A few mornings ago, Colin Cowherd of ESPN got candid about the sports radio business, explaining that all sports broadcasters lose 50% of their listeners between the Super Bowl and early August when college football and NFL start to heat up.
Bottomline: Sports talk radio is driven by football. The other sports just don't have the potency.
I mostly agree that it's a dead zone now----the exception being NFL draft talk. I can listen for hours when they're discussing the best college prospects and which NFL teams need what----who might get drafted, possible draft day trades, etc. I'm fascinated by that because it's really about business, not sports. The best General Managers, especially with the salary cap in place, have to be the best businesspeople for teams to succeed.
Posted by: Angelo | March 18, 2014 at 04:28 AM
That may be true for cities & towns without Major League franchises (any sport), which is where ESPN Radio probably has the majority of listeners. But most cities with their own Major League teams also have their own sports talk station and have plenty to talk about year round.
Extreme example of course would be the NY Metro Area, with 9 major sport franchises. The WFAN hosts have often said that their only real slow period is the 6 to 8 weeks between the Superbowl and the opening of MLB Spring Training, and even then, there's plenty of Hockey and Bssketball to talk about.
Posted by: Ken K. in NJ | March 18, 2014 at 06:34 AM
There is a cycle to every business
Posted by: Tom Welch | March 18, 2014 at 08:30 AM
Ken: There might be plenty to talk about but the numbers show that only about half the audience is still listening. It truly is a dead zone. Your point about baseball is well taken though. In most metro areas, basketball and hockey do terribly in Arbitron ratings. Baseball holds its own, as do the NFL radio broadcasts. People might wonder why anyone would listen to NFL radio broadcasts when almost all of the games are televised. It's actually people in cars that drive that. With baseball, I think a lot of people listen to radio in places where they might not have access to a TV----or when games aren't on TV. Personally, I love going out on my screened porch in the Summer or down in the sunroom off my basement and searching AM for an out of town baseball game to listen to. As far as sports talk goes----it just seems as though fans are more interested in hearing football opinions than baseball opinions. Also, a lot of people are active in the Summer, not listening at all----while football takes place in colder "inside" months, which also might drive listenership.
Posted by: Angelo | March 18, 2014 at 09:22 AM
Angelo, you have another factor that might help radio ratings soon, that is many professional sport teams are moving exclusively to cable. For example, live Dodger games will no longer available this season except on paid cable TV.
Posted by: Tom Welch | March 19, 2014 at 11:43 AM