Ratings Do Not Always Equal Revenue: A Look At LA Sports Radio.
In an article titled “No one listens to sports talk radio in L.A. Why the people in charge aren’t worried,” the Los Angeles Times compares sports talk radio’s ratings and
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A look at LA Sports Radio ratings vs billings
- Thread starter ercjncpr
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Possibly the Sports stations in Houston? Whenever the local news sites are able to post ratings breakdowns, they rarely do well even in M25-54.
You mean Gow's station?
Whatever listeners sports radio has, in any market, large or small, are overwhelmingly in a demographic sweet spot that advertisers can't be assured of hitting with any format other than classic rock -- 25-54 men. I can't imagine any market's sports station billing at an unsatisfactory level in comparison to its ratings in that hard-to-reach demo. And once again, forget the beauty pageant numbers exist, please, for once.
I would assume at that point, the only thing keeping a market from having tons of sports stations is the competition for the ad dollars that would become difficult for others to get from a more established competitor?
I dislike when generalist media outlets try to report on the radio business. The reality is sports radio is doing precisely what it should be doing in Los Angeles: capturing the right audience and maximizing revenue opportunities. Not really sure what the "story" is here.
It's also not fair to make a comparison between Boston, a market with 11% Latinos, and Los Angeles, with 43% Latino.
KLAC is a great success story: A top revenue biller on an AM stick that would otherwise probably be used for religious or ethnic programming. It will only improve with sports gambling revenue, whether in an open marketplace or run by the tribes.
It's also not fair to make a comparison between Boston, a market with 11% Latinos, and Los Angeles, with 43% Latino.
KLAC is a great success story: A top revenue biller on an AM stick that would otherwise probably be used for religious or ethnic programming. It will only improve with sports gambling revenue, whether in an open marketplace or run by the tribes.
Not just them. Whenever the Chronicle or some other local website is able to post Men 25-54 breakouts, not even Audacy or iHeartMedia's stations show in the top 10, which I can't imagine bodes well for billing.
Again, for about the 40th time in this recent series of sports radio ratings and revenue issues: for several decades, the #15 station in 12+ in New York City was the #1 station in billing. Of course, that is WFAN and it shows that sports audience is so concentrated in 25-54 men that the 12+ ratings are not indicativo of the very high billing potential.
At present, there is a four way close tie for #1 in revenue with WLTW, WHTZ, WINS and WFAN all constantly switching positions in each of the 13 annual books there. But WFAN is not in the top stations in 12+ audience... even though the station is now on FM as well.
Further, sports stations are vastly less ratings dependent than any other format as they draw on sports marketing dollars as well as advertising dollars. So evaluating sports station performance in 12+ total market ratings is very distant from reality.
It doesn't help that the two sports signals are ambiguous. 570 has more recognition, but 710 has a poor signal that's about to get worse. Both would benefit favorably from a full-power FM home, as unlikely as that is at the moment.
And I’m curious what sports radio will look like in 5 years as sports podcasting continues to take off online and on social media
710's existing signal is quite good over the LA Metro Survey Area. It is not like KFI, but is better than 570 daytime with its 50 kw and still quite good with the reduced night power. But the new signal from around Azusa is much worse.
Will probably be bigger than it is today, but a lot sports talk includes real time reactions (calls, comments on socials, etc.). That all goes away when it is a completely time-shifted product.
The best and most popular pure play podcasts (read not existing radio programs that have been thrown XML feed), like Rogan, Bill Simmons, and Serial don't have that immediate feedback component and are built on interviews, storylines, etc.
It would be impossible to have a Jim Rome podcast without the live component. (Yes, I am aware he has a podcast, but that is strictly an interview show).
New Orleans. And there’s two pro teams there. ‘The million-dollar question’: Why can’t New Orleans sustain sports talk radio?
1580 in Phoenix is an example of the latter. I don't think they even bill in the high six digits either. But, they've pretty much been understaffed in the sales department since the host with the brokered show containing the large ad contracts left. Maybe 1060 too, but they stay afloat from the weekend brokered hosts (and their sister stations' revenues).
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The article went behind a paywall when I was half-way through. But it is a terrible article, full of inaccurate knowledge of radio... it starts by wondering why a brokered sports talk show was cancelled!
The market has a very bad daytime sports station at 1560, a terrible but a little less so one on 1350 and an ultra-rimshot sports FM. None of the three are competitive signals.
The truth is that the market has only one decent AM signal, and it is full service station WWL that also has a full power FM, too. And from 2 PM to 10 PM, it is all sports and they have play-by-play too. In fact, WWL is #2 in the market in 25-54 men. And it leads the market in billing.
So the article you linked totally ignores WWL despite half their schedule being sports. That is like analyzing soft drinks and ignoring Coca-Cola.
and imagine having your city’s NBA team calling that rimshot FM, their flagship. They had a deal with WWL many years ago. But since LSU means more to people in Louisiana than the pelicans, they went elsewhere
The Athletic employs some very good sportswriters who formerly wrote for newspapers and magazines, but asking most sportswriters to come up with an accurate analytical piece about the media that cover or broadcast or talk about sports puts them in very deep water.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing myself. WWL is basically a 50kw News-Talk station with a massive signal and a heavy dose of sports play by play and sports talk, Not to mention the best-known sports personalities in town. 1350 is WWL's sister station with a vastly inferior signal...even with a translator. Neither the parent signal nor the translator are adequate to completely cover the market, Especially where the money demos are. 1560 is weak daytime rimshot with a stick nearly 30 miles from the center of the city. Difficult if not impossible to listen to in more ways than one!
I was able to get a hold of the full article sans paywall, and it contains a lengthy segment all about WWL's afternoon sports talk and its dominance in the market:
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