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Garrett Searight Wants 93.1 The Fan To Thrive Right Now

“Part of the good of being a small company and part of the bad of being a small company, is that you are frugal. You’re used to finding corners to cut and save where you can.”

Brandon Contes

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The last six weeks haven’t been easy for sports media brands throughout the country, whether they’re a small business or publicly traded company.

For 93.1 The Fan in Lima, Ohio they weren’t far removed from challenges of their own when the COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented shutdown of sports and the economy. Last October, The Fan’s longtime weekday host and play-by-play voice Vince Koza was diagnosed with cancer, forcing him to step away from his role with the station. In January, Koza succumbed to the disease.

As a member of the Associated Press Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame and a prominent voice on The Fan for over a decade, the station was tasked with replacing a local icon. Launching a new show presented its own challenge for the station and new afternoon host Marty Bannister, but they soon had to deal with the sports shutdown and vast economic impacts of a global pandemic.  

Salary reductions, layoffs and furloughs for national sports media brands made mainstream news, but smaller market companies are equally impacted. Privately owned radio stations might not be dealt the hand of reducing a seven-figure salary, but those mom and pop media companies still represent a chunk of the broadcast industry.

I spoke with Garrett Searight, 93.1 The Fan program director and producer of The Drive With Marty Bannister to see how The Fan is dealing with the negative impacts of COVID-19.

Brandon Contes: How has the business side of 93.1 The Fan been during the last couple of months? Have you seen a significant impact in your number of advertisers, sponsors and clients?

Garrett Searight: We saw a big drop off right at the start. Those weren’t a fun couple of days for our sales team. I understood the apprehension and concern from our clients, but it was difficult. The vast majority of anyone who wasn’t a restaurant, either cancelled or cut back by 50%. This week, though, we’ve started to see a shift and sales pick up a bit. There’s some hope because the governor of Ohio has been talking about reopening part of the state a little at a time beginning May 1st.

Garrett Searight - Program Director - Woof Boom Radio

BC: Are most of your clients locally owned businesses?

GS: Yeah, which is something we’ve talked about, because some other stations in town are iHeart owned. They get national spots that companies are buying on thousands of iHeart stations, while we’re hitting up mom and pop shops that are working from home or offer a non-contact service. It’s an extra challenge for our sales team and you need really strong relationships with these folks. But I would say about 80% of our advertising comes from small, locally owned businesses.

BC: With the clients you have lost, are there ways you look to maintain a relationship with them so if Ohio does start opening back up May 1st, those clients are looking to you with their advertising budget?

GS: A lot of our sellers are really good about that because we can’t just say ‘hey! this station is the top-rated rock station in the market!’ We build relationships where our clients trust our salespeople and know there’s no BS. Our sales team stays in contact with those clients, so they know we’re still here for them.

BC: What about having less commercials, how are you filling those spots? Has it increased the amount of content you need to create in an hour for your local show?

GS: It’s changed, we were doing a SportsCenter update every 20 minutes during our local show and we stopped it recently because the volume of topics to talk about and update listeners on just isn’t there. That creates six more minutes of content you have to fill each hour and then your spot blocks go from four minutes to 90 seconds, so we’ve had to rearrange the format of the show a little bit. Instead of 44 minutes of talking in an hour, it’s now more than 50 minutes and that’s during a time when everyone’s looking for things to talk about. It presents a challenge, but it’s also not a bad thing to have more time for longer form interviews, or delve deeper into different topics.

BC: You have one local weekday show?

GS: Yeah, 4 – 6p with Marty Bannister and then we had a Saturday morning show from 8 – 10a that we put on hiatus for now because those hosts, one is a financial planner and the other works with the Chamber of Commerce. They’re sports hosts, but when it’s not your full-time job, it’s difficult to find two hours of content without sports.

BC: And what about evening programming, did you carry local play-by-play, and was that impacted?

GS: We carry girls high school basketball, there’s also a local college that we did 10 of their 25 games. But the majority of it was finished by the time everything shutdown. In Ohio, they cancelled seasons about 20 minutes before the first girl’s state semifinal.

BC: For those local broadcasts, are the announcers hired by the station?

GS: Yeah, we’ve got a rotating group of announcers. And if you go back a bit, station programming was largely built around Vince Coza who hosted our daily show and did a lot of play-by-play. In October, he found out he had stage IV cancer and passed away in early January. So from late September through now, there’s been a lot of upheaval, change and challenges.

