Broadcast syndication company Premiere Networks is touting “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” as a success following its launch last year after the death of talk icon Rush Limbaugh.
According to Inside Radio, the program increased its total Average Quarter Hour (AQH) audience by 40% from June to November in Portable People Markets (PPM) in the key Adults 25-54 demographic.
AQH metrics calculate the average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute period.
Premiere said the podcast version of the “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” was downloaded 10.3 million times in December. The company cited analytics from Megaphone which provides audience data and measurements for brand advertisers.
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton were selected to replace Rush Limbaugh, who succumbed to advanced-stage lung cancer last February. The duo is heard on more than 400 radio stations across the U.S.
As a counter to Clay & Buck, Cumulus Media started syndicating a talk show hosted by Dan Bongino, and some Audacy stations partnered with Dana Loesch. Still, some companies used local talent to fill the void.
Chicago radio veteran Mike Scott will lead AM 560 The Answer’s news department following a realignment effort announced Tuesday.
According to Roger Feder, the Salem Media-owned company said it was restructuring its news and traffic operations after its original agreement with Total Traffic expired.
The station also announced JoAnn Genette will join the staff via Remote News Service. Genette has worked at stations at Cumulus Media, Alpha Media, and CBS Radio.
You can learn more about AM 560 The Answer by clicking this link.
ABC News producers reportedly edited out a key piece of a statement made by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. In doing so, it left some viewers confused, and prompted others to lash out on social media.
According to Fox News Digital, the confusion arose when host Cecilia Vega asked Walensky about a study that shows vaccines prevent severe virus outcomes.
Vega asked about encouraging headlines and a new study showing just how well vaccines are working to prevent severe illness.
“The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75 percent, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities,” Walensky said. “So really, these are people who were unwell, to begin with. And yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron.”
An ABC News spokeswoman confirmed the edit to Fox News. A CDC spokesman also confirmed Walensky was referring to deaths among vaccinated people, not all COVID-19 deaths.
ABC News later released the unedited version, which showed Walensky’s full answer.
We’re nearly two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and while it hasn’t faded into the background, it isn’t exactly the day-to-day pressing concern it used to be either. Even as the omicron variant sends daily infection numbers through the roof, the discussion is more about learning to live with the spikes than it is about eradicating the virus.
That is a total 180 from where we were even a year ago at this time. Of course, the big difference between then and now is the availability of not just vaccines, but booster shots as well.
The science is out there. Anyone can find it. The reality is, we are probably at a point where everyone that is going to get vaccinated is already vaccinated. Both sides of the argument know that is true and that is why the CDC has loosened its guidance so much.
Let’s set the larger narrative to the side for a moment and focus solely on sports. What does learning to live with Covid-19 as part of our everyday lives look like in the sports world? I asked three hosts from major markets across the country if another spike in cases has changed their show and what they are hearing from listeners.
“I thought the NBA was going to press pause in December when all the games are getting pushed and postponed and all the stars were out,” Carl Dukes, one half of Atlanta’s top-rated sports talk show Dukes & Bell, told me via text.
He says that a full-on shutdown returning to sports is hard to imagine. The NBA pulled off a relatively successful 2020 playoffs with the help of a bubble. That is far more likely to come back than a halted season, and even another bubble seems unlikely.
“I don’t get the sense the NBA is going to pause,” says Jorge Sedano of 710 ESPN in Los Angeles. “They’ve added over 100 players to the normal amount with hardship exemptions for teams. They seem intent on finishing the season and working through postponements.”
It is those 100 extra players that give Dukes a little bit of pause. If you thought Dave Portnoy made a stink about LeBron’s last championship not counting because the games were played in the Disney World bubble, imagine the blowback if LeBron and the Lakers won an NBA Finals series against a Nets team led not by Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but by guys that were reserves on the Sioux Falls Skyforce roster to start the season!
“These leagues ultimately have to protect the integrity of the games. Having five G league guys on one side vs 2 NBA players and 3 dudes that got picked up off the street does not help the league.”
