I have the exact opposite problem with the Chron's sports coverage.. they almost completely ignore local stuff in favor of trying to be the "NY Times" of the South..
I disagree here. Houston is constantly potrayed as a huge sports market in the national media - mostly due to the star power on our teams (McGrady, Yao, Clemens, Biggio, Bagwell) and also due to the recent Super Bowl and now the NBA All-Star game. We're probably only behind NY, Boston, LA and Chicago in coverage.
Apparently, people do listen to it here in Dallas...and that's just the top half of the whole radio station list from Nielsen. And I thought I would compare it with the Houston sports radio stations: Not very many people listen to 610 or 790.....
Any team not in NY, New England, or LA is going to get overlooked... unless you have a winning team in Chicago (see the Bears/White Sox hype die away after they start sucking it up again) or a winning team in Philadelphia. I stand behind the fact that if the Seahawks played in one of the above cities, they'd be touted as one of the greatest teams of all-time... and the betting line for the game would be Seahakws by 12.
Here we go... The numbers you are posting are 12+. If you *really* want to know what's going on in the coveted Male 25-54 demo...KBME had their best book since flipping to sports. Charlie has had a tremendous impact. He, for lack of a better selection of words, is simply stunning. I miss him. That being said our numbers destroy KBME's. We just had our best book ever. There has never been a time in the history of 610 AM that more people were listening for a longer period of time. We are balancing the three major sports better than we ever have. John and Lance and MArc and Rich are the most listened to AM stations in houston. More than KTRH. More than KPRC. And substantially more than KBME. Matt and Adam are not just "on the map" they are making a run at the higher rated FM stations. The ticket is phenomenal. They are the Mecca of SportsRadio. I have my theories...Basically it is the fact that when they launched (within months of 610 Sports Radio) in 94 they did it with a BANG. Billboards, full staff, TV spots, etc... They set the stage of what Dallas people expected out of Sports Radio. In Houston the previous regime kinda trickled out sports radio. A local show, some Prime Sports National crap, some overnight paid programming, and NO marketing. People in Houston had NO expectation of what sports radio even was. It was positioned to be something, kinda like the sports page in the paper, that you peeked at to see what was going on but didn't "dive into". In Dallas they created a sub-culture of sports enthusiasts. 610 was launched to compete with the sports TV and sports newspaper. The Ticket was launched as a direct affront to all entertainment. The folks at Susquehanna did an amazing job, unprecedented in Radio never mind sports radio, and it has paid off amazingly. The guys that ran 610 at the time screwed up. But now we are humming along. 610 is a major player in the radio advertising market along with KRBE, KTBZ, KLTN, and the other majors. We are staffed well. Our talent is good. Our coverage is good. Things are good. On to the individuals... John and Lance are without parallel in AM drive in all of SportsRadio. They kick ass. Rome destroys Patrick in Houston. Marc and Rich have more listeners for a longer time than Charlie and Rich EVER had. How strange is that to you guys? I know the overall feel of this board is that Charlie has a better product. But the ratings say otherwise. The ratings say that folks like what we are doing. And the nightshift is seeing alltime highs in listenership. Weekends suck. Nights suck. But that is soon to change Say what you want. Bag on Vandy. Bag on Granato. Things are better than they have ever been. That does not invalidate your opinions. As many on this board can attest the things said on this board, when they bear merit, tend to happen on the station. The things that said out of immature frustration tend to go in one ear and out the other.
mateo.. oh I know, and I said they have done well recently..... I was commenting on the fact that until two years ago they had never made it past the first round of the playoffs.. so I'm not sure that most outside of houston would consider them to have a "history" of winning.. considering until recently they hadn't ever done anything in playoffs. .. when I think of having a "history" of winning.. I think at least some playoff series wins .. after the last couple years they are able to start being considered to have more of a history of winning though.
Isn't it pretty reasonable to expect 610 to beat out 790 for several years? They're a new station, 610 has been around a while.. It's going to take a while for the foothold to be established. As far ratings being up, I'd imagine all sports related ratings in Houston to be up for 2005.. 1) UT National Champs 2) Astros World Series 3) Rockets get Tmac 4) Texans.. well.. GET THE #1 PICK WOO!! I wouldn't use such harsh language as "we destroyed them". That is what you're supposed to do to a new station. Getting people to program a new station into their car radio buttons is like pulling teeth.
interesting chance, I was living in Austin at the time but I didn't even realize houston had a sports station till 96.
mateo.. oh and I agree on the Tennessean.... don't know much about nashville banner though been gone a while I suppose
Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way...For being one of the more attractive sports markets, Houston just doesnt get the adequate coverage...I agree with the McClain deal- he is too old and just really thinks he's some hotshot...No one even mentioned Feigen, and that was expected because he doesnt do so well either, even tho his team has Yao and McGrady...I can only imagine what would happen if Houston had a Jay Mariotti, Bob Ryan, or Bill Plaschke covering sports here- we'd get more fans to the games and people would definitely start paying more attention to Houston... I will say this- the sports talk here is a whole lot more informative and organized than the print media...
He may be.. but every time he comes on the radio he sounds like an old codger babbling on and on about virtually nothing..
i think the city they report in is more important to the reputations of Mariotti, Ryan or Plaschke than the fact that they're Mariotti, Ryan or Plaschke.
Is he really? I was unaware of that, and I hadnt seen or heard about him on any of the national shows...
yeah, he is. they have him on radio talk shows around the country. he has a HOF vote in the NFL. as i understand it, he's thought of pretty highly. i don't know how he's any less hip than the example of Bob Ryan.
they also were fortunate enough to launch at the outset of the jimmy and jerry divorce, which, as you can imagine, was a GIGANTIC story here in dallas. i'm sure 610's upkick of late is tied directly to the astros/WS and the VY/bush uproar. but within the industry, the ticket is the holy grail, revered by program directors everywhere. they've redefined sports radio, essentially by accident. they had the bold initiative to be local from the get-go but their hosts had trouble filling 4-5 hour blocks of programming, so, inevitably, "guy" talk came up as a way to fill the void and it caught fire.
