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ESPN+ Scheduled to Launch April 12th

Jason Barrett
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ESPN+ Scheduled to Launch April 12th

After being discussed for over two years, ESPN+, not to be written as “ESPN Plus,” finally has a launch date. The new direct to consumer subscription streaming service, built by the former MLB owned company BAMTech, will be available to customers on April 12th.

“With ESPN+, fans have access to thousands more live games, world class original programs and on-demand sports content, all at a great price. They will get all of that as a part of a completely re-imagined, increasingly personalized ESPN App that provides easy, one-stop access to everything ESPN offers,” said new ESPN President James Pitaro in a press release.

For $4.99 per month ESPN subscribers will have access to ESPN+, with the option of purchasing the MLB.TV and NHL.TV out-of-market packages for an additional charge. The streaming service will offer thousands of live sporting events, many of them college games covering nearly two dozen conferences and a variety of sports including football, basketball, baseball, softball, soccer, track & field, gymnastics, swimming & diving, lacrosse, wrestling, volleyball, golf and more.

One daily game from both Major League Baseball and the NHL will be available during their regular seasons through the service. No NBA or NFL games will be offered as of now.

ESPN+ will debut less than a week after Turner’s new sports streaming service, Bleacher Report Live, which launches April 7th with Johnny Manziel’s debut in The Spring League as its first event. Bleacher Report Live will be free to use during its beginning months.

The future pay structure for B/R Live has not been announced, but the service will offer “flexible pricing options” including pay-per-game and even the option to purchase an in-progress event at a reduced rate.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Lessons Learned at the BSM Chicago Programming Summit

Jason Barrett
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When I’m in the moment it can be difficult to enjoy and appreciate the wins. My mind is always thinking about the next challenge or the previous one and what I could have done differently to be more effective. But this week, I’ve allowed myself a little bit of time to reflect back on the BSM Chicago programming summit because this was a brand new experience.

The idea first entered my mind two and a half years ago when I traveled to Chicago for the Podcast Movement Conference. Anytime I’m on the road, I try to find a few local sports radio people to connect with in person. I believe that’s an important part of keeping relationships strong.

During that trip, I dropped by to see Mitch Rosen and Adam Delevitt at each of their offices. When Mitch showed off the Blue Cross Blue Shield Performance Stage area and said “if you do a future conference, keep Chicago in mind” my mind started racing.

I liked Chicago because it’s not only an incredible city, but it’s centrally located. I felt that would make it easier for all who were traveling. I also knew Mitch and Adam were friends despite competing for local ratings bragging rights, and that’s a positive because when you’re considering putting on an event, you want both local brands to be part of it. The event may occur in one company’s building, but having local balance is important.

What stood out most from last week’s summit was how many smart, talented and passionate radio programmers made the trip to share thoughts and ideas on how to evolve our format. We had 20-30 brand leaders in the room, along with a number of exceptional speakers with experiences in a variety of areas related to our business. I wasn’t sure going into the summit if the room would welcome straight-talk on real issues facing our business, but much of the pre-conference feedback suggested that another rah-rah speech on the radio business wasn’t necessary and having honest discussions about ways to improve was important.

I could feel the passion and candor for the topics we explored. That energy grew from session to session. Given that the room consisted of executives from Entercom, Bonneville, Hubbard, iHeart, Cumulus, Beasley, Emmis, Tribune, NRG Media, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio, SiriusXM, VSiN, and the Chernin Group, it allowed us to spread our wings and have more meaningful conversations rather than just echoing one point of view.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you can see some of the videos that were recorded during the two-day summit, but I also want to pass along a few things that stood out while listening and conducting on-stage conversations.

  • Sarah Spain and Jason Goff (along with Dan Zampillo) were tremendous on the subject of diversity in sports radio. It’s not easy to be open and honest on a topic like this, especially in front of a number of people who could potentially impact a future paycheck, but they were. I’ve written about this subject before, and have called on our format leaders to step up their efforts to expand the audience and showcase more personalities from various backgrounds. The US population is nearly 50% female and 40% minority yet the representation on sports radio stations is far below that. 13% of M-F hosting jobs belong to minorities and only 12 women are installed as M-F show hosts. Making that even more perplexing is that the overall listening audience is 92% “Other” (white) and 8% minority. One may say “if it’s 92% then you have to superserve them” but I submit that the ceiling has been reached doing it that way, and the real growth is in bringing more minority and female listeners into the sports radio tent.
  • Jon Miller of Nielsen and Larry Rosin of Edison Research provided deep dives into the sports radio ratings picture, and growth opportunities in podcasting and smart speakers. PD’s know that digital/social content is a vital part of their present and future, but challenges remain for getting full ratings credit for it. Nielsen is trying to find permanent solutions to satisfy their clients and although that may frustrate programmers in the short-term, a long-term mindset is needed when connecting with an audience. Seeing the data of how podcasting and smart speaker consumption has grown, it makes business sense to continue creating content in those spaces. The questions every programmer should be asking are “How is my brand standing out in those spaces” and “How easy is it to find my station and on-air content on smart speakers and podcasting platforms?”
  • I loved the spirited discussion on social media benefits and pitfalls with Danny Parkins, Scott Shapiro and sports agent Barry Meister. I showed a few social media examples involving sports media members, some which may have raised an eyebrow or two in the room. Given that the panel included perspectives from a host, agent and executive, it allowed everyone to better understand how each person thinks and operates when grey areas are reached. Between debating which examples warranted punishment and whether or not social media provided enough of a financial reward for the amount of risks it involves, we couldn’t have had three better people weighing in on an important yet imperfect subject.
  • If there was a moment which made every PD stop in their tracks, it was when Laurel Cline of Wintrust Financial said “Until today I don’t think I’ve ever met a sports radio program director.” Unfortunately that’s pretty common in our format. It served as a great reminder that account executives and market managers must do a better job of involving their PD’s in bigger sales discussions. Not to be excused, programmers must also make it a higher priority to help their sales teams. I showed examples in one of my sessions of how certain brands miss the mark with branded content. It’s because social platforms are used as a dumping ground for ads and PD’s turn a blind eye because they’re focused on the radio airwaves. When you look at the lack of reach and engagement on those sales posts, put yourself in the client’s shoes and ask, “Why would I spend more money with a brand when the evidence shows that they can’t deliver one like or share for my business?” Look at how Barstool, Bleacher Report, Vice, Whistle Sports, etc. produce branded content. They weave clients seamlessly into programming, and that’s something we must do better too. It starts by getting reps, clients and PD’s into the room together and thinking beyond the speaker.
  • Hearing Tim Spence of KHOW and Orange & Blue 760 moderate a discussion with Todd Manley of WGN, Brian Long of XTRA 1360/Newsradio 600 KOGO and Chris Kinard of 106.7 The Fan on The Trump Effect and sports radio’s challenges with choosing whether to embrace or ignore topics involving the President and life/social issues was really interesting. I thought John Hanson of 610 Sports summed it up best at the conclusion of the summit when he said “No matter how experienced you are in this business, you’re not experienced in this. I’ve made mistakes. My talent have called me out on them, and they were right. It’s something we’re all trying to figure out together.”
  • Anytime David Kaplan and Laurence Holmes share a stage together you’re in for a real treat. Hearing them share their insights with Jeff Rickard on the business, how they prepare and use social media, what they need most/least from a program director, etc. was excellent. The passion these Chicago hosts have for our format was evident, and if you have 50-minutes to spare, watch their session. It was very entertaining.
  • Sports stations struggle to give their brands a social media voice. Personalities are popular on their own accounts, but future ad dollars in the social space will be reduced if you can’t create impact. I thought Dan Moriarty of the Chicago Bulls, Jen Tulicki of the Chicago Bears and Brad Boron of the Chicago White Sox gave great insight on the way teams operate. They face the same challenges, except they’ve done a better job of using personality and strategy with their approach. Jen pointed out that any post made by the Bears takes into account the words “tough and humble.” Dan’s mention of the Bulls six pillars (Human, Iconic, Timely, Thumb Stopping, Inclusive and Differentiating) and how no piece of content should be published unless it checks at least three of those boxes and never wanders beyond those areas was eye opening. He also noted that the Bulls employ 2-3 FT digital content creators and 2-3 seasonal employees, and their challenge is to take one piece of content and find 10-12 ways to promote that material across multiple platforms in different ways. Jen’s insights on being comfortable with infrequent activity on Snapchat and placing a larger emphasis on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram made a ton of sense given that the audience size is smaller. Perhaps the biggest takeaway for radio folks though was when the subject of sports stations posting 50x per day on Facebook came up. Jen said it best “Nobody likes that annoying friend who won’t shut up.” Dan followed with “That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen….posting that much only makes sense if you’re using video where the numbers are huge. Otherwise, it’ll cost you followers.”
  • Jim Cutler‘s speech on ways to image your radio station successfully was inspiring. He showed samples of ways to help or hurt your brand, and his airing of thirty seconds of “Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah” reinforced the point of just how long that amount of time is and why it’s critical to make good use of it or risk losing your audience. I also thought his input on not boasting you’re great but letting your audience say it for you was smart. Perhaps his most memorable quote during the session was “a line draws a line” and that’s something every programmer should take into account when trying to reinforce the position of being a dominant performer in their local markets.
  • We were also fortunate to hear from Mitch Rosen, Ryan Maguire and Chris “Hoss” Neupert on winning with/without play by play. Justin Craig offered valuable insights on satisfying the fan experience and across multiple platforms. Mike Thomas shared his wisdom on how to make your sports radio station rock thru imaging. Chad Millman of the Action Network and Bill Adee of VSiN chatted with Joe Ostrowski about the future of sports betting and why it’s a huge category for sports radio folks. Dave Zaslowsky conducted an engaging conversation with three millennials, Bernie Goin, Julio Rausseo and Joey Alexander about the way they use and view sports media brands. And I scared the heck out of a few folks by offering some input on the future of the PD role, the missed opportunity with merchandising and other areas of the business we should be looking at in my Sports Radio Re-imagined and BSM Blitz sessions.

