Yes, I tend to agree. Male based sports shows perhaps are coming to an end. espn has been a leader with this and just now it is going local.
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"Mike Salk Show" debuts on KIRO-AM on Sept. 7
- Thread starter DN14224
- Start date
It's sad to see what has been (reportedly) happening at KIRO, because I've been very impressed with their programming over the past few years. As I've already stated, their shows have offered in-depth analysis and come across as extremely intelligent. While I also think there is great programming on KJR as well, their image was tarnished with the scandal that broke a few years ago. While that particular scenario shouldn't define an entire radio station, it might shed a little bit of light on the culture of sports radio as a whole. Some might recall another scandal from a few years back involving the NFL Quarterback, Tom Brady, hanging up on a sports talk show in Boston after they made some "boys club" remarks about his family. Traditional sports talk radio has received a bit of a bad reputation, and some of that reputation is probably deserved. I tend to think that most listeners of sports radio shows want programming that is intelligent, while simultaneously providing conversation and analysis. I'll probably tune out if I'm getting the "boys club" vibe.
I assume you mean Mitch Levy getting dropped in 2017 after being caught in a prostitution sting? It's worth noting a couple of things:
The "boys club" stuff was much more a KJR thing than a KIRO thing
It dropped off a lot after Levy was fired
I never hear anybody clamoring to bring it back. Like a lot of sexist gab, it wasn't really needed.
In our current media environment things have changed in the past few years. Male based sports stations are under scrutiny. Not sure how this ends, but sports stations should reflect the popularity of the teams, not based on the sex of participants. In other words, if the
male team draws more interest then that of a female team then that answers the question.
male team draws more interest then that of a female team then that answers the question.
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I'm not sure what you're saying here, because nobody is suggesting the Storm or Reign should get the same coverage as the Seahawks--nobody even mentioned these teams. Heck even a wildly popular men's team like the Sounders barely gets any coverage on KIRO. KJR does broadcast Sounders games and air the podcast, but the regular hosts almost never talk about them.
I wasn’t totally clear. If the sports stations spend more time on unpopular sports, regardless of gender, they are doing a disservice.
There hasn't been a call here, but when my mom was subscribing to the Seattle Times, I'd look over the sports section and see lots of coverage of the Reign and Storm and UW women's teams and no coverage of the T-birds hockey team or the Everett and Tacoma baseball teams, which draw larger crowds, so there is obviously a call somewhere for that sort of 'equality'.
There's a difference. The Thunderbirds and the minor league baseball games are glorified nights out of the house, the players are literally minor leaguers who want to be anywhere else, and no fan is truly interested in the score or in playoff races. The Reign and Storm and UW women's hoops, in contrast, are competing at the top level of the leagues they are playing in. I don't think the Times sports department has an agenda to prop up the women's teams; the newsworthiness is legitimate.
From a radio POV, obviously none of those teams are popular enough to earn rights fees themselves. Ask AM 1150, who's been cashing checks from the Thunderbirds and UW over the years to air games.
Sports interest still is male oriented. I am not making a judgment of this is right or wrong. I am just commenting on reality. Until that changes male sports will always get more attention by media.
Points well taken, but the audience draw of the minor league baseball teams, as well of the T-birds, are greater than the Reign, and sometimes greater than that of the other women's teams -- Storm included. So one would think that the region's largest newspaper would give the teams I mentioned a little more coverage than just a graph on the stats page. Hence my conclusion that some editorial choices had been made.
I think what Seatown is saying: That traditional pro-sports; NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, have a larger male audience than female, at least for radio and TV. Attendance for Sounder's games are great, because parents take their pee wee soccer-playing kids to games. I doubt you'll find as large numbers by percentage, listening to Sounders games over the radio.
This is why advertisers/agencies spend more ad dollars on traditional pro-sports: Beer, pickup trucks, snack foods, ED pills, insurance.
ED pills? Not quite yet! 
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