The month of January was very kind to Philadelphia sports radio. The termination of Chip Kelly, combined with the NFL Playoffs, led to increased listening, and a tight finish between the market’s two top sports stations. WIP closed the month narrowly eclipsing The Fanatic, 7.9 to 7.8 M-F 6a-7p with Men 25-54.
When you examine the performance of each station’s talk shows, there’s reason to celebrate on both ends.
First, in mornings, Angelo Cataldi continues to reign supreme for WIP. Cataldi recorded an impressive 9.6 to win the head to head battle. However, Anthony Gargano has held the morning slot on The Fanatic for less than a year, and he’s been rapidly climbing. This month’s 8.7 share was very strong, and it shows that Gargano has staying power in morning drive.
When you shift to the midday programs, Mike and Ike bring home the win for WIP over The Fanatic’s Rob Ellis and Harry Mayes. WIP holds a 6.6 to 5.6 advantage. They’ve consistently led the head to head midday battle.
Where things start to turn The Fanatic’s way are when you look to afternoons. Mike Missanelli has been on a roll as of late, and he delivered an 8.9 for the month, which not only beat Josh Innes’ program on WIP, but it placed him #1 in the market. Innes turned in a very solid 7.6 to place 3rd. It was the third straight month Missanelli has beaten Innes in afternoon drive.
One challenge that Innes’ show has faced is a lack of continuity. Tony Bruno left the program last summer, and then Spike Eskin removed himself from the show to focus on programming the radio station at the start of 2016. Innes currently hosts his show with former NFL player Hollis Thomas and Marc Farzetta.
Overall, WIP has a powerhouse in mornings, a consistent lead in middays and some catching up to do in afternoons. Winning two out of three dayparts should give them a reason to feel good.
For The Fanatic, they have the ratings leader in afternoons, a morning show which has the third highest performance of any show in the market (Cataldi and Missanelli were the only other shows with a higher number) and has made incredible strides in less than a year opposite a morning show which was thought to be unbeatable, and their main challenge is in middays, where they’re only 1 point behind. They also have reasons to feel optimistic.
With the Eagles not playing regular season games until September, the battle for weekday sports talk supremacy in Philadelphia over the next few months should be fierce and one worth keeping an eye on.
Tracy McGrady had a brief interlude of playing professional baseball since retiring from the NBA, but he will now make practical use of his basketball knowledge and explore a new career frontier.
The Associated Press’ Brian Mahoney reported Monday that McGrady joined ESPN to be an NBA analyst and will regularly appear on Rachel Nichols’ new show, The Jump, which begins Thursday.
McGrady was a seven-time All-Star whose career could have been even more accomplished if not for nagging injuries.
The 36-year-old only retired from the NBA in August 2013, so he hasn’t been away from the game for long. It appears he still has a passion for it in light of his decision to expand his basketball horizons.
Perhaps most interesting will be McGrady’s perspective on top-tier NBA draft prospects, who are now required to be one year removed from high school before making the leap to the league. McGrady’s insight on lottery picks and elite talent alone would make him a tremendous asset.
Credit to the Bleacher Report who originally published this article
We’ve reached that time of year where most sports radio stations across the country prepare for a ratings decline following a strong fall and impressive January. As we’ve learned throughout the years, the NFL is king, and although many stations will recover in April when baseball returns, the NFL Draft unfolds, and the NBA and NHL Playoffs begin, the winter months can be very unforgiving, especially February.
So what do you do?
Well there are plenty of suggestions to consider, and I thought it’d be helpful to remind you of a few critical things as you prepare to deal with a month where the audience mentally disconnects from your show and radio station.
First, it’s important to sell your radio station’s success quarterly and annually. Make sure your advertisers don’t have false expectations entering each month. By letting them know in advance that February is likely to dip, whereas the Fall months are likely to rise, you’re setting realistic and measurable expectations which the client will thank you for. We can pretend that these aren’t realities, and maybe with some luck you’ll avoid a drop in February, but by being honest and realistic, advertisers are more likely to stick with you during the tougher months.
Secondly, meet with your shows and staff and explain to them how the radio station has performed in previous year’s during the first quarter. It’s common for sports stations to have a strong January, a slower February, and make up a little ground in March before seeing a bigger increase in April.