Sean Salisbury of SportsTalk 790 in Houston doesn’t think omicron is changing things on air necessarily. It is something he considers though in the course of regular prep.
“When it comes to betting and game predictions, I also take into account Covid, just like I would anytime a player is scheduled to miss a game,” he told me in an email. “But we rarely on our show discuss Covid or vaccines because it’s fatigue for our listeners. If Covid affects a player playing in a game then it’s brought up.”
Fatigue is real. And it’s not even right to call it fatigue. Just speaking from my own point of view, it is Covid apathy.
My wife and my daughter just tested positive earlier this week. Do I want them to recover quickly and be safe? Of course I do, but my concern is for them. It isn’t really for the world at large anymore. I think that is a major difference in the way most of us are approaching this now: what the rest of you do is on you.
Sedano says Covid restrictions and protocols are just a part of life now. He hasn’t taken a call or read a text from someone with questions about games being cancelled or play being suspended.
“Obviously, hockey had a pause, but it was not a major point of conversation for us,” he said in an email. “Particularly, because it was implied the games would resume soon, which they did. Also, to get into any LA venue you’ve needed a negative test or proof of vaccination plus masks to get into an event for a long time now.”
In Atlanta, Dukes says any conversation he has had about the way the omicron variant is effecting games has more to do with fans wallets than with their health and safety.
“I think fans are more concerned about the integrity of the games. Are they going to see the stars when they go to these games and if the games are pushed or postponed, does it work within their schedule for what they’ve attempted put together?”
Salisbury told me that he is trying to “discuss sports without Covid being it’s foundation” these days. I think most hosts have had that goal for a while now. For the most part, the sports world seems to have cooperated.
It is hard not to raise an eyebrow when we hear that the College Football Playoff came up with a plan to crown a champion via forfeit if necessary. But it is worth pointing out that it takes something that extraordinary to raise our eyebrows now.
Covid-19 is part of our lives and it is going to stick around for a while, but there are so many reasons that the fatigue and our fears subsiding are justified. Vaccines work. The omicron variant is more transmissive, but less severe than past variants. It doesn’t mean people aren’t taking the virus and their health seriously. We aren’t staring down the barrel of uncertainty anymore, so we aren’t talking about it as much.
Living with the virus on sports radio is largely going to look like it does now. When infections spike to the point where the Brooklyn Nets are willing to rethink how they are handling Kyrie Irving, we talk about it. If you have a unique or interesting angle worth sharing, we talk about it. Otherwise, talking about it is probably not doing anything for your audience but creating a tune-out opportunity. The difference will likely be things the listeners never see or are even aware of like working to fill time that was alloted for a game broadcast or delivering on make-good spots for clients.
The largest player in the sports content business today is ESPN. From television to radio to streaming, social, podcasts, websites and more, the network remains a force in satisfying the appetites of sports fans around the globe.
But creating sustainable global success isn’t easy. It requires investing billions of dollars in key programming partnerships, holding off competitors who seek to elevate their own standing, and hiring and retaining talented professionals and providing an environment for them to thrive in. If that wasn’t difficult enough, a company must also embrace new technology, and accept that certain things will fail while pursuing a path to excellence.
The man charged with making sure ESPN thrives in each of these areas is Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, and I’m excited to share that he’ll be joining us in March in New York City for the 2022 BSM Summit.
I’ll have the pleasure of spending 35 minutes on stage with Jimmy discussing the state of the sports media industry, the opportunities and challenges facing operators in 2022 and beyond, the growth of sports betting, network radio, podcasts, subscriptions, social, and many other issues. No matter what space we’re talking about, ESPN has held a dominant position among all media brands. Having Jimmy with us will allow our attendees to learn how ESPN views the current sports media landscape in order to better understand where the business is headed in the future.
Jimmy has been with the Walt Disney Company since 2010. He became ESPN President in 2018 and was elevated two years later to his current role as Chairman of ESPN and Sports Content. You can learn more about his professional background by clicking here.
