Why is Sports radio taking over FM?

[schmave]

95.7 is a very good signal, but a bit north of the Dayton metro (it's licensed to Piqua). Still, it's good enough to alleviate 1290's nighttime signal problems in parts of the metro.

The move of news/talk/sports(talk) formats to FM is a bit of a different trend than moving sports team PBP to FM.

Most of the latter has been done by NFL teams. NFL games are mostly on Sunday afternoons, and the rest are at night, and it's an easy fit for otherwise music FMs. It also gives them a very strong platform to promote their weekday programming.

Here in Cleveland, the NFL Browns have had an FM flagship for years...most recently, it's been rock(/talk) WMMS/100.7, the market's historic rocker - give or take a few hours of talk in drive time Before that, the team was on classic hits/oldies WMJI/105.7.

And as in many markets, talk WTAM/1100 shares "flagship" status for the Browns with WMMS, though it's otherwise committed to the Indians and Cavaliers in season for both teams.

You don't see a lot of MLB or NBA teams on FM, though the latter is changing.

The NBA Atlanta Hawks now count an FM station as their flagship, and an odd one to boot - "99X at 97.9 FM". It's a Cumulus alt-rocker that is now heard on a pretty decent (250 watt/high stick) FM translator, with its format "homed" on the HD2 signal of another full-power station. It was once heard on the analog side of that full-power signal, hence the "99X" moniker, though it did not air the Hawks at the time.

The aforementioned Cavaliers sometimes end up on WMMS when conflicts with the Indians move them off flagship WTAM (and sometimes, vice versa, a few early season Indians games end up on WMMS as well).

Yes they are slightly different subjects, but there has to be some relation there. I don't know that one happens without the other, but it's a chicken/egg theory as to which one led to the other?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Yes they are slightly different subjects, but there has to be some relation there. I don't know that one happens without the other, but it's a chicken/egg theory as to which one led to the other?

The relation, is, of course, that FM provides younger demos to both play-by-play broadcasts, and news/talk/sports(talk) formats.

 

[Leebo65]

Music isn't what it once was. It has lost its grandeur. People are looking to laugh and they are looking to be intellectually stimulated.

 

[Pratte4Life]

Ohio- The Pittsburgh Pirates are on 104.7- an FM flagship.

While I hate that because I love being able to listen to ballgames on 50KW stations in the night and they used to be on KDKA, do you know of any other FM flagships for baseball teams?

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

While I hate that because I love being able to listen to ballgames on 50KW stations in the night and they used to be on KDKA, do you know of any other FM flagships for baseball teams?

A quick run through the official MLB radio flagships list:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/audio/mlb_team_radio_flagships.jsp

...shows only WXYT/97.1 "The Ticket" as the FM home of the Detroit Tigers. (The list only shows WXYT, which is both on 97.1 and its original home of 1270, but the games are on both signals.)

WPGB and WXYT are FM spoken word stations, so they'd have the programming if they were on AM, anyway.

The MLB list shows WBAL as the flagship of the Orioles, a move (to return the team to its long-time AM home) fairly recently. IIRC, the Orioles were also on FM, on another CBS FM sports station (WJZ-FM).

But it also shows KTRS as home of the St. Louis Cardinals, and that's changing this year, too...the Cards are headed back to long-time home KMOX.

KTAR in Phoenix is listed as the Diamondbacks flagship, but I'm pretty sure they air only on the AM (sports) side...the talk moved to FM.

One other former FM flagship was in Washington DC, where the Nationals (shortly after they came to town) aired on an FM top 40 (!) simulcast for a year or so, "Z104". IIRC, the FM side only carried their night and weekend games, and the weekday day games were on a puny AM (1050).

 

[tomservo]

It's not just big markets with pro teams where the move to FM is happening. Here in the deep south, sports talk is taking on FM at an alarming rate, thanks to the popularity of college football. Birmingham's had sports talk on FM since November 2006 (first on 100.5 then 94.5) but Florence, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa and the Mobile suburbs have sports talk on FM. Montgomery has two FM translators carrying AM sports stations. Columbus, Georgia/Phenix City, Alabama has an FM sports outlet.

