Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Lame Duck Raiders Bad Business for Entercom; 'The Game' (95.7 FM Sports); Gruden Doesn't Do Weekly Show with Damon Bruce Who Is Pretty Pissed Off; With A's Leaving, The Game Has Little Game; Wednesday Sports 415 Media Schmooze

Image result for Jon Gruden 95.7 The Game SPORTS RADIO is quite lucrative to the station because sports in general is huge; big business jock radio dominates the media landscape even if you're not inclined to follow sports; that said, the revenue streams that are generated make gargantuan globs of money for local and national outlets.

The Giants are healthy money makers for KNBR and Cumulus even if the team stinks; they drive the car and butter the bread; so to, the 49ers. Relationships are vital to the cog that brings in the big dough; the GM; the star players and non-star players do frequent interviews on their respective flagship station. KNBR relies on its weekly chat with Kyle Shanahan, 49ers coach; John Lynch; its GM also does the talk circuit. Teams around the league and their home stations have similar relationships. It's called business and it benefits both.

Except for the Raiders and Entercom and its stations; KCBS (all news and carrier of Raiders' football games on Sunday) and 95.7 FM (The Game)

Jon Gruden, that coach racking up the big money (at $10M a year for 10 years) doesn't do a Monday call-in show with PM drive host, Damon Bruce even though he's contractually obligated; by extension, so too the Raiders. It's to the point now that Bruce routinely rips Gruden and the Raiders about this situation --I don't know if that's good business to air your dirty laundry but I applaud Bruce for being honest because the Raiders, even in good times, are absolutely the WORST sports franchise in the world to conduct business with; Entercom and its minions are experiencing this for the first time and are both embarrassed and royally ticked off.

Beyond the obvious discomfort is the fact that the Raiders horrific act on and off the field is bad business for their broadcast partner; try to sell Raiders' football now when the team is one foot out the door in Oakland and headed to Las Vegas probably next year (playing in a college stadium when the new one will be ready, maybe, in 2020).

Image result for Entercom KCBS 95.7 FM The Game Radio, San Francisco
Damon Bruce
Gruden doesn't do any shows. The worst part is the Raiders organization doesn't care and almost flaunts its giddiness --some things will never change.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

"The Game:" has a lame duck Raiders and a soon-departed Oakland A's who will leave its flagship come 2019. As Susan Slusser of the Chronicle reported the A's will be on a more franchise-friendly station --maybe KFRC if they can buy the current religious station; or snatch up some AM or FM outlet that will actually talk about the team. 95.7 FM hosts rarely talk A's baseball even when the team shined like it did this year.

Yes, frankly in good times, the A's don't generate the same traction as do the Giants but given the fact that KNBR is so embedded with the Giants that's never been surprising.

To its credit, KNBR builds its entire talk structure around the team. The A's haven't been able to garner that treatment with The Game. It's unpleasant if you're an Athletics fan but it's fact.

Then again, with the Raiders about to become extinct on their Entercom client and the A's on a different station for 2019, that leaves the Warriors as the only sports team (and a golden one) left.

Good sports-talk radio is mostly host-oriented but having teams on the domain not only brings in more money and revenue streams, but prestige too. That counts both ways. Just ask KNBR and Cumulus during the Giants' run of championships in 2010, '12, and '14.
Image result for Oakland Raiders Entercom The Game


19 comments:

  1. Here you go again...always BAD news of the broadcast industry....how about some GOOD news....

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  2. Off subject: I guess I missed that John Madden isn't on KCBS anymore. I don't listen at the time he was on but it looks like back in August he hung it up.

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  3. Maybe The Game isn’t doing well with the teams but their programming is better. KNBR is a straight dud.

    As for Gruden he’s just proving he doesn’t care about the Bay Area fans and neither does his owner.

    Can’t wait until they just leave already.

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  4. As an A's fan, I say good riddance to 95.7...

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  5. "The Game Has Little Game"--what about the two-time defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors? They got game!