A reminder that the 2022 BSM Summit is an industry-only event. You must work in the media business in order to attend the show. This includes sales, public relations, advertising agency professionals and agents, as well as programming folks. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet of attending the Summit, feel free to visit our YouTube page to see some clips from past shows. It’ll give you an idea of what you can expect. You can also see the full list of speakers scheduled to appear at our 2022 show by visiting BSMSummit.com. We’ll announce a few more executive additions to March’s event later this week.
For those who manage brands and have joined us before in New York, Los Angeles and/or Chicago and are planning to come but haven’t bought a ticket yet, please do so asap. Seating is limited and once we’re full, we can’t add seats inside the room. You can also take advantage of a great hotel deal ($109 per night) with our partner Hotel Edison by clicking here.
One additional note, for those who are concerned about traveling, there is an opportunity to buy a virtual ticket. This year’s show is available both online and in person. For those planning to join us in NYC, in addition to receiving your live ticket, you’ll also get an online account so you can view the event on-demand afterwards. This can be especially helpful if you wish to replay a session or use any information afterwards to help members of your team. A big thanks to our virtual partner Nuvoodoo Media for helping make it happen.
We’re just 49 days away from putting on a spectacular show for industry folks in the big apple. We hope to see you there!
Veteran broadcaster Valerie Vining has been elevated to Program Director at Talk 99.5 in Birmingham, Alabama.
In a statement, the Cumulus-owned station said Vining will continue to serve as co-host weekday mornings on “Dixon & Vining.”
“I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to take on the role of Program Director for WKRR- Talk 99.5 in Birmingham,” Vining said.
Vining was previously News Director for Cumulus Birmingham stations WAPI, WJOX, WJQZ, WUHT, WZRR, a position she has held for almost 14 years.
“My radio career, which spans over 30 years, has prepared me for this moment and challenge and I look forward to taking my team to the next level,” she said.
“After an extensive search for a dynamic Program Director for Talk 99.5, the market leader in spoken word programming, it became clear that our own Valerie Vining was the perfect fit,” James Robinson, Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Birmingham, said.
Colorado talk radio host Randy Corporon is addressing the potential impact that social media sites GETTR and TRUTH Social may have on the 2022 midterm elections.
Truth Social, part of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), purports to combat censorship and the “self-righteous scolds and self-appointed arbiters”
During his show on News/Talk 710 KNUS in Denver, Corporon spoke to U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) about how Twitter and Facebook have suspended accounts of high-profile conservative media figures and politicians.
“The left-wing media machine, especially the social media giants, are so terrified of messages like yours, I’m surprised you haven’t been silenced in, for instance, on Twitter,” he said to Boebert.
“We know — as I said on Newsmax this morning — we know that the so-called fact-checkers are third-party opinion-based, and the red flags for so-called misinformation only go one way,” Boebert responded.
Corporon said Truth Social will be functioning within two months and may act as an “equalizer” in the 2022 midterm campaigns.
“They’re terrified,” Corporon said about Big Tech. “And the great thing is, we now have, you know, GETTR adding — what — 250,000, 500,000 people a day.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta took aim at Fox News star Tucker Carlson for broadcasting what he deemed was misleading information about COVID-19.
On Sunday, Acosta said the Surgeon General should issue a warning to Carlson’s viewers. “Tucker Carlson’s show should come with a warning about COVID disinformation.”
Acosta’s rant comes on the heels of Carlson reporting about a fully vaccinated nurse in the UK who contracted the coronavirus and was placed on a respirator for 28 days.
According to the New York Post, Monica Almeida, 37, a fully vaccinated nurse in the UK, spent 28 days in a coma after contracting the virus and was just 72 hours from having her ventilator turned off when she was saved by a “large dose of Viagra,”
“I suppose some people will justify those prescriptions with just about anything,” Acosta said. “Here’s a challenge to Tucker Carlson. Tell the American people if you have been double vaccinated and boosted.”
