There are a lot of similarities in sports talk and news talk radio sales. And there are some differences, some of which are actually complementary and work to the sellers’ advantage. I was fortunate to sell news and sports talk as a combo for years.
As Jason Barrett recently announced, the Barrett Sports Media and News Media web sites have merged. Plenty of sellers have a news talk/sports talk combo to sell especially if they are in AM-heavy clusters. One of my 2021 resolutions was to seek out the positive in most situations so let’s look at the similarities the two formats offer to a salesperson.
Twins
Both are foreground formats. For the most part, spoken word radio listeners are seeking to focus on what is being said. They don’t listen to podcasts or talk shows so they can free their mind up to think about other things. Plenty of music listeners have their minds completely elsewhere and don’t even hear what the air person has to say. In fact, most music jocks are told to shut up and play the music. Great selling point for live liners, spots and why our commercials are worth more money.
We have very loyal customers. The best results for any advertiser comes from the heaviest users of a station- their “P1’s”. Most news/sports talk tsl comes from a much smaller % of the cume. Listeners to Sean Hannity, Jim Rome, Ben Shapiro, and Colin Cowherd stay put. Music listeners tend to chase the hottest song or diary responders to music stations will flip to the station with the contest to win concert tickets. Often this can lead to fewer spots needed in a schedule to achieve a better frequency.
We got the dough. Nothing sells luxury goods and services like a news/sports talk radio station. Look at any consumer index survey and these two formats will always score near the top. Make sure you load up on luxury car dealers, independent import car repair, jewelers, stockbrokers, realtors and home services companies.
Opposites
Sports formats can skew younger especially with stations that have guy talk driven hosts. Some sports stations have local play by play and that can cume in a younger audience. News talk radio is heavy 55+ and especially 65+. Younger buyers will carry a bias at times vs news radio and the age of the listener.
The news talk format is conservative and mostly anti-liberal/Democrat in general. Some national advertisers would not allow their commercials to fall into the Rush Limbaugh show for example. Sometimes, buyers will not place ads on a conservative station for personal reasons. In sports, at least traditionally, that doesn’t happen as often. Historically sports have steered away from conservative or liberal positions on any politics. We have a chance to change that. See below.
Sports talk typically has 80/20 Male to Female audience. News talk skews much more female and can be a 60/40 split Male to Female. That opens the door to what a 45–64-year-old woman may be more interested in home services, jewelry and more!
A Happy Couple
A sports and news talk combo buy provides a great one stop shop for anything with a male skew. And, make sure you point out the earning power differences. We used to have fun with a graphic that pointed out with our combo you get customers and with the rock stations you got convicts. Get it? Customers or Convicts?
If you are selling to male store owner and he is over 40 years old there is a good chance he listens to one of your shows. Just ask him.
It may be time to start talking politics. If you have a conservative news talk station loaded with local news and political talk in the morning and Shapiro, Savage, and Hannity at other times, you got a conservative station. If you have a local show or two on the sports station, why not encourage them to speak up? Occasionally, the talent will not be conservative Republicans and certainly most athletes who speak out on political matters and command attention are not republican conservatives. Seems like a perfect balance for buyers who object to one lean over the other.
Imagine yourself tuning into an NFL game on a Sunday afternoon. You join the game midway into the second quarter and have no idea who is winning. I can remember those days pre-scorebug, when only once in a while was there a graphic showing the score, down and distance and time left in whatever quarter it was. Primitive right?
In some ways it was great, there was anticipation to see which team was winning. There wasn’t a lot of graphical information shouting at me and I was reliant on the broadcaster to give me the details on the game. Innocent and pure, but proven impractical.
Like it or not, the scorebug is a thing. So much so that debates rage on about what they show, where to show it and yeah, how they show it. What color the bug is, the font that is used how large the graphics are, all stir up feelings from sports fans. Sometimes the angst displayed on social media over the bug, is more than is directed at their team. It’s pretty amazing to think about how routine it’s become to know everything there is to know about a game whenever you tune in.
The scorebug has been around since the early 1990’s. Its origin has been traced back to televised soccer matches. David Hill, who was the head of Sky Sports in 1992, was dissatisfied over having to wait to see the score after dialing in a match in progress. The bug was introduced during Sky’s coverage of the newly formed English Premier League. Hill resisted countless requests by his boss to remove the graphic and the concept caught on in Europe. ITV introduced a bug the next year and the BBC did the same toward the end of 1993 for its’ football coverage.
The first use of the “always on” bug in the US was in 1994. ABC Sports and ESPN introduced the gadget to the American audience during the FIFA World Cup. Though the reasoning for it was not just to continuously show the score. It was used as a way to scroll through sponsor logos as a way to present the coverage without commercial interruption.
The more traditional use of the scorebug came as Hill left Sky Sports for Fox after the latter’s acquisition of the NFL. Hill branded the bug the “FoxBox” as part of its coverage in ’94. Fox’s inaugural box was very plain. White letters and numbers arranged at the top left of your tv screen. It only had the time and quarter in one part and the teams and score in the other. Very basic, yet a novel idea since it really hadn’t been done before. But the “FoxBox” was here to stay despite objections from some fans that were resisting change. The path was established and Fox began using it for its baseball coverage as well. Other networks would eventually follow suit, some were a little less willing to change than others.
