Since news of ESPN Radio preparing to drop Keyshawn, JWill and Max broke, I have fielded phone calls and text messages from GMs, PDs and talent alike. All of them have basically the same reaction: this network sure does make a lot of changes.
That has certainly been true of late.
I understand their frustration. They are relying on ESPN Radio to fill the hours of the day that they do not carry live programming. You want to be able to tell advertisers and listeners they can know what to expect.
There is a fact that is getting overlooked. It doesn’t invalidate their complaints, but it should be said that if you choose to air syndicated programming, no matter who it is from, you are taking on some risk.
You get no guarantee that the shows will be covering topics relevant to your market. You get no say in whether a popular host is retained. Airing syndicated programming requires blind faith.
While I hear your frustrations and certainly empathize, I do have to say this is one of the things about the radio business (particularly sports talk) that drives me nuts. If you do not want to be at the mercy of the whims of a network partner, particularly in drive time, then invest in your station.
Sports talk is an expensive format. To do a show right, you need two full-time salaries minimum. To do the classic three four-hour shows model right, each show needs at least two hosts and a dedicated producer. Throw in rights fees, marketing expenses, equipment, and utilities and the costs add up.
Do not get me wrong. I’m not trying to be flippant. I just don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for the “oh poor pitiful us, whatever can we do” nonsense from companies that prioritize cost-cutting over quality.
ESPN Radio is taking a lot of shit right now. It’s not that it is undeserved, but those four letters come with expectations in the sports media world that the letters C, B, S, F, O, and X do not.
Don’t you think there were FOX Sports Radio affiliates that bemoaned losing Clay Travis and now take 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe through gritted teeth? Isn’t it reasonable to think that when CBS Sports Radio lost Pat McAfee there were programmers that were not too keen on having to carry Bill Reiter?
It isn’t a commentary on any of the hosts involved. It’s a fact of doing business with syndicated national networks. Something can be working well for your station and then one day, it can just be gone. You don’t get to make your pitch. You just have to figure out how to sell whatever the next thing is to your listeners and advertisers.
Covid-19 and people working from home may have changed radio consumption patterns, but the drive times still matter in a big way. If you cannot be bothered to put local programming on in both drive spots, I do not think you have a right to complain about what ESPN or anyone else does. During a time when the most people are on the road and thus the most ears are available to you, you are airing a show that likely won’t mention your hometown teams at all.
Maybe losing Keyshawn, JWill and Max is a bummer, but if you are in say, Cincinnati, and they aren’t talking about the Reds anyway, what does it matter if your listeners have to get used to a new group of people not talking about the Reds?
Any business built on advertising is a gamble. We have been saying “The media business is changing faster than ever before” for so long that I can’t believe there are still people in this business that think it ever moved at a reasonable speed. Challenges exist and they are not insignificant. But if you are trying to build a station that matters to your market, then using any syndicated programming is cutting corners.
Syndication isn’t morally wrong or anything like that. It just will never be as good of an option for your station and your audience as a local show.
So look, complain all you want about having to introduce your audience to yet another new ESPN Radio morning show, but remember that you or your bosses or their bosses at some point made the decision that putting out a low-cost product was more important than putting out a high-quality product.
There’s nothing ESPN Radio can do about that.
Travis Kelce: Podcasting is ‘the Hardest Job in the World’
During the season in which Travis Kelce won his second Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, he began co-hosting a podcast with his brother, Jason Kelce called New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. However, it wasn’t easy.
Travis was a guest on the Pardon My Take podcast and said that he felt that playing football was less challenging than trying to host a show.
“It’s the hardest job in the f**n world to keep coming up with content that people want to hear,” said Kelce.
He did not know much about how to do a podcast before jumping in with his brother. Of course, the podcast gained a huge following throughout the year, including during Super Bowl week when the two brothers were going up against each other.
Dan “Big Cat’ Katz and PFT Commentator asked Travis whether or not he felt he hit the wall during the season trying to come up with content or ran out of stories to tell. Travis mentioned his true challenge was trying to find time to keep doing the podcast during the long grind of a NFL season.
“Thankfully, my brother is a hell of a storyteller and he just has them banked. I can’t remember what the f**k happens until he tells the story and I’m like damn it did happen. My brother is really the one driving it. He tells a story like none other.”