And you thought Houston was a saturated sports radio market....

jdh008 · Oct 27, 2011

Memphis now has five, count 'em, five sports radio stations.

New York City has two sports radio stations.

Memphis has five.

At that, radio consultant David Pearlman laughs.

"That's a lot of sports talk," Pearlman said, before chuckling once more.

It's not a joke. It's the reality of the local market after last week's switch of WMC-AM 790 from a classic country format to carrying Fox Sports Radio programming and some spillover in live events from WMFS-AM/FM's growing portfolio.

Memphis, which ratings company Arbitron says is the nation's 51st-largest market with just shy of 1.1 million listeners 12 and over, doesn't lack for options for local sports fans.

On any given day in the city, one can hear The Commercial Appeal's columnist, CBSSports.com's national college basketball reporter, a host whose recent guests include former Vice President Dick Cheney and the smooth sponsor segues of the business' local patriarch. Play-by-play voices of seven teams pop up when their events are going on. (University of Memphis sports, perhaps the most lucrative live property in town, aren't even on a sports station. Tigers games air on WREC-AM 600, a news/talk station.)

Though it's hard for the listener to find a downside with all the options, the crowded market has raised eyebrows inside the business, with whispers about just who will survive and how they'll do it.

"It's absurd," said George Lapides, whose show, currently on WHBQ-AM 560, has been airing for four decades. "There's not room for more than two."

KQPN-AM 730 host Chris Vernon, whose station held the Fox Sports Radio affiliation until last week, hopes the originality of his program will stand out.

"Of course there is too much sports radio, but what I have always counted on is that there's not enough good sports radio," Vernon said.

WMFS-FM 92.9, which has been broadcasting as the local ESPN Radio affiliate for about two years and simulcasting on WMFS-AM 680, won the sports ratings battle in September. It narrowly edged WHBQ in Arbitron's estimates.

WHBQ, which is home to Lapides and a full schedule of local talk throughout the day, is the legacy name in the sports radio market. It went to an all-sports format almost 20 years ago.

KQPN doesn't subscribe to ratings, making it difficult to measure just how competitive the station is. Its 1,000-watt tower is located in West Memphis, sometimes making it difficult to pick up in eastern Shelby County.

The flip of WMC from classic country to sports means a third sports radio station in Entercom's six-signal local portfolio.

Local market manager Dan Barron characterized the move as a matter of supply: With the recent moves Entercom has made gobbling up play-by-play affiliations -- including the offseason acquisition of the Grizzlies -- it needed somewhere to air the programming.

So Barron said he began to seek sports affiliations for WMC-AM. He said he was about to sign a contract with another syndicated network when Fox contacted him, seeking to switch its syndicated programming from KQPN.

Vernon took a more dim view of the move. In a passionate monologue that started one of his shows last week, he characterized Entercom as out to get him, a small business owner who operates every aspect of his program.

"If you're them, why would you want to create competition for yourself?" Vernon said a couple of days later. "... If you own a McDonald's, would you buy a Burger King and put it up next to it? Not unless you're trying to put the mom and pop across the street out."

Said Barron: "Nothing could be further from the truth."

Regardless, Vernon is plowing forward with a different concept. Instead of just three hours a day of his show, it has expanded to 21. Vernon now loops a recording of his 3-6 p.m. show until noon the next day, when the station airs syndicated talker Sean Pendergast leading into the live start of another Vernon show.

The station is branded Verno Radio, playing off of Vernon's nickname.

Pearlman, a former executive for Infinity/CBS who lives in Massachusetts, said sports radio is growing in popularity among radio conglomerates, especially in sports hotbeds.

Pearlman said he's seeing a trend toward FM sports talk stations, although traditionally it is a niche filled mostly by AM stations.

Pearlman credits Arbitron's new Portable People Meter, a more advanced way of gathering ratings data than the traditional diary system, as showing owners more of the benefits of sports radio.

Pearlman's advice to the Memphis competitors is simple: "Local, local, local wins in radio -- especially in sports," Pearlman said.

But to analyze the sports radio marketplace in Memphis in the context of for-sure winners and losers may be drawing too firm a conclusion. Could all five survive and thrive? Those in charge hope so.

"I think there's room enough in Memphis for more sports," Barron said. "...Everybody has their own model. The recipe we like is a balance of national and local and the other guys do a very good job of lots and lots of local content, and I take my hat off to them."

Lapides isn't so sure.

He doesn't think companies can make money selling national programming and doesn't think Memphis will be a five-station market in another 12-18 months.

"It's questionable whether two can be real successful financially," Lapides said, emphasizing "two." "There's no way if you know the business that this many can be financially successful. It's really dumb to do that, to be doing this."

Crowded dial

Memphis has five radio signals broadcasting sports programming. The lineup:

KQPN-AM 730: Local talker Chris Vernon broadcasts live from 3-6 p.m. and on a tape-delay loop for much of the next 21 hours. Home of Mississippi State games and other nationally syndicated events.

WHBQ-AM 560: Almost exclusively local programming during the day, including longtime local talker George Lapides in the morning. Home of Redbirds and Ole Miss games.

WMC-AM 790: The newest addition to the market, broadcasting national Fox Sports Radio programming with plans to be the home for live events previously found on WMFS-AM/FM.

WMFS-AM 680/WMFS-FM 92.9: The local ESPN Radio affiliate, play-by-play home of Grizzlies, Titans, Cardinals and University of Tennessee, and home of talkers Gary Parrish and Eric Hasseltine.
Click to expand...

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/oct/26/radio-wave/

Dairy Ashford · Oct 27, 2011

I'm guessing sports radio is like their NPR, business radio or classical music stations, just like Titans jerseys and flaming Earnhardt hats are loafers and dress slacks.

Fyreball · Oct 27, 2011

And yet Titan Rick continues to ruin our lives down here in Houston......

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