Acosta was joined by CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner
“That show has propagated myth and fallacy, and the phrase that you’ve sometimes used on this show, which I won’t use, which starts with bull, repeatedly,” said Reiner, referring to Acosta’s past comments calling Carlson’s program a “bullsh*t factory.”
Former National Public Radio (NPR) host Audie Cornish has been hired by CNN as an anchor and correspondent for the network’s new streaming service, CNN+.
In a release, the network said Cornish would host a weekly CNN+ show and contribute to CNN+’s slate of live programming. Cornish joins the network following a nearly 20-year run as the host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
“I am very excited to join CNN and the CNN+ team. There are fresh stories to be told and new ways to tell them,” said Cornish. “CNN has a dynamic system of reporters and storytelling channels. I am thrilled to be a part of it.”
Cornish joined NPR’s National Desk in 2005, reporting from Nashville. She later joined the Washington bureau to cover the 2008 presidential race and the historic election of former President Barack Obama.
“We are thrilled to welcome Audie to CNN+ and CNN Audio,” said Andrew Morse, EVP & Chief Digital Officer of CNN Worldwide and Head of CNN+.
Cornish will be based in CNN’s Washington, DC bureau and starts in February.
After a stable first quarter of the season in terms of cases of COVID-19, the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and subsequent proliferation in total cases coerced the National Hockey League to start its holiday break early, pausing the season on December 22. Following the announcement, the NHL and NHLPA also revealed that they would not be sending players to the 2022 Beijing Olympics out of an abundance of caution and the protection of competitive integrity within the 2021-22 NHL regular season. While this pause only lasted six days, it was a stark reminder of the looming threat the pandemic has played in everyday life, and the uncertainty surrounding the remainder of the NHL season.
The landscape of professional sports, as it has been for the last two years, is unprecedented and always subject to change. The NHL has sought to bring some level of stability to its players, staff and personnel by modifying its protocols as the world learns more about COVID-19 every day. With the NHL on the precipice of 100% vaccination (all but one player), infected players, staff and personnel have largely shown mild symptoms, if any at all. Yet the league continues to take protocols to ensure the health and safety of all parties involved, including its broadcast teams.
Over the last two years, the terms “health and safety protocols,” “taxi squad” and “quarantine” have become an integral part of the vernacular in the sports world, and are undeniably part of the reason the NHL has been able to play most of its scheduled games amidst a pandemic.
For broadcasters, having to take precautions and adjust the way they call games has changed the way sports media is being viewed in today’s world. At this time, broadcasters can be taken off-the-air at a moment’s notice because of a positive or inconclusive COVID-19 test; a broadcast crew has the ability to call games remotely from studios or their own homes to avoid travel; and media availability has been and may continue to be exclusive to video conferencing platforms.
I recently spoke with three NHL play-by-play broadcasters, and gathered their thoughts on the season thus far, and what they anticipate going forward as the world seeks to mitigate a raging wildfire of the pathogenic coronavirus and its variants.
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Prior to the NHL taking a pause of its season, there were many clustered COVID-19 outbreaks among teams fueled by the rapid spread of the Omicron variant. What was it like as a broadcaster to prepare for games you were not entirely sure were going to happen?
Chris King (Broadcaster, New York Islanders): I’m very used to that in my baseball broadcast career because games often get rained out. I had not experienced that in hockey ever until this pandemic began.
From a personal broadcasting standpoint, it’s incredibly frustrating because I could do 10 hours of prep-work on a game and find out the day before it’s not happening, and I’d say 80% of that you have to throw away. [It’s] just frustrating personally.
Courtesy: Newsday
On the baseball side of it, you can check the weather forecast and get an idea that something like that may happen. With something like this, it came out of the blue. I would use the word frustrating just because of all the preparation.”