There was an antiquated thought process in assuming that people would stay with a game longer, if they tuned in and didn’t know the score. This was definitely old school thinking. Technology was changing. As the 2000’s started to roll in, the internet, smart phones and tablets would take center stage, eliminating the “I wonder who’s winning, I better stick around to find out” way of life. People already knew, so you may as well get with the program and make it easy to see. Everyone eventually got on board, with networks developing their own version of the “FoxBox” in the years to follow.
Inherently there were issues. Some of the boxes were obtrusive, some were too small, some had too much information and some not enough. It seemed like networks, and eventually RSN’s, were experimenting through trial-and-error. A few networks took the feedback from the audience and threw it in the garbage. Others seemed genuinely interested and would change even in the middle of a season. Here in Chicago, the Cubs television home, Marquee Sports Network, was being criticized for only showing who was pitching in their box. Fans wanted to know who was batting as well and they got their wish a few games into this season.
Just think that this phenomenon is only 27 years old. The technology has grown exponentially and you can see the influence the video game age has had on the bug. Those gaming experiences have proven to be a good testing ground for different variations of the scorebug. Figuring out what works and what doesn’t work and what can be taken from the games and incorporated into a broadcast is always evolving. Networks can use feedback from gamers and also just use the eye test to see what looks good and is feasible to work into a telecast.
With that said, the scorebug is still not a perfect thing. Some people love it and some are just simply “bugged” by the bug. I personally think it’s a great addition to television, some are doing it right and some aren’t. Fans seem to generally like the use of the bug, but there are many complaints. Networks have had to pivot many times already as this always changing technology provides new and inventive ways to present the product.
COMPLAINTS
Doing a quick social media search on the subject, there were several themes that popped up when it came to complaints by viewers. Placement of the bug, the font color of certain aspects, like the teams and information, and the size of the box.
I’ve often wondered where the perfect spot for the scorebug is. Across the top of the screen? The bottom? Tucked in a corner? Me, I’m for whatever doesn’t inhibit my viewing of whatever game I’m watching. When the box is in the top left during a football game, it needs to be more horizontal than vertical. Why? If it’s too “tall” you lose sight of the players at the top of your screen. Can’t see the cornerback or safety because they get blocked out. The top left location is also a problem in basketball when it comes to seeing the basket and again, players at the top of the screen. In baseball this location is fine.
Executives and producers need to keep in mind what sport is being broadcast when placement of the bug is discussed. Camera operators need to be aware of the location and keep it in mind, especially when it comes to following the action. It’s vital for fans viewing the game.
I was amazed at how many people complained about the color of certain things within the bug. Most of the complaints had to do with the color of the background when it came to identifying teams. Fans want an exact match of the team’s main color schemes so it’s easier to know who is playing. Trying to figure out who’s who has been an exasperating thing for some.
For example. Let’s say Loyola-Maryland is playing Marshall. Both team’s color schemes are green and black. Marshall is the home team and is wearing their white jerseys. Loyola-Maryland is donning its road greens. Now the scorebug shows a green background for Loyola and a black background for Marshall. Ok, the predominant colors from both teams are being featured and if you don’t know which team is wearing white, you’re left to wonder which team is which. How do you solve that problem if you are a network televising the game? Some, like the Big Ten Network will use a gray background for the home team to nearly match the team’s jersey color.
Also, when it came to colors, ESPN learned quickly that a change to its bug for the College Football Championships was confusing to some. That’s because the down-and-distance graphic was shown in a golden color which closely resembled that of the yellow used for penalties called on the field. They quickly made some changes.
Size was an issue, mainly when it came to font size and the ease of being able to read the bug. Some RSN’s have gone to the italics style for whatever reason, but that wasn’t a source of complaining. Fox’s more recent NFL bug has bigger names which is good. However, the team that has possession of the ball is shown by what looks like a “minus sign” so the score appears to be negative. Placement of “time outs” remains confuses some viewers, especially when the “slash marks” to indicate “TO’s” are oddly placed.
Clutter is a problem according to some. The new Bally’s Sports bug has gotten panned in this area. Many have called it “screen pollution” on some social media accounts and Reddit. People have complained about wasted space to the left of the screen, too much going on with the count and MPH of a pitch and the “dots” being used to count the outs. Many have bemoaned the large, sports ticker with other scores from baseball taking up a huge amount of space to the right of the screen. So newer isn’t always better.
WHAT’S NEXT
With the popularity and legalization of gambling in most states it seems obvious that what is next is betting information. Point spreads, over/under, money lines and prop bets will probably be the next thing to appear. I would think that some of these gambling apps will work in a sponsorship of some sort and while the game is going on, give fans updated lines and props.
