Connect with us
Jim Cutler Demos

Sports Radio News

Q&A With First Take’s Top Exec

Jason Barrett

Published

on

Richard Deitsch of SI.com recently conducted an interview with Marcia Keegan, the ESPN vice president of production who oversees First Take as well as other shows including SportsNation, Numbers Never Lie and Outside The Lines (OTL). The conversation reads below as a straight Q&A.

SI.com: As the top executive regarding stewardship of some of ESPN’s highest profile studio shows, how do you view your role regarding First Take?

Keegan: First Take is one of the shows I oversee and I am involved with it similarly in the way I am with other shows, which is to make sure things keep going the way they should be going and that people are generally happy. If there are going to be any drastic changes of direction, I am spearheading that. Day to day, I am hands off.

SI.com: Are you proud of the show?

Keegan: I am proud of the show.

SI.com: Why?

Keegan: Because it appeals to an audience that some of the other shows I have responsibility for don’t. We’re a big tent at ESPN. I am very proud of OTL and their journalistic efforts. It is journalism at its best and this [First Take] to me is a different way of reaching different fans.

SI.com: How fair is it for me to describe First Take as a program built around disagreement-as-entertainment?

Keegan: That’s not unfair.

SI.com: Given that, one could suggest that the concept of disagreement as entertainment is highly flawed because you ultimately need to manufacture disagreement to maintain what the program is.

Keegan: No, we never manufacture disagreement. What we do is find topics where there is disagreement and there are times when they have agreed on things. But mostly it is a debate show. So if there is a topic they are in vehement agreement about, it might be one we choose to go with that day.

SI.com: What journalistic purpose does First Take serve, if any?

Keegan: It depends on how you define journalistic. I’d say journalism like OTL, if you are looking for that, it’s not. But neither are Top 10 highlights on SportsCenter. A lot of what we do is not journalism per se. It all depends on the show and the topic and so forth.

SI.com: Let me ask you some questions I received from readers if I could. From Andrew Bucholtz [who runs Yahoo! Canada’s CFL blog]: What does ESPN want to see from First Take? Audience numbers? Sports points of view that aren’t expressed elsewhere? Something that inspires conversations elsewhere? What is the actual goal from the show?

Keegan: The answer to that is yes. We want to offer something different and talk about things people are talking about. We try to do it in a way our SportsCenters can’t and don’t have the freedom to, and may not want to. He’s highlighted three things I do want to do with that show.

SI.com: From Matt Yoder [who is also the managing editor of Awful Announcing]: How has “Embrace Debate” positively and negatively affected the ESPN brand?

Keegan: I think it has positively affected it in almost every way you can think of.

SI.com Why?

Keegan: It has been great for ratings. If you told me five years ago when I first had responsibility for this that we could regularly do a 0.4 [350,000-450,000 or so viewers.] at 10:00 a.m. on ESPN2, I’d say what are you smoking? It is a great for ratings. I will not share with you the financials but it is good for financials. And I think it is good for the brand.

SI.com: From reader Ken Weide: Why is the show is so focused on topics that are looking to “blame” someone?

Keegan: I would disagree with that characterization.

SI.com: Why would you disagree with that characterization?

Keegan: I think we talk about everything. Not just a blame game but an opinion game. One thing I don’t know if you looked into or talked to people about is we do race very well.

SI.com: We’ll get to that later, for sure. From reader John Kollm: How do they target certain demographics and how does that shape the show?

Keegan: We never set out to target a demographic. When I was given First Take [Keegan took over in fall of 2009] I looked at it and said, “What is its identity?” I don’t know what this show is. It often appeared to be ‘Not SportsCenter.’ We were just giving the viewer something that was not SportsCenter at that time of day. Then I asked Jamie Horowitz to come in and look at the show and debate always rated well on the show. He is the one who suggested all debate. I was a little leery at first but I said give it a shot. And it has done very well. So that is how it evolved.

SI.com: People on Twitter often ask me about Bayless’s Twitter feed and I will be the first to admit that I also solicit people’s opinion on what he has said. He tweeted at the end of the NBA Finals, “I cannot express how much fun I’m having watching LeBron cry at the end of the bench,” He’s called LeBron James, “LeCramp” and “Prince James” among other names. One my readers sent a graphic of Bayless sending nearly 30 tweets on LeBron over a short time span. How would you characterize Bayless’s comments on LeBron James?

