"Take that Calgary Puck!" — SN960 and Calgary sports media discussion

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Toonage

This is what its come to. Talking WWE for what seems like an hour this morning.

Rogers distributes WWE Network up here don't they? Huh.

Haven't turned on 960 since July 1st. Phone was dead this morning, so listened on my way into the office.

WWE pretty much the whole way. What a nightmare.

[GioforPM]

The sports scene is probably a nightmare to them as well. No hockey, no trades or signings. Basketball done. Jays are toast and now the trading deadline has passed. NFL hasn't started. The CFL is in uninteresting mid-season mode. Heck, there's no interesting golf, tennis, FIFA, etc.

[bubbsy]

Ugh, as an avid listener to morning sports radio, this is a painful time of year.

Despite being Aug, there's so much drama left in the NHL with all these unsigned stars, and teams clearly needing to make trades for cap reasons. Including the flames, where it's impossible to pencil in a "barring any rookie/camp surprises" line up. Yet, there is actually literally nothing to actually talk about, as everything appears to be in this weird holding pattern.

Outside of that, sports radio in Calgary focuses a lot on the stamps, and I have no interest left in the CFL unfortunately, or spend countless hours on things like food, movies, that result in me quickly stopping my live streaming. Then here in Toronto, almost all the aug radio waves focus on the blue jays, but that's also painful to listen to, as I don't really care enough to have deep analysis on a team that sucks this year, and is likely rebuilding for another year or two.

I desperately need some other hobbies.

Also, am kind of sad to hear Warrener go. Hearing him in the mornings was a nice connection to that cup run, and the iggy/kipper era. And though he didn't indulge in much as far as insider info or hot takes, I did appreciate his views on the state of the team/players.

[Harry Lime]

Top MLB prospect status, top NHL prospect status, top unsigned players in other hockey leagues, top storylines in other hockey leagues.

Get people excited about players that are up and coming or could come over. Maybe it's only one to three hours of programming a week, but there are some unplumbed depths there.

How about a weekly one hour in depth story, with a following one hour call in show.

I dunno, it seems that there are untapped areas.

[PepsiFree]

Yeah, I understand it's a dry season for sports news. But they do an exceptionally poor job of milking what little there is.

Wrestling should be an absolute last resort. It's not even a real sport. I understand it takes a very high degree of fitness and the people involved are definitely athletes, but it's a scripted TV show. Might as well run an hour talking about e-sports and videogames, at least that is some sort of competition without purely manufactured drama.

Give me an in-depth look at the Rogers Cup, F1, the Pan Am games, even the dumb Canadian Basketball team. Any actual sports talk will do.

[Dan403]

Wrestling isn’t a sport. The outcomes are pre-determined.

It more like the Ice-Capades with beer.

[Red Potato Standing By]

I dunno you watch some of the refereeing in the major sports, it is almost as if they are predetermined as well. I mean most hockey refs look like they are trying to dictate the outcome.

[TheScorpion]

Yeah, how are they not giving tennis any airtime? It's literally the Rogers Cup and it's full of Canadians.

[Ozy_Flame]

All this talk about other sports and not a mention of the CPL? For god sakes, Cavalry is in the semi-final of the Canadian Championship, just lost the first leg to Montreal Impact (MLS team), but came away with an away goal. If the Cavalry can score on home field next Wednesday and keep the game 1-0, we advance to the finals, most likely against Toronto FC.

If 960 wasn't talking about this at all that is just downright tragic and missing a huge segment worth talking about.

[FireGilbert]

There are plenty of great sports to talk about if you take the blinders off. Soccer, tennis, golf, F1, NFL preseason, and rugby to name a few.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

You know what they could really use? Less white people. There's have to be a few black guys in this city who wanna talk hockey for a few hours a day. How about Harnarayan Singh? They probably can't afford him.

Like where your head's at, but just fyi he's a diehard Edmonton Oilers fan.

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Harry Lime

Top MLB prospect status, top NHL prospect status, top unsigned players in other hockey leagues, top storylines in other hockey leagues.

Get people excited about players that are up and coming or could come over. Maybe it's only one to three hours of programming a week, but there are some unplumbed depths there.

How about a weekly one hour in depth story, with a following one hour call in show.

I dunno, it seems that there are untapped areas.

That is a truly tremendously tremendous idea. The crew would get the chance to flex their investigative/research muscles, craft their own specials (or series), upload them as inclusive podcasts after airing, and have a feedback/call-in show. We would get in-depth coverage of interesting topics of events from the sports world, recent or otherwise.

An in-depth look at the Raptors championship season. An examination of the new arena process. An investigative report into equalization of pay...the demise of the CWHL...an oral history of the 2004 Cup Run...and so on, and so forth.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Yamer

That is a truly tremendously tremendous idea. The crew would get the chance to flex their investigative/research muscles, craft their own specials (or series), upload them as inclusive podcasts after airing, and have a feedback/call-in show. We would get in-depth coverage of interesting topics of events from the sports world, recent or otherwise.