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  6. Hey Rich,
    Serious comment here, I just want to know:
    What do you mean when you write that someone "moves the needle"?
    I always thought that simply meant the VU meter, which reads the signal strength coming into the board off the mic.
    So.... in reality, everyone on the air "moves the needle".
    Am I missing something?

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  7. speaking of damon bruce, he also openly would bitch and complain when an A's game would run into the start of his show,,and billy beane couldnt stand him or jack del rio for that matter when he had weekly interviews with them..im glad gruden is saying the hell with him.. lets hope the A's get a good radio deal

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  8. If I was coach of the Raiders, I'd be embarrassed to talk to the public, too.

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  9. 4:26
    You're such a friggin' snowflake. ONLY WANTING GOOD NEWS???
    Lots of times, the truth hurts....so suck it up, honey.

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    1. 4:26 didn't say they only wanted good news. They are pointing out that Rich's posts are 99% negative. Saying that maybe once in awhile it's ok to post something positive hardly makes 4:26 a "snowflake".

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  10. Rich is an Oakland guy and he bags on the A's and Raiders all the time. What a homer.

    Go sniff The Giants and Jed Dorks jock.

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  11. Raiders and A's playing victim again. Whining about their stadium, their radio outlet and their market. All of that their own doing.

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  12. The bay area--home of bandwagon sports fans!

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  13. When Gruden traded Mack that was the proof; the Raiders are no longer playing for (or even in given the recent product on the field) Oakland; they're playing and planning for Vegas now. After 30+ years of following them (including that 80s LA gap) I'm done with them. May have to follow the Saints now since my Raiders blood won't allow a Broncos or Chiefs connection...

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  14. People in the Bay Area only care about teams when they're winning because California has a lot more going on than the rest of the country. Who can blame them? I can't wait for the Raiders to move already. Tired of this crap franchise. And the As are no better. So they make the playoffs? Big whoop! You know they're never going to beat the best teams. What's to talk about? They need a new building or no one is going to care. Like the Niners they'll move out of the Bay Area too.

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    1. You dummy the niners are still in the Bay Area

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  15. Only good choice Gruden has made declining to talk to the poseur Bruce.

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  16. In a way I'm not really surprised that Gruden doesn't want to do the weekly interviews with Damon. It seems like it wouldn't be his thing, and with the way that Damon used to challenge Del Rio in interviews last year, Gruden probably didn't want to answer to him, especially with the way this season has done down so far for the Raiders.

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  17. I'm not sure if Damon mentioned this, and if he did I must've missed it but, does anyone know why he was taken off Warriors pre-game on 95.7? With that being said, I like Guru and I'm happy for Guru. This is a big opportunity for him. He has a good rapport with Steinmetz even though they sometimes have their battles/beefs/disagreements on their weekday show from 10-Noon, but it was kind of odd how they fazed out/took Damon and former Santa Clara head coach Kerry Keating off the pregame show last year. They were pretty good, and for Kerry Keating, even though he was a college coach and failed at Santa Clara, he could give you basketball analysis from a coaching/head coaching perspective which was kind of cool from time to time.

    I'm guessing part of the reason why 95.7 took Damon off Warrior pregame might've been because they couldn't setup Damon and Gianna to do Damon's show from Oracle for Warrior home games. It seemed like that was a problem a lot last year. Also, I noticed Damon stopped doing Warriors pregame on 95.7 for weekend Warriors games during the regular season last year. Just from listening to the show, it sounds like Damon is busy with his wife sometimes on weekends, as far as events she has to attend and other commitments, and Damon is there to be alongside.

    I guess for Guru and Steinmetz, since they're only on from 10-Noon, they have plenty of time to get ready and get set up for Warrior pregame, especially for Warriors home games. Also, Steinmetz used to cover the Warriors, so maybe that was also a factor, and it might be easier for them to make it out to Oracle, since they don't live in SF.

    But yes, I was wondering why they took Damon off Warriors pregame, even though Guru and Steinmetz aren't bad.

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