According to Denver radio host Mandy Connell, CNN needs to make significant changes to regain its reputation as a news-focused network. Connell referenced a Barrett News Media article written as an open letter to Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
During the Gulf War conflict between Iraq and a coalition led by the United States in 1990-1991, CNN received widespread recognition for their real-time reporting from the frontlines of the war. This coverage, known as the “CNN effect,” brought the war events directly into people’s homes and solidified CNN’s reputation as a leading news network. Connell reminded her listeners that the entire world watched CNN’s coverage, making it a historic moment in news reporting.
“When you went to CNN, you were going to get the news,” she said on her KOA Radio show. “You were going to get straightforward, here’s the news, we are going to deliver It. When Fox News rose to ascendency, all of a sudden, CNN started to retreat to the left.”
CNN CEO Chris Licht scolded CNN media critic Oliver Darcey for his negative review of the network’s town hall with former President Donald Trump. Kaitlin Collins moderated the event, and Darcey had voiced his criticism of it. Under Licht’s leadership, CNN has undergone significant changes, including the dismissal of Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, and Brian Stelter.
Shortly after CNN began to shift back towards a more liberal perspective, Connell noted that Fox News capitalized on this change and promptly seized the opportunity.
“People were hungry on the right for the kind of opinion and commentary that confirmed their views,” she said. “Now, everybody is sick of it; everybody wants to know who they can trust to give them the news. Tell me what happened, and let me decide how I feel about it.”
During a recent commencement address at Columbia Journalism School, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour publicly criticized her own network for organizing a town-hall event with Donald Trump. Amanpour expressed her disagreement with CEO Chris Licht, who had faced backlash for approving and defending the decision to hold the event.
According to The Guardian, Amanpour pointed out that Trump tends to take over and control discussions, which makes it hard for moderators to push back effectively. She said she would have ended the talk after Trump insulted the CNN moderator, Kaitlan Collins, by calling her a “nasty person.”
Despite criticism, Licht defended his decision, saying that the town hall helped viewers see how important the 2024 presidential election is.
“No matter how much flak the moderator tries to aim at the incoming, it doesn’t often work. I would have dropped the mic at ‘nasty person’, but then that’s me,” she said.
At the event, Donald Trump called CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins a “nasty person.” This caused Republican voters in the audience to applaud and added to the energetic atmosphere. Despite the ongoing legal investigations into Trump’s alleged election subversion and incitement of the January 6 attack on Congress, Chris Licht, the CEO, has continued to support broadcasting the town hall.
According to Licht, broadcasting these events reminds viewers of the high stakes involved in the 2024 presidential election. It is worth noting that Trump has recently faced legal consequences for sexual assault and defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll. Despite this, he still remains the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
“I can only hope that your trust in us might have been shaken but not shattered,” said Amanpour. “That you believe we can survive and rebuild that trust.”
Amanpour is the first CNN anchor to publicly express her disagreement with the decision to host Trump, although other employees have also criticized the broadcast. In his Reliable Sources newsletter, reporter Oliver Darcy criticized his employer the morning after the town hall.
Drifting through the gelid, frosted roads of Regina, Saskatchewan on a luminous winter day in the comfort of his Ford pickup truck, Connor Bedard is en route to the rink. He is the consensus No. 1 prospect in professional hockey drawing comparisons to Wayne Gretzky and is preparing to lace up his skates in the National Hockey League next season. ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan was in the backseat. The effort it took to get into that car started last summer.
Kaplan connected with the young phenom’s agent and gradually engendered a professional relationship. She was told that Bedard, who is 17, would not agree to many media requests during the season, but Kaplan knew her end goal: to land a sit-down interview.
For one thing, Kaplan is indefatigable in her quest to augment her extensive skill set and enhance The Walt Disney Company’s fourth stint in producing national broadcasts of NHL games. As the rinkside reporter for the NHL on ESPN, she logs several miles traveling around the arena for each contest in order to conduct interviews and divulge critical information.
She garners a wide array of responsibilities on a typical game day. She appears across ESPN programming, writes extended columns and feature stories and communicates with sources to break news, genuinely rendering her among the network’s most versatile talents.
When Kaplan ultimately landed Bedard for an interview in March, she and her colleagues made sure to produce a variety of different content. In addition to a sit-down interview, Kaplan spent time with Bedard in his truck and at the rink, all of which was captured on video. She then worked with one of the network’s video editors to write and ultimately voice a script for a 10-minute visual feature and also penned a 2500-word article detailing the experience.
