By now everyone in the sports media business has heard the term, “pivot to video.” The trend in sports media circles has been to reduce written text and add more visuals, as most people remember approximately 20% of text they read without visuals.
The pivot to video doesn’t just mean posting videos of your on-air talent, but also learning to embrace social media tactics that work with this current trend. One of those opportunities for sports media brands comes in the form of embracing GIF’s, otherwise known as Graphics Interchange Format Files.
In simple terms, a GIF is a series of images or video compressed into created easy-to-consume content.
There is no one right way to create a GIF, it is all a matter of preference. Below are a few examples to guide you in creating your own so that we can continue to deliver a better experience on social media platforms to satisfy our fans.
The simplest way I’ve found to create a GIF is through Giphy. It is free to create an account and it is already affiliated with Twitter and Facebook which makes it easier to share. You don’t need to make an account to create your GIF’s, but you do need one to store them for later. You can either upload a series of images or a short video. Videos will not have sound, so you must make sure the content can be understood without audio. You can upload videos from YouTube or directly from your computer. Some industry people may use other sites like Snappy TV to upload live highlights. That allows you to connect to DVR through the cloud and also has the ability to link directly to Twitter.
Another way people like to create GIF’s is through Photoshop. You upload your photos, open up the timeline window and click “Create Frame Animation.” You can then create a new layer for each frame and select make frames for layers. You decide how long each frame lasts and how many times you want it to loop. Once you preview the GIF, you can export it and save it for the internet.
Below is an example I want to share from 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia using a commonly used GIF, poking fun at Doug Pederson’s decision to go for it on 4th and 8. This is a great example of having fun with a topical story which leads to better fan engagement.
“There’s deffinitly enough data out there! You can go back 10 years & gather the information” – Doug Pederson on going for it on 4th & 8. pic.twitter.com/68ZcT9SzD1
By using the example above, the radio station is able to provide entertainment value for its fans, and break up the monotony of text updates during games (see below).
See the difference?
These are two quick ways to make GIF’s but there are plenty more online. Here are a few sites worth looking at:
When making GIF’s, make sure you’re following copyright laws. This can be a grey area due to fair use laws. Fair use is determined by who created the GIF and its intended purpose. Generally, something falls under fair use when the content does not undermine the market for the original work. For example, someone is not going to choose your quick GIF of an OBJ touchdown celebration over the actual game. However, it’s up to you to decide and be sure you’re not breaking copyright laws which could present a problem for your employer.
This whole “pivot to video” sounds silly, but it’s where the industry is headed. We must adapt and change our digital strategy to keep consumers interested. It gives your brand personality, and helps listeners engage and connect, which makes them more likely to tune in and listen or share your content on social media.
Monique Medina covers social media for BSM and works for iHeartmedia in Los Angeles. She can be found on Twitter @MoniqueMedina22 or to reach her by email click here.
In football, it tells the story and all of the secrets are stored in it.
In sports media sales there are no secrets, but there is very much a playbook. If followed, this playbook nearly guarantees success, so it is often surprising to me how few people are willing to follow it completely.
I often equate this to being hired at McDonald’s to be a cook. You can’t take the job and say that you will cook the burgers and the fries but that you won’t make the Filet-O-Fish. It doesn’t work that way. If they hire you to cook, the expectation is that you will cook everything on the menu. If you refuse, they let you go and bring in someone else who will see things their way.
Unlike NFL playbooks, the sports media sales playbook only consists of six plays:
Play 1: Prospecting
Much like the preseason in football, this is where you prep for the season. My simple rule about prospecting is that you should always be doing it. Everywhere you look and everywhere you go there is prospecting that can be done. A sales consultant once said to me about prospecting for sports radio: “If you put an armed guard out in front of a business and refuse to let in any 25 to 54-year-old men, if that business would shut down, they are a great prospect.” Digital prospecting is actually the easiest to do – search any category and call everyone on page two and higher.
Play 2: Contacting
For most, their least favorite part of the job. Yep, you do have to pick up the phone and cold call, find a way through the gatekeeper to get to the decision maker and then give a compelling reason why he or she should meet with you. Much like two-a-day football practices in the summer, this is typically where the “men separate from the boys.” It’s also the step I see more and more people be afraid of and try to skip, which can only lead to bad things.
Play 3: The Needs Analysis
In football terms, this is the film study. This is where the answers are obtained. The first rule of the needs analysis is that IT IS ABOUT THEM AND NOT YOU! Hopefully I got my point across that you are there to talk about them and their business. Nobody cares that you are #1 in your market with 35 to 64-year-old, left handed women between 4am and 7am. Ask good questions, shut up, listen and take good notes.
