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On Fan 590 Tonight

4:10 Nelson Millman, outgoing GM of the Fan 590 in studio
5:25 Darren Rovell, CNBC
5:42 Sheldon Levy, President of Ryerson University
6:06 Ed Olczyk, NBC & Versus
6:30 Bob Young, Ti Cats Owner in studio
6:45 Brad Pascall, Hockey Canada

On 640 with Brady and Watters thanks to Mike S.:

- Patrick Marleau of the San Jose Sharks
- Rob Higgins, fantasy hockey expert
- Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets
- Hockey insider Bob McKenzie at 6:10

So, Zelkovich has more on the changes at both Sportsnet and The Score. As we told you earlier, Sportsnet gonged the early edition of Connected here in Ontario to bring you 2 hours of Mccown’s PrimeTime Sports. As you know I am a huge Mccown fan, but 2 hours of sunglasses????? I just love the comments from David Akande over at Sportsnet:

“`My job is to increase ratings,” says Sportsnet programming head David Akande. “Prime Time Sports is doing very well and this should bring more viewers to Connected.”

Akande insists this is not a cost-saving move and that no jobs will be eliminated. Connected will run in its existing format on Sportsnet’s three other channels, although Akande is looking at the possibility of duplicating the Ontario experiment in the East.

This is not, Akande says, an admission that Connected is failing. It’s more a sign of the changing times, he says.”

Now wait one minute. His job is to bring more viewers, in doing so he is removing a show with lower ratings and replacing it with one with higher ratings….ummmm, I know I’m an idiot, but wouldn’t that suggest that it’s, ummmm FAILING????!!!

In addition, I don’t care what they are paying Mccown, as the last I heard he owns the rights to his show for TV, there is no way those remote camera’s cost 1/10th as much to produce an additional hour of PTS on TV as Connected did. If it isn’t failing, you wouldn’t yank it. If it wasn’t money related you wouldn’t yank it. If you had anything better than Mccown you would be showing it.

This game, however is contagious, as up the dial at The Score the folks there are singing the same song:

“If you’re not moving, you’re standing still,” Score president John Levy said yesterday. “If you’re standing still, you’re falling behind.”
Nine Score staff were affected, with five losing their jobs. The others, Levy said, are being reassigned and some of those positions may change from full-time to part-time. As for the jobs, two on-air staffers are gone. Ten-year veteran announcer Tony Ambrogio and basketball host Nikki Reyes were axed along with three behind-the-scenes people. It’s never a good thing when people lose jobs, but Levy insists the moves have nothing to do with cost-cutting. They’re about giving viewers more accessible news and features, he says.”

Now why would you let people go if you weren’t cost cutting?? People lose their jobs for two reasons, they aren’t producing OR the employer is cutting costs. Now, in that business it can be a little bit of both. If a show isn’t doing well then costs have to be cut. The question is what were those who lost their jobs told. If I were a betting man, I would say that these moves were cost cutting moves. Then, the question is WHY NOT ADMIT IT?

The Fan let Norm Rumack go. I can’t fathom what he was making for the graveyard shift. There is no way a guy who was around that long was let go for performance reasons. I don’t buy it. He was let go for money reasons. Times are tough out there. Not everyone gets 18 bankable sick days. Radio ad revenues are down and the fan had to cut somewhere.

The truth only hurts when you lie about it. We aren’t idiots, I am, but we aren’t. When you say that moves aren’t made for cost reasons than you are, in theory throwing good people under the bus. There is no shame in admitting cost cutting moves…

TSM

follow us on twitter @yyzsportmedia

the star is here

We mock that which we don’t understand. Like or loathe modern technology, despite what my father-inlaw thinks, the internet is not a fad. For Mike Toth and Mike Hogan the world is passing you by.

Based on the ratings, no one listens, so maybe it doesn’t matter, but Nelson, if you want to know why the ratings suck, listen to today’s show and you will have the answer. Who could possibly be listening to the radio between 9-12? You have bums like me who are still in the morning commute because I had to drop the kids at school, you have people who drive for a living, you have people who don’t work and are listening during those hours and then you have folks who can listen at work or school, whom the majority of which I bet are doing so on a computer. So what do these two moron’s do? They go out and bash bloggers and those who use twitter! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! How stupid is that?? It’s bad enough that not one interesting thing is ever said when these two guys are on but then to go out and shit on your intended audience????