Keegan: Expressing his strong opinions about LeBron James.

SI.com: How would you counter my assertion that his attacks on LeBron James are unprofessional, unbecoming of ESPN, and done merely to call attention to Bayless?

Keegan: I’d certainly argue that are done solely to call attention to Skip. Skip believes everything he says. He has strong opinions and wants them out there. Different people have different ways of communicating their thoughts. Skip has 1.4 million Twitter followers so there are a lot of people who want to hear what he has to say.

SI.com: So in terms of the content of his tweets and specifically on his tweets about LeBron James, you are comfortable with what he is putting out there?

Keegan: I would not tweet that, okay? But I also allow for the fact that some people want to hear that and that is how some people communicate. The line between acceptable and unacceptable — and we deal with this all the time with our tweets — is not clear. I don’t think Skip has ever crossed that line.

SI.com: A couple of years ago Bayless said that Dwight Howard looks like Tarzan and plays like Jane. He’s called Chris Bosh by the nickname of Bosh Spice. Do you see any sexism or misogyny with those comments?

Keegan: I don’t recall those comments but I can’t separate them from the Skip Bayless I know and he is anything but sexist or racist.

SI.com: Outside The Lines is also under your purview. The show has moved previously in July or August from ESPN to ESPN2 before the start of the NFL season. Will that happen again?

KeeganYes. The daily show for certain. I’ll have to check on the Sunday show.

SI.com: When will that change happen?

Keegan: I believe it is mid-July.

SI.com: You and your colleagues know my point of view when it comes to OTL. Is that a fair move for a show that just won a Peabody Award?

Keegan: Programming is the department that makes those decisions and a lot of things go into it: contractual obligations, ratings, sales. I can’t really address why it is done.

SI.com: As the person who oversees the show, how concerned are you that the audience will hemorrhage with switch as the metrics showed it did last year?

Keegan: Hemorrhage is a strong word. If the viewers want to see it, we try everywhere possible to tell them where to find it. People get OTL segments on SportsCenter. They go to the dot-com for portions of the show. There are all sorts of ways to get the content of the show and the ratings only is not a fair assessment of that.

SI.com: Do you consider Bayless and Stephen A. Smith to be journalists?

Keegan: Yes.

SI.com: Why?

Keegan: I think that their background is clear that they are journalists. But to go back to what you asked me earlier: Is First Take itself a journalistic show? No, not in that sense.

SI.com: Let me read you something from Richard Sherman who said the following to Skip Bayless on your airwaves: “I am intelligent enough and capable enough to understand that you are ignorant, pompous, egotistical cretin, and that’s what it comes down to. And I’m going to crush you on here in front of everybody because I’m tired of hearing about it.” Do you consider that a good or bad moment for First Take and why?

Keegan: I consider it a moment. I don’t characterize it. It certainly was not what we were looking for and not what we were expecting.

SI.com: How much of the show’s content will revolve around Johnny Manziel heading forward?

Keegan: If he remains a hot topic, it will remain a topic.

SI.com: In hindsight, how do you feel about the show’s coverage of Tim Tebow?

Keegan: At the time Tim Tebow was in the news every day and we talked about him a lot. Other shows followed suit at ESPN so it wasn’t as if everyone was saying that is a terrible idea. He was a hot topic.

SI.com: You are not in the day to day production meetings at First Take but when it comes to First Take’s topics, who decides the topics chosen?

Keegan: Stephen A., Skip, Antoine Lewis (the show’s coordinating producer) and our producers all talk about it. But we do want Skip and Stephen A. to feel strongly about the topic. They are two stars.

To read the entire interview visit SI which is where this story was first published

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

BSM Writers

Advertising Strategy for 24/7 Businesses

With lower ad costs aimed at the audience who makes staying open late worth it, you can be ringing in the profits on the night shift.

Jeff Caves

Published

on

Graphic for a business sign "Open 24 Hours"

If you have prospects who are open for business between Midnight and 5 am, why not have them make it worthwhile and help them develop an advertising strategy? They might be surprised how inexpensive it can be.

Many companies operate 24/7:

– Convenience stores, gas stations, and truck stops.

– Fast food chains like Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, and McDonalds.

– Hospitals and Emergency Care clinics.

– Hotels, motels, and grocery stores.

– Airports, bus depots, and cabs.