Play 4: The Presentation
Call this the first half. The time to implement what you prepared for. This is your chance to establish yourself and your products as the answers to the problems the business is having. You are the quarterback with the ball in your hands during the presentation. You must exude confidence and passion so that those around you feel comfortable and believe in you.
Play 5: The Close
The second half. This is where the games are won and lost. Can you close games like Elway or Brady? A lot of people are good enough to get the ball in to the red zone, but it is an entirely different set of skills required to get the ball in to the end zone. The main thing to remember when trying to close business is to ask for the order. What is it Wayne Gretzky used to say – “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” If you aren’t going to ask and you are just going to dance around the question, you may be in jeopardy of having put in a lot of work for absolutely nothing. Close deals with the exact same confidence you showed during the presentation.
Play 6: Servicing
This is the rest of your season. You did all the preparation needed to present a great deal and you asked for the close and got it. Now, the real work begins. Celebrate the success, but don’t let this be the time you fumble. This is where you continue to execute the game plan and put it all in to motion.
That’s it. Six plays to learn, embrace and perfect. But, unlike in football where you can use just a portion of the plays to bring home a win, you must be willing to run the entire playbook when it comes to sales. Trying to skip steps not only makes it harder, it makes it darn near impossible. Run the full playbook and give yourself the best chance at success. Otherwise, you may really need to figure out how to make that fish sandwich.
So imagine my surprise when I saw Jim Cramer of Mad Money on CNBC (click here to watch the video) tell his viewing audience why he liked the forthcoming merger between CBS-Entercom and paint a rosy picture of the future of the radio business. Cramer did his homework, and presented a fair and accurate analysis, hammering home a message which I wholeheartedly agreed with – as long as there are cars with human drivers, there will be radio.
I’m not naive to the fact that digital and social media are powerful entities that make consumption of content and personal engagement experiences stronger. But this isn’t a case of one platform needing to live and the other to die. Those platforms actually compliment radio, helping expose each brand’s programming to a wider array of people.
We lose sight of this at times. The conversation becomes, digital is getting X, radio is getting Y, so what’s wrong with radio? But ask yourself this question, when has there ever been a time better than now to reach people with audio content and advertising messages?
Allow me to answer that for you – never.
I’m not the only one who feels this way either. Two weeks ago in Austin, Texas, Entercom CEO David Field was honored by the NAB for his contributions to the radio industry and during his speech (skip ahead in the video below to 1:02:00) he emphasized a few facts that too many disregard. Radio reaches 93% of Americans which amounts to an estimated 270 million people. It’s the number one reach medium weekdays from 5a-5p. It’s the very best at local audience activation, the least disrupted medium, and it can be argued that it provides a better return on investment than any other media business.
In years past, we relied on people in a local market enjoying their programming in the comfort of their car and our opportunities to reach them beyond the vehicle depended on their interest in listening to audio via their home stereo or walkman. People who moved away from their neighborhoods couldn’t stay connected to their hometown radio stations, and social media wasn’t available to promote content or station promotions, advertising messages or other listener benefits. If a radio station was lucky, they might receive a little bit of marketing money from their ownership group to buy billboards or ads on television or the newspaper to convince people to check out their programming.
Now, everywhere you turn there’s an opportunity to put your content in someone’s ear. People are glued to their phones, which offers the ability to listen to and enjoy more audio content. We log on daily to social media platforms and immediately receive notifications of what our favorite media brands are doing, thus giving us another reason to tune in. Depending on the strength of your brand’s relationship with the audience, fans may also receive email newsletters or texting alerts, which serves as another reminder to sample the content. We also can walk into our homes now, sit down on the couch, and instruct Amazon Alexa or Google Home to play a piece of programming that we have an interest in hearing.
Are there challenges to overcome? Of course. The press will continue negatively positioning the medium regardless of the rise of podcasting, smart speakers, phone use and better in-car listening experiences, and advertisers will likely be slow to adapt and continue shifting dollars to other industries while ignoring the power of what the audio business provides. Then there’s the issue of needing advanced measurement and stronger data to satisfy buyers and business owners, and compete with larger companies like Amazon, Facebook and Google who are generating massive revenues and delivering a deeper analysis to show brand’s the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns in resulting in earned business.
I’m not saying the road ahead is easy. It isn’t. But we’ve got incredible momentum on our side, and can’t forget how valuable it is to sell a product which matters to people, and has an ability to reach them in every direction thanks to modern technology.
If there’s one modification I’d like to see in the future it’s an evolution of the way we brand our industry. We don’t work in the radio business. We work in the audio business. You might even take exception with that and say we’re in the entertainment business. Our future isn’t determined solely by an FM/AM position on a dashboard. It’s about reaching people with quality audio programming everywhere and anywhere they can hear or see you, and the last time I checked, no entertainment business was better suited to do that across multiple platforms than the audio industry.