One thing I encourage you to do, be honest with your staff and remind them that no less effort is acceptable, and the goal remains to stay flat or gain ground from January, but it’s also possible that despite cranking out compelling content, and busting their asses, that the ratings could suffer. This has more to do with sports radio fatigue and a lack of football and baseball than anything else. Stress the importance of driving the audience back to one another’s programs, because one additional tune-in could be the difference between a dip and staying afloat.
Since the listening levels are likely to decline in February, this is a good time to encourage your key people to use some vacation time. It allows them to breakaway from the radio station during a time where they may have to dig deeper than usual to find good local content, and it assures you that they’re less likely to hurt the radio station’s momentum later in the year. In many cases, your key people have grinded out the past 6 months covering the NFL, so they’re likely in need of a mental break. This is the perfect time to take one.
The next item I want you to think about, is how you can take advantage of a reduced period of listening. We often toss around the term “think outside the box” in this business, and in February, this is where the great programmers, talent, and brands get ultra-creative and find ways to capture some excitement, even if it’s for an extra day or two.
This becomes fun for the hosts on the air, and for one day out of the year, it gives the audience a different sound of the brand. Some hosts will enjoy the change of pace, others may not depending on which roles they get thrust into, but in either case, the listeners feel empowered and the staff shows they’re willing to play along for the betterment of the audience. In some instances, a chord could be struck between some talent on the air that may come into play one day down the line. That one day of additional listening could also help the station avoid a setback for the month.
If you’ve listened to “Mike and Mike” throughout the years, you’ve likely heard them previously use the week after the Super Bowl to present their awards for the NFL season. That’s a great move because it takes the one subject that has driven audience tune-ins for the past 6 months, and keeps it relevant for an extra 5 days. By encouraging the audience to vote, playing audio clips centered around the key categories, and booking guests who are tied to each individual award, it makes the show interesting, and that’s a smart way to connect during a slow period.
In my personal experiences, this was the month where I’d kick off a major promotion in San Francisco titled “Lucky Break”. The idea behind it was to go town to town auditioning people for a chance to make the cast of 16 for a weekly show where undiscovered talent get a chance to perform in front of judges, audiences, and against top talent and celebrities, with the ultimate prize being a one-year contract to host shows on the radio station.
I decided after three years of doing it that the promotion had run its course at 95.7 The Game, but there’s no question that the buzz for it was excellent, and the audience got behind it. While we dealt with lower ratings in February, our digital performance shot up tremendously. This was another way to take those advertisers who may be looking at spending less on the air, and re-direct their dollars into another area.
We’d launch the off-air auditions right after the Super Bowl and promote them on-air, and after doing 4-5 and gathering our field of 16, we’d hit the air each Wednesday night in March and present different challenges each week to see who had the skills to excel in sports radio. When baseball returned during the first week of April, we’d crown our winner, and they’d start hosting on the weekend and at night as needed.
If you think that damages your brand’s image or puts someone on the air who isn’t ready for it, I’ll leave you with this – I heard that same stuff from many in San Francisco when we rolled out the idea. By the end of it, most of the talent would tell you that they weren’t sure themselves that they could have won the contest. If done right, it presents the cast in a positive light, shows how difficult doing great sports radio can be which inspires others to want to learn more about it, it creates buzz in your city which leads to additional marketing, keeps your advertiser’s dollars tied to a big promotion, and generates some life on your airwaves during a dead listening period.
And if you’re still not convinced, four members from that promotion are still employed by The Game in SF today, and Joe Beningo of WFAN, and Chris Dimino of 680 The Fan were once callers to sports talk shows, and they’ve since gone on to have lengthy careers and build strong brands in the New York and Atlanta areas. All they needed was someone willing to give them a shot – they took care of the rest.
One other idea to consider, is to think about what is happening locally or nationally that has people talking. Is there a way for your brand and personalities to tap into it? Let’s use a national angle for this example.
Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, you’re familiar with who’s running for President. The debates are dominating local media coverage, and with the election taking place in November, you can be sure that the interest in who will lead the country is only going to intensify.
Whether it’s taking 2 of your key personalities, the entire station’s lineup, local celebrities, callers, or people from the local sports world, creating a debate night over sports issues that are relevant to your audience, is not hard to pull off. With the right amount of pre-promotion, the right venue, the right format, and the right inclusion in your weekday programming, you can create a compelling program that leads to additional buzz before, during, and after the event. It also gives your sales team an extra sellable event, and can help you boost your digital and social media activity.
