Sports Radio News
Under The Radar – August 29, 2017
Published
6 years agoon
Traveling for business makes it tougher to keep up with developments that don’t dominate the headlines, but despite the challenges, we’ve got plenty for you to digest this week. A reminder, to have your personal or station news included in a future edition of this column, email your information to JBarett@hvy.tcp.mybluehost.me.
Now on to this week’s news.
ESPN has confirmed the release of a brand new podcast starting this Wednesday August 30th. Ian Fitzsimmons and Kirk Herbstreit will team up for a college football heavy podcast. The program is simply titled Herbstreit & Fitzsimmons.
Staying on the subject of new podcasts, CBS Sports Radio host Jim Rome is launching one too. One cool feature of the new podcast will include listeners having an opportunity to be a part of it. Rome has set up a new voicemail (949-385-0447) which allows fans to phone in. Good material may be used on future episodes.
A podcast episode worth passing along comes from Oklahoma City where WWLS host Carey Murdock caught up with the play by play voice of the University of Oklahoma Toby Rowland. The two men worked together earlier in their careers and reunited on this podcast to discuss the role of official broadcasts, innovations which could make broadcasting games more exciting, and more. To hear the conversation click here.
Last week, ESPN President John Skipper appeared for an interview on The Mighty 1090 in San Diego with Dan Sileo. Given the timing of national news stories involving the worldwide leader, it was wise of Skipper to make a public appearance. To hear the interview click here.
92.9 The Game in Atlanta has filled its vacancy for evenings. Former Portland morning host Andy Bunker has taken over the evening shift formerly held by Mark Zinno. “The Bunker Mentality” now occupies the airwaves M-F 7p-11p ET.
Congratulations to ESPN 1000 radio host John Jurkovic. The Chicago midday host has been chosen for induction into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame. The event is scheduled for October 2nd at McCormick Square’s Wintrust Arena.
Capitol Broadcasting’s 99.9 The Fan and its website WRALSportsFan.com have welcomed three college sports reporters to their roster for the upcoming 2017-2018 season. Ben Swain has been assigned to covering Duke. Turner Walston is tasked with reporting on the University of North Carolina. And James Curle will handle the assignment of covering North Carolina State.
Baltimore Ravens radio broadcasts on WBAL and 98 Rock this season will include four former players. Joining Gerry Sandusky and Stan White for four games each will be Dennis Pitta, Todd Heap, Justin Forsett and Jarret Johnson.
In football radio news out of Los Angeles, KNX-AM, 1070 Newsradio, will debut its daily Pro Football Insiders Report starting Monday August 28th. The station’s insiders are Dan Fouts, Chris Myers, Jackie Slater and Andrew Siciliano. Their reports run weekdays at 7:20a, 10:20a, 5:50p and 7:50p.
Former Detroit Sports 105.1 host Jake Chapman has signed on as an update anchor with 97.1 The Ticket and WWJ Newsradio 950.
Sports Radio 810 WHB in Kansas City has extended its programming partnership with the Kansas City Chiefs to bolster its weekday content during football season. The partnership doesn’t grant WHB the opportunity to air Chiefs games.
When Charles Barkley is willing to host for four hours on your radio station, you take full advantage of it. That’s exactly what 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia is doing this Tuesday. Barkley will join afternoon host Mike Missanelli from 2p-6p ET. The two have worked together numerous times before, and always put on a great show together.
Nashville Predators radio broadcasts on 102.5 The Game this season will include former defenseman Hal Gill. Gill replaces Brent Peterson who shifts to pre and post game shows alongside Darren McFarland. Gill will work game broadcasts with Pete Weber.
Sticking with hockey radio broadcasts, 105.9 The X in Pittsburgh has inked a multi-year extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins to continue serving as its broadcast partner. The new deal keeps the two sides together through the 2020-21 NHL season.
Vancouver’s Sportsnet 650 has filled the remainder of its on-air lineup. The station has confirmed the additions of Satiar Shah, Perry Solkowski, Jawn Jang, and Randip Janda.
Further down the west coast in Fresno, Christopher Gabriel has been brought in to host afternoons on 940 ESPN. Gabriel previously has hosted in the market for Power Talk 96.7 and AM 1400.
The University of South Florida has launched a new 24/7 digital streaming audio channel with iHeart Radio. The new channel debuted on Saturday August 26th and features game broadcasts, coaches shows, replays of classic games, and more.
Lafayette sports radio station ESPN 1420 welcomes Greg Larnerd to its roster. The 27 year old product of Sandy Hook, CT will host “The Word with G” weeknights from 6p-7p starting September 12th. He’ll also host the Acadiana postgame show.
Congratulations to Bryan Drozda on being named the new Fantasy Sports Radio Producer at SiriusXM.