Granted, there are still more sports talk stations only on AM in the state (~17) but they're smaller towns.

So… how far back to we have to go to find a the first full time sports station on FM? It seems to be a rather recent phenomenon, I think. Mobile-area station WNSP claims to be the first FM sports talk station in the country, with a launch date of September 11, 1993. (Nearby Andalusia may lay claim to the first 100,000 watt all sports station, dating to 1999.) Surely someone tried it in the 80's?

Remember, I'm not talking about just carrying select games, I'm talking all sports.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

I'm not sure what prompted the wave of FM sports talkers in the South.

I know Cumulus may have ignited some of it by going FM with both talk and sports in Nashville. WNSP's success may have prompted some of it as well.

And do many of these stations carry college football? That's darn near pro sports in SEC country...much like the Ohio State Buckeyes are pretty close to a pro team in Columbus (and they're on FM, too, on "97.1 The Fan").

 

[RickScott]

Because in most markets over half of the men don't ever listen to AM radio - it's a brand new audience for the format. A tremendous opportunity!

 

[radioguy39nj]

Because in most markets over half of the men don't ever listen to AM radio - it's a brand new audience for the format. A tremendous opportunity!

In smaller markets where college football and men's college b-ball is essentially major league, they typically have AM stations that don't get out very far. Moving the games to FM solves the problem, in addition to reaching audiences that don't listen to AM radio.

Sports on FM will not remain limited to small markets with weak AM signals. IMHO, you will see it in the near future in traditional markets such as New York, Chicago, LA and others. Those markets have big blaster AM signals, but demos are a problem on AM, regardless of market size.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Because in most markets over half of the men don't ever listen to AM radio - it's a brand new audience for the format. A tremendous opportunity!

Oh, I'm well aware of the trend in general, and write about it on the blog from time to time.

I was just curious as to why there are so many FM sports talkers particularly in the Southern U.S., which appears to be ahead of the curve compared to other parts of the country.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I was just curious as to why there are so many FM sports talkers particularly in the Southern U.S., which appears to be ahead of the curve compared to other parts of the country.

That question could easily be the topic of it's very own.

Why, indeed?

 

[SonoSational18]

There are generally three reasons sports or any spoken word format might want to simulcast on FM... One is to fill in holes in the AM's coverage area. A non-directional FM will get into areas where the AM signal can't get because of power limitations or a directional antenna. As someone pointed out earlier, many AM's got their start in the 40's and 50's and at the time their signal was adequate to cover the areas that counted. As people moved out to the suburbs.... previously areas that were populated mainly by cows and copperheads.... the AM signals couldn't cover it.

Another reason is to get better in-building reception. AM does not penetrate steel framed buildings well. FM can.

The other reason is to try to skew the audience younger. There is a whole generation that grew up on FM and even on a lower-power FM, a rimshot, or translator, gives you a shot at getting them to sample you. Once you get them hooked, then they will come back to the AM band if they're out of range of the FM, but you have to get them to try you first. It's kind of analagous to a a free-standing store having a kiosk in a shopping mall.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

That question could easily be the topic of it's very own.

Why, indeed?

You could bet on "college sports and NASCAR", but those rights end up on music stations as well...

 

[quadraphonic]

There's probably a bunch of reasons why sports talk is moving to FM, in the South or otherwise.
Every station probably has their own reasons.
But it's not really that sports talk moved, it's that broadcasters moved it to FM. Those would be the "decision makers."

Being on FM fills signal holes (and doesn't disappear and go staticky after 5pm),
it reaches into buildings better daytime...
it's where the vast majority of listeners and potential new audience are...
the teams (and colleges who are paying to air game coverage and coaches' shows) seem to have been going after FM outlets for several years (like 20-something ad buyers ONLY think about FM) so it probably looked like a good idea to broadcasters with an available FM signal to provide that...
FM music stations, seem to be focusing on their small audience more, and don't want to break away from the core audience for another audience for three hours here and there, so sports on FM is a way to put the games all on one signal/brand.
All those repeated over time made FM sports talk look like a good idea to broadcasters with an available FM signal to provide those for the teams (advertisers) and listeners. It's almost all about demand first, and then FM signal supply filling demand.
There's probably some variation of those and more in each case.

