Yikes…97.1 😱

[ChannelFlipper]

For me, he was washed up the instant he provoked Jim Everett (ex-Rams QB) to lunge at him after calling him "Chrissie." Middle-school level "humor" coming from a guy his age was creepy then. It's borderline obscene now.

Which was one of Rome's most immature moments (and there have been many), but also one of his worst takes.

Jim Everett was QB for a Rams team that had an offensive line that was a virtual sieve. They called him "Happy Feet" because he was always moving around in the pocket, except in his case there was no "pocket" because he was always staring down multiple defensive lineman in his face just seconds after the snap. The man always had my utmost respect because he literally put his life and limb on the line with every game he played and never complained. A man in a man's world (the NFL) in which pint-sized Jim Rome would struggle to make the team as a towel boy.

 

[michael hagerty]

You may have hit on the main issue.

I mean, I think it's more an educated assessment based on 54 years of experience in the business, but sure.

This is a corporate demand and perhaps the local cluster resents it, wants to prove that it won't work so corporate will pull the plug after 18 months, and they can go back to what they were doing before, or more likely, compete with a new, easier to manage music station that is more to their liking and skill sets. They accomplish this goal by putting on an obviously inferior product to what is already in the market and let time and missed budgets do the rest.

Yeah, that's how Market Presidents and EVPs of Programming get fired.

The simpler explanation is that Audacy gave them no money and told them to figure it out. They wanted a Sports FM in Los Angeles in the worst way---and that's what they got.

 

[TheBigA]

This is a corporate demand and perhaps the local cluster resents it,

Would you have willingly changed the format at a Top 5 station to a format that has no chance for success in the market?

 

[K.M. Richards]

Which was one of Rome's most immature moments (and there have been many), but also one of his worst takes.

I worked with Rome back in 1988 in Santa Barbara, his first professional radio job after graduating from UCSB. (Believe it or not, in addition to doing a sports talk show on our AM, KTMS, he was the traffic reporter during my afternoon drive show on Y97.) So I speak from personal observation when I confirm that he had those "moments" even back then.

 

[MarkW]

Cool. Now tell me every billboard you’ve seen while at the wheel of a car in the past nine days and which, if any of them, spurred you to a response.

Are you sure you’re in the business? Because honest to God, you seem to not understand advertising, promotion, and the level of reach and frequency required to make an impression on a mass audience.

What an incredibly snotty sounding post.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Cool. Now tell me every billboard you’ve seen while at the wheel of a car in the past nine days and which, if any of them, spurred you to a response.

Are you sure you’re in the business? Because honest to God, you seem to not understand advertising, promotion, and the level of reach and frequency required to make an impression on a mass audience.

What an incredibly snotty sounding post.

More like a reality check, in my view. Too many people here post "pie in the sky" ideas with little to no understanding of how the business works. And I don't mean the RADIO business ... I mean the ADVERTISING business.

Because, as I am fond of telling people who are ignorant of the reality, radio is not in the entertainment business. We are in the advertising business. Which means we also need to know how promote ourselves, just as we try to do the best job for our clients by creating the best commercials to promote them.

Snotty? Only if you're one of the clueless armchair quarterbacks here who don't understand that. Worse yet, also if you are someone who spent any amount of time in the business and never had that reality impressed on you.

Mike, like BigA, David, Fybush, and several others (including yours truly) post the truth. We are collectively sorry if we are unable to sugarcoat it for you.

 

[MarkW]

Nothing wrong with reality checks. There are ways to disagree with opinions without being rude, though. I'll be the first to admit at times I personally need to do better in that regard.

 

[michael hagerty]

What an incredibly snotty sounding post.

Snotty is in the nose of the....

Never mind. If anything, it was frustration. The poster has been on here for years telling us what he does in the business and then posted what he posted.

If it helps, if he'd been sitting across from me in a restaurant having a beer and said that, I'd have said the same thing to his face.

 

[Loverofradio]

If it helps, if he'd been sitting across from me in a restaurant having a beer and said that, I'd have said the same thing to his face.

I’ll take you out for a steak dinner and will give you my suite for the night inside the Horseshoe Bossier City

 

[Loverofradio]

If you guys can string together all the things you're bitching about, the jigsaw puzzle starts to come together:

There is no budget for this. Corporate wanted a sports station on FM in Los Angeles outside the budget cycle, so the L.A. cluster gave them 97.1.

Syndication rights to Jim Rome might be cheaper than paying a local host (they also may not---you have no idea how little some people on Los Angeles radio work for), but they also may involve commitments of time or promotional spends that Audacy might be trying to avoid.