“I’m always thinking of different opportunities because we are a multimedia company,” Kaplan said. “How can we take one piece of access or the opportunities that I get and share that across all of our audience and all of our platforms?”
When she is reporting in prime time, Kaplan often finds herself up against the clock, trying to convey the necessary information to viewers interspersed throughout the game action. When she is on the road, she returns to the hotel or sometimes catches a flight, relaxing and reflecting on her performance with purpose. Usually, there is little time for rest before the process begins all over again, especially during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“I do understand that this is a grind of a time,” Kaplan said. “I’m probably not going to get the doctor’s recommended sleep every night. Planes are never conducive for sleep or hydration, and I just kind of have to live with it and accept it.”
Courtesy: ESPN Images
As the sun rose in Montclair, NJ. each morning, Emily Kaplan awoke and grabbed the morning newspaper to diligently read the sports section. Pouring over columns, statistics, standings and a litany of other information. She paired what she retained with observations gathered from watching games with her family. Her ultimate goal was to become a sportswriter. It was why she chose to attend Penn State University specifically because it was the only institution with a dedicated sports journalism major.
“My first week on campus, I was already asking people how I could try out for the school paper,” Kaplan said. “I wrote for the sports section of The Daily Collegian, which was our daily newspaper. I did that for two years, [and I] also dabbled as a columnist for a bit.”
Her journalism career, however, began long before her first week on campus, as she wrote columns for The Montclair Times. One of the local newspaper readers happened to be Sports Illustrated writer Peter King – who was also a friend of Kaplan’s father. He quickly took notice of her and reached out to offer words of encouragement. When she was in high school, King arranged for Kaplan to meet with a player and manager following an independent league baseball game. She ended up writing an error-free story on a deadline, a feat that impressed King and kept her on his radar.
Kaplan was at Penn State University during the time when allegations of child sex abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky began to come to light. Being a young journalist, she covered the team for The Philadelphia Inquirer as its on-campus correspondent and also provided other professional outlets an invaluable voice. From there, she joined the Associated Press where she worked as a stringer and continued to gain real-world experience and build her network. Throughout her years in college, she kept in touch with King and sometimes performed a variety of “odd jobs,” including transcribing interviews and researching for stories.
“He was just such a great sounding board for me as I navigated how to break into this field,” Kaplan said of King. “When he graduated, he had started his website on Sports Illustrated – the MMQB – and gave me some really good opportunities to write there.”
She wrote a variety of stories for the Sports Illustrated NFL coverage. Starting fresh off an internship at The Boston Globe, Kaplan had a deft knowledge of sports reporting at the local level and knew how to perform investigative journalism. From spending 24 hours with Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to speaking with FOX reporter Erin Andrews about her civil trial and cervical cancer diagnosis; to chronicling the journey of Danny Watkins from football player to firefighter, Kaplan compiled a vast portfolio of penetrating, shrewd storytelling.
One story in particular she considers herself proud of involved former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel. After a slew of events transpired involving the first-round draft pick that ultimately led him to be cut by the Browns, King tasked Kaplan to travel to Kernville, Texas to speak with people in his life. He wanted her to find a different, untold angle and she spent a week in the area to do so.
Stationed in Austin, Texas, Kaplan fastidiously accumulated substantive details about Manziel, who was a perplexing and captivating public figure. In the end, she published a comprehensive article on the Heisman winner’s situation and what others had to say about him, drawing national intrigue and uncovering new knowledge.
“There’s only two things in the world that you can control: How hard you work; and how you treat other people,” Kaplan said. “I made sure that my work ethic was my number one defining characteristic. I’d always make the extra calls. I’d always try to find different angles or different people to talk to and make sure I got as much information as possible.”
Both of those factors assisted her in landing a job with ESPN in 2017 as one of two NHL beat reporters, but she joined the “Worldwide Leader” knowing it did not hold the league’s media rights. The possibility intrigued her because of a nascent ardor for hockey and the chance it provided to establish herself as a beat reporter. As she became more comfortable and settled into the role, ESPN and the NHL agreed to a seven-year media rights contract – and everything changed.
