The Challenges of Being a Sports Talk Host

If you make a podcast or like sports, you're gonna enjoy this episode. We've brought on someone I consider to be an audio genius. Spike Eskin runs all of programming at New York's WFAN, the original and biggest sports talk radio station, and he's only the second person to ever have that job. Now you're probably thinking, doesn't everyone just listen to podcasts now? Well, the answer to that is no, but don't worry, he's also got a podcast. A big one. And his podcast, The Rights to Ricky Sanchez is frequently ranked atop the basketball podcast charts. It's only focused on a single team, the 76ers, but it's been big enough to get a full chapter in a book, and several audience gatherings have been featured on Sports Center highlights.

So he is the coach and he is the talent. During our convo, we go through traits that Spike looks for in audio hosts, the benefits and challenges of having practitioners like athletes sitting in the hosting chair, strategies for getting audience feedback beyond maniacs on Twitter, while still keeping love for the maniacs on Twitter, and differences in sponsorship dynamics between radio and podcasting framework for good content. Lots of interesting lessons here, and once I wrap up with Spike, Dom and I will do our normal debrief on lessons from both the interview and the conversation more broadly about how we can apply this to the Colossus business. Enjoy this episode and conversation with Spike.

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. 

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Scribe is the presenting sponsor of this episode of Making Media and the magic behind the Colossus transcripts. One of the best decisions we made at Colossus was transcribing all of our audio into a searchable transcript library. We had been using another provide up until the summer of 2022 but we were constantly having issues with the accuracy if our audio was just the slightest bit impaired. Whether it's training sessions, internal Q&As, or for media purposes, the value of transcripts is huge. And we are not alone. Scribe is the transcription service that powers all of S&P Global - like CapIQ - and the client list includes our friends at Tegus. Go to joincolossus.com/scribe to unlock 150 minutes of free transcription and test their capabilities.

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Making Media is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Making Media, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.

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Show Notes

[00:03:09] - [First question] - Which traits he’d use to create the ideal audio host  

[00:06:55] - Comparing podcasts to local radio and separating them into three categories

[00:08:43] - Tricks to help hosts generate and create chemistry 

[00:14:48] - Something that new hosts and newcomers to audio in general struggle with

[00:17:00] - Effective ways to measure how the fans view your shows

[00:20:52] - Whether you should place any weight on your most engaged listeners

[00:25:01] - Differences in terms of a podcast covering a topic versus a local radio 

[00:30:09] - The models and structure of the powerhouse that is radio advertising  

[00:33:39] - Repeat advertising and his own sponsorship strategy 

[00:39:19] - How much practitioner value comes into play about your show topic 

[00:44:37] - The importance of non-consensus and controversial views 

[00:49:57] - Whether or not official statements being made via social media is a passing trend or only the beginning 

[00:53:51] - Coaching hosts when it comes to asking critical questions

[00:55:51] - Debrief