BC: I do think there’s something to be said for small market radio stations being used to dealing with abnormalities. Not to say that anyone could have prepared for this pandemic, but running a small business, you’ve had unexpected issues pop up before.

GS: When everything started getting cancelled, our boss asked what are we going to do with the show? My initial reaction was to shut it down and turn on The Will Cain Show. But then I thought, well that’s kind of a crappy, take the easy way out approach – so we stayed with our local show.

Time for The Drive with Marty Bannister! - 93.1 The Fan - Lima's ...

Our market manager Allen Willis would send me articles from Barrett Sports Media about what other stations are doing. But a station like 101 ESPN in St. Louis, might have more people working on one show than we have in our entire building! It’s different, we’re not apples to apples here, but we’re experienced in problem solving and going through challenges. 

BC: And now looking back, how do you feel about the decision to keep the show going?

GS: I’m really happy we didn’t just take the easy way out. People are going to remember who was there for them, who put in the effort and who tried when everything turned. We’re in the same boat as our listeners. All of our lives have been disrupted and it’s been a good way to connect with our audience and say, ‘we’re in this, just the same way you are.’ It brings an authenticity to the show that I don’t know if a syndicated simulcast from New York City could’ve had. 

BC: Because you’re going through this together with the audience, has it helped listeners connect with Marty as the new afternoon host?

GS: For Marty, it’s definitely not easy to step in and replace someone who was a prominent voice in this market for years. But when two months into your full-time stint replacing that person, everybody has to go home and stay there for who knows how long, it’s pretty endearing to be a steady voice for everyone, every day. Now you also have more time to talk and build those connections because it’s not as fast paced of a show that we’re used to. It’s a slower speed and you do get to know somebody that much more because of the situation we’re in. 

BC: Are there things you’ve implemented into the show as a way of trying something new since you don’t have games to react to everyday?

GS: Actually, on Monday we’re starting a segment called ‘Football 4:15’ because no matter what, it’s always football season on sports radio here. Even without sports, no matter what day it is, we can still talk Ohio State football, high school football, Bengals, Browns, it doesn’t matter. So every day at 4:15 we’re talking football. We’ve had segments where we talk to local golf course owners or the city Parks and Rec Department about how they’ve been impacted, while also getting information out there regarding new schedules for local baseball, tee ball and other youth sports. It’s been nice to offer more community-based content that we may not have time for in a two hour show when the world is normal. 

BC: How about when sports do return, will some of these changes carry into the future? Maybe you keep commercial time down or continue with some local spotlights?

GS: The longer we’ve gone without doing SportsCenters, I’ve thought about if it’s better to have more time to talk instead of me just regurgitating that Francisco Lindor hit a homerun last night. There are things to reevaluate. And I’ve told my bosses this, I don’t think we’re just doing good shows considering the circumstances, I think we’ve been creating really good shows even if everything in the sports world was normal. And since we’re all working from home, now we know we can take the show on the road more if we need to for our clients. We can do remotes more easily than I ever thought we could. So we’ll look back at what we liked from this time frame and see what changes to implement going forward.

BC: Have you seen more website or social media traffic in recent weeks?

GS: Social media is up, our Facebook numbers have been up and Facebook isn’t typically the ideal social media platform for a sports station. But now we’ve started producing more content for Facebook and Twitter and our audience has reacted pretty positively to those videos and engagements. That’s something we’ll certainly look at continuing in the future.

BC: Do you know if the company applied for or received small business loans?

GS: Yeah, we did, and we did get approved which is certainly reassuring. We see other markets and how it’s not going great for people even in larger markets and big media companies. So it’s good to have that reassurance and know we have some financial help.

BC: How long could the station operate without that assistance?

GS: That’s a good question. Part of the good of being a small company and part of the bad of being a small company, is that you are frugal. You’re used to finding corners to cut and save where you can. It’s something we’ve been cognizant of for years and maybe helped prepare us for this.

BC: Did the station have to make any personnel cuts?

One-Employee 'Furlough' Evidence of FMLA Retaliation - HR Daily ...

GS: No, we’ve been lucky that everybody is still on. There was discussion of having five furlough days before the end of May, but even that was deemed not necessary for now.

BC: Is the unknown exciting in a way? The priority is to survive into next week and next month, but you’re also balancing finding ways to grow and build a better radio station.

GS: I’ve looked at it as, if we shoot for thriving and miss – at least we’re surviving. If I shoot for surviving and miss, then we’re in trouble. Let’s not think about whether or not we’re going to make it through the month, let’s try to win a Marconi this month and if we miss? We’ll still be doing alright. 