KCBS in San Francisco has added Carolyn Burnsed as the station’s newest sports and traffic anchor.
Former ESPN Ithaca host and program director Jeremy Menard has accepted a new position as the Manager of Television and Radio Operations at Ithaca College.
Learfield Sports has hired Kelly Burke as a new host and analyst.
In television news, Meredith Gorman has been named a new team reporter of the New England Patriots.
FOX Sports has also made a hire. Mark Gunnels has signed on to join the sports television company in Los Angeles.
CBS Sports has named Kenzie Stanford a new associate producer.
A week can’t go by without The Athletic making another hire. The latest to join the digital platform is Jeff Pearlman. His addition follows the recent arrival of MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal.
In Seattle, Sheil Kapadia has left ESPN after covering the Seattle Seahawks for the past two seasons. His position has been replaced by Brady Henderson who has left 710 ESPN Seattle after spending seven years with the radio station.
And more locally driven content sites are on the way. The latest comes from Buffalo where Dave Davis has announced the arrival of a new digital venture called The Buffalo Star. The new website which will focus on covering the Bills and Sabres is expected to launch in less than two weeks.
Jason Barrett is the owner and operator of Barrett Sports Media. Prior to launching BSM he served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He has also produced national shows for ESPN Radio including GameNight and the Dan Patrick Show. You can find him on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or reach him by email at JBarrett@sportsradiopd.com.
Sports Radio News
Chase McCabe Named Director of Operations & Sports Programming at Cromwell
“Our owner, Bud Walters, opened the door for me almost 12 years ago as an intern and I’m honored to continue to be a key member of the Nashville leadership team.”
Published
1 day agoon
June 2, 2023By
BSM Staff Congratulations are in order for Chase McCabe. He is adding a new title to his already full plate at Cromwell Media in Nashville. He has been promoted to Director of Operations & Sports Programming at the company.
“I’m very fortunate to have been to be able to grow into this opportunity under one roof,” McCabe said in a press release. “Our owner, Bud Walters, opened the door for me almost 12 years ago as an intern and I’m honored to continue to be a key member of the Nashville leadership team. I am forever grateful, but none of this could have happened without the great group of people we have here at Cromwell Media.”
McCabe has spent his whole career with 102.5 The Game and its sister station, now called 94.9 The Fan. He was named Program Director and Brand Manager of the stations in January of last year. He has maintained an on-air presence as well. He hosts Chase & Michelle weekdays at 9 AM on The Game.
In his new role, Chase McCabe becomes the number two man in Cromwell’s Nashville building. Shawn Fort was recently named the cluster’s general manager.
“Chase and I have developed a great working relationship in the two and half years since I’ve joined Cromwell Media,” Fort said. “We share similar visions on how to create compelling sports programming all while driving revenue growth. I’m excited to have Chase as my right-hand man as we move forward together with this new chapter of leadership at Cromwell Media Nashville.”
Sports Radio News
Mark Schlereth: People Outside of Denver Aren’t Paying Attention to NBA Finals
“There was not one group of people – they’re all in there together – that was paying attention to the NBA Finals.”
Published
1 day agoon
June 2, 2023By
BSM Staff The Denver Nuggets took to the National Basketball Association’s largest stage on Thursday night as they defeated the Miami Heat for the organization’s first-ever NBA Finals victory. Early reports reveal that the game had a 2.21 demographic rating between people ages 18-49, attracting a total of 7.62 million viewers on ABC. The figure is considerably lower than the audience for Game 1 between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors last year – which averaged 11.9 million figures across ABC and ESPN2. Ratings for the alternate NBA in Stephen A’s World broadcast Thursday night on ESPN2 have not yet been released by Nielsen Media Research.
Sports fans in the Denver market have felt as if the play of the Nuggets was largely being neglected by the national media throughout these playoffs. Now that the team is the last one standing in the Western Conference, there is no one else to focus on and their play is beginning to be realized by basketball fans throughout the country. It is a narrative that Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan’s Mark Schlereth and Mike Evans felt was especially obvious by watching the press conferences after the game. The duo was able to deduce as such through the questions posed to Nuggets players and head coach Michael Malone by members of the media cohort.
“The national media – it’s like, ‘Oh, wow. We’re just kind of becoming aware of how these guys play,’ and they keep asking the Nuggets about their unselfishness and how everybody is willing to share the ball,” Evans said. “Nikola Jokić [is] being asked about not taking a lot of shots, and they’re all just kind of shrugging their shoulders like, ‘Yeah, this is who we are. We’ve been doing this for a long time.’
Schlereth was curious to find out the ratings from the game last night because he watched the game from a sports bar in Chicago. He is away from Denver, Colo. to help his son’s family move there for the summer and surmises there were about 50 people in the bar with him. What he noticed was that their interest was fixated elsewhere.
