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Dominic Carter: ‘If You Think WABC Is Successful, Imagine What John Catsimatidis Could Do With CNN’

BNM Staff
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77 WABC owner John Catsimatidis recently revealed he would be interested in purchasing CNN if the network came up for sale. Dominic Carter believes that would be the best path forward for the cable network.

“Speculation is growing, that CNN may be for sale in the coming year,” said Carter during his 77 WABC program Friday. “Also, another person that may be interested in the struggling networks is former CEO Jeff Zucker. He has emerged as a possible suitor and Zucker is among the contenders to buy — how shall we say this? — the ratings-challenged network, despite the fact that he was ousted from the company more than a year and a half ago, after his undisclosed relationship.

“But I want to revisit the issue the CNN issue…If you think the WABC is successful, imagine what Mr. Catsmiatidis could do with CNN. Think about that for a second, folks.”

Earlier this month, the billionaire Catsimatidis shared his interest in purchasing CNN and working as the company’s CEO for a $1 annual salary. In an interview with the station’s morning host — Sid Rosenberg — Catsimatidis shared that he believes CNN “deserves” to be #1 in the ratings and that Ted Turner “created a wonderful network” that has fallen on hard times.

99.9 The Fan Picks Tim Donnelly For Afternoon Drive

BSM Staff
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The search is over in Raleigh. Tim Donnelly is joining 99.9 The Fan in Raleigh. He will make his debut in afternoon drive next month.

Donnelly comes to the Triangle from Virginia Beach. He has been part of afternoon drive on Priority Auto Sports Radio 94.1 since 2020. He started at the station as a producer. In 2021, he launched The Tim Donnelly Show in middays. The show moved into afternoon drive later that year. He can also be heard on the weekends on CBS Sports Radio.

Dennis Cox will continue to serve as the show’s producer. He will also take on a larger on air role on the new show.

“I am tremendously excited to join the Capitol Broadcasting Company family and the Triangle sports community,” Donnelly said in a press release. “My family and I have connections to North Carolina and the local sports scene. I am thrilled for the opportunity to do what I love in a community that is such fertile ground for sports fans.”

The familial connection that Donnelly mentions is a significant one for Triangle sports fans. His cousin is former NC State quarterback Mike Glennon. Glennon has dabbled in media locally since retiring from a ten-year NFL career that saw him spend time with seven different teams.

“Tim has a very successful track record in radio. His experience as a college athlete gives him a truly unique perspective,” said Brian Grube, general manager of Capitol Broadcasting Radio. “This is a robust market for sports. College rivalries dominate the landscape while local pro teams like the Carolina Hurricanes, NC Courage and Durham Bulls unite fans under one umbrella. Tim’s coverage will give listeners a broad understanding of the sports that intersect here, and his expert analysis will pinpoint what’s at stake for fans, teams, and the Triangle.”

In addition to his role on the radio, Donnelly will also contribute web content to WRALSportsFan.com including original podcasts.

Earlier this year, 99.9 The Fan parted ways with Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio. The duo had been in afternoon drive on the station since 2020. Ovies was also part of the previous afternoon drive show, Adam & Joe, which started on the station in 2009.

Rich Shertenlieb: ESPN Had ‘Worst Draft Coverage I’ve Ever Seen’

BSM Staff
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Rich Shertenlieb: ESPN Had ‘Worst Draft Coverage I’ve Ever Seen’

Thursday night’s NBA Draft left Rich Shertenlieb scratching his head. He was not shy on Friday morning telling his Toucher & Rich colleagues what he thought of the job ESPN did.

“I started looking at the broadcast going, ‘This is chaos,’” he said on 98.5 The Sports Hub. “This might be, and I’m not trying to speak in hyperbole here. That might be the worst draft coverage that I’ve ever seen.”

Fred Toucher agreed. He thought the interviews with prospects were largely valueless.