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How to Help Your Clients with Low Website Conversions

Don’t assume there isn’t enough traffic; focus on optimizing user engagement once visitors arrive on the site.

Jeff Caves

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Graphic for how to increase website conversions
Credit: WPDesigner.Biz

Are your clients dealing with low website conversions? Whenever a marketing campaign is run, and the goal is to convert website visitors into leads, the temptation is to blame low traffic, amongst other issues, for low form fills or appointments being generated.  Just spend more money, you may think! Sometimes, you must look at at least four other potential issues to tackle poor conversion rates. Here are some actionable steps using the IT services industry to increase website conversions.

IT Solutions specializes in providing products, services, or solutions related to technology, particularly in areas such as software development, hardware sales, IT consulting, cybersecurity, cloud computing, networking, and digital transformations. They faced challenges with their website conversions. Despite driving substantial traffic through Google Ads and other SEO tactics, they struggled to convert website visitors into form fills for appointment requests. A 2% to 5% conversion rate could be considered reasonable. Of course, conversion rates can vary based on various factors, such as the competitiveness of the local market, the quality of the website (and radio stations help most to fix that) and its user experience, the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, and the reputation and offerings of the IT solutions business. Focusing on improving the quality of leads and providing exceptional customer service can be just as crucial as achieving high conversion rates. Don’t blame EVERYTHING on the marketing tactics! 

The Diagnosis

Upon thorough analysis, several critical issues were identified with IT Solutions’ website:

1. High Bounce Rate: Nobody was checking out the business. If 70% or more of website visitors only visit the landing page, that is an issue.  It could be slow loading times, irrelevant content, poor user experience, or unclear calls-to-action that prevent them from wanting to know more about IT Solutions. You can check the bounce rate on the Google Analytics page for the website in the left-hand sidebar, click on “Behavior” to expand the menu, then click on “Site Content,” and finally, click on “Landing Pages.” You’ll see a list of landing pages and their respective bounce rates.

2. Complex Navigation: It was hard to move around the website to find relevant information about IT services, and it was unclear who they were initiating contact with and for what purpose.

3. Unclear Calls-to-Action (CTAs): The website lacked clear and compelling CTAs guiding visitors toward requesting an appointment. Simply stating “click here for an appointment” is like asking for a meeting whenever or without establishing value. Here are 28 CTAs for free.

4. Lengthy Forms: The appointment forms were long, without qualifying information, and requested excessive information upfront, deterring potential leads from completing them.

Action Plan

1. Optimize Landing Pages:

   – Redo high-traffic landing pages with clear messaging and compelling CTAs.

   – Showcase IT Solutions’ services as benefits, making it easier for users to request appointments, thereby increasing user engagement and conversions.

2. Simplify Navigation:

   – Reorganize the menu and add more action-oriented links.

   – Provide additional options for users to access relevant information, such as “Get a free IT Solutions 15-point checkup NOW” and “Take this 5-question survey to diagnose your IT issues,” motivating them to book appointments.

3. Enhance CTAs:

   – Utilize concise and persuasive messaging throughout the website.

   – Encourage visitors to take action, whether requesting a free download about “5 things you can do to solve your IT issues on your own” or “get a free pizza for booking an appointment.”

4. Improve the Form Fill:

   – Add a further line about the number of employees who qualify for incoming leads.

   – Highlight the value of leads based on company size, prioritizing forms with higher potential impact.

Review landing pages, navigation, CTAs, and form experience to address website conversion issues. Don’t assume there isn’t enough traffic; focus on optimizing user engagement once visitors arrive on the site.

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‘NHL on TNT’ Gives Hockey Fans the ‘NBA on TNT’ Treatment

Watching Albert and Olczyk call a hockey game is like watching Picasso paint and da Vinci sculpt. They are masters of their respective crafts.

John Molori

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NHL on TNT studio

Let’s play a little word association, sports media style. If I say TNT, what is your response? Chances are it will be a three-letter abbreviation of your own, namely, NBA. Over the years, TNT has built a reputation as arguably the premiere network to telecast the National Basketball Association.

The NBA on TNT pregame and halftime shows have become the gold standard with stars like Ernie Johnson, Jr., Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal. Still, it’s not just this quartet of roundball royalty that has fortified TNT’s hoops coverage.

