> > >
> > >...but the honest
> reality is that more people here
> like NYC teams...or some other team that has no local
> affiliation.I can't stand it when I hear some lame sports
> that only reads Yankee and Phillie scores.Read em' all!!Take
> a pole amongst friends you'll be surprised!Not to many
> Phillie or Eagle fans here...actually not many NYC team fans
> either BROTHER!!!
>
When I was growing up, my father said that if you were to be
a true sports fan, you had to follow the New York based teams.
His logic was because New York was the cultural center of the
United States. He was a Cardinal fan, shaped by the baseball of
the Gas House Gang of the late 20s and 30s with guys like Ducky
Medwick, Dizzy Dean, etc. But he always had a working knowledge
of the New York teams because while everyone might not have been
loyalists, the teams were always a topic of discussion.
I became a Cleveland Indians fan in the spring of 1965 when I
became ill and was confined to bed. I began listenming to 3WE WWWE
out of Cleveland and I became a fan of the Tribe. But I always
followed the New York teams because they impacted the rest of the
league.
In the mid 90s when I worked at Rock 107, WEJL/WBAX obtained the
rights to the New York Yankees. As a salesman for Shamrock, this
was a true bonus because the Yanks, love them or hate them, were an
easy sell. Nothwithstanding the fact that at the time, the night time
signals of WEJL and WBAX were about 400 watts (and the majority of
the games were played at night) selling the Yanks was one of the
best parts of working for Shamrock at the time. There was an
excitement in offering clients a quality product. And as far as
advertisers, I had very few Yankee fans who were my clients, these
were people who bought the advertising because love them or hate them,
they knew the Yankees mattered.
I understand that ESPN picked up the Phillies because they felt
the Yankee audience began to slip when the YES TV network came
into being. I think that was an excuse because the Yanks did raise
their rates. The Phils are a safe and somewhat less passionate sell
than the Yanks but having sold them at Citadel, I can attest to the
fact that adverisers bought them because of their percieved local
connection. (Citadel of course lost the Phillis because they were too
cheap to pony up the yearly license fee which when I left was just
under $7200.00. I mean you sell $100,000 worth of Phillies for a cost
of $7200.00!!! Please!!)
This past baseball season has been one of excitement. A true baseball
fan has had a plethora of pennant races in both leagues that are
going down right to the wire. It's too bad the Yankees did not have
a presence on the broadcast dial locally here because it
would have added to the flavor of the season. The Phillies are
winning, they matter, people listen. That's the formula. You win-
you matter-you get listeners. The only time Jim Ward to my knowledge
had baseball on his radio station was 1969 when he got the broascast
rights to the New York Mets. They won-they mattered-and Ward looked like
a genius.
People will listen to sports on the radio. As long as the sport and
the product matter.
Yonkstur