As far as media sites go in this city, the Fan’s twitter account is one of the best managed. It is for the most part current and has some humor in it. Hogan called anyone who uses twitter a twit. How original. We mock that which we don’t understand. I know I have said this a million times but the handsdown winner of deadline day in terms of media was twitter. So mock all you like, but rest assured Mr. Hogan that there are people WAY smarter then you who spend a lot of time on twitter (and that doesn’t include me). That Obama guy is a real Twit eh Mike? Even if it really isn’t him, he is smart enough to know that he had to be there come election time. Maybe, just maybe if you were the least bit innovate you would have a ratings report that was worth more then toilet paper.

Then, Toth has the nerve to say that his blog is the exception to the rule because it is on a credible site. Are you kidding me???? There isn’t one thing credible about ANYTHING you say or do Toth. You, have the BALLS to go on the air, telling your audience that they have no right to be in love with the world hockey championship because they don’t support the junior teams like you do, but then you go on the air and ask Stan Butler (brampton gm) last week at the end of the interview if he could have two tickets put aside for the Sunday playoff game for you and your kid…..YOUR A FRAUD! A TOTAL AND COMPLETE FRAUD. You rip people for not going to the games that you ask teams for freebies for ON THE AIR???? Your so fucking lazy you can’t pick up the phone off the air and kiss ass to get free tickets? But your blog is different because you are on a credible site?? Are you nuts??

I have no problem with you not being on twitter. I have no problem with Hogan not having a blog. It shows your out of touch. It’s funny you both rely on the web to get information. Predictably Hogan went on for 17 minutes this am about the idiot fans at the Jays game last, saying how much research he did last night on what other stadiums websites say about throwing shit on the field. Newspapers are dying, the entire medium is about reaching out to the customers. Jeff Blair’s live blog from games is AMAZING. Damien’s blog kick’s Damien’s articles ass. Same with Richard Griffin’s. Lyle Richardson’s Spector’s blog is one of the best reads in hockey period! You don’t want to do it…fine. But take your head out of your ass before talking about shit you clearly can’t identify with. You just don’t get. Your ratings suck. They suck because you don’t get it. You shit on your intended audience and they aren’t going to listen to you. It can’t be that difficult. When you both get gonged and you will, eventually you may want to take a good long hard look in the mirror and think, huh, I wonder why people didn’t listen…Oh yeah, I know, cause I shit on my intended audience…

TSM

It wasn’t that long ago whenever major news broke (and I am not talking of the sports variety necessarily), I used to really try to stay up and watch Ted Koppel and Nightline. No matter what the anchors had to say, or CNN’s coverage was at the time, I really wanted to know what he was going to do on the topic du jour. The same applies to Bob McCown. I remember when various items that were newsworthy in the GTA occurred, trying to find a radio to listen to see what he would have to say, fully knowing he would have an opinion AND that one of the key figures in that news would be on. Bill Watters, when it comes to matters of the Leafs and the NHL is in that same group of experts who’s opinion or take on certain things I would really like to hear. However, once you have heard something once, you don’t need to hear it again, or again or AGAIN. That, my friends is exactly the scenario that 640 Toronto finds itself in today.

You see, when Watters “left MLS &E” he was very well connected, very opinionated and a true insider. Wilbur was wooed by the good folks at 640 and signed a contract for oodles of cash. The folks at 640 turned that into All Watters All The Time. So you get your morning Bill, your lunch Bill and then (drum roll please) 3 hours of afternoon Bill. That’s a lot of Bill. The problem with that is two-fold. First, if I happen to catch him in the morning, or at lunch, there is no reason to listen to him in the afternoon. Watters is good, but he isn’t so good as to keep his comments and opinions fresh three times a day. No one is. The second problem is there just isn’t that much to talk about in this market for Bill Watters (or anyone for that matter). 640 Sells the guy as the Leaf and hockey expert, quite frankly what he thinks about the Jays, NFL etc. is really of little consequence. Even if you disagree with that, there just simple isn’t enough for one guy to talk about and not be repetitive. It’s just not possible. By having Watters on multiple times a day they are killing multiple shows potential audiences. More people would listen to him in the afternoon if they hadn’t already heard his take. If you know you are going to listen to him at 4, why bother listen at 12? I may listen at 4 and 12 if I am going to hear something different, someone different.

