Epic: Jim Rome will join CBS Sports Radio

[Nate Wesley]

Made too much sense? Deadline.com is reporting that Jim Rome will bring his national radio show into new CBS Sports Radio fold.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/jim...adio-networks-for-deal-with-cbs-sports-radio/

I wonder how much he'll be getting; IIRC, Rome's radio syndication with Premiere has paid him more than any of his TV shows.
Also...did he know about this new radio network when he made the move to CBS Sports? That's some mighty good timing if his Premiere deal is expiring.

 

[oldvnewschool]

An epic no brainer. ;D

This is the main attraction to CBS Sports Radio, I imagine Tim Brando will soon follow.

It's a perfect lead-in for Doug Gottlieb.

And in Nashville, it means he will more than likely return to 104.5 The Zone, and on FM as well.

Since Rome is the only sports talk I listen to it will be great to listen to him on a good situation and a good deal.

A win-win. ;D

 

[BRice16]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out nationwide. I can think of at least four Cumulus stations that have pulled Rome for poor ratings, including Nashville as you mentioned. I find it hard to believe that areas that had to run PSAs because they couldn't sell local ads will be forced to pull profitable local programming to lose money on Rome just to justify CBS's investment.

I'm really stunned. This will change where Rome is on in markets across the country, including some of his longest-running affiliates.

 

[saraswati]

makes sense. socal synergy.

however, this is a bit like joe montana to the chiefs. jim rome fades into his 50's on the old person's network.

would have loved to have heard the gottlieb/rome conversations since july - or at least their agents.

please no brando or jt coattail announcements...

 

[purpledevil]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out nationwide. I can think of at least four Cumulus stations that have pulled Rome for poor ratings, including Nashville as you mentioned. I find it hard to believe that areas that had to run PSAs because they couldn't sell local ads will be forced to pull profitable local programming to lose money on Rome just to justify CBS's investment.

I'm really stunned. This will change where Rome is on in markets across the country, including some of his longest-running affiliates.

I believe the same holds true in the Houston market. Rome was pulled from KILT-AM last year and replaced by a local show reportedly due to lack of ratings. Now, I guess he'll either move back to KILT-AM or to KIKK, where the CBSSN will debut in January.

 

[BRice16]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out nationwide. I can think of at least four Cumulus stations that have pulled Rome for poor ratings, including Nashville as you mentioned. I find it hard to believe that areas that had to run PSAs because they couldn't sell local ads will be forced to pull profitable local programming to lose money on Rome just to justify CBS's investment.

I'm really stunned. This will change where Rome is on in markets across the country, including some of his longest-running affiliates.

I believe the same holds true in the Houston market. Rome was pulled from KILT-AM last year and replaced by a local show reportedly due to lack of ratings. Now, I guess he'll either move back to KILT-AM or to KIKK, where the CBSSN will debut in January.

And I misspoke when I said just lack of ratings. Here in Knoxville, Rome pulled decent numbers, but nobody wanted to buy it. When your sales team is coming back with advertisers saying that don't even want free bonus spots to run during a show, you can't carry that show, no matter how many people are listening.

 

[stod]

Brice16,

I wonder why you couldn't sell Rome in Knoxville?

Is Plaster on over there now?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out nationwide. I can think of at least four Cumulus stations that have pulled Rome for poor ratings, including Nashville as you mentioned. I find it hard to believe that areas that had to run PSAs because they couldn't sell local ads will be forced to pull profitable local programming to lose money on Rome just to justify CBS's investment.

I'm really stunned. This will change where Rome is on in markets across the country, including some of his longest-running affiliates.

I believe the same holds true in the Houston market. Rome was pulled from KILT-AM last year and replaced by a local show reportedly due to lack of ratings. Now, I guess he'll either move back to KILT-AM or to KIKK, where the CBSSN will debut in January.

And I misspoke when I said just lack of ratings. Here in Knoxville, Rome pulled decent numbers, but nobody wanted to buy it. When your sales team is coming back with advertisers saying that don't even want free bonus spots to run during a show, you can't carry that show, no matter how many people are listening.

 

[BRice16]

Brice16,

I wonder why you couldn't sell Rome in Knoxville?

Is Plaster on over there now?

I don't work for the sports or any other station here, just going on what people that do told me. They couldn't sell it because none of their advertisers wanted on. I suppose you would suggest they go out of the box, but it doesn't make a a lot of sense to me to focus sales staff on selling a show that doesn't mesh with the rest of the station, or even the cluster. If they had a rock station or something similarly "edgy" to sell it with, then maybe they would have had success. Instead, they started a local show that they can easily sell and that does four remotes a week. They came out way ahead on that one.

Same thing happened in Nashville. They created a local midday show and are were doing triple the numbers that Rome was before the show moved to afternoons. The current local show still outpaces what Rome did.

Why would Plaster be on in Knoxville?

 

[stod]

Plaster has a "statewide" network now.

Brice16,

I wonder why you couldn't sell Rome in Knoxville?

Is Plaster on over there now?

I don't work for the sports or any other station here, just going on what people that do told me. They couldn't sell it because none of their advertisers wanted on. I suppose you would suggest they go out of the box, but it doesn't make a a lot of sense to me to focus sales staff on selling a show that doesn't mesh with the rest of the station, or even the cluster. If they had a rock station or something similarly "edgy" to sell it with, then maybe they would have had success. Instead, they started a local show that they can easily sell and that does four remotes a week. They came out way ahead on that one.

Same thing happened in Nashville. They created a local midday show and are were doing triple the numbers that Rome was before the show moved to afternoons. The current local show still outpaces what Rome did.

Why would Plaster be on in Knoxville?