Shertenlieb’s chief complaint was pretty simple. It stands to reason that people tuning into the NBA Draft want to know what teams are picking which players. He said that one of ESPN’s greatest failures was making that hard to determine.

“I’d be sitting up there watching it, and you know how almost every other draft coverage it has at the bottom right corner of the screen ‘Trailblazers on the clock’ and it’ll have like a countdown and all say like who they picked? There were times where they were interviewing people who had been drafted an hour beforehand while like two picks had gone by. If you’re sitting there as a Celtics fan and you’re waiting for them before, of course, they traded it a million times and you’re waiting for number 25, I had to go online and figure out where they were, like what they had already picked.”

While Shertenlieb had many complaints about ESPN’s presentation, he did have some sympathy for one member of the broadcast crew. He thought the network put Malika Andrews in a position to be the target of Twitter’s ire.

“They gave her the crap job in that if any of these guys had any kind of criminal background, like the second they were drafted they said, ‘here’s everything that they’ve done awful.’ They just read it and just basically, ‘let’s get this out of the way so we don’t get any criticism for propping these guys up.’ But it was Malika Andrew’s job to do that whenever any of these guys had any kind of rap.”

Dave Roberts, ESPN’s Head of NBA and Studio Production, and Mike Shiffman, the network’s Senior VP of Production, talked about that aspect of the presentation on a conference call earlier this week. When asked about Brandon Miller, who went number two overall to the Charlotte Hornets, they said that Miller’s role in a murder investigation in Tuscaloosa, AL would be mentioned but would not be the entirety of how he was covered.

Clay Travis: I’ll Defend the Media Over Titanic Sub Story

BNM Staff
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The story of the missing Titanic submarine has dominated news coverage in recent days. Clay Travis balked at the idea that the story was overcovered.

During The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show Thursday, Travis took issue with the insinuation that the story wasn’t worthy of the sheer amount of coverage it received from cable news outlets, and defended the actions of outlets like Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

“Anytime people respond ‘Well I don’t know why this is a story’. It’s a story because people care, right? You know this well. I see it all the time and running a media company,” said Travis. “The media is going to cover what people click on and watch the most. They look minute-by-minute. You notice on Fox News on CNN on MSNBC and see what rates and it’s not rocket science, whatever rates they put more of it on. So when people criticize, this is the one area where I’ll defend the media, when people criticize the media for covering a story like this.”

Travis continued by saying the uniqueness of the story, coupled with the human interest aspect, made it a no-brainer for news coverage.

“This story, I bet if you went back and tracked that book five days ago, four days ago, I bet it was happening in like the 40th minute of an hour-long newscast, and they kept looking at the numbers and the amount of interest on it spikes,” continued Travis. “And as every day has continued, more and more people discuss it because it is something that is a unique story in many ways without precedent.

“It touches on the Titanic, which is a story that is an obsession. So many people care deeply about the Titanic. And then I think it also turns into what I think is a fascinating look, a meditation on risk. Because what I’ve seen so many people say, this story rapidly turns into is ‘Oh, would you have ever gotten on that submarine and gone down there?'”

Parkins and Spiegel: Baseball Should Put More Comedians in Broadcast Booth

BSM Staff
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NESN has received near-universal praise for using comedian Bill Burr as a guest analyst earlier this week when the Red Sox went to Minnesota to take on the Twins. Burr is a Boston native and a diehard Red Sox fan. While many broadcasts have welcomed celebrities for an inning or two, NESN used Burr for the entire game.

Count Danny Parkins and Matt Spiegel as fans of the move. The Chicago duo had nothing but good things to say as they reviewed some of the audio on Thursday.

“It’s not like he was hanging around Boston and they said, ‘Hey, you want to come by?’” said an impressed Spiegel. “It was like on off days from his normal touring comedy world and he decided, on an invite, to fly to Minnesota and sit in.”

“I always think it’s so cool when, like – that’s an A-lister. If Bill Murray sits down with Boog [Sciambi] or with Pat [Hughes] for half an inning around the stretch, I’m like, ‘Oh man! This is so amazing. I hope something crazy happens,’ you know?” Parkins said. “But to do nine innings and fly in like that? A big sports fan. Like, a lot of respect.”