From the beginning, her goal was to get close to the action. When ESPN was trying to determine its broadcasters, reporters and contributors who would appear on the games, Kaplan’s hand shot up to ask for a chance at sideline reporting. Although she had reservations about people not getting to know her nor being able to tell a nuanced story, she bet on herself.
Twenty seconds on the clock. That is often all the time Kaplan has to present information or divulge a story to broadcast viewers, and being succinct in storytelling after writing protracted stories with extensive research and meticulous edits was an initial challenge.
If she’s at a game, Kaplan is usually on the run. She does standup reports, interviews players in the tunnel and coaches on the bench and attends press conferences. The interviews with the coaches are particularly distinctive since they take place during a media timeout in the midst of the game.
“I have such a limited amount of time because we really are showing that clip as an entry point out of a TV break back into game action,” Kaplan said. “I think most times we get between 30 and 60 seconds, and I just want to make sure I’m as concise as possible in my questions and as direct as possible to get the most information out of them to support the broadcast.”
After the three stars of the game are announced, Kaplan is oftentimes interviewing a player from the winning team, usually doing so on the bench. It is at this time when her questions are designed to extrapolate facets of the player’s personality. Once the interview concludes, she makes it a point to thank players in their native language – a practice whose origin she cannot identify, but something she feels is essential in fostering professional relationships.
“I’m cognizant when I talk to guys where English is their second language of just how big of an ask that is [to put] themselves out there in something they’re not necessarily fully comfortable with in a lot of situations and trying their hardest,” Kaplan said. “My goal [has] always just been to humanize the game… It’s not very hard for me just to look up how to say, ‘Thank you,’ in the six or seven languages that NHL players typically speak.”
Courtesy: ESPN Images
There are times, however, when Kaplan feels she is not always treated like a peer by the men around her. Men have the opportunity to interact in different ways, such as going to have drinks with sources at a bar. Rumors would flow abound if a woman followed suit. It causes her to feel “othered” and can make her job as a reporter more difficult than it genuinely has to be.
“The athletes I feel like sometimes are a little too cautious around me or don’t really know what to make of me,” Kaplan said. “Those are the areas where being a woman, I do find to be a little challenging because I’m just trying to say, ‘Hey look, I’m just a human being. I’m normal. This is a job I’m trying to do and we can completely coexist and help each other out,’ but sometimes it’s not as natural as it would be just for two guys to have that social agreement.”
Through it all, she has received immense support and assistance from her broadcast colleagues, Sean McDonough and Ray Ferraro. Having them by her side is something she considers a lucky break.
“Sean is just such a consummate professional,” Kaplan said. “He does such a fantastic job just documenting the game in a way that feels really significant and gives it a big-game feel. He’s constantly empowering me as well. I know he’s had so much experience across so many sports covering so many big events.”
With Ferraro in particular, Kaplan has the ability to interact with him during intermissions since he is situated between the benches for most games. It is an atypical setup for a hockey broadcast, but one that works in Kaplan’s favor since it gives her a chance to discuss the game, ideas for questions and evaluate the broadcast piecemeal.
“I can vent to him. He can vent to me,” Kaplan said. “It’s a really great relationship in that way.”
Transitioning into the limelight and becoming a public figure was a stark change from writing, and with it brought heightened tangible criticism regarding her performance. There were moments during the first year where it truly bothered her. As a journalist, Kaplan asked herself “Why?” Through self-reflection and experience, she found the answer and has consequently diminished the people from whom she takes feedback.
“While I’m there to serve the fans, I’m not there to please everyone,” Kaplan said. “I understand that people have different opinions of how I should do my job, but I’m only going to do the job the way I see fit.”
Even so, being able to define what encompasses a successful day of reporting is nearly impossible to definitively quantify, and one of the reasons she frequently seeks feedback. There are points throughout the year where Kaplan meets with executives about her performance and how she can improve, but through it all makes sure she remains objective and committed to reporting the facts.
“ESPN is a news-gathering organization, and we have a news desk that, to me, [is] sacred,” Kaplan said. “What they say is true because what we present to the fans is really important. Because I have a journalistic background, I’m constantly double-checking [and] making sure I feel super sound about my information.”
Kaplan is interested in shedding the stopwatch in the future, potentially considering chances to be an analyst or proffer her opinions on hockey. For now though, her next challenge will be more effectively demonstrating her personality as the clock ticks onward. She fears that some of her reports come off as “robotic,” and recognizes her sarcasm, sense of humor and inclination to engage in lighthearted banter.
