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Andy Bloom Discusses The State of Sports Radio

Jason Barrett

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A week before Christmas, Andy Bloom was laid off from his job as operations manager for Sportsradio 94.1 WIP and 1210 WPHT — two of CBS Radio’s six Philadelphia stations. The company said it was part of plans to streamline operations.

Bloom is best known as the young program director at rock station 94.1 WYSP – WIP’s predecessor – who played a key role in the decision to simulcast Howard Stern’s New York morning program in Philadelphia and then Los Angeles in the 1980s. He returned to radio in 2007 at WIP and WPHT after four years as communications director for U.S. Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio).

He recently talked about threats to the future of radio, dealing with the outsized egos and erratic behavior of hosts, and whether podcasting can produce a successful business model.

How has the business and format of sports talk radio changed over the years?
I think it was [former WIP program director] Tom Bigby who came up with the idea to mix sports talk with guy talk. It’s essentially moving in and out of sports and pop culture. But it all depends on how successful the teams are here. And I think that’s when things started to change for us.

When I started in 2007, the Phillies were making their big run, the Flyers were building toward a Stanley Cup Finals run in 2010 and the Eagles were a playoff team almost every year. There was only one parade out of that era but there was a lot of success and so everyone liked talking sports.

But by 2012 or 2013, the teams had all become so bad that it got depressing and rating started to dip. But the two guys who did not see a dip were Angelo [Cataldi] and Mike Missanelli. And that’s because they didn’t just talk sports; they also entertained. When the teams are not performing, you have to do more entertaining on the air.

I’m sure you’ve seen the Oliver Stone movie Talk Radio. Are you ever concerned about hosts going too far in the name of entertainment?
The difference between now and when Talk Radio came out, or when Howard Stern came to Philadelphia and Los Angeles, is that social media and email didn’t exist and political correctness was not what it is today. Anyone behind a keyboard can express anger and say things they would never say in person. It’s essentially the bathroom wall.

You have to shut that noise out and take your cues from the ratings. Listeners will tell you if you went too far. And with WIP, we continued to grow our ratings in the morning and afternoons so I don’t think we went too far.

I’m sure you had to have talks with certain hosts after they said things on air, right?
I had talks with people. But I also realized that when you do 20 to 25 hours of radio a week, you are going to say stupid things from time to time. What I tried to do was not blow things out of proportion. It would be different if a host disregarded something we had previously discussed or did something malicious in nature. But if it was not malicious and just something that was a stupid comment, I tried not to overreact.

Are podcasting and satellite radio existential threats to terrestrial talk radio, like the stations you ran at WPHT and WIP?
There are all sorts of alternatives now. It doesn’t mean that radio is dead. If radio dies, it will be because of suicide. It has to respond by being platform agnostic and trying to deliver the product in the way people are using it. On-demand is a way of life for TV. The measurement of how much programming is being DVR’d is a big issue for TV right now. They want total viewership to include DVR and there will be the same issue with radio and streaming. I think eventually they will be counted together.

To read the full interview visit the Philadelphia Business Journal where it was originally published

Sports Radio News

Charles Barkley: ‘I Want to Be on TV Less’

“His contract with Warner Bros. Discovery runs through 2024-25.”

Jordan Bondurant

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Charles Barkley

It’s possible you could see Charles Barkley appearing occasionally on CNN.

Reports from The Wall Street Journal and Variety this week indicate the cable news network is close to finishing a deal that would have Gayle King on the network. Rumors have said that the network would like to have Barkley join her, but Barkley says nothing is decided on his end.

In an appearance on Bickley & Marotta on Arizona Sports on Tuesday, the Suns legend and NBA on TNT analyst said he and King are friends so this wouldn’t be a situation where the duo would be coming in green.

“I’ve gotten to know her well through the years through my relationship with Oprah (Winfrey) and she’s just cool,” Barkley said. “I said, ‘I would consider doing a show with Gayle, one day a week starting in the fall.'”

But Barkley, 60, reiterated what he’s made known for a while now: he doesn’t plan on sticking around in the TV business for too much longer. His contract with Warner Bros. Discovery runs through 2024-25. So this CNN opportunity could be pretty limited in scope, which is what Charles desired.

“It’ll only be one day a week if I decide to do it,” Barkley said. “I said, ‘No, I don’t want to be on TV more. I want to be on TV less.'”

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Sports Radio News

John Kincade: Thursday Night Football Flex Vote About ‘Licking Jeff Bezos’s Boots’

“For these billionaires to be licking his boots? Embarrassing. They can’t do this. It’s obnoxious.”

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John Kincade

A report claims that at the NFL owners meetings, a proposal to give the league the ability to implement flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football was proposed. 97.5 The Fanatic’s John Kincade was flabbergasted at the idea.

The proposal would allow the NFL to move scheduled games in the final weeks of the season from Sunday to Thursday. The league would also have to change the rule that teams could only play one Thursday Night Football game per season to accommodate the change.

During The John Kincade Show Tuesday, the host claimed that even considering the idea was simply a matter of the owners kowtowing to Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, whose company — Prime Video — broadcasts the package.

“They’re licking Jeff Bezos’s boots,” Kincade said. “I can only imagine buddies running trips and fans go ‘Ok, I’m going to the Eagles game on Sunday. I’m flying in Friday, spend two nights in a hotel, and fly out Monday’. Oh no you’re not, the game’s been moved to Thursday night. This is freaking ridiculous, and shining Bezos’s shoes is freaking embarrassing. For these billionaires to be licking his boots? Embarrassing. They can’t do this. It’s obnoxious.”

Kincade continued by marvelling at the idea even being floated to the public.

“To me, it’s just such a dumb idea. But sometimes those things happen in sports.”

The 97.5 The Fanatic host is not the only sports media member who has shared their displeasure with the proposal this week. Monday Morning Quarterback’s Peter King aired similar sentiments, saying “We can all agree this seems insane.”

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Sports Radio News

Mike Francesa: BetRivers Podcast Is Enough For Me Right Now

“I’ve had a couple offers in the last couple of months. I’ve turned them all down. Anybody that’s asked me for steady work or to do something Monday through Friday I’ve said no.”

Jordan Bondurant

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Mike Francesa

If you were hoping to catch Mike Francesa hosting a daily TV or radio show in the future, that ship has likely sailed.

Asked by a listener on his Mike Francesa Podcast if he would go back to doing a show on television similar to his Mike’d Up program on NBC New York, Francesa said it’s not in his future.

“I would doubt it,” he said on his Monday episode. “At this point, I’m not as visible. So it wouldn’t make as much sense as having me now as it would then. And frankly, I’m doing what I do now, and I love doing it.”

Francesa reunited with his former WFAN co-host Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on ESPN’s First Take back in January, but Mike said the podcast he’s doing for the BetRivers Network checks all the boxes of what he’s looking for work-wise at the moment.

“It’s actually enough,” he said. “I’ve had a couple offers in the last couple of months. I’ve turned them all down. Anybody that’s asked me for steady work or to do something Monday through Friday I’ve said no.”

“It would have to be something very unusual for me to do on a regular basis,” he added.

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