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3 of the Top Local Sports Talkers

I've been amazed at how Seattle has "matured" as a sports market.

Remember, it was about 20 years ago the Mariners nearly bankrupted Emmis Broadcasting and a new owner thought a dome in Tampa Bay was a better place to play ball than a dome in Seattle. The Seahawks were actually headquartered in L.A., and the Sonics were in the beginning stages of grumbling about the unrenovated Key Arena and moving to some hillbilly town in a flyover state...or down to Tacoma.

Seattle was dangerously close to losing all 3 of its professional sports teams within a 3 year timeframe.

On top of this, while sports talk radio began to flourish in other sports markets, Seattle seemed to not get that memo. Sports talk never rated well here until this decade.

It is still, IMHO, the largest market that has a high number of people who just aren't interested in any professional sports. However it seems the ones who are sports fans here tend to be knowledgeable, respectful of other teams, and tend to be fans of the Seattle teams.

Both teams have the added benefit of being the "default" team for Vancouverites who follow sports as well (MLB especially...try to count the number of B.C. Plates you see on I5 the next time Toronto plays at Safeco)

That being said, perhaps the sports talkers aren't anything special here in Seattle. Perhaps having fans in a large geographically dispersed sports market who are fascinated by the sport and contribute semi-intelligently to on-air discussions help make it easier for hosts to put on a decent on-air product.

Radio-X
 
Radio-X said:
Sports talk never rated well here until this decade.
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None of the popular sports talk stations get high 12+ ratings, but are money makers none the less. Remember, it's all about reaching the sought after demographic. Back when KJR started gaining momentum as the only sports talk station, it did very well where it counts-revenue. 18-35M mean when agencies who represent beer and auto advertisers, the first place they go is sports talk stations.
 
Bongwater said:
Coming from a non-sports junkie perspective, I've never understood how sports talk does so well. Because to me, on any given sports station on any average show, it's always guys talking about other guys playing with their balls.
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I know you meant it as a joke, but one reason for sports talk's appeal is that it has virtually nothing to do with politics. Not everybody wants to hear news 24/7 (flushed with politics lately) or the same hits thrashed out 24/7 or the same old recurrents or gold that you've heard a million times over.

Like you, I'm a non-sports junkie, but I tune in from time to time because sometimes it's entertaining and an easy way to keep track of what's happening nationally in football or baseball without the pop-up spam or banner ad spam.
 
boombox4 said:
I know you meant it as a joke, but one reason for sports talk's appeal is that it has virtually nothing to do with politics. Not everybody wants to hear news 24/7 (flushed with politics lately) or the same hits thrashed out 24/7 or the same old recurrents or gold that you've heard a million times over.

Like you, I'm a non-sports junkie, but I tune in from time to time because sometimes it's entertaining and an easy way to keep track of what's happening nationally in football or baseball without the pop-up spam or banner ad spam.
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I hear this. Some are inherently "into" sports, and that probably drives the numbers. But, you bring up a good point...to be somewhat up to speed with sports is important if trying to build relationships for business. It may not be right, but the guy's club (and gals too) in business today requires atleast some knowledge of sports. You don't have to like or enjoy it, but you need to know it.

So what is next? "we do not discriminate against those who have no sports knowledge"...of course that is crazy, but you would be surprised how rampant this is.
 
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seatownmedia said:
I hear this. Some are inherently "into" sports, and that probably drives the numbers. But, you bring up a good point...to be somewhat up to speed with sports is important if trying to build relationships for business. It may not be right, but the guy's club (and gals too) in business today requires atleast some knowledge of sports. You don't have to like or enjoy it, but you need to know it.

So what is next? "we do not discriminate against those who have no sports knowledge"...of course that is crazy, but you would be surprised how rampant this is.
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Exactly... Your point about sports knowledge being helpful in business relationships and the like, it's spot on. I used to read the sports page back when I loathed sports (a long time ago) because it gave and ability to talk with others about the local and national scenes without sounding like a complete idiot.

And as far as sports talk goes, some of the guys on sports radio are quite good at radio. Ben Maller's show is good, for example, and Jim Rome is entertaining a lot of the time. I don't get a chance to hear the local shows that much (at work), but the few times I've heard them they sound O.K.
 
Radio-X said:
Both teams have the added benefit of being the "default" team for Vancouverites who follow sports as well (MLB especially...try to count the number of B.C. Plates you see on I5 the next time Toronto plays at Safeco)
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That's mostly Toronto fans coming to Seattle to see their team.
 
