Somewhat related to the previous post, did you know that there are now about to be a total of four sports talk/”guy talk” radio stations in town? No, I don’t understand it any better than you do. I’ve listened to many sporting events on the radio, including postgame shows, but have never, not once, tuned into a sports talk show. They’ve just never appealed to me.
Just one thing from that article that I want to comment on. It’s on how “sports talk” radio has morphed into “guy talk” radio, where the topics can include things other than just sports:
Dallas’s attachment to the Cowboys is, of course, legendary; you could probably program Cowboys talk 24 hours a day and draw big numbers. But The Ticket has also become known for more wide-ranging discussions — an hour may go by in the morning where sports doesn’t even come up and the talk instead is on the latest celebrity flap or hot movie.
Programming execs here are moving in that direction. You’re going to hear a lot less talk about fantasy-baseball numbers and a lot more about The Sopranos or Paris Hilton.
So what you’re saying is basically that this is the Roula and Ryan show with sports but no crappy music. Am I missing something here?
Somewhat related to the previous post, did you know that there are now a total of four sports talk/”guy talk” radio stations in town?
There aren’t yet. There will be when KILE flips, but it hasn’t happened yet.
So what you’re saying is basically that this is the Roula and Ryan show with sports but no crappy music.
I don’t think so.
I think the goal is to mimic Dallas radio’s hugely successful KTCK-The Ticket, and in particular to copy The Hardline.
Unfortunately, most PDs don’t seem to understand that The Hardline’s dominance isn’t JUST the format, but has much to do with the talents of Mike Rhyner, Greg Williams, and crew.
Now, maybe John Granato gets that. Certainly his decision to program Ken Hoffman on the revamped KILE is an indicator that you can’t just drop anyone in and have him talk about pop culture and sports without missing a beat. It will be interesting to see if Hoffman is counterprogrammed against Limbaugh and Rome.
I listen to sports talk a good bit but the local programming is spotty. When Granato teamed with Lance Zerlein it was a clubby “in-crowd” niche show with a lot of regulars and too much attention to sports I don’t follow. (I could care less about MMA.) That said Charlie Pallilo is very good and very knowledgeable. I enjoy his show because he’s not an idiot like his former partner Rich Lord.
But there is some indication already that not all 4 stations can be viable strictly with sports. 610 AM and 97.5 FM do predominantly sports but supplement a good deal on the weekends with other programming like home improvement commercials, er, shows and other radio infomercials.
Charles –
In Dallas, it’s not unusual to have a lot of folks switch back and forth from NPR to The Ticket. Sounds odd, but it’s true.
The formula is so personality dependent that I can see massive failure should the chemistry not be in place.
But no where else do you hear morning after critiques of Six Feet Under, or reviews of concerts or any of the stuff the Ticket does well.
Tune in sometime on the computer.
610 tried a couple years back to switch to “guy talk” and it completely flopped. The listeners seemed confused by the whole thing. I expect more of the same.