A home for those who love almost everything about The Ticket (1310 AM, 96.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth), and who would like to discuss -- respectfully and fondly -- their thoughts on how (and whether) to eliminate the "almost."
I'm fine, thanks for asking, Surly. Maybe those ubiquitous "welcome to this ad, how would you like it" for $2.99 six-inchers commercials are only on the stream, where I've been doing a fair amount of listening lately.
I can be pretty clueless sometimes. What is the connection between Subway and the redhead? if no connection, then why do you say you won't eat Subway? did you get sick after eating there?
I thought Bob's over the top reaction to Dan's opinion about rich vs. non-rich homes being destroyed was pretty silly. I think it was on Wednesday 10/23 during the 1:30 News. Maybe they were just playing radio, but it seems like a pretty basic and noncontroversial take to me. If your average middle-to-lower class family has their home destroyed, that pretty much destroys their daily lives too at least temporarily, and I feel a deep sense of compassion and empathy for their situation.
But when it's a Tyler Seguin for example, I feel bad for him in an "oh that sucks" kind of way, but I honestly don't really care all that much because no one was hurt and it's just stuff that he can easily replace (from a financial standpoint). I think if Bob were being honest, he would admit that he doesn't actually feel as bad for Seguin as he does for the family making $60,000/year who had their home and all of their stuff completely destroyed.
I had heard that their rescheduling to middays was more a demotion for them than a promotion for GBag.
Ben and Skin themselves seemed like pretty OK humans, but I found their show a difficult listen. Less entertaining than their former weekend show on The Ticket. Too many bits, too many games, too much fake enthusiasm, too much homer, too much fake camaraderie (maybe it wasn't fake, but it was noisy) with their own JV, including Kevin "KT" Turner, former Ticket guy and sometime friendly MTC correspondent.
I wish him well -- is he still employed there? -- and Ben and Skin, too.
"The Fan is currently owned by Entercom, which is based near Philadelphia. It has since made some on-air “editorial” changes at The Fan, including, among others, taking calls from listeners."
Wait. So does this mean they stopped taking calls or they now take more calls?
From some of the articles, I saw they were wanting to drive it to a more call oriented show. They were told to drop "named segments" and evidently signature bits. While a caller driven show may work in Philly, I don't think that will fly in the Dallas market anymore.
That worked in the early days for Norm and Galloway and in the very early days of the Ticket but that time has passed in this market.
actually, gopher, i think the powers that are behind sports talk radio are finding that two things are trending. one is that listeners are equally if not more interested In hearing their ownsnd fellow listeners' opinions than the so called experts'...and that these same listener actually want to hear hard core, analytically driven sports talk, and are decidedly indifferent to the guy talk that has set the standard for the past 15 + years.
In my travels to different cities, I don't hear much guy talk on sports radio and I never have. It's why The Ticket has an entirely different sound, a warmer, friendlier sound.
The Musers announced a new thing this morning: From 7:15 5o 8:45 for the next couple of weeks, at least, commercial breaks would be shorter, limited to four minutes. They did not say if the number of breaks would change but I think the implication was that they would not and that overall we would get fewer ads and more Musers. How they can do that on the most popular and profitable show on the station, I don't know. More ads elsewhere?
Since they moved the O-Deck to 6:15, the commercial time at 6:30 has steadily increased. I'm sure by 10:00 we have heard the same number of commercials, just redistributed.
I thought it was interesting that Gordon said they were going to take calls to get reaction to the change, and then spent most of the segment replaying the Mike Snyder non-goodbye. Did Fernando not like the quality of the calls coming in?
Back to Ben & Skin, I just found them utterly EXHAUSTING. Both the show and their social media presence. They are perpetually in hustle mode and just over-the-top open and available and Niceguy™. Insufferable.
Anon 11:02 - Mike Snyder leaving the "night side" was very dramatic for the entire Metroplex. I found great comfort in the Musers reliving that traumatic moment. Never forget.
Like some here, I'm of the opinion that "guy talk" rather than pure sports talk, and especially rather than call-takers, is much more listenable. I care more about what Bob, Jub, Craig, Gordo, etc think than I do about what Steve in Plano thinks. Also, the "guy talk" (which I take to mean a focus on non-sports topics, including entertainment) is preferable because most of us care about things other than sports. I'm not saying that the Ticket invented guy talk, but I was not aware of anyone who specialized in a mix of sports and entertainment before I listened to the Ticket. The most successful practitioner of this sort of thing, besides the Ticket, is "the Ringer". It's a good thing to tap into. Lots of potential listeners/subscribers to those who can tap into that model and do it correctly.
