A lot of people feel that sports talk radio is essentially on its last legs, a dying ember, on life support. You can chose your own metaphor here. Me? I still see hope for the medium and do feel that it can be a viable media force. There is still potential. That said, I will say that I will turn 49 in July and in the back 9 of being a target demographic. On the flip side as a consumer and creator of sports talk radio, I think I can blend the new sports media with some of the traditional elements and keep the medium viable. It will take someone having a big set of stones though. I'm not advocating for blowing up the Fan 590 or TSN 1050 but changes have to be made. Dan Toman has just been named the new "Director of Audio Programming" for The Fan 590 which makes me raise a Spockian (or Rockian) eyebrow. It's no longer a "Program Director", it's an "Audio Director" and that title in and unto itself is a many faceted interpretation. My main overriding theme will be to keep it as local as possible. When local tries to become national, it loses focus in my opinion.
This will not be a column to trash various hosts and on-air personalities. It is not the point of the column nor is it productive. Will I perhaps reimagine personalities in different roles? Perhaps. Will I increase a role for an under-utilized personality? Absolutely. If you want trashing of personalities, go elsewhere.
I come at this as someone who has been a freelance broadcaster for years. I've called play-by-play on TV for OHL hockey for 13 years, did AHL games or two years on TV, called OUA football and basketball for TSN 1150, FIBA Basketball, World Junior Hockey for TSN GO and hosted/produced and created TV, radio podcasted shows. I'm also a secondary school teacher always looking at new ways to create and engage students. Engagement, and getting ears and eyeballs to watch and listen to you is my professional life!
Personally, I am a consumer who loves both the traditional sports talk radio format and also podcasting. However, I do find myself gravitating more towards the podcasting vehicle due to the specific interests that I have. I listen to a lot of wrestling podcasts that mostly talk about the past. I also listen to sports media podcasts as well as the odd True Crime podcast. My radio habits have changed for the simple reason that I am working from home and am not in my car nearly as much. I think that fits a lot of people currently, but that will also change. People will be going back to the office in due course but like me, maybe their listening habits have changed too. Sports radio needs to adapt in order to thrive and survive. Alright, here we go:
SAY SEE YA TO SIMULCASTING IN ANY FORM
I've tried. I've really, really tried but I will never, ever (in my Chris Jericho voice) warm up to the idea of simulcasting. I did not like it at all when The Fan 590 did it with Raptors radio broadcasts years ago. Chuck Swirsky is an outstanding announcer for both radio/tv but in that era he was doing a TV call on the radio and it was not good. The same can be said for the Toronto Blue Jays. The talent level of the broadcasters is never questioned. Buck Martinez, Pat Tabler and Dan Shulman are very good, and in Shulman's case outstanding but the Blue Jays simulcast on the radio just has not worked for me. Baseball on the radio is so descriptive and you can talk about so many things to keep the listener engaged but you have to describe the action specifically to pain the picture. Buck and Pat are veterans, but they're mostly TV veterans and the radio medium is not being acknowledged or recognized enough. I truly believe that this is a one year deal for the Blue Jays and as we transition out of the pandemic I see the traditional form of radio broadcasting returning. It might not be this year, but certainly for next year.
I would also keep Tim and Friends as a TV only product and move to a more traditional three hour drive home show. Tim is talented on his own. There's no doubt about that and I think the rotating cast of friends that he has on are in a sense auditions to be the permanent friend of Tim. That's great, but The Fan needs something to compete with Overdrive which is far and away the best show on radio right now. The talent is there both in-house and either not on the air, or on the air somewhere else.
ADOPT MORE OF THE PODCAST FORMAT FOR RADIO
This to me is the big one. It's time to move beyond the traditional three hour show that deals with all sports and move to a brisker paced show that is shorter in length and less guest driven than the traditional format. First of all, you still need what would be referred to as "anchor programming, and to me that's your morning and drive shows. I would keep those shows intact in terms of the approximate time that they are on. I would put them at 6:00-9:00 am and 4:00 -7:00 pm. Right now both the Fan and TSN 1050 use the "veteran host"/"hockey guy with personality cohost" Whether or not you like Scotty Mac and Ziggy or Landsberg and Colaiovaccio is to the beholder. I would expand to a three person morning show. The Fan does incorporate sports update guy Hugh Burrill into the mix on occasion but I would make it a three-person team for the whole morning show.
