KCMO Talk Radio has announced it is adding a nearly 100,000-Watt FM signal to bolster its presence in the Kansas City market.
The Cumulus-owned station will now be heard on KCHZ 95.7 FM in addition to 710 AM. The new signal covers the entire market, and will also cover the Eastern portion of the Topeka market.
KCMO will also feature a new daily lineup. The final two hours of The Dan Bongino Show will air live from 12-2 PM in Kansas City. The station’s lineup also includes two local shows, Pete Mundo in mornings from 6-10 AM, and Ray Stevens from 10 AM-12 PM.
The station lineup will look as follows:
12:00am-5:00am Red Eye Radio
5:00am-6:00am Fox News Rundown
6:00am-10:00am Pete Mundo Mornings
10:00am-12:00pm Ray Stevens
12:00pm-2:00pm Dan Bongino
2:00pm-3:00pm Ben Shapiro
3:00pm-5:00pm The Dave Ramsey Show
5:00pm-8:00pm Mark Levin
8:00pm-9:00pm Matt Walsh Show
9:00pm-10:00pm Dan Bongino Bonus Hour
10:00pm-12:00am Chris Plante
Commenting on the move, Donna Baker, Regional Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Kansas City, said: “Today Cumulus Kansas City completes the market transformation of our dominant cluster. With recent moves for Kansas City’s Hip Hop and R&B – now Power 105.1, 107.3 The Vibe All The Hits, and now adding 95.7 FM to the simulcast of 710 AM and 103.7 FM for a tri-cast of KCMO Talk, we have the right formats on the right signals reaching the entire Kansas City community. Congratulations to Program Director Pete Mundo and our leadership team for their tireless work on this important step forward.”
Pete Mundo, Program Director and Morning Show host for KCMO and a weekly columnist here at BNM, added: “KCMO has a rich history. As we often say, ‘If it’s IN KCMO, it’s ON KCMO.’ These legacy call letters have been synonymous with shows that engage the audience in conversations about local and national issues that impact their everyday lives. The addition of 95.7 FM provides a crystal-clear audio experience for our rapidly growing fan base and I’m excited to even better serve Talk Radio listeners across the Kansas City region.”
Crowd React Media, a division of Harker Bos Group, has released its “State of Sports Media – 2023” whitepaper, which explores various industry trends through internal research. The nuanced view of the profession grants readers the ability to better understand in-depth proclivities and make informed decisions about future endeavors.
Research took place during the spring and summer of 2023, covering an age range from 18 to 70+ and a split of 65% male respondents and 35% female respondents.
The second annual undertaking expounds on results from the 2022 edition and splits results into age groups to render a more comprehensive analysis. Throughout the synopsis, trends related to sports preferences, sports betting habits, social media consumption related to sports, and sports audio are conspicuously presented and thoroughly explained. For example, Crowd React Media finds that football – which encompasses both the NFL and collegiate play – is followed by 84% of the general sports audience.
Conversely, a mere 30% of audience members follow ice hockey, and extreme sports attract a defined niche audience of 13%.
A key finding within the study pertains to viewership methods and how persons aged 18-39 are consuming sporting events and related programming through streaming platforms more than ever before. Consistent with a rising trend in cord-cutting – one that is estimated to cause less than half of U.S. households to have a cable subscription – 83% of study respondents in this demographic utilize the service. Pertaining to the entire sports audience, 69% of them stream events, a higher figure than standard cable and satellite television (60%), along with viewing through social media platforms (33%).
ESPN continues its reign as the “Worldwide Leader,” with 74% of cable/satellite viewers affirming they watch the network, but other outlets focused on more niche content are also driving scores of viewership, evidenced by NFL Network (45%) and MLB Network (33%).
Furthermore, ESPN remains the most utilized source to find sports news (58%), while younger audiences exhibit proclivities to pair ESPN with other content outlets such as Barstool Sports and The Athletic.
While sports radio on traditional AM and FM signals has a higher consumption rate among older demographics, younger audiences remain interested in audio content. Among podcast listeners, those aged 18-39 rank the highest in usage at 40%, while 57% of these respondents also consume terrestrial sports radio.