 

[BRice16]

Plaster has a "statewide" network now.

I can't believe that network would ever extend outside of the mid-state. He's not a known commodity anywhere else.

 

[DToTheJ]

From the press release:

Rome will provide his unique take on the day’s sports headlines via the CBS Sports Minute, sixty-second commentaries that can be heard hourly on CBS Sports Radio affiliate stations...

I guess this means no more "Rome Reports"...

 

[sjs1959]

clay Travis has an interesting take on all of this here:

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/what-has-cumulus-promised-jim-rome-and-cbs-sports-radio.php

 

[BRice16]

clay Travis has an interesting take on all of this here:

http://www.outkickthecoverage.com/what-has-cumulus-promised-jim-rome-and-cbs-sports-radio.php

Pretty much what I posted earlier in the thread. Agree 100% with him.

 

[The Outsider]

What will this mean for his existing affiliates? Most of them are either with FSR or ESPN Radio. Will they have to change networks in order to continue carrying him, or can they just carry his show on a standalone basis? When Dan Patrick was picked up by FSR, it didn't affect non Fox affiliates as my local station is an ESPN Radio affilate and continues to carry DP on a tape delay right after The Herd. Also, will Rome still be able to insist that stations carry all three hours live?

I too agree with Clay Travis, he made a good point about how Rome lost 90% of his audience when his TV show moved from ESPN to CBS Sports Network. I just don't see amy of the major market stations dumping local programs that have good ratings and generate a lot of revenue for him. The most sucessful sports stations are successful because of local programming.

 

[BRice16]

What will this mean for his existing affiliates? Most of them are either with FSR or ESPN Radio. Will they have to change networks in order to continue carrying him, or can they just carry his show on a standalone basis? When Dan Patrick was picked up by FSR, it didn't affect non Fox affiliates as my local station is an ESPN Radio affilate and continues to carry DP on a tape delay right after The Herd. Also, will Rome still be able to insist that stations carry all three hours live?

I too agree with Clay Travis, he made a good point about how Rome lost 90% of his audience when his TV show moved from ESPN to CBS Sports Network. I just don't see amy of the major market stations dumping local programs that have good ratings and generate a lot of revenue for him. The most sucessful sports stations are successful because of local programming.

I don't think the answer to your first question is clear quite yet. Patrick's show is carried by FSR, but isn't branded as such on-air. Same thing for Rome right now, it's technically part of the FSR lineup, but doesn't carry any branding, nor does it appear on FSR's streaming or Sirius/XM channel, while Patrick's does. The release isn't completely clear on whether it will be a CBS show or the Rome Show, distributed by CBS/Cumulus. If it's the latter, most of his current affiliates won't be affected, although many of the non-CC stations will be converting to CBS anyway.

The problem this creates is CBS, unlike FSR, hasn't announced alternate programming for the 12-3 spot in markets where another station carries Rome. That leads me to believe that it'll be a CBS show only offered to stations that carry the network. I seriously question how the economics of that arraignment will work out.

That brings me to your second point. We're assuming that Cumulus is smart enough to not drop profitable local programming. As many here will tell you, assuming that about Cumulus is a dangerous thing.

 

[lifeguardofradio]

His show has never been worse.

 

[KeithE4]

I don't think the answer to your first question is clear quite yet. Patrick's show is carried by FSR, but isn't branded as such on-air. Same thing for Rome right now, it's technically part of the FSR lineup...

I thought Rome was considered separate from FSR since he's syndicated by Premiere, not FSR (OK, they're both owned by Clear Channel, but they're considered separate entities). FSR also left the 12-3 ET block unprogrammed since that was Rome's time.

Either way, Clear Channel has a big hole to fill - two if Dan Patrick leaves when his contract is up, as is rumored.

 

[BRice16]

I don't think the answer to your first question is clear quite yet. Patrick's show is carried by FSR, but isn't branded as such on-air. Same thing for Rome right now, it's technically part of the FSR lineup...

I thought Rome was considered separate from FSR since he's syndicated by Premiere, not FSR (OK, they're both owned by Clear Channel, but they're considered separate entities). FSR also left the 12-3 ET block unprogrammed since that was Rome's time.

Either way, Clear Channel has a big hole to fill - two if Dan Patrick leaves when his contract is up, as is rumored.

He is separate, currently, but no CC/Premiere station carries another national show at that time, hence why there is no live counter programming. That's what I meant by "part of the lineup."

 

[Nate Wesley]

I don't think the answer to your first question is clear quite yet. Patrick's show is carried by FSR, but isn't branded as such on-air. Same thing for Rome right now, it's technically part of the FSR lineup...

I thought Rome was considered separate from FSR since he's syndicated by Premiere, not FSR (OK, they're both owned by Clear Channel, but they're considered separate entities). FSR also left the 12-3 ET block unprogrammed since that was Rome's time.

Either way, Clear Channel has a big hole to fill - two if Dan Patrick leaves when his contract is up, as is rumored.

He is separate, currently, but no CC/Premiere station carries another national show at that time, hence why there is no live counter programming. That's what I meant by "part of the lineup."

I believe this is [contractually?] deliberate so that Rome's show would always have a fallback home at Fox Sports Radio affiliates. The defects in this arrangement are obvious: There are several markets where 1) there is no fulltime/daytime FSR affiliate, and/or 2) there no in-market station clearing Rome's show at all, making the split doubly moot.

IIRC, Fox Sports Radio itself is an 'affiliate' of The Dan Patrick Show, which is why the DP show has no official FSR branding. It bears repeating that FSR is more 'Clear Channel' than it is 'Fox'.

 

[stod]

I can't find a link for Fox Sports Radio on the Fox Sports site.

Used to have listen live link.