The idea of talking sports on the radio twenty-four hours a day was met with a lot of skepticism when New York City's WFAN signed on in August of 1987. The prevailing thought at the time was that it would never work. The naysayers thought that people would get tired of it very quickly. Sports was looked at as the toy department of life and that people would listen at first because it was a novelty, but would eventually gravitate back to other formats - whether it be News/Talk or music.
Twenty-two years later, it's clear that those who doubted the format would succeed were wrong. Do a google search for sports radio stations, and you'll find hundreds of stations across the country that are doing the format, and doing it successfully. You'll find three national sports radio networks. While Sports Radio usually isn't a big ratings winner, it has traditionally been a hit with advertisers.
The format has survived a number of changes over the years. When the format first came on the scene, it was fairly basic. It was pure sports talk. But then the internet exploded, and the format had to adjust.
The internet made it hard for stations to succeed doing classic sports talk. You couldn't talk statistics anymore, because the numbers were available everywhere. You couldn't do trivia anymore because the answers were available everywhere. That led to the first change in the format. The advent of Guy Talk.
WIP in Philadelphia was the first station to embrace the change. Instead of doing classic sports talk, WIP morphed into what is now considered Guy Talk. In simpler terms, the station - while clinging to the base format as its claim to fame, was mixing in topics that were usually reserved for the Howard Sterns of the world.
The change was successful, and many stations, like The Ticket in Dallas, soon followed suit and reaped the benefits. The Guy Talk format brought more casual fans into the fold. No longer was Sports Radio a niche format. It was now attracting more than just the hardcore fan.
But, the switch to Guy Talk wasn't the first change the format has undergone. Thanks to the success of Pardon The Interruption, stations started looking at local sports columnists as sports radio hosts. Many sports writers who didn't have a lot of use for the format before were now taking jobs (second jobs) as radio hosts. Among them - Jay Mariotti, Mike Lupica, Jason Whitlock, and others.
Stations gambled that there were more people reading these columnists on a daily basis than there were people listening top their radio stations. The gamble paid off, as many readers followed their columnists to the radio side as well. It might not have done anything for the radio guys who were trying to make it in the format, but it certainly helped stations make money. Advertisers were ready to invest their hard earned money in names that they knew as opposed to names they didn't.
But, eventually, the writers (and television guys, too) started getting out of the radio business. For one reason or another, writers were leaving radio to concentrate on their writing jobs. Some left because the workload was too much. Others left because of ratings. Still others left because they wanted to go into television (thanks to programs like PTI and Around The Horn). That led to another change in the format.
That change - hiring former athletes to do radio shows. Radio programmers (and their superiors, who are more concerned with the bottom line) figured that ex-athletes would bring even more listeners to the party. Advertisers were excited to get behind the players they watched who were now making a living talking on the radio.
Some athletes - like ESPN's Mike Golic - worked hard and were able to make the transition. They became well versed in other sports (besides the ones they played). They worked hard to learn the formatics of the format. They were the exception to the rule. Unfortunately, and for many reasons which you can probably figure out on your own, the ex-athlete by and large had trouble making the transition. Yet, because of their name value, many are still employed by their respective stations, even if they aren't successful in terms of ratings.
And they remain employed because stations hope the advertisers will continue to back them with their money. The one thing station operators did not see coming is the one thing that has put the format on life support (which is where I firmly believe it is right now). The recession.
Let me give you a look at what's been going on behind the scenes in radio for the last couple of years. The bottom line rules. The recession might have only hit the headlines last fall, but the radio business saw it coming a good year before it actually became the huge problem it is right now. That's why cost cutting (and not just in the Sports Radio format, by the way) began a good year before the economy really tanked.
And when it tanked, it hit all of radio very hard. Many successful music DJ's who put in years and years of service started finding themselves without jobs. Budgets were being cut and programmers were being forced to make do with less.
That has had a devastating effect on Sports Radio. Even before the recession hit, sports radio stations were cutting local shows because they cost too much. It was cheaper to run a national show during the overnight hours than stick with the local show that listeners really enjoyed. Why pay a host and producer/update anchor to work when you can have a computer run a national show for free?
But when the recession hit in September, stations found they had to cut local shows in other dayparts as well. Shows that were doing well in the ratings. Shows that had large followings. They might not have wanted to make those cuts, but they made them because of the economy. The cuts began in earnest last fall, and continued with the first round of layoffs at Clear Channel on January 20th. The second round of layoofs at Clear Channel came yesterday.
That's what happened to me at WSSP in Milwaukee. It is cheaper to run The Dan Patrick Show than it was to keep me on the air. WSSP's management did not want to let me go (I've been fired before but never fired and praised at the same time). They had to.
Certainly I wasn't the only host affected by the bad economy. There are many others - good people who are out of work just like I am. Here are just two examples of how the economy has affected the format.
One of the more successful stations in the format was Detroit's WDFN. Sure, it had struggled in the ratings for a couple of years, but it was still a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately Clear Channel, who owns the station, decided the money they were spending on local programming wasn't worth the return they were getting on their investment (ratings and advertising were down). So what did they do? They got rid of all local shows. WDFN is now airing FOX Sports Radio 24//7 (admittedly they still do local updates but no local shows). The move to national programming saves Clear Channel a lot of money.
The format also has been affected at the national level. FSR, which was seen as the #2 radio network in the format (behind ESPN but ahead of Sporting News Radio), made major changes in January. All those changes were made with the bottom line in mind. FSR got rid of three successful shows, merged with its Los Angeles affiliate, and put the L.A. shows on the air as part of the merger. FSR also added Dan Patrick's show to their daily lineup in a deal that was struck with the company that put DP on the air, The Content Factory.
The recession has led to another change in the Sports Radio business. We are now starting to see sports radio stations pop up on the internet. Chicago has one. So does Denver. These new outlets have some big names working for them, names that are well known in their markets. Whether they wind up succeeding is a question that no one has an answer for. These internet stations face a major challenge in that you can't listen to them in your car (as of yet). These internet stations are not owned by the corporate giants that own the majority of sports radio stations you and I normally listen to. Bringing in advertisers is going to be an issue. They might not survive very long if they can't sell advertising, which will wind up putting more good people out of work.
Sports Radio used to serve their local communities. Some feel that radio, specifically sports radio, has lost its way. That there is a demand for local content that isn't being met. That is partially true.
At the end of the day, programmers would rather air local shows over national shows. But until this economy improves, we are going to see more local shows go away in favor of national shows. I firmly believe that we will see this trend reversed when the economy improves. When the economy improves we will see more programmers take gambles on local shows. Right now no one wants to take risks because if those risks fail it is the decision makers that will wind up out of a job.When they have more money to play with, you will see the current trend reversed. But it all depends on how long the recession lasts.
What will it take? It will take patience. Radio isn't getting a federal bailout. Taxpayers don't have the stomach for it, especially after the first two haven't worked up to this point. These things (historically) have run in cycles. There have always been bad times, but they have always been followed by good times.
We're in a bad time right now. My hope is that the good times that are coming will come sooner rather than later. When they do, everyone will benefit. The listeners. The advertisers. And, most importantly, the people whose lives have been dramatically affected by the worst economy we've seen since The Great Depression.
But, like I said, it's going to take patience.
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