The study’s conclusion emphasizes the importance of stratified content plans to appeal to different sectors of the audience and balancing tradition with innovation.
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh has seen expansive growth of his radio show, and new analytics show his podcast is also growing exponentially.
Data from TheRighting shows Walsh’s podcast has more than doubled its subscriber base since the third quarter of last year. The 108% increase is the largest jump since the company began monitoring conservative podcasts in 2021.
“Matt Walsh has built a large podcast audience based in part on his transphobic world view,” said The Righting President Howard Polskin. “The speed in which his subscriber base is growing demonstrates that his polarizing messages are resonating with listeners. There is clearly an audience receptive to what he’s saying.”
According to data from The Righting, The Ben Shapiro Show remains the most-listened to conservative podcast with more than 500,000 subscribers. Jordan Peterson, Dan Bongino, and Bill O’Reilly and Steven Crowder round out the top five list.
The Columbus Blue Jackets will be looking for a new TV play-by-play voice starting next season, as longtime announcer Jeff Rimer will be retiring when this new season ends in the spring.
Rimer has been with the Blue Jackets for 20 years. In a note from Rimer posted on the Blue Jackets website on Wednesday, Jeff said of all the stops he’s had in his career Columbus has been the best.
“Through all my years in the NHL – 10 seasons with the Washington Capitals, 11 years with the Florida Panthers (including one year in which I called games for BOTH teams), and two decades with the Columbus Blue Jackets – I can easily say the highlight of my time in this wonderful league is my 20 years as a Blue Jacket!” he said.
Rimer thanked team ownership, staff, coaches, and players for working with him all these years and also made sure to save room to mention all his former broadcast partners.
“Thanks to my broadcast partners Brian Engblom, Danny Gare, Bill Davidge, and finally, Jody Shelley,” Rimer said. “Jody and I have enjoyed a great friendship, partnership over many nights spent on the road discussing Blue Jackets hockey. I have loved every minute of it.”
“I also want to thank Randy Stephens, Tom Farmer, Bob Pennell, Joel Goodling, and Brian Filippetti at Bally Sports Ohio, my statistician Dan Grassbaugh, former producers Joe Whelan and Ed Milliken, and all the current and past production crew members I have worked with, especially those at Nationwide Arena,” he added.
Rimer recalled getting cut from a junior hockey tryout his longtime friend and current Blue Jackets president of hockey operations John Davidson talked him into. That’s when it clicked for Jeff to try getting behind the microphone.
“I was told that house league started Monday and spent the rest of the tryout sitting on the snowbank of the outdoor rink watching the practice and scrimmage,” he said. “It was at that moment my focus turned to becoming a play-by-play broadcaster in the NHL.”
Jeff Rimer continued to thank those he’s had the chance to work with all throughout his career, but he made sure to finish by acknowledging what a ride it’s been.
“As I close my career at the conclusion of this Blue Jackets season, I will have spent parts of six decades, 47 years on the NHL beat, and called well over 2,500 games in the league’s various broadcast booths across North America,” he said. “It has been an honor, a pleasure and very special privilege to have each and every one of you beside me on my dream ride.”
“I can’t thank you enough for watching and listening all these years! Go Jackets!” he added.
As the Philadelphia 76ers inch closer to the start of the 2023-24 season, the team now has its pregame and postgame host in Matt Murphy.
Murphy announced the news on Twitter on Wednesday.
Excited to share that I’ll be the pregame and postgame host on the Sixers Radio Network! ????
Being part of the broadcast for this organization is special to me, and I can’t wait for the season. Thank you all for the support! Be kind; work hard. pic.twitter.com/BkErmpPxQm
He has been serving as the digital content coordinator for the Sixers since 2021. He’s been involved in the Sixers organization for longer than that, joining the Sixers G League team the Delaware Blue Coats in 2018 as a play-by-play broadcaster, social media manager, and communications associate.
Murphy became the youngest TV play-by-play voice in the G League when he debuted at the age of 22.
Before that, Matt Murphy had stints at Westwood One and Alvernia University in Pennsylvania.