I would also keep both Hockey Central and Leafs Lunch intact as well, though I would change the name of Leafs Lunch to a more hockey general show rather than a Leaf focused show. There's time for a team focused show on other parts of the listening day. Those shows do fit in more with the podcast format as they are theme/sport specific. I'd maybe change up personalities on-air to limit exposure but I think both shows are crisp, well-produced, entertaining and informative shows with good solid hosts.
From 9-11 and 1-4, it's time to experiment and go all in on podcast themes. I'd move Hockey Central on The Fan 590 to 11-1 to directly compete with Leafs Lunch. The 9:00-11:00 am show should be season and sport specific. In the spring/summer it should be baseball/Blue Jays themed and in the Fall/Winter it should be basketball themed. The Fan does this more than TSN 1050 with Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker and Paul Jones and Eric Smith on the air. Given that Smith and Jones are the live broadcasters, I'd bring in one or two new hosts to limit exposure, or have them rotate with a co-host who would serve as their pre and post-game host, but I'd limit the Smith/Jones time together to just the live broadcasts and either rotate them in or permanently have three on-air personalities. The show should be Raptors focused. Lets keep things as local as possible. For TSN 1050 I would be tempted to use all or parts of the all-women's broadcast team for this endeavor. For baseball, it's Jeff Blair and Kevin Barker for me. That's a tandem that works very well. On the TSN side of things, they will have to get creative for baseball as they have not dedicated as much in terms of resources.
From 1-4, I would break things up into a 1-2 block and a 2-4 block and start to utilize theme program such as gambling/wagering and fantasy sports. From 1:00-2:00 I would keep the local theme going with a Leafs only themed show during the fall and winter and then I would alternate between an Argos/TFC show in the summer. I think that there is enough do this from 2-4 given the heightened focus on legalized gambling for all sports, along with fantasy sports leagues. NFL, NBA, NCAA, NHL, MLB? Come on. There's more than enough content. On The Fan, you have a guy like Andy McNamara who has carved out a niche for being the fantasy expert. Wagering shows have been on for years on both stations and it is time to give them a prominent daily spotlight.
In other parts of the listening day, when you do not have live programming, there is room for more original programming that is sports specific. I certainly would consider any or all of the following: Wrestling, MMA, Soccer, Media/Business Issues, Junior Hockey, OUA Sports, CEBL basketball, CPL Soccer. In a lot of these it should be up to the leagues to drive content and emphasize the them they want covered and they should work in conjunction with the station.
DRIVE HOME SHOULD STILL BE 4:00-7:00 PM
I call this Anchor Programming Part 2. While Prime Time Sports set the bar high for drive home content, Overdrive has raised that bar significantly. I know that Overdrive is not for everyone but really what is? The chemistry that Hayes, Noodles and O-Dog have is something that really cannot be replicated. You have a pretty free-flowing format with the three and Bryan Hayes does a great job of managing the discussion. Far too many times there was the mentality of the ex athletes not being as respectful to the host, or putting the host on an even platform. When Hockey Central had Darren Millard along with Nick Kypreos and Doug MacLean the show was good but I found that they made fun of or made Millard the punchline far too many times and it hurt all their credibility. Overdrive does not do that. Noodles and the O-Dog treat Hayes as an equal even though he only played OHL hockey and all three give as well as they can take when it comes to chirps. Don't change a thing! For the Fan 590, I've already said its time to keep Tim and Friends on TV, so you need a brand new show, and I use the same host/two personality format that Overdrive has. To me Kevin Bieksa would be a huge get for the show, but his star is to bright at Hockey Night in Canada and I expect he will sought after by both Turner and ESPN when they take over hockey next year. I think this could be a great spot for Roberto Luongo, though I'm hesitant to throw a new person into a big spot like that. I think the right guy for the job as host is either Arash Madani or a returning Andrew Walker, with a slight nod to Walker given Madani has tremendous value on the TV side of things. Jeff Marek could work here too but he does too good a job on TV and with Hockey Central. Either way it's a dream to be able to build a big time show have a vision. The Fan 590 has that opportunity.
