[BC] All Sports Stations

[Cowboy]

On Friday 02 May 2008 08:52 pm, JD Davis wrote:
>  That's a bad pre-judgment. I seem to remember that the sports stations in
>  Vegas touted the highest disposable income audience of any station. It was
>  just a matter of convincing the clients. Once the results start to pour in,
>  clients start to line up.

 But Vegas is a different animal altogether.

 It doesn't surprise me at all, but I suspect that audience is the one
 that plays heavily, or owns, the sports book.
 Their interest, as mine, is far less who's the latest athletic star, or
 whether "their team" is what, but focused on ROI.
 Of course I don't *know* but I do suspect.......

 Hey, if I can guarantee that Steve Wynn is listening to MY station,
 for whatever reason.....

On Friday 02 May 2008 09:15 pm, Bob Boxer wrote:

>  I think you have some invalid preconceived notions based in part on your own
>  lack of interest in sports.  I think you might be surprised to see who
>  really does listen.
>  
>  Bob
>  (Not a huge sports fan, but working for an all-sports station)

 Not at all.
 One of my occasional clients does almost exclusively sports on all
 of his stations, or nearly all.
 It's a business. One must take a non-involved, cold, calculating view
 of the business, and work it like a business, not like a favorite hobby.
 Give the *audience* and in our case the advertisers what *they* want.
 Not necessarily what *we* want, or might prefer.

 Much as Rich suggests, he does as much local sports as possible, with
 national stuff for filler and consistency. It works.

 I do sports because it pays. Many do it for the sports. There's a difference.
 True, I've no interest at all, BUT I've a great deal of interest in guaranteeing
 that my client WILL be on the air for the "big game" whatever that might be.

On Friday 02 May 2008 11:47 pm, Ronald J. Dot'o Sr. wrote:
>  No that you mention it Cowboy I've known maybe 10 - 15 other Broadcast 
>  Engineers and along with myself NONE of them had any interest in 
>  sports.  It must be a geek thing (yeah I'm one.  I even own pocket 
>  protectors!).  I'm sure that there must be some BE's out there who 
>  like sports but I'm still waiting to meet one.

 There are many. Many on this list. Witness the "game day" discussions
 that pop up from time to time.
 There are exceptions, but as a rule, the highest tech guys have the least
 interest in sports. It's almost a direct inverse proportion.

 In any case, broadcasting sports is not about liking or disliking sports.
 It's about targeting a specific audience, and making a business out of it.
 The same can be said of any genre, be it country, rap, oldies, politics,
 whatever.
 There have been some very successful all sports stations.
 As a result, we also see many me-too copy-cat sports stations.
 Some do it well, and are successful. Some do it poorly, and are not
 successful. Sports itself has almost nothing to do with it.

-- 
Cowboy