[BC] All Sports Stations

[Rich Wood]

------ At 09:06 PM 5/2/2008, Bob Boxer wrote: -------

>Actually, Rich, that's not always the case now.  The radio rightsholder fees
>for many teams have gone so high that a number of stations have chosen to
>pass on them, sometimes giving up very longstanding relationships.  More and
>more teams are retaining the rights and buying time on a local station.  I
>think the St. Louis Cardinals actually bought a station to carry their
>games.  ESPN-1000 in Chicago instantly became a much more profitable station
>the day they no longer had to pay Bulls and White Sox rights fees.

That's been an issue for non-sports stations for years. Many have 
dropped their teams because of the soaring rates.and the fact that 
the games broke the station's format. At WOR we picked up the Giants 
and lost our shirts. I doubt anyone at any ad agency even knew our 
call letters in the context of sports. Our audience was mostly women. 
As I recall, we gave the franchise away.

No doubt the stations became more profitable but the issue here is 
the ability of WFAN to rank as the industry's highest biller with low 
numbers. It's the young male demo that's the prize here. They're very 
easily manipulated and often buy things they can't possibly afford. 
Monster pickups and SUVs which they now can't possibly afford to 
drive with current and future gas prices. Plenty of beer to fuel it 
all. I think it's a testosterone thing.

There was a sports Talk network that bought stations (one in New 
York). I believe it originated in Chicago. There was nothing local on 
the New York station and constant references to Chicago. I think it's 
now Spanish. Even Viagra couldn't get New Yorkers interested in 
Chicago sports.

I don't believe WEPN, New York, (ESPN) has ever broken a 1 share with 
major personality sports talk. The Winter book gives them a 0.8 
share, down from a 0.9. WFAN is in a three way tie at 2.4 with 
WCBS-AM and WQXR-FM and, I suspect is outbilling all of them. When 
there are no games the personalities are beating each other up over 
New York teams. Local. Local. Local.

Here in New England we have a regional network of stations 
simulcasting WEEI, Boston. WVEI-FM, Easthampton (Springfield, MA), a 
Class A move-in, wiped out the local 50Kw AM sports station without 
breaking a sweat. WNNZ is now LMA'd to the Public Radio station. New 
England sports is dominated by Boston. WVEI-FM runs the games. WNNZ did not.

I don't believe there's any format that benefits from localism like sports.

Rich