In the South, it's not so much "NASCAR and college sports" pushing sports to bigger signals. The people who want those sports will listen to people talk about them on AM (unless the game's on tv). The games themselves are already on FM, either that or the listener is not listening and is at the game anyway. And NASCAR and its various levels seem to be losing affiliates, mostly on the FM side. Moving sports talk to an FM signal just seems like an easy way to have "one stop shopping" for sports.

I'm glad that some of the MLB teams are going back to the AM stations though. Not as glad as I was when I was a kid, but at least if I want to listen to the Orioles, or the Cardinals, for instances, they'll be there.

 

[tomservo]

Sports on FM will not remain limited to small markets with weak AM signals. IMHO, you will see it in the near future in traditional markets such as New York, Chicago, LA and others. Those markets have big blaster AM signals, but demos are a problem on AM, regardless of market size.

I dunno, didn't Chicago have AMs in the 1-2 position this PPM report? And isn't CBS' WFAN and WINS regularly top billers in NYC?

I think all the doom about AM is generally true, but these big signals with a big presence are the only ones who will continue to make money in the long term.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Again, I know the general reasons spoken word formats are moving to FM...I'm just curious why it's caught on in the South before most other parts of the country.

I'm willing to bet on that radio standby...copying. With early successful FM sports outlets in parts of the south (Mobile, Nashville, etc.), stations in that same region saw that and moved to copy it.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Again, I know the general reasons spoken word formats are moving to FM...I'm just curious why it's caught on in the South before most other parts of the country.

I'm not prepared to defend this thought. I simply offer it for your consideration.

Significant parts of the South have poor ground conductivity for A.M. signals. When northern states had built all the A.M. stations that consulting engineers could squeeze in, the northern states became early adopters for moving "full service" programming onto FM channels in smaller communities. (circa 1965).

The south moved in that direction more slowly. They just kept squeezing more and more and more A.M. stations into the geography like the proverbial "sardines in a can". Now that "civilization generated interference noise" is killing A.M. reception, station operators in the southern states have a different mind-set about F.M. than do station operators in the northern states.

And there you have an observation worth exactly what you paid me for it. :

 

[SonoSational18]

"Again, I know the general reasons spoken word formats are moving to FM...I'm just curious why it's caught on in the South before most other parts of the country."

I'm not sure the south has the market cornered on spoken word moving to FM. There are many spoken word formats up north.. Some that come to mind are WXYT-FM Detroit, WPEN-FM Philadelphia, WBZ-FM and WTKK Boston (as well as one or two of the WEEI simulcasts, WEAN (simulcasting WPRO) Providence, WIBC Indianapolis, KIRO-FM Seattle, KSL-FM Salt Lake, WTOP Washington, KFRC (simul. KCBS) San Francisco, WBNS-FM and WTDA Columbus, KDKA-FM and WPGB Pittsburgh, WJZ-FM Baltimore, WGY-FM Albany, KFTK and WXOS St. Louis, KTAR-FM Phoenix, KTLK and KTMY Minneapolis, and KXNT-FM Las Vegas to name a few. One of the early FM talkers was WWDB in Philadelphia, also in the north.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Excellent list, but almost all of that happened within the past 5 years, and many (like nearly all the CBS FM sports talkers) much more recent than that. Take those CBS stations and Bonneville's FM news/talkers off the list, and it's much smaller.

Meanwhile, there've been quite a few sports talkers in the South on FM, going back much longer...

 

[quadraphonic]

What "quite a few" FM sports talkers are in the South?

99.9 The Fan in Raleigh just started up 18 months ago.
The Zone in Nashville is another.