I’ve said many times that there are three types of people in this world – optimists, pessimists, and realists. I pride myself in being a realist, but when it comes to the future of the audio industry, forgive me if my optimism shines thru. It’s hard to turn it off when you believe in what you’re selling.
I remember being asked this question in an interview once when I was younger. I thought the right answer was to say that I loved to win, so I said it emphatically, “Nobody loves to win more than I do!” After the interviewer wiped the spit off his face, he followed it up with, “but DO you hate to lose?” Again, I was thinking I shouldn’t even address losing so I blabbed on that I just loved to win so much and I never really thought about losses, or something along those lines.
The truth was, I was in my 20’s at the time, and I didn’t really know what I loved or what I hated. I just did what I was supposed to do and took everything as it came.
I like winning. There’s no doubt about that. I not only like to win, but I like to celebrate wins. As a Market Manager for Townsquare Media and for Cumulus I had a bell that I would put up for sellers to ring when a sale was made. What we do is very hard. So, when we’re able to overcome all of the obstacles and make a sale – ring that bell, baby! Celebrate it with everyone in earshot.
But, as I’ve grown in my career, the actual answer to the question, has become much clearer for me – I hate to lose. I despise losing. As I’m typing this, I’m thinking of recent proposals that were turned down and getting more and more angry about them every second. “You can’t take it personally,” they say. Hogwash, I take it personally. It was my idea, presentation and product and you didn’t want it. To me, that’s personal, and secretly, I walk away wishing for a small amount of harm to happen to you.
We work too hard to lose. Losing hurts. I remember hearing a college basketball coach talk once about how when his team won a game, he would enjoy it for minutes, but if they lost, it stayed with him for days. Yes, coach, I know what you mean.
So, the question becomes, if you are like me and you hate to lose – how do you make sure it happens less? Three things come to mind:
Be prepared. If you are headed out to meet with a client for the first time, take time to do a little research. Read about the company, their competition or even their industry. Look at their website and where they show up on Google for their category (you’ll discuss their digital strategy with them, too, won’t you?). If nothing else, this shows that you cared enough to try and learn about their business before meeting with them.
Pitch the client based on what you learned in the first meeting. If you asked the right questions, you have all the answers you need for the presentation. If you really asked the right questions, you have everything you need to write good copy. If they mentioned a certain show or host, have a spec spot made using one of those voices or pitch a feature inside that show. Relate everything back to what they told you. Here is the problem, and here is the solution.
Sell it like you mean it! Your enthusiasm, your body language and your tone will make all the difference in the world. You are asking a businessperson to spend money and invest in you, so don’t make them wonder if this is something you truly believe in or not. When pitching business, be more Jon Gruden and less Bill Belichick.
Unfortunately, we all know that no matter how good we are at what we do, the awful truth is that we are still going to lose plenty. So, we also need a plan for what to do when we do lose.
I remember reading “Man’s Search for Meaning,” a book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a concentration camp inmate during World War II. My favorite quote from the book was: “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”
It’s not about what happens to you, it’s about how you respond to what happens.
I still hate to lose and get angry when I do. The difference now is that I use it as a motivator. In fact, losing may be my second biggest motivator after money. I hate the feeling of losing, so I am willing to do more beforehand, to try and avoid it coming back.
Take that extra energy and turn it in to a positive. Get back out and close the next one – preferably to the competitor of the business that turned you down. Now that would be something to ring the bell about.
On the 9th episode of Season 2, radio executive turned play by play announcer Dan Mason joins the show to discuss the various stages of his broadcasting career. Dan offers his insights on transitioning from programming to senior management, the rise of the sports format, dealing with controversies, Howard Stern’s exit from terrestrial radio, the merger between CBS and Entercom, Chris Olivero’s emergence as a broadcast executive, the strengths and areas of opportunity for the CBS Sports Radio Network, the market he wishes CBS would’ve launched a sports station in, how to excite ad buyers and local business owners about investing in sports radio brands, why the ratings demo for sports radio should be Men 35-64, talking his way into a play by play opportunity on the CBS Sports Television Network after not having called a game in decades, and why teams would be well served to bring radio executives into their tent to help them gain more dollars from their media partnerships.
Given the recent events in the sports media world, the 5 in 5 extends this week to a 5 in 6. Yes that’s right. Sixty extra seconds of commentary, free of charge. The areas of focus are the ESPN-Jemele Hill saga, Clay Travis’ appearance on CNN, the failure of DAZN to deliver a high quality NFL viewing experience for Canadian football fans, Amazon’s ability to present a powerful story for advertisers and the passing of Austin sports radio host Sean Adams.
