As a black man and a huge sports junky I am bothered by 710 ESPN and Sports Radio KJR here in Seattle. Because their happens to be ZERO regular African American hosts on both stations. No diversity of opinions. It is a fact that whites and African Americans think differently about every thing. Including sports. As a result a sport like the NBA is not discussed on sports radio here in Seattle. Hosts like morning show host Mike Salk on 710 refuses to talk about the NBA for than a minute. He has said right on the air how he dislikes the NBA and loves MLB. To basically have a studio full of white folks giving opinions on African Americans in the NFL who they CANNOT relate to is to me RACISM. MLB is a sport that African Americans do not care about. Young African American youth turn to football/hoops by age 12. The white hosts on KJR/710 refuse to discuss this topic. There is NO EXCUSE for 710 ESPN and Sports Radio KJR to not have a regular African American voice as part of their on air staff. NO EXCUSE!! The city of Seattle is a top radio/tv market. This should not happen. It seems in order not to discuss this topics many of the hosts on KJR and 710 have PUT ME ON A BLOCK ON SOCIAL MEDIA!!! SAD SAD SAD!!!
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Zero African American Regular Hosts On Sports Radio KJR and 710 ESPN In Seattle
- Thread starter gcurvey
- Start date
Great idea, ending RACISM in sports radio. Can you give us the names of 10 qualified, black, sports broadcasters, available for hire, not already working at other radio stations (because white or black, stations will not participate in a bidding war for talent $$$), and where have they previously worked? Ten names ________ OK, Five names.
A few things. First, I don't necessarily disagree with your comments if all you say is indeed true, but 1) You mention you were blocked from their social media. Normally it takes a bit more than just a disagreement with or strong opinion about a station to cause them to block you from their social media altogether. 2) While this site is for discussing all aspects of the radio businesses and related topics and your comments and opinions are certainly welcome here, I don't think you're going to do much to change or improve the situation just by posting here. You may be more effective reaching out to station management, or their corporate ownership, in a respectful manner, of course.
Gee, I wonder if the reason for that is that the NBA pulled the rug out from metro Seattle when the Sonics moved to OKC, 13 years ago. No team, no talk. I would expect a lack of NBA talk to continue in your market until Seattle is awarded an expansion franchise. They keep talking about it, but it's anybody's guess when or if it'll happen.
Is there coverage of University of Washington basketball? They're not that good right now, but at least they are there. Given that they just forfeited tonight's game vs UCLA due to COVID should merit quite a bit of discussion.
Sports radio is dominated by football everywhere, not just in cities that lack an NBA team. Listen to sports radio in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, or Denver tomorrow. It will be a whole lot about the NFL and, particularly in Atlanta, college football.
But regardless, it isn't the role of sports hosts to relate to the players. The players probably hate the sports hosts if their paths ever cross. The hosts' job is to relate to the audience, an audience which is probably almost all white in a market with Seattle's overall composition. Sports radio is a format that tends to skew white even in racially diverse markets.
But regardless, it isn't the role of sports hosts to relate to the players. The players probably hate the sports hosts if their paths ever cross. The hosts' job is to relate to the audience, an audience which is probably almost all white in a market with Seattle's overall composition. Sports radio is a format that tends to skew white even in racially diverse markets.
You do bring up a valid concern re: lack of African-American representation on the local sports radio stations. Gee Scott "graduated" from sports talk on 710 to a daily political/news program on the higher rated sister station, 97.3 KIRO-FM. If 4 Black folks were hired between the two stations tomorrow they would not be talking about the NBA, though. The NBA is pretty much hated by most long term Seattle sports fans like me, and not even on the radar of folks in the local area who are newer to sports fandom.
Who are they going to talk about, the Blazers? Local sports yakkers are hired to talk about local sports. If you want to hear national sports talk, which will absolutely include NBA coverage, you have 710 and 950 overnights and much of the weekend, and 1090 24/7.
Who are they going to talk about, the Blazers? Local sports yakkers are hired to talk about local sports. If you want to hear national sports talk, which will absolutely include NBA coverage, you have 710 and 950 overnights and much of the weekend, and 1090 24/7.
There are African American national hosts audible in Seattle. The nighttime ESPN radio guy Freddie Coleman is audible on KIRO AM at night (and across the nation) and he's African American. The Odd Couple (Chris Broussard and Rob Parker) are on Fox Sports Radio and they're both African American. They're heard in Seattle (1090 KJR) during early evenings.
You make a good point about the local hosts, though.
RE: the NBA: no local host is going to spend much time talking about the NBA unless it's playoffs season, when local basketball fans might actually be a bit interested. However, usually the NBA playoffs are happening during baseball season, and the Mariners draw a lot of interest in Seattle.
NBA fans in Seattle felt screwed when the league allowed the moving of the Supersonics to OKC. After the NBA left fans in the lurch, Seattle NBA fans probably either lost interest or they follow large national teams, which already get plenty of coverage on the national sports radio shows. One can hear talk about the Lakers and Warriors any night on the national sports radio networks during basketball season.
You make a good point about the local hosts, though.
RE: the NBA: no local host is going to spend much time talking about the NBA unless it's playoffs season, when local basketball fans might actually be a bit interested. However, usually the NBA playoffs are happening during baseball season, and the Mariners draw a lot of interest in Seattle.