Altogether the event was a great success. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Entercom Chicago for providing a great room and a professional staff which helped us deliver a positive experience for all in attendance. Now that the summit is in the rear view mirror, I’ve got a few things in mind that I’d tweak if I chose to hold a second one. For those who weren’t there but have kept up via the website or social media, should this be done again in the future? I’ll take your feedback at JBarrett@hvy.tcp.mybluehost.me.

I do believe that independent conferences like this are important. Many companies do a great job of bringing their employees together for annual learning, but that just reinforces your internal beliefs and opinions. It doesn’t expose you to different ideas, strategies and people, and there are certainly many other ways to grow ratings and revenue.

It took months of hard work to make this a reality. I didn’t charge a dime for it even though many said I should. In fact, I spent money doing it, but I believe it’s a worthwhile investment. I don’t go into things like this with my hands out or an expectation that it’ll lead to follow up business. I obviously hope it does, but I trust that if I produce good content, bring people together, and teach the business to those in positions to grow it, then companies will find ways to utilize me to help them. That doesn’t always happen, and sometimes it can be frustrating and make me question if industry people value outside support, but I quickly get past those moments of doubt, and return my focus and energy to doing what I love, trying to make our business better.

One thing I’d like to see improve down the road should we do this again is the attendance from market managers. I realize sales are vital and getting out of the building isn’t always easy, but the reason every brand holds a significant place in the hearts and minds of the audience is because of the programming. We have some incredible station managers in this format, and when big decisions have to be made to a programming lineup or an adjustment is needed for a brand’s digital, social or on-air strategy, it helps to be as informed as one can be. Given that there are people involved in the two-day affair beyond the terrestrial radio space, there’s no shortage of information or ideas to help people grow.

Think of it like this, if the PD of your radio station is Steven Spielberg, and your talent are Tom Hanks or Al Pacino, the more you know about the creation, execution and promotion of the film, the better it will perform at the box office. And in that case, you’ll still be helping the bottom line!

Mendoza Echoes Spain’s Comments at the BSM Summit

Jason Barrett
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Last week, Jessica Mendoza began her third season as an analyst for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast. While we’re beginning to see more women cover sports, it’s occurring at a slower rate than it should be.

Typically, sports are targeted towards men 25-54, but they might be ignoring a large percentage of the population that would be attracted to sports if provided more diverse coverage.

“Women that don’t watch sports, I think, would want to watch sports if they felt like they were being spoken to more,” Jessica Mendoza told The Washington Post.

Mendoza’s comments echoed what we heard from ESPN personality Sarah Spain at last week’s BSM Programming Summit in Chicago. As BSM President Jason Barrett noted during the summit, there are 425 Monday – Friday sports radio hosts in the country in the Top 20 markets, 87% of them are white males. Although many deserve to be in their positions and are doing an excellent job, it’s an eye-opening statistic that has remained stagnant for too long. That lack of diversity is not only seen in radio, but in sports media across all platforms.

Are men between the ages 25-54 the target because they’re the group that most likes sports? Or are consumers of sports coverage not more diverse because those presenting the coverage lack diversity?

“We prefer to still not to attract 50% of the population of women [and another more than 30% that are minorities] because we’re worried the white audience that we have might go away if we force them to listen to someone who is mildly different from them,” Sarah Spain told the group of sports radio programmers attending the BSM Summit.

People of all backgrounds like sports, creating diversity will attract a broader audience, not alienate its current target. “If you speak to us, if you give us someone that’s a little bit more relatable,” Mendoza told The Washington Post, “it allows us to feel connected to games.”

During the BSM summit, Spain spoke of creating avenues for more diversity within sports media. “Pipelines exist in every business for white males, but we need to create pipelines for everyone else,” said Spain.

Spain said she has no issue getting hired because she’s a woman. She understands the need to encourage others to seek opportunities within sports media.

“I will be that woman and I will kick ass and inspire other women to create that pipeline for others to get these kind of opportunities.”

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

BSM Programming Summit Day 2

Jason Barrett
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We’re live in Chicago for day 2 of the inaugural Barrett Sports Media programming summit hosted by Jason Barrett. This blog will be updated throughout the day so be sure to check back regularly for new information.

INTRODUCTION: Jason Barrett opens day 2 of the Barrett Sports Media programming summit welcoming back over 30 PD’s from around the country.  Jason explains the importance of telling your brand story and how it pays dividends with listeners, advertisers and the people inside your own hallways.  To illustrate the point, a video is played which shows how ESPN sells its impact across all platforms and why it benefits brands to associate with them.

SESSION 1 Day 2 – The State of National Sports Radio: 

  • Jason Dixon – SiriusXM
  • Adam Delevitt – ESPN 1000
  • Scott Shapiro – Fox Sports

Scott Shapiro – Our goal at the network is to bring in talent that local stations will find attractive.  We provide a service for local brands by offering great personalities and resources that they wouldn’t be able to afford.

We strive to service our affiliates because we’re only as good as they are.  Our most important stakeholders are our advertisers and affiliates.  Having an open line of communication helps facilitate our brand in your local market.

To judge how a show is doing we try to look at the bigger picture.  We look at every market every month but I try not to overreact.  Looking at each book in each market and even at a national level is important for measuring where you are and aren’t making a difference.

We had our biggest digital month ever, our digital numbers are growing, but my number one goal is to make sure our digital audience knows where to hear us live and terrestrially.  I wish we could do a better job of tracking and selling the digital audience numbers.

There’s a level of importance for national play-by-play, but viability is key.  Unless we get a deal that makes sense to be profitable for our affiliates, we’re not going to sign a play-by-play deal to take a loss.

We have a lot of solo shows, the goal is to get the best talent and a lot of time the show gets built around that personality, but we still regularly incorporate other voices into the show.

Adam Delevitt – Content is king.  Covering a big local story is harder to do with a national show, but a national show in a local market can work if it’s the right fit.  Mike and Mike had a lot of local ties to Chicago. Greeny worked at The Score, Golic played at Notre Dame, they were in Chicago a lot so it worked.

National hosts need to buy into wanting their show to work in all markets.  Hosts may not want to do 80 promos after hosting a four-hour show, but it’s something they need to do to work in other markets.  We try to send the network shows a lot of content.

National play-by-play is important.  A weekday national baseball game might not do great, but even if you’re only taking a little bit of the audience away from the local broadcast, it helps and having the playoffs and championship games are great.