TOPICS COVERED WITH DAN MASON:
The early days of his radio career and what they included
His advice for programmers looking to become GM or CEO
The lack of PD’s gaining bigger management opportunities
How he prepared himself to lead an entire organization
What a day in the life of a radio CEO is really like
Chris Olivero’s growth and what makes him exceptional
Handling chaotic situations and how he’d handle them
The exit of Howard Stern and what he’d have done differently
How he’d advise ESPN to handle situations like Jemele Hill’s
What he liked about sports radio that convinced him to expand
The one market he didn’t launch sports in that he wishes he had
Radio’s biggest challenges in gaining more $ from advertisers
What sports stations can do to convince buyers to invest in them
Why sports radio’s ratings story should be Men 35-64, not 25-54
The birth of the CBS Sports Radio Network
What the network has done well and where it can still be improved
The merger between CBS-Entercom and why it’s good for radio
How he talked CBS Sports Network execs into giving him a PXP shot
What goes into preparation when calling a play by play broadcast
Preparing for a big race as a Horse Racing analyst and what is involved
Why it’d be wise for teams to loosen the reigns with media partners
Quick Hits: Favorite station, WFAN changes, Best at PXP, Reversing one move
I fully intended to avoid writing about this topic because I’ve grown increasingly tired of the whole political-sports media dance. But then a whole new chain of events unfolded, and now here I am, using a line from a Franz Ferdinand song to describe the mess ESPN finds itself in – “This fire is out of control.”
By now you’re probably aware that Jemele Hill of ESPN’s SC6 went off on Twitter about President Donald Trump. If you haven’t seen her tweets, it’s your lucky day. See below.
Hill’s tweets created a stir on social media, leading ESPN to issue a statement. The network said they had talked to Jemele about her actions and she realized they were inappropriate.
But that didn’t satisfy the masses. The pressure increased when White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about Hill’s comments during a briefing with the press, and said Hill’s remarks were “one of the more outrageous comments anyone could make” and added that she thought Hill deserved to be fired.
Travis questioned why Curt Schilling was fired for his actions, yet Hill was given a pass. The former MLB pitcher was terminated after sharing a post on social media about the North Carolina law which barred transgender people from using the bathroom and locker rooms that don’t correspond with their birth genders. Schilling also made comments previously about Hillary Clinton deserving to be buried under a jail somewhere, and comparing extremist muslims to Nazi’s which also didn’t sit well with network executives.
After Schilling was fired, respected author James Andrew Miller said, “If you’re taking a paycheck from ESPN, you have to be extra careful about how you communicate publicly and always err on the side of caution and responsibility. It’s not an unfair or impractical position for ESPN to hold. If you want to express your own opinions in a provocative way on social media, then ESPN and a lot of other media organizations are probably not where you should be working.”
Those comments sound reasonable but where things become complex is when you compare how Schilling, Cohn and Doug Adler were dealt with versus the way Hill was handled. ESPN has been labeled as a network which carries a left leaning agenda, and their handling of this situation hasn’t done anything to change that perception.
During an appearance on FOX News, former analyst and NFL defensive back Jason Sehorn confirmed that he had been asked to avoid any discussion about politics while working at the network. Expecting a television analyst to steer clear of political conversations seems like a valid request, except Sehorn was known for being an avid supporter of the Republican party. In fact, he even spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Former sideline reporter Britt McHenry then chimed in, adding that while working at ESPN she was reprimanded for supporting tweets that were conservative leaning.
By now you’re thinking, this must be the worst of it right? Well, not exactly.
On Thursday, Think Progress reported that ESPN tried to take Jemele Hill off the air on Wednesday night, but the plan backfired when her partner, Michael Smith, refused to host SC6 without her. Network executives allegedly reached out to two other black personalities, Michael Eaves and Elle Duncan, to see if they would step in. When those inquiries were rejected, and the company couldn’t find anyone to step in, they reversed their position and had Hill return to work with Smith.
ESPN denied the report, telling Think Progress they never asked anyone to replace Hill on the show, period. Senior Vice President of news and information Rob King said, “Wednesday was a hard and unusual day, with a number of people interpreting the day without a full picture of what happened. In the end, ultimately, Michael and Jemele appearing on the show last night and doing the show the way they did is the outcome we always desired.”
Think Progress has since updated their story with additional details, painting a picture that suggests ESPN hasn’t been completely truthful about the situation. In every story there are three sides – yours, mine and the truth. Each party has much to lose therefore keeping the specifics behind closed doors is important. Leaks do happen when high profile brands and people are involved and at this point, ESPN is trying to do damage control.
After making her inflammatory comments about Trump, Hill received support from the National Association of Black Journalists. She also received social media support from a few of her fellow colleagues.