This was a bigger problem at the beginning when he was with Jeffy. At that time, all Watters did was yap about how much he hated the powers that be at MLS&E. So, you have your brief stint of Wilbur in the am bashing MLS&E, then he and Jeff were on together at noon, bashing MLSE and then again for 3 hours in the afternoon, bashing MLS&E. I am not going to get in to whether the bashing was warranted or not. Too much of anything isn’t good. When it is so negative it becomes totally predictable and unlistenable. Fortunately for 640 Jeff decided to leave and enter Mr. Brady. Not in that Brady is god’s gift, but he certainly mixes it up, I know certain folks don’t like some of the shtick, but at least it’s not the same old, same old. Also fortunately for 640, Burke came to power. The anti MLS&E isn’t as discussable anymore either. They have, for the most part been quiet. There isn’t much for Watters to bitch about of late.

That leads us to yesterday’s radio ratings book. I know. The system sucks. Guess what? It’s the only one we got. It’s also the only one that advertisers use when they decide where to spend their precious dollars. So, it is what it is, but it’s meaningful. The question that I think people in the industry are asking today is why is Hockey Central at Noon killing Leafs Lunch? It is more confusing when you consider that Watters is making some headway against McCown. So, without further ado here is my 2 cents:

1. Watters is on too much. He should be on from 4-7pm. That’s it. I understand if there is breaking news you bring him in (don’t tell Arron Brown of CNN that though ). They call McCown the franchise; he is on one time per day. There is no reason to over expose him. Why shoot yourself in the foot by having less people listen at lunch AND in the afternoon by putting the guy on so often?

2. Dreger is on too much. Again, Dreger is good. He is an insider. What he needs is a Millard. He needs someone to lighten it up a little bit. Dreger by himself just isn’t that entertaining unless he has a ton to talk about. The problem here is that he is with Wilbur AGAIN and he then is also on most nights for a couple of segments. 590 doesn’t put Kyreos on every night, or nearly as often as Dreger is on BWS. It’s just too much. I think they need to get him a good co-host at lunch to lighten things up and then only allow him on at nights 1 or 2 times a week maximum. If something big happens you call the audible and bring him on. It’s not so dissimilar to how the Fan is using Doug Maclean.

3. Mix up the guests on both the afternoon show and the lunchtime show. There are other good people out there; they don’t use them enough, when they use others too much. Ray Ferraro was great when he was on the other night. Add him to the weekly rotation; add Kelly Hrudey, or another guys who can bring some league wide coverage. Neil Smith would be good (he is on with McCown I guess) and I think Al Morganti (rarely on anymore) or someone else who is out there to mix it up and bring in outside information.

Ok, over to McCown. Last night was pretty damn interesting on PTS. I didn’t catch the 4pm hour. I did listen from there on in. McCown was telling Kelley how he has been in the radio business for over 30 something years and yesterday was the first time he can remember that the Toronto Star didn’t have a story about the previous night’s Maple Leaf game on the cover of the sports section. McCown then explained how he doesn’t get Maple Leaf phone calls anymore. He used to get the Leaf lovers calling and then the bashers calling and now the city is apathetic to the Maple Leafs. A discussion then ensued as to what the Maple Leafs need to do in order to rid our town of this apathy.