“In the same way that I’m trying to bring out the characters of the game and really humanize them and create connectivity for the viewers to the players, I think that’s also important on the broadcast side as well,” Kaplan said. “As I get more comfortable in this, I think I’m starting to learn where to pick my spots [and] where to show some more personality, but it’s something I’m absolutely working on.”
The Stanley Cup Playoffs last for almost two months, and Kaplan is nearing the end of her bustling broadcast season. Over the course of a year, she travels to a majority of the NHL arenas, taking her across the United States and Canada, and also attends morning skates, practices and other pertinent team events. She considers herself fortunate to be in a position that keeps her close to the ice, but understands that working in sports media can, at times, be utterly exhausting.
Because of this, it is imperative Kaplan takes time away from the rink each day to recharge and ensure she is in the right headspace and has the bandwidth to properly do her job. When she arrives though, Kaplan is alert and ready for the chance to create moments that penetrate the bounds of time. Here, the stopwatch is shattered.
Courtesy: ESPN Images
“Being on the ice when the Avalanche are passing around the Stanley Cup and being the first person to interview the captain and the star players and the GM [and] the coach of that team – that’s an opportunity that I’ll never take lightly.”
Sports radio listeners are as likely to fill a Morton’s Steakhouse (whatever happened to the $2.39 sirloin dinner spot?) as Mcdonald’s. Let’s cash in on that.
While reading the latest Meet the Market Manager interview with Todd Farquharson of Gow Media in Houston, I felt his pain in growing the overall sports radio listening share. Wouldn’t it be nice if sports radio was as widely listened to as rock or country? Or even half that? We can make it with what we have, just like they are in Houston. It’s not about how many listen to sports radio. It’s how much they can spend.
We should capitalize on our upscale image with clients. Some of our country’s most successful businesspeople own sports franchises, are interviewed on sports radio, and listen regularly. Mark Cuban made billions by putting sports play-by-play on the internet.
Most upscale prospects will not argue with you that luxury box seats, suites, and sponsorships of sports teams are purchased by sports-loving upscale people. And they listen to your station! So, rather than play the ROI game that favors the rock station that can generate tons of Dollar General customers, why not flip the script to how we can produce traffic to upscale clients with a high-profit margin/low customer count model?
Here are a few examples:
Luxury Goods Retailers
Businesses that sell high-end luxury goods such as men’s designer clothing, jewelry, or premium electronics/system installs often enjoy a high-profit margin per sale. Help these clients showcase exclusivity and reputation.
Specialty Food and Beverage
Butchers, BBQ hotspots, or craft beverage retailers offer premium ingredients, craftsmanship, and specialized offerings. Help them to stand out with a consistent ad plan. BBQ alone will have customers drive for hours and start lining up at 10 am just to be served.
Health and Wellness Services
Businesses offering health and wellness services, such as spas specializing in sexual health improvement, men’s wellness retreats, barbershops, and personal fitness studios, often have a high-profit potential.
Home Improvement and Office Design
Local businesses specializing in home improvement or custom design and furniture for home offices are looking for your audience. Often, our listeners will supervise the home improvement projects once they are booked. And we have lots of guys working from home.
Professional Services
Consultants, accountants, lawyers, stockbrokers, business insurance, and specialized business advisors can generate high-profit margins per client engagement. Find ways to make them a part of the audio or social media video to bring them to your market.
Technology and Software Solutions
Local businesses that develop and sell innovative technology products or software solutions can have high-profit margins. You have heard of SaaS. Now is your chance to help them rake in even more subscription revenue.
Not every one of these prospects will be ready to buy from you. Some have massive overhead, labor issues, or big corporate competitors. But look for the ones that can and sell them your idea on why sometimes less is more!
For those of us who work in AM Radio, the headlines in recent weeks have been downright scary.
“Is AM Radio Dead?”
“What is the Future of AM Radio?”
“More Woe for the Future of AM Radio”
“The Shift to EVs is Slowly Killing AM Radio”
I could fill the entire column with headlines and links to stories predicting the final nail in the coffin of AM Radio. And while I’m obviously concerned about it and appreciate bipartisan members of Congress pushing for automakers to keep AM Radio in their vehicles, I’m not as pessimistic as some have wanted to be as of late.