Exclusivity of all ESPN personalities being on our station can be great and I’ll make a call if I hear an ESPN personality on a different station in the market, but sometimes I also think is it actually a bad thing?  If Jay Bilas goes on a non-ESPN station and promotes the brand for 10 minutes it might not be a bad thing.  It’s certainly not the end of the world.

Jason Dixon – Having Mike and Mike in Raleigh gave me a much better morning show than I could afford, but it was my job to recognize when we needed to go local.  If Duke played Carolina the next morning we’d decide if it made more sense to do a local morning show and skip Mike and Mike that day.  Local wins 99% of the time, but good content is still good content.

The relationships with the network producers, hosts, affiliate rep and programmers are important.  I could sometimes get the national guys to read something for our station, and we’d also send big local stories to the network shows which when it made sense, they’d talk about.

I try to use the ear test in determining our success at SiriusXM.  We track all data, but we can’t judge or track ratings the way terrestrial radio does.  We’re niche radio, and we try to identify which brands work and stay on our hosts, producers and PD’s to make sure their putting out a great product everyday.  On one hand there’s the freedom to live without these numbers, but on the other hand I don’t have this data to judge how a show is doing.

We have Mad Dog Sports Radio, and in my perfect world I’d love to see a west coast version, a southern version, a mid-west version and try to get sports stations covering different parts of the country.  It would be expensive, but it’s one thing I’d like to see in the future.

Any SiriusXM talent that another station wants to put on the air as a guest, let me know.  We love to have our talent promoting the brand and being heard on other stations.  You can’t have Howard, but any SiriusXM sports talent is welcome to be a guest on any terrestrial station.

SESSION 2 Day 2 – Nielsen: 

  • Jon Miller – Nielsen

Overall radio listening is down.  Fragmentation in the industry, radio listeners have other platform options, and those platforms are experiencing an increase as terrestrial radio slowly decreases.

The daily cume is declining slowly.  More people are choosing to use other forms of media everyday, so the daily audience from terrestrial radio is decreasing.  Each month there is a little less AM/FM radio use than there was last year.  Overall audio listening is up, but radio use is declining.

It’s important to focus on the “vertical” model, to get as many tune-ins during the day as you can.  You need to get the morning listener to come back and listen in the afternoon, but you also need to use the “horizontal” model, making sure you get the listener to come back tomorrow and everyday in the week.  Starbucks doesn’t try to get you to buy a larger cup of coffee when you’re there, they try to get you to come back tomorrow.  Starbucks’ goal isn’t to have the current customer spend more while they’re in the store, it’s goal is to make sure they become a repeat customer.  They look to sell more cups of coffee, not larger cups.  The same applies to sports radio.

We spend 80 hours a week consuming content.  Why should people choose radio?  Why should they choose your brand?  There are niche’s carved in talk radio that the consumer can only get from your brand.

Nielsen is evolving, we’re figuring out the digital numbers.  Currently, you get the most credit for your terrestrial brand.  Nielsen has not caught up to measuring digital platforms.  We understand stations are promoting their digital brand and need to get credit for those numbers, but measuring that audience has been more challenging than we originally thought.

SESSION 3 Day 2 – Bringing Your Imaging to Life: 

  • Jim Cutler

It’s effective to learn by listening to bad examples.  Put content into your imaging, not “fluff.”  Replace fluff with topical content, don’t waste time on-air.

Avoid:
– “You just don’t know what you’re going to get with the —- Show.”
– “The —- Show is unpredictable, you never know what you’re going to hear next.”

Focus on highlighting good content and what’s happening right now.  News talk and sports talk is a gift because it provides content to promote and put into your imaging.

Imagine if breaking news alerts on your phone said “Things are happening out there,” rather than giving you an actual alert or update.

You can’t say you’re “cool” and relevant by using liners that say “we’re number 1.”  Your listeners and callers are a better way of promoting that success and relevancy.

Recognize how long thirty seconds to your audience is.  If the promo or on-air discussion is wandering it will make your audience leave fast.  Jim then played an audio sample where he muttered “blah, blah, blah blah, blah” for thirty seconds.  It felt like an eternity inside the room.  Programmers were reminded to maximize the time available to engage listeners.

Where do you get non-filler for your station?  Look at YouTube.  There are a lot of bad aspiring broadcasters posting things on YouTube, but there are a lot of great ones too.  You no longer need a radio station to create content, but radio station’s are still magical and if you invest the time you can find good undiscovered talent.

Working with a radio station is a great way to promote a podcast.  Anybody can launch a podcast, but a radio station pushing the podcast as “this is something we can’t say on-air,” rather than just saying, “listen to more in our podcast,” is a way to get listeners.

Jim also played a few video samples demonstrating how music artists use fans in their videos to show how they matter, and closed out by answering questions from the room.

SESSION 4 Day 2 – Developing Your Social Voice (moderated by Bill Adee, VSiN): 

  • Brad Boron – Chicago White Sox
  • Jen Tulicki – Chicago Bears
  • Dan Moriarty – Chicago Bulls

Brad Boron – We work a little with players on how to use social media.  We show them what previously worked and didn’t work.  We can’t go down the road of telling players you should post this and you shouldn’t post that because fans are savvy and can tell what is genuine and what is not.  When Twitter was in its infancy, we could probably tweet on behalf of a player but now fans can tell right away.

People get news from many avenues.  We look at our account as what happens if we could never break news again?  We try to enhance information, not be a breaking source of information.  If someone comes to us for breaking news, great, but for people that already saw the news, they can still get something extra from our account.

We have a content calendar, but we don’t need to follow it too strictly.  We have a weekly content meeting where everyone brings in ideas.  The best thing that anyone can do to create content is step back and think about what’s something we can provide that no one else will.

I tell players, “Be crazy but with a purpose.”

Jen Tulicki – One of the great things about social media is it’s gray, there are no black and white rules for what will happen when you show up to work in the morning.  You never know what news can break that will change your content for a day.  Keep Twitter open and available to listen to your audience and fans.

A good social media post is authentic and we try to push the limits to create thumb-stopping videos and graphics.  When a follower is continuously scrolling, we want to make sure they stop on a Bears post.

Instagram is easy to delight our fans with graphics.  We put stories on Twitter and Facebook to try and drive people to our website.  Right now we’re prioritizing Instagram, creating those thumb-stopping graphics and engaging videos to attract people that tend to use Instagram as an escape from the news stories on Twitter, or posts from their friends and family on Facebook.

Quality over quantity is the smart way to approach social media.  Make sure you’re choosing relevant posts that offers something to fans.  We have a fan base of 75,000 on Snapchat and 700,000 on Instagram so prioritizing is something we have to do.  Although we want to be part of the fan experience in every social space, I’m OK with being less active on Snapchat and more focused on other platforms where we have higher interest.

As far as bombarding your fans with aggressive posts on Facebook are concerned, use common sense.  You don’t want your social media account to be seen as the friend that never shuts up.

Dan Moriarty – We try to talk to our entire fan-base, we have male and female fans of varying ages and backgrounds.  How do we differentiate ourselves from other social media accounts Bulls’ fans are following?

What’s happening in the real world is the biggest thing for us.  You need to “strike when the iron’s hot.”  If we’re losing by 20 points at halftime I’ll send half of our team home because we can put out great content, but if it’s coming after a loss, the interest isn’t there.  When Zach LaVine came back from his injury and had a good game in a win against his former team, we had the full social media team going until after midnight because fans were interested.

Buying followers is something that can quickly make you irrelevant.  An account might have 50,000 followers, but if their content is only getting one like, or less activity than an account with 1,000 followers, you quickly realize which accounts have legitimate followers.  The only way to gain followers is through good content.

At the Bulls we institute a six pillars strategy and for content to be posted it must check three of those six boxes. It also can’t be something that isn’t in line with our six pillars.

Your goal should be to create content that will lead to multiple posts across all platforms.  To do that you have to use different images, videos, shorter clips, behind the scenes stuff, etc.  By taking one piece of content and featuring in different ways, it allows you to get the most out of it and it doesn’t become boring or repetitive for the consumer.

If a radio company is suggesting to post nearly fifty times a day on Facebook that seems like a disaster waiting to happen to me.  However, I’ve seen the head of Facebook Sports show data about what works and high frequency can provide a big payoff, but most of the time it is driven by video.  If you’re not using video and just posting 50 times a day, that’s not going to help you serve your fans.  It’s only going to drive them away.

