You know the names of the legends. There’s Dan – I mean Owen – in Connecticut.
There’s Jack on the cell phone, who was short and to the point.
And then there’s the GOAT – Phyllis from Mulga.
As someone who made their living on the radio for a long time, I appreciate callers. Sure, some of them have nothing of value to add, but good ones can send you down a road you had not considered or generate a new angle on a topic to keep the conversation going.
A “good sports market” and a “good sports radio market” are two different things. A good sports market is one that can support multiple teams at the highest level of their sport. A good sports radio market needs at least one team that unites its citizens in misery. When they lose or get eliminated from the playoffs, the fans need somewhere they can find group therapy.
Did you know that most people who tune into WFAN in New York or the Ticket in Dallas will never pick up a phone and call the people on the air? It doesn’t matter what Mike Valenti is yelling about. Most of his Detroit listeners are content to just listen.
There’s a stat that’s been kicked around every station I have ever worked at for as long as I have been working in media. When I worked in rock radio, I was told “about 1%” of the people listening would ever be inspired enough to pick up the phone and participate in one of the games or topics that came up on my morning show. When I made the move to sports, my bosses started telling me that the state was all the way up to “less than 2%.”
Even in sports radio, the format Jim Rome appropriately defined as “have a take and don’t suck,” most of the audience is content to just be the audience.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but that is changing in the age of social media – specifically for sports fans who spend their downtime scrolling through vertical videos of radio hosts, podcasters, and other influencers.
The ease the internet brings to so many things has made plenty of those things worse – music, science, reading. But digital communication has absolutely awakened the Paul in Staten Island in so many! It doesn’t mean that every comment underneath a video of Dan Orlovsky breaking down a quarterback’s read progression is going to be a nuanced take that takes into account everything Orlovsky says he is or isn’t seeing. It means that people who have something to say are drawing a reaction.
Pick your platform, then look in the comment section of any video from Barstool, The Ringer, or whatever the network is. The number of replies to those creators is something no radio station in any market could generate on any topic.
Calling into your favorite (or, in some cases, most hated) show required a willingness for a certain amount of confrontation. If we go out of our way to talk to someone, it’s rare to say that we agree with them. Is it a level of discomfort that many find intolerable that keeps them from picking up the phone? What if the host makes a great point and shuts you up? What if he hits you with a devastating zinger? Worst of all, what if you have your facts wrong and get called out? What if someone you know hears it and recognizes your voice?!
Embarrassment is as good a deterrent as anonymity is a motivator, that’s for sure. But then why is commenting on a video more appealing? With a phone call, you get on air, you say your piece, and it’s over. People had to be listening for the minute or two you spoke to hear your voic,e and they had to be listening at the exact fraction of a second that the host said the caller’s name to be able to identify you.
When you comment on a video, it stays for as long as the video is posted. People can see your name and click on it to get to your own page at any time. That is so much more invasive, so miss me with the anonymity argument.
I think, truly, the main differentiator is effort. Callers don’t go straight to the host on sports radio. Their call is picked up by a producer who will decide if what the caller wants to say fits the show at the moment. Then they will be placed on hold, where they could sit for a long time. Rome, Dan Patrick, and other nationally syndicated hosts used to regularly call out people who had been waiting for more than 30 minutes or an hour.
When you finally got on air, you could be the victim of the clock. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been hosting shows and picked up a call by saying the person on the other end has one minute because there is a commercial break that is going to fire whether we are done talking or not.
Work sucks. Being in a relationship of any kind takes effort. Raising kids is hard. Firing off these hot sports takes should be easy. Online, it’s easy. On the radio? It’s needs to be easier!
Radio stations know that. It’s why, in markets big and small, so many have moved away from phone calls in favor of more text messages and social media comments.
I’m not someone who believes radio is dying. Local radio, particularly local sports radio, will always be valuable in a way nothing else is. There will always be people in the audience who think their voices should be heard. To keep their interest, good hosts and producers are trying to figure out how to make what works for digital media work for them.
About Demetri Ravanos