Trends of Radio Today Related to Sports Broadcasting

Broadcasting the sport I love (baseball) in Duluth, MN

Photo Credit: WDIO.com

This week's chapter was all about sound media and more specifically radio. And let me tell you I enjoyed every second of it. As an aspiring sports broadcaster, most of what I do involves a radio station. It is the power of my voice and ability to describe a play that gets me hired for a job and has listeners coming back game after game. So I found a story from this past April that highlights some of the new trends in radio today, but instead of reexplaining the article's points I am going to tie each point into the sports broadcasting world.

1. Develop and highlight talent as the face of your brand

This is an easy one. Sure, the talent is the broadcaster and the way he or she describes the action. The real talent in all sport situations are the athletes on the field or court. A broadcaster can be the greatest at what they do, but its the athletes that make the broadcaster sound good based on the events that happen throughout the game and if a broadcaster cannot understand that, they shouldn't be in this profession.

2. Emphasize local

In smaller sports markets such as collegiate athletics, minor league teams, etc., usually it is a local radio station that is the "Home" for the teams coverage. With the local coverage comes local advertisers and for the most part a centralized local team audience and following.

3. Visualize your show

This point takes away from the truly radio and voice only aspect of the industry, but some people prefer visuals. Many sports teams have simulcasts of the radio broadcast through the visual broadcast whether that be a live stream online or on cable TV. In a different aspect in order to be a radio broadcaster, it is essential to visualize your show because you are the listener's eyes for the action in front of you.

4. Repurpose more content

Many broadcasts use the audio for highlights of the team and displays on social media and there website in order to promote the team.

5. Female Focus

Just like the radio industry in general the sports broadcasting industry is catching up with the times in the sense that more female talent is emerging.

6. Cut the commercial load

Commercials are essential for businesses to stay afloat and that is evident with radio stations as well, but more stations are using the promo strategy instead of recording commercials. The listener must already enjoy listening to a sports broadcaster if they are listening to the broadcast so why not just give the broadcaster the ability to through in a promo every now and then when there is some time or a break in the action. No promo will sound exactly the same because they are not prerecorded and the broadcaster is able to fill time when there may not be much else to say. A win-win situation for the both the radio station and the broadcaster.

https://radioink.com/2019/04/14/7-trends-impacting-radio-today/