NBA fans in Seattle felt screwed when the league allowed the moving of the Supersonics to OKC. After the NBA left fans in the lurch, Seattle NBA fans probably either lost interest or they follow large national teams, which already get plenty of coverage on the national sports radio shows. One can hear talk about the Lakers and Warriors any night on the national sports radio networks during basketball season.
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You certainly make a good point. That said; I personally know many of the folks on the programming side at KJR. I seriously doubt they would intentionally disregard any on air candidate based on race. And honestly, I don't think this is just a KJR or KIRO thing. If you did a review of other national or local sports talk shows, chances are likely you would find a similar issue. That in itself begs the question: Are there not enough qualified African American talk hosts to represent a fairer mix of hosts talking about sports? The black community seems to be better represented on political talk shows than sports. Wonder why that is?
As I think someone else mentioned; Seattle sports fans are fickle. When Howard Shultz ran the Seattle Supersonics financially into the ground, while behind the scenes worked a deal to sell the team, a lot of "fans" jumped ship to other teams or sports. In other words-'the NBA is dead to them'. Obviously that doesn't explain all the angles that you brought up, but it's definitely a factor.
Toxic topic. I agree that minority populations should continue to be be given preferential treatment based on past history. I also think employers should be given the right to hire the best candidate. I think most are still working through this though the civil rights act is now almost 60 years old.
I wouldn't call the topic toxic. Racial inequities should be discussed. That's the only way things get brought to the surface and hopefully resolved.
Seems to me the OP presented it in a different light than you interpreted it. I read it as an observation followed by a question: Considering the number of the number of athletes of color, how are white sports talk hosts supposed to relate or understand the athlete's unique life experience? To me, it's both a fair observation from a listener perspective, and question.
The NBA is not talked about in Seattle because the Sonics were stolen some 14 years ago. Salk is just a host who is bitter about that.
My interpretation isn’t important. What is important is all pro athletes are treated with respect.
My interpretation isn’t important. What is important is all pro athletes are treated with respect.
I must have missed that part. How were the Sonics 'stolen'?
Really? Apparently not a Sonics fan.
www.thenation.com
Grand Theft Hoops: The Stealing of the Sonics
Two Oklahoma corporate raiders have stolen one of Seattle's most beloved sports franchises with an unlikely accomplice, the NBA's commissioner, David Stern.
www.thenation.com
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Let's look at music radio stations, and confine the discussion just to the music, not the jocks or anything else.
There are dozens of partisan groups for different kinds of music. And many of the members of each of those groups would not like it if "their" station started playing music they did not care for. If a rock stations starts playing lots of Celine Dione songs, the rockers would revolt. And if the country station added a bit of Fleetwood Mac, the fans would likely, all be annoyed and tune out.
Getting into ethnic and racial territory, if an AC station starts playing hip hop and urban that is nowhere near crossover material, the AC soccer moms are going to be similarly disgruntled. Or if the Classic Hits stations starts playing Regional Mexican banda music in Spanish, the audience would disappear instantly.
So there is, as you say, a difference in the appeal of certain sports and teams based on race. A sports station that targets 25-54 white men, who outnumber Black men in the same age group in Seattle overwhelmingly is not going to sacrifice a group that makes up two-thirds of the market for one that represents less than one-fourteenth of the market (6.7% to be exact).
Radio stations program for the largest audience available. If a certain format attracts mostly... or all... whites it is not going to annoy that group to appeal to a smaller group if, in fact, doing so would lessen the listening by the core.
I ran into situations programming Spanish language stations where folks from other nations objected that "none of their music" was played on a station that was designed to appeal to the 90% of the Hispanic market that was from Mexico. We were not discriminating against those other listeners... there just were not enough of them to warrant a station licensee dedicating a facility to serving their different interests and tastes.
In the argument you make, the issue is not racial but quantitative. If spending more time on basketball as you define it would please more African Americans, but at the same time cause disengagement by white males, no licensee is going to make such a move.
That said, I do think that a smart sports station in your market would have someone available as a guest who could participate with an African American perspective on basketball subjects where there would be a productive and engaging discussion on the Black perspective so that all those white guys understood that there are differences in perspective.
Just want to add a footnote that KEXP successfully did this in Seattle with music that a AAA station would have never thought of touching 5 years ago. Turns out the alienated fans were replaced by new fans that are much more loyal.
Sports radio with regular African American talent seems like much less of a stretch in Seattle.
Also somewhat related: Seattle now gets it's hiphop from KEXP, not KUBE. The rule books are becoming obsolete.
PS: I think this is a great topic to discuss.
We'd call that a change in format; AAA is a difficult format per se today so finding variants is a good opportunity.
And that is why I suggested having experts that can be called on to comment when appropriate. The cable news channels thrive on that and radio should take the hint.
Or stations are just adjusting. Current based formats evolve quite rapidly, so the blend of music will be different even from one year to the next.
Definitely.
Actually I worked with the team at a corporate level, and saw what happened after it was sold to Mr. Shultz and his ownership group. There was a lot in the background shielded from the "fans".Really? Apparently not a Sonics fan.
Grand Theft Hoops: The Stealing of the Sonics
Two Oklahoma corporate raiders have stolen one of Seattle's most beloved sports franchises with an unlikely accomplice, the NBA's commissioner, David Stern.
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