The rep was also built on tremendous play-by-play announcers like Bob Neal and Kevin Harlan, color analysts like Doug Collins and Reggie Miller, and courtside reporters like the late Craig Sager and current sideline star Allie LaForce.

Indeed, TNT and the NBA have become synonymous, but I have some news for you. This network is not just about professional basketball. This past week I went off the grid with TNT looking at their in-game and studio coverage of the NHL.

On March 24, the NHL on TNT provided coverage of the Pittsburgh Penguins at Colorado Avalanche matchup. Kenny Albert did play-by-play with Eddie Olczyk on color. Albert is not as noted as his legendary broadcasting father Marv Albert, but he has certainly staked his claim as one of the best in the business – able to cross over to multiple sports with equal aplomb.

Hockey is a strong suit for Albert. His rat-tat-tat, drama-building style draws viewers in and keeps us on the edge of our seats. Similarly, Olczyk is one of the top four or five NHL game analysts in the business. His style is understated, providing calm and clear analysis of key plays. They work really well together.

Albert eschews any kind of hackneyed and trite catch phrases for his goal calls. An emphatic, “He shoots and scores!” is plenty enough.

Hockey is a different beast when it comes to play-by-play. Unlike basketball, baseball, football, or even soccer and tennis, there is a minimum of breaks in the action. With hockey, a play-by-play announcer has to know the names of the players like he or she knows her kids’ names.

To me, it is the hardest sport for play-by-play and equally difficult for a color analyst. In basketball, after a team scores, the play-by-play announcer will keep silent and give the color analyst time to talk until the play crosses center court. In baseball and football, there is ample room for commentary.

Hockey does not offer such space, but Olczyk gets the most out of the minimal amount of time. Watching Albert and Olczyk call a hockey game is like watching Picasso paint and da Vinci sculpt. They are masters of their respective crafts.

Coming back from a break in the game, Albert and Olczyk provided on air commentary and then tossed to ice level reporter Brian Boucher who has grown into a tremendous asset to the TNT broadcasts. Boucher provided real talk about Colorado’s objectives of staying on top of their division and vying for the top seed in the Western Conference.

The Penguins, squarely in a rebuilding year having dumped talent at the NHL trade deadline, surprisingly jumped out to a 2–0 lead in this game, and the TNT between periods studio crew was all over it. The excellent Liam McHugh hosted alongside Colby Armstrong, Anson Carter, and Keith Yandle.

Armstrong was especially entertaining. With Pittsburgh outshooting the Avs 16-4, Armstrong noted that it’s the best he’s seen Pittsburgh play in a long time. His reasoning was that teams get geared up for playing Colorado even if it’s out of fear. Great stuff.

Both teams tallied two goals in the second period giving Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead heading into the final frame. When Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon set up Jonathan Drouin for a goal to make it 4-3, Albert and Olczyk showed their strengths.

Albert called the pass from MacKinnon and one-timer goal from Drouin, and immediately noted that MacKinnon now had a point in all 34 of Colorado’s home games this season. On the goal replay, Olczyk showed how the play developed pointing out how McKinnon allowed Pittsburgh’s Evgenii Malkin to come in close before making the past to Drouin.

The TNT production team then showed a graphic displaying that McKinnon is now second all-time in longest home points streaks trailing only Wayne Gretzky. This was a sublime sequence of symmetry between talent and technicians like a songwriter, musician, and singer creating beautiful music.

What was supposed to be a blowout win for Colorado had now become a hockey barn burner, and the TNT crew was up to the task. Every goal and key play was followed up with replays from multiple angles showing the genesis of the action.

TNT has certainly taken to the velocity of the hockey broadcast with movement that challenges directors, graphics professionals, and videographers.

When there were breaks in this non-stop action, Olczyk was at his best. No hockey analyst draws on his experience as a player and explains that experience better to viewers. The TNT broadcast also lets Boucher freewheel and join in the flow of discussion without having to be introduced.

TNT does not merely rely on the traditional wide shot of the entire rink. We see close-up shots of each goaltender after a great save and the sweat of players on the bench or in the penalty box.

When McKinnon tied the game at 4-4 with 4:38 left in the third period, we got a series of tremendous crowd shots showing the Colorado fans going absolutely berserk. The sage Albert and Olczyk wisely remained quiet for several seconds, letting the cheers do the talking.

When Drouin scored the game winner at 4:06 of overtime, Albert exercised controlled enthusiasm, raising his voice on the call of the goal, but not becoming the show and overshadowing the play itself. He is definitely in the mold of Dan Kelly, Gary Thorne, and Sean McDonough, announcers who enhance but do not supersede the game.

