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Under The Radar – November 27, 2017

Jason Barrett

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Activity in the sports radio business has been high the past month. Here are a couple of stories that have taken place which you might have missed.

As always, you can be included in this column by forwarding pertinent information about yourself or your brand to JBarrett@hvy.tcp.mybluehost.me. Now on to the news!

Trey Wingo and Mike Golic have officially taken over the morning slot on ESPN Radio. The pair who are accompanied by Golic’s son Mike Jr. for the first hour of the show began their tenure as the radio network’s new morning team this morning. To promote the new show, Michael McCarthy of the Sporting News caught up with Wingo and the NY Post did a detailed story on Golic which detailed how close he came to retiring when the decision was made to split up Mike and Mike.

One behind the scenes move related to the new Wingo and Golic program, Bristol production whiz Jerry Mailhot Jr. has been named the show’s new imaging producer.

Former WFAN morning host Craig Carton may no longer be on the New York radio airwaves but rather than sitting silently on the sidelines, he’s using the opportunity to launch a new podcast. Carton released a trailer for his new project and you can hear it by clicking here.

The Entercom-CBS merger has resulted in a number of leadership changes in major markets across the country. To read the entire list of managerial changes click here.

In other management news, congrats to Todd Markiewicz on being named the new President/General Manager of 97.1 The Fan and 1460 ESPN in Columbus, OH. He takes over for Dave Van Stone who is retiring.

A sports radio reunion is taking place in Detroit. After being let go in a round of layoffs, Matt Shepard has been brought back to WDFN-AM 1130 The Fan. iHeartmedia’s Detroit sports talker has returned Shepard to morning drive.

1230 “The Fan 2” in Atlanta has removed “The Regular Guys” from its program schedule. Former NFL lineman and co-host Bob Whitfield was taken off the show last month and now featured host Larry Wachs and his remaining cohorts are also done. The station is said to be shifting its focus in the direction of delivering more local sports content. On that note, one local name who’s expected to play a role on the station moving forward is Mark Zinno. The former 92.9 The Game evening host recently filled in for a few days on 680 The Fan. Zinno’s addition would provide a nice boost for David Dickey’s second sports station.

Congratulations go out to Mike Gill of 97.3 ESPN in Atlantic City. The afternoon host and station brand manager was recently inked to a new contract to continue in current dual role.

A job well done by the crew at 102.5/610 The Fan WFNZ in Charlotte. The station held its annual Street Turkeys promotion last week and raised over fifteen thousand dollars plus received 865 turkeys and fourteen thousand pounds of food to help the Harvest Food Bank and Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry.

Take a few minutes of your time to read this fantastic piece on WEEI and NBC Sports Boston personality Trenni Kusnierek. The article highlights some of the challenges of sexual harassment that Kusnierek has had to overcome and details how she’s cut thru and gained acceptance in the Boston sports radio market.

Also in Boston, as a result of the Entercom-CBS merger and sale of 98.5 The Sports Hub to Beasley Broadcasting, Adam Kaufman had to relinquish his role with The Hub to focus on his duties with WBZ. Kaufman had been involved with The Hub since 2011.

CBS Sports programming czar Sean McManus visited with Dan Sileo on the Mighty 1090 in San Diego to discuss the current state of NFL ratings on television. McManus shared his views on viewing habits and why he remains bullish on the NFL’s drawing power. To hear it click here.

It’s not everyday you hear a baseball manager publicly share a near death experience on the radio airwaves but that’s exactly what took place in Kansas City. Royals skipper Ned Yost spoke with Bob Fescoe, Mike Welch and Josh Klingler about his scary situation. To hear Yost tell the story click here.

Chris Russell of 106.7 The Fan in Washington DC is being given an opportunity to host a few weekend shifts on the CBS Sports Radio Network. Russell hosted this past weekend and is expected to return next weekend as well.

In St. Louis, Nick Wagoner returned last week to his former city for a few days, teaming up with Anthony Stalter on 101 ESPN. Wagoner is now based in California and covers the NFL for ESPN.com.

Former CBS Radio CEO turned play by play broadcaster Dan Mason has been tabbed to call Coppin State women’s games this season. The school is broadcast in the Baltimore market on WNST 1540AM.

Memphis sports radio host Eli Savoie has landed the play by play role on Memphis Hustle broadcasts. Broadcasts this season are available via Facebook Live thru the team’s page and the NBA G League’s page.

Sports Radio USA celebrated a milestone with its 500th live NFL game broadcast on November 12th. The national play by play syndicator aired its first NFL game November 3, 2002. Founder and lead broadcaster Larry Kahn says the network is still going strong and growing and the network’s achievement is a testament to the league’s success and having help from a number of very talented individuals.

Winnipeg sports fans will be treated to seven more years of Blue Bomber football broadcasts on 680 CJOB. The Corus Radio group has extended its agreement with the team through 2024 giving CBOJ the opportunity to air all of the teams home and away games.

