What Do You Learn From A Long Stretch On The Sidelines?

The thing about sports radio that can be so frustrating is that there are only so many on air jobs to go around. That means that some good people will be left on the sidelines, sometimes for considerably longer than they ever anticipated.

I wanted to talk to some of those guys today. I reached out to two buddies, Nick Kayal in Nashville and Jeff Pantridge in Raleigh. Neither has been totally on the sidelines. Nick has part-time gigs in both Atlanta and Nashville. Jeff has moved from the programming side into sales. Still, I don’t think either thought they would be where they are right now when they started their last full-time on air job.

So with all of this time on the sidelines and plenty of time re-evaluate what does and doesn’t matter to them, how have they changed? How has the way they think about radio changed?

Pantridge says he hasn’t changed much about how he applies. He still tries to learn all he can about a station and a market before sending off a demo or resume. What has changed is if he applies at all. After three years away from the microphone, he has learned to value himself a little more than he did before.

“For a while, I was applying for anything and everything,” he told me. “When radio is all that you know and you are forced out of the industry, you must piece together odd jobs until your next radio opportunity arrives. Leaving an odd job is easy. I was selling people insulation for a little bit. I don’t know anything about insulation. And let me tell you, selling insulation sucks. If I got an offer in 2019 to wash vans for a sports station in rural North Dakota, I probably would have considered it. Now that I have a more stable career in radio and digital sales with a great company, I can pick and choose where I want to apply. Plus, if I get an offer, I have the power to walk away if the offer isn’t worth changing my life, which I have done.”

Kayal has also reassessed what matters to him. He has a wife and two kids and realizes that any job he is offered doesn’t work for him if it doesn’t work for them.

“My wife and daughters are very happy in the south and they love living in Nashville,” Kayal said in an email. “Sure, if FOX Sports Radio was interested in me filling Clay Travis’s vacancy, I’d absolutely listen. If ESPN Radio wanted to hire me, I’d jump on it. If the chance to go back to Philadelphia was realistic, I’d be all ears. But largely, I am very happy with the 2 great stations I get routine work on and am focused on moving up the ladder at one or both of those places. I’ve also had steady work for both of them during the pandemic, so I am very blessed in that regard because I know a lot of talented people in the industry can’t find any fill-in work, much less full-time gigs.”

I asked both guys how they see themselves in the business now. Are they hosts and only hosts? Could they see themselves being happy in another side of the building?

Kayal started in the sales side of the business. It is how he first got his foot in the door in radio, hosting a morning show from 6 until 8 am in Allentown, PA and then selling spots for the rest of the workday. It taught him the value of building relationships with a sales staff, but it isn’t something he wants to do again.

“At 37 years old, there’s no way I would do sales full-time. I still have too much of an itch to host. I have too much of an ego to being sitting in a cubicle or on the road listening to the show/host that I’m selling if I know I am more talented than that person. I just couldn’t do it,” he says with a laugh.

You have to give Kayal credit for knowing who he is. Whether or not people are lining up to hire him for a prime, weekday shift is irrelevant. He knows what makes him happy and intends to pursue it.

Jeff Pantridge is different. Maybe that is because he is older than Kayal. Maybe he just has a different set of priorities. Neither is wrong. Jeff just knows that sales provides some things for him that chasing low-paying on-air gigs cannot.

“It took me a while to realize this, but believe it or not, there is more to life than hosting a sports radio show. Is hosting a show more fun than sales? No question. Does it pay as much? Nope. I’m in my mid-40’s now, and I have come to a point in my life where I need to start thinking about retirement. I also love to travel, and when you are in radio and you are on vacation, there is always a piece of you that is worried that your station might replace you with your fill-in because they may come cheaper or may even be (gasp) better than you. Being in media sales, I can also have a direct impact on my community by helping these local businesses that support our products grow. That matters to me.”

I wanted to wrap up giving both guys a chance to speak directly to programmers and GMs that do the hiring in radio. I don’t want them to pitch themselves or their ability. That is what the BSM Member Directory is for. I asked them what they would want hiring managers to know. What has a longer-than-anticipated stint on the beach taught them about the industry.

Pantridge says that he hopes companies and stations understand where value comes from in your audience. Spending time on the sales side of the business has taught him that quality is always more important and more valuable than quantity. He encourages hiring managers to think about what makes an audience loyal to a talent.

“I believe that a lot of sports radio ends up sounding the same, because there seems to be a universal formula that many management types follow. I understand that this is a business, and the endgame is to make money. With that said, there are many ways to do that. Now that I am in sales, I have come to realize that numbers are not everything. You also must create a passionate audience. If I am a radio station, I would rather have 200,000 passionate listeners than 500,000 passive ones. Local businesses have a much greater chance of connecting with them versus somebody that is just listening to the same old sports radio show because they like sports.”

He uses Dan Le Batard’s deal with DraftKings as an example. Pantridge says that a lot of local sports radio stations didn’t know how to make sense of Le Batard. All some managers saw was that fewer people listened to Le Batard in the station’s 10 am to 1 pm slot than listened to Colin Cowherd when he was there and decided it wasn’t working. DraftKings, on the other hand, saw an audience that didn’t listen passively and wanted to support their favorite show.

Nick Kayal just wants PDs and GMs to see the people applying for their openings as more than resumes and mp3s. He wants them to know just how much a little common courtesy means to people trying to find a new job.

“When a talent reaches out to you and pours his soul into impressing a decision maker you shouldn’t ghost them. The whole world is on a smartphone and has a dozne means of communication. You owe that talent a reply and a genuine one at that. This is a very small industry. Don’t be the guy who says “I’ll circle back to you”, or “I’ve got a lot on my plate.” I swear theres a PD verbage/clich playbook that was published in 1998 and it’s quite annoying. We are all busy. I get that. But you’re programming a sports talk radio station, not creating the next vaccine for the next global pandemic. You have time. You work in communications. Be better than that.”

Losing a gig sucks. There’s no need to sugarcoat it. We work so hard to land these positions and when they are gone, it can take time to get the train back on the track. Weeks turn into months, months turn into a year, then two years, then three.

The best anyone can do with their time is learn. Learn about the industry and more importantly, learn about yourself. Learn not just about the weaknesses that lead to the exit from your previous job. Learn about the strengths and goals that maybe could not be served working in and thinking about radio like you did before.