Would something like this happen again in the future? Parkins says he is confident that it would not have happened before Major League Baseball implemented rule changes this year.

“You just got on a plane to do color commentary for nine innings? That’s the pitch clock. I mean, you would not have done that if that game could have gone 4 hours.”

The duo played several clips for 670 The Score listeners. The clips included Burr making reference to the Red Sox using Apple Watches to steal signs in 2017 and shouting at Twins fans that booed a call that was not changed after a video review.

“More stand-up comics who love their team in the booth,” Spiegel pleaded. 

“Absolutely,” Parkins responded. “You know what? You’re so right. Like, take that, find a stand-up comic, and make it a day.”

Spiegel suggested that Chicago has a perfect candidate in Roy Wood Jr, who is a Cubs fan and star of The Daily Show. He and Spiegel even partnered on a podcast about the team’s 2016 World Series run in 2021.

Red Eye Radio Host: Addiction Topics Are No Laughing Matter for News/Talk Hosts

BNM Staff
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Red Eye Radio Host: Addiction Topics Are No Laughing Matter for News/Talk Hosts

Making news stories relatable to their audience is a significant hurdle talk radio hosts face. Lately, the media has been saturated with reports on drug addiction and mental illness, including Hunter Biden’s legal issues stemming from crack cocaine use and the widespread opiate crisis in America. Incorporating a personal perspective into these narratives can prove challenging. 

During a Wednesday discussion about Hunter Biden’s legal woes, Gary McNamara of Red Eye Radio revealed that his best friend of many years succumbed to crack addiction. He said the pain of losing him was a sobering reminder of how fortunate he is to have a successful career in radio.  

“Many people that I know that are close to me are in recovery. I had one of my best friends die back in 1997,” he said.  

McNamara refrained from disclosing the name of his deceased acquaintance. Still, he did reveal that the individual tragically passed away at the age of 36 due to a lethal drug overdose. 

“I knew he was into it and I couldn’t hang around with him anymore,” McNamara said. “This story goes back to 1993. I remember walking into his house one day, and he had a record album out, and there was a pile of cocaine, and I just went, ‘What are you doing?’   

After that incident, McNamara mentioned that he went almost a year without seeing his friend. 

“Finally, I was leaving town to go for another job, and I was in the area, and I decided to go by his house,” he said. “He was a good friend. When I stopped past the house, his wife was gone, his kids were gone, and he had no furniture. It’s almost like it was a made-for-TV movie.”   

McNamara said he learned about his friend’s death while boarding a plane to attend a job interview during a pivotal moment in his career. 

“The radio station told me that a friend’s sister wanted to get a hold of me, and I knew right at that point that he was dead. I still have the funeral card: him and his two young daughters. I keep it in a prominent place in my house to know how quickly life can be taken from you.”   

Radio Sales Is Not a Vending Machine

Jeff Caves
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The best money in this profession is made off of repeat sales. That means your clients, especially the newer ones, must TRUST you. 

Radio advertising is the ultimate subscription sales model. If clients trust us to provide the desired result, they will give us their money again and again. We are not vending machines providing a one-time sale. Ask Damon Amendolara if he would buy advertising from Audacy right now. 

Building trust with new clients and star employees like DA is essential for establishing long-lasting and profitable relationships. If you use some of the strategies below, you can build trust immediately with a new client. Once you get that trust, your client will gain confidence which will turn into loyalty and, ultimately, business growth for both of you. 