Social Media Tips:
– Get an iPhone Gimbal to stabilize and prevent shaky videos
– Use scheduling tools to continuously make social media posts
– Spend money on software
– Use Slack
– Use graphics

SESSION 5 Day 2 – Inside the Millennial Mind (moderated by Dave Zaslowsky):

  • Bernie Goin – I.M.S.
  • Julio Rasseuo – I.M.S.
  • Joey Alexander – I.M.S.

Julio Rasseuo – I still listen to regular radio, I use Tune-In to hear broadcasters throughout the country.  I’ve been a cord cutter for four years but I have a TV that was gifted to me except it’s never been plugged in.

Some of the personal talk and fluff is fine.  I’m investing my hours with a host on a daily basis so I don’t mind getting to know them, but you still want good sports content.

Content is key.  It doesn’t even need to be on the air.  If you’re a right’s holder give me as much team coverage as you can using podcasts.  In-terms of politics, unfortunately the line is blurred sometimes and you need to talk and listen to a political conversation.

I admire Dave Portnoy.  I’m not a Barstool reader or fan of the brand, but I admire what he built.  He took a risk with a digital platform and that’s an area where everyone in sports radio should be taking risks.

Joey Alexander – I had a teacher suggest reading a newspaper, but I didn’t even know where to get one.  It was foreign to me.  I get my news on Bleacher Report.  I never needed the paper.

Sometimes I’ll hear a station talking about something outside of sports, and it might be funny for a minute or two, but I want them to quickly get back into sports.  Too much time gets wasted on the air and as a younger guy I just don’t have time for it.

One topic which quickly turns me off is politics.  I don’t care about a host’s political opinions.  I hate hearing anything about politics on a sports talk show.  It’s caused me to venture away from ESPN’s TV shows.  “I go to sports to get away from the world, not hear about the world.”

Bernie Goin – I still like reading an actual newspaper, and like the variety that it provides.

Listening to sports talk radio, I find I don’t get enough sports.  After listening to a show I still need to search to get more sports because they talk too much about their personal life, especially on a local level.

A better way to humanize yourself is to tell me about your experiences as a fan, rather than your experiences outside of sports.

If I get a breaking news alert on my phone, I’m not going to the radio or TV to tell me what’s going on, I do my own research to find more information on a story.

Radio hosts need to portray that they care about what’s going on.  If you need to be angry about a team then do that.  As a fan, I don’t want to hear a host making excuses for a team or player.

SESSION 6 Day 2 – The BSM Blitz: 

  • Jason Barrett – BSM

Using social media in a creative way helps you drive tune-ins and extend your brand’s connection to the audience.  Look at the way Joe Fortenbaugh promotes his guests each morning on 95.7 The Game in the Bay Area.  It’s smart, creative, local and much more likely to grab a listener’s attention than the useless tweets some hosts send out with  few lines of text and no real call to action.

JB showed some additional samples of stations using social well, and others filling space rather than using it to their benefit.  One example that stood out was how WIP in Philadelphia captured video of their broadcast team during the final call of the Super Bowl and shared it with their fans.  The views and responses were tremendous.

For a PD, doing a Twitter takeover or Facebook Live is a smart way to build a connection to the audience.  It’s free research and it shows you value your listeners.  Even more importantly, it becomes on-air content because your on-air talent can have fun with.

Branded content has become a must for advertisers.  You’re going to need ideas to generate larger dollars in the future.  Relying on spots and added value features is a recipe for disaster.  Too often programmers are conditioned to say NO to advertising requests but if you’re the brains of the operation and trusted to know talent and creative content then you should also be able to help your sellers find ways of weaving business into content.

If you think branded content is posting an ad on Facebook or Twitter or doing a video endorsement for a client, then you’re asleep at the wheel.  It’s about making the client look cool and feel naturally connected to your programming.  A video sample was then shown which highlighted a 101 ESPN video spot, Bad Joke Telling by Whistle Sports and the Tourism Australia ad.  Barstool is another brand which is brilliant at connecting clients to content in a smart way.

JB asked the room to raise their hand if their brand currently sold merchandise.  Not one PD said they were selling brand related merchandise.  JB pointed out “the narrative on the industry is that revenues are flat to down, your brands pump out content 24-hours a day, so why on earth are you not using your megaphone and social platforms to sell product?”

Craig Carton sells merchandise on his website.  Crossing Broad in Philadelphia did a great job of selling Eagles shirts right after the Eagles won the Super Bowl.  Clay Travis has become a brilliant marketer using Outkick The Coverage to move t-shirts.  Perhaps the most perplexing example though is Barstool Sports who sold Mike Francesa t-shirts promoting great slogans such as “Can’t spell Francesa without FAN” and “Numbah One” while WFAN didn’t.

You have to recognize the connection your talent have in the marketplace and pick up on the catchy things they say and do and turn them around quickly because you’re leaving money on the table.  Barstool says merchandising represents a third of their business.  At this point, sports radio should be more than motivated to add NTR dollars.

In sports radio circles, KFAN in Minneapolis created cool t-shirts for the Minneapolis State Fair and by all indications they were a hit yet after the fair they’re not available on their website.  Why not?  What if ESPN New York had created a Don LaGreca t-shirt that read “FIX THAT” after he had his meltdown on the air a few weeks ago?  How much product would either of the Houston sports stations moved if they had pounced and created merchandise after the Josh Innes-Seth Payne situation on radio row?

The bottom line, you have to recognize what catches fire, react, and understand how merchandise can drive extra revenue for your brands.  There’s no downside to it either.  If customer demand isn’t there, you don’t print.  If there is, you do and it becomes additional revenue.  This should be a no-brainer.

If your airwaves are valuable enough to advertisers to purchase time on to sell products and important enough to audiences to listen to your content, then why aren’t you using the same space to grow your business?  If it means eliminating a few programming promos to run merchandising promos it’ll be worth the adjustment.

Shows need to be less predictable and programmers have to study the content, not just the ratings.  Look at the times when you take calls, bring guests on or even talk about specific teams.  Does a feature still have legs or has it run its course?  If you don’t surprise your audience, don’t be surprised when they’re tuning out due to fatigue.

Events such as a celebrity roast, or awesome events like Wing Bowl in Philly or Ticket Stock in Dallas are so important, especially during the dead zones of the sports calendar.  They allow you to make money plus create content and drive ratings during otherwise slower times.  Too often we live day to day and trust that the topics of the day will be enough but what good are they if the audience sees no reason to out on the radio?  Case in point, the week of the All-Star game in MLB.

SESSION 7 Day 2 – The Talent Perspective (moderated by Jeff Rickard): 

  • David Kaplan – ESPN 1000
  • Laurence Holmes – 670 The Score

David Kaplan – I appreciate the honest feedback from my program director.  After a show, he lets me know what segments he felt worked or didn’t.  The PD should be giving feedback, partaking in meetings and communicating with me, “Good, bad or indifferent, but let’s talk.”

I don’t want to hear from the PD during the show.  I know there’s a line.  I’m going to be opinionated and try different things, but it’s important to know the PD has my back.  You also need to have a boss that’s able to let you make fun of them on air because it’s entertaining and relatable.

My producer isn’t afraid to say to me “No, you’re out of your mind,” and I value that.  It takes time to build trust with a producer to have that conversation, but that back and forth and trust between host and producer is what creates good content.  I want my producers to get involved on-air.  I want the show to sound like three people having a good time, not just one person preaching.

Too many times people use guests as a time filler.  We’ve gotten away from jamming eight guests into a show and having guests for guests sake.  Fans tune into the show to hear my opinion, not a show packed with guests.

I despise people that tweet “Touchdown Bears.”  I love engaging on social media.  You can blast at me, I’ll come back at you.  If someone’s really over the top I’ll mute them because I don’t want them to get the satisfaction of being blocked.

Don’t say “good morning everybody,” say “good morning to you.”  I’m not talking to everybody, I’m talking to you and engaging on social media is a way to develop that personal connection.  One way I do that beyond the show, I’ll record videos of myself talking about stuff, tweet them out and use them to drive a reason to tune in at 9am.

