The Religion of Sports Radio

“THERE’S MUCH MORE RAPPORT BUILT WITH THE BROADCASTER YOU LISTEN TO EVERY SINGLE DAY ON YOUR COMMUTE TO WORK THAN THERE IS WITH A WEBSITE YOU’VE ONLY VISTED ONCE WHEN YOU WERE SHOPPING FOR KNEE SOCKS.”

Every February, millions of viewers gather around their TVs to watch the biggest “big game” of all, surrounded by friends, family, pretzels and fantasy brackets. The Super Bowl is a prime example of the power of sports culture. And although the Super Bowl is perhaps the most major event in a 70 billion-dollar inustry, even seen as a micro-holiday to some, it only occurs once a year. Sports radio, however, drives audience engagement all year long and consistently garners a sizeable, trusting audience.

When “big games” aren’t being played, figuring out ways to engage the fan community becomes the prime directive. In the off-season, fans become provisional cohosts of sports radio call-in shows. All bets are on: Who’s being traded? Who’s said something unhinged in a press conference? Why’s that free agent getting paid so much? And so it goes.

Sports radio cultivates an inclusive environment, where the relationship between fans and broadcasters is an intimate one. Sports radio is addictive. Some sports fans actually like hearing guys in suits talk about sports more than they like watching actual games. And because of that relationship, radio advertising is often more trusted than, for example, digital advertising. Audiences have a track-record with their sports radio guys. There’s much more rapport built with the broadcaster you listen to every single day on your commute to work than there is with a website you’ve only visited once when you were shopping for knee socks.

So while big, shiny objects like Super Bowl ads can cost upwards of 5+ million dollars for:30 seconds of visual engagement, smaller budget, strategic investments like radio are much more cost effective. With the ability to speak to regional audiences and convey messaging to an audience for which a station or personality has already acquired a high level of trust, when looking to solve a strategic media problem, sports radio is often the solution.