CONCLUSION
I’m not sure that there will ever be a perfect scorebug, one that pleases most if not all of the viewers. I don’t think it’s possible. With the RSN’s operating these days, it’s a cookie cutter approach. All Bally’s Sports bugs are the same, just like the old Fox Sports and Roots bugs were all designed by the same folks and used on all telecasts. Uniformity is important to them because they want you to know which network you’re watching, just by the bug. It’s kind of boring and corporate feeling, but I get it. In a perfect world, each team’s crew would be able to cater the bug toward the team, include things that are important to fans of that club. That’s just not seemingly part of the plan.
I’d much rather have the boring bug, than not have one at all. It’s important to me, that if I tune into a game that’s already in-progress, I know the score, the inning/quarter and how much time is left. I can’t imagine how it was before. I don’t want to go back to that period of time when the technology wouldn’t allow for it. But, at the same time, realizing what is really important, the game itself, should be at the top of the list. Just because you have access to “bells and whistles” doesn’t mean they are helping your production. Flashy is great sometimes, but don’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the game.
In my estimation, the sea change began in 2015. Bill Simmons and Colin Cowherd exited ESPN within months of each other. For different reasons, both had fractious splits with the Mothership. Amidst doubts from some in the industry as to whether they’d remain relevant or disappear, they leveraged personal audiences that platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube had suddenly made portable to prove that prosperity was attainable outside ESPN. Not only that, they stayed relevant in the conversation. Six years later, as content has continued to fragment and the gambling behemoths have entered the chat, the paradigm has fully shifted to favor top talents in sports media in a manner that is truly unprecedented.
To get to where we are now, you have to think about the landscape in 2015. Some talents had big leverage — ESPN had to pay big to keep a lot of its roster from going to upstarts like NBCSN and FS1 — but it was nothing like it is today. Regardless of money, ESPN had the distinct advantage of the very real possibility that you could get lost if you left. Stephen A. Smith, now arguably the face of ESPN, had exited the company only to return after he never totally found his niche at Fox Sports Radio. Michelle Beadle left for NBCSN in 2013, the network canceled her show The Crossover after about seven months, and she too returned to ESPN the very next year.
Yes, Dan Patrick and Rich Eisen had and continue to have considerable success away from the Four Letters, but you have to remember that for a long time they were viewed as outliers. For most others who departed ESPN, even if they continued to have fine careers financially, there was less ‘glow’ on their work. In a business where the size of the audience that you reach has a lot of psychic implications on talents’ own sense of self-worth, this is not insignificant.
As I’ve written a couple of times, Dan Le Batard was amongst those who cautioned against Simmons, Cowherd, and Skip Bayless leaving ESPN. He talked about the magnificent audience reach they were yielding. He warned they would get lost. In what wound up being very fortunate as it pertains to his own circumstances, Le Batard has probably never been more wrong.
And it wasn’t just Simmons and Cowherd who succeeded at new destinations. Many who have left ESPN since 2015 — Jason Whitlock, Will Cain, Jemele Hill, Michael Smith, Emmanuel Acho, Tom Rinaldi, and we could go on for paragraphs — thrive financially and with visibility of their work.
Le Batard exited ESPN about a year before his deal was up, with his extremely valuable podcast feeds in his possession. The deal with DraftKings is just the start of what he and former ESPN president John Skipper will be tackling with Meadlowlark Media. It looks to be the start of a phenomenally lucrative business — and they’ll also have the autonomy to not just talk about whatever they want, but explore other content avenues across the media spectrum.
While ESPN no longer has a stranglehold on talent, they may not even wish to anymore. The company has fortified its ambitions more and more around live rights. They added UFC, they’ll have a monopoly on SEC football in a couple years, the NHL is coming back to them, and they got into the NFL’s Super Bowl rotation — without losing any of their cornerstone live rights as of yet. They of course need talent to fill their events and all their other hours, but they’re not nearly as concerned anymore about which people come, stay, or go.
The landscape had already shifted where top sports media talents found themselves with options not especially available to those in previous generations — before the sports gambling gold rush. To say that sports gambling has improved the fortunes for big names in media would be akin to declaring that a Stop sign is red. Gee, ya think?
But the scale is still so mammoth that we have to talk about it. Dave Portnoy, on his podcast last week, analogized that when Penn National bought Barstool at a valuation of $450 million it was like when the market gets set for a star quarterback and then the hurdle keeps getting subsequently cleared.
The gambling companies are fighting tooth and nail for user acquisition. According to Axios, DraftKings spent about half a billion dollars in marketing last year alone — and that was before they bought VSIN and inked a three-year, $50 million deal with the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. FanDuel, MGM, Caesar’s/William Hill, Rivers, and Pointsbet are all also spending like crazy. Bally’s, Wynn, and Churchill Downs’ TwinSpires are coming as well. If I started naming all the partnerships that these gambling operators had in the sports media business it would be July before you finished reading this piece.
Whether and to what extent the general sports media audience wants the ongoing proliferation of sports gambling content, there’s only going to be more and more. If you think it’s already A Lot, wait until big states like New York, Florida, Texas, and California are legal and go live.
