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Why no Daytona 500 on Cleveland radio?

M

mbclev

I was driving home from Monday's work (I work from 3:30 P.M. until midnight) and found that even though the Daytona 500 was still going, I found no Cleveland radio station carrying it. I eventually found a broadcast on WHLO-640 in Akron, but it was difficult to hear at City View Center on Transportation Blvd. in Garfield Heights.

In the past, I recall this race being on ESPN 850-WKNR (and possibly on sister station WWGK-1540), thus I am surprised that nobody in Cleveland radio carried the race this year.
 
NASCAR is a TV sport. Does nothing for radio ratings. Sure, some stations, even some country stations, carry MRN and races. If they can sell it and make $$$ cool. But most can't. Ends up costing $$$. I carried NASCAR in Toledo. Zero return for the station so I cancelled it.
 
I bet there are at least 100 stations south of the Mason-Dixon line that would argue otherwise.

So it failed in Toledo, okay. Not many things succeed that anemic signal. NASCAR on the radio is HUGE in the south to the point stations get into bidding wars over the rights.

Read Arbitron's sports listening reports. NASCAR works.
 
Huge down south, but doesn't play up here nearly as well. College basketball doesn't even register a rating up here, so what do you think Nascar would do?
 
mbclev said:
I was driving home from Monday's work (I work from 3:30 P.M. until midnight) and found that even though the Daytona 500 was still going, I found no Cleveland radio station carrying it. I eventually found a broadcast on WHLO-640 in Akron, but it was difficult to hear at City View Center on Transportation Blvd. in Garfield Heights.

In the past, I recall this race being on ESPN 850-WKNR (and possibly on sister station WWGK-1540), thus I am surprised that nobody in Cleveland radio carried the race this year.
Click to expand...

Just supply and demand economics. Specialty programs displace regular inventory. I'm sure in the past the stations that carried the race broadcast could not generate enough revenue from sponsors for the event. They lost money by carrying the event instead of running regular programming and inventory.

They didn't want to lose money again.

Car racing is big in the South. So is greyhound dog racing. Not so for either in Northern Ohio.
 
In regards to Toledo... there's Toledo Speedway and MIS an hour north. Racing is big there. ARCA Nationals are held there. Sure the signal sucked. But when I cut it loose where did it go? Across the street to CC AM WCWA. Not an FM. And I doubt that dollar-a-hollar signal is making money with it.

I worked the South as well, Raleigh. NASCAR was being carried on powerhouse country WQDR up until last year when owner Curtis Media moved it to WPTF-AM, which is ailing big time due to the loss of Rush to CC's new FM Talk 106.1.

Basketball is king in NC.

As Capulet said so well... Specialty programs displace regular inventory. If more $$$ is made with regular programming than specialty programming why carry the specialty programming?
 
The race was scheduled, and was listed on the ESPN Cleveland website to be heard on 1540, but it obviously got rained out.

If the race was run as scheduled, it would have been on WWGK.

With the rainout and near 36 hour delay, everything got thrown out of whack.

But, NASCAR is still heard in Cleveland on both WKNR and WWGK.
 
K96 WKFM - at 96.1 - carries all of the NASCAR races - MRN and PRN.

We have found it to be immensely popular with listeners and advertisers alike. And if you believe the Arbitron ratings for smaller markets (despite their anemic sample size), racing brings in tons of listeners.

K96 comes in strong through Lorain County, and reaches well into Cuyahoga and Medina counties.

And new this year, we will streaming the MRN races on www.wkfm.com.

Drive fast! Turn left!
 
Problem is, when you sign the deal with MRN, you carry EVERYTHING surrounding Speedweek..and you end up running four hours of coverage on Sunday, and a race that lasts into Tuesday morning..some stations have made a mint on this stuff..others have regretted the day MRN called them with the pitch...
 
A lot of people. They do a good job covering the races. It's a big production. A host, three pit reporters, and people out in all of the turns.

Cleveland is not a big auto racing market, but down South it is a big deal. Until a few years ago, almost every country music station in the Carolinas and VA south of Fredericksburg carried the races. MRN and the other networks do force a load of programming on.

You have to carry racing talk shows two or three nights a week, perhaps the Nationwide and/or truck races every week, plus other programs.
 
Not sure what would be more boring listen to a car race on the radio or listening to someone talk about the car race on the radio. No offense to anyone that likes it but watching cars go around a racetrack 200 times ranks up there with counting dust molecules in the air.
 
CleveRadioInsider your statements about the sport show your ignorance to it. Think of driving to Dayton and back. You'd plan on gassing up before you went, right? These race teams have to calculate how many laps they can go on the fuel the car carries. They have to decide when to change tires and how fast they can do it. For my $, I'd be impressed just by the fact a pit team can change all 4 tires, fully gas the car up, AND tear off a windshield covering to improve the driver's view of what's happening at 200+ miles an hour and they do it in less than 13 seconds. They accomplish this 7-10 times per race minimum too. Much more interesting that anything the Cubs or Browns can carry off at any time. Yes, NASCAR is all about the action while they turn left and go fast. I saw a bumpersticker near one of the tracks a year or so ago that said:
Drive Fast: Attract Cops
Drive Faster: Attract Sponsors
Watch one good race and you'll be hooked. I would recommend for your first race to watch the Spring race at Bristol, smallest track on the circuit but provides flag to flag action every time. Give it a chance and then make your REAL feelings known. ;)
 
John Baylor said:
I'll be in the minority, but I think baseball sucks on the radio too. Boring. Two guys talking about nothing in between pitches.
Click to expand...

Yeah you're probably in the minority. In my opinion, there's nothing better than relaxing on the porch on a summer evening with a beer in your hand, the sunset in front of you, and baseball on the radio. Different strokes I guess.
 
knows I've heard the same thing said about Golf to me. If I understood it I would enjoy it more. Golf with all the whispering on the TV and people having to be so quiet while someone attempts a shot is not for me either. I would rather watch a cloud move in the sky it is more entertaining. Car racing does the same for me. Just no interest whatsoever.
 
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