There are likely detractors of Hill’s inside ESPN as well, but going public with those opinions would only create unnecessary attention. Given how the network has dealt with previous situations involving employees who see the world differently, the reality of being hurt professionally makes it a wiser decision to stay silent.
Hill has since taken to Twitter to apologize for her personal beliefs putting ESPN in a difficult position. But she didn’t apologize for what she said. In fact, her original tweets remain up on her Twitter account.
If you thought that was the end of this story, guess again. It became an even bigger topic of conversation on Friday when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, posted this tweet.
Whether you’re a Trump supporter or a Trump critic, it’s undeniable that his message reaches a large volume of Americans. Over 38 million people follow him on Twitter, and his tweets are picked up by media outlets across the nation. For a network looking to decrease the noise, and return to business as usual, that becomes impossible when every local and national news outlet is advancing the conversation and painting ESPN in a negative light.
Which brings me to the point of the column where I’ve got to interject a few opinions of my own.
Why are we in this situation in the first place? We’re having a conversation about sports media personalities and the ramifications of their public political positions because ESPN’s leadership has permitted it and wavered in how they handle different situations. For well over thirty years, ESPN has been the gold standard in sports media, but the past few years have included a large number of self-inflicted wounds, which begs the question, why are these things continuing to happen?
It pains me to see this unfold from afar because I grew up loving ESPN. My affinity for the company and its people moved me enough to want to go to work for them, a dream I was able to realize in 2004. But as I look at where things stand now, I don’t see the same amazing brand I once did. There are many great people still there, and I’m sure they hate this as much as I do because they’d prefer to get back to talking sports, having fun, and representing the ideals for which ESPN became special the past thirty eight years.
I want to pose a few questions that I hope will make you think.
Which direction do Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic, Scott Van Pelt, Freddie Coleman, Louis Riddick, Jon Gruden, Chris Berman, Trey Wingo, Kirk Herbstreit, Karl Ravech and Suzy Kolber lean politically? Maybe you know. Or like most people, you’d have to know them personally, talk to them at a public function, or dig thru pages of content online to find out.
Why does that matter? Because they go to their job, focus on satisfying the sports fan and don’t make the mistake of allowing their personal views on other issues in life to drive a wedge between them and their audience.
If you listened recently to my BSM Podcast episode with Jim Rome, he made an excellent point. The CBS Sports Radio host said that if you asked his audience which way he leans politically they’d have a hard time figuring it out. Keep in mind, Rome has been on the air for over 25 years, and he’s pretty opinionated. He understands his lane, stays in it, and respects his audience enough to avoid giving them a reason to tune out.
Whether they accept it or not, every ESPN personality is a representative of the brand. The second they speak out on a political, racial, religious or social issue, whether intended or not, they are placing their employer in an unenviable position. The public is smart enough to understand that the individual’s views don’t represent the views of the entire company, but that doesn’t mean the attention doesn’t harm the brand’s reputation or business. If a person is going to occupy a public position and use a company’s platform to reach an audience and earn a living, they’ve got to understand that there are a certain set of responsibilities that come with it.
I’ve heard people the past few days say “Jemele isn’t speaking on behalf of ESPN, she’s talking about her own views.” Hogwash. Without ESPN, Jemele Hill the citizen can speak however she wants, but she’d be reaching a much smaller audience.
Anytime an on-air personality enters this territory my first thought is what exactly are you gaining from this? Is the validation of a few thousand fans and colleagues on social media worth it? Is getting under the skin of the political establishment worth the potential damage you could be doing to your career?
ESPN has built a stellar reputation over the past three and a half decades, and when employees of the company take these political positions, they put their employer in a position to be publicly damaged, and lose audience and advertising dollars. The four letter network is in the business of creating content for its fans and using it to sell advertising to existing and prospective clients. Regardless of intent, this conversation does little to help them increase viewership or gain additional business.
Ask yourself this question. What do you tell an ad buyer who’s white, spends a bunch of money on ESPN and voted for Donald Trump? Do you think they’re going to feel good about continuing to invest in a person/show which spit in the face of their personal beliefs? Do you think they’re simply going to make a ‘business decision’ with their ad buys rather than allow their personal feelings to enter the equation?
What about if you’re a white sports fan who enjoys ESPN, specifically SC6, and you voted for Donald Trump. Maybe you liked Michael and Jemele’s style, but when the social media commentary offered by Jemele suggests that Trump’s rise to power is the result of white supremacy, are you OK being labeled that way?
Consider this, Donald Trump, whether you love or loathe him, did receive nearly 63 million votes. He also won 2,728 of 3,113 counties across the country. Political beliefs aside, are we really going to suggest that MOST of those people who voted for him fit the description of which Hill was talking about? Maybe I’m giving people too much of the benefit of the doubt but I don’t believe that to be the case.