Jay Marriotti, writing for this web site, ripped Le Batard for getting in bed with DraftKings. “So let’s see if I have this straight: He painted his ESPN superiors as undesirable partners because they didn’t want him causing political wars on the radio … yet he’s ethically willing to jump headfirst into the gambling cesspool,” Marriotti wrote. “In the end, he’s the grimiest of all. In the latest example of desperation leading to hypocrisy, LeBatard’s lengthy search for a company to distribute his podcast led to DraftKings, the tout louts who will control ad sales and licensing arrangements. This will sink Le Batard’s show into the betting crapper and complete the demise of a once-great journalist.”
It’s easy to dismiss Marriotti as a scold, but there is a dark side to the relentless onslaught of gambling partnerships where media organizations that should theoretically be watchdogs to keep the industry honest are financially dependent on it. An unfortunate byproduct of the unrelenting marketing campaigns and easy access to gambling is that there will be addicts who lose everything. Relationships and families will be destroyed.
You can believe in individual liberty to support gambling legalization, and believe that it’s better to have it happening out in the open and regulated rather than in the hands of the mob, while also being sympathetic to the inevitable negative consequences. Before he signed the deal, Le Batard surely had to grapple with the idea that there are members of his audience who will get hooked and dig themselves a deep hole.
To be sure, hardly any of the marketing we see connected with our sports is healthy and pure. We are deluged with ads for prescription drugs where the side effects oftentimes sound worse than the symptoms they treat. Beer and liquor marketing remains massive. Is gambling worse for society than alcohol? It’s hard to argue that. And every time you watch sports, played by our planet’s healthiest citizens, there is a flood of commercials for the unhealthiest food.
Nonetheless, life is full of trade-offs. Le Batard, former ESPN president John Skipper, and Meadowlark Media faced the decision on whether to take the DraftKings deal and keep the show free for listeners, or to do his show behind a paywall — a move that Howard Stern pioneered when he went to SiriusXM in 2004. Certainly, Le Batard’s die hard listeners would have followed him to a subscription platform.
Ultimately, Le Batard and Skipper chose the route of maximizing reach and relevance, and they positioned themselves with the flexibility of evaluating the landscape in three years while maintaining control of their intellectual property.
No one can sit here and tell you that they actually know what is going to happen from the great gambling gold rush of the 2020s. It’s a good bet that the dozen or so players will consolidate into a half-dozen or less, but what permutations wind up happening are anyone’s guess. Eventually, the marketplace will be mature from a user acquisition perspective, but customer retention will remain paramount. Therefore, even if the sports media industry doesn’t maintain the insane boom times that are happening now, gambling partnerships will stay a component of the business for perpetuity — the business has been mature in Europe for awhile, but you still see ads for sportsbooks plastered all around soccer fields and even on players’ uniforms.
The bottom line is that the top talents in this business have an unprecedented amount of leverage. The ones in the best position now, besides Portnoy where Barstool is a remarkable story of entrepreneurial organic growth, capitalized on the power of big media organizations to build their own portable personal followings. These followings are enormously valuable across linear and digital platforms, and this is exponentially true if those followers are loyal enough to follow the talents to a specific gambling app. In 2015, it was a real risk for Bill Simmons and Colin Cowherd to spread their wings outside of ESPN (yes, Simmons was fired by Skipper and thus had no choice, but he has repeatedly said it was his plan to leave when his contract expired). In retrospect it can seem like their choices were obvious, but the present boom times for popular sports media personalities can be traced to that stretch.
The Dallas market is always an interesting one to analyze for sports radio. Led by two great brands, 96.7/1310 The Ticket and 105.3 The Fan, listeners have strong programming options to consider, but getting them to break their habits remains a challenge. Case in point, in the month of March, only 15% of Ticket listeners sampled The Fan, and just 8% of The Fan’s audience flocked to The Ticket. That makes it clear that loyalty exists on both sides.
How that played out in the winter ratings book was better for The Ticket than The Fan. Though both stations were healthy, The Ticket finished in front with a 4th place 6.2 share. The Fan was 9th with a 3.9. They added another 0.1 thru their stream for the quarter.
The Musers were the winners in the morning drive competition. The Ticket’s talented morning team came in 3rd from 5:30a-10a thanks to a 6.3 share. The Fan’s Shan Shariff and RJ Choppy finished 9th with a 4.0 share. They tacked on another 0.2 courtesy of the stream.
Middays (10a-2p) were tighter than mornings, but once again The Ticket won the daypart. Norm Hitzges and Donovan Lewis, and two hours of Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp’s show took 4th with a 5.7 share. The Fan’s ‘K & C Masterpiece’ earned an 8th ranking with a 4.3 share, and another 0.1 on the stream.
The afternoon is where The Ticket enjoyed its best success for the quarter. One-hour of McDowell and Kemp, along with The Hardline featuring Corby Davidson and Bob Sturm delivered a 6.3 share 1st place finish. The Fan’s ‘GBag Nation’ was further back in 12th place with a 3.5 share, gaining another 0.1 on the stream.
