Mike Thomas

Few radio listeners are more loyal and devoted than those who favor spoken-word formats. Be it politics or a local sports team, the Talk and Sports radio audience can't get enough of it. Yet even with all that loyalty, unique challenges await programmers of those formats. Here, Beasley Broadcasting National Spoken Word Brand Manager Mike Thomas offers his insight on how to meet and conquer them.

Did you know that NTS programming was your specialty early on or did your career just led you into it?

My career definitely led me to it. I was a night jock in Top 40 when I started my career right out of high school. (My first job in radio was at age 13!) I've been on-air ... and now programmed ... almost every format. Most of my career was in Rock radio, working at legendary stations such as WTUE, WFBQ, KGB, WZLX and WBCN. It was that experience programming and talking to guys that lead me to spoken word.

Describe the state of Talk and Sports formats today ... and for the foreseeable future.

Extremely healthy. We've seen a boom of Sports radio stations move to FM in the past 10 years and ratings have never been higher for the format. With the current political divide, News and News/Talk stations are doing very well. Spoken word radio has a long and bright future.

A common refrain with News/Talk stations concerns the demo problem, in terms of its aging audience. Does that concern you?

On the AM dial, yes. Strong apps and online presence is helping. Eventually (and it might be 10 years down the road), I believe most listening is going to be streamed anyway. So if you're on AM or FM, it's not going to matter as much as it does today.

Political Talk is almost exclusively a one-way (party) street. Is that the way it's going to be for the foreseeable future, or do you see a hole in the market for more liberal party Talk?

It's definitely a one-way street. It's very difficult to play both sides.

In that light, what differentiates a great Talk personality from a less-than great personality when they basically hold the same political viewpoints?

Their presentation. How do they approach and deliver the topics to engage the listeners? Just like with all formats, some hosts are just better at this than others. The ones who figure out how to "needle" their listeners, but also don't turn them away ... those are the ratings winners.

How do you deal with advertiser reluctance to highly charged talkers?

You take the good with the bad. Is the risk worth the reward? That's the question the station and the client has to answer.

How does Beasley view the use of syndicated vs. local hosts?

Local should always be the first choice whenever possible.

So if a Beasley talk host is up against a syndicated star a la Limbaugh or Hannity, what do you feel is the best way to compete against them?

Be the voice of your city. As a local host, you can speak to the same topics as a syndicated star, but what is the local angle? How does that topic impact the lives of your listeners in your town? The syndicated hosts are going to have a national view; your view has to be local impact.

What kind of nontraditional revenue works best for Talkers?

Business breakfast, tailgate parties, experience trips such as the Super Bowl or spring training. There are opportunities if you look hard enough.

How does Beasley weigh the cost vs. benefits of acquiring play-by-play rights?

I'm a big believer that play-by-play lifts your station to levels otherwise unachievable. It's usually a break-even scenario as far as the rights deals, but the ratings lift and ancillary content (coaches' interviews, front office access) will usually make it all worth it ... for sales and programming.

Some Sports stations have sold equity to the sports teams they cover. For example, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired a 49% interest in KLAC/Los Angeles. Is that something you'd be interested in for Beasley stations?

That's a can of worms, because then can you really be objective in your opinions? You have to be able to say the team sucks, when they have a bad game ... or season.

If you have the broadcast rights for a specific team, do you counsel your air personalities on the best ways to criticize the team when it is doing poorly - or do you reap more benefit, audience-wise, by having your hosts be as contrary as possible?

What we've always tried to do is keep it between the lines. You can be critical of the team for their play on the field, but avoid personal attacks on ownership and the front office. When you start to get personal, you get into trouble.

It seems that when a local sports star retires, his first career move is to be some sort of analyst or on-air host on a Sports radio or TV station. Do you scout athletes on their mic skills before they retire so you can recruit them when the time comes, or do they always come to you first?

I definitely scout them. You can usually tell which ones could be good on radio or TV after they are done playing. Try to build relationships with them or their agents and when the time is right, hopefully they will want to work for you.

How do you view the competitive field nowadays? Is it Talker vs. Talker and Sports Talker vs. Sports Talker, or all spoken-word stations vs. each other, or each station against every other station in the market, regardless of format?

All radio stations of all formats are competition for the listeners' time. So are podcasts. Certainly there is more cume sharing within your lane, but it's all competition.

Speaking of podcasts, most Talk and Sports podcasts seems to consist of regurgitated station programming. Is that basically how you plan to use the platform, or are you actively looking to create original content for your podcasts?

We are absolutely actively looking to create as much original content as we can ... and we're doing it. We have dozens of original podcasts on a variety of topics and we keep developing more. We want our podcast platform to be home to on-demand listening of our radio shows -- and a place to get much, much more.

Finally, what are your personal future goals?

To be as big of an asset as possible to the company I work for, and to wear as many hats as needed to lead the charge.