Why does Detroit need three sports stations?

[dtowncitylover]

Because Drew Lane needs a job?

97.1, 1130, and now 105.1...

http://www.freep.com/article/2013081...t-Sports-Radio

Is this really necessary?

[EastsideAl]

Sports is one of the few things that still attracts serious ad money to radio. Especially now that the appeal of fulminating sclerotic white nutballs seems to [[finally) be on the wane.

[poobert]

I don't really mind sports stations when a game is on but when the bro-brahs on 97.1 start attempting to articulate anything besides sports...I gets real retarded, real fast.

[emu steve]

Talk radio [[and television) is cheap to produce and gets niche markets [[e.g. sports fans).

[Zug]

I don't really mind sports stations when a game is on but when the bro-brahs on 97.1 start attempting to articulate anything besides sports...I gets real retarded, real fast.

I can't agree with you more. I used to listen to sports talk every day. Then about 2 years ago, I endured a week of non-sports talk [[including discussions on racism and people moving from Michigan). After feeling irritated going into work for an entire week from hearing idiotic statements, I bought a cord to connect my iPhone to my car stereo & started listening to podcasts. I have never looked back. I literally only listen to sports talk radio if there's a sporting event.

[leland_palmer]

We have 5, 1270AM and 1090AM.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

This thread is silly. Do we NEED another sports radio station? No. But we don't NEED radio at all. We don't need tons of things there are. They are in business. They employ people, pay taxes and hope to make money. Who is anyone here to say they aren't needed? I run a restaurant. We don't NEED restaurants. Everyone could eat at home. If life were about just getting what you need, we'd all be hunters & gatherers.

[dtowncitylover]

We have 5, 1270AM and 1090AM.

Jeez, I forgot about those. 1270 was sports, then talk, then sports again.

And you're right, Mikey, this thread is silly, but I wanted to know other people's feelings on this.

[313WX]

What can you do? It's a blue collar town that's crazy about its sports. Market forces are at work.

[Zug]

This thread is silly. Do we NEED another sports radio station? No. But we don't NEED radio at all. We don't need tons of things there are. They are in business. They employ people, pay taxes and hope to make money. Who is anyone here to say they aren't needed? I run a restaurant. We don't NEED restaurants. Everyone could eat at home. If life were about just getting what you need, we'd all be hunters & gatherers.

Are you a friend of Drew Lane? Because it's not necessary to try to ridicule the guy for starting the thread. lol. Your response is like someone asking "Why do we need a second bridge?" and you saying, "We don't NEED any bridges. We could use boats or swim." Or, "Why do we need to expand I-75?" and you saying, "We don't NEED streets. We can walk where we need to go."

I just took the question as a colloquial way of asking about demand for another sports station. I don't really think there is demand for more sports talk. However, as some has said, perhaps sports is one of the few ways to profit in radio.

[DetroitPlanner]

One for the libs, one for the tea partiers, and one for the rest of us!

[professorscott]

I'm going to take the initial post at face value.

It's not likely Detroit will support the number of sports stations it now has over the long term. But that doesn't prohibit someone starting a new one, and what they probably have in mind is to overtake one of the existing sports stations and force it out of that format.

If I open a pizzeria down the block from a pizzeria, my goal isn't peaceful coexistence; my goal is to be better [[or cheaper, or something) and force the other fellow off the block.

Now, I think Mr. Lane is an excellent radio host, and will be a formidable competitor in this niche. I would not be happy to be, right now, the owner of one of his competitors. The questions not yet answered are, first, will he pull listeners away from the existing sports stations, and second, will some former WRIF listeners tune in [[despite the change in formula - that is, no Mr. Clark).

WRIF, in the morning during the couple decades that Mr. Lane and Mr. Clark held court, was not a rock music program; it was talk, and a decent percentage of the time was spent on sports. This is not a huge format shift for Mr. Lane.

By the way, I've been asked about my peculiar habit of referring to well-known people almost exclusively by their last names. Your kindly old professor is, well, old-fashioned. In days past it was not common to refer to people whom one did not know personally by their first names. The prof is fighting a rear-guard [[and, likely, hopeless) action to preserve a quaint and polite tradition.

