The Crack of The Bat Sounds So Sweet on Radio

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It all began last night. Two regular season baseball games in Washington D.C. with the Yankees winning over the Nationals, and in Los Angeles, where the Dodgers beat the Giants. In our final installment of Baseball on The Radio, we spoke to iHeart’s SVP of Sports Programming, Don Martin about what fans and listeners can expect when they tune into the games.

iHeartMedia has several stations across the country that carry play-by-play, including the Astro’s in Houston, the Twins in Minn., the Rockies in Denver, Rays in Tampa and Dodgers in LA.

With one game in the books for the Dodgers, Martin points out how excited the fans are to have their team back in action and how the station is ready to deliver the goods.

Radio Ink: Radio has always been the medium that paints the perfect picture for the listener. With Baseball back and fans so hungry for sports, is this not the perfect opportunity for radio, for your station, to really shine?
Don Martin: Absolutely! We have broadcast several Dodgers games already versus the Diamondbacks and the sound is fantastic! Sports, baseball specifically, is uniquely suited for radio, it’s the perfect sport for radio – it tells a story and connects with fans.  Sports listeners are incredibly passionate and highly engaged, so this is where radio shines, it helps that the Teams provide artificial fan sound and the stadium effects (The organ, the crack of the bat and riding the board when a great play happens). The theater of the mind is tremendous. On TV you see the lack of fans and your eyes tell you the fan noise is artificial. Once again proving the Baseball is a romantic sports made for radio.

Radio Ink: What can baseball fans/listeners expect to hear when the games start up again this week?
Don Martin: After the first two games we carried we already sound like we are in mid-season form. The team is stacked, they scored 21 runs in two games. Dodgers fever is alive and well in L.A.

Radio Ink: How different will the broadcasts be on your station now, compared to pre-COVID?
Don Martin: To the audience it is exactly what they have grown to love and appreciate about their team and broadcast. Our goal is to give a sense of normalcy and an escape from the current environment, some happiness in this crazy time. Our announcers are energized and are delivering exciting content and play-by-play.

Radio Ink: Do you have any special production elements planned for the games?
Don Martin: We have always heavily produced our games and our goal is to keep everything as normal as possible, this is the fans escape from the realities of our current world. There is a huge Dodgers following in LA and our goal is to live up to what they have come to expect their game to sound like. We will have to decorate up our Zoom interviews with players and coaches, but that is minor.

Radio Ink: Are the broadcast teams in the home stadium and will they be traveling?
Don Martin: We have two in Dodgers stadium (in different booths) and one at home. If you listen, they sound like they are right next to each other. Our engineers have done a masterful job making this seamless. Our guys have been together a long time, their chemistry is priceless. No they will not travel, quite honestly no need at the moment.

Radio Ink: How will you keep the broadcast teams safe?
Don Martin: Our broadcast team’s safety is paramount to all of us, especially to the Dodgers. We have safety protocols in place and will continue to follow all precautionary measures and guidelines issued by the state and safety officials.

Read part one HERE
Read part two HERE

3 COMMENTS

  1. People over 70 listen to baseball on the radio, along with board-ops who have no choice. Radio needs to stop romanticizing its existence. It’s hard to find anyone who owns a radio anymore. Even more laughable is the “you can listen online” excuse… but, if I have an internet device, I’ll just download the team app and actually watch the game! “The sweet sound of radio”…. stop already. It’s time to stop listening to the same consultants and VP’s about programming and personality, etc. They’ve been giving the same advice, decade after decade. Either implement a new culture, or continue to watch revenue decline.

    • I agree.

      And, for me, of the big three sports — football, basketball and baseball — baseball is actually my favorite. I was so hoping that the MLB would not be sucked into the whole kneeling and hating one’s country nonsense. But, alas, it was not meant to be.

      So, the bottom line is, I am now done with sports, at all levels. Sports, to me, were/are supposed to be about being able to escape the harsh or aggravating things about life, even if only for the couple of hours of the game. But, no, ‘hate America’ politics has now corrosively infected sports, too.

      I am now totally done with it…including with sports radio stations. I have other more calm and peaceful priorities in life.

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