Where Are The Women in Sports Talk Radio?

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The Chicago Tribune takes a long hard look at that question and comes to the conclusion that radio does not do a good job bringing women into that part of the business. CBS Sports Radio’s Amy Lawrence (pictured) is the only women in radio with a show 5 nights per week.

In the article, WSCR-AM 670 Chicago anchor Julie DiCaro says “Sports radio is sort of the last bastion of the bro, frat-boy culture. I feel like every (other medium) has moved on. There’s such an untapped audience of people who want more intelligent conversation and want to hear from women. But nobody is going down that road. I don’t know exactly why that is.”

Barrett Sports Media President Jason Barrett tells the paper that out of 200 regular hosts in the top 20 markets only seven women are part of a station’s weekday lineup. “If a station has 80 to 90 percent listening by mostly Caucasian males and the station is doing great in the ratings by offering Caucasian males on the air, it’s really hard from a business standpoint to say: ‘Let’s break this up. We’re making a ton of money, we’re hitting our targets, the audience likes it, but you know what? We feel like we should do something no one is doing.’ That’s the struggle. You can take a risk, but you get the mantra from up above: All we want is results. Do I want to be the guy who changed the world or do I want to be employed?”

As The Tribune points out CBS Sports Radio Network’s Amy Lawrence is the only woman in the country with her own national show five nights a week. “I don’t downplay the fact that I’m a female. I did when I was younger and program directors would say: ‘Don’t talk about your personal life. Don’t laugh on the air because you’ll lose credibility.’ Now I think it gives me a unique perspective. Why not use that to my advantage?”

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