The key of course is selecting the right people and content, but that’s what good programmers and talent are supposed to do.
If debates aren’t your cup of tea, and you’ve got the rights to a baseball team in your city, or if covering the club is a critical piece of your station’s local programming strategy, maybe this is the time of the year when you send a show or two to spring training to do LIVE shows, feature players on the air, and begin the build for what’s coming your way in April. The teams will appreciate it, and the work you do during the lighter times of the season, can provide benefits to you later in the year when things get more hectic. It’s also another opportunity for clients to be attached to an attractive promotion during a time when they may consider removing their money for a month.
If you aren’t a big baseball station but have strong audience interest in the NFL, especially if your team is going to be picking in the Top 5 of the upcoming NFL Draft, maybe you send a talent or two to the NFL Scouting Combine to do LIVE shows and talk to GM’s, Agents, Head Coaches, and Prospects to ramp up the interest heading into April’s Draft. The NFL interests people year round and the Draft is the highest rated non-sporting event. You can’t go wrong by spending extra time covering it. Again, sponsorships can be customized for your local advertisers.
Lastly, if you have an NBA team in your city and they’re playing lights out (Golden State/Cleveland) or they have a compelling story (LA Lakers-Kobe retiring, Houston Rockets-Dwight Howard Trade Possibility, New York Knicks-Phil Jackson’s Future-Carmelo Possibly Being Traded), this may be the time when you start adding additional programming to increase tune-ins. Maybe you hire a contributor with a strong NBA name to start appearing weekly on your shows. If that’s not enough, maybe you put together two local analysts/former players for a special weekly basketball hour on one of your top shows, or you start producing a weekly, bi-weekly, or even nightly NBA program leading up to the Trade Deadline.
I recognize that some cities may have tougher months than February, especially if they’re markets that function without a baseball team and rely on college sports. In those cases, use this blueprint to help you during your most challenging times. That said, this column should apply to most markets which see their success tied to NFL/MLB/NBA interest.
Whichever you path you choose, the goal is to increase audience interest one day at a time. It’s going to take creativity and additional excitement to bring your listeners back to the dial during the next 6 weeks. If P1 listeners love your brand but need a mental time out in February, and their lack of listening leads to lower ratings and revenue, are you just going to stand by and accept that?
Of course not!
So the real question becomes, what are you going to do to gain their attention and make them want to spend an extra segment or two with your radio station? It’s not an easy task, but those who find a way to get it done, don’t experience the same setbacks that others do – and that’s what separates a good brand from a great brand, especially during the dead zone of February.
FOX Sports Florida, the statewide television home of the Miami Marlins, on Friday announced Eduardo Perez, Preston Wilson and Al Leiter have joined its roster of Marlins on-air talent for the 2016 season. In their new roles, the trio will alternate as color analysts for Marlins games on FOX Sports Florida, alongside play-by-play announcer Rich Waltz returning for his 12th year in the broadcast booth.
“We are thrilled to have Eduardo Perez and Al Leiter join Preston on our Marlins broadcast team this upcoming season,” said FOX Sports Florida SVP / General Manager Steve Tello. “These three former Marlins will take turns providing their baseball expertise and unique perspectives for fans tuning in throughout Florida. Together, these new voices for our broadcast compliment what is shaping up to be a very exciting year for the Marlins.”
Preston Wilson enters his fifth season with the FOX Sports Florida broadcast team, adding color analyst to his previous role of pre-, in- and post-game analyst, after enjoying a nine year MLB career. Wilson was drafted by the New York Mets in the first round of the 1992 Amateur draft and made his MLB debut in May of 1998. Just two weeks after joining the Mets, he was traded to the Florida Marlins. As a rookie centerfielder, Wilson led the team in home runs and runs batted in. He finished second place in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting. The following season (1999) Wilson joined the 30-30-club, slugging 31 home runs and stealing 36 bases. He went on to win a World Series ring in 2006 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Al Leiter is entering his 11th year as a color analyst for the New York Yankees on The YES Network. A 19-year MLB veteran, Leiter was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1984 and made his major league debut with the team in September 1987. Throughout his career, he played for the Yankees, 1987-89, and 2005; Toronto Blue Jays, 1989-95; Florida Marlins, 1996-97, and 2005; and New York Mets, 1998-2004. He won World Series rings with the Blue Jays (1993) and the Marlins (2000). Over his career, he went 162-132 and sported a lifetime ERA of 3.80. He was named a National League All-Star in 1996 and 2000 and was the first pitcher to earn a victory against all 30 major league teams. On May 11, 1996, Leiter threw a no-hitter for the Marlins against the Rockies. It was the first no-hitter by a Marlins pitcher in franchise history.
