(By Buzz Knight) We must marvel at the success of sports radio from both ratings and revenue perspectives. I’m fortunate to live in Boston, home to one of the most passionate fan bases and one of the biggest radio brands in 98.5 The Sports Hub. I started thinking of specific lessons the format could teach us that might apply to other formats in the industry. Let’s run the bases.
First Base
The concept of live and local content is at the core of the engagement these stations have in their community. As other formats have massively abandoned this approach in favor of voice tracking this strikes me as a no-brainer for other formats to emulate. Fans want engagement and sports radio delivers consistently, even on nights and weekends.
Any host in this format is schooled in storytelling. Just as your experience can be when you bump into someone at a local bar, the hosts on sports radio can hold your attention with vivid, natural storytelling. They are also excellent at thinking quickly, when needed to, on their feet.
Second Base
Interactivity and engagement are second to none on sports radio. Between live call-ins, listener polls, and guest interviews, the energy of interaction is consistently pulsating out of the speakers in this format. Sports radio, by its very nature, creates a fan community that is fused with fan passion. Audiences young and old crave engagement which is so lacking in other formats and Sports Radio gives it to them.
Third Base
Another organic outcome that the format delivers is a great use of cross-promotion from its personalities. This was always difficult for other music formats to execute naturally, but it seems to come easily for Sports Radio.
The morning show has an interesting guest on a particular day, generally the afternoon show is talking about it in their show that same day. Every format today needs to be proficient at using all of their digital platforms and sports talk gets an A for never failing to deliver on this.
Home Plate
Lastly, we can’t forget about how sports hosts are tremendous at reading live commercial endorsements. At a time when revenue is crucial, this is just another way these stations stand out.
Whether it be podcasts, on-demand content, blogging or even adding a video component such as Twitch, sports radio reaches audiences everywhere they are. If you live in an area with a great sports station, it’s well worth driving around the market and seeing what you can learn and apply to your own situation.
Put these lessons together and it’ll always put points on the board.
Buzz Knight can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Read Buzz’ Radio Ink archives here.
This was obviously written by someone who’s not a baseball fan. He uses a baseball analogy (first base, second base, etc), then concludes by saying, “…….it’ll always put points on the board.”
In basketball and football, they’re called points. In baseball, they’re called RUNS. Poorly done, Mr. Knight.