An in-depth look at the Raptors championship season. An examination of the new arena process. An investigative report into equalization of pay...the demise of the CWHL...an oral history of the 2004 Cup Run...and so on, and so forth.

This kind of content is actually very difficult to produce.

You're talking maybe 100 hours of work to produce 90 minutes of content.

[lazypucker]

The lack of knowledge of the hosts and also the reluctance of Rogers and the listeners for programming with other sports outside hockey, CFL football, baseball, and occasionally golf is what make 960 stale.

It is a problem where every time someone on the show brings up the NBA and then Boomer starts his "Sports I hate" shtick, he is not conditioning his listeners to accept anything different. And now the listeners will just turn off the radio whenever they are not talking about hockey.

There could be so many possibilities, say a tennis hour, golf hour, soccer hour, mma/boxing hour, motorsports/whatever hour every week. There, I got Monday to Friday covered.

Maybe even CalgaryPuck can sponsor a couple of hours can have a show to BS...

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

This kind of content is actually very difficult to produce.

You're talking maybe 100 hours of work to produce 90 minutes of content.

Oh I know, and I guess with Rogers' penchant for pinching pennies it's probably pretty pie in the sky.

However, I would be interested to see if the personalities would be interested in producing that kind of content. Perhaps a partnership with other organizations like The Athletic could make it more feasible.

I would definitely subscribe and listen to that kind of content.

[Boreal]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

This kind of content is actually very difficult to produce.

You're talking maybe 100 hours of work to produce 90 minutes of content.

That true.

But maybe Boomer & company can shift some of their prep work / research focus from their favourite food & jokes about their wives into something with a little more substance.

Maybe only...now hear me out.

50 hours of work for a 45 minute show on an interesting topic &...

50 hours looking into backlash against the way he makes nachos and what kind of food he should pick up for supper for his family?

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by nobles_point

That true.

But maybe Boomer & company can shift some of their prep work / research focus from their favourite food & jokes about their wives into something with a little more substance.

Maybe only...now hear me out.

50 hours of work for a 45 minute show on an interesting topic &...

50 hours looking into backlash against the way he makes nachos and what kind of food he should pick up for supper for his family?

Usually the thing that makes someone a good morning or afternoon show host is the opposite qualifications for producing long form journalism.

I've been reading this thread and I just don't know what people expect from a sports station in a city of a million people with only a single sport that matters to more than 50k people.

There just isn't enough content in this market to justify any added expense because it doesn't translate into any kind of revenue.

you're looking to attract the lowest common denominator for drive-time radio. If you want long form journalism or in-depth interviews, there are lots of podcasts available that are slowly but surely eating into any profitability left of sports radio.

Craig Custance has the best hockey podcast around right now.

The margins are pretty slim for canadian radio outside of Montreal and Toronto.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

The lack of knowledge of the hosts and also the reluctance of Rogers and the listeners for programming with other sports outside hockey, CFL football, baseball, and occasionally golf is what make 960 stale.

It is a problem where every time someone on the show brings up the NBA and then Boomer starts his "Sports I hate" shtick, he is not conditioning his listeners to accept anything different. And now the listeners will just turn off the radio whenever they are not talking about hockey.

There could be so many possibilities, say a tennis hour, golf hour, soccer hour, mma/boxing hour, motorsports/whatever hour every week. There, I got Monday to Friday covered.

Maybe even CalgaryPuck can sponsor a couple of hours can have a show to BS...

A tennis hour?
I love tennis but it doesn't have enough broad appeal.
Same with motorsports, mma/boxing, etc.
The Fan has access to an audience size of 1.1M in total. Narrow in on their target demo - males between say 21-50 and it gets a lot smaller.
They have to appeal to a broad chunk of that audience.

They have done sponsored shows on golf, as well as back in the day Dave Rowe's motorsports Monday.

Largely those only happen at the insistence of the host (Rowe) or if it is sponsored (golf).
The ratings are awful for it.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by nobles_point

That true.

But maybe Boomer & company can shift some of their prep work / research focus from their favourite food & jokes about their wives into something with a little more substance.

Maybe only...now hear me out.

50 hours of work for a 45 minute show on an interesting topic &...

50 hours looking into backlash against the way he makes nachos and what kind of food he should pick up for supper for his family?

What you are ignoring is the fact that the show has done very well.
You may not like it - but it is considered a big success for the station.
I suspect if they did what you say - their audience would shrink massively.

[Mccree]

Originally Posted by Toonage

This is what its come to. Talking WWE for what seems like an hour this morning.

Rogers distributes WWE Network up here don't they? Huh.

Wasn't WWE in Edmonton yesterday?