Here are five critical approaches and actionable tips for building trust with new clients.:

  1. LISTEN AND UNDERSTAND: During a new client meeting, actively listen to their goals and objectives for their ad campaign. Nod your head, shut up, look them in the eye, and write essential points down! I never trust salespeople who don’t write down important things I tell them. Make sure you ask probing questions about their target audience, what they want as an outcome, and any specific events or programs you air that they may want to target. Take notes and demonstrate you get it by spitting back their goals to them and waiting for their response. 
  2. MAIL CARRIERS DELIVER: You get your mail six days a week. You trust they will be there no matter the weather. So, for example, when you pitch a campaign to a new client, outline when the spots air, how often, and what reach they can expect for their campaign. Provide examples of previous successful campaigns and demo how you can deliver similar results for them. Once you cut the deal, ensure you get the schedule in and that it airs as promised. Check in with them while it airs to see if they remember to listen or have heard the ad. Play it for them if they haven’t. 
  3. VALUE ADDS: Forward them highlights of industry trends and insights about their business. Show them our data-driven audience research on your demographics and the impact of radio campaigns on brand awareness. Send short case studies highlighting successful campaigns and explain how your expertise made it happen.
  4. LET THEM SEE THROUGH YOU: When you discuss rates, be transparent about the different rates for different dayparts and different days and the potential reach of each one. AM drive isn’t 7 pm-12 midnight, but it’s well worth it at the right price. Explain any limitations or restrictions related to scheduling ads when play-by-play interrupts. Be honest about the expected response rates and set realistic expectations about their results based on their budget and campaign length. Show them the campaign frequency and when this is enough to break through the clutter. 
  5. BE CONSISTENT: Establish regular check-ins with your new client to provide updates on their ad campaigns’ performance. Promptly respond to any inquiries or concerns they may have and follow up after campaigns to discuss the results, address feedback, and explore future advertising opportunities. 

Don’t be a vending machine or one-time-only salesperson! Once they trust you, they will be back again and again. 

Radio Needs to Tell Its Story Because No One Else Will

Pete Mundo
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If I told you that you could be a part of a platform that reaches 93% of U.S. Adults 18+, has double the listening of the popular streaming music services and nearly 10x the listening of the hyped-up satellite radio, would you want in? You’d be crazy not to, right? However, if I told you that the answer to that “platform” was AM/FM radio, many people wouldn’t believe you. But it’s true.

According to a new report from Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC), despite facing competition from audio streaming services, radio remains a popular medium, as highlighted in a June 2022 Audio Today report by Nielsen. The report indicated that AM/FM radio reaches 93% of the US adult 18+ population (234 million listeners) monthly, surpassing streaming music services (52%) and satellite radio (13%).

As we’ve discussed in this column, the reality of media fragmentation and competition has obviously had a real impact on radio listening and ad revenue, but to look at the numbers above is a chance to be reminded about the strength that remains in the industry.

And that story needs to be told. And told, and told again. Because if we don’t tell it to anyone who will listen, no one will. 

Radio is never going to get the sexy write-up in Wired or the extended coverage by CNBC, but the viability of the business at its core can still be a very successful one. 

Radio, and the people in it, just need to remember that. As someone on the younger end of the business, I can wind up in a conversation with an older colleague about “the good old days” of radio, and by the time they’re done reminiscing, 20 minutes has gone by.

There is an element of that in all of us. It’s natural. However, it’s also critical to look ahead, rather than behind, and realize that while the competition is greater for ears and ad dollars, it just means we have to up our game in competing for the attention of potential listeners and advertisers.

Are you as a program director, host, or producer doing everything you can to make sure there are no wasted or “lost” segments on a show? Are you not wasting the listener’s time coming back from the break and paying off the tease that you (hopefully) promoted prior to the break? Do you lean into your live and local content that separates you from every podcast and YouTube video? Is the imaging fresh, relevant, and entertaining to keep the listener engaged in a way other platforms typically don’t? 

If not, you’ll lose your audience to satellite radio, streaming music services, YouTube, Instagram, and anyone else competing in your space.

We know it’s not all roses. There’s economic uncertainty, the potential for a recession, and layoffs in some parts of media and tech.

But regardless, there needs to be a realization that while it’s a tough year for the industry thus far, it’s a great place to be. Both those things can be true at the same time. 

