Lions in the local media (REVIVED thread 6-10-20)

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BC 1988
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With an April 17th season start, the Whitecaps (aka the Bells) radio broadcast deal will have to be resolved faster than the Lions. I doubt Bell decided to just walk away (and be in breach of contract). They still have 1410 Bloomberg Radio to fall back on as a broadcast station, but they just canned all their staff who were doing the broadcasts.
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BC 1988 wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:49 am
With an April 17th season start, the Whitecaps (aka the Bells) radio broadcast deal will have to be resolved faster than the Lions. I doubt Bell decided to just walk away (and be in breach of contract). They still have 1410 Bloomberg Radio to fall back on as a broadcast station, but they just canned all their staff who were doing the broadcasts.
bell would be contractually obligated to broadcast the games per the contract. Common for broadcast to continue through a format change.

My guess is the lions wouldn't want that. They want the daily coverage and game day coverage that a sports station could provide, not just game broadcasts. As well, the lions have a number of pretty solid local sponsors that any station would crave. i see the lions looking the get out of their bell deal, in fact, it may be in their contract already if there is a format change.
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Qman wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 2:03 pm
BC 1988 wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:49 am
With an April 17th season start, the Whitecaps (aka the Bells) radio broadcast deal will have to be resolved faster than the Lions. I doubt Bell decided to just walk away (and be in breach of contract). They still have 1410 Bloomberg Radio to fall back on as a broadcast station, but they just canned all their staff who were doing the broadcasts.
bell would be contractually obligated to broadcast the games per the contract. Common for broadcast to continue through a format change.

My guess is the lions wouldn't want that. They want the daily coverage and game day coverage that a sports station could provide, not just game broadcasts. As well, the lions have a number of pretty solid local sponsors that any station would crave. i see the lions looking the get out of their bell deal, in fact, it may be in their contract already if there is a format change.
brook ward leaking that NW has interest
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Personally, I don't think it would be a bad thing to join the Corus radio network (CKNW). It's the runaway leader in this market with a 14.8 rating (the next highest is CBC-am with a 10.8 rating. SOURCE: Numeris ratings book Aug. 31, 2020 - Nov. 29, 2020). They know the property as there is a history with the Leos on that station, and there are possible synergies with Global-TV. Even if they got bumped for whatever reason, they could broadcast on sister station CFOX-FM.

If you thought the Leos coverage sucked on TSN1040, think how lousy it will be on Sportsnet 650, a Rogers station (!) with Canucks rights, which de facto talks Canucks hockey 24/7.


DH :cool:
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BC 1988
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https://theprovince.com/sports/steve-ew ... ngs-to-say
Great article--Don Taylor explains his perspective of how the 1040 shutdown played out ( the Donnie & the Moj with Ryan Henderson farewell clip must have been filmed in the building lobby that morning). Also points out that SN pay scale is lower than what TSN's was.
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David wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:21 pm


Personally, I don't think it would be a bad thing to join the Corus radio network (CKNW). It's the runaway leader in this market with a 14.8 rating (the next highest is CBC-am with a 10.8 rating. SOURCE: Numeris ratings book Aug. 31, 2020 - Nov. 29, 2020). They know the property as there is a history with the Leos on that station, and there are possible synergies with Global-TV. Even if they got bumped for whatever reason, they could broadcast on sister station CFOX-FM.

If you thought the Leos coverage sucked on TSN1040, think how lousy it will be on Sportsnet 650, a Rogers station (!) with Canucks rights, which de facto talks Canucks hockey 24/7.


DH :cool:
I agree. Sports talk radio has been a double-edged sword for the Lions. Yes, they got more air time on 1040 than they previously did on CKNW but they reached a limited audience of die-hard sports fans on TSN radio and TV. CKNW's average audience is 35 times the size of Sportsnet 650's audience. The Lions could reach a broader market by tapping in to that audience.