Let’s get one thing clear. McCown has never been one who likes to talk to “Moro from Maple”. I mean no disrespect to Mr. Moro,or those from Maple, but McCown just isn’t that guy. McCown is the one guy who doesn’t do much Maple Leafs at all. His guests run the gambit of sports, on the business side, legal side, baseball, college sports etc. The fact that McCown isn’t getting the calls is as much a result of the fact that he doesn’t want them as anything else. Look, a caller will get away with more on 640 then with McCown if they want to talk about last night’s game or a trade rumour. That’s a fact(Jack). If you want to hear more about the legal troubles of the owner of the Nashville Predaotrs, McCown is your guy. That, for the record is one of the reason people love McCown’s show (see above). To now try to turn that into a news story, that it is us ,the fans who don’t care enough to call his show is a far cry from the truth. Die hard Leaf fans aren’t going to listen to McCown because he doesn’t provide die hard leaf fan coverage. That is okay. I have no problem with it. There are many a night when I know Watters and Brady are going to be talking to a member of the Marlies, or a Maple Leaf player where, to be honest, I could care less. I don’t listen to them. When McCown is talking to Burt Sugar, I turn the dial. That is okay too right? Wilbur’s show is eating into McCown’s rating because this is, first and foremost a Maple Leaf town. It is not a hockey town. It is not a “sports town” per se. It’s a Leaf town first, second and third. Does that mean that the Raptors, Jays, Argos and TFC don’t have a following? No! I know this is contradictory to the ratings at lunchtime, when 640 does Leaf Lunch, and got killed in the most recent book. I think I have given a pretty good explanation on why that happened. If McCown want’s to talk to the diehards, then he has to starting speaking to them more often on his show. I don’t think it is necessary, but as a colleague used to say, you can’t suck and blow at the same time…

I will say this again, I find it hard to believe, given all the evidence to support it, that Nelson Millman can’t do better with the Bullpen. I simply refuse to believe it. I don’t know Mike Hogan, I don’t know Mike Toth, I bet they are both great guys. The show is not listenable. The proof is in the pudding. There has to be better talent out there somewhere. Nelson, I can arrange a great show for you, for next to nothing if you like!

TSM

Ode to Bill Houston

Farewell to Bill Houston. This evening, Houston hit the send button on his final article for the Globe And Mail. While folks in the inners of sports in Toronto read Simmons every Sunday, the media tuned into Houston’s column to read the gossip of the industry. I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t at least a little bit of inspiration for this blog by Bill Houston’s work. I was honored when Houston wrote about this blog on his globesports.com site. My favorite articles of his where when we broke down the sports radio ratings. How fitting that his last column ventured into that area:

“What will the recession mean for all-sport radio in this country?

Potential cuts, perhaps a decrease in local content and plenty of anxiety.

The markets hit hardest are Toronto and Vancouver, although sources say CTV’s Team 1200 in Ottawa also is hurting. At Rogers Communications-owned The Fan 590 in Toronto and CTV’s Team 1040 in Vancouver, staff reductions are not ruled out.”

Let’s get this straight and out of the way from the get go. No one wants anyone to lose a job. It’s not fun nor funny and what is happening from coast to coast right now is scary. So when criticism is launched at an on air talent it is not in hopes they get fired…

““I don’t control Rogers, and it’s status quo for now,” Fan 590 vice-president and general manager Nelson Millman said. “We’re not planning on any major changes, but as with any business, I suppose you adjust as you go.”

Millman said everybody in radio, whether it’s in music, news or sports, is hurting. “We’re all operating on the same cruise ship and as the boat floats up, we all float up. And as the tide wanes a little, everybody feels it.”

One, that doesn’t sound overly optimistic. The reality of there world is that no one is buying radio ads right now like they were before. Those who are buying aren’t buying at the prices they were before. Houston discusses briefly what happened at stations like WDFN. It’s pretty simple what happened in the US. One big company owned a ton of stations. The problem was cyclical. Ratings were down for local programming and advertisers were saying go stuffit to local ratings cards. So when a monster company can cut costs and realize the same ad revenue it will do so. I am not making the argument or justifying it…it is what it is. What is happening here is that advertisers aren’t spending the money that they used to. This means that they are only going to spend money where the ears actually are.

“The Fan 590’s ship set sail in September of 1992. It was the first station in Canada to move to an all-sport format. After some lean early years, the business model started to pay dividends. Anchored by Bob McCown’s afternoon drive show, the station’s weekly cumulative audience steadily increased.

But in market share, the percentage of radio listeners in Toronto tuned in, it’s been up and down. The morning show, with Don Landry and Gord Stellick, has not improved its position. In the fall of 2008 survey, its share dropped to a 4.6 from a 5.4 in 2007.

There is a sense among some that the on-air talent has become stale. One journalist, upon returning to Toronto after several years, said, “I couldn’t believe that [several personalities] were still on the air, sounding the same, saying the same things, filling the same slots.”