First off, as a free market believer, automakers should be allowed to make the decision to remove AM radio from their vehicles, with the belief that it won’t impact their sales at all. That’s their right. Of course, there is a public safety element to AM radio that is absolutely worth discussing, but should the government be mandating it? That’s debatable.
This move is mostly going to be happening for future electric vehicles (Tesla, Volkswagen, Mazda, BMW), while Ford is one of the outliers that is going to be taking AM radios out of their gas-powered cars as well.
The thought of the F-150, one of the most popular vehicles for those in the prime demographic of AM radio listeners, not having the ability to use the AM band seems like a massive business mistake. Given that there are 82 million monthly listeners of AM Radio in this country, this would seem like an error in judgment by automakers. But once again, they have a right to make that move and let the marketplace decide who is right.
Frankly, I’m not going to hold out hope that Congress somehow forces the hand of these automakers to keep AM Radio in their vehicles. The push is admirable and certainly valuable, and at KCMO we did our part in sending in letters from fantastic charities, organizations, partners, and listeners to prove the value of AM Radio.
However, I’m not naive. And waiting on, or hoping for, Congress to do anything to improve our lives or save the day is a losing proposition.
So how can radio, notably talk radio, the most popular format on the AM band, respond? I believe that talk radio is already doing a solid job doing many of the things needed to keep up with the times, and it will only need to expedite those moves to stay ahead of the trend.
In fact, if this forces those in talk radio to do things that they should already be doing anyway to stay relevant in 2023, then this is a potential win-win.
There are obvious decisions that radio companies can make, such as moving their highly-profitable talk stations to the FM band, which has been happening for years across the country. But then there are more immediate moves that stations can make, such as promoting their streams, whether it’s an individual station app, website, Alexa, Google Home, etc., while also promoting podcast listening. Then there’s the creative repurposing of content on social media to drive engagement on those platforms.
There are hurdles here, especially for many in rural America where internet access may not be as convenient. However, broadband access should only continue to grow in these regions. Approximately 72 percent of rural residents surveyed by Pew in early 2021 reported that they had access to a broadband internet connection. So we’re really addressing a small percentage of the overall listening base, depending on the station and market, who would potentially not have access to AM radio in a vehicle.
And by the way, let’s be honest, how many of those folks are going out and buying a new BMW electric vehicle or a Tesla anyway?
None of this is to downplay legitimate concerns that exist with major carmakers not putting AM Radio in their new models, mostly EVs. And it’s not to discredit the hard work many in the industry are doing to explain the value and importance of AM radio to these automakers in hopes of reversing their decisions.
However, those of us employed in AM radio, who ultimately can’t control the decisions of Congress or the automakers, should be actively working to keep relevant in a rapidly-changing media landscape anyway. AM Radio or not, the future can be bright, doom-and-gloom headlines be damned.
ESPN is reportedly planning to launch a direct-to-consumer subscription service that would make cable subscriptions unnecessary for fans that want to watch the network. Stock in parent company Disney surged Thursday amid the various reports on the decision.
Forbes reported Thursday that Disney saw over 1% in gains as a result, rising the price per share to $93.98.
While ESPN+ remains an option for sports fans to watch out of market MLB and NHL games live, subscribers still don’t have access to watch ESPN programming or game broadcasts live. The new service would allow subscribers to watch NBA and NFL broadcasts live like they would if they had a cable or satellite subscription.
An ESPN streaming service has long been rumored. This puts us one step closer. No information on a launch date, pricing, or specifics on what’s included in a subscription, is available.
Scripps Sports has its new vice president of broadcast operations in Quinn Pacini. The company announced the promotion on Thursday.
Pacini had been serving as vice president and general manager of two Scripps TV stations in Montana – KBZK in Bozeman and KXLF in Butte. Additionally, Pacini was GM of Montana State’s Learfield operation from 2015-2022.
Quinn had been directly involved with Scripps Sports since its inception late last year, working on utilizing its media rights deal with the Big Sky Conference.
“Quinn is a terrific addition to the growing Scripps Sports team,” Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor said. “His experience in the sports industry and his significant knowledge of live-game production and in-game viewing experience will be valuable to our company as we prepare to launch our first sports franchise with the WNBA.”