I agree anon at 6:45 that taking calls is just an invitation for bits. They don't take calls as a rule and when they do, it is nothing but amateur radio hour.
I think the Ticket has a few things it gets better than anyone else in the country: 1) Hire radio professionals to be on the radio 2) Listeners listen for the hosts and not the callers 3) There is going to be a time when there is just nothing compelling in the sports world and it is better to talk about nonsense than fake outrage about some controversy about a meaningless baseball game in July
Now, look, the format is not without its drawbacks: 1) they sell spots for specific segments sometimes that handcuffs them. Maybe, just maybe, another segment on the Zeke holdout is more important than E-news.
When Jake brought up that friday calls in be replaced with year round crow line he was 100% right; callers bring in a hot load of nothing. But you get 1,000 calls and you get 5 pieces of gold you have engineered quality radio. Good work Jake for saving us from am crap
Bit phone calls have their place - Crow Line, E-Brake voting. But you know what's coming in those segments.
Norm figured out a long time ago that he had to designate segments for fantasy football because he would get so many calls asking how he thought XYZ player would do on Sunday. Radio anthrax for me.
Whether you liked B&S and their bits, you have to admit that the show worked very, very hard to gin up content and be liked. The sweat showed a little too much, but it beat no show prep at all. KT performed yeoman duties; surely there's a place for that kind of energy in DFW media somewhere.
I'm sure that I'll get lambasted for saying this, but is it possible that some of you are thinking about caller driven sports/guy talk in the wrong way? If we look at social media, what it is, and why it has taken over many of our lives (especially the younger demo), then might we see why it is The FAN's new ownership/management are taking it in that direction? After all, what truly is social media other than the expression of oneself, the projection of oneself onto the public arena. As such, wouldn't it make sense to at least try going that route? Considering the station's lack of success vs The Ticket (and after having had millions spent on it/to spend and years to do so) and its edge in attracting the younger demo (largest consumer of social media), it seems that it would. Nothing else has yielded results thus far...
Finally, considering the above, maybe the caller driven approach is the future (?).
I'm pretty much a day one P1, but I've never heard Junior's story about his ill-fated flight to Indianapolis. I'm glad I was running a little late to work this morning and got to hear it.
What a dilemma for the station and the Musers - a captivating story that they couldn't tell at the time because it intimately involved one of their current sponsors and one of their active promotions.
Does anyone know why Jake was not part of White Elephant draft? Producers were included, as was Julie. I was distracted during the thing so maybe I missed it, but I don't recall his involvement, nor was he picked. I'm looking for a listing to check this observation. Can anyone clarify?
Is there anyone that thinks Computer on the radio is good radio? I've been a Cowboy fan for me entire life but his NFL conspiracy theories are a beating of the highest order.
Shan Sheriff is posting on IG that the Fan destroyed the Ticket in the latest ratings. Is that really true? Could they actually be overtaking the little Ticket for the crown??
Lastest October ratings I could find showed the Fan at a 2.4 and the Ticket at a 1.2 (AM only) This seems to have been the pattern the last few years of them getting a bump during Cowboys season. We'll see what happens after their fruit basket turnover is complete.
You would have to pay for the service that gives you the hour by hour breakdown but I would love to see if the Cowboy's Hour interview shows increase the ratings any.
Wow, so the vaunted Hardline is the lowest rated show on The Ticket. And it's the pm drive slot. Yet, as bad as THL has become (and it most certainly has), it still beats its competitors. Just imagine how good it could be if Corby wasn't so unlikable and if Mike was always engaged.
I thought DMN stopped posting ratings a few years ago? I tried searching the site and couldn't come up with anything recent, do you have a link for that article Plainsman?
APOLOGIES ALL CONFESSORS: Those ratings I posted above, now deleted, cut and pasted ratings from some time ago. I thought the link was current. I was in error. Sorry for the misleading information.