Mike Maniscalco (Broadcaster, Carolina Hurricanes): Nothing changed for me, honestly, because you have to go about it with the same preparation that there’s going to be a game. You know that there’s a chance that players you did some research on, or information that you’re looking up will be useless if a player tests positive or you find out that somebody’s not going to be in the game or they’re going to call somebody up a few hours before. But honestly, nothing really changed for me as far as preparation for those games that – will they or won’t they be played.
Dan D’Uva (Broadcaster, Vegas Golden Knights): We prepare for games that are on the schedule; I’m always preparing. The fact that there was one game before Christmas that was postponed in the case of the Golden Knights against Colorado. I know the Avalanche pretty well, so there was the diligence for each game putting together scorecards and lineup sheets. I watch and read about a lot of hockey, and watch the Avs quite a bit. Preparation for me is very much about the aggregate over time. I would have been ready had there been a game against Colorado on that Thursday before Christmas.
Was it the right decision to pause the season? How did the pause affect you and your work?
Chris King: I think it was. When it got to the point right around the Christmas break, what they eventually did is add one day on the front side of Christmas and two on the backside. At that point, you’re trying to get everybody healthy and off the COVID list. The separation of players from each other is probably the best thing for it. The league-wide pause put everyone on a level playing field. Up until Dec. 1, the only cancellations were [games of] the Senators and the Islanders.
Once we got into December, you really started to see these monster numbers where teams had double-digit numbers on the list. I like the fact that they added a little bit to the Christmas break to shut it down with the hopes to get people back. Obviously, it hasn’t worked out entirely as planned.
Mike Maniscalco: [It was] the right decision. Especially with the holidays and the travel schedule, there were people who were in Canada [and it] would have been difficult to get them across the border and home for the holidays.
I have no issue with the league hitting the pause button in the way that they did, especially in those situations because we were in Canada before that, and trust me that was one of the things we were talking about. I got to be home and spend Christmas with my wife, so we had a very quiet Christmas and nothing really out-of-the-ordinary for me [except] that it gave me more time to catch up on reading.
Dan D’Uva: I don’t have an answer for that because it’s a different case for every team. The Golden Knights would have very much been suited to play that game against Colorado, and the game that was postponed against L.A. after the break. They did not have such a high COVID rate where they couldn’t have played the game.
The reason for a lot of the postponements, especially now, has to do with not just COVID problems, but attendance problems. In Canada, they have had so many games that have been postponed because the teams can’t take the financial hit playing the games without fans. Given the number of restrictions in Canada, they just can’t stomach that financial burden because they had to swallow that last year. It was not as though they had a decision like March 2020; this has been more of a case-by-case thing.
What differences were there between the NHL’s pauses in 2020, 2021 and 2022?
Chris King: There’s 2020, which [became] the bubble playoffs. There’s last year, where no fans were in the arenas and then [it transitioned] back to normal in the second half. I would just say the biggest difference in the last two years was obviously last season had no fans in the building at all and built to near capacity, and they got through a truncated season of 56 games. Now we’ve had those long breaks; it’s certainly very different than anything we’ve experienced in the seasons before. Once we got fans back in the building, it felt like normal.
Now you’re looking at an Islanders team playing two games in 24 nights. That’s a ten-day break at the holidays, and an eleven-day break out of their New Year’s win against Edmonton. When they come out of the break, they are playing four times in six nights. It is very different from a year ago. Once it did get started, it went all the way through without these major disruptions, whereas this year, every team has dealt with some kind of disruption.”
Mike Maniscalco: The big thing for me is we didn’t come out of this going “We’ve got to go into a bubble.” Also, we had an abridged season last year where you were only playing seven teams because they broke up the NHL by the divisions, and then of course Canada was its own separate entity.
[This year], we know [the Canes] are going to still see other teams. You’re going to try to keep it as close to normal [as you can] with what’s going on. I don’t think that we’re going into something that we haven’t seen before. If the NHL does need to say there has to be a bubble or put a limit on fans, it’s something that we’ve seen before… At least we have an idea of what it will look like if there are changes that need to be made, whereas the first two lockdowns and pause, we had no idea what was coming next. At least there’s a bit of an idea of what things can look like to move forward depending on how the situation grows.
