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Froggy...your NASCAR station?

P

petey99

Today I heard a promo running of Froggy that they are your "official NASCAR station." How can this be? Does NASCAR know they are using their property to promote their station that obviously has no broadcast affiliation with them? Or is this a sign someone (KeyMarket) woke up and realized that NASCAR is just a viable of a sport in this town on the level as Pitt basketball or Pirates baseball on FM radio? (Obviously, no where near as close as Steeler football or Pens hockey here!)

Putting your personal views of NASCAR aside (Guys turning left, etc, etc) and look at it as merely a great engine for ad buys. It would be a great tie-in for Froggy. The stereotype of country music and NASCAR going together is usually a correct one. Come on guys, use the power of that 4-station network for once. If for whatever reason you feel NASCAR wouldn't make in Allegheny County, run the MRN network on any one of all of your suburban 94.9, 104.3 and 103.5 signals. I'm sure most will agree NASCAR is bigger in Fayette, Beaver and Washington Counties anyway.
 
petey99 said:
Today I heard a promo running of Froggy that they are your "official NASCAR station." How can this be? Does NASCAR know they are using their property to promote their station that obviously has no broadcast affiliation with them? Or is this a sign someone (KeyMarket) woke up and realized that NASCAR is just a viable of a sport in this town on the level as Pitt basketball or Pirates baseball on FM radio? (Obviously, no where near as close as Steeler football or Pens hockey here!)
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Keymarket has hardly just "woke up" about NASCAR. Froggy has given away tickets for the Pocono NASCAR races for years, and has done a "NASCAR Challenge" for years (which WDSY quickly copied upon hearing). That being said, you are correct, I'm SURE NASCAR would make them pull any such promo using the NASCAR name, IF they knew about it. I'm surprised WDSY hasn't sent a copy of any such Froggy promo to NASCAR! NFL, NCAA, NASCAR.. none of them allow you to make money off their name when you're not affiliated.

As far as carrying races - why not harp on WDSY for not carrying them? WDSY had the chance to - and DID - run NASCAR, for a couple races anyway. When 93.7 went through one of it's later changes and stopped carrying races, WDSY picked them up, even hyping it on their website. Then......nothing. Not carrying the races now. What do WDSY and Froggy know? Probably that whichever one of them runs the races, that station gets beaten easily in the ratings for those hours by music. It's just the way it is. Neither one of those stations wants to be the gutsy one and find out the hard way FOR SURE, that yes, music will beat races on a Sat nite/Sunday afternoon.

I AM a little surprised that one of the Pittsburgh stations with small ratings doesn't do it, they've got nothing to lose, and NASCAR races are an easy sell, that's true at any station carrying them.
 
Koss4AA said:
As far as carrying races - why not harp on WDSY for not carrying them? WDSY had the chance to - and DID - run NASCAR, for a couple races anyway. When 93.7 went through one of it's later changes and stopped carrying races, WDSY picked them up, even hyping it on their website. Then......nothing. Not carrying the races now. What do WDSY and Froggy know? Probably that whichever one of them runs the races, that station gets beaten easily in the ratings for those hours by music. It's just the way it is. Neither one of those stations wants to be the gutsy one and find out the hard way FOR SURE, that yes, music will beat races on a Sat nite/Sunday afternoon.

I AM a little surprised that one of the Pittsburgh stations with small ratings doesn't do it, they've got nothing to lose, and NASCAR races are an easy sell, that's true at any station carrying them.
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You are correct that WDSY shares the same amount of criticism on abandoning NASCAR. Even a classic rock or rock station would make a nice home for NASCAR (a la WEGW down in Wheeling) if we had another one who isn't tied up with football on Sundays.

Common sense would be that straight music will more than likely be the ratings winner over a live sporting event (except for Steelers football, of course). But, in the case of Froggy, what do they have to lose? They will NEVER beat Y108 regardless of how well they could be programmed. Y108 has heritage on their side. Members of my family do not know that Froggy exists (they also never knew that 104.7 was also country either back in the 90's). Y108 has become a habit for a large core of country listeners as WDVE is for classic rock. That pathetic class A 98.3 signal and the constant channel flipping for the simulcast sisters once 98.3's signal dies will always hamper them. By putting NASCAR on say 103.5 (the second strongest "Frog" in most of the county) and/or 94.9 (and keeping the music on 98.3 and 104.3) would be a solid risk worth taking.

Running NASCAR on Sunday afternoons will also be a way to get listeners to listen to your station who may never do so otherwise. How many 18 year old girls seriously would listen to DVE besides for Steeler games?
 
Parttimer said:
18 year old girls listen to Steeler games on the radio?
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I was referring to the Pittsburgh tradition of watching the Steeler game on TV with the sound on mute and the radio broadcast on for the PBP. Maybe this ended when Myron retired...?
 
I say if Froggy and the other FM's don't want to carry the races, that's just fine. It's another thing the smaller stations can pick up and run with...and make a profit while doing so!
 
Not so much anymore. MRN requires real dollars, not just inventory, and also demands clearance for shows like "NASCAR Live." Even in hotbeds like Florida the affiliate list is shrinking and fans are migrating to Sirius.
 
For all the talk NASCAR makes about growing and being America's most popular sport, this shows a lack of focus.

I'm often interested in how much talk/ink/air time certain sports get in comparison to others. Obviously, there isn't a whole lot of NASCAR talk on the local airwaves.

