Another Note, Baseball and being Local

Comment from Detroit legend, Jim Harper…

George,

“This is the most productive and potentially “golden” advice any morning jock could ever expect to receive. And it’s free! Then again…generous. Old Pros do that…never when asked, but when you least expect it and they sincerely want to help talent. I hope jox realize that Bob’s phone call script/outline should be stolen and produced with a killer-close…tomorrow! And George’s break-by-break then repeat-outline is a million dollar secret.”
Nice work, Gentlemen.

Much appreciated Jim.

Okay, it’s World Series Time, People who haven’t paid attention to the game all season are, at least, aware of the World Series. My old hometown is going insane over the Red Sox, Hell, that’s nothing new. The Dodgers are the topic of conversation out here in LA. The series starts tonight at Fenway Park.  (Pahk)

George and I were wondering how radio in LA and Boston are going to handle this huge local event. We know sports radio in both cities will be all over it, the news stations in both will give  the series a lot of airtime. What about the music stations?

I got a sneak preview after the Sox (sawx) won the ALCS. The newscasts on #KISS108 during Matt Siegel’s show were all Red Sox, Sound from the win, reactions from the players and the fans. It was the perfect response and reflection of Boston’s joy over the team’s success.

I did some listening around, the sports stations were all Sox, #WBZ, #WRKO, #WBUR and #WGBH all did expanded sports news. Other than #KISS108, what I heard on the music station was little or mostly nothing.

That Monday morning a week ago, was a big day in sports for Boston. The Sox won the ALCS and the Pats beat undefeated Kansas City. How big? The games had a local TV share of 83, nationally the Sox game was the highest rated show on cable and the Pats had the biggest numbers on over the air TV. And much of Boston radio ignored it. How can you do that?

Some of you people make me crazy. Your job is to reflect your community for chrissakes!

This is going to be a two part listen George. Having the World Series in your city is a big deal, it’s going to be fun to see how the stations handle it. You listened to a lot of Boston radio last week, what did you hear and what should we be listening for this week in Boston and LA after the series starts?

Bobby, when I listened to Matty on #KISS and Loren Owens on #WROR in Boston, they both were all over the Bo-Sox. However, when I listened to our old station, #WKLB, nothing, nada, zilch. I couldn’t believe it. You could drop that radio station into any town Bobby because there was nothing Boston on it at all. They almost sounded syndicated but what they were doing wasn’t worthy of syndication The only reason that they have any ratings at all is because they are playing country music.

Remember Bob, when we launched #WKLB back in the mid 90’s, we were only worried about one other station going country. That station was #WAAF, because they covered all the country zips and we didn’t. I’m not sure how they’re doing today but if they went country now, they’d wipe out #WKLB in about a day and a half.

I expect Matty on #KISS108 and Loren on #WROR to be all over the Sox all week not to mention the hi flying Pats, Bruins, and Celtics. What a town if you like sports huh! Matty and Loren are so local that you could never syndicate them unlike Ryan Seacrest on #KISS in LA. I listened to him for 2 hours yesterday and he mentioned the Dodgers were in the World series once. Although I sure liked his traffic more than the other I Heart stations but it wasn’t as good as Matty or Loren’s in Boston.

Boston & LA, let’s hear who loves their town more this week. Should be a fun listen Bobby.