And instead of the layoffs and/or cuts being the only stories told in other media, radio can be its own best advocate and tell the story about what remains an enormous platform with huge reach that other outlets dream of having.

Dan Le Batard: Craig Carton’s FS1 Show ‘Speaks So Ill’ of Sports Media

BSM Staff
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By now, everyone knows that WFAN host Craig Carton will soon be leaving the station to focus his attention on his daily show on FS1. Dan Le Batard is still kind of surprised to see a national network get behind Carton given his past.

Carton served time in prison for securities and wire fraud, obviously giving up his position with WFAN at the time. But Carton returned to the FAN airwaves in 2020 and has lifted the afternoon drive show back to number one by a large margin, paving the way for FS1 to come calling.

Le Batard thought FOX could’ve done better than to give a push to a convicted felon.

“Addiction grabs human beings and can be difficult,” Le Batard said on a recent edition of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “But as it relates to our sorry sad sack, awful industry that employs people – who are largely interchangeable – the idea that FOX would give a convicted felon a promotion when that opportunity would never go in my history doing this, to somebody who isn’t white is such an indictment of everything around me that I find it deeply offensive about our industry.”

Dan said he wanted to be clear he wasn’t ripping on Carton for being a recovering gambling addict. But he felt like the standards for a network looking to push a popular morning show would be much different if it were a person of color convicted of a similar crime.

“It’s just not something that would happen in many other places,” he said. “And it’s not something certainly that would happen when somebody was a convicted felon and not a white person. It’s just not anything that would have any precedent in this business.”

“I don’t know if it bothers the audience at large, but it just speaks so ill of what is our industry,” Le Batard added.

This is not the first time that Le Batard has publicly objected to FS1 being in business with Craig Carton. Upon learning the show existed earlier this year, Le Batard said that “it enrages” him.

Sports Radio Hosts React to Their Home Team’s NBA Draft Pick

BSM Staff
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Sports Radio Hosts React to Their Home Team’s NBA Draft Pick

The NBA Draft was Thursday night, and as expected, French phenom Victor Wembanyama was selected first overall by the San Antonio Spurs.

The 7-foot-4 center had been the consensus top pick for almost a year, and the real excitement in Wemby’s selection came when the draft lottery was held back in May.

Still, for Spurs fans and San Antonio sports media, the big moment came with plenty of fanfare.

The Charlotte Hornets selected Alabama forward Brandon Miller with the second overall pick. The Hornets fanbase didn’t seem thrilled by the selection, given Miller’s past.

The Portland Trail Blazers took Scoot Henderson out of the G League with the third pick. It comes at a time where franchise star Damian Lillard is at a crossroads and his future in Portland seems up in the air.

The Houston Rockets took Amen Thompson with the fourth pick. Thompson in his interview seemed to get some Texas fast-food fans upset saying in an interview after his selection that he preferred In-N-Out over Lone Star State institution Whataburger.

Meanwhile Amen’s twin brother Ausar went number five to the Detroit Pistons.

Arkansas guard Anthony Black ended up coming off the board at pick number six to the Orlando Magic.

The seventh and eighth picks are where the night got interesting. The Indiana Pacers originally selected Wembanyama’s French pro league teammate Bilal Coulibaly at seven, while the Washington Wizards went with Houston forward Jarace Walker at eight.

But the two teams ended up swapping those picks later in the first round. Washington is in a full rebuild and just traded star Bradley Beal to the Suns over the weekend for Chris Paul and a haul of picks. The Wizards eventually traded Paul to Golden State and Kristaps Porzingis to Boston for Jordan Poole and even more selections.

The whole process to announce the picks and then the swap for those picks seemed to be a bit confusing.

The Utah Jazz took Taylor Hendricks at ninth overall out of Central Florida, and Cason Wallace, was picked 10th by the Dallas Mavericks. But the Mavericks traded Lively to Oklahoma City for Dereck Lively II, a center out of Duke.

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