A positive for The Fan this quarter was its cume story. The station produced 103,900 in weekday prime compared to The Ticket’s 63,500. The positive for The Ticket was their year to year growth. While The Fan’s numbers remained comparable to their 2020 results, The Ticket saw better than two point gains in weekday prime and morning and afternoon drive. Middays were also up by over a full point.
These two stations have traded places numerous times atop the ratings charts, so I’d expect nothing different going forward. This quarter belongs to The Ticket, thanks to strong consistent performances from their daytime lineup. A job well done by Jeff Catlin’s team. But with Rangers baseball back, and Cowboys season around the corner, expect the race to get tighter, not wider.
Though change has been a part of the narrative surrounding The Zone’s programming changes, one thing hasn’t changed, local listeners still love the radio station. In fact, listening was up in a few key areas this year compared to 2020.
In the 2021 Winter Book, The Zone shined across the board. Starting with weekday prime (M-F 6a-7p), The Zone ranked 4th with an 8.0 share among Men 25-54. That was a 2.7 increase from the station’s 2020 Winter Book.
Turning to mornings, Jason Martin and Ramon Foster delivered a 7.5 share to lock up 3rd place. The morning show was up a half point year over year and two ratings positions.
The news was even better in middays (10a-3p) where the combination of Buck Reising, and Mickey Ryan and Blaine Bishop, secured a 3rd place finish with a 9.1. share. That was a 3.6 point improvement year over year and four slots.
Finishing in afternoons, 3HL produced an impressive 6.9 share to rank 4th. Their performance was nearly double their previous year’s result. The show gained 3.4 points and enjoyed a station best eight spot jump.
Data this quarter for 102.5 The Game wasn’t available. However, a local source confirmed the station’s quarter wasn’t strong.
The Zone right now is very healthy. They’re on a different level ratings-wise, a testament to their bond with local listeners. Equally deserving of credit is program director Paul Mason and the station’s new hires. To make significant progress year over year, while undergoing lineup changes and dealing with increased noise is impressive.
102.5 The Game on the other hand has work to do to catch up. They’re hoping the recent addition of Caroline Fenton will help. A good playoff run by the Nashville Predators could provide a boost as well.
Outkick 360 (formerly Midday 180) meanwhile is likely to be heard from again in the market. The show has already gained clearance in Knoxville, and remains interested in finding a Nashville home too. Can Clay Travis and Sam Savage pull it off? I wouldn’t bet against them.
Last but not least, Josh Innes is now in town hosting mornings on 105.9 The Rock. He has proven he can create interest and produce ratings during prior stops. Will he be able to lure local sports radio listeners his way despite hosting a rock morning show? Time will tell.
The choices for Men 25-54 in Nashville are aplenty. How they’ll continue to consume sports talk content in 2021 remains to be seen, but for now, The Zone is comfortably in the driver’s seat.
It’s an exciting day for all of us at BSM and BNM, because today marks the start of something special. Yes we have an awesome new look and layout for our content, made possible by the great Andy Drake. I encourage you to sift thru a few of the different tabs at the top of the website. You’ll find popular features from our writers in the Originals section, podcasts we’ve produced over the years, the Member Directory featuring nearly forty radio professionals, access points to content from all twenty four of our writers, and shortcuts to our sports and news media sections. We’ve even built three columns to the right on the main page to make it easier to maneuver thru daily sports and news content, and the latest columns from our writing teams.
If you were reading carefully, you picked up on my use of BNM in the first sentence, and the word news in the last sentence. And if you browsed the website today, you likely noticed news and sports are now presented in the same location.
I took the risk and launched Barrett News Media eight months ago. We came out of the gate with a staff of twelve, which was twelve more than Barrett Sports Media had when it was born in September 2015. Like with most new brands, tweaks were needed, and lessons were learned. I initially wanted to put BNM and BSM under the same roof, but there were too many unknowns. For that reason, I launched the brand as a separate entity.
I had to find out if my interest in news would remain high or fade out after a few months. I had to learn if our staff would produce content consistently or leave us plugging holes regularly. I had to discover if media stories would remain hot after a heated presidential election. As important as those all were, one mattered even more – would anyone read our work?
After studying the peaks and valleys of our news brand for nearly a year, I know that people will consume our content if it’s original, interesting, and timely. But asking them to follow us in two different places is a tall order. It’s also harder to reach people in the news media space because social media activity is lighter due to a lack of trust in big tech, and some folks in the format still don’t know me.
Since launching, I’ve overseen two websites, two staffs, two email addresses, and multiple social media accounts, worrying about maintaining separation when I had no reason to worry in the first place. Newspapers have spent decades blending sports and news, online brands across the internet do the same today, and Chrissy Paradis, Pete Mundo, Rick Schultz, Douglas Pucci, Ryan Maguire, Ryan Hedrick, Eduardo Razo and Jordan Bondurant have done more than enough good work to deserve having their material presented to the most amount of people.