Cowboys bump. It happens every year. If somebody wants to listen to Jerry's Word Salad over almost anything else that makes sound including the grinding of teeth they are welcome to it. I would rather listen to an equivalent amount of time of Computer telling us his latest conspiracy theories.
If they are going to go to caller driven radio I can rest assured that they will do poorly. I don't want to hear somebody flapping their jaws about their HSOs concerning cover2, whatever wild ass scenario to get Jamal Adams or any of their other half-baked ideas. If that is what Philly has decided the Fan needs to become I expect these numbers to drop. I look forward to E-Brake voting and Friday Callers because 90% of them are bits and have very little sports opinions. The Crow Line is good because Jake mines that massive pile of ore to get the gold. Do y'all remember the Two Minute Drill? It went away because it sucked. I've heard caller driven radio and it has all the appeal of listening to old men rant at clouds or young men tell us how to bro down.
But, let's say those numbers are legit beyond the Cowboys and there is a movement away from the Ticket to the Fan. Perhaps it will make them work harder to get listeners. Perhaps instead of bogging down for ten minutes on how great Brady is they can get to the rest of the NFL. Perhaps Corby will stop bogging long enough to finish a segment. Maybe once he will read the story instead of the headline and actually know wth he's presenting. Maybe. Perhaps. And maybe I'll go outside and someone will have left a pile of gold on my front porch and my dog will start doing calculus.
ok?
ReplyDeleteI'm fine, thanks for asking, Surly. Maybe those ubiquitous "welcome to this ad, how would you like it" for $2.99 six-inchers commercials are only on the stream, where I've been doing a fair amount of listening lately.
ReplyDeleteBut lord, am I sick of them.
And I wanted an excuse to post that ginger.
I only listen on the SportsDay app. I just never listen to commercials.
ReplyDeleteThat is an admirable skill, Surly. You must have better software even than Garrett.
ReplyDeleteGlad you did Plains. She's the best one yet.
ReplyDeleteI can be pretty clueless sometimes. What is the connection between Subway and the redhead? if no connection, then why do you say you won't eat Subway? did you get sick after eating there?
ReplyDeleteI think PMan is just saying that the Subway ads are annoying AF, and that he wanted to put up a post about something so he could share the photo.
ReplyDeleteI thought Bob's over the top reaction to Dan's opinion about rich vs. non-rich homes being destroyed was pretty silly. I think it was on Wednesday 10/23 during the 1:30 News. Maybe they were just playing radio, but it seems like a pretty basic and noncontroversial take to me. If your average middle-to-lower class family has their home destroyed, that pretty much destroys their daily lives too at least temporarily, and I feel a deep sense of compassion and empathy for their situation.
ReplyDeleteBut when it's a Tyler Seguin for example, I feel bad for him in an "oh that sucks" kind of way, but I honestly don't really care all that much because no one was hurt and it's just stuff that he can easily replace (from a financial standpoint). I think if Bob were being honest, he would admit that he doesn't actually feel as bad for Seguin as he does for the family making $60,000/year who had their home and all of their stuff completely destroyed.
I'm hearing rumors that Ben and Skin are gone from the Fan. Anyone have more info on this?
ReplyDeleteBen and Skin are out at the Fan
ReplyDeletehttps://barrettsportsmedia.com/2019/10/25/ben-skin-are-out-at-105-3-the-f
I had heard that their rescheduling to middays was more a demotion for them than a promotion for GBag.
ReplyDeleteBen and Skin themselves seemed like pretty OK humans, but I found their show a difficult listen. Less entertaining than their former weekend show on The Ticket. Too many bits, too many games, too much fake enthusiasm, too much homer, too much fake camaraderie (maybe it wasn't fake, but it was noisy) with their own JV, including Kevin "KT" Turner, former Ticket guy and sometime friendly MTC correspondent.
I wish him well -- is he still employed there? -- and Ben and Skin, too.
Interesting information in the Star-Telegram:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.star-telegram.com/sports/article236684328.html
"The Fan is currently owned by Entercom, which is based near Philadelphia. It has since made some on-air “editorial” changes at The Fan, including, among others, taking calls from listeners."
ReplyDeleteWait. So does this mean they stopped taking calls or they now take more calls?
Hope that brew pub does well.
