Razorbacks Sports Easy Sell For Local Radio Programming

Grant Hall doesn’t remember what he was paid for his first sports radio gig.

“It was more for fun than anything else,” Hall said.

That was 1988, and more than 20 years later, Hall still can be heard over the airwaves. He’s still having fun, too.

What’s changed is the money at stake.

While most general managers are reluctant to discuss specifics when it comes to advertising revenues, multiple industry insiders agreed Benton and Washington counties constitute a “million-dollar market.” Add the Fort Smith market, which one manager estimated generates an additional $800,000 to $900,000 per year in sports radio ad revenues, and the times of pocket-money paydays seem as long-ago as a Raytheon transmitter.

The result is a burgeoning marketplace, with 10 different radio-dial settings boasting 24-hour sports coverage in Northwest Arkansas. Each show and station aims to earn a bigger market share, and therefore, a fatter slice of the million-dollar revenue pie.

The competition can be fierce.

“We want to whip everybody’s butt,” C.J. Jones, vice president and market manager for Cumulus Media Inc., said with a laugh. “But, seriously, not to sound braggadocious or ego-driven, but we expect to be the premier sports station in the market.”

(To view a list of the top radio stations in Northwest Arkansas, click here.) 

Cumulus converted KQSM-FM, 98.3 from a country format to all-sports programming in June, then flip-flopped the station with classic rock-formatted KKEG’s 92.1 frequency. Interestingly, KKEG was the longtime home of the program hosted by Hall and former University of Arkansas sports information director Rick Schaeffer.

In those days, the show was as much about information as it was entertainment.

“People would call in to find out what time a game was, if you can believe that,” Hall said.

Schaeffer said Sports Talk originally began in 1978 as a 30-minute call-in show after he was contacted by Joel Casey, then a morning-show disc jockey at KKEG.

“He knew very little about sports,” Schaeffer said of Casey, “but he knew the Razorbacks were big.”

The sports radio industry got significantly bigger during the talk-radio boom of the 1990s. That growth, combined with the advent of the Internet, which put information at the sports fan’s fingertips, transformed the industry.

Nowadays, sports radio is more about opinion than information. In Northwest Arkansas, that means having on-air talent that can discuss and dissect all things Razorback.

“The first thing you have to have is the ability to speak Razorback, to your clients and to your listeners,” said Tommy Craft, market manager for KTTG-FM, 96.3 in Fort Smith.

Bo Mattingly hosts a three-hour daily show based in Fayetteville, but broadcasts statewide. He, too, recognizes the need to “position topics through the eyes of a Razorback fan.”

Mattingly does so with perhaps the most polished format of any sports radio show in the area. In addition to a staff of four who work on the show in some fashion every day, Mattingly gets regular contributions from longtime Razorbacks reporters Dudley Dawson and Clay Henry, as well as ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes.

Mattingly doesn’t stop there in his quest to give listeners insightful interviews. He regularly wrangles time with ESPN heavyweights like Pat Forde, and has had guests ranging from former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden to current Florida State football boss Bobby Bowden.

“We don’t just go on the air half-cocked,” Mattingly said. “We want to devote the time and resources to do a national-quality show, but one that is relevant to our listeners.”

Grant Merrill has a similar aim. Merrill is the general manager of KUOA, which has AM and FM frequencies.

KUOA signed on in August 2008, and it didn’t take long for Merrill to realize he had an audience. He practically beamed while telling the story of walking through a parking lot near Reynolds Razorback Stadium last fall, only to hear the sounds of his station’s postgame show emanating from lingering tailgate parties.

“From day one, the response was huge,” Merrill said. “Our goal was to provide a 24-hour local sports radio station that focused on Northwest Arkansas, and one that you can hear.”

The last half of that comment was a subtle dig at a competitor Merrill didn’t name. It represents more evidence, though, of the competitive atmosphere within the industry when it comes to attracting listeners and sponsors.

The happiness of advertisers, in fact, trumps the race for ratings in most cases. This is due in large part, those interviewed said, to the “diary” system used to calculate ratings in Northwest Arkansas.

Arbitron Inc. is a media and marketing research firm that measures, among other things, local-market radio audiences. In Northwest Arkansas, Arbitron does this by distributing “diaries” in which participants document their listening habits.

As an example, Craft said Arbitron might give out 150 to 200 diaries to males in the Fort Smith area between ages 23 and 54. What those men document then represents a demographic that actually might total 175,000.

Furthermore, Bill Pharis, who owns Fort Smith Radio Group, said his research indicated just 9 percent of those living in the Fort Smith area listen to sports radio. More importantly, however, Pharis said that nine percent is comprised of some heavy-hitters.

“I call them decision-makers,” Pharis said. “Doctors, lawyers, Razorback Foundation members.”

In other words, Pharis, Craft and the others said, the system is well-intentioned, but inherently flawed.

“Our goal is to be No. 1, but I don’t control the books,” Mattingly said of the ratings system. “I control what we do with our show every day.”

Put together a lively show, Mattingly said, and sponsors will follow. Even in a down economy, Craft added, sports — and the Razorbacks, in particular — are a relatively easy sell.

“I tell clients, ‘You can brand your business with the No. 1 thing people are talking about,’” Craft said in reference to Razorbacks athletics. “In my opinion, you can never go wrong branding yourself adjacent to a conversation that everybody is having.

“If Arkansas opens the season 5-0, everybody’s talking about it. Or if they open the season 0-5, everybody’s still talking about it.”

Pharis got all the proof he needed in relation to the power of the Razorbacks in the wake of 9/11. While advertisers at other stations, including some owned by Fort Smith Radio Group, dropped their accounts due to concerns over a shaky economy, those tied to Pharis’ all-sports station didn’t budge.

“The one thing we saw was we didn’t lose anything in terms of Razorback advertising,” Pharis said. “They weren’t going to be seen as running away from the team.”

Still, with so many options — at least eight programs are produced between Fort Smith and Benton and Washington counties, with another in the works at KKEG — it’s easy to wonder if there are enough advertisers to support all of them long-term. Even those involved acknowledge the risk.

“Not everybody’s going to make it,” Mattingly said.

What continues to fuel the local sports radio boom, it seems, is the lure of that “million-dollar market” and something more basic — a love of sports by those wearing the headphones.

“I’m doing what I love to do,” Mattingly said when asked his least-favorite part of the job, “so it’s crazy to say there’s stuff I don’t like.”

“It’s like I’ve never had to come to a job,” echoed Merrill. “I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do.”

Merrill and Mattingly agreed on something else, too. Both said the seemingly saturated sports radio market in Northwest Arkansas will thin itself out eventually, producing stronger shows and stations.

Think of it as a game played not on the wide expanse of a football field, but within the tiny confines of a radio studio.

“Competition is good for the listener,” Merrill said, “and it’s probably good for us, too.”