SB Nation Radio has brought back “In the Post” featuring NBA Hall of Famer, Elvin Hayes. The show is co-hosted by Joe George and features a mix of interviews and analysis from the biggest newsmakers in college and pro basketball. Listeners can hear the show live on Saturday evenings at 7p ET or via replay on Sunday at 8p ET on SB Nation Radio and local affiliate stations.

In the digital audio space, Jimmy Shapiro has launched a new podcast focused on sports betting. “The Hedge – Why I Gamble with Jimmy Shapiro” features different media personalities discussing the reasons why they bet on sports and what they look for in particular situations. The first episode features 95.7 The Game morning host Joe Fortenbaugh.

New FOX Sports contributor Howie Schwab recorded a podcast with ESPN’s Chris Berman. Boomer discussed some of the NFL storylines and his first season not occupying a main role on Sunday NFL Countdown. To hear it click here.

XTRA 1360 sports radio host Mark Willard has launched a new podcast titled “Ballers and Babies.” Former athletes turned radio personalities Mychael Thompson and Keyshawn Johnson have appeared on recent episodes. To hear it click here.

The NCAA has decided to ramp up its college basketball coverage by adding longtime ESPN college hoops insider Andy Katz. The exceptional reporter was a surprise cut during the last round of layoffs at the network. His addition should increase the visibility and quality of the NCAA’s digital and social content.

The Star Tribune in Minneapolis published a good piece on former NFL wide receiver turned ESPN NFL analyst Randy Moss. The article captures how Moss has transitioned into the media and has brought an infectious energy to Sunday NFL Countdown. To read it click here.

Proof that good things come to those who wait. The Times Herald Record in Middletown, NY has promoted sportswriter and columnist Ken McMillan to the position of Sports Editor. McMillan has contributed to the newspaper’s sports section for the past 17 years.

A great signing by The Athletic in San Francisco. The growing sports digital platform has hired the exceptional San Francisco Giants writer and reporter Andrew Baggarly. Baggs is expected to play a vital role in strengthening the brand’s Giants coverage.

In Phoenix, Richard Morin has been named the Arizona Republic‘s new beat writer of the Arizona Coyotes.

Congrats to Oakland Raiders Senior Editor and Team Historian Jerry Knaak on the release of his new book “The Dark Truth.” To learn more and purchase your copy click here.

Sticking with new releases, former ESPN producer Jason Romano has a new book coming out. “Live To Forgive” is available for pre-orders and will be officially released in January. For more information click here.

ESPN recently announced the addition of broadcaster and author Mark Kriegel. His contributions are expected to revolve around NBA and Boxing coverage with a variety of content coming in the form of long-form storytelling and video and print essays. He has previously contributed to the NFL Network, FOX Sports, the New York Post and Daily News, and Showtime.

Speaking of ESPN, last Wednesday night’s college basketball game between Tulane and Miami (OH) on ESPN3 featured a play by play voice with great bloodlines. Sam Ravech, the son of multi-talented ESPN studio host Karl Ravech, got his first taste of ESPN activity. No word yet on if other opportunities are forthcoming.

Hard work has paid off for Brent Schwartz. NFL.com has hired Schwartz in an entry level role to contribute to its web content. The NFL blogger is expected to relocate to Los Angeles in the next few weeks.

The Miami Marlins are making changes to their television broadcasts. Longtime play by play man Rich Waltz has been informed he won’t be back for a 14th season. Also shown the door were former Marlins turned analysts Jeff Conine and Preston Wilson.

Sad news to pass along. Longtime broadcaster and former Trail Blazers star Steve “Snapper” Jones has passed away. Jones was 75 years old.

Congrats to Sports Radio 610 host and former WWE NXT announcer Alex Del Barrio. The sports media veteran has been named the new sports director of CBS 4 KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas.

The Players’ Tribune has launched a new six episode video series, The First Step, featuring former NBA player Jerry Stackhouse as host. Stackhouse travels the country meeting with athletes to discuss the important issues facing communities across the country. Among those scheduled to appear on episodes with Stackhouse are former NFL defensive back Charles Tillman, NBA assistant coach Becky Hammon, New York Giants WR Brandon Marshall, Lakers and Trail Blazers players Brandon Ingram and Caleb Swanigan, and WNBA player Maya Moore.

Former ESPN contributor Derek Tyson confirmed earlier this month on Twitter that his contract had officially expired with the worldwide leader in sports. Rather than dive back into covering the world of sports with another media outlet, Tyson says he’s going to pursue business opportunities outside of the sports world.

Congratulations to Lauren Walsh. After spending time with WYSR in Syracuse, Walsh is off to ABC 22/FOX 44 in Burlington, Vermont to serve as a sports anchor and reporter.

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.