So now we move forward as one unit, fully dedicated to serving both the sports and news/talk formats in one location. We will continue prioritizing columns from experienced professionals, the latest industry news, and original ideas that spark interest and discussion. Our email blasts will come from one source, social media promotion will emanate from our BSM channels, and all of our website content will be housed in one spot. If visitors type in the URL for BarrettNewsMedia.com it will automatically redirect to the BSM website.
To help us manage the content cycle and strengthen our brands further, I am pleased to announce a few new additions. First, Troy Coverdale joins BNM as Editor, McGraw Milhaven as a weekly columnist, and Jordan Bondurant and Ryan Hedrick add opportunities to write feature stories multiple times per month. Meanwhile, BSM will gain the writing talents of Ryan Maguire, and semi-regular contributions from Rob Taylor and Scott Seidenberg. Kate Constable and Ricky Keeler will also get more involved writing features. I also plan to add one more news writer soon to fill Brandon Contes’ position.
The new look of the website has me fired up and excited about the possibilities ahead. A big tip of the cap to Point To Point Marketing, Core Image Studio, and the great Jim Cutler for helping us pull this off. I’m eager to increase connections with news radio and television professionals, and showcase their great work. With that in mind, if you have a news tip or story idea for either of our brands, send it by email to JBarrett@sportsradiopd.com. With the website makeover complete, I’ll now focus on the next project – the 2021 BSM Summit. I’ll have news to share next week on that endeavor, so stay tuned.
If you’re a fan of what we do for sports media coverage, have no fear. The same great content experience you’ve come to enjoy for the past six years is not affected. If news radio/television coverage interests you but didn’t know much about BNM, now you’ll be able to access the content without jumping thru extra hoops. This is a strategic move aimed at making things easier for the reader, and showcasing the best of two great brands and formats. I’m pleased with BNM’s start, but know that if we can do a few things for the brand that we’ve done for BSM, it’ll make the content experience better, the industry relationships stronger, and the work more meaningful. And that is the reason we do this in the first place.
Thank you for continuing to visit, and afford us the opportunity to inform and entertain you. We understand the media business and are passionate about it, and that’s reflected in our team’s writing. Some you may know that about. Others you may not. But having them all under one roof should make your ability to find out a whole lot easier.
The winter book ratings are in for Houston, and the staff at Sports Radio 610 has reason to celebrate. In addition to remaining ahead of the local format competition, the Houston sports station produced its best weekday prime (M-F 6a-7p) performance since 2015. 610 finished 12th overall, up from 14th one year earlier.
The weekday shows for 610 were strong across the board. Starting with mornings, Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast delivered a 3.3 to finish 13th, up two tenths year over year. ‘In The Loop’ with John Lopez and Landry Locker ranked 9th with a 3.7 share, the best finish on the station. The midday duo is up seven tenths over the past twelve months. In afternoons, Clint Stoerner and Ron Hughley rode a 3.6 share to a 12th place tie. The afternoon team has also picked up seven tenths during the past year.
Elsewhere in the market, SportsTalk 790 and ESPN 97.5 were further back. Both brands feature shows during different time periods, making it tougher to offer a straight apples to apples comparison. Taking that into account, 790 finished 24th in mornings (6a-10a) and 22nd in afternoons (3p-7p). Mornings feature Sean Salisbury. Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler form ‘The A Team’ and occupy afternoons. 790’s best production came in middays, where the combination of ‘In The Trenches’ with ND Kalu, and Matt Thomas’ show delivered a solid 2.6 share to snag 15th place.
Meanwhile for 97.5, this was a down quarter. The station ranked 24th in mornings (6a-10a). Those four hours include an hour of ESPN Radio’s ‘Keyshawn Johnson, Jay Williams, and Zubin Mehenti’, and three hours of ‘The Bench’ with John Granato and Lance Zierlein. Middays (10a-3p) were 27th. That five hour block included Granato and Zierlein, Charlie Pallilo, Joel Blank, Nick Shahara, and Josh Innes. Afternoons (3p-7p) consisted of an hour of Innes, and three hours of AJ Hoffman and Fred Faour were 26th.
Right now, 610 is in the driver’s seat. They’ve consistently led the market for over a year, thanks to a talented and consistent lineup. With the added benefit of local sports drama surrounding the Texans and DeShaun Watson, they’re positioned to do well in the months ahead. On the other hand, Houston sports radio has seen ratings shifts before. One mistake or missed opportunity could create a tighter sports radio race in a hurry, so it’s vital all involved stay focused.
Indianapolis and Tampa are two cities where its understood that competition for the sports radio listener’s ear is minimal. WDAE runs the roost in Tampa. 93.5/107.5 The Fan occupies the leadership position in Indy. Neither is close to being challenged for their spot atop the sports radio mountain in their respective markets.
That brings us to the quarterly ratings. In the winter book, both stations did what they had to do to position themselves for repeated success in 2021.
Starting with WDAE, the station finished the first quarter in 7th place with Men 25-54. Compared to last year’s results, WDAE gained nearly two full points and eight ranking positions.
Looking at the station’s weekday shows, Ronnie & TKras finished 6th in morning drive, Pat & Aaron were 7th during the midday, and Ian Beckles and Jay Recher secured 4th place in afternoons. The Dan Patrick Show, which is also part of the daily lineup, was 5th during its timeslot.