World Mental Health Day was on Tuesday, and as New York Jets defensive lineman Solomon Thomas and several other pro athletes did work and put out PSAs on taking care of your mental health, First Take host Stephen A. Smith opened up a little about his own mental health issues.
Stephen A., Molly Qerim and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo were talking about the value and importance of athletes taking care of themselves mentally. Stephen A. said it’s tantamount if you’re going through a crisis to seek assistance. He said while he’s never contemplated suicide or self-harm, the 2017 passing of his mother really shook Smith at his core. So much so he said he felt like it affected how he worked on First Take.
“I’ve never been to that point, Doggie, but I acknowledge that when I lost my mother, I was in a real, real bad state,” Smith said. “And, you know, I did a disservice to Molly. I did a disservice to Max Kellerman when he was sitting on this show and various others.”
Smith added that it was evident because while he would look on the outside like he had it all together, that wasn’t the case internally.
“There were days, man, that I was here, but I wasn’t here because the level of misery that I felt was so profound,” he said.
Stephen A. Smith gave kudos to athletes like Thomas and Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys for being so open to talk about their struggles with depression and anxiety and dealing with suicide.
“I can only imagine how much it’s ravaging them emotionally and spiritually when you just feel like the days are just perpetually dark and there’s never going to be any light,” he said.
Syndicated radio host Ben Shapiro told Piers Morgan that he’s had nothing but positive feedback since he shared an emotional monologue about the war in Israel.
Shapiro, who is Jewish, says he was in Israel recently and was advised by his security team about the terrorist attacks by Hamas. Shapiro has been sharing videos and commenting about videos of the attacks on his social media accounts.
“There’s a reason I’m doing this,” he said. “There’s an intellectual self-centeredness that predominates among a lot of people in the West. They think everybody thinks like them. They see people do something truly evil and think to themselves, ‘Well, that is terrible — but the only reason I would do something like that is if something truly awful happened to me’. After all, people are generally reasonable, generally peaceable, generally decent, aren’t they? What awful circumstance could force someone into such terrible, evil behavior?”
He told Morgan on his Uncensored show that the reaction from his audience has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
“I think there are a lot of people, not only Jews, mostly my audience is people who are not Jewish, who understand the history of the Jewish people, who understand what it means when the greatest slaughter of Jews on a mass scale happens since the Holocaust. It is inextricably linked to a history of Antisemitism.”
X users criticized Shapiro when he quoted content from the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Palestine. Ben Shapiro remarked, “And they can f*** right off.”
I believe that every radio station has its own personality and feeling. I think that every programmer needs to find that station’s sound. As a PD, I generally try to assess the community and the station’s role in that market. I also find the feeling that makes that station special. If you are programming one of the great big brands, you need to make sure that your station sounds larger than life.
I was driving through a city a few years ago and decided to listen to the news/talk giant of that market. This brand has Marconi Awards and the respect of anyone who has a long-time reverence of the news/talk format. The station didn’t sound big. It didn’t jump out of the speaker. I so wanted to learn from this legacy brand, but was left feeling flat. I am not naming stations because it is not my role. They didn’t hire me as the Program Director, General Manager, or owner of this brand. I just am a radio geek praying to be blown away.
Your station needs to sound big not only for dopes like me but also for your listeners. Your listeners always need to know that the station they are listening to is larger than life. It allows the listener to be confirmed in their love for your station. Your station’s fans need you to brag a little bit here.
Now, remember, this is show business. News/talk stations frequently forget this. Your station’s sound should set the tempo. When was the last time that you updated your news imaging? My station did it a few years ago. The imaging sounded dated and out of step with contemporary society. The imaging package was over a decade old. It was time for a fresh coat of paint. We carefully chose an imaging packaging that we felt could be still relevant in a decade without being too aggressive. This is a tightrope. What we chose may not fit your station. We chose what fit the sound of our community and was not too cool for the room. Having a strong sound in our news is essential.