Scripps Sports has made a splash in the media rights space since launching. The company struck a deal with the WNBA to air regular season games on Ion on Friday nights, and earlier this month it was revealed that the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights had partnered with Scripps Sports to air non-national TV games locally starting with next season.
The company’s aspirations are much larger though. Lawlor told BSM’s Jessie Karangu that since E.W. Scripps announced it was getting into the sports business in December, teams across a variety of leagues have called inquiring about a partnership.
Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo weren’t exactly best friends when their run as a duo on WFAN began, Francesa said this week on his BetRivers podcast.
Francesa and Russo became godfathers of sports talk radio over the course of their 20-year run together. But Mike explained that initially the two really didn’t want to work together.
“We had a very rough start. It was exceedingly rough,” Francesa said on The Mike Francesa Podcast. “I don’t think people understand how rough it was. It was really bad. It was not pretty.”
But the tune of both hosts changed quickly after the ratings had Mike and the Mad Dog at number one and by a large margin.
“I thought that was the moment where it kind of went in the right direction,” Francesa said. “And I personally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.”
“We did not stop fighting it completely until we saw the ratings,” he added. “Because then we knew we were wasting our breath. The ratings turnaround was so enormous and everyone was so over the moon and it wasn’t a couple of months.”
Knowing that the two were quickly becoming the industry’s top show, Francesa knew he and Russo would be together for the long haul.
“There wasn’t anything to discuss,” he said. “We were together, we were going to be together, there was just no way around it.”
“Everyone who said it wouldn’t work just had to just shut up,” Francesa added.
A bankruptcy judge in Texas last week put a halt to the Phoenix Suns’ plans to air their games locally on the area’s Gray Television affiliate next season, but the Phoenix Mercury don’t appear to be impacted.
Both the Suns and Mercury are trying to ditch Bally Sports, as parent company Diamond Sports Group is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings. The decision to drop Bally Sports was announced back in April. On May 3, Diamond Sports filed an emergency motion in federal bankruptcy court, claiming the Suns and Mercury breached their contract with the network.
But the judge exempted the Mercury in their order on the motion, saying that the Mercury’s deal with Diamond Sports was different than that of their NBA counterparts.
Mercury games will air locally on KTVK, known as Arizona’s Family 3TV and be available across Arizona on KPHE (AZ Family Sports Network). The first broadcast on Gray TV will come on May 25. Cindy Brunson will call the play-by-play, with Ann Meyers Drysdale adding color commentary.
ESPN is going to be broadcasting Phoenix’s first two contests of the new season.
At first glance, it is an odd fit. That is probably why everyone has an opinion about Pat McAfee becoming a Disney employee. It was announced earlier this week at the Disney Upfront presentation that his popular digital show is coming to ESPN and its YouTube channel.
I wanted to hear what McAfee’s peers had to say about the move. I reached out to hosts and personalities across the sports landscape. What I found was a sort of “all or nothing” reaction.
Ian Rapoport is a rarity. He kept his comments short. He makes regular appearances on the show and told me that he wants to celebrate his friends’ victory.
“I’m so so happy for Pat and the boys,” he told me in a text message. “They deserve every bit of this!”
For everyone else, I either heard a lot or nothing at all. Very little in between.
So I decided to open things up a bit. The perspectives of people that have been on McAfee’s side of deals like this are important, but so are the people that have insight into the past and present of sports media. I added reporters that are well-sourced and have an analytical mind to the call sheet.
What I got back were complicated and nuanced opinions. Even if the people that responded have nothing but good things to say about Pat McAfee moving to ESPN, they have a lot to say and it is all worth considering.
I reached out to Paul Finebaum, because he has already done what McAfee is about to. He took a show that was already popular and successful on its own and moved it under the Disney umbrella. For Finebaum, it was the SEC Network, which has been the home of his radio show, which is syndicated across the South, since 2013.
“It’s a challenge because there are so many more people involved, but I think Pat will easily overcome the issues,” he said in an email. “He is the most authentic and unique talent to come along in a generation.”
Challenge or not, to Bryan Curtis, the move makes a lot of sense. Forget how Pat McAfee would play with the rest of the Disney portfolio. He is exactly what ESPN is looking for these days.
“McAfee is a classic Jimmy Pitaro free-agent signing,” the Editor-at-Large of The Ringer and host of the site’s media podcast The Pressbox told me.“Huge name. Big audience. Top-of-the-market salary (never mind the layoffs). The most interesting thing Pitaro has done is take John Skipper’s vision of a network made up of a big group of medium-to-high wattage stars and change it into a network made up of a small group of mega-mega-stars. Now ESPN has one more.”