According to the Big Lead, Charles Woodson, the 9-time Pro Bowl defensive back who retired as a member of the Oakland Raiders following the 2015 season, will be joining ESPN’s Sunday NFL Countdown team next season.
ESPN hasn’t commented about his addition but sources say an official announcement will come later this month.
Woodson, who spent 18 years in the NFL – will replace Keyshawn Johnson, who left ESPN last month. He’s expected to join Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, Mike Ditka and Cris Carter on the show. More changes could be coming to Countdown after the 2016 season.
Molly Qerim officially became a member of ESPN’s “Mike & Mike” this week, and she also serves as host of the controversial “First Take” which features Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless. She spoke with the New York Post about her dual roles and the challenges women in sports media face.
JB NOTE: Make sure you read her comments about the radio program becoming a bigger TV play and how she describes the opinions offered by Skip and Stephen A. They are very interesting.
Q: How is “Mike and Mike” trying to change?
A: I don’t want to speak out of turn, but from what I gather, instead of a radio show on TV it’s going to be a TV show on the radio. Part of that was getting the new set, which was really conducive to the TV platform. We have these radio heavyweights and we are just adding a visual aspect to that with more voices. For me, adding a third voice — a female voice — kind of representing the millennial generation, it’s nice to have that diversity there and attack things from all different directions.
Q: How do you deal with that criticism?
A: “First Take” has a lot of eyes on it and it’s a very polarizing show. Skip (Bayless) and Stephen A. (Smith) have a lot of strong takes, and I love that. But with that comes media scrutiny. What I’ve found — and this is Skip’s advice, and probably some of the best I’ve ever gotten — is “Don’t read it!” and I did stop. I do feel badly in the sense that you have viewers who want to engage with you and I might miss them, but unfortunately you have to, and ignoring the noise is what works best for me.
Q: How is it dealing with Bayless and Smith?
A: This is not some PC answer: I don’t like working with those guys, I love it. It gets heated on TV, but there’s also a mutual respect and once the commercial break hits, it’s like, “All right let’s move past it.” I think sometimes people look at our show and they say their opinions are just for the ratings. No, I can tell you it’s 100 percent authentic.
To read the full article visit the New York Post where it was originally published
Sports Radio 610 KILT in Houston is playing off of the NBA Trading Deadline by inviting their listeners to become General Manager of the radio station and utilize their on-air personalities however they see fit. As part of the promotion, the audience will have a chance to vote and determine if the on-air hosts stay in their current slots, shift to other dayparts, or move to other positions such as producer, traffic reporter, sports update anchor, etc.
Voting goes until 2:00PM CT on Thursday, February 18th. The changes go into effect on Friday, February 19th, and last for the entire broadcast day.
Morning sports talk radio host Kevin Kiley is apparently out at 92.3 The Fan WKRK-FM.
Kiley was not on the air Friday morning for his show “Kiley and Carman” hours after announcing his resignation on TV that he said was “effective at the end of the month.”
But Kiley said he actually submitted a letter of resignation in November “for reasons that were unrelated to this,” but it wasn’t supposed to go into effect until the end of February.
So, why say something now?
“In 35 years I’ve never been censored and I shouldn’t have been censored for this,” Kiley told Channel 19 sports anchor Tony Zarella.
To read more visit Cleveland.com where this information was originally published
James Worthy steeled himself, then offered a blunt assessment.
The Lakers, in the midst of a losing season, had reached their nadir with a 48-point loss to the Clippers. The Hall of Famer glared into the camera and did what many other analysts would have.
He blamed the coach.