It is essential for your station as well. I am not your station’s PD. I am not feeling your station’s vibe and role in your community. So, that being said, if your station does not have the foundation to be relatable to someone in their mid-40s, you are probably sounding too old. Our format’s future is about converting people around 45. When these people were 20, artists like Green Day, Everlast, Creed, and Lenny Kravitz were hot. I generally believe that rock is generally the best genre to look at. Your station or market may be different. Most news/talk stations hit a 60% to 70% male audience. Likely, these guys enjoyed rock over other formats. Is it all men? No, but it is a good guess.
Is your radio station highlighting competitive advantages? Let’s talk about traffic and weather together on the 10s. AM Radio stations can dominate the information race. It is against the law in most states to fiddle on your phone to find out traffic. Highlight these moments for cume. Make it big. Make it essential. People want to know how to avoid a wreck or a new construction zone. Listeners need this information. Is your set up for Traffic and weather together huge? Are you hosts hitting these benchmarks on time? If not, they are cheating the radio station. Like stealing money from the station. This is important.
Are you proud of the way your station is presented? If you think that it is just ok, you need to think again. If you are not proud of it, your audience is probably not being reached.
When was the last time that you changed your station’s voice? Some stations have had a voice that they have used for decades. The voice is as important to the station as any other element. I changed my station’s voice this year and moved to Jim Cutler. Jim’s sound was right for my station. It was an important upgrade.
The previous voice, who is terrific, did not have the right feeling for my market. It had nothing to do with him or his efforts. It was a feel. Having a strong voice for your station is part of sounding big. If your station’s voice is not jumping ‘out of the speaker,’ you need to really think about that change. You know your community. You know your station’s personality. Does your station’s voice reflect that? If you are not hearing it, it may be time.
Radio really needs to brag. We do big things. Radio serves the communities in which we live. Radio is a part of American’s daily lives. With 500 TV channels, satellite radio, podcasting, YouTube, TikTok, and millions of websites, radio still reaches over 85% of people each week.
Your station and radio show are a big deal. Do you sound big? We need to use our huge imprints and look at expanding. This is not only to our listeners, but it also has to do with anyone who has contact with the radio station. Do your Account Executives know what a big deal your radio station is? Pump up your AE’s. Ask your Sales Manager if you could speak to their next meeting. Tell your story.
If you’ve been following this website the past two weeks, you’ve seen a lot of sports radio ratings stories from different markets. Though we generate traffic from these stories, we didn’t build a brand to chase clicks. We write these stories to try and elevate the sports radio format, celebrate the people producing success, and to educate advertisers and media buyers of the numerous markets creating impact that they may not be aware of. In 2024, we’ll start doing them for news/talk too since our goal is to make a difference and generate greater attention on the two formats we believe are vital to the future of the audio business, sports and news/talk.
If you’ve read any of our ratings stories, you likely came away from them with a higher opinion of the stations and hosts responsible for the results. That’s what happens when brands make an impact and allow others to learn about it. It’s a reflection of the hard work produced by a stellar programming team, a loyal audience enjoying and consuming the content, and the intelligence of management to draw attention to their brand and market’s wins.
I’ve been saying this for years and some have listened, others have not. The program director, market manager, and the executives they report to have not done their jobs if the wins they’ve created aren’t known outside their office or organization. You may think you’re safeguarding state secrets but what you’re actually doing is failing to elevate the success of your brand, the power of your personalities, the passion of your audience, the importance of your play-by-play partnerships, and the reasons why those buying advertising should be connected to you.
Companies spend a lot of money subscribing to Nielsen to have their audience’s listening habits measured. Advertisers and agencies want to feel good about where they spend their money and they’ll want evidence to verify that you’re capable of delivering results for them. The stronger a brand’s results and the better the buzz is surrounding it and the talent that represent it, the more a business wants to be attached to it.
Unfortunately, there are stations across the country who are crushing it in their respective cities yet you’d never know that if you read this website or any other trade or media outlet in the cities they operate in. There are also some who only want to highlight success stories and ignore the times when things don’t line up how they hoped. You may think you’re helping by hiding the bad and promoting the good but those spending money and following you aren’t ignorant. They sniff out the BS.