“I’m the only person that was watching the Nuggets,” Schlereth said. “There was not one group of people – they’re all in there together – that was paying attention to the NBA Finals.”
“Their loss,” Evans pithily replied.
Denver ranks 19th on Nielsen Media Research’s metropolitan market size list, but the Nuggets have been a contending team for the last five seasons. Most media analysts expect diminished ratings for the NBA Finals this year because of the lack of a storied franchise, even with the Miami Heat as the team’s opponent.
Sports Radio News
Nielsen Releases List of Markets Where Most People Use AM Radio
“In a recent survey, Nielsen Media Research found that AM radio still reaches over 82.3 million Americans on a monthly basis”
Published
1 day agoon
June 2, 2023By
BSM Staff Amid concerns regarding the future of AM radio, Nielsen Media Research has unveiled a list of 141 markets where at least 20% of consumers regularly listen to programming on the medium. The list is reflective of the percentage of monthly total radio listening being funneled to AM as opposed to total radio listening as a whole. The top three markets are all in the Great Lakes region, and Westwood One has found large proportions of these listeners are derived from the upper Midwest.
Buffalo-Niagara Falls leads the list with 56% of its audience tuning into AM radio in a month. It is a figure that makes sense based on the variety of AM stations, including leading news talk outlet WBEN and leading sports outlet WGR. The city of Chicago is ranked second, complete with 670 The Score, WGN and WLS. Nearby Milwaukee, Wis. ranks third on the list, another city with various AM stations such as WTMJ and WISN.
In a recent survey, Nielsen Media Research found that AM radio still reaches over 82.3 million Americans on a monthly basis – a measurement that equates to one-third of AM/FM radio listeners as a whole. Fifty-seven percent of the audience listens to stations in the news and/or talk format, utilizing the public service the outlets provide to learn of breaking news and other concerns.
There is a wide variety in market size represented throughout the list, but a trend of markets with undulating topographies tends to have larger shares of AM listeners because of the challenges the landscape presents to FM signals.
The full list compiled by Nielsen Media Research can be found below:
| Metro market rank | Market name | Percentage of radio audience that listens to AM radio |
|---|---|---|
| 59 | Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY | 56% |
| 3 | Chicago, IL [PPM] | 48% |
| 43 | Milwaukee-Racine, WI [PPM] | 48% |
| 245 | Sheboygan, WI | 45% |
| 253 | Grand Forks, ND-MN | 45% |
| 241 | Bismarck, ND | 44% |
| 39 | San Jose, CA [PPM] | 43% |
| 33 | Cincinnati, OH [PPM] | 42% |
| 11 | Seattle-Tacoma, WA [PPM] | 42% |
| 192 | Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN | 41% |
| 187 | St. Cloud, MN | 41% |
| 160 | Lincoln, NE | 40% |
| 130 | Macon, GA | 40% |
| 196 | Danbury, CT | 39% |
| 75 | Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA | 39% |
| 4 | San Francisco, CA [PPM] | 39% |
| 137 | Youngstown-Warren, OH | 38% |
| 244 | Sioux City, IA | 38% |
| 83 | Boise, ID | 38% |
| 25 | San Antonio, TX [PPM] | 38% |
| 7 | Atlanta, GA [PPM] | 38% |
| 60 | Rochester, NY | 37% |
| 186 | Columbus, GA | 36% |
| 65 | Dayton, OH | 36% |
| 176 | Wausau-Stevens Pt (Centrl WI), WI | 36% |
| 114 | Johnson City-Kingspt-Brstl, TN-VA | 36% |
| 62 | Tucson, AZ | 36% |
| 159 | Rockford, IL | 36% |
| 55 | Louisville, KY | 36% |
| 27 | Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo [PPM] | 36% |
| 202 | Cedar Rapids, IA | 35% |
| 34 | Kansas City, KS-MO [PPM] | 35% |
| 70 | Albuquerque, NM | 35% |
| 88 | Spokane, WA | 35% |
| 16 | Puerto Rico | 35% |
| 67 | Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY | 34% |
