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Cowboys national radio deal

P

Parttimer

From the front page....

From today's TRI Newsletter: It’s a deal with “the #1 brand in the NFL”, says Peter Kosann – “This will capture a lot of peoples’ imagination” because of the national profile of “America’s Team.” Owner Jerry Jones’ crew will still operate its own regional network in 65 markets, but Kosann-run Compass Media Networks will produce and market the pre-season and regular season Cowboys games for the rest of the country. This builds on the business model Kosann is already using with the NFL Oakland Raiders, though in that case he’s pretty much doing everything, from local to national. Now Compass can add the Cowboys, the team that’s the clear leader in branding (and website visits) among all the NFL teams. Dial Global is again in the picture with Compass, through its role as the national sales rep for Compass. Dial Global tells TRI that it’s hiring Greg Leader as “Vice President of Sports/Affiliate Relations”, to collaborate with Compass. Greg’s worked at both Sports USA and Westwood One. (Kosann is a former CEO of Westwood.)

That would have to be a gold mine for the Steelers if they chose to pursue it....
 
I'd have to agree. The Steelers have had deals over the past two seasons to have their games broadcast in Spanish in Mexico, so why not a national English-language network here in the States?
 
OK, I know Pittsburgh is a different animal and we can't tell anything here, but do the Cowboys REALLY have that many fans in different cities? I thought that "America's Team" stuff pretty much ended when Landry left.
 
You realize the Steelers have their own radio network. Just like the Cowboys. It covers the primary geographic area around Pittsburgh, where the majority of the fans live. What this is for are stations that are outside that area. Stations that want Steelers every week and are outside the geographic region covered by the Steelers network. The Steelers have fans everywhere, no doubt. Even in towns where there are other NFL teams. But the numbers aren't as great as you'd expect. So that would mean it would air on radio stations that barter or broker their time. Small AMs, not the primary sports stations. Those stations would carry the traditional NFL Double Header games of the week, rotating all major teams. Pittsburgh would be included in that package. This would be best for Pittsburgh if its team wasn't as competitive. Then it would be less likely they'd be in the NFL Double Header.
 
Corporate- As someone who has lived all over the USA (okay, east coast), which makes me appriciate Pittsburgh even more, I can tell you that the Dallas Cowboys DO have that big of a national following.

Now, so do the Steelers, and one of my pet peeves are Steelers fans who have never actually been to Pittsburgh. The Steelers are a TV show to them. Certainly the arguement can be made that's what pro football is in the first place, but I would at least put forth an arguement that the Steelers are woven into the culture of Pittsburgh (and perhaps any NFL team into their city) to the point where they are something beyond just a TV show in the 412 area code. I really have no use for so-called Steelers fans who don't know who Myron Cope was.

As far as the radio deal- I know the Cowboys used to have a national radio network to a certain degree. The last time I looked in their media guide- and it's been awhile- but they bragged about an 18-state network that had an affiliate, among other places, in rural Pennsylvania.

As for the Steelers, I know in the '90s they had an affiliate in Kentucky and in 2008 one on a day-to-dusker in the Tri-Cities, TN market, which was such a Bible Belt station they actually blacked out the network ads for Rolling Rock beer. I can also tell you the Penguins once had an affiliate in Denver and in Canada during the Lemieux years and the Pirates used to have one for years in their spring training base of Bradenton, Florida (that you couldn't get outside of Bradenton), but I am getting off the subject.


Which is that as popular as the Steelers are nationwide, that old line of Dan Rooney saying "let Dallas be America's Team, we want to be Pittsburgh's team" really has some ring to it in this instance, and that might be detrimental (as much as I love that line!). But, if the Steelers hurry, I'm sure they could, if they wanted, do what Dallas is doing, which evidently is to have the radio equivilent of what TBS was to the Atlanta Braves. After all, there was always room for WGN and the Cubs!

Until then, WWVA is a Steelers affilliate. Hey, it's a start for the night games.
 
Pratte4Life said:
which evidently is to have the radio equivilent of what TBS was to the Atlanta Braves. After all, there was always room for WGN and the Cubs!
Click to expand...

Steelers have that now through SiriusXM.

What made TBS a super station was carriage on a huge number of cable systems. There is no guarantee that there will actually be national coverage of this network. It will be up to local stations to choose to carry these games vs other games at the same time.
 
TheBigA said:
Steelers have that now through SiriusXM.
Click to expand...

In terms of coverage, yes, but every NFL team gets an equal slice of that pie. Jerry Jones is always looking for revenue he doesn't have to share (and I'd guess he's one of the forces behind the impending lockout).
 
Parttimer said:
Jerry Jones is always looking for revenue he doesn't have to share (and I'd guess he's one of the forces behind the impending lockout).
Click to expand...

I have a feeling the revenue he makes from this deal won't even begin to cover the cost of his personal limo fee during the season. We're talking radio money here.
 
I was kind of thinking that, too.

Jerry's overspent on his new stadium. He probably is looking for every last piece of revenue he can get before he's forced to sell.
 
WTAM/1100 in Cleveland (the AM flagship for the Cleveland Browns) has aired Steelers games during the Browns bye weeks. The first few times they did this, it was in Myron's final years... and one time, WTAM even aired Myron's post-game show in its' entirety. Occasionally, they've even carried a Bengals game or two.

Heck, during the 1996 NFL season, WTAM carried the Ravens games during the 1996 NFL season (likely as a practical joke... even the liners went "Ah ha! Caught you listening!"). For the entire three years that the Browns were in suspended animation, WKNR/1220 (the final Browns 1.0 flagship) affiliated with the Bengals, and WAKR/1590 Akron (a key Browns affil) carried the Steelers.

A national network for the Cowboys isn't that far-fetched, in comparison to Notre Dame's past deals with Mutual, WW1 and ISP. I'm surprised no other team has attempted something similar prior to this.
 
I remember when WTAM would carry the Ravens games. That isn't as taboo as you might think- Baltimore's NBC affiliate carried the Indianapolis Colts games for at least 1984, and St. Louis carried the Cardinals' games in Phoenix in 1988.
 
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