If you have a good brand and do this long enough, you’re going to ride a few waves. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. When I programmed in SF, I sent out a quarterly email to all staff informing them of our hits and misses. I followed up with a post on social media to let our audience and partners know how we performed. If we rose from 21st to 17th, that was progress. If we went up five rankings year-over-year, that was a story. If we grew with younger demos but didn’t with the older groups, that was shared as well. It wasn’t just about whether or not we beat the competition. Many times we didn’t. It was about being consistent.
You do these things as a leader to highlight your programming team’s progress, give your sales team ammunition to use when chasing business, make your audience feel part of something special, remind advertising partners you’re worth supporting, and to reinforce to the higher ups that your brand and market is on the right track. The job isn’t just coaching talent and making out schedules, it’s making sure that everyone internally and externally knows and feels invested in your brand’s journey.
Too often GM’s and PD’s make the mistake of thinking they’re back in 2003 or 2013 wanting to keep a story hidden but social media changed this game years ago. Combine that with the press frequently painting a dark picture for radio, and it should signal why it’s important to tell your brand’s story and highlight your people. If you’re not, you’re doing them and yourself a disservice. You’re also allowing someone else to control the narrative of how you’re presented.
How would anyone know if your brand, on-air talent, and/or PD is any good if their results aren’t known and they don’t talk publicly about their profession? How does your station earn consideration for awards without external buzz? If you’re inside of a large company and not in one of the top 5-10 markets, do you think your CEO or top executives are watching you as closely as the other brands under their watch?
Go take a look at the brand’s up for Marconi’s each year. They all deliver results AND external buzz. Their executives are more than aware of who’s involved guiding them. Now go look at how consistently ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Fox News, Newsmax, WWE, Outkick, Front Office Sports and other digital outlets promote their weekly and monthly wins. They do this for a reason, it connects with people and partners. It’s smart PR, and it starts by having a story to tell, which they do.
Advertisers invest in brands that consistently produce results. If they want information about your quarterly numbers, they’ll get them. More times than not your salespeople will send it their way because they’re going to do what’s necessary to generate business. Are you helping them more or less by sharing ratings and digital data and additional press that highlights the growth of your brand? Do you think media buyers and advertisers aren’t influenced by how they see others publicly and professionally talking about media outlets?
By the way, this isn’t just about sharing your story on BSM. If you don’t want us covering it, get the word out to your local newspaper, put it in another radio trade, heck, post it on your brand’s social media account as a thank you to your listeners and advertisers. There are plenty of ways to inform the world of your progress, and to remind folks you’re worth investing time and dollars in.
If you know your brand’s successful and you’re not taking steps to inform the masses, I’m curious, what do you believe you’re gaining from keeping your wins private? If a day comes down the road and a change of employment is required, do you think you’re more or less attractive as a candidate if people know who you are, what you do, and how your brands perform? If you’re keeping the information hidden because you fear advertisers may use it against you, I’d ask, do you think they won’t get access to it prior to placing a buy?
I can’t make you promote your people, your partners, your listeners, and your market. If you don’t send in your quarterly results, we’ll be just fine. It’s one less story to write. I just wonder if you’ve thought about how much more you gain vs. what you lose by telling your story. It’s no secret that radio ad revenue has been declining for years but those who continue to generate dollars and receive industry wide recognition all seem to have one thing in common, people know their brand, their people, and their success, and they want to be a part of it.
FOX Sports isn’t renewing its deal with WWE for SmackDown and the Big Ten is the biggest beneficiary of the move.
The conference will move nine games to Friday nights to air on the FOX broadcast network, and new Commissioner Tony Petitti is welcoming the opportunity to showcase brands to a wider national audience.
“It’ll be significant in terms of the amount of national exposure that we have on Friday night on Fox,” Petitti told The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman.
FOX paid a significant portion of the new money to the conference not only as part of its historic media rights deal, but also to encourage both Oregon and Washington to join the league beginning next year, alongside previously joining USC and UCLA.
Previously on Friday evenings, FOX aired the WWE program year-round, with Big Ten games played on Fridays airing on FS1 or Big Ten Network. The wrestling organization inked a five-year deal with NBCUniversal to move SmackDown to USA Network in a deal earning it $287 million per year.
