Sports Radio in Memphis or the lack thereof

[jharmon]

Three sports stations by my count in Memphis and the only one to show up in the ratings is WHBQ-AM with a 1.3 12+. The other two do not even register.

Any thoughts?

What do the men numbers look like.

With Memphis being such a big sports town with minor league baseball, Pro basketball and college football, one has to wonder why the sports stations don't rate even a .5 on the listener scale.

Is the programming that bad?

 

[elvez]

yes.

 

[Ayukin1]

No

 

[RadeoEngineer]

Sports programming in any city has always been a very small but loyal listenership. It takes time to build a following and get the right advertisers to buy in. Memphis doesn't have major league sports, except for the Grizzlies, so the interest is already somewhat limited. If we had NFL and MLB, a sports format would play pretty well, but as it is the sports stations have to do the best they can, which is a challenge. The stations that are doing sports in Memphis are trying to find a small sliver of the pie to pay the electric bills. What would you have them do? Syndicate Thaddeus? If you like sports talk, you have a place to go. If not, you have a multitude of other places to get something of interest.

 

[Sandscott]

I have never thought of Memphis as a big sports town. Because we have mainly minor league sports in this area the auidence is small. For example, as much as I love the Redbirds, you are going to have a select group of diehards who go to minor league baseball games and I rarely, if ever, hear any talk on Memphis Sports radio about the Redbirds and you rarely here any callers, etc.

I am a sports fan but frankly I can only take so much of WHBQ for this reason. Sportsradio, unlike a music station, is controlled much more by the personalities. There are a few good hosts on Sports 56, but the problem is it is hard to tell one local show from the next. They all cover the same two or three topics and seem to have the same callers. For me, I will listen to one of the shows for a while, but none of them for a long period of time, because you can only hear the same topic for so long.

For me personally, I get tired of hearing nothing but the SEC. I like a variety of sports and while I don't expect the same amount of time spent on what I like, how many SEC shows can you have in one day. On 56, if you don't like the SEC, you are more or less out of luck.

I do listen to the other two stations on occasion mainly during NFL season and I like hearing national guest but as someone stated sportsradio has a limited auidence and I can only take hearing the same three sport stories repeated over and over for so long.

 

[StereoBrain]

I have never thought of Memphis as a big sports town. Because we have mainly minor league sports in this area the auidence is small.

That's right. I don't think I would ever consider Memphis a sports town. Don’t get me wrong. I hate it. I am a sports fan and love going to live games.

Yeah, we have the Grizzles, but nobody goes to the games. Did anyone see that East Carolina football game broadcast on national T.V. where it showed all twelve people in the Liberty Bowl stands? Embarrassing. Even though, it was a Tuesday night and it was raining. But if you compare it to more football-loyal towns and colleges, do you really think the turnout would have been the same?

The longest running franchise we have is the Riverkings (Besides the Tigers of course). They are even now calling themselves the Mississippi Riverkings. Would you consider Memphis (or Southaven for that matter) a hockey town? Even though I never thought in a million years Tupleo, MS would get a hockey team, so stranger things have happened.

We do have lots of Vols fans here. Did ESPN see improvements in the ratings on FM over football season? Maybe it will pick up once the Cards begin?

The Max already has the Titans nailed down. I myself am a fan, but how about the rest of Memphis?
Considering the Oilers moved their games to Vandy from Liberty early after poor turnout, while their stadium was being built, might answer that question.

