March 13, 2008

Jay, here.

On Tuesday, Eugene radio station KPNW-AM pulled “Sports Talk”, the long-running sports talk show hosted by Steve Tannen and Nate Gorman, and replaced it with Michael Savage’s “Savage Nation”. Considering that as of last week I was scheduled to appear as a regular guest on Thursdays to talk about the Ducks and the Beavers, I’ve got some thoughts on the matter.

Before I go any further, however, I want to thank Steve and Nate for having me on the show. Opportunities to regularly appear in traditional media (radio, television, newspaper) are hard to come by. They had a good show and gave me a chance. And it was fun and I really appreciated the opportunity. Hopefully, we can do it again. But if I do get another chance at local media, I now need to avoid falling into the Ted McGinley-Jump The Shark category.

While KPNW-AM and Bicoastal Media jumped even further to the right with Michael Savage, I don’t think it was the right move for local news talk, local sports talk, and local civics. Unfortunately, media companies don’t operate with those priorities in mind. They are concerned about the bottom-line. But even from a bottom-line perspective (and I don’t pretend to know what they knew when making their decision), this choice doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I’m not going to get political here, but I don’t think Michael Savage was the best choice in this case. Regardless of your political affiliation, Michael Savage is embarrassing. And I don’t think he’s going to play well in Eugene. Yes, I understand how he adds to the conservative synergy KPNW has going on the air. But I don’t think you make that choice in Eugene. If Bicoastal felt that they needed to make a change, they probably should have kept it conservative and local, instead of right of the Attila the Hun and national. Not only would that have been different, I think that would have made the jump easier for Steve and Nate. Still painful, but easier. And I think it would have been an easier sell to the public for Bicoastal. Replacing Steve with Savage was a real barbaric act here.

Now, there’s a sports talk monarchy in the Eugene-Springfield area. While that’s good for KSCR, it’s not good for local sports fans. Look, Duck Sports News has a good relationship with everyone in local sports talk radio. George Schroeder. Justin Myers. T-Bone. Steve. Nate. And we would like to keep it that way. But just like in sports, competition is a good thing. The more quality sports talk programming the better for local sports fans. And Justin and Steve are a good example of what happens when you have programs in competition. Both competed with each other for an audience between 3p.m. and 5p.m. Instead of two shows talking about the same things, sports fans got two shows talking about sports, appealing to two different audiences. And that meant more people were talking sports. Regardless of what you might think of sports talk radio, it is the last refuge for a type of local civic (not necessarily civil) discourse. And that is a good thing.

So, where do Steve, Nate, and “Sports Talk” go from here? I haven’t talked to either Steve or Nate about what I’m going to suggest. And I don’t think they’ve asked for my opinion either. But I’m going to throw it there. Has anyone noticed what The Register-Guard has been doing over the last few months? They are changing. And they will tell you that they are changing. What are they changing into? A media company. They are no longer just a newspaper company. Look at the sports videos that they are producing (Hello, KEZI, KVAL, & KMTR.). Look at their online presence (blogs and podcasts). Look at the placement of their talent in other media (”Writer’s Block”). If I were to talk to Steve and Nate, I would suggest that they talk to the Register-Guard about getting a Register-Guard sports talk online podcast up and running as quickly as possible. The RG has the sales team needed to come up with a sponsorship. They have a stable of writers as potential regular guests (Moseley, Schroeder, Clark, Bellamy). And they have the online distribution in their website. If I were them, the end of Chad Drive is the place I would go first.

KPNW and Bicoastal “jumped the shark” in replacing “Sports Talk” with “Savage Nation”. And right about now, I’m sure Steve and Nate feel like a shark took a bite out of them. But I think there’s a chance they can bite back. They just need to get on board a bigger boat.

Tags: Beavers, Ducks, KPNW, oregon, Oregon State, Sports Talk