• by Ken Liebeskind , May 9, 2002

Depending on who you ask, sports radio is both a successful and an unsuccessful advertising vehicle. "It exceeds the power share of revenue," says John Snyder, Arbitron's manager of national radio sales. "But achieving a good rank position in Arbitron is going to be a tough one."

According to Snyder, the top sports radio stations earn more than their fair share of ad dollars, e.g. WFAN in New York might have a 3 or 4 share of total audience but generate 6 or 7 percent of total radio ad dollars. The problem is, the stations don't earn high Arbitron ratings, so "it's a very tough sell to someone who only wants to look at Arbitron numbers," he says.

The reasons sports radio stations don't achieve high Arbitron numbers have to do with sports radio listeners themselves and the fact that sports radio is an AM phenomenon. Apparently, few sports radio listeners are willing to fill out Arbitron diaries, which is the way Arbitron generates its numbers. "Men 25-54 don't take a week out of their lives to fill out a diary," says a recent Radion Ink article, mainly because they're active, mobile high earners.

Almost all of the 348 sports radio stations in the U.S. are on the AM band, which poses an immediate ratings problem because AM listening is low. None of the top 25 markets have 50 percent penetration for AM, with Minneapolis/St. Paul at 39.9 percent and New York at 47 percent, for example. Even in the sports core men 25-54 few markets break 50 percent for AM. Only 20 percent of total radio listening is AM and half of that is women, so sports stations have an immediate problem generating listeners.

Other problems include the fact that most sports radio listeners are non-ethnic, with heavier listening from blacks and Hispanics. Also, men with higher incomes listen less and sports listeners tend to be high income.

While sports radio has its problems, a number of stations are successful and Snyder has examined them. Most are in New England and the Northeast making that the leading sports radio area. All top stations in small markets feature the Jim Rome show during mid-day, which demonstrates the popularity of top name sports announcers.

The top stations enjoy higher cumes--8.4% of total time listening vs. 4.4% for other sports stations. They also enjoy more time spent listening (TSL), 7:45 hours per week versus 5:45 for other stations.

Snyder attributes the high cume to Jim Rome and other popular mid day shows. "Afternoon drive is the high point of the day for sports, with morning drive not as critical," he says.

From his examination, Snyder says sports stations should be "realistic about your ratings goal" and concentrate on other things, boosting the cume and tsl. If the ratings numbers aren't there, cume and TSL numbers can be used to sell more ads, he says.

Finally, Snyder puts in a plug for the Personal People Meter, the new Arbitron device for measuring radio listening that is being used in Philadelphia and may move on to other markets. The PPM "will show an increase in cume and be better for stations with niche audiences," he says.