Laurence Holmes – I want my PD to know that I understand what the current topics are, but if I’m trying something else, I’m doing it for a reason.  I’m trying to bring in a new audience.  If it fails, I’m okay with my PD saying don’t do that again.

If I get to the end of a show and we’ve used all the content I spoke to my producer about prior to the show, I feel the show was a failure because it means something didn’t take off or we had just enough content and sputtered towards the end.  I want a show to end with me saying we didn’t get to everything we planned.

Sometimes I get feedback from my PD during a segment, but usually it’s a funny text.  If there’s something he didn’t think worked, it will wait until after the show.  I want there to be two-way communication.  It can be great to have a PD offer a clear set of eyes to give a small suggestion, change things around a bit to make it better.

I realized over the last few years that I needed to get younger producers.  I need to make sure I’m updating my references because the 25 year old in the car might not understand them.  As a host, we think we know everything that’s going on, but I need a younger producer to tell me “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

If you’re filling time on your radio station than your wasting my time.  I don’t want you thinking about a segment that will just get us from point A to point B, anyone can fill time, not everyone can program time.

It’s important to understand where you can stretch segments and when you need to pay attention the clock.  PD’s know when we need to break and when we need to tease a segment, and hosts can all do a better job of paying better attention to the formatics of a show.

The most difficult thing for me is understanding the matrix of how many calls to take.  There are days you have to take calls the whole show, but nothing can derail a show faster than a terrible call.  I’ve done four hour shows with zero phone calls and walked away saying that was a great show.  I’ve done a show filled with calls that I thought was a great show.  I struggle with the daily balance of “should I be creating segments that generate calls or not?”

I remind people on social media that we’re watching a show together.  The social connection is similar to the one you build on air.  They’re both intimate mediums.  People follow you because they want your opinion and think your funny, so reach out to them, make them feel good about interacting with you and in turn they’ll listen to you.

SESSION 8 Day 2 – Winning With and Without Play-by-Play (moderated by John Hanson):

  • Mitch Rosen – 670 The Score
  • Ryan Maguire – KIRO-FM
  • Hoss Neupert – 101 ESPN

Mitch Rosen – The Bulls was a future buy.  We helped out this year since they were in need of a new partner, and we’re hopeful of them being a playoff team next year.  We push the Cubs a lot because being known as “The home of the Cubs” is priceless.  Nielsen told us the Cubs winning the world series was the highest rated event ever on Chicago radio.

If the team is winning, people are going to listen regardless of who is in your broadcast booth.  There are certain exceptions but the team brands will always draw an audience if they’re performing.

The Cubs are great content and better than any local show when they’re winning.  Some ratings success is attributed to having the Cubs, and some will say “they won because of the Cubs,” and I say “So what.”  We pay a lot of money to be “the home of the Cubs,” so I’m not going to apologize for it helping us bring in a massive audience.

We’re not the flagship for the Bears, but we use “Bears Monday” and “Bears Friday” where we fill the shows with Bears content.  We’re not the flagship, but we have days where we can legally use the “Bears” name and brand.

Ryan Maguire – The trick, besides monetizing being a flagship, is finding a way to take the broadcast cume and turn it into listening during primetime, M-F 6a-7p.

There is no replacement for live sports.  We live in an era of “on-demand,” and you don’t need to listen to your favorite radio show or watch you favorite television show live because you can access it later on-demand.  There’s no replacement though for live sports.

Experiential things from a rights deal is important.  Getting tickets to give to sponsors, not only to games, but other events going on at the stadium.

If a competing station is the flagship, you can do a longer pre and post-game show, build better shows, offer better coverage.  Encroach on the flagship space until you get pushed back.  It’s always better to ask for forgiveness, not permission.

Chris “Hoss” Neupert – We can get so deep in the rabbit hole of being controlled by a right’s deal and needing to provide them with so much programming.  We were the flagship station of the Rams, but since they’ve moved to Los Angeles our ratings have stayed strong and even increased.  We cover the team, but we don’t try to alienate the audience.

Use your rights deals to help you gain better access to coaches and players to help drive more listening to your weekday shows.  Tickets are always important too for listening and sales purposes.

Showcase the games even if you don’t have them on your station.  It’s OK to talk about games broadcast on other stations, both on-air and through social media.  It tells fans where to find them and they’re not dumb.  They’ll appreciate you more for your approach.  They’ll also come back to listen and react on your airwaves.

When you’re not the flagship you can be more honest and you can market yourself that way.  Most flagship pre and post-game shows are based around ads and crappy features, so be better than that.  Talent matters and you can build a better show with honest coverage.

CLOSING:  JB then went around the room with each programmer asking for their takeaways from the two-day event.  Many applauded BSM for putting on an action packed show but JB reminded them that it only works when programmers take the initiative to get out of the office and invest in their own development.  Even if someone isn’t able to attend a BSM programming summit, getting to a different event and picking up a few new tricks is critical to a brand leader’s professional development.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

BSM Programming Summit Day 1

Jason Barrett
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We’re live in Chicago for the inaugural Barrett Sports Media programming summit hosted by Jason Barrett. This blog will be updated throughout the day so be sure to check back regularly for new information.

INTRODUCTION: Jason Barrett opens the Barrett Sports Media programming summit welcoming over 30 PD’s from markets throughout the country.  During the two-day event everyone involved has the opportunity to  share insights, strengthen relationships and inherit wisdom from many of our industry’s top sports radio minds.

SESSION 1 – Experience, Sound & Reinvention: 

  • Mitch Rosen – 670 The Score
  • Justin Craig – ESPN Radio
  • Mike Thomas – 98.5 The Sports Hub

Mitch Rosen – The Score brand is bigger than our personalities.  The radio station is 26 years old, and to stay relevant and fresh, you can’t be afraid to make change.  We could have kept things the same and done well, but we have to ask how can we reinvent ourselves?  Change was needed in acquiring new talent, but we still wanted to keep our heritage.

Staying topical is key.  How many people heard of Loyola Chicago before the tournament?  Being creative and having a great imaging director is one of the most important aspects for a sports station.  Our best primetime show is the Chicago Cubs.  They’re our marketing campaign and in all of our imaging, not just on The Score, but our entire cluster.

The best way to perform market research is talking with listeners.  They are our customers and they give honest feedback and I make the time to respond to all of them.

We need to own our local content because local content wins, and people want to talk about their teams.  This format is here to stay, because it’s live, local and all about strong opinions.

Justin Craig – Pushing the ESPN brand is more important than an individual station.  It doesn’t matter how a show is consumed, whether it’s on the radio, television or streamed.

As soon as a host’s show ends is when their job really begins.  That’s when the talent needs to stay connected, promote a show and build the brand.  Having a younger producer who knows how to properly use social media can be important to help the host continue to stay connected after the show.

The hardest thing to do on a national level is relating to the listeners.  Are we putting out a product that fans want?  The local station is part of their audience, they interact with them.

We aim to hit mass consumption with our shows.  It’s not just about one particular location.  It’s about radio, TV, the app, social media, anywhere fans are and interested in sports content, we want to be who they turn to for content.

Mike Thomas – The importance of imaging and making sure a station sounds fresh.  Each of us have had those moments where we heard a talent or imaging from a station that made us say, this is what we want to do.

The Sports Hub is a “sports station that rocks.”  We’re a former rock station and that can be heard in our imaging.  Boston was ready for a younger sports station and a lot of other markets are as well.

Even though we don’t carry the Red Sox, its important to still have Red Sox imaging.  We have a baseball reporters show to compete with WEEI’s Red Sox pregame and we promote that as well as when a reporter will be joining one our other shows.

Jason Barrett – Responded to a question about running a station that does not have broadcast rights to a popular local team.  At 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, they had rights to the Athletics’ games, but not the Giants.  It was still important to give the listener what they want, although the A’s wanted the station to talk less Giants during the day, its necessary to put the listener first even if that means focusing on your rival station’s team.

SESSION 2 – The Tangled Web of Social Media: 

  • Danny Parkins – 670 The Score
  • Barry Meister – Meister Sports Mgmt.
  • Scott Shapiro – Fox Sports Radio

Danny Parkins – It seems obvious to be active on social media to interact with the listeners.  I’ve told people I will be at a game and offer a meeting point to buy people beer.  I have 40,000 followers, I might only get a dozen people to show up, but 40,000 fans will see that I’m willing to do that.

