ESPN 1450 ... wask-am

[indifm]

Up in Lafayette, 1450 has been ESPN Radio for almost a year now. When the station launched, an article featured in the Lafayette J&C said that a local call-in show would eventually be added to the progamming line-up featuring local topics of interest such as Purdue and area high school sports scoop. Almost a year later, and still no local coverage. I've talked to friends in and around the Lafayette area and so far they still prefer the Indy sports talk stations because of the "local conversation." Any word on when or if 1450 is planning the debut of such a show?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I can't answer that...but it hasn't hardly been a year. WASK joined ESPN in late August or September.

I would guess they would add their local HS sports coverage in time for Football season in 2007

 

[lostinlafayette]

ESPN 1450 only launched in mid August, 2006. Schurz still has time to implement such a show. If I were to wager a guess, I wouldn't hold my breathe for such a show to air.

 

[Boilermaker Country]

Same here. It would be great to hear some great sports talk..........even a weekly local high school football and basketball broadcast would be welcomed this fall....but its all wishful thinking.

At least the WASK Group is giving Lafayette something a little different to listen to on an otherwise boring dial full of duplicate formats.

 

[lostinlafayette]

Schurz has the talent to create such a show right there in their building. Randy Jones does an outstanding job with the Boilermaker tailgate show on WASK, he would do great with a sports show. Also from what I hear, Morrison, a weekend jock on WKHY, has done a fair bit of sports reporting as well. Either man should be a lock to get a show on ESPN-1450. Time will tell I guess.

 

[BillSmith]

Actually, Morrison is the same guy who was the one who hosted that local show on ESPN2 a couple of years ago. I remember because he had another sports show on one of Insight's channels. I don't think it's on anymore though. It wasn't bad. So with him already having worked with ESPN, you'd think he'd be a shoe-in.
You mentioned Randy, but McGarvey is good with the Tailgate show too. Hell, put all three on there! Haha! You'd think any of those guys would already be networked into the local sports community. Morrison covered high school sports too, so he'd know the people involved with that as well as Purdue.

 

[JoeDickey]

The question for Schurz is: How much money are you going to invest in talent for an AM station? While people who live in large metropolitan areas know where to tune in for news & talk, I don't think most folks in Lafayette don't even know how to switch from FM to AM. I think the idea of putting ESPN2 onto 1450 AM is simply to attract sports-obsessed advertisers without putting any more money than absolutely necessary into the station. Local programming such as play-by-play requires a financial risk. But the elimination of news on all the Schurz stations in Lafayette indicates thats something they may not be willing to do.

 

[Johnson1234]

You seem to forget...

You seem to forget that, unfotunately, Lafayette is still a very "conservative" and/or stagnant type town. Were one to put a "local" sports show on here would be to invite controversy. In order to do the show right, the host would have to be critical of the football team that goes 2-7. The problem is, Business Place X invests Y amount of money into the stadium that the team plays in AND buys adnvertising with WASK. The problem is football player V on football team R is the son of car owner Q. Do you see how this all plays out. In a town like Indianapolis, there are enough retail stores that if one of them gets upset with something you have said and pulls their advertising, you will probably not lose a lot of money that can't be made up somewhere else. In Lafayette/Muncie/Logansport/Kokomo/etc....., that is certainly not the case. (Believe me, I wish there were a local news/talk show here in Lafayette because there is alot of stuff going down in this town that needs to be discussed in a format not controlled by other media or the politicians, but it can't happen because of the alliances/friendships everyone has built in this community)

In summary, I know that broadcasting games could work. An actual local sports talk show would be a tough sell because of the inherent chance of upsetting advertisers and in a town like Lafayette if you are Rasior/Rorhman/Klinker/Riehle/Cochran/etc...... you have the power to financially impact alot of folks by pulling your advertising.

And oh, please, don't try and argue this point because no matter how much you want to say it shouldnt be that way or it is not that way or what about broadcasting integrity..I'm right, you're wrong.....no "Go take on the day".

 

[Boiler*FM]

Re: You seem to forget...

Johnson1234, I don't necessarily agree with you. The Lafayette Journal & Courier has been controversial on several occasions and while newspapers depend heavily on subscription sales, advertising is also a major player in their financial success. In the 1980’s and into the mid 90’s Greater Lafayette had successful talk radio. Since then, the metropolitan area has inflated to nearly 200,000 permanent residents. Add to that 40,000 Purdue students and in my opinion you’ve got yourself more than enough people to host a successful local sports show. With Purdue’s recent success in Football, Men’s and Women’s Basketball, the several area high schools that have won state titles, the Colts winning the Super Bowl, it seems to me like it would be a no brainer to at least consider a trial run. If it doesn’t work, then you can’t say they didn’t try.