“(Mike) D’Antoni’s got to get into these guys a little bit more,” said Worthy on that night nearly two years ago. “He’s got to make them really a little bit more responsible, maybe call guys out.”
Worthy, an analyst with Time Warner Cable SportsNet, said the Lakers’ problems could be traced to the locker room, that they should practice only defense and that an offense focused on pace of play and 3-pointers simply wasn’t working.
Such frank analysis was welcomed by fed-up fans begging for a change on the bench. It’s also the sort of criticism from which Byron Scott, a teammate of Worthy’s from 1983-93, has recently been spared during an 11-43 season.
Worthy is one of four former “Showtime”-era Lakers navigating the potentially murky waters of analyzing a team coached by a close friend.
While sports analysts frequently call games involving former teammates, coaches and rivals, the dynamic gets more complicated when the analysts are day-to-day observers of the team.
Former Kings guard-turned-analyst Bobby Jackson turned heads last week when he called for a coaching change in Sacramento.
Scott has been under a microscope since he was hired in 2014 after D’Antoni resigned at the conclusion of a 27-55 season.
In Scott’s tenure, the Lakers are 32-104.
Bashing Scott is fashionable among fans and he has been widely panned by national media. He appears at or near the top of any list of coaches on the hot seat.
The Lakers are not believed to be considering a mid-season coaching change, but it is a results-driven league. Five NBA coaches have been fired since the start of the season, including former Lakers guard Derek Fisher with the improving New York Knicks.
Worthy is aware of a perception that he has taken it easier on Scott than he did his predecessor
He even agrees.
“People have opinions based on Byron and I being close,” Worthy said after a recent Lakers practice, “but that has nothing to do with it.”
Instead, he argued, D’Antoni’s Lakers were built to win with Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and a healthy Kobe Bryant.
“I had an opportunity to be more critical then,” Worthy said. “But I see what Byron’s doing. I’m in the film room, I see the practices, I see the guys buying into it. They just haven’t been able to transfer it out to the court yet.”
When Scott made the unpopular decision to move D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle out of the starting lineup on Dec. 6, Worthy initially recoiled with surprise.
By the end of that night’s broadcast, he had come around.
“I think Byron’s right,” Worthy said. “Sometimes you have to allow younger players to watch from the bench.”
Video of the segment was posted on the network’s Facebook page. The first comment, from a user named Lynne No, said, “James Worthy was always so candid about D’Antoni. Where’s your truth now James regarding Byron?”
When Worthy has called out the Lakers this season, he has typically focused on players rather than the coaching.
“We expect effort and we criticize (the team) for that,” Worthy said. “We criticize them for points in the paint. But for decisions made by Byron right now, going through this experimental growth period, there’s nothing to be critical of.”
To read the rest of this article visit the OC Register where it was originally published
According to Nielsen, ESPN has lost 7.2 million subscribers over the past three years. That news is causing concern throughout the industry and leading to a decline in value on Wall Street.
The Disney company released their quarterly earnings on Tuesday and announced that “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” helped the company’s earnings soar 32 percent, raking in $2.9 billion. However, its television profits dropped 6 percent due to the increasing costs of sports-programming rights. The combination of profit and decline marked the second time in the past four Disney quarters such a backwards spreadsheet has been recorded in the TV segment. As a result, Disney’s shares fell 3 percent to $89.48 during after-hours trading. It was the company’s lowest level in over a year.
In the coming years, sports rights will cost a combined $130 billion between all major media companies, and leading the charge in the cost department is ESPN and Disney who account for an estimated 29 percent of long-term sports-broadcasting rights, ranging from the NBA playoffs to “Monday Night Football.” If the current TV market declines faster than the current 1 percent annual rate, Disney’s overall profit for the next four years could be cut in half.
Disney CEO Bob Iger though remains a believer that sports programming will continue to be an attractive commodity to consumers. “This notion that either the expanded basic bundle is experiencing its demise, or that ESPN is cratering in any way from a sub perspective, is just ridiculous,” Iger said. “Sports is too popular,”.
Last month, ESPN’s subscriber base sat at 91.4 million. The latest data indicates that number is less than the 94.5 million subscriber base the network carried in January 2015. Additionally, about 78 percent of ESPN’s $9.5 billion in net operating revenue excluding ad commissions came directly from subscriber fees last year.
Credit to Examiner who originally provided this information