I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, a sports media personality represents their brand at all times. If you don’t like it and prefer not to be branded as Person X of ESPN, Person Y of FOX Sports or Person Z of CBS, then you might want to reconsider whether or not a public life is the right fit.
And it carries over beyond sports media too.
If Aaron Judge made the remarks that Jemele Hill did, they would do damage to the New York Yankees brand. If Mark Zuckerberg made them, they’d hurt Facebook. The same would apply if Taylor Swift made them. Her record sales, merchandise sales, and concert attendance would suffer.
Here’s another question that many are wondering but not comfortable discussing because it stokes the flames of race. If this situation involved Scott Van Pelt or Mike Greenberg blasting Barack Obama while he was in office, in the same manner that Jemele Hill crushed Trump, what do you think happens? If you’re going to suggest the company would have done the exact same thing, wake me when you return to reality so we can have a real conversation.
I love that ESPN has embraced a diverse culture. They’ve not been afraid to take chances whether it’s launching The Undefeated, five thirty eight or rolling out SC6. Heck, even trotting out Sergio Dipp on the sidelines for Monday Night Football was a risk, one which unfortunately didn’t work out due to a rough night of execution. I’ll never rip a company for taking chances because I think that’s essential to growing a business, but in this particular situation, unnecessary tensions have been created, and people have been forced to take sides, all because the conversation shifted into areas that were not in line with the audience’s expectations.
Looking ahead, there are a few elephants in the room that ESPN needs to get out of the way of. The first one involves the issue of political bias. Whenever it’s mentioned, the network quickly rejects it and in many cases, becomes incredibly sensitive over it. Trust me, I know. When BSM conducted a survey in March, it didn’t sit well with many inside ESPN. Some even took me to task publicly for it.
Rather than absorb the information and recognize the very real problem on its hands, the company instead tried to wage a PR war by dismissing the data and criticizing the individuals reporting it. But how else do you explain the double standards in this situation involving Hill? Or the ridiculous controversy that ESPN created with Robert Lee? Or the Caitlyn Jenner decision at the ESPYS? Each of those situations were created by the company or their people, not media critics, FOX Sports employees or viewers who can’t let go of the glory days of Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick hosting SportsCenter.
The second challenge, which I think is much harder to change, is to improve diversity of thought inside the company, and that includes at the highest levels. Bob Ley acknowledged last December that this was an area where the network needed to improve, and that may be easier to fix on the air, but what about up top? It’s been well documented that John Skipper and Bob Iger prefer the democratic party, and Connor Schell, who became Skipper’s right hand man in June, shares similar views. It’s wishful thinking to expect things to be approached differently when the top decision makers lean in the same direction.
Clay Travis wrote in his latest Outkick The Coverage column, that ESPN has two choices in front of them for how to handle these situations going forward. Option #1 would be to announce that they will not police speech that takes place off their airwaves or outside of their websites or print publications. The second option would be to take the position that no employee at ESPN is allowed to publicly discuss politics on their social media feeds.
Guess which one I’m going to pick – Option #2!</p>
If a company wants to maintain standards and avoid having to read between blurry lines to address these type of issues, they’ve got to be consistent in how they handle each situation. When an employee violates the rules, they face the consequences. If individuals don’t like or agree with the policy, there are other places to work.
By choosing the first option, you’re dismissing the influence that social media has on people, and you’re leaving it open for company employees to operate without consequence. I can only imagine the disasters that would follow if Bristol Inc. operated that way. We’re not talking about some small operation here folks. We’re talking about a company that is publicly traded, features thousands of employees and business partners, and generates billions of dollars in revenue.
ESPN finds itself at a crossroads. They’re faced with different economic realities than they’re used to and they’re operating in a new media world where the lights are always on and microphones are present. Whether it’s on their airwaves, their websites, their personalities social media pages or in public conversation, when an employee speaks out on issues that are removed from what ESPN does best, they create a divide. That helps nobody.
With the network trying to hang on to every customer it can and avoid future mass layoffs, there’s never been a more important time for John Skipper and Bob Iger to fix these issues. The first step is to accept responsibility and acknowledge that the issue was bigger than they had imagined. The second is to install a policy which leaves no wiggle room, and is fair to people on both sides of the aisle. The final part of the puzzle is to invite different points of view on the air and inside of conference rooms to present a more level playing field inside the company. The goal should be to make fans of both political parties feel good about spending a few hours enjoying the network’s content and supporting its business partners. That’s especially important with disconnected fans/viewers ages 35 and up.
