Connect with us
Jim Cutler Demos

Sports Radio News

3 Station Battle Heats Up In Indy

Jason Barrett

Published

on

With the addition of Kent Sterling as host of CBS Sports Radio’s afternoon show at WXNT-AM 1430, there are now three local sports-talk shows on during afternoon drive time in Indianapolis.

Sterling, who replaced the nationally syndicated Doug Gottlieb Show, will face The Drive with JMV on WFNI-AM 1070 and the Query and Schultz Show on WNDE-AM 1260.

The competition for Sterling will be stiff. The show hosted by John Gliva—better known as JMV—is the runaway sports-talk ratings leader during the afternoon drive-time slot, and Query and Schultz have built a growing following among listeners and advertisers.

WXNT launched The Kent Sterling Show with little fanfare June 16. Now that the show has found its voice, Sterling said a marketing campaign including social media, press releases and on-site broadcasts at the Tilted Kilt downtown will kick off in the coming weeks.

“Driving traffic to a show that wasn’t necessarily ready, I mean we didn’t know what it was going to sound like, wasn’t very appealing to me,” Sterling said. “Now we’ve better determined what the show is going to be. We’re getting great guests and great content.”

Sterling, 50, is no stranger to the local market. He has resided in Indianapolis most of his life, graduating from Indiana University with a journalism degree in 1986.

For nearly 17 years, he worked for Emmis Communication Corp.’s Indianapolis radio cluster, helping launch WFNI, better known as 1070 The Fan, in 2007.

After a management change at Emmis in early 2010, Sterling was shown the door. After a two-year stint working in sports-talk for Hubbard Broadcasting in St. Louis, he returned to Indianapolis.

Until now, Sterling has primarily worked in radio management. He said he’s more than ready to leave management for an on-air job.

“I’ve always wanted to be on-air, but somehow got pushed into management,” said Sterling, who spent the early 1990s as an on-stage performer for The Second City in Chicago. “You can only sit in so many meetings where increasing efficiencies are talked about and derive joy from it.”

So how will Sterling differentiate his show in the crowded market place?

“We talk about sports and nothing but sports,” Sterling explained. “The [market’s] other [sports-talk] shows during that time slot are all over the place. I think there’s an opening we can exploit.”

There’s been much discussion about the market’s demand for three sports-talk stations. In December, 2007, 1070 The Fan joined WNDE and WXLW-AM 950 as the market’s third sports-talk station.

“I don’t know if this market is big enough for three sports-talk stations,” he said. “But it’s big enough for this station to survive. We are well-positioned in sports. I think this show can build an audience quickly in a market that is not served by a show that just talks about sports in this [afternoon drive-time timeslot.]”

Sterling will continue to produce his web site covering topics involving the media and sports, but said his primary focus will be his new radio show.

“I get up in the morning thinking about this radio show and I go to bed at night thinking about this radio show,” Sterling said. “I’m driven to do whatever it takes to make it a success.”

For the unedited version of the article visit the Indianapolis Business Journal where it was originally published

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Sports Radio News

Fred Toucher: Paul Finebaum Deserves Credit For Building His Empire

While joking about callers into Finebaum’s program, the Boston sports radio host did give the longtime college football voice props.

Jordan Bondurant

Published

on

Paul Finebaum
Courtesy: Joe Faraoni, ESPN Images

Some radio shows have just developed an audience that is completely unique to the talent and their personality. Boston host Fred Toucher said Tuesday that Paul Finebaum is a prime example of having that unique audience.

Toucher on his 98.5 The Sports Hub show has had a long-running bit highlighting some of the best calls from Finebaum’s SEC Network and nationally-syndicated radio show.

Toucher and co-host Jon Wallach listened to one caller from The Paul Finebaum Show Monday show, and Fred joked that when the callers start getting nonsensical with their deep southern accents, the entertainment factor is in not understanding what is being said half the time.

“Paul Finebaum’s show is so incestuous, that you just don’t even have to name what you’re talking about. You don’t even have to say what the hell’s going on,” Toucher said.

“It’s spoken in code, because every normal listener understands what it is you’re saying,” Wallach responded.

Toucher and Wallach did give Finebaum his flowers for being one of the preeminent voices in college sports.

“He has the best job in talk radio in this country,” Wallach said. “He has a built-in stable of listeners, he has built-in subject matter he can always go back to. And I don’t know about the ratings nationwide, but the ratings in the south are phenomenal.”

Fred said you had to tip your cap to Finebaum where it’s due.

“Give him a lot of credit for building it,” he said. “Cause now it’s you built this empire and now you can watch it flourish.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports Radio News

Jason Benetti: White Sox Exit Had More To Do With the Tigers Interest in All I Do

“Benetti addressed his exit from the Chicago White Sox during a lengthy conversation with Parkins and Spiegel on 670 The Score.”

Jordan Bondurant

Published

on

Last month it was announced that longtime Chicago White Sox announcer Jason Benetti would become the new TV play-by-play voice of the Detroit Tigers.

Benetti on Parkins & Spiegel on Tuesday said the decision to leave his post in Chicago after eight seasons was not an easy one.

“The Tigers asked me a lot of questions about who I am, what I value, and what I care about in a telecast,” Benetti said. “And what I care about in a team and a team that I want to be on with a crew.”

