tacked up hastily.”

Toucher concluded by noting he felt bad for Saleh, and hoped the revelation from Benigno didn’t cost him his job.

Scott Kaplan: Chris Russo is Too Famous to Be Fired by ESPN

BSM Staff
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The Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes have captured the interest and allure of the baseball world. While many baseball fans want to know the latest news and information surrounding Ohtani’s free agency, there is a reported desire from Ohtani’s camp to keep negotiations quiet. In fact, it was reportedly revealed that it will be held against teams involved if they leak any details of the free agency to the media, much to the chagrin of Chris Russo.

On Wednesday’s edition of First Take on ESPN, Russo had an impassioned reaction towards the mystique and enigma surrounding Ohtani. Russo feels that anyone who will pay him $600 million “needs their heads examined.” The reaction continued by reminding viewers that the Los Angeles Angels, Ohtani’s team throughout his career, only won 73 games last year and that he provided no explanation when leaving the team with 25 games to go following his injury.

The moment that circulated across social media on Wednesday though was when Chris Russo questioned if Ohtani’s free agency was similar to the atomic bomb. Being from Japan, the country with cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were subjected to the atomic bomb by the United States in 1945 during World War II, many people felt his remarks were insensitive and presumptuous in scope.

“What is this, the atomic bomb?,” Russo asked. “We’re not allowed to find out? This is baseball – he’s a celebrity – this is what it’s about. This is stupid that somehow, some way if you reveal that you had a breakfast with Ohtani, you should be basically thrown out with the bath water.”

“I don’t think I would drop a flag on that one,” replied D’Marco Farr, filling in as a co-host on Sedano & Kap on ESPN LA 710 on Wednesday afternoon. “I think that’s okay.”

Farr continued that he felt it was a good rant from Mad Dog, agreeing with much of what he had to say outside of the reference to the atomic bomb. Farr then asked whether or not Chris Russo thought about his historical reference before making his comments on First Take.

“I kind of think he didn’t just come up with atomic bomb and World War II talking about this particular Japanese baseball player,” co-host Scott Kaplan said. “I think Russo is so famous and so rich and so visible that I doubt ESPN is going to come back and go, ‘Hey, that was really offensive to a lot of people; we’re getting a lot of complaints. You’re fired.’”

“That’s what Russo does,” Farr added, “but yeah, it’s not that I don’t disagree with most of what he said. It is kind of annoying.”

Nick Kayal: We Have to Promote App Heavily Due to Future of AM Radio Concerns

BNM Staff
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The AM for Every Vehicle Act faced opposition in the Senate this week, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) standing in the way of its unanimous passage. 1210 WPHT morning host Nick Kayal has shared that the station will continue to heavily push users to download the Audacy app until the concerns about AM Radio’s future are resolved.

“Mandating that all cars have AM radio is antithetical to any notion of limited government,” said Paul on the floor of the U.S. Senate earlier this week. “The debate over free speech, as listed in the First Amendment, is that government shall pass no law. It has nothing to do with forcing your manufacturer to have AM radio. This legislation attempts to insert Congress’s judgment into a question best decided by American consumers.”

During Kayal and Company, the Philadelphia-based host argued that his current career is in the hands of automakers and the government with the AM For Every Vehicle Act in limbo. He angled for the inclusion of the band and the passage of the bill, before noting that the station is essentially forced to push the Audacy app on listeners due to concerns about the future of AM radio.

“You talk about TV, you talk about satellite radio, you talk about podcasts, and we were told all of these things would be the thing that puts the final nail in the coffin for terrestrial radio as we know it. And it’s not true,” said Nick Kayal. “It’s the car companies and the government that have the most power to actually impact what the three of us do for a living, and what you out there in ‘Radioland’ listen to.”

Kayal continued by noting the company’s app is a bulletproof way to ensure listeners can still get the content they seek.

“Which is why I think, to some extent, is one of the reasons why (1210 WPHT Program Director) Greg Stocker is always begging for you to download the app and subscribe to it as if they yanked the radio out of your car with the new computerized stuff that we see in these awesome vehicles today. You can still download the app and listen with your Bluetooth in your car.

“That’s one of the big reasons why we push the Audacy app. Because maybe one day, hopefully long after I’m dead and gone and made enough money to retire in this career, maybe AM Radio really is gone, and it all is app-based. And that’s why we push it so much.”

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