Sports isn’t supposed to be a right or left choice. But when on-air talent wander into areas that the audience doesn’t tune into them for, the relationship between host and viewer/listener can suffer. It’s critical to know what your brand is, what the audience expects, and then satisfy those expectations. It may sound silly but sometimes it pays to stick to sports!
Seems like a fairly easy question to answer, doesn’t it? If you sell cars, when someone asks you what you do, you say you’re in car sales. If you fly planes, you say a pilot. If you cook for a living you say you’re a chef. Say any of these things and the person you are talking to will have a pretty good idea of what you do.
But, what do sports radio sellers do? And how do we communicate what we do to other people?
Heck, in our business, we can’t even agree on what to call us. Account Executive? Advertising Sales Executive? Integrated Sales Specialist? Strategic Marketing Consultant? Senior Account Manager? And when does someone become a Senior Account Manager anyway? It seems that time keeps getting shorter and shorter.
Back to what it is we do. Is it sales or marketing? Are we a consultant or a sales executive? Strategist or specialist?
We sell sports radio, but don’t we all also sell digital and event marketing? (Side note: if you said no the previous question, please stop reading and go back to your reruns of The Andy Griffith Show.)
Let me tell you what we are not. We are not in sales. I repeat, we are not in sales. I tell my team all the time, if people think of them as their “sports radio sales person,” they’re doing something wrong.
In fact, what they’re doing wrong, is the one thing I say is the VERY LEAST you want to leave a meeting having accomplished – the prospect knowing what you do including all the tools you have to help grow their business. Don’t be the person who makes an impression on a decision maker, only to leave having them think you just sell radio commercials.
In a perfect world, when you leave a meeting with a prospect or client, you want them to think of you as their new in-house marketing consultant. If you can make them feel as if they just brought someone on board their team, who knows marketing and will take care of it for them as if they were an owner in the company, you may have a client for life if you back it up with great service, great ads and great results!
I had a restaurant client in St. Louis once who was a very difficult person to read. I would meet with him and usually walk away having no clue if he was really interested in what I was pitching. We would have good conversations, and we had a lot of common interests, but when it came to talking business he gave off no signals.
After doing business with him for a couple of years, we were having a meeting about the upcoming football season and a promotion we both wanted to try to execute. When we finished, where we would normally start talking about other things, he asked me if I would mind looking at something for him. He handed me a folder from another radio station and wanted me to analyze the package they had presented.
Finally, there was the signal I had been looking for. I thought I was becoming more than just a “radio salesperson” to him, and this was the confirmation. When you have such a strong relationship with a client, that they trust you enough to help them look at other marketing opportunities (knowing buying you is now a given), you’re in a great position.
You get there by earning their trust. When you start out with a client, you make sure to listen well to what they are trying to accomplish and you write or design a great ad or tie them in to the perfect promotion to get out in front of their target audience. You learn about their industry and clientele so you can better advise them. You do all of the things you should do once a company invests in you and your ideas.
I don’t really know what you should call a marketing consultant who sells ideas and solutions using radio, digital and event advertising, but I know that if you are all of those things to your clients, you will both be much more likely to be successful.
Sean Adams of AM 1300 The Zone passed away unexpectedly on Thursday. The morning show host suffered an apparent heart attack. He was 46 years old. He leaves behind his wife Karen and their two children, Damon and Alex.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, Williamson County EMS responded to a call in the Round Rock area on Thursday. Adams was then transported to St. David’s Round Rock Medical Center. The hospital did not release any details about Adams’ condition.
An Oakland, California native, Adams played college football for the University of California before transferring to Abilene Christian University. He held jobs outside of the media business after college before taking the plunge to pursue his dream job of talking sports.
In 2004, Adams began his sports media adventure when he joined Orangebloods.com as a columnist. He used his platform to spread positive messages, boost up others, and used his infectious energy to become a motivational speaker (to watch his TED Talk click here) and published author of two books.
Adams’ shift into sports talk radio started in 2007. During his time in the format he hosted for 104.9 The Horn, and was recently installed in mornings alongside Chip Brown on AM 1300 The Zone, a station he had called home since 2014. Brown wrote an incredibly moving piece about his longtime friend and partner. You can read it by clicking here.
In addition to his radio and written work and motivational speaking, Adams became a regular contributor on the Longhorn Network, ESPN.com and Inside Texas. He also made appearances on ESPN and radio stations across the country.
A proud fan of the Texas Longhorns, Adams may no longer be able to watch games from the comfort of a press box or via the sidelines, but Tom Herman and his team can be sure he’ll be watching from up above. BSM offers its condolences to the Adams family and the Austin sports media community.
Tony Romo, often criticized and questioned for poor decision making on the field, proved to everyone Sunday, he knows plenty about football. For all the negative memes and social media flack Romo regularly received, maybe retirement will convince the general public that he is after all a smart football mind.