| 124 | Morristown, NJ | 34% |
| 204 | Duluth-Superior, MN-WI | 34% |
| 71 | Des Moines, IA | 34% |
| 53 | Richmond, VA | 33% |
| 145 | Eugene-Springfield, OR | 33% |
| 252 | Jackson, TN | 33% |
| 149 | Shreveport, LA | 33% |
| 52 | Monmouth-Ocean, NJ | 33% |
| 73 | Metro Fairfield County, CT | 33% |
| 231 | Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA | 32% |
| 13 | Phoenix, AZ [PPM] | 32% |
| 12 | Miami-Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood [PPM] | 32% |
| 9 | Philadelphia, PA [PPM] | 32% |
| 96 | Reno, NV | 32% |
| 28 | Sacramento, CA [PPM] | 32% |
| 209 | Rochester, MN | 32% |
| 15 | Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN [PPM] | 31% |
| 178 | Anchorage, AK | 31% |
| 199 | Salina-Manhattan, KS | 31% |
| 2 | Los Angeles, CA [PPM] | 31% |
| 89 | Madison, WI | 31% |
| 5 | Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX [PPM] | 31% |
| 68 | Grand Rapids, MI | 31% |
| 223 | Eau Claire, WI | 30% |
| 74 | Allentown-Bethlehem, PA | 30% |
| 86 | Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA | 30% |
| 20 | Nassau-Suffolk (Long Island) [PPM] | 30% |
| 249 | Brunswick, GA | 30% |
| 139 | Appleton-Oshkosh, WI | 29% |
| 14 | Detroit, MI [PPM] | 29% |
| 239 | Harrisonburg, VA | 29% |
| 30 | Orlando, FL [PPM] | 29% |
| 10 | Boston, MA [PPM] | 29% |
| 189 | Bryan-College Station, TX | 29% |
| 106 | Lexington-Fayette, KY | 28% |
| 154 | Montgomery, AL | 28% |
| 136 | Reading, PA | 28% |
| 18 | Denver-Boulder, CO [PPM] | 28% |
| 188 | Kalamazoo, MI | 28% |
| 41 | Hudson Valley, NY | 28% |
| 17 | Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater [PPM] | 28% |
| 228 | Pueblo, CO | 27% |
| 230 | Monroe, LA | 27% |
| 116 | Ft. Wayne, IN | 27% |
| 35 | Cleveland, OH [PPM] | 27% |
| 22 | Portland, OR [PPM] | 27% |
| 183 | Green Bay, WI | 27% |
| 227 | Bloomington, IL | 26% |
| 190 | Waco, TX | 26% |
| 6 | Houston-Galveston, TX [PPM] | 26% |
| 193 | Binghamton, NY | 26% |
| 201 | Topeka, KS | 26% |
| 81 | Stockton, CA | 26% |
| 54 | Hartford-New Britain-Middletown [PPM] | 26% |
| 200 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 26% |
| 175 | Sioux Falls, SD | 25% |
| 100 | Syracuse, NY | 25% |
| 44 | Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket [PPM] | 25% |
| 195 | Manchester, NH | 25% |
| 180 | Lima-Van Wert, OH | 25% |
| 1 | New York, NY [PPM] | 25% |
| 119 | Corpus Christi, TX | 25% |
| 237 | Grand Island-Kearney-Hastngs, NE | 25% |
| 51 | Memphis, TN [PPM] | 25% |
| 142 | Canton, OH | 25% |
| 151 | Ann Arbor, MI | 24% |
| 90 | Columbia, SC | 24% |
| 208 | Las Cruces-Deming, NM | 24% |
| 178 | Traverse City-Petoskey, MI | 24% |
| 111 | York, PA | 24% |
| 87 | Colorado Springs, CO | 24% |
| 218 | Columbia, MO | 24% |
| 140 | Savannah, GA | 23% |
| 163 | Evansville, IN | 23% |
| 121 | Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester, NH | 23% |
| 247 | Williamsport, PA | 23% |
| 221 | Joplin, MO | 22% |
| 197 | Charleston, WV | 22% |
| 126 | New Haven, CT | 22% |
| 120 | Modesto, CA | 22% |
| 234 | Sussex, NJ | 22% |
| 69 | Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 22% |
| 79 | Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA | 22% |
| 29 | Austin, TX [PPM] | 22% |
| 24 | St. Louis, MO [PPM] | 22% |
| 23 | Baltimore, MD [PPM] | 22% |
| 127 | Jackson, MS | 22% |
| 77 | Baton Rouge, LA | 21% |
| 66 | Fresno, CA | 21% |
| 206 | Chico, CA | 21% |
| 104 | Huntsville, AL | 21% |
| 205 | Santa Barbara, CA | 21% |
| 166 | Poughkeepsie, NY | 21% |
| 157 | Peoria, IL | 21% |
| 224 | Muskegon, MI | 20% |
| 63 | Honolulu, HI | 20% |
| 50 | New Orleans, LA | 20% |
| 19 | San Diego, CA [PPM] | 20% |
| 236 | Parkersburg-Marietta, WV-OH | 20% |
| 32 | Las Vegas, NV [PPM] | 20% |
| 37 | Raleigh-Durham, NC [PPM] | 20% |
| 115 | Worcester, MA | 20% |
| 207 | Laurel-Hattiesburg, MS | 20% |
| 95 | Akron, OH | 20% |
| 117 | Lancaster, PA | 20% |