 

[BillSmith]

I agree with Boiler - putting a local show on ESPN 1450 would very much be okay. For one, thinking that nobody would purchase advertising on your station b/c you're afraid you might offend their nephew or something is just profoundly paranoid thinking. Anybody who buys into that line of thought really needs to give advertisers more credit for being either more mature than you're giving them credit for or that they aren't as petty as you believe them to be. Besides, advertisers aren't stupid, they're business people and if having a local show on ESPN 1450 creates controversy they know that gets listeners listening and therefore their ads are getting heard. I don't believe for one second that an advertiser isn't going to advertise on ESPN 1450 just because they might be pointing out the flaws of the team or whatever. Of course, any host(s) they have certainly aren't going to want to do that to the local team, but in a way it would be their job if the team's not performing up to par. Advertisers would understand that as well. I agree with Boiler as well on the obvious point that the J&C has been doing that for YEARS! If you've ever read Kubat's cloumns, they're are times he just scorches Purdue! And yet.....the J&C and still charge an arm and a leg for advertising in any section of the paper covering Purdue and they buy it! Same goes for sports coverage on WLFI. They cover the games factually and analytically many times discounting the talent of Purdue and other local teams and yet they're still abel to charge through the nose for spots that run during the TV-18 sports coverage. The argument that a local sports show on ESPN 1450 wouldnl't work just doesn't hold water. It just doesn't.

 

[1316wwood]

After living in Lafayette for a while, don't you imagine the reason they dropped talk in the first place was because it wouldn't sell? Businesses would listen but they wouldn't buy time. They didn't want to be associated with it. Typical Lafayette mentality. Lafayette is still not big enough, urban enough, whatever term you want to use, to support a real talk show. Listen to Randy Jones and the same 5 people he puts on everyday. You are going to get the same callers everyday talking about the same thing. Go ahead and broadcast the high school games but forget getting a wide range of opinions on a talk show in Lafayette Indiana. The sound of small town radio would be back in full force. Maybe they could even do a Trading Post show or something.

 

[hammondo]

Johnson and 1316 are on the money. I lived near Lafayette for 15 years and worked for 2 Lafayette stations. I lived 50 miles from Lafayette for an additional 10 years.

BillSmith said; "For one, thinking that nobody would purchase advertising on your station b/c you're afraid you might offend their nephew or something is just profoundly paranoid thinking. Anybody who buys into that line of thought really needs to give advertisers more credit for being either more mature than you're giving them credit for or that they aren't as petty as you believe them to be. Besides, advertisers aren't stupid, they're business people and if having a local show on ESPN 1450 creates controversy they know that gets listeners listening and therefore their ads are getting heard."

My friend Bill...It loooks to me like YOU must live a LONG way fom Tippe county. Lafayette IS a small town in alot of ways. It's really a Bob Vizza kind of town; honest and protecting of its own.

Why, they'd probably tar and feather you and make you listen to the John Balvich morning show if you offended THIER jock relative.

Then BillSmith said "in a way it would be their job if the team's not performing up to par."

BillSmith, NOTHING INFLAMMATORY, only my opinion not matching yours; There are enough Chicago transplants to someday find you with cement shoes at the bottom of the Tippecanoe River.

To my way of thinking you made quite a NAIVE comment. Naive means "Showing or characterized by a lack of sophistication and critical judgment."

I provided that definition only because in an earlier post someone was not familiar with the word EMERITUS.

College ain't what it used to be, but Lafaytte is ALOT like it used to be.

Thanks.

 

[Boiler*FM]

College ain't what it used to be, but Lafaytte is ALOT like it used to be.

Haha, this quote cracks me up. You obviously haven't kept up with Lafayette. The area has DRAMATICALLY changed over the past 5-10 years. Don't believe me, just ask the local police.

 

[hammondo]

Boiler, CORRECT! I've gone on to better things since those days. I'm sure the police could talk about meth and other stuff now, that was less of a problem then. But the residents from there that I know have not changed much.