My issue with sports talk is that in some markets it's done so much that it's overkill. In Portland for example, KKCW pulls nearly triple the share as all the sports stations combined. Is there really that much money in sports talk to justify 4 sports stations in a market? I'd be interested in the proportion of KKCW's billing to the sports stations combined. Up here, the only station I'd flip is, as has been discussed on this board before, 1090. The other two, 1380 and 850, don't really have that much coverage overlap.
 
bobdavcav said:
Up here, the only station I'd flip is, as has been discussed on this board before, 1090. The other two, 1380 and 850, don't really have that much coverage overlap.
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There you go again Bob, flipping things. AM stations have increasingly fewer options for a successful format. 1090 over the years has already covered the gamut. What do you suggest they flip to again, music? Left wing talk? Recent history has shown that either of those would be a 50,000 watt recipe for failure.
 
Rob Piotrowski said:
But Toronto is near Windsor (in the same province) which is near Detroit - the location of the Seahawks opponent. Maybe it's you who needs the map.
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I thought the original reference was to BASEBALL fans -- specifically Blue Jays fans from BC coming to Seattle when the Jays are in town to play the Mariners. The Jays, as Canada's only MLB team, have a national following. Windsor fans might follow the Lions, but Toronto is far enough away from Detroit to make the Lions a relative non-factor there. I'm not sure of the percentage of Toronto folks who follow the NFL at all. Their sports plates are pretty full, with the Jays in the summer, and the Leafs the rest of the year. Oh yeah, they've got NBA and CFL teams, too.
 
Kelly A said:
There you go again Bob, flipping things. AM stations have increasingly fewer options for a successful format. 1090 over the years has already covered the gamut. What do you suggest they flip to again, music? Left wing talk? Recent history has shown that either of those would be a 50,000 watt recipe for failure.
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Valid point, Kelly. In both markets come to think of it, I can't really think of a format that would be suitable for any stations looking to drop sports. Especially in Portland though I wouldn't mind the numbers up here as well, I'd be interested in the billing numbers in proportion to the #1 station 6+. For example, KQMV bills 10% more than all the sports stations combined, or KKCW bills 20% more than all the sports stations combined in Portland. Based on recent discussions on this board, I'd guess that sports as a format bills higher than KQMV, but I'm not convinced of this in every market with 4 or 5 sports stations.
 
KQMV/KPLZ/KIRO-am billing was mentioned in the "Warm Flips to X-mas" thread. Depending how you look at the numbers 710 ESPN (KIRO AM) is either ahead or right behind KQMV in billing. If you added in KJR-am revenue it could very well be above KPLZ or KQMV.

I think we have a good selection of sports stations in the the Seattle area. 1090 is great for the national perspective on sports and the 710 and 950 are great for local sports with different deliveries.
 
Rob Piotrowski said:
But Toronto is near Windsor (in the same province) which is near Detroit - the location of the Seahawks opponent. Maybe it's you who needs the map.
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Toronto is 5 to 6 hours one way from Detroit. Considering I live in the province (and have lived in Toronto)..I don't need a map. Toronto NFL fans are Bills fans...being only 90 minutes away from Buffalo. They don't get Detroit TV and are not likely to go to a Lions game unless they're going for the weekend. As CTListener points out..the Blue Jays are the national team and have die hard fans all over the country. Those fans going to games in Seattle live in Victoria and Vancouver. Ontario sports fans are very regional...and yes, we do follow the NFL up here very closely.
 
mimo said:
Toronto NFL fans are Bills fans...being only 90 minutes away from Buffalo. They don't get Detroit TV and are not likely to go to a Lions game unless they're going for the weekend.
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A day trip to Buffalo or a weekend in Detroit? Tough choice! You know, I'd be thinking "staycation."
 
bobdavcav said:
My issue with sports talk is that in some markets it's done so much that it's overkill. In Portland for example, KKCW pulls nearly triple the share as all the sports stations combined. Is there really that much money in sports talk to justify 4 sports stations in a market? I'd be interested in the proportion of KKCW's billing to the sports stations combined. Up here, the only station I'd flip is, as has been discussed on this board before, 1090. The other two, 1380 and 850, don't really have that much coverage overlap.
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From what I understand -- the experts here can chip in if they want -- sports talk does well even with lower than average ratings because it's one of the few formats that caters to men. The other format targeted mainly towards men being rock.
 
FWIW, the Buffalo Bills did play one home game a year for like five years from roughly 2009 through 2014 in Toronto. The death of owner Ralph Wilson and the spat between potential new owners (including a group that wanted to move the team to Toronto, headed by Jon Bon Jovi of all people) ended that little experiment. The cities are about 1.5 hours apart by car if memory serves.
 
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