Meanwhile in Indy, 93.5/107.5 The Fan finished 4th for the quarter in weekday prime. That wasn’t far off from their winter book performance last year.
Bragging rights for the top rated sports talk show in the market this quarter belonged to John Michael Vincent. ‘The Ride with JMV’ was 1st overall in afternoon drive, up from 2nd a year earlier. Equally strong for The Fan was Dan Dakich who came in 3rd during his midday timeslot, also up from last year’s 4th place finish. Wrapping up in mornings, Jeff Rickard & ‘Big’ Joe Staysniak grabbed 4th place for the book, down one position from 2020.
The talent and play by play partnerships offered by each of these brands puts them in position to consistently succeed. Given their track records, it’s easy to see why challenging Tampa and Indy’s sports radio kings in the format isn’t on any other company’s to do list.
“Who the hell is Mel Kiper anyway?” – Bob Irsay Indianapolis Colts
“I just don’t think the Jets understand the draft.” – Mel Kiper Jr.
When you hear the name Mel Kiper Jr, you know it’s time for the NFL Draft. Toiling in relative obscurity in the early days of the televised draft, Kiper’s sharp criticisms, befuddled looks after picks and cynicism have made him more of a household name recently. He’s appeared on ESPN’s draft coverage ever since 1984. His signature widow’s peak, gruff exterior and sharp tongue, have become as much of the experience as Jets fans booing whatever pick their team makes in the first round.
THE ROAD NFL DRAFT ANALYST
The story of how he came to be is pretty amazing. Kiper is a self-made man. The football scouting bug bit him early. While in high school he began writing scouting reports on players and he was so confident in them, he handed them to an NFL Executive. Ernie Accorsi, who was then with the Baltimore Colts, saw the first reports and encouraged Kiper to stop giving away his research and start selling it to fans. Accorsi told him that there was a market for draft information and suggested that Kiper convert his analysis into a business.
So, while in college he started a business and now Kiper is president of “Kiper Enterprises”, which he founded in 1981. He spent numerous hours on the phone with college coaches and NFL GM’s trying to soak up information on players as he could, and in front of televisions to glean every last tidbit about a defensive lineman’s hip swivel and an offensive tackle’s motor.
Kiper was one of the first, if not the first to do a mock draft. These aren’t just done a week before the draft begins, they are done months ahead. These “mocks” that are so commonplace now and done by so many writers and publications, were unheard of when he started evaluating players.
What he didn’t realize then and what America was about to find out, is that the information he gathered would eventually play on TV. Early on there wasn’t as much attention paid to the draft as there is now. It wasn’t even televised until 1980. ESPN was trying to expand and give credibility to its coverage and wanted experts to join the telecast. That’s were a 23-year-old Kiper got his break at least in the broadcasting world. He was paid $400 bucks to appear on the network in 1984. He brought that credibility in his research and knowledge. It wasn’t always as polished as it is now, but the info was amazing.
BEST KNOWN FOR?
Kiper has had some pretty well-known run ins with some organizations. He’s made comments about who they picked or didn’t when their turn came up. Perhaps the most famous was in 1994 between Kiper and then Colts executive Bill Tobin.
It all started when a discussion began about what the Colts should do with their 2 first round picks. The Colts owned the #2 pick and after a trade of Jeff George to the Falcons they acquired the number 7 pick. That trade left only Jim Harbaugh on the roster, so naturally Kiper believed the Colts should draft a quarterback, either Heath Shuler or Trent Dilfer.
When the Colts made their first selection, Tobin chose future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk. Kiper offered a little light criticism, insisting that the Colts needed to take a QB. Tobin then chose to trade up to the #5 pick, Shuler was off the board, so naturally everyone thought it was going to be Dilfer. The Colts chose linebacker Trev Alberts and Kiper lost it.
“I think it was a typical Colts move,” Kiper said to host Chris Berman that night. “The Colts needed a quarterback. To pass up a Trent Dilfer when all you have is Jim Harbaugh — give me a break. That’s why the Colts are picking second every year in the draft and not battling for the Super Bowl like other clubs in the National Football League.”
The telecast then brought in reporter Chris Mortensen who was covering the Colts. He asked Tobin for his response to criticism during a post-draft interview, the Colts GM came ready to fire back. “Who in the hell is Mel Kiper anyway?” asks Tobin. “Here’s a guy that criticizes everybody, whoever they take. He’s got the answers to who you should take and who you shouldn’t take. And my knowledge of him: he’s never ever put on a jock strap, he’s never been a coach, he’s never been a scout, he’s been an administrator and all of a sudden he’s an expert.”
The best part was as the rant from Tobin was going on, Kiper was listening in to the insults.