 

[BillSmith]

Haha! Actually, I've been working in broadcasting here in Tippecanoe for 20 years now. Nice try though. I won't argue Hammond that Lafayette has a very small town mentality but I don't believe that crosses over to the business owners themselves so much and they're the ones doing the advertising. I've talked to many business owners locally that would very much be insupport of a talk show on ESPN.

Someone pointed out that Lafayette is too small of a town for talk radio. That may have been the case a decade or whatever ago, but Lafayette's grown immensely since then - ask any Realtor.

As far as the 'problem' of pointing out when the local teams aren't up to par on the shows...many business owners would feel the same way and understand. I've had many times when discussing advertising with an owner and have had constant conversations about how a particular local team is frustrating 'at the moment'. They just fans and people too like everyone else. I have serious doubt anybody is going to place cement shows on anybody and set them at the bottom of the Tippy. I also disagree that Lafayette has not grown. I'm out there everyday talking to business people and can tell a BIG difference from how it used to be. Mentalities are different but I also can see an argument that they're the same in a lot of ways too. Everybody's entitled to their own opinion on here, but I just think sometimes we in broadcasting can be very closed-minded about opportunities to do something great and a talk show on ESPN 1450 would be something right up that alley...I know I think it's dumb it's not being done.

 

[R Jones]

After living in Lafayette for a while, don't you imagine the reason they dropped talk in the first place was because it wouldn't sell? Businesses would listen but they wouldn't buy time. They didn't want to be associated with it. Typical Lafayette mentality. Lafayette is still not big enough, urban enough, whatever term you want to use, to support a real talk show. Listen to Randy Jones and the same 5 people he puts on everyday. You are going to get the same callers everyday talking about the same thing. Go ahead and broadcast the high school games but forget getting a wide range of opinions on a talk show in Lafayette Indiana. The sound of small town radio would be back in full force. Maybe they could even do a Trading Post show or something.

Thanks for encouraging people to listen dude I appreciate it. However, I don't put the same 5 people on the air everyday so you must not be listening enough. A morning talk show in Lafayette WILL be a winner when it happens, it's gotta be the right person and that person has to be focused and left alone to do so. It has to be a community minded person that knows what buttons to and not to push, a mixture of both to grasp the community as well as making it sellable. I friggin' love listening to stations that have a "Trading Post." what's wrong with it? People helpin' poeople.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

And the host of such a talk show would need to be a long-time Lafayette resident...like Cliz.

(Look at Kroc talk on WSB Atlanta if you need an example of why)

 

[1316wwood]

Yes, Lafayette as a city has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years. But it's still a small market as far as radio and television goes and will never be as sharp or as good as what you can listen to out of Chicago or Indy, and it isn't expected to be. It's still a small town based on media. I can't imagine a local talk show being relevant. Fun to listen to and make fun of but thats about it. Hello WMRS. Just my opinion. One major newspaper. One, really really bad tv station, and a lot of cookie cutter radio. From what I understand, there isn't even a news dept. at any of Lafayette's radio stations. If they broadcast news at all, they rely on on TV 18. That's a whole other topic. But I do realize that is the nature of the business these days unless you are WIBC or WLS.

Lafayette is bigger. But still has a small town mentality. That's not a bad thing. Just reality. Market #220 + if I remember. Bring on the Cliz! Can't wait.

 

[Mike_Warner]

First of all, I'm thrilled that ESPN radio has come to town. I was a junkie during football season, can't wait 'til it starts again (need a fix, bad!). IMHO, everyone who's posted to this thread makes at least one valid point. In my Lafayette experience, the low spot rate is what makes AM a tough sell, regardless of the programming. It's difficult to get sales folk to sell such low rates when they could more easily sell their FM's and make some money. Unless the station begins to show a competitive share in the market, the rates will remain low. A local sports show could be successful with the right hosts and some marketing, but justifying the expenditure is not something many are willing to do. As we all know, the "business" of radio does not always serve the public interest :'( . As far as the sociological makeup of Lafayette...to paraphrase someone..."the more things change, the more they stay the same." mw

 

[11south]

ESPN radio in Lafayette needs to find a couple of sales people that only sell ESPN. The entire market is their account list. No grandfathered deals with an FM seller unless it can be absolutely, positively proved that the relationship the FM seller has is so far superior with the account that no one else on the planet can get more money.

For the most part combo sales forces don't work. Pay them a higher commission...guarantee or something. A WASK FM or WKOA seller will just view the AM as a value added type thing.

If the FM sellers get "upset" the AM sellers are getting in their pocketbooks, tough. They had the chance to sell the AM but didn't.