Ben Strauss covers media for The Washington Post. In Jimmy Pitaro’s tenure atop ESPN, the network has added the NHL, Troy Aikman and Joe Buck. It has secured its future with the SEC and NFL. Still, Strauss told me this deal stands out.
“For ESPN, it’s easily their biggest content swing in the Pitaro era outside of live sports and it certainly makes their daily lineup more varied, and probably more interesting.”
Strauss adds that he doesn’t think McAfee is susceptible to landing in hot water with ESPN bosses. That means we can probably expect the nuts and bolts of his show to remain unchanged.
“What other big names have gotten in trouble for is politics and being overly critical of the leagues. McAfee hasn’t shown much interest in politics but what happens when Roger Goodell or an NFL owner does something stupid?”
Doug Gottlieb is now at FOX, but he was once an ESPN employee. He sees Pat McAfee as a smart investment to boost the reach and impact of the network’s own digital products.
In terms of the fit, Gottlieb doesn’t worry about McAfee’s personality at all. He is curious about how the show fits ESPN’s content philosophy.
“I do wonder what his topics will look like as his show is not produced like an ESPN show at all,” he told me in a text. “It wanders in terms of topics and discussion at times and is completely set to his and his crew’s personalities. Do ESPN viewers care? What we were taught, and frankly still execute with so many ex-ESPNers at Fox, is to pick topics with the widest set of ears/eyes.”
ESPN isn’t immune from criticism and speculation with the move. Gottlieb pointed out that there will be plenty of people that openly wonder how ESPN is being forced to layoff so many long-tenured employees if it has the money to lure someone like Pat McAfee away from a lucrative deal with FanDuel.
“This is a business and my guess is Pat will make ESPN money day 1. Otherwise why do it?”
Michael McCarthy, who covers the industry for Front Office Sports, jokes that ESPN needs to keep its mute button handy to make sure it avoids any consequences of McAfee’s language. Overall though, there is little to criticize.
“I see it as a win-win,” he says. “McAfee gets the distribution and marketing power of ESPN, and the Worldwide Leader lands the hot personality and creates a loaded weekday lineup of Get Up, First Take and The Pat McAfee show.”
The questions surrounding the relationship all go back to the same theme. How much does Disney want to police McAfee, and how much is Pat willing to bend for his new bosses?
“McAfee does what McAfee wants. He’s emphasized that he is not going to be different, which means ESPN might need to do things differently,” Andrew Marchand wrote in his Monday Sports+ newsletter.
He added that McAfee will have his own rules. That isn’t uncommon at Jimmy Pitaro’s ESPN, but the network, even under Pitaro, hasn’t always been as accommodating to talents like that as it thinks it can be.
“Over its history, ESPN has had many big-opinion, successful, ‘I do it my way’ types, from Bill Simmons to Keith Olbermann to Dan Le Batard. Each had success. None of their runs ended smoothly.”
There is an elephant in the room with Pat McAfee, Strauss told me.
“McAfee has bounced around a fair bit from different media companies during his brief but meteoric rise, so can ESPN keep him happy in all facets of the partnership?”
Keeping Pat McAfee happy is at the core of Doug Gottlieb’s question too. McAfee gave up his role on Smackdown when he started with College GameDay, but that doesn’t mean he never wants to work with the WWE again. Nick Khan, the WWE’s CEO even said recently that the company hopes McAfee wants to return someday.
“I guess my only question is will Pat not be able to do WWE events anymore?” Gottlieb asked. “Nick Khan and WWE are building a monster and it helps grow his audience and visibility, but ESPN likely will shut that down. Is he really good with that?”
That to me seems like the most valid concern. McAfee values being able to do what he wants with who he wants. I am sure Disney knows that and the two have worked out an agreement, or at least an understanding. Now, sometimes two sides can think they are on the same page and do not find out that isn’t true until a potential opportunity becomes real opportunity.
On Wednesday, McAfee asked his audience to have a little faith. He said they can trust that he laid out to Disney why the show has worked, and what they need to do, and not do to ensure it keeps working. Inside the industry, it sounds like there is optimism, but it might come with a raised eyebrow.