You’re not being human if you’re not talking about what your audience is talking about including political topics.  Eventually fans will tune in to listen to a talent because they want to hear that person regardless of what they’re talking about.  There are ways to be profitable while being polarizing.

You don’t have to sell your soul to go viral or make a name for yourself, you just have to be creative.  If you’re going to be controversial, you have to be genuine and able to sleep at night.

From a compensation standpoint there are cost benefits to using social media.  It may not be easy to dissect but by being active on social media it caught the attention of Mitch Rosen and resulted in me now working for my hometown station in market #3 in afternoon drive.

Barry Meister – You can tweet something that 50% of the population finds funny and 50% finds offensive.  It never makes sense to alienate half of your audience.  A tweet that offends a large group of people is different than an opinion that people disagree with.

My job is to protect my client at all costs but I tell them “you want to be right, but you want to be employed.”

Whatever the platform is, you have to know who you’re talking to.  You also have to know who the individual is and educate them on the benefits and dangers of operating in the space.  Among my clients, Chris Sale has no use for Twitter.  It’s not who he is.  On the other hand, Sergio Romo is very active in the space and has generated a lot of additional revenue on it.

Scott Shapiro – Social media is an extraordinary brand connection.  There are so many people doing what we do, it’s a very competitive business, we want fans to be watching a game and thinking of our talent to see what they’re doing next.  Social media is free advertising.

For anyone in radio, to not use social media to promote your brand or station is a mistake.  That said, talent need to represent the values of the company when using Twitter.  The “f-word” is something that makes many people uncomfortable, if you use that on social media, you better not have our brand represented anywhere on the page.

Handling a talent crossing the line with an opinion depends on the employer and how much the company is willing to allow.

We use Facebook Live, it’s important, we try to make it look good and sound good, but any extension of our brand to a different platform is used as a way to try and convert that listener back to terrestrial radio.

SESSION 3 – Gaining Dollars and Attention From Sports Radio Advertisers: 

  • Dean Lamb – CDW
  • Laurel Cline – Wintrust Financial

Dean Lamb – From an advertising standpoint we look at ratings as one element, but there is so much other data we focus on as well.

How do we create a degree of relevance between what we’re doing and what you’re doing.  Talking to a program director to see what their audience listens to can help to create an ad.  I would prefer if someone told us to go back on the drawing board, rather than put something on-air that you don’t think works.

When working with talent, we look for an element of brand safety, but we also want someone interesting and relevant.

One difficulty with advertising during play-by-play is the spot can be played on terrestrial radio, but not heard on any streaming platform due to league rules, but streaming and smart speakers are obviously becoming more popular.

Sports radio stations who appeal to an older demo should absolutely push that story. It’s not just about Men 25-54. For example, when we do business with the PGA Tour we definitely look to reach the higher end of the demo.

Laurel Cline – There are so many things we look at, ratings are an aspect of it, but most importantly we want it to be something that fits our brand.  Sometimes there is too much data and it’s difficult to decipher what’s helpful and what isn’t.

We look for someone who is local, involved with the community and actually supports our product or brand. We try to stay away from anything too political or controversial, sometimes an ad might run during a show and we’ll get feedback from people upset.

Finding a way to integrate advertisers into podcasts will become more invaluable.  One challenge with podcasts is it fragments the audience, but if more people are listening to them, are less people listening to the radio? Knowing where the audience listens is important.

In our world, we know that the majority of our customers are older so we look to appeal to a younger audience.

It would be beneficial to us and all advertisers if we had a chance to meet, talk and get feedback from program directors. I have never met a programmer until today.

SESSION 4 – Tackling Diversity in Sports Radio: 

  • Sarah Spain – ESPN Radio
  • Jason Goff – Chicago Sports Radio Host
  • Dan Zampillo – ESPN Los Angeles

Jason Barrett introduced the topic by mentioning there are 425 Monday – Friday radio hosts in the country, 87% of them are white males. Although many deserve to be in their positions and are doing an excellent job it’s also disappointing to see the lack of progress offering diverse talent on the air.

The numbers over the past three years are unchanged. As a whole the format has to make major improvements. 38% of the population is non-white yet only a third of that population is represented on sports talk radio.

Dan Zampillo – The idea of hiring someone who isn’t like you is very important.  Someone with differing opinions might make me feel uncomfortable, but to overcome something you have to leave your comfort zone.

It’s not about my world and thinking what I think is funny or not, you need to know your audience and seek out opinions from different people.

Jason Goff – I grew up listening to sports talk radio.  I feel we sometimes insult our listeners because we think they can’t handle certain topics.  Sports can be a vehicle to talk about something else, people say stick to sports, but sometimes there’s something deeper than sports and people like learning more than they don’t like learning.

Sometimes for a minority or female host in an industry dominated by white males, there are some things you may have to subconsciously deal with that you say “that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.” But if anyone else heard it they might be like “you’re going to put up with that” and I say “yeah, because it’s my dream.”

How many people have zero connection with a minority during their day? Radio stations can provide people with that connection.

The challenge we have is getting more diverse people behind these microphones and behind the scenes and understanding that there’s a blending that’s taking place but the loud minority is shouting down that blending.

I never understood why a sports station isn’t rated number one because everyone can relate to sports and has a reaction to it. I’m not here to make you feel the best or worst, but I’m here to make you feel, and it’s great to think differently because the audience isn’t just the 25-54 year old white male.

Sarah Spain – Nobody ever really only followed the stick to sports model.  The current climate just makes people more aware of someone not talking about sports.  Sticking to sports can be small-minded.  Why not appeal to a broader audience?

By the way, when people clamor for things to return to how they used to be, the way that it was though didn’t actually stick to sports.  A lot of women and minorities were alienated.  Gay people were offended.  The main people listening and in charge didn’t notice though because the commentary reflected their own opinions.

When I say something that goes off sports or is specific to me it becomes noteworthy, but when a straight white male goes on a rant about going to a strip club or women shouldn’t go to Vegas, they ruin everything, it just feels like the regular conversation because that’s what you’re used to.

We talk often about how to fix major league baseball because those who like the game are all old white men. When I talk to people in power positions in radio instead of saying “all of our listeners are white men who are aging” they say “we don’t want to alienate our listeners who we do have.”

What business runs like that?  What business says “no, we prefer to still not to attract 50% of the population of women and another 30+% that are minorities because we’re worried that the white audience that we have might go away if we force them to listen to someone who is mildly different from them.”

Why wouldn’t you want to appeal to as many people as possible who are interested in sports radio?  If you’re wondering why your audience is a certain way, maybe look at the people you have hosting and the things that they’re saying and realize that they’ve been turning away a really big chunk of people for a very long time.

You need to find people that don’t know what they want yet.  I never wanted to get into sports radio because I thought someone would ask me who hit the most home runs in 1985 and I wouldn’t know the answer, because my parents didn’t watch sports and I wasn’t watching sports in 1985.  To find different types of talent you have to be willing to put yourself into positions where you’re going to do things differently.  Whatever your daily routine is, wherever you usually go, go somewhere different.

Pipelines exist in every business for white males, but we need to create pipelines for everyone else.  If you’re hiring me because you need to hire a woman then great. I will be that woman and I will kick ass and inspire other women to create that pipeline for others to get these kind of opportunities.  If you’re a token hire, that’s fine, as long as you’re not disrespected.  Once you get the job is yours though you need to be yourself and take advantage of it and make people ask themselves why they didn’t try it sooner.

SESSION 5 – The Infinite Dial 2018: 

  • Larry Rosin – Edison Research

Podcasting is an important tool for radio stations.  Many people want to turn on a station and listen to whatever is on right now, but others want to catch up and listen to a specific show on their own time, and podcasts provide that opportunity.  If you’re not providing the listener with unique podcasts, they’ll find them elsewhere.

86% of Americans older than the age of 13 listen to music.

41% of Americans listen to speech based content.

The average American listens to three hours and 49 minutes of audio per day, 57 minutes of that is speech based.

Of the 41% that listen to speech content regularly, they listen to four hours and 54 minutes of content daily, of which two hours and 19 minutes is speech based.

