The Ticket, ESPN and The Fan

[MrDeath]

What makes the Ticket successful, and any radio station successful, is the talent. You can't program talent, you can't formula talent, you can't spreadsheet talent. You can develop talent and you can recruit talent. The Ticket has the best sports talent and they have the best ratings. Meanwhile, CBS' best talent in Dallas is being paid to sit at home and now broadcast.

The biggest mistake talk radio is making these days is failing massively in all areas related to talent. Howard Stern was a radio fixture for 20 years. What happened with he left? CBS has TWENTY YEARS to develop talent and plan for his successor and had nothing, NOTHING! They scrambled and ended up putting David Lee Roth in there? Every professional sports team is developing its talent, corporate America spends massive sums in developing talent, recruiting talent, and succession planning.

But radio is stuck in this crazy anachronism of not valuing talent. The reason 'The Fan' has a format that takes so many calls is to cover for bad talent. There isn't anyone on that staff aside from the morning show that can handle 3 hours of radio. The calls are a crutch to help the guys on-air. They're not good, they're writers and guys that failed elsewhere.

The Ticket made a point to find great talent early and kept recruiting and developing that talent. Bob Sturm and Dan McDowel aren't from Texas. They're guys they found elsewhere and now their "Bad Radio" show kills the ratings mid-days and could easily move to afternoon drive when Mike Rhyner retires.

 

[Catechuman]

Why would they travel all the way to Florida just to take calls from "Rusty in Garland"..?

HEY!! Rusty does know a thing or two.. :

 

[ead061]

The Fan is not at the All-Star game think of all the good interviews they're missing out on. I guess they would rather talk to "Bob in Euless" than professional athletes.

 

[DFW_Radio_2000]

What makes the Ticket successful, and any radio station successful, is the talent.  You can't program talent, you can't formula talent, you can't spreadsheet talent.  You can develop talent and you can recruit talent. 

If the Fan brought on a couple younger new guys and started them weekends, groomed them, developed them would it help?  The one thing I noticed with all of Dallas sports talk is the regurgitation of the same "talent".

I mean, it's hard to break Dallas when you don't have major market experience, but I think down the line it could be successful if they went that rout.

I would rater listen to a younger lesser experienced team who have personality, than the guys who have tried and failed (at multiple stations).

 

[Gopher]

I mean, it's hard to break Dallas when you don't have major market experience, but I think down the line it could be successful if they went that rout.

Isn't that pretty much what the Ticket did with Bob Sturm? Then pair him with another new guy Dan McDowell pretty much cold. I don't recall Dan on the station in any form before the formation of BaD Radio.

There has to be talent out there somewhere if they have the ability and money to find it.

 

[DFW_Radio_2000]

How well was Bob Sturm received in the beginning? Did the listeners take to him right away or did it take time for people to get on board? I'm curious because if the Fan did something similar, would people be more excited for the future of what they're doing and where they might take the station or would it be lipstick on a hog? People just ignore it because of their distaste for the station as a whole?

 

[Catechuman]

Bob originally had a show after the hardline then when Rocco was fired they moved him and brought Dan in pairing them together as the new 12-3 show.

Both worked in radio briefly before coming to the ticket and also Dan was a failed stand-up comedian.

 

[Steve Eberhart]

There is only one way for the Fan to ever beat the Ticket and ESPN radio.
Walk over to the Ticket and pay whatever it takes to hire Dunham, Miller and Gordon, Norm, Bad Radio and Rhyner and Corby. Less than dismantling the Ticket, it is an impossible goal that will forever be out of reach.

 

[DFW_Radio_2000]

There is only one way for the Fan to ever beat the Ticket and ESPN radio.
Walk over to the Ticket and pay whatever it takes to hire Dunham, Miller and Gordon, Norm, Bad Radio and Rhyner and Corby. Less than dismantling the Ticket, it is an impossible goal that will forever be out of reach.

Steve, so what you're saying is, If something is impossible. don't try? I'd hate to be one of your children. Can't imagine the advice you give them...

If everyone followed your jaded advice, we'd never advance as a society.

 

[LibertyNT]

That's a pretty cold hearted statement you just made there...

 

[DFW_Radio_2000]

That's a pretty cold hearted statement you just made there...

No, it's an observation I made based on the ignorant comments of another.

 

[MrDeath]

What makes the Ticket successful, and any radio station successful, is the talent. You can't program talent, you can't formula talent, you can't spreadsheet talent. You can develop talent and you can recruit talent.

If the Fan brought on a couple younger new guys and started them weekends, groomed them, developed them would it help? The one thing I noticed with all of Dallas sports talk is the regurgitation of the same "talent".

I mean, it's hard to break Dallas when you don't have major market experience, but I think down the line it could be successful if they went that rout.

I would rater listen to a younger lesser experienced team who have personality, than the guys who have tried and failed (at multiple stations).

Professional sports teams have minor leagues where they groom talent.
Fortune 500 companies have leadership rotational programs for young talent with promise and use certain middle-management positions to train and prepare star employees for the next level when a hole emerges.

But the radio industry is the anachronism that just crosses its fingers and hopes talent walks up to their door one day. Companies like CBS should be using thier PMs as coaches in the smaller markets to try to develop young radio talent. At a corporate level they should have lists of the good talent in the smaller markets that they can promote to the big markets when spots open up. Obviously, some people are only well suited for their current role, as successful as Russ Martin was, his show's style probobly would not do well on a national syndiacated stage, and certainly there are many broadcasters that are only suited to their locality. But for every one such broadcaster there are many more broadcasters that could take their game to the next level.

Instead, what tends to happen is stations recyle bad talent. They believe in this myth of "major maket experience". What does major market experience mean? It means you were on in a major market at one point and lost your job, most likely because you aren't good enough. But the idea of "major market experience" keeps these mediocre-at-best broadcasters circling around, never able to pull the ratings, and filling spots promising young talent could use. But the most ironic part of corporate radio is that on the same station where they are told to hire a guy because of his "major market experience" in one time slot, they fill another time slot with writers and TV sports guys because "anyone can do radio". It's crazy, oh, we need an afternoon drive guy that failed in a major market because you need major market experience to do that time slot, but the guys who end their show 5 minutes before his, yeah, just get a writer and a TV guy because anyone can do middays.

So across the United States you have budding young talent doing weekend shows in major markets or afternoon drive in smaller markets that toil on the lower level because no one ever gives them a second look. They don't have "names" and they don't have "major market experience" so how can they possibly be entertaining and informative?

 

[grantchester]

Things have changed. With a few morning show exceptions, the pay is the same, or even a little better in the smaller and medium markets. Longevity is also better there. Local Personality Radio is more effective in the smaller markets, and I believe you'll find they are more interested in hiring 'Talent' than the major markets.