With an effective marketing strategy, “it’s gonna be all right on the night shift.” Here are some insights and tips to give these prospects to help them attract and retain customers to their 24/7 business:

Understand the Night Owl

At night, customers seeking services or products often prioritize convenience, speed, and availability. Sometimes, price isn’t the controlling factor, nor is it even the best quality they seek. Make offers and go to market with these needs to better cater to your target audience and keep them returning for more.

Advertise: Digital Billboards

Digital billboards are great for visibility, especially at night when there’s less competition for attention. Consider strategically placing advertisements along busy freeways or nightlife hotspots to capture the attention of passersby and promote your business’s offerings and operating hours. If you can buy :15 ads on Times Square in NYC for $40, you may be shocked at what you will pay locally for rotating ads from Midnight to 5 am. 

Radio Ads on the Cheap

Radio is a powerful medium for reaching customers during the late-night hours. Larry King was America’s most listened-to-talk radio program in the late 80’s. For 16 years, he broadcast live between Midnight and 5:30 am from coast to coast. Select radio stations with programming tailored to your target audience’s preferences and air ads during peak nighttime listening hours. Pop music stations for night clubbers at 2 am or News Talk for late-night drivers wanting to stay engaged. Give incentives to overnight listeners to visit your business NOW. While the audience may only be 10% of the daytime crowd, so are the prices. And let’s face it, if they are driving and listening to the radio, that’s your #1 prospect! Expect rates at most stations under $25 per commercial in major cities and less in other areas. Promote late-night specials, highlighting convenience and speed of service. If you are a hospital, airport, or bus company, brand your business with the overnighters, reminding them you are open when they need you.

Mobile Digital Advertising

Target potential customers in the vicinity of your business during late-night hours. Use geotargeting to deliver ads to mobile phone users in high-traffic areas like concerts, ballgames, or nightlife districts. Drive foot traffic right through your front door. Promote time-sensitive offers or exclusive late-night deals through mobile ads. Don’t expect a price break, though, when purchasing them.

Easily Monitoring KPI’s

Regularly monitor the performance of your efforts and adjust as needed. Your late-night business is probably way less than daytime, and tracking key metrics such as foot traffic, sales, and customer feedback will be easier. If an offer is working on your radio campaign, look into buying more stations and cut back on areas that don’t work. Apply the 70-20-10 rule to your ad budget.

With lower ad costs aimed at the audience who makes staying open late worth it, you can be ringing in the profits on the night shift.

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports Radio News

Todd Walsh on Arizona Coyotes Sale, Relocation to Utah: ‘This Didn’t Have to Happen’

“My fear all along going into this for the last few years was at some point, someone’s going to walk up to a microphone in front of a bunch of cameras and say, ‘We did everything that we could,’ and I have a feeling we’re going to hear that.”

Published

on

Todd Walsh
Courtesy: Nicki Escudero

The National Hockey League Board of Governors has approved the relocation of the Arizona Coyotes to Salt Lake City, Utah, establishing a new NHL franchise under the ownership of Smith Entertainment Group. Hockey assets within the Coyotes organization will be transferred to the new team, which will play its games at Delta Center, the home of the Utah Jazz. The Coyotes concluded the 2023-24 NHL season on Wednesday night from Mullet Arena and defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-2. After the game ended, Coyotes studio host Todd Walsh anchored postgame coverage and concluded the broadcast with a heartfelt message to the Coyotes fans on the Scripps Sports broadcast.

Within his prose, Walsh explained what the Coyotes meant to him and the special bond shared among those who consider themselves members of the hockey community. He discussed how people were there for him when he lost his parents and uplifted him in difficult times. To close his message, Walsh stated to viewers that they all “walk together forever as Coyote fans,” advancing a well-known hockey quote, “Win today and we walk together forever,” from Fred Shero, former head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Although the Coyotes were never able to attain a Stanley Cup championship, the organization provided plenty of memorable moments on the ice and developed players who made a lasting impact on the sport. Shane Doan, Dale Hawerchuk, Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk are just some of the players who energized hockey in the desert over the last 26 seasons. Walsh joined Bickley & Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Wednesday to elaborate on his emotions surrounding the situation.

“As I said, I’ve been sort of preparing for this moment, but I never thought it would be when the team was turning out the lights after we were done with our broadcast and leaving town,” Walsh said, “but I just wanted to speak from the heart and I wanted to thank the game and acknowledge briefly somehow, someway the people in it, because if you’ve been around this sport even a minute, I think you start to understand [and] realize that there’s nothing quite like the sport of hockey and the people in it and the great reverence that they have for anyone who puts time into the game.”