Dan D’Uva: I would not characterize what just happened as a pause. There’s always a break for Christmas. Were they a couple of additional games postponed? Yes. There were other games postponed as well.
What happened in March 2020 [was under] extraordinarily different circumstances. At that time, we, meaning the public, had no idea this was going to turn into a months-long delay. It was thought to be a matter of days or weeks, and then we would return. We had no idea it would turn into the pandemic it became and didn’t know how to handle that as a society.
Now, it’s totally different. We have vaccines; we have booster shots; we have a lot of ways to combat the medical challenges, and the reality is that the NHL has been through this before; [it knows] how to reschedule games given what happened last year.
It seems to be an entirely different circumstance and trying to shut things down because of the unknown, they are shutting things down on a case-by-case basis given the obstacles of either individual teams without enough healthy bodies, the risk of an outbreak, or, in Canada, the financial burden.”
What are some of the precautions you and your broadcast team have taken to ensure you stay healthy and safe?
Chris King: UBS Arena has done a great job. It requires that you’re vaccinated. If you get a chance to come up in the press box, everybody wears their mask — even when we are in our radio booth. That mask stays on pretty much until a minute before [we go on-the-air]. Obviously, you choose not to wear it while you’re broadcasting because it would not sound the same. We have separation between each of us in our brand new booth in the building. I see everybody in the press box completely masked up.
Mike Maniscalco: We’ve got to mask up at all times except for being on the broadcast [and] keep as much social distancing between us and the crew that we work with. Basically all of the protocols that we put in place last year, minus the plexiglass between me and Trip Tracy – the analyst who I work with – because Trip and I have been vaccinated; I’ve been boosted. At least we have that going into this year and knowing that’s where we’re at.
Basically, the same protocols are in place for what we had last year, especially now that things have really escalated with what’s going on with Omicron going around there. It’s still keep your distance, straight-line to the press box, straight-line to my car to get back home, and that’s about it.
Dan D’Uva: The precautions are — first of all, being vaccinated and receiving booster shots. The others would be — wearing masks when inside arenas as much as any other person in society would do. That has been part of the routine for those of us in the NHL’s traveling party.
For myself included, when you are traveling with the team there are protocols you adhere to, and it has been, for the most part, reasonable and in-line with the guidance you might receive from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] or the Canadian government. For me, the most important thing was to be vaccinated and to receive a booster shot; that was the obvious, most significant thing. Aside from our professional needs and duties, the most important thing is to be healthy as a person — forget about it as a career. God forbid someone should have a serious illness — you would hope that the vaccines and the booster would minimize the health effects of the virus.
Do you believe the NHL will be able to complete its season as scheduled, or do you foresee there being additional delays and/or postponements?
Chris King: I know they’re going to do their best to make up most of these postponements during the Olympic break. For the Islanders, it’s 11 postponements with only two rescheduled [thus far]. I’m sure [NHL Deputy Commissioner] Bill Daly has said they are going to try to get a majority of those games in February, but right now, you’re looking at the end of April as the last scheduled game.
I think they might end up using a couple of days at the start of May just to finish off anything that hasn’t been able to be shoehorned into the schedule. If they have to play a week or two into May, it pushes it out to a week or two to the very end.
Mike Maniscalco: I think that with the way that February has opened up with the NHL and the players not going to Beijing, we will get everything in. They will find a way to get everything in.
Dan D’Uva: I can see that games will be postponed, but I do not foresee a delay in the season itself or the conclusion of the season. That three-week period in February provides a nice buffer for these games to be rescheduled. At some point, the need to get games in will supersede the need to play games in front of fans.
Courtesy: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Right now, they have a buffer, and they have become very good at rescheduling games given the last couple years. My hope would be that any additional postponements would not affect the conclusion of the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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