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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”

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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 rankMarket namePercentage of radio audience that listens to AM radio
59Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY56%
3Chicago, IL [PPM]48%
43Milwaukee-Racine, WI [PPM]48%
245Sheboygan, WI45%
253Grand Forks, ND-MN45%
241Bismarck, ND44%
39San Jose, CA [PPM]43%
33Cincinnati, OH [PPM]42%
11Seattle-Tacoma, WA [PPM]42%
192Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN41%
187St. Cloud, MN41%
160Lincoln, NE40%
130Macon, GA40%
196Danbury, CT39%
75Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA39%
4San Francisco, CA [PPM]39%
137Youngstown-Warren, OH38%
244Sioux City, IA38%
83Boise, ID38%
25San Antonio, TX [PPM]38%
7Atlanta, GA [PPM]38%
60Rochester, NY37%
186Columbus, GA36%
65Dayton, OH36%
176Wausau-Stevens Pt (Centrl WI), WI36%
114Johnson City-Kingspt-Brstl, TN-VA36%
62Tucson, AZ36%
159Rockford, IL36%
55Louisville, KY36%
27Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo [PPM]36%
202Cedar Rapids, IA35%
34Kansas City, KS-MO [PPM]35%
70Albuquerque, NM35%
88Spokane, WA35%
16Puerto Rico35%
67Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY34%
124Morristown, NJ34%
204Duluth-Superior, MN-WI34%
71Des Moines, IA34%
53Richmond, VA33%
145Eugene-Springfield, OR33%
252Jackson, TN33%
149Shreveport, LA33%
52Monmouth-Ocean, NJ33%
73Metro Fairfield County, CT33%
231Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA32%
13Phoenix, AZ [PPM]32%
12Miami-Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood [PPM]32%
9Philadelphia, PA [PPM]32%
96Reno, NV32%
28Sacramento, CA [PPM]32%
209Rochester, MN32%
15Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN [PPM]31%
178Anchorage, AK31%
199Salina-Manhattan, KS31%
2Los Angeles, CA [PPM]31%
89Madison, WI31%
5Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX [PPM]31%
68Grand Rapids, MI31%
223Eau Claire, WI30%
74Allentown-Bethlehem, PA30%
86Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA30%
20Nassau-Suffolk (Long Island) [PPM]30%
249Brunswick, GA30%
139Appleton-Oshkosh, WI29%
14Detroit, MI [PPM]29%
239Harrisonburg, VA29%
30Orlando, FL [PPM]29%
10Boston, MA [PPM]29%
189Bryan-College Station, TX29%
106Lexington-Fayette, KY28%
154Montgomery, AL28%
136Reading, PA28%
18Denver-Boulder, CO [PPM]28%
188Kalamazoo, MI28%
41Hudson Valley, NY28%
17Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater [PPM]28%
228Pueblo, CO27%
230Monroe, LA27%
116Ft. Wayne, IN27%
35Cleveland, OH [PPM]27%
22Portland, OR [PPM]27%
183Green Bay, WI27%
227Bloomington, IL26%
190Waco, TX26%
6Houston-Galveston, TX [PPM]26%
193Binghamton, NY26%
201Topeka, KS26%
81Stockton, CA26%
54Hartford-New Britain-Middletown [PPM]26%
200Tuscaloosa, AL26%
175Sioux Falls, SD25%
100Syracuse, NY25%
44Providence-Warwick-Pawtucket [PPM]25%
195Manchester, NH25%
180Lima-Van Wert, OH25%
1New York, NY [PPM]25%
119Corpus Christi, TX25%
237Grand Island-Kearney-Hastngs, NE25%
51Memphis, TN [PPM]25%
142Canton, OH25%
151Ann Arbor, MI24%
90Columbia, SC24%
208Las Cruces-Deming, NM24%
178Traverse City-Petoskey, MI24%
111York, PA24%
87Colorado Springs, CO24%
218Columbia, MO24%
140Savannah, GA23%
163Evansville, IN23%
121Portsmouth-Dover-Rochester, NH23%
247Williamsport, PA23%
221Joplin, MO22%
197Charleston, WV22%
126New Haven, CT22%
120Modesto, CA22%
234Sussex, NJ22%
69Sarasota-Bradenton, FL22%
79Wilkes Barre-Scranton, PA22%
29Austin, TX [PPM]22%
24St. Louis, MO [PPM]22%
23Baltimore, MD [PPM]22%
127Jackson, MS22%
77Baton Rouge, LA21%
66Fresno, CA21%
206Chico, CA21%
104Huntsville, AL21%
205Santa Barbara, CA21%
166Poughkeepsie, NY21%
157Peoria, IL21%
224Muskegon, MI20%
63Honolulu, HI20%
50New Orleans, LA20%
19San Diego, CA [PPM]20%
236Parkersburg-Marietta, WV-OH20%
32Las Vegas, NV [PPM]20%
37Raleigh-Durham, NC [PPM]20%
115Worcester, MA20%
207Laurel-Hattiesburg, MS20%
95Akron, OH20%
117Lancaster, PA20%
Source: Nielsen Nationwide Fall 2022 Metro, P12+, Monday – Sunday 12m-12m

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