Walsh imparted a lesson he learned over the years that states that if you are good to the game, the game will be good back to you. He was able to relate to that on a personal level, and woke up to see the sun rise in the morning to make sure that life would go on after the Coyotes. Co-host Dan Bickley asked Walsh to elaborate on how everything felt for him, especially having been a part of the organization over many years. In response, Walsh explained how people who had not seen each other made eye contact and took time to speak with one another, engaging in similar conversations with several people.

“The first words that one of us would say – it was universal – [were], ‘This didn’t have to happen,’” Walsh said. “That’s what I kept hearing, and then I started to repeat it and that’s how I feel today. I’m not smart enough to talk about finances when you’re getting into the billions of dollars, but I am smart enough to know how things can work and I’ve seen it work, and I’ve seen the due diligence that has been done and has to be done in a situation like this in cultivating a sport, and I’ve seen how it has failed.”

The interview with Walsh took place before the official announcement of the team’s relocation. This transaction includes a stipulation that Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo has the right to reactivate the franchise if “a new, state-of-the art facility appropriate for an NHL team” is constructed within five years. Nonetheless, the outcome for many hockey fans in Arizona was disappointing, with Walsh describing the environment at Mullet Arena resembling that of a wake.

“My fear all along going into this for the last few years was at some point, someone’s going to walk up to a microphone in front of a bunch of cameras and say, ‘We did everything that we could,’ and I have a feeling we’re going to hear that,” Walsh said. “And I don’t want to hear it from the current ownership, but I feel like we’re going to hear that, and that’s what troubled me.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading

Sports Radio News

Sports Media Reacts to Awkward Caitlin Clark Press Conference Moment with Gregg Doyel

“I was just doing what I do, talking to another athlete, another person, and didn’t see the line – didn’t even know there was a line in the vicinity – until I crossed it.”

Published

on

Photo of Caitlin Clark
Credit: Clark Wade/IndyStar

By now almost everyone it seems has weighed in on an incredibly awkward situation at yesterday’s Indiana Fever press conference involving Caitlin Clark and Indianapolis Star reporter Gregg Doyel. Doyel’s strange exchange started with him making a heart gesture with his hands, something Clark flashes to her family after each game. “Start doing it to me and we’ll get along just fine,” was Doyel’s reply.

Doyel has since apologized and wrote a column about it which said, in part, “I’m devastated to realize I’m part of the problem. I screwed up Wednesday during my first interaction with No.1 overall draft pick Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever…I was just doing what I do, talking to another athlete, another person, and didn’t see the line – didn’t even know there was a line in the vicinity – until I crossed it.”

Several in sports media gave their thoughts on the situation, on the air and through social media:

Josh Klingler and Bob Fescoe played the audio from the press conference on 610 Sports in Kansas City and when it ended, Klingler said, “What the hell was that?”

Fescoe responded, “That’s just creepy and if I’m Caitlin Clark, I’m like, ‘I don’t want this guy around.’ What was he doing to begin with?…Don’t get creepy…that’s just disgusting.”

In Boston, The Greg Hill Show on WEEI highlighted the incident in a segment called ‘How Creepy Is It?’

“He’s kind of a dink,” Hill said. “…If I were Caitlin Clark, I wouldn’t accept the apology.”

“He was lightweight flirting with her, he tried to make a joke and it didn’t land,” said co-host Jermaine Wiggins.

Mike Mulligan and David Haugh talked about the issue on their morning show on 670 The Score in Chicago. “It just fell so flat, and it was so borderline sexist, misogynistic, it was just the wrong tone,” Mulligan said. “It was completely unprofessional for an introductory news conference.”

Haugh replied, “Well it was unprofessional, but what was worse is because it was a 22-year-old female, it was inappropriate, and he should have known better…His apology was clumsy itself.”

105.3 The Fan in Dallas’ RJ Choppy said about Doyel, “He was an idiot…He tried and attempted humor…and it backfired. He’s not part of the problem, he is a problem, in general.”

Sign up for the BSM 8@8

The Top 8 Sports Media Stories of the Day, sent directly to your inbox, every morning at 8am ET.

Invalid email address
We promise not to spam you. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Advertisement

Upcoming Events

Barrett Media Writers

Copyright © 2024 Barrett Media.