I feel one of the reasons why the NFL is so solidly the No. 1 sport in America is because it is talked up during the week on talkws.

So, if I'm NASCAR, don't I do everything I can to establish a radio talk show presence? I don't think extorting stations is going to get sports talk stations to devote more attention to the sport.

NASCAR's growth has stagnated recently. Whereas 20 years ago sports media universally spoke of how friendly drivers were, that is no longer the case.

I was reading the threads of a snobbish northeastern city on this site that said NASCAR was still purely a southern phenominom. I had thought that thinking was no longer, but then again there are tons of people in the south who will not watch hockey under any circumstances.

The thinking here is if one hand was willing to wash the other than MAYBE NASCAR could become more mainstream and MAYBE sports stations could sell to someone other than strip joints and tout services.
 
NASCAR is mainstream just like the NHL is mainstream. It depends where in the country you are talking about. NASCAR is bigger than the NFL in some places (Charlotte, Atlanta, Phoenix) and not close in others (New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago). Their TV ratings are all over the place because the races are now all over the place and the more casual fans almost have to run into the telecast by accident.

NASCAR also decided a few years ago the future of the sport was not terrestrial radio and jumped at the chance for its own 24/7 channel on Sirius. They wanted that upscale demographic and were willing to live with holes in their coverage in the terrestrial market (they assume, quite correctly, that the only people LISTENING to a race are either there or in their own cars--where their satellite radio spends 99% of its time). They don't care if every 1Kw daylighter in the country is carrying the Pepsi 300 next week. They are broadcasting it themselves and keeping 100% of the revenue.
 
Pratte4Life said:
The thinking here is if one hand was willing to wash the other than MAYBE NASCAR could become more mainstream and MAYBE sports stations could sell to someone other than strip joints and tout services.
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Not that there's anything wrong with that......
 
I heard that Disney won't take strip club and tout service advertising on 1250 any more. Does anyone listen to them enough to know if that's true?
 
Pratte4Life said:
The thinking here is if one hand was willing to wash the other than MAYBE NASCAR could become more mainstream and MAYBE sports stations could sell to someone other than strip joints and tout services.
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Here's whom we have advertising with us on NASCAR...RV dealers, home improvement centers, auto care centers, bump shops, and such. We're making money with it. Salespeople just need to get a little more creative. There's a big market for it if people are willing to properly sell and market it.
 
Sometimes broadcasting people around here are truly stupid.

Remember when I said NASCAR races got the third highest ratings in the country here?

In '92, when the Brickyard 400 was run for the first time, WTAE didn't carry it.

This was a national event; the first stock car race at Indianapolis Speedway.

But somebody was convinced an old movie or something would get more sponsors.

That speaks of an executive decision that does not understand the area and uncreative sales efforts.

Go to the South Hills and Mon Valley. You will see cars with NASCAR stickers on their rear windows, bars carrying the races, and a flourishing weekly series track.

The point is, I honestly don't think enough radio salespeople really understand sports advertising. There are other ways to get male orientated sponsors than to cater to strip joints and tout services.

The automotive industry would be the FIRST place to get that revenue!
 
kenhawk1160 said:
Here's whom we have advertising with us on NASCAR...RV dealers, home improvement centers, auto care centers, bump shops, and such. We're making money with it. Salespeople just need to get a little more creative. There's a big market for it if people are willing to properly sell and market it.
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Kenhawk, which station in your cluster carries the NASCAR races?

When I was younger I printed out a hard copy of the MRN affiliate list so I could listen to NASCAR races when travelling on the road. Granted, this was before NASCAR became overhyped thanks to Fox & NBC. However, the quality of the NASCAR broadcasts from both MRN and PRN are very professional and well done; the announcers for both networks are very intelligent and informative with racing. I think it is a solid program to add to a station, and I think it fits the demographics of a country or maybe classic rock station very well.
 
Pratte4Life said:
Sometimes broadcasting people around here are truly stupid.

Remember when I said NASCAR races got the third highest ratings in the country here?

In '92, when the Brickyard 400 was run for the first time, WTAE didn't carry it.

This was a national event; the first stock car race at Indianapolis Speedway.

But somebody was convinced an old movie or something would get more sponsors.

That speaks of an executive decision that does not understand the area and uncreative sales efforts.
Click to expand...

Thanks Pratte for reading my mind -that sums it up exactly. Pittsburgh is stuck in its ways and is reluctant to change with the times. The powers-that-be fail to realize the ad potential here.

I heard a promo on WEGW from Wheeling today saying how it's "your station for NASCAR." Then, the announcer proceeded to say all of the "sponsors that bring NASCAR to Eagle 107.5" for a good long minute. None of which were strip clubs. Keep in mind how economically depressed Wheeling is compared to a major market like Pittsburgh. NASCAR has gotten so mainstream ever since the cable coverage on ESPN and TNN and exploded on the big FOX/NBC TV deal in 2001. It's not 1979 anymore where even the Daytona 500 is begging for airtime.

Pittsburgh's slogan - "Stuck in 1985 and we love it!"
 
Parttimer said:
I think it ended when everything went on 7-second delay and the radio sound wasn't synched up to the picture anymore.
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Actually, it is still synched. I have been listeneing for years. Sometimes it is a hair off, but it is either dead on or really close.
 
I only tried in once this year... probably the fact that it was a preseason game had something to do with it, but it was more like a 15-second disconnect.
 
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