Average listening platforms for Americans over the age of 13:

AM/FM Radio 53%
Streaming 15%
Owned Music 14%
SiriusXM 7%
TV Music Channels 5%
Podcasts 3%
Other 3%

Terrestrial radio is still by far the most consumed form of audio content, but with each new study, its percentage decreases a little bit.

Once a listener begins listening to podcasts, they quickly listen to more podcasts.  Of those who regularly consume podcasts, 59% of their daily listening is to podcasts, while AM/FM Radio drops to just 24% of their listening.

Once you enter the digital world, more people consume podcasts when listening on a phone or computer than they listen to AM/FM radio.

50% of people 18-34 said they do not own a radio in their home, ten years ago that number was just 6%.

SESSION 6 – The Trump Effect (moderated by Tim Spence 630 KHOW Orange and Blue 760 Denver): 

  • Todd Manley – WGN Radio
  • Brian Long – KOGO/Xtra 1360
  • Chris Kinard – 106.7 The Fan

Chris Kinard – When we started, we brought in hosts that could talk about social issues.  Over the course of the last two years its become too divisive and less fun, so we have cut back on that and the ratings have responded positively.

Continuing down a political path is something a host doesn’t always want to do because they don’t want to brand themselves in that way.  Politics might not be the majority of what a sports station or host does, but it’s going to be the loudest thing they do.

We’re done talking about politics.  Our listeners know when they turn on The FAN, they’re going to be entertained, and not moved to turn the radio off because they’re hearing the same political topics they heard at work all day.

Brian Long – Sports radio hosts aren’t always well-versed in what’s going on politically, but they still have opinions that could become divisive.  From a sports standpoint, we decided to get out of talking politics rather quickly.  Still, there are times that a sports conversation will have to crossover to being a political conversation.

We preach playing the hits, but you need to know why the audience is tuning into your station.  You can give a hot take on sports each day, but when talking about a social issue, a host may upset the audience if it’s not a topic the audience wants to hear about.

Todd Manley – I’ve noticed music stations coming out of nowhere in the market, because people are looking to get away from political conversations.  Looking at the balance of what to talk about is important, you need to have fun.  We have shows that are targeted towards sports and others that are not.

Our afternoon show is topicality driven, there are so many topics to choose from right now, and choosing what news story to talk about is a conversation we have everyday, along with how can we shift gears to making the topic fun.

SESSION 7 – Sports Radio Reimagined: 

  • Jason Barrett

Should the male 25-54 demo change?

People are living longer.  Older listeners have the most money.  The debate should be about which demo best represents the true impact made by sports talk radio stations.  18-54? 25-54? 25-59? 25-64? 35-64?

Niche content is gaining steam.  Trying something different such as a daily sports betting or eSports show can’t be dismissed, especially when you look at how much money is projected to be invested in those spaces in the future.  Just type in sports or sports radio on iTunes and look at what comes up.  Wrestling for example, dominates the charts.  It’s why Podcast One and Westwood One have launched wrestling programs.  There’s big money and interest in many of these forms of content.

Sports program directors are comfortable spending money on weekly NFL, NBA, MLB contributors, but have you ever considered a weekly political guest? Betting experts? A popular wrestling personality or eSports enthusiast?

How are you looking to groom young talent, or employ women and minority talent? Barstool Radio has more women in their weekday lineup than any station. They also feature shorter shows. Why not experiment with a 30-60 minute show? If the average commute is under 30-minutes and your average metered listener spends less than one hour listening to your station each day, can you say with certainty that shorter programs wouldn’t be seen as a benefit to your audience? With digital platforms available, stations should be using them as a way to experiment and develop new talent.

How much money are you generating from your digital content?  How much are you earning from podcasts, and people using your app or streaming? How many hours are invested in making your digital platform look and sound right?  Station’s need to find ways to make the digital part of their business profitable and charging for it can’t be dismissed.

If radio revenues are flat to down and you look at what’s going on in the subscription world in the sports media business, it’s fair to ask if 100,000 listeners paying zero on a platform that you monetize poorly and spend ample resources in is more important to your business than 10,000 paying $8.00 per month.  If the content and talent are special and offering quality on a consistent basis people may not be as opposed to paying for it as you might think.

Brands should be analyzing how their meters use their stations and adapt their clock structure to the way people use the radio station’s programs, not just installing the same clock design across all 13 hours just because it’s simpler.  As long as the inventory gets in during each four to five hour daypart, it’s the programmer’s job to review when people are listening most/least and capitalize on opportunities.

PD’s should be asking themselves, “can my brand survive and thrive without me?”  You have to think about the job description going forward differently.  There’s going to be much more to the position than analyzing ratings, coaching talent, meeting with sales and promotions, etc.  Are you involved in digital content creation, social strategy, merchandising, graphic design, etc.?  Don’t dismiss learning about those things because they may be part of your job in the next few years.  Otherwise a company may one day decide to install a virtual PD.

SESSION 8 – The Next Big Category: 

  • Chad Millman – Action Network
  • Bill Adee – VSiN

Chad Millman – It’s harder to do a national campaign if sports gambling is regulated in each state differently.  League’s would prefer if the future of sports betting was federally legislated the same everywhere.  From a content standpoint, it doesn’t matter, we’re still going to provide information to help people learn to bet smarter on sports.

There are still glitches, the betting technology has to catch up for the market to grow where I expect it to grow

We want to be conversational and connect with an audience that might not bet daily, but it still remains a part of their lives.  The generation that is 15-35 has grown up with moneyball, fantasy sports and video games.  They view sports as an opportunity.

The NFL is so backwards regarding their stance on sports betting.  They think differently than other leagues.  Knowing legal sports gambling is coming, the NFL’s thinking should be more about how to monetize it.

Bill Adee – Nobody really thought about why sports gambling was legal or illegal because the law was that way for so long.  The attitude toward sports betting has changed.  It’s a states right’s issue, Nevada was grandfathered in, why shouldn’t New Jersey be allowed to legalize sports betting?

At VSiN, we like to inform and entertain, but most of all we like to educate.  There is a big audience for sports betting and we need to explain it in a way that doesn’t insult the audience’s intelligence, because a lot of them think they know what they’re doing in-terms of betting, but they really don’t.

You want to put information on-air that makes sense and draws the listener in, focus on lines and how they move, knowing that a lot of the betting conversation needs to be explained properly to the audience.  We try to demystify sports gambling.

Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.

Ben and Woods Take Over Mornings on Mighty 1090

Jason Barrett
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Ben and Woods Take Over Mornings on Mighty 1090

The Mighty 1090 has a new morning show. The San Diego sports station has installed “Ben and Woods” into AM drive. The duo officially joined the weekday lineup on Tuesday.

The new program features Ben Higgins, the longtime sports director for 10News KGTV-TV in San Diego. In addition to anchoring nightly sports reports, Higgins has served as a host of several radio talk shows in San Diego covering both sports and current events. He has also hosted pre-game and post-game shows for Major League Baseball teams.

Higgins’ partner, Steve Woods, is a veteran morning host with an expansive knowledge of all things radio. Woods has been heard in San Diego for the past eight years on a number of stations in different formats including music variety brands and talk.

“These guys really are the Odd Couple of San Diego Radio,” said Mike Shepard, 1090’s VP of programming. “It’s super-nice straight-arrow Ben along with loud, opinionated and funny Steve Woods. And they really have chemistry and genuinely like each other. It’s going to be fun.”

Mike Glickenhaus, President of Broadcast Company of the Americas and Mighty 1090 added, “We are excited to begin this next chapter in mornings on The Mighty 1090 with `Ben and Woods.’ It’s going to be a fun ride with entertaining and compelling sports permeating the airwaves again!”

1090 has named Joe “Bulldog” Tutino as the show’s Executive Producer and Paul Reindl as producer.

Chris Duncan Taking Radio Break to Address Health Issues

BSM Staff
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101 ESPN midday host Chris Duncan has announced that he’ll be taking a leave of absence from his radio show due to health reasons stemming from his longtime battle with cancer. The former baseball player who co-hosts ‘The Turn’ with Anthony Stalter has been with the radio station since 2011.

“This tumor keeps popping up so I’ve got to do something about it,” said Duncan during Tuesday’s program. “Sometimes I feel like I’m playing multiple positions with all the medical stuff going on and trying to do the radio, reading all these articles and trying to keep up with everything. It’s probably not fair to our listeners. So I need to step aside and focus on one thing instead of multiple things.”