 

[Tynosaur]

I blame Memphis's lousy live sports attendance on the late Spook Murphy and all the University of Memphis athletic directors. They had the chance from the mid-50's on to bring the city together with better coaching and fan involvement via the Tigers football program. During a critical period in the city's growth, as our population began to flourish, there was never much to cheer about on the local front. I mean, it was 1963 before the Tigers tied Ole Miss!
Folks had no choice but to look to their own roots for teams to support and the opportunity for local fan support growth faltered. AD's and their coaches at the U of M have seemed duty bound to find a way to foul the nest. Look back over the past 50 years and try to find a period of 10 years when there was a steady hand at the controls and proper support from the administration of athletics at Memphis. It doesn't exist.
I also believe athletics in Memphis have reflected our poor self-image as a city. Our evil racial past is certainly to blame as is our proclivity to elect a long line of political wrong 'uns from Boss Crump to Mayor Loeb to King Willie with damned few exceptions in between. Indeed, as Rick Dees aired so famously, "The Mayor needs help!"
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I don't know but, either way, the yolk's on us.

 

[the golden boy]

I have never thought of Memphis as a big sports town. Because we have mainly minor league sports in this area the auidence is small. For example, as much as I love the Redbirds, you are going to have a select group of diehards who go to minor league baseball games and I rarely, if ever, hear any talk on Memphis Sports radio about the Redbirds and you rarely here any callers, etc.

I am a sports fan but frankly I can only take so much of WHBQ for this reason. Sportsradio, unlike a music station, is controlled much more by the personalities. There are a few good hosts on Sports 56, but the problem is it is hard to tell one local show from the next. They all cover the same two or three topics and seem to have the same callers. For me, I will listen to one of the shows for a while, but none of them for a long period of time, because you can only hear the same topic for so long.

For me personally, I get tired of hearing nothing but the SEC. I like a variety of sports and while I don't expect the same amount of time spent on what I like, how many SEC shows can you have in one day. On 56, if you don't like the SEC, you are more or less out of luck.

I do listen to the other two stations on occasion mainly during NFL season and I like hearing national guest but as someone stated sportsradio has a limited auidence and I can only take hearing the same three sport stories repeated over and over for so long.

Minor league sports gets very little interest as far as generating calls to sports talk radio. And if the team is sucking, might as well forget it. Even when the Mississippi Braves won the Southern League a couple of years ago people didn't go bat crazy about it down here.

You may tire of hearing SEC talk, but Memphis is in the midst of SEC country and with the city's location, there's a confluence of fans from Mississippi, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Alabama and Tennessee (and maybe a little Vanderbilt). I'm willing to bet that college sports generates more interest up there than anything else. I would say even more than the Grizzlies winning a championship. Hey, if the Saints can win one, why not?

Sports talk radio does have a somewhat limited audience, but it's a loyal following and happens to be one of the highest billing of all formats nationally (in fact, the highest billing at one time, though I don't know if that's still the case). I personally listen to a good amount of sports talk, though I listen to it a lot more during football season.

 

[Tynosaur]

In reply to Golden Boy's "I personally listen to a good amount of sports talk."

I'm with you there, sir. I listen to radio only in my car. I listen to the three sports talk stations - constantly punching to find something of interest that is not a commercial. I don't know if it's just me or if I represent any sizeable sector, but I simply can't abide talk radio of any other type. Not just conservative rant, but basically anything except sports is on my don't tune, don't listen list. With sports, no matter how heated the discussion, it's just sports! No violence, just interested talk about something sensible and non-threatening, stupid or fattening. I appreciate having three stations to listen to for variety.

 

[Zeke_Terry]

For me personally, I get tired of hearing nothing but the SEC. I like a variety of sports and while I don't expect the same amount of time spent on what I like, how many SEC shows can you have in one day. On 56, if you don't like the SEC, you are more or less out of luck.

I do listen to the other two stations on occasion mainly during NFL season and I like hearing national guest but as someone stated sportsradio has a limited auidence and I can only take hearing the same three sport stories repeated over and over for so long.

You'd be suprised at how many other folks are tired of the SEC. BUT - as was said before, the sports radio crowd is small but loyal, and to keep them loyal you have to pander to them. I know most of the hosts would talk about other things, IF someone CALLED in to discuss them.

Plus WHBQ is not hurting in the billing department, so while the numbers may not be huge as other stations by comparison, they are dong their job of bringing in revenue.