2023 BSM Summit – March 22, 2023 (Day 2)

Jason Barrett

Mar 22

Day 2 of the 2023 BSM Summit is underway in Los Angeles at the Founders Club at USC. We're keeping you updated on news, key information, and interesting perspectives shared on stage by our speakers. BSM editor Garrett Searight will be updating this column throughout the day as each session wraps up, so be sure to check back multiple times to avoid missing anything important.

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Barrett welcomed attendees to the second day of the BSM Summit, and shared a clip of WWE wrestler Sami Zayn at a recent press conference saying that it is more difficult than ever to create "memorable" content due to so many different options. He asked attendees to remember the question "How do I take something good and turn that into something memorable?'

9:10-9:45 = The Programmer's Panel presented by

Jimmy Powers, 97.1 The Ticket
John Mamola, WDAE, Tampa
Jeff Rickard, WFNZ, Charlotte
Raj Sharan, Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan

The discussion began with a focus on content management.

Jimmy Powers shared he meets with afternoon host Mike Valenti every day. "We give him a long leash, because I know he's going to deliver. A guy like that is so good, we have to let him create".

Raj Sharan said data has helped deliver buy-in from his talent. He added that some of the former athletes on his station — like Mark Schlereth and Derek Wolfe — have been coached their entire lives, so the ability to show data and explain why they're doing what they're doing has been easy.

John Mamola simply said he trusts his talent. "There's a lot more focus on how do we get them to be better digitally," Mamola shared. "Finding the content that they do that we can market better where people can find us more often."

Jeff Rickard believes everyone is different. "We meet a couple times a week, mostly informally, but once a week formally, and I give them one thing. I ask questions to get them to start thinking about what they wanna do. Everybody's got their own little thing. I try to meet them where they're at."

The panel was then asked how the measure success, and what their definition of success is.

Mamola reminisced about the first BSM Summit, where he asked Barrett what the definition of success would be in five years. He said he uses Nielsen as one data point, rather than the data point.

Sharan admitted that while there are several data points available, Nielsen is still the main measurement point they're chasing. He believed if you're doing well in Nielsen, social media and digital performance is likely to correlate.

Powers agreed that Nielsen is the most important measurement. Rickard concurred. "That's the game we're playing. That's why we manipulate the clocks for the PPM. It's the game that we play," Rickard said.

Branding has also been an important step for the programmers on the panel. Sharan recently went through a brand refresh from 104.3 The Fan to Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, bringing the station inline with branding used by other Bonneville sports stations.

He compared the branding to that of a company like Meta, which encompasses social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Ultimately, he believed the updated brand will help propel the station into a bigger digital future.

"It was a little challenging to explain to everyone," Sharan shared. "How are you going to really be in the content business if your name has a radio frequency in it? That sort of stuff went into it."

The conversation shifted to the length of shows, and what's the perfect length.

Powers said their station is set up to have four-hour shows, and mentioned that at times his hosts will mention they are burnt out due to the length of their shows.

Rickard mentioned that the WFNZ morning show is four hours, but mentioned that as a talent he didn't like four hour shows. "I just find that when I've done that, I've seen meters increase. I've seen energy increase," Rickard shared.

At Denver Sports 104.3 The Fan, Sharan said if his hosts were robots, four hour shows would be fine, but said that younger audiences attention span's are shorter, and joked that their talent is getting shorter and shorted.

Mamola said if budgets weren't an issue, a similar setup how cable news channels format their prime time lineups with one hour hosts would be ideal. "There's not necessarily a number you can put on it. It's how the talent makes it feel. It's more how the talent approaches it and how the execute it on the air."

Length of spot blocks varies from station to station. Barrett shared there are stations that only have 32 minutes of content in an hour due to spot load.

Powers said they have different clocks for different shows. "Clients love the show, revenue is very important, so we don't move it that much," he said. "If you get too long, you can burn an entire quarter hour."

Mamola said WDAE has different clocks every hour. "I want to keep our listeners guessing," he shared, adding that he tried to manipulate the PPM quarter hour numbers.

Sharan admitted his station has 20 minutes of commercials an hour in morning and afternoon drive, but that number drops down to 12 minutes during middays.

"You gotta be careful, because if you don't put your foot down, sales guys will take a mile," Rickard added.

9:45-10:20 = 20 Deadly Sins of Sports Radio: Redefined presented by