Duncan was originally diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2012 and has fought thru it throughout his time at 101 ESPN.  ‘The Turn’ has been a dominant ratings performer in its timeslot and was recognized as the 9th best mid-market midday program by BSM earlier this year.

“It’s tough for me, but you guys have been great the whole time I’ve gone through this for the last five years,” added Duncan. “There have been ups and downs. It’s been crazy. Hopefully, I can step aside and take care of this and I won’t be out too long.”

To hear Chris’ announcement on the show click here.

The BSM Programming Summit Comes to Chicago

Jason Barrett
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The plan was to take a much needed break on my birthday and mentally prepare for the next few days in Chicago, yet here I am cranking out a column because sometimes it’s difficult to shut off my brain and disconnect from work. Such is life. When the radio bug is in you, it’s not easy to get rid of.

For the past nine months I’ve been working on creating the inaugural Barrett Sports Media programming summit. It’s been a challenging, exciting, aggravating and fun process and it’s hard to believe that it’s less than 48 hours away.

I’ve paid close attention over the years to the way the sports format acknowledges and celebrates its existence. Aside from an honorable mention at conference or two and programmers crossing paths at company or client related functions, there isn’t a lot of opportunity for the best and brightest to come together for a few days and learn from each other. We may not change the world by swapping stories, sharing ideas and analyzing the future of the industry but conversations are a necessary part of progress and I hope the time spent this week will benefit all involved.

So often in the sports radio industry we talk about the importance of growth but we don’t always make time for it. The PD job is time consuming, intense and constantly changing and you can’t fully grow as a leader by staying trapped inside your own walls. Being surrounded by other programmers and experts in different fields allows you to gain knowledge to be better at your craft, and whether it’s the BSM Summit, NAB Show, Podcast Movement Conference or another event not radio industry related, all PD’s should make it part of their annual strategy to get out of the office for a few days to help their professional development. In fact, Market Managers should insist on it. If the PD walks away with one idea and it translates to success, it more than pays for itself.

While my mind has been consumed by my regular projects and the upcoming conference, the downside to being busy has been a slight decline of columns from yours truly. If you’ve been missing The Barrett Blog, I apologize for the lack of activity but do appreciate the loyalty and interest. If you’ve learned to live without the blog, then I guess I’ll have to work harder in the future to reel you back in! I’m all about converting P2’s to P1’s, haha.

As far as the next few days are concerned, I couldn’t be more thrilled about the way this event has come together. I’m looking forward to sharing my insights, strengthening relationships and picking up a few pearls of wisdom from many of our industry’s top sports radio minds. As of last check there were close to forty representatives from eleven different companies attending the two-day affair and that’s surpassed my original expectations.

I owe a huge thank you to Mitch Rosen, Jimmy DeCastro, Ryan Williams, Chad Feldman and the Entercom Chicago team for their hospitality and support. Although The Score is not a BSM client, they’ve been a great partner for this event and that will be further highlighted over the next few days.

For industry leaders and on-air staffs who aren’t in Chicago for the event, I do have some good news to pass along. We will be recording audio at the event for future episodes of the BSM Podcast. Yes it is returning, most likely in mid to late April.

We will also have an ongoing blog on the website Thursday and Friday providing the most important details from each session. Brandon Contes who writes for BSM is making the trip and will be locked in on the BSM website to help keep industry members informed. There will likely be other feedback shared on Twitter courtesy of conference attendees. The best way to follow along will be on Twitter with the hashatg #BSMChicago.

But wait, there’s more.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, we’ll be creating a few short videos and broadcasting one session each day on Periscope and Facebook Live. Stay tuned to my social media accounts for details on when we’ll be turning on the cameras.

Altogether, thirty five different speakers are participating in the event. Rather than running thru all of the names, I’ve included the schedule which you can see by clicking here.

It goes without saying but I am extremely grateful to everyone who’s making the trip and agreed to lend their time to participate. The next few days in Chicago will be fun, informative and beneficial to all in attendance, and I’m chomping at the bit to get started.

Until then, I’ve got some birthday cake to eat!

Addressing The Competition

Dave Greene
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The competition. Let’s face it, internally, we all love to talk about how bad they are, how much better we are and make fun of all their dumb promotions and terrible hiring decisions. Externally, however, should be a much different story.

I was on a call once with one of my local reps, meeting with an ad agency and their client when the following questions were posed to the Account Executive: “What makes your station better than the competition?” “Why should we buy you and not them?”

At first, I was elated we got such a softball question, but unfortunately the feeling didn’t last long. The AE went in the complete opposite direction I’d have gone, mostly because every sentence started with the word “they.” They, as in the competition. “They don’t have as much local programming as we do.” “They pack their commercial breaks with too many spots.” “They don’t do anything in the community.” “They don’t have a good signal at night.” And of course, “They are having major financial problems, haven’t you seen the news?”

At the conclusion of the call, the AE, feeling very proud after having fully buried the competition in the meeting, asked how I thought they did. I said something along the lines of: “If the decision were up to me, I’d buy from someone else.”

When we got back to the office, I sat down with the AE and went through my thoughts on talking about the competition. First off, unless prompted, I would prefer sellers never mention the competition – it’s best if the competitors don’t exist.

Secondly, when asked questions such as this AE was, asking you to compare your station to another, what a perfect opportunity to really sell the positives of what you have to offer. If all you do is talk about what the other station doesn’t have or doesn’t do well, it could make the buyer think that you don’t have any selling points about your own product. Flip the scenario around and imagine yourself asking someone at a restaurant about their steaks, and the reply you get is: “Not as tough and fatty as that garbage across the street!” That’s not what you want to hear, you want to hear about how theirs are perfectly seared and come out sizzling and are full of flavor, bite after bite.

Most importantly, however, I told the AE how every single one of the responses could have been put a different way and had much more impact. Instead of “They don’t have as much local programming as we do,” saying something along the lines of “Our lineup features live, local programming from 6am to 9pm Monday through Friday or 80 hours per week, which is by far the most local programming anywhere in the market” highlights something positive about your product and also makes it clear that your competition doesn’t have as much local programming.

Look, I get the battle and the temptation to want to smear the competitor, and as always, there are exceptions to every rule! Think of another scenario though, politics. Every election the attack ads come out and get more and more ridiculous. How many times have you learned who someone’s competitor is from their own ad? Happens to me all the time. I watch a political attack ad, realize the attack is weak and end up knowing the opponents name when it’s over.

Why make anyone else a player? Once you get to the bottom of what’s keeping the business owner up at night and come up with the creative solution using your products, there’s nothing else another station can do that can help that client – they get your product, your idea and they get you. If you do a good enough job selling your products and selling yourself, nobody will care about the bottom feeders across the street with their ridiculous promotions and terrible morning guy.

Sports Radio KJR Announces New Weekday Lineup

BSM Staff
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Seven months after Mitch Levy was involved in a prostitution sting which led to his dismissal, Sports Radio 950 KJR has finalized its weekday lineup. The confirmation of the new weekday programming was confirmed this morning via the station’s Twitter account.

Taking over in mornings on the Seattle sports station will be midday host Chuck Powell, who will be joined by Bucky Jacobsen. The one time Seattle Mariner and longtime minor league baseball player has contributed to KJR and local TV station Q13 as a baseball analyst since 2010. Jacobsen also serves as a baseball instructor, running his own academy since 2009.

With Powell moving into mornings, KJR is bringing back a familiar face to join Jason Puckett in middays. “The Gas Man” Mike Gastineau returns after a six year hiatus. Gastineau was part of KJR’s lineup between 1991-2012. He had recently been working as a freelance writer, author, broadcaster, and communications consultant.

Patrolling the airwaves after Puckett and Gastineau from 1p-3p is Ian Furness. The Seattle sports radio veteran’s timeslot is unaffected by the lineup changes.

To close out the day, KJR will rely on the team of Dave “Softy” Mahler and Dick Fain in afternoons. Mahler has been a fixture on KJR for the past two decades. Fain has also been with the station for a lengthy period of time and had recently been helping in mornings to fill the gap left behind by Levy. He’s also no stranger to Mahler, having previously worked with him on his show.

For more information on KJR, click here to visit their website.

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