I have given you my feelings on the morning show. The show is beyond stale. Look at the 8-9 hour. They come out of the news, do a comedy bit- talk to an insider do the news again, do a bit, talk to Mike Eppel, do the news and wrap it up. That’s it. While the bulk of their audience is in their cars they do next to nothing. If you look at the quote, who could he be referring to? The morning show has been intact for a while and they say the same things (hello ken dryden bits). Hogan is still after them, sounding the same and yes, saying the same things (wholly shnidkees). The lunch show is different. Fairway is new-ish. McCown is McCown and I don’t care who criticizes him his ratings are still good. The later hours, are still Norm Rumack’s and to be honest I think they are irrelevant. Whomever the returning journalist is, is talking about the morning guys and hogan. Wilbur could be thrown in to the mix. However his gig is too new to be stale i would think.

“But Millman said he believes in consistency.

“I think sometimes radio stations hurt themselves with too much tinkering,” he said. “My decisions are made based on the trending of ratings over a period of time, direct audience feedback and my 37 years of experience. I think it’s important for the audience to develop relationships with the on-air talent, and that takes time.”

The bread and butter for all-sport radio, which targets well-to-do males 25 to 54, is automotive advertising. And the decline in that sector has been precipitous.

Millman wouldn’t comment on speculation The Fan 590 is several million dollars short of its sales target.”

Now you see here is where you and I come in. Most of us (me writing and you reading) are in that target market. The problem for guys like Nelson is that they have yet to be able to properly tap into the next generation of advertisers. Seriously, would you click on a car ad on your favorite website? When the ads for a car dealership come on the air do you think of buying it? That ship has sailed. Those who are going to be successful in this environment are the ones who realize what the this version of the target audience are into. When I hear an ad for a car I think to myself, where in the ad is the fine print so small it needs to be magnified 600x to be read and my law degree isn’t good enough to decipher the legalese… Not only that but who is buying cars these days? I don’t mean to pick on the guy either, but do you know many 25 year old who are that interested in Zegina suits being sold by a guy who is old enough to be there grandfather who spends the entire month of January in the Caymans? How many times in the last year have you reached out to the uniform people who advertise on the fan? Seeing the point?

“One advantage for radio in tough times is it offers cheap advertising relative to print and television.

Millman said, because of the nature of sport radio, it is essential to maintain local programming in the two big revenue-producing time slots, the morning and afternoon drives.

“Sports radio is a local phenomenon,” he said, “And I think it’s incumbent that your prime-time hours are locally focused.”

But a locally produced show, counting the salary of a host and producer, costs a station $100,000 or more. A syndicated show can be bought for a few thousand.

Not surprisingly, sport radio staffers are anxious. One said he takes it day by day.”

Syndicated shows in this country would be a disaster. No two markets are alike. You can’t talk NHL hockey the same way you do NFL football. There isn’t the same market for news on the NFL, MLB and NBA so US radio would be worthless here. The stations need to reinvent the advertising model. They need to tap those companies who never thought they could afford radio or that their audience would on it. That would take care of the revenue part. The programming part, like everything else needs to be changed, to be improved. It will be interesting to see what Nelson does. It will be interesting to see if 640 tries to add more sports to take advantage of the opportunities. Change isn’t always bad. I only hope that these same changes come to the sports print business too.

I love how Houston ends his column. Classy and dignified.

“The finish line

After more than 5,000 bylines in The Globe and Mail over 29 years, this is my last. I’m moving on to new pursuits. I leave with fond memories and good friendships. Thanks for reading.”

Wholly shit 29 year is a long time. With the exception of the basic functions of life I haven’t done anything for 29 years.

Having said that I am a tad cynical with this last piece. You see, stories like this don’t just get written. There is always a hidden meaning, or an agenda. As I read earlier this week, an NHL executive admitted to floating a trade rumor to see how a move would be perceived by local media and fans before making the move. I am pretty certain that this article isn’t so dissimilar. Houston didn’t need to go out for someone. He very likely didn’t owe anyone a favor big enough to write a last column for. McCown said last week that he liked reading Houston to see what people weren’t making. Who knows, maybe Houston and Millman are buddies. Maybe the morning show got mentioned, and only the morning show, to gauge reaction. Maybe it is coincidental. I doubt it. We are all replaceable. The world will go on without all of us should it have to. So it says here that changes are coming in this market in the not so distant future. That is a good thing for us, the fan. Maybe not for those at The Fan. So yes the economy is shitty. Yes its an obvious topic. I think there is more at play here…just call it a hunch.