LIVE SPORTS STILL WORKS
I am an advocate for live sports on the radio and I still think it has a place. Your 7:00-11:00 could either be dedicated to live local broadcasts, a national broadcast or the radio version of "Court/Diamond/Ice Surfing". ESPN radio has done a great job on NFL Sunday of bouncing from topic to topic and then checking with reporters at NFL games, or providing the audio call of a highlight. That should be the 7:00-11:00 theme on non-live game days. Sportsnet did this on Twitter with the NHL once a week and I thought it was a creative success. If you don't do that, or have live broadcasts, dedicate your 7-11:00 to one hour themed podcast format radio using one of the sports that I listed above, or the big four sports with a different vibe/personality. After the game, if you have a live game I think a post-game show does still have a place whether it is baseball, hockey or football While I dread the "call-in" portion of the show, it can be entertaining. I'd rather answer viewer questions or read viewer texts and banter about them. Depending on the season, there's CFL/OUA/NFL/NCAA football, lots of local and international soccer and basketball. Junior hockey needs a bigger platform in this country. If you cannot find content, the problem lies with the station! You have talented resources to draw upon to create the content.
THE REST OF THE DAY AND THE WEEKEND
The rest of the day and the weekend should be devoted as much as possible to creating new talent. As one former station manager said to me "it's time to play" as he turned over Sunday nights from 7-9 pm to test out new personalities. You cannot find your stars unless you give them the opportunity. Let people come up with a one hour themed show and either insist they bring in sponsorship themselves or sell sponsorship based on the next generation of sports media. I would also have live games on the weekends during the day, and in the evening when possible. There will be an investment needed by the station as imported program is cheaper than original programming but trust me, you need to build stars.
CONCLUSION:
A lot what I said is not really that groundbreaking except for ditching the non drive/morning show programming and making it sport specific. Given the on-demand needs of the consumer it would be nice to know that I could tune in at 9:00 and know that will be exclusively Blue Jays baseball being talked about. When presenting this content in the on-demand archives tightly script the format so people know what they are listening to and when they are listening to it. I would also offer up podcast/digital only bonus content with 30 extra minutes of content tops. Also, on the whole I would do away with sports updates unless it's the top of the hour and more than the scores from the night before. Even that small two minute update needs to be personality driven. As for monetization? That's the big question. While pre-produced commercials are the norm, they need to be shorter, and well, not suck. The commercials I hear now on the radio are so dated and 70's/80's sounding. Surely there's more creativity than that. Make them :20 and also build ads into the show with more live reads by the host. It helps keep the content moving if there are fewer actual pauses.
PROPOSED FORMAT:
Morning Show: 6:00-9:00 am- catch all sports discussion
9:00-11:00 am - Raptors/Blue Jays themed shows depending on Season
11:00-1pm- Hockey Themed Shows
1:00-2:00 - Leafs only show
2:00-4:00 pm- Gambling/Fantasy Sports OR Sports Media/Business
4:00-7:00 pm- catch all drive home show sports discussion
7:00-11:00 pm- Live games or surfing leagues with two hosts
OVERNIGHT- Creating new stars/ minor league/junior themed shows.
The time has come to take chances on new formats, themes, content and on-air personalities. Lets create new stars, or make bigger stars out of existing talent.
Hit me up at @SteveClarkMedia on Twitter if you have comments.
Thanks for reading
Steve Clark
TV play-by-play OHL/AHL/FIBA/Hockey Canada
Radio play-by-play: OUA/OHL
Podcast Host Steve Clark's Broadcast Booth
Host /Creator: Stretch Pass, NHL Draft Show Preview
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