What are we competing with?
My first job in sports radio was as a Program Director, Talk-Show Host and Play-by-Play announcer in Lexington, Kentucky. This was back in the Summer of 1994, and I was so excited to have the opportunity. I was fortunate to collaborate with people who took me under their wing and taught me the ropes. The radio station I was at was a new start-up in sports. There was already a sports station in the market and a big news talk that had the rights to University of Kentucky sports. The first thing I was told about was the competition and where we needed to generate audience. In short, I knew we were up against two radio stations and that impacted on our content strategy.
My journey continued to Salt Lake City UT, Portland OR, and eventually Dallas TX in 2001. At each stop, the focus was on the one or two stations that were programming sports content. Radio at this time was still using the paper diary to track audience engagement. The rollout of the Portable People Meter did not take place until 2007, and it took until 2010 to launch in the forty-eight markets that Nielsen has today. The biggest challenge of the diary was the amount of time one had to wait for the data.
After Dallas, my next stop was in Bristol, CT at ESPN Radio. The biggest observation from my time there was the constant change we started to see as we moved into the PPM era. The decision was eventually made by ESPN to focus more on Audio than Radio. This was an acknowledgement that change was going to be constant and would impact all content providers. By the early 2010s, the cell phone was becoming mainstream and was engaged in driving audience engagement.
The days of just thinking about the other sports radio station in your community as the competition was basically over. Technology has changed how content is presented and how the programming people want is distributed. In addition, demographic behavior has changed in terms of what certain parts of the audience want.
The big question in 2026….no matter what kind of content you are producing, the competition features a saturation of options and a fragmentation of consumers. Sports Radio is still relevant, however the content provider needs to understand that the listener/viewer is in charge and if the programming does not meet their needs they will go elsewhere and may not come back. What is the first thing you see when a talented personality is let go? He or She may start a podcast, which is another piece of competition to deal with in every local market. You must remember, there are numerous places that people can turn to for the content they want.
It is also important to know in the current environment formats are not just competing against each other. They have to deal with other formats based on the events of the day. Places such as YouTube and Spotify are resulting in more options for people to find new sources of the content they want.
The landscape for content is only going to get more competitive. Every year there will be more places to hear the same subjects discussed by numerous hosts. It is critical that in planning that everyone understand the challenges and opportunities as our competition is everywhere.
What can you do today at your station? Here are some important considerations
- Position your content as a multi-platform brand.
- Put together a list of all your competitors and discuss frequently with your team.
- Identify talent that can generate audience regardless of platform.
- Consistently monitor what you believe to be your top five competitors.
- Schedule regular coaching/feedback sessions with an emphasis of having everyone understand that content is an on-demand priority to the consumer regardless of platform.
- Deliver content that connects with the audience in 5 seconds.
- Develop audience tracking beyond traditional radio ratings.