To you BIll, thanks for your efforts. When you started I was 8 years old, bitching to my dad to please get a paper with a real sports section. Any breadcrumbs on how to get the info you used to write about?????

I am going to go out on a limb here folks.  It is time Nelson Millman to make a change to his morning show over at the Fan 590.  I don’t want to call for someone to lose (not loose) their job, but the morning show is just stale.  Why do I bring this up today, well, Don Landry was out ill today and Damien filled in for Landry.  It was the best morning show they have had in ages.  Let me be clear, I don’t know Don Landry from Adam.  To quote Pat Burns, “I wouldn’t know him if I hit him with my car.”  I don’t dislike him personally, nor the work he does.  However, if ever there was a guy suited for a mid day slot it would be him.  He can be funny, he likes to do more shtick then substance and I am sure he has a ton of loyal followers.  He just isn’t a sports guy.  This is a time slot the Fan has all to their own and to be honest most mornings I punt to 550 or god forbid music.  If I am not getting sports at 590, there is no reason to listen.  Nelson needs to find a replacement for Landry during that show and move Landry to an hour where his talents will be more appreciated.  I can’t see the ratings for this show getting any better then they are right now.  The show has peaked and I predict will decline until a change is made.

Damien was fantastic this am with Gord.  They have amazing chemistry and man, they spent time actually talking about what their sports guests earlier in the am had to say.  Damien was saying how he thought wht Burke was doing with Pogge was the right move, that it was part of a plan.  He said he disagreed with Scotty’s take from earlier in the am which was great in that I didn’t get to hear all of it.  There was a lot less hijinx then there usually is and a bigger focus on sports.  Again, for some reason I think Damien’s column has suffered greatly as a result of the other things he does.  He is better in his blog and is better then that on the radio.  Watching him faceoff against Simmons on Sunday’s is pretty interesting too.  In his column he rarely says why leaf fans should be happy that Cliff is gone.  It sounds like a personal vendetta, and more so every time he says it isn’t.  This morning he actually put some meat on the bones saying that if Cliff were still in charge we would have seen more deals like the one Cliff made for Lee Stempniak, trading away 2 guys who at the very least should have been given a shot with the Marlies to work our their careers.  Damien guaranteed that Cliff was going to do everything in his power to get the team to the playoffs this season and deals like that were evidence of such.  Now, I have no clue whether that is true or not.  Damien also wrote that Doug Gilmour was paying for his players to be at the ACC this Saturday and we have since learned otherwise. At least it makes for interesting radio.  It is certainly better then another bit of Ken Dryden in the house of commons!  Good on Damien for mixing it up a bit, making it interesting etc.  

I would like to see the Fan 590 think outside the box a bit more.  In many major cities I have lived in the morning show and the drive home show feature a radio guy and a print guy as permanent hosts.  The radio guy is always there (except for vacations) and the print guy is sometimes a little late, sometimes on the road or sometimes absent.  They have good chemistry and create a good product.  Now Brunt is a part timer on the Fan, not full time with McCown.  While I love Brunt’s work, I think he comes across as being to cerebral for radio in this town.  He is certainly better then some of the other guys though.  I would love for the Fan to find a way to get Damien or someone like him in there with Stellick.  Maclean would be a better fit to be honest.  One of the problems I think is that we don’t have a huge bullpen of talent (at least known) in this market.  It’s not like there are 5-10 guys on other shows who you say, man they would be awesome on the Fan.  With the exception of Brady on 640 (and I think he would be terrific with Stellick, but can’t see that happening anytime soon), I really can’t think of anyone. Now Brady came from Detroit and there are probably a lot of folks in the industry looking for work in other markets.  I think Nelson really should make a change, move Landry to the mid-day and bring in someone else to work with Stellick.  This morning was a tease.