SPORTS TALK RADIO: ADDING UP ADS

via rotoguys.com

Talking the talk on sports ads for sports talk radio.

How important is it to connect the dots when you’re figuring things out on sports talk radio?

If you don’t make the connections, someone else will, and you’re left wondering what they left out.

The rise of sports talk radio is the focus here. How did men and women talking about sports get such a grip on the sports fan base?

More important, how did advertisers decide it was time to go all in with the talkers?

The last question is easy: companies looked at the demographics of the audience and saw ad opportunity. If they didn’t hit it, someone else would.

Which opens the door to the weird coincidence of ads.

Just to brush up, today I tuned into local radio stations for a refresher. As annoyed as some listeners get when commercial breaks seem to last longer than the sports segments, I jumped into a marathon of talk with no ads.

It felt like a KGON block party for guys who couldn’t tell time.

Most of the time ads are a good reason to switch stations.

Not this time. But I’ve heard enough. Just know your loyal blogger has listened to sports talk long enough for friends and family to complain.

Well, they just don’t get it.

Who doesn’t find humor in a string of commercials that start with cars, then booze, DUII attorneys, divorce attorneys, and finally viagra? Sad, but funny.

There’s fantasy sports guy adding and subtracting players, thinking about going pro with FanDuel and DraftKings. He is the slippery male consumer advertisers look to land.

Maybe he’s at work, or in his car, listening to the regular sports talk lineup of the radio professional and his sidekick, ‘I played the game’ guy.

If he’s in his Camry and hears an ad for BMW or Mercedes Benz, what do you suppose he’s thinking? Upgrade your ride ride, brother. Lease a luxury car. No one needs to know you don’t own it.

Besides, a sleek German automobile comes with a better radio for sports talk radio. At least you hope.

After you watch enough ESPN it’s pretty clear all the athletes drive a better rig than you, so you take a chance and trade up to a Mercedes with the idea of making enough money on DraftKings and FanDuel to cover it. If you don’t do that you still have enough for the bus.

via nytimes.com

Not a good plan, but do-able unless you’ve got someone, like your wife, talking sense to you before sign up.

You tell the little lady you got a raise at work after your first fantasy league payday. She wants to believe you, but you see doubt, like the time you took brake job money to the track and lost it all and brought the car back complaining about the mechanic.

Besides, she likes the new Mercedes.

You hit again and decide to celebrate by attending a sports talk listening event in a bar. Rounds for everybody. After enough beer to float a bar stool you get pulled over on the way home. The call to your wife from jail didn’t go well. She found the lease papers and gambling slips.

With you in the slam she decides to ask about the numbers she found on your cell phone. Turns out she called a few and women answered. They didn’t even pretend to cover for you.

You give her another number to call, the one you took down from an ad on sports talk radio, the one that said, “If you need us, and we hope you don’t, take down this number.” DUII help.

She gives you the number she’s going to call, also one from a sports talk radio ad that sings about buying a rock and cleaning a clock then switches to “the most important decision in your life. Men facing divorce.”

A year later you’re living alone in a rented room.

You lost your money job, wife, car, but not your radio.

Now you’re on the bus with ear buds in listening to sports talk radio headed for your new job feeling good about the minimum wage bump.

A lady at the drive-up window looked good yesterday. She said she’d be back after your shift tonight and give you a ride home, wink, wink. It’s your first date in a year and you’re worried, really worried.

You’re thirty five and victim of numbness that used to be firm. A roommate listens to you and pushes a little blue pill across the table. Said he got a free sample from listening to sports talk.

Only on the radio. Call for help if you have an ear ache lasting more than four hours.