“White Sox fans have done a lot for me in a lot of ways. But the Tigers and their aim to want to have the entire range in a telecast, and the way they’re building, was so appealing to me,” he later added. “And it all comes down to the idea of The Voice, where somebody hears you. And they had eight years of stuff that they watched. It all was out there, the entirety of what I do, and they said, ‘We want that.’ That is appealing to me and will be endlessly for my entire life.”

Jason Benetti was asked if he had ever given thought to the idea of being a career-long White Sox broadcaster, but Benetti said staying in one place for 40 years just isn’t who he is. When he felt like he can’t or shouldn’t leave his hometown team, that was when he knew he had to take the Tigers up on their offer.

“I know what it’s like to be comfortable. I know what it’s like to be in one place,” he said. “And part of what makes me, me, is I don’t like when other people tell me you can’t. But I really hate when my own mind tells me I can’t. Because sometimes in the past I’ve listened.”

“That’s when I really have to push back on myself,” he added.

Jason Benetti mentioned that there were little things that he wasn’t such a fan of when it came to working with the White Sox, things like eating on camera or singing, but you can’t exactly pinpoint one specific thing as the reason why he decided to move to Detroit.

“I’m just saying all this to tell you all that it is super complicated and there were a ton of factors,” he said. “But in the end, it really is a thing that I felt like I was pulled to do.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports Radio News

Joe Benigno: No Ground Rules in Texting Jets Head Coach

“What else do you want me to say? There’s nothing else I can say.”

Published

on

Joe Benigno

With a losing streak that has reached five consecutive games and questions surrounding the team, the New York Jets endured several rounds of negative publicity on Monday. A report from Dianna Russini of The Athletic stated that Wilson was reluctant to reassume the starting quarterback responsibilities, while former WFAN host Joe Benigno revealed that head coach Robert Saleh told him in a text message that he does not like Wilson.

While Saleh addressed the first matter in a press conference yesterday and gave a vote of confidence to his quarterback, there has been several discussions surrounding what Benigno revealed Monday on WFAN. Benigno recognized that he misinterpreted what Saleh said and appeared on Boomer & Gio on Tuesday morning to clear the air. Rather than not caring for his quarterback, Joe Benigno revealed that Saleh was incredulous to the fact that he wanted Wilson to start again after suggesting to him for weeks that he should be benched. The matter was a topic of discussion to open Tuesday’s edition of the show, and Benigno called in to try and defend his actions.

“Well look, I wouldn’t call [it] me hammering him,” Joe Benigno said. “You think I’m sitting there hammering him; is that what I’m doing?”

Benigno did not seem to grasp an understanding of what he did to Saleh, who morning show co-host Gregg Giannotti surmises received a deluge of messages and feedback about the purported narrative. Giannotti presented a hypothetical situation to Benigno where he promulgated information that Benigno did not like his co-host Evan Roberts based on what he was told by him. After asking Benigno whether or not he would consider the action by Giannotti to be an example of throwing him under the bus, he concurred that it would constitute such a classification.

“Okay, well that’s what you did to Rob Saleh yesterday!,” Giannotti replied. “That’s my point.”

“I defended myself in the way that I have to,” Joe Benigno said back. “What else do you want me  to say? I shouldn’t have done it.”

Benigno has fostered a relationship with Saleh where they text back-and-forth about the team, but there have not been ground rules established in their interactions. After Giannotti inquired pertaining to whether or not certain things were off-the-record, he was surprised to learn that there were no set limitations about what to and not to disseminate. This caused him not to want to know whether or not Benigno heard from Saleh himself yesterday after the reaction it elicited.

Morning show co-host Boomer Esiason continued the discussion by asking Benigno how the owner of the Jets would feel if someone revealed information that was obtained through a text message that was willingly sent by the head coach. He also averred that Saleh would likely have plenty of time to text with Benigno in the future, surmising that he would be losing his job after the team’s performance this season. Benigno still did not understand how he harmed the reputation of the head coach, causing Giannotti to recapitulate what he had explained earlier.

“The fact that he wants to continue texting you about the team after this makes him look like a stone-cold moron,” Giannotti said, preceding his remarks by explaining that he intended to demonstrate no disrespect to Benigno. “If he didn’t learn his lesson this time around and he’s still going to go back and talk to you about the team, then he shouldn’t be the head coach because that is idiotic. I can’t even imagine the stuff that he heard yesterday from people.”

Although Benigno is not sure if Saleh will still text him about the team, the morning show co-hosts seemed to feel that he reached an understanding about the implications and consequences of his actions. After the call concluded, Esiason inferred that Benigno was feeling “sick to his stomach” about what he did on the air.

“Alright, well look,” Benigno said. “I guess only time will tell, alright. What else do you want me to say? There’s nothing else I can say. Obviously I made a mistake here; something I shouldn’t have done; totally misinterpreted it; and what can I do about it now – not much.”

“What you did actually,” Giannotti answered. “I think what you can do about it now is what you did, which is understand what happened; that’s all. At least we understand that you understand now, so now we can move on with an understanding.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Advertisement

Upcoming Events

Barrett Media Writers

Copyright © 2023 Barrett Media.