John Madden, Troy Aikman, Phil Simms, the best NFL color commentators in the game would always watch and react, never read and react. On Sunday, Romo did the latter. He treated his analytical work as if he was still playing. Romo prepared for the game and read the defense the way a quarterback would and passed that information along to the viewer.
Romo pointed out formations and pre-snap calls, confidently predicting the play and outcome moments before it would unfold live. It was impressive, entertaining, and perhaps even taught the common viewer a thing or two about the game.
It’s something we’re not used to seeing and something I wonder if he can continue.
Romo was a quarterback as recently as last year and contemplated playing as recently as this past off-season. He’s still sharp and thinks as a quarterback, not just a former quarterback. These are players, coaches, and defenses he’s studied for years. It’s rare to see a player jump straight from the field into the booth, but the benefit we get as fans is Romo’s inside perspective.
Will this prove to be Tony’s career style of broadcasting football games? Can he keep this up for an entire season, or even multiple seasons? What will happen as his playing career becomes more distant and defenses continue to modernize?
It was interesting and exciting to watch. I even found myself rooting for him to be correct on his predictions. If the network encourages Romo to continue down this path of analysis, what happens when he has a bad game? He can’t be right every time….we did see him throw the ball to the wrong team many times during his playing days.
If Tony’s predictions start to go wrong, he’ll quickly be thought of like the local weatherman. I can see the social media memes already.
As a viewer, there are a few qualities I look for in a color commentator. First, the ability to not step on the toes of the play by play announcer, or the game itself. The average NFL game lasts over 3 hours long, yet there are only 11 minutes of action. That’s right, 11 minutes! So please don’t ruin the 11 minutes by talking too much. There are times when those 11 minutes of action need to speak for themselves.
The second quality is a strong voice. Speaking over 70,000 screaming fans isn’t easy, and doing so without letting your voice squeak or crack is even harder.
Third, is to teach the audience something, which is the hardest part of the job. With the wealth of knowledge fans have about their teams, it’s difficult for a national broadcaster seeing the team once per season to provide unique insight.
Romo, however, hit a homerun in his first opportunity. He provided unique analysis that fans were not used to. His read and react approach is risky, edgy, and different. It will be interesting to see if he continues down this path and if other color commentators follow his lead. There’s no question it’s easier to comment on the past, than predict the future.
Will other players that have been retired for 10, 15, 20 years be comfortable calling a game the way Romo did on Sunday? Comfortable or not, if Romo’s style is a hit, and this becomes the new trend, others may be forced to adapt.
Could Romo’s greatest contribution to the game of football be inside of a television booth? Maybe 20 years from now kids will only know Romo as the game’s best analyst, similarly to the way kids of the 90’s knew John Madden for his football game, not his coaching greatness with the Raiders. Whoa…whoa…let’s slow down for a second, we don’t want to sound like a Cowboy fan after a win, it’s just one game!
Maybe Romo will be great, maybe he’ll be average, or maybe 4 weeks from now a team will have a quarterback injury that leads the former Cowboy out of retirement. Only time will tell, but for now, let’s enjoy Tony in week 2!
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.
Craig Carton has tendered his resignation at WFAN. CBS Radio has confirmed they’ve received and accepted it and are opening up a search to find a new morning host to work with Boomer Esiason.
The host of ‘Boomer & Carton’ for the past 10 years offered the following statement.
“For 10 years I’ve had the great privilege of showing up to work every day at my dream job. I have nothing but love and respect for my co-host, the show and the entire CBS Radio family and I’ve always tried to represent them in the best possible light.
Unfortunately, the unfounded legal issues currently plaguing me will only be a distraction to everyone at WFAN and the show I helped build. With that in mind, I have submitted my resignation to the station and they accepted. I am sad to see this chapter of my life close but know that it will allow me to focus on my family, my well-being and clearing my name, while giving the show the best opportunity to succeed without further disruption.”
I’ve always felt a personal connection to our listeners and want to thank them for making me a part of their daily routine. I hope they can respect the fact that as much as I want to talk about the allegations against me I can’t at this time. There will come a time when I will be able to speak directly about the case and I hope our listeners will be there.
From the bottom of my heart, I’d like to thank my family, friends, listeners and especially the executives at WFAN and CBS Radio for their continued understanding and for giving me the most amazing platform to do what I love to do the most, besides being with my family.”
CBS Radio confirmed receiving the resignation and added, “WFAN has accepted Craig Carton’s resignation. We appreciate all of his contributions over the last decade and wish him and his family well during this next phase. We are especially grateful to our dedicated employees, sponsors and listeners for their continued support of The Fan. The search for a replacement co-host for the morning show will begin immediately.”