Putting a cherry on top of this hockey Sunday, TNT showed a graphic that the Avalanche now led the NHL in comeback wins this season with 25 and that they were riding a 9-game winning streak. In analyzing the goal, Olczyk opined that the altitude of playing in Colorado was prevalent as the Penguins seemed to tire as the game progressed – really interesting insight.

In the postgame show, Anson Carter made a great point that the chemistry between Drouin and MacKinnon stems from the fact that they have been playing together going back to junior hockey. McKinnon joined in from the arena for a postgame interview. The analysts asked solid questions and even did a funny MVP chant together as the interview ended.

The NHL on TNT takes no back seat to its elder NBA sister. The broadcast provides viewers with flash, dash, and serious hockey talk from every angle – in studio, from the broadcast booth, and on the ice.

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Kim Mulkey Now Has Everyone Anticipating Washington Post Story

I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it.

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photo of LSU women's college basketball coach Kim Mulkey
Credit: Dailymail.co.uk

The Washington Post, you might’ve heard, has a story coming out about controversial LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey. The reason you might’ve heard is because Kim Mulkey told you. The Tigers coach read a fiery prepared statement just before her team started the Women’s NCAA Tournament. In the statement, Mulkey threatened to sue The Post for defamation before the first word was even published.

Now, I’ve never run a public relations firm but that did not seem like a good idea. The Washington Post story on Mulkey is one of the bigger stories in sports right now and nobody even knows what’s in it. The reason the story, apparently unflattering to Mulkey, is even on anyone’s radar screen is Mulkey herself.

It all started with an innocuous social media post by Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde right in the middle of the most anticipated two days in sports, the NCAA Tournament Round of 64. On his X account, Forde posted: “Hearing some buzz about a big Washington Post story in the works on LSU women’s hoops coach Kim Mulkey, potentially next week. Wagons being circled, etc.”

You know what generally will go unnoticed at 4:00 on the first Friday of the NCAA Tournament? A post on X about a women’s basketball coach. But don’t tell Mulkey, she saw Forde’s post and decided to fight fire with nuclear weaponry. The result: the average person like me now is really interested in what has Mulkey so incensed. By “average person like me” I mean that I can’t imagine what headline, under normal circumstances, the Washington Post would have to put on a Kim Mulkey story to make me want to read it. Maybe:

“LSU Women’s Coach Discovers Ark of the Covenant”

Or:

“Mulkey Reveals True JFK Assassin(s)”

Perhaps:

“Famed Women’s Basketball Coach Reveals the Mystery Behind Slow Drivers in the Left Lane”

Literally any of those catch my attention more than whatever will likely be the Washington Post headline about Mulkey. But now Mulkey is “Mad as Hell and is not going to take this anymore” so I now have an interest I would never before have had in this story. It has been fascinating to watch the online speculation about the subject of the article and all we really know, as of now, is that it will be written by Kent Babb. This is a dream come true for Babb; he writes an article that is, presumably, not flattering about Kim Mulkey and, before it is even published, she gives the article the greatest commercial anyone could give it. Babb couldn’t have entered into a business agreement with Mulkey and had this turn out better for him.

For those who don’t follow Babb, he is a former NFL reporter who now is an award-winning writer for the Washington Post. In his 14 years with The Post, he has written sports features and authored a couple of books. One of those sports features stories was a deep dive into what he viewed as a large inequity in the level of pay for LSU head football coach Brian Kelly and his LSU players. It is this piece Mulkey described as a “hit piece” and, based on that piece, referred to Babb as a “sleazy reporter.” Babb, and many others, resented the fact his story was labeled as a hit piece. In fact, Babb essentially confirmed he was the author Mulkey was referencing when he shared the original article on X with the comment: “Hit piece?”

Whether a printed piece or a recorded interview, I can’t imagine a better promotion for it than the subject of the interview threatening a libel/slander lawsuit, especially before it is even released. That simply screams “This piece is salacious!!” Also, libel and slander suits get settled all the time, right? Of course they don’t, they seem to never even get filed. That little thing called discovery is a scary thing for most public figures.

The NCAA Tournament has been very entertaining, and I think the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight will be terrific. For only the fifth time ever, the top two seeds have advanced to the third round which sets up for a remarkable weekend. For me, I guess it will now include a Washington Post article, not a sentence I’d normally say.

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