And if I'm Jim, and would like to be cleared in my hometown of L.A., I'd like for this not to be a repeat of The Beast---gone in 18 months without making a dent. Eventually the message becomes that you're not a draw. No disrespect to Jim, but you know what the highest-rated, highest-billing sports stations in Los Angeles the past decade have in common?

They've been doing it without Jim Rome.

The Audacy L.A. cluster had a format that didn’t do well in sales demos and traded it for a format that can be a stronger biller and can hit 25-54/35-64/18-34 at the same time.

They weren’t going to flip KROQ or The Wave to sports.

I’m sure Jim Rome isn’t having panic attacks about what happened 12 years ago, under different ownership, on another signal.

Yes, L.A. has been without Jim Rome. Ok? What if Petros and Money weren’t carried locally, IHeart would still be obligated to fill airtime from 3-6pm each day. We could say the same about them.

It’s a colossal mistake not having Rome. Despite everyone’s personal opinions, he does command the same respect as Cowherd/Patrick. He’s got a following, in L.A. Most of his calls are from L.A.

 

[TheBigA]

It’s a colossal mistake not having Rome. Despite everyone’s personal opinions, he does command the same respect as Cowherd/Patrick. He’s got a following, in L.A. Most of his calls are from L.A.

Here's Jim Rome's affiliate list. It says he's heard in LA on KCBS-FM HD3. In fact if you look at this list, he's not on any of Audacy's big sports talk stations. He's on their sports betting stations. That's what KCBS-FM HD3 is. Westwood One is owned by Cumulus, and he's not on the big Cumulus sports talk stations. He's on an HD3 in Dallas and an AM in San Francisco. So the fact that he's not on TheFanLA is no big surprise. There must be a reason. My guess is they all want to be live & local during the time he's on. If he wants to be heard on the big stations, he might consider moving to nights and weekends.

STATIONS - ROME - The Jim Rome Show

Affiliate Stations

jimrome.com

 

[radiofan2023]

It’s a colossal mistake not having Rome. Despite everyone’s personal opinions, he does command the same respect as Cowherd/Patrick. He’s got a following, in L.A. Most of his calls are from L.A.

Rome's show started streaming video on a Rome-branded FAST channel a few years ago and is streaming live on YouTube as of earlier this year. As your post proves, he doesn't need to be on an FM station in LA to get a lot of listeners in LA (and elsewhere).

 

[michael hagerty]

The Audacy L.A. cluster had a format that didn’t do well in sales demos and traded it for a format that can be a stronger biller and can hit 25-54/35-64/18-34 at the same time.

They weren’t going to flip KROQ or The Wave to sports.

I’m sure Jim Rome isn’t having panic attacks about what happened 12 years ago, under different ownership, on another signal.

Yes, L.A. has been without Jim Rome. Ok? What if Petros and Money weren’t carried locally, IHeart would still be obligated to fill airtime from 3-6pm each day. We could say the same about them.

It’s a colossal mistake not having Rome. Despite everyone’s personal opinions, he does command the same respect as Cowherd/Patrick. He’s got a following, in L.A. Most of his calls are from L.A.

(screen goes all wavy, harp music plays)

 

[ChannelFlipper]

(screen goes all wavy, harp music plays)



View attachment 12307

Michael,

You seem to be having difficulty differentiating the theoretical and the reality. There is no doubt a well-run FM sports station in LA can be very successful. The Fan is not a well-run station and most likely will not be successful. This in no way validates your point and the "I told you so" posts aren't helping.

 

[michael hagerty]

Michael,

You seem to be having difficulty differentiating the theoretical and the reality. There is no doubt a well-run sports station in LA can be very successful. The Fan is not a well-run station and most likely will not be successful. This in no way validates your point and the "I told you so" posts aren't helping.

The wavy screen and the harp music are getting a workout this morning:

 

[radiofan2023]

 

[TheBigA]

There is no doubt a well-run sports station in LA can be very successful. The Fan is not a well-run station and most likely will not be successful.

Keep in mind you're basing success on what you feel is good programming. By now you should know that's not the measure of success.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Keep in mind you're basing success on what you feel is good programming. By now you should know that's not the measure of success.

You're assuming my criteria, and incorrectly so. I have already predicted a terrible number for the next book. They do have to have SOME listeners to be successful, regardless of sports radio's somewhat unique share to revenue ratios.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

The wavy screen and the harp music are getting a workout this morning.

So you are breaking out the wavy screen for a post that goes all the way back to... yesterday?

 

[michael hagerty]

So you are breaking out the wavy screen for a post that goes all the way back to... yesterday?

I believe the phrase is "in recent memory".