Twenty seven years ago today, after the great Mel Kiper Jr. criticized the Colts’ pick of LB Trev Alberts over QB Trent Dilfer, my work partner @mortreport got the most memorable sound byte in draft history from former Colts’ GM Bill Tobin. pic.twitter.com/RJbaKQ9fQ9
“We don’t have to take anyone Mel Kiper says we have to take,” Tobin continues. “Mel Kiper has no more credentials to do what he’s doing than my neighbor, and my neighbor’s a postman, and he doesn’t even have season tickets to the NFL.” Talk about free attention for your draft analyst! Tobin was clearly trying to embarrass Kiper but the plan didn’t work. In fact, it only led to a rise in fame for Kiper. It actually helped to solidify Kiper as the authority when it came to the NFL Draft. Tobin was fired after the 1996 season.
The other one of the most well-known rants came in 1989. That’s when the Jets chose defensive lineman Jeff Lageman with the 14th overall pick. Kiper went on to say, “It’s obvious to me right now that the Jets just don’t understand what the draft is all about.” Those comments of course made it back to the Jets and sparked a mini-feud (by comparison to the Colts). Then the Jets director of college scouting Mike Hickey made Kiper a phenom by saying “‘Basically, who is this guy who works out of his basement in Baltimore?” Hickey was replaced the following year, and Kiper is still doing the draft on ESPN.
WHY IS HE GOOD?
He is the OG when it comes to draft analysis. This is his gig. He puts in the work and it shows. The research he does is meticulous and includes watching up to 25 college football games a week. This gives him a leg up on everyone, because he gains in-depth knowledge by actually getting eyes on the players he’s writing and talking about. He also spends a lot of time in talks with coaches, players, NFL team executives and folks in the league offices. Kiper creates his “big board“, which he ranks the top 25 players every week. During ESPN’s coverage of the draft, his board appears on the ticker and then updates as players are selected.
He is a frequent guest on radio and tv shows in the months and weeks leading up to the NFL draft. His information is so valuable that he does a conference call with members of the national media a few days before the first pick is announced. It’s that kind of authority that makes him the number one pick of every draft, since his first in 1984.
CONCLUSION
While he may come off as a know it all sometimes, there’s no denying he’s the best at what he does. I really can’t imagine draft coverage without him. It would be an empty broadcast. There’s nothing better than watching Kiper lament a terrible pick or gloat in his own way when a prediction comes through. He’s just intense and it works.
I can’t wait to hear Kiper and some of his buzz words. Beast mode runner. Burst. Coach killer. Fast riser. First kid off the bus. Mauler. Playmaker. Quicks. Space eater. Specimen. Throwback player. Velcro corner. Weightroom warrior. Finally, of course, best player available.
Kiper is atop the “Big Board” of draft analysts and that’s not a reach.
Sometimes in sales we run across a client who can also be a great partner for the radio station – a business that serves the same core demographics that the station does. Or it offers a demographic that we want listening to more sports radio. Sometimes they are seasonal advertisers that we need to put a plan together for that is a bit longer.
Have you done a deal with any convenience stores lately? Well, here’s a plan.
Through the years, I have done many on site promotions at C-stores: introducing beer growlers, giving away lottery tickets, sampling energy drinks, promoting C-store premium giveaways with purchase, broadcasting from the beer cooler for charity, etc. etc. And one thing I always noticed is that the promotions worked well at generating listener traffic. Typically, we did the remotes weekdays from 3pm-6pm, especially Fridays, and Saturdays from 10am-3pm. I always thought the C-store and radio were a perfect marriage.
Here is what the RAB tells us about C-stores. Most traffic at a C-store is in am and pm drive just like our stations. There are 50% more men stopping than women. It is why we set up near beer coolers often. Those are our guys. A bonus of the C-store is that they also reach a younger customer. 35% of the customer count is under 34 and 55% under 44. Now walk that into a program directors office when you want extra promos and station assets to get the buy! And take this with you.
Why not launch a summer series of remotes at a C-Store? Go to a client and offer to start promoting this coming Memorial Day weekend. Get a C-store vendor who wants traction this summer and have them fund the promotion or at least 50% of it for the store. I like to use Fridays because it’s the ultimate feel good afternoon as we all look forward to a weekend and even better a holiday weekend! Here is a promo calendar possibility for May-September 2021:
Friday May 28th for Memorial Day weekend. Beer, snacks, hard seltzers, etc.
Friday June 4th for National donut day. Do this in am drive. Use Homer Simpson drops. Find a donut sponsor and give them away with coffee purchase.
Friday July 2nd for 4th of July weekend. Hot dog promo anybody?
Friday August 6th for International beer day . Let the import beer guys buy you in and try a different brew.
Friday Sept 3rd for Labor Day Weekend. Farewell to summer and get ready for college football weekend!
I like to sell things in bunches like bananas. By selling into a 4-month promotion you can rotate stores and broadcast from hot zip codes for your listeners or your competition’s audience. You can hit zip codes in your TSA for that annual promo they look forward to when YOU come to THEM. And you will be making money and gaining traction for your audience. If you get the chance, ask If you can create signage the Monday before your appearance in store. Convenience stores do terrific traffic. Gas Buddy does tremendous research in the industry so bone up here and get busy making it the Summer Sales to Remember.