CKNW held the rights to the Lions in the past when the team had a much higher profile in the market, and that broader platform paid off. I don't know if the formula would work as well today but it's worth exploring. I've mentioned before that the most common question I'm asked by friends and family in a normal year is "How are the Lions doing this year?" The average person hears nothing about the team unless it is mentioned on a major local radio or TV station or Global sportscast. The Lions can't reclaim their place in the market by focusing their message on a shrinking all-sports broadcast sector.
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If the Lions went back to NW, I think that would be a good thing overall. To be perfectly honest, I have much better memories of days when the Lions were on a local station with a much broader format that felt more like a community. One of the bad things about globalization is that much of the information exchanges happens at the behest of faceless nameless executives who exist in a building god knows where. I am currently listening to a rendition of how this change took place it sounds like an absolutely disgraceful lack of respect to the people who worked at 1040. It's the kind of lame action that costs the parent company in many more ways than just what station people listen too. Bell Media is into everything, Internet, cellular, TV, subscription media like Crave. Would I buy any of their services when they treat people like that? My first instinct is no. I wouldn't put anything in absolute terms but I have a long memory for those who display a very callous disregard for real people.
Apparently, 1040 is going to a "Comedy" format. I've never been totally sold on the "one egg, one basket" kind of approach to anything for the most part. Focusing on just one topic is a recipe for losing out in this day and age. There is a reason that NW survives largely as it has for so long. It has a little of something for everybody. It was a huge gut punch when they lost the Canucks and eventually the Lions. And yet, I still tune into them because I don't spend my days thinking over some little detail about a sports team. I don't think most people do. What I do do however is leave the station that I have listening to on because I can't be bothered channel surfing most of the time. Therefore, in a variety station, I get a little bit of everything, news, sports, traffic, weather, etc. It would be good to have an audience listening to Lions discussion even though they might not be full time fans. That is how you generate curiosity and new fans.
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I'm curious about the "Comedy Format". If it's going to be like Jeff & Larry's Comedy Roundup on sat radio staff and production costs must be a tiny fraction of what it cost 1040 to put together programming. Buy some syndicated content for cheap. Pay one or two guys to assemble the comedy content "playlist" and commercial content for the day and Bob's your uncle. Maybe just need a techie to hang arouns in case the computer crashes. Might be more profitable with less than 20% of the audience 1040 had.
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Hambone wrote:
Thu Feb 11, 2021 9:28 pm
I'm curious about the "Comedy Format". If it's going to be like Jeff & Larry's Comedy Roundup on sat radio staff and production costs must be a tiny fraction of what it cost 1040 to put together programming. Buy some syndicated content for cheap. Pay one or two guys to assemble the comedy content "playlist" and commercial content for the day and Bob's your uncle. Maybe just need a techie to hang around in case the computer crashes. Might be more profitable with less than 20% of the audience 1040 had.
https://www.iheartradio.ca/funny/funny-1040
That's exactly what it is--no on air hosts. 2 contact #'s--Studio Line and Reception Desk.

A roaring success in Calgary and Hamilton. :roll:
https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/vanc ... ed-3372088
The 'Funny' brand is already used in two other markets, Calgary and Hamilton. In both cases it ranks near the bottom of the local ratings. In Hamilton it ranked second to last, just above the local TSN station which also was closed at the same time as TSN 1040. In Calgary it is last.
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I concur that having lions radio broadcasts on a station with a broad audience would be a good thing.....
cms22
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terrible to mediocre ratings is arguably ok if your content is cheap.

I didn't think TSN1040 had good content...... and their name guys were making good money, I'd think ($150K+ would be my guess).... why not just do local sports content with recent BCIT grads? work cheap, more knowlegible and the TSN moniker gives them their connections.
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cms22 wrote:
Fri Feb 12, 2021 1:07 pm
terrible to mediocre ratings is arguably ok if your content is cheap.

I didn't think TSN1040 had good content...... and their name guys were making good money, I'd think ($150K+ would be my guess).... why not just do local sports content with recent BCIT grads? work cheap, more knowlegible and the TSN moniker gives them their connections.
thats essentially what 650 is, plus support from toronto
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Vancouver Sun/Province doing a wrap tribute to Paul Carson/1040 today. Nicely done. Giulio is on the 2nd page with "That's gotta feel good for him" quote caption. Too bad Moj's quote wasn't "A little ham (hand) job at the end".
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https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/next-st ... ?auto=true
Good article by Tyler Green about the broadcast rights of the WhiteCaps and Lions (as well as Mariners and Seahawks). All seemingly dropped without a care by Bell Media. Talk of an FM station switching to all-sports, but no way is that going to happen quickly.
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BC 1988 wrote:
Thu Mar 18, 2021 3:13 pm
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/next-st ... ?auto=true
Good article by Tyler Green about the broadcast rights of the WhiteCaps and Lions (as well as Mariners and Seahawks). All seemingly dropped without a care by Bell Media. Talk of an FM station switching to all-sports, but no way is that going to happen quickly.
Interesting. No clue what current Vancouver FM station would consider switching to all-talk although former CKNW/Corus talk show host DREX now does the morning show on JACK FM.

I'm sure Bob Marjanovich's quest is find a landing spot for all his football gigs, especially doing the Seahawks pre and post game shows with Chris Burns from Seattle for home games. Always found that one kind of strange as 710 ESPN's pre and post games are far more in-depth as the radio broadcast rights holder but I guess give Moj credit for finding sponsors for a Vancouver flavour and I'm sure it helps get him to Super Bowls year after year.
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