So, for example, I can refer to the untimely death of Shawn Burr [[I knew him), but when Mr. Yzerman passes, hopefully many years hence, if the Prof still lives and breathes [[unlikely) he will have to remain Mr. Yzerman. Unless, meantime, someone will be kind enough to make the introduction.

[Gistok]

When I think of sports talk radio... I think of the Superbowl blackout.... lol...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2uTnADBBrg

[DTWflyer]

It ultimately comes down to money. Radio is a business, and essentially there are 4 major players who own all of the radio stations in the Detroit Market.
Greater Media owns WRIF 101.1, WMGC 105.1, and WCSX 94.7. The market dynamics for radio, like newspaper, and television have changed rapidly over the past decade with the rise in other forms of media and electronic devices. They have had to adapt in this new era of podcasts, iTunes, satelitte radio, and smartphones.

97.1 has produced solid rating, much in part to the fact they have play-by-play for the 4 major sports teams in town. Greater Media likely though they had a better chance of making more money by flipping 105.1 from adult contemporary [[aka soccer mom & dentist office music) to sports talk [[aka guy talk). The 105.1 flip will be judged by Greater Media as to whether they can operate it profitably. As long as revenue can justify the costs they will be ok. Right now they are starting out rather cheap, with most of the day being ESPN radio national content.

Radio is one of those things that we few sort of like a utility, but ultimately it is a for-profit business.

[jcole]

Because we can

[Hermod]

No one in this day and age of CD players, satellite radio, IPods, IPhones, IPads, and other means of providing music in their cars is going to listen to AM radio for music. AM radio can only survive [[barely) as cheap ethnic language, all-news, all-sports, or all-political format stations. Some FM stations can survive as music stations if they have very popular disc jockeys, but I can see FM going in the same direction as AM. Broadcast radio is going to be strictly a bottom feeder in the media of tomorrow.

[sirrealone]

97.1 had a monopoly on sports on the FM dial. A flip to give them competition in this space was just a matter of time.

[DetroitPlanner]

Duh, we have one for the Joe Louis Arena, the Broadway for Ford Field, and Grand Circus for TIger Stadium! What not those kind of stations? Never mind.

[RedeemerKid]

I am reminded of a quote from a GM executive about the launch of the H2. When asked if America really needed such a gas guzzling enormous and impractical vehicle, he said "No. There is not a person in the US of A who needs an H2. But there are at least 60,000 who want one because we are sold out for the model year".

It was a profitable vehicle for GM for a couple years.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

97.1 re-hashes stories that occurred days and weeks earlier. Especially during the 5:00am to 6:00am time slot. Must be taped programming.

[motz]

Because of jobs, duh.

[Goose]

if the beginning of the 105.1 show is any indication of how the show is going to be than it won't last long... they played old bits from WRIF that had nothing to do with sports.... I could only listen for the first 5 minutes and turned it off... tuned back in later and it was OK but they have a LOT of kinks to work out...

[bailey]

if the beginning of the 105.1 show is any indication of how the show is going to be than it won't last long... they played old bits from WRIF that had nothing to do with sports.... I could only listen for the first 5 minutes and turned it off... tuned back in later and it was OK but they have a LOT of kinks to work out...

Caught a few minutes of it too.. Had no idea what was going on. I did not know the format change had happened already. Makes me wonder what sort of ownership/interest the now shitcanned Mike Clark has on that content that was being used.

[poobert]

As much as I complain about literally everything, Detroit has some pretty good radio options. It seems like as soon as you leave the orbit of Metro Detroit, the west coast, or the east coast, every other station is new age country or new age Christian [[sorry, I like my church music to sound like Mozart, not some shitty Nickelback wannabe).

101.9 WDET is great for news in the morning, but sometimes their music is a bit too wonky for me. As NPR they allegedly have a liberal stance but to me it is just good, in depth reporting and stories. 90.9 WRCJ is great classical and jazz [[though I feel their classical is stronger.

Fear not, there is relief on your radio dial from the meatheads.

[sirrealone]

Given that all the staff for the show was new, it's not like they had time beforehand to get to know the studio, equipment, and everything else. It was the first day and they were going in hot in a live studio. Give it time!