8-25-13
That's the question author Bob Greene asks in a piece written at CNN.com and it's one radio stations have to ponder. How many ads are too many before listeners and fans decide the game they love to listen to on radio has become nothing more than three hours worth of advertiser drop-ins. As play-by-play broadcast rights to professional sports teams skyrocket, stations are now selling everything from the umpires reviewing lineup cards, to the first pitch of the game, to the first relief pitcher coming in from the bullpen (think Rolaids). Entercom's Weezie Kramer sounds like she understands there's a line that cannot be crossed. ?Our philosophy is to run a cleaner broadcast and produce the best listener experience.? WEEI in Boston carries the Boston Red Sox. Kramer was quoted in THIS New York Times story on the subject.
Phillies announce Scott Frankle said in the Times piece, ?You realize that they?re there to pay for the broadcast. So I?m certainly not begrudging that. But you still want some integrity in the broadcast.? The Times did some research and discovered that on July 4, WCBS had 61 drop-ins during a Yankees-Twins game and a Mets-Pirates game had 21. Former CBS GM in New York Joel Hollander said, "The quantity of WCBS?s in-game advertising on Yankee games was directly related to the rights fee it paid. The bottom line is WCBS writes the check and, like the rest of sports, it?s a huge money grab. They?re paying $13 million or $14 million a year for the Yankees. It?s hard to recoup that.?
Greene says baseball on radio creates a special bond with the locals. "Baseball on the radio remains free. Unlike viewers of cable TV or subscribers to satellite radio, fans of home-team games on their hometown radio stations don't have to pay a cent to listen. The sound of it all is very much what the sound has been forever. Because the pace of the game is leisurely, local play-by-play announcers, over a 162-game season, develop a relationship with their listeners unique in sports. They have to talk a lot, even when there's not much going on down on the field, and the audience grows accustomed to, and comfortable with, their relaxed voices and their heard-but-not-seen personalities. And that's just during routine games. At certain moments, radio broadcasts of ballgames can become part of the very fabric of a town -- the authentication of how sports can help define the meaning of community."
Greene writes about the relationship a baseball radio announcer can have with a fan. "I remember talking once with a woman in her 80s. She was residing in an assisted-living facility; her husband had died the year before, and the end of their lifetime of long conversations in the evenings had left a void. She told me that, even though she had never been much of a baseball fan, she found herself tuning in, each evening, to the strong-signal of WLW Radio out of Cincinnati. For three hours, she said, she would listen to Marty Brennaman and Joe Nuxhall broadcast the Reds' games. Their voices -- reliable, unhurried -- became her companions. A part of life she could count on."
Much like how many spots is too many spots during an hour of music, another unknown is how many drop-in sponsor ads is too many before the listener hits the snooze button. "That foul ball was sponsored by Purdue chicken."
(8/25/2013 8:12:02 PM)
When a poorly disguised gnad-scratch is sponsored - it's too much.
(8/25/2013 7:07:43 PM)
I think this musical satire heard on NPR captures the moment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sczpnXUDsmE
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