Three of our four state radio networks do sports reports as well as news. It’s state tournament time and each of the networks are providing coverage. Depending on the network, we do two or three brief (2-3 min) reports a day.

Doesn’t give much time to cover all the games of the tournament. Throughout the years, we tried various formats that would appeal to our affiliates but –as a general rule– each station only cared about the teams from their region of the state. This is a little less true in Iowa and Wisconsin. But the state tournament is just not a big deal (to radio stations) in Missouri.

You smell another Long Tail example, don’t you?

We knew there were “x” number of fans who cared very much about the games…but had no way to get our reports to them. And now we do. I’ve been following Missourinet Sports Director David Sprague’s reports from the state tournament. He filed a dozen reports over two days and you can see/hear a few of them here, here and here.

I assume he was in press row with his laptop and digital camera, posting reports to our website, with no limitation on the length or frequency of his reports. No satellites, no studios. Of course, the next thought that pops into my head is that any talented reporter (or fan) could have covered the state tournament just as easily as David did. It all comes down to the quality of the reporting, not to advantages of distribution. I realize I’m stating the obvious here, but after so many years of trying to meet the needs of our affiliates and their listeners, it’s…liberating…to be able to finally reach them directly.

If I were still programming the old KBOA, I like to think I would have a heavily-promoted website with a special “State Tournament” section on my sports page. And –as a Missourinet affiliate– I’d have David load it up with lots of reports on the teams of local/regional interest. I’d take everything he had time to produce.

If you spot any interesting online coverage of state tournaments…put a link in the comments below.

A Canadian wireless company is offering subscribers more than 1,500 podcasts via their cell phones. The catalogue of podcasts will updated throughout the day as new feeds are received, bringing fresh content to subscribers continually. Unlike terrestrial radio, though, it won’t be free. It’ll cost subscribers $5 per month. But then subscribers can download their choice of podcasts for immediate listening, and save the ones they want to play again later on their phone. [iloveradio.org]

When I started doing affiliate relations back in the early eighties, Don Osborn said something that I have never forgotten: There is no dead air. Every minute is filled with something (music, news, sports, weather, etc). To add some of our network programming, a radio station must take something off the air. My challenge was to persuade the station decision-makers their listeners would be better served by our programming than what they were currently airing.

What does this have to do with cell phone radio? Every minute I spend listening to a podcast on my my cell phone (or nano) is a minute I’m not listening to my local radio station. The listener is now the program director but he/she still has the same 24-hour clock. Do I listen to The Ricky Gervais Show on my cell phone…or the local morning show on KXYZ?

There’s a lot of smart radio guys out there. I have to believe they understand this. The “cell phone radio” story reminded me of an interview I did with Mary Quass last year, in which she saw this coming.

The following item appeared in a recent RTNDA regional newslettter:

Thirty broadcasters in Nebraska have joined a network of stations sharing winter closing information. The idea started in Kearney at KRNY-FM and has grown into an on-line and on-air entity known as weatherthreat.com. The most notable feature of the service is its price—free. Schools, organizations, and the media can all use the service at no cost. On the network’s web site, creator Travis Hollman adds, “But along with being priced right, I would say weatherthreat.com is unique in that it is a non-exclusive network that is operated around the clock by local media working together for a common good.” The system works by giving accounts to all who participate, allowing them to log in and post or check closings. Hollman says he may expand to other states.

At first glance, this looks like a pretty good idea, well executed. These kinds of things almost have to be collaborative to work and getting a bunch of radio stations to cooperate is a good trick. But even if they can’t make this thing regional, it could work on a district-by-district basis. (Thanks, Kay)