ReplyDeleteHope that "brew pub" does well for them.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 5:00
ReplyDeleteFrom some of the articles, I saw they were wanting to drive it to a more call oriented show. They were told to drop "named segments" and evidently signature bits. While a caller driven show may work in Philly, I don't think that will fly in the Dallas market anymore.
That worked in the early days for Norm and Galloway and in the very early days of the Ticket but that time has passed in this market.
actually, gopher, i think the powers that are behind sports talk radio are finding that two things are trending. one is that listeners are equally if not more interested In hearing their ownsnd fellow listeners' opinions than the so called experts'...and that these same listener actually want to hear hard core, analytically driven sports talk, and are decidedly indifferent to the guy talk that has set the standard for the past 15 + years.
ReplyDeleteKTCK and the Fan's ratings say not, here in D/FW anyway. If hardcore nuts and bolts are the way of the future why are ESPN's ratings so low?
ReplyDeleteIn my travels to different cities, I don't hear much guy talk on sports radio and I never have. It's why The Ticket has an entirely different sound, a warmer, friendlier sound.
ReplyDeleteThe Musers announced a new thing this morning: From 7:15 5o 8:45 for the next couple of weeks, at least, commercial breaks would be shorter, limited to four minutes. They did not say if the number of breaks would change but I think the implication was that they would not and that overall we would get fewer ads and more Musers. How they can do that on the most popular and profitable show on the station, I don't know. More ads elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteSince they moved the O-Deck to 6:15, the commercial time at 6:30 has steadily increased. I'm sure by 10:00 we have heard the same number of commercials, just redistributed.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that Gordon said they were going to take calls to get reaction to the change, and then spent most of the segment replaying the Mike Snyder non-goodbye. Did Fernando not like the quality of the calls coming in?
Back to Ben & Skin, I just found them utterly EXHAUSTING. Both the show and their social media presence. They are perpetually in hustle mode and just over-the-top open and available and Niceguy™. Insufferable.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:02 - Mike Snyder leaving the "night side" was very dramatic for the entire Metroplex. I found great comfort in the Musers reliving that traumatic moment. Never forget.
ReplyDeleteLike some here, I'm of the opinion that "guy talk" rather than pure sports talk, and especially rather than call-takers, is much more listenable. I care more about what Bob, Jub, Craig, Gordo, etc think than I do about what Steve in Plano thinks. Also, the "guy talk" (which I take to mean a focus on non-sports topics, including entertainment) is preferable because most of us care about things other than sports. I'm not saying that the Ticket invented guy talk, but I was not aware of anyone who specialized in a mix of sports and entertainment before I listened to the Ticket. The most successful practitioner of this sort of thing, besides the Ticket, is "the Ringer". It's a good thing to tap into. Lots of potential listeners/subscribers to those who can tap into that model and do it correctly.
ReplyDeleteTo some extent, the Ticket is a victim of its own success. Taking phone calls is an invitation to bits ahoy.
ReplyDeleteKevin Turner out at The Fan today also.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/ktfuntweets/status/1188885185640710144
I agree anon at 6:45 that taking calls is just an invitation for bits. They don't take calls as a rule and when they do, it is nothing but amateur radio hour.
ReplyDeleteI think the Ticket has a few things it gets better than anyone else in the country:
1) Hire radio professionals to be on the radio
2) Listeners listen for the hosts and not the callers
3) There is going to be a time when there is just nothing compelling in the sports world and it is better to talk about nonsense than fake outrage about some controversy about a meaningless baseball game in July
Now, look, the format is not without its drawbacks:
1) they sell spots for specific segments sometimes that handcuffs them. Maybe, just maybe, another segment on the Zeke holdout is more important than E-news.
Wonder if they're going to clean house, sans Gbag? Is this where, say, Jake is made an offer to jump ship?
ReplyDeleteWhen Jake brought up that friday calls in be replaced with year round crow line he was 100% right; callers bring in a hot load of nothing. But you get 1,000 calls and you get 5 pieces of gold you have engineered quality radio. Good work Jake for saving us from am crap
ReplyDeleteBit phone calls have their place - Crow Line, E-Brake voting. But you know what's coming in those segments.
ReplyDeleteNorm figured out a long time ago that he had to designate segments for fantasy football because he would get so many calls asking how he thought XYZ player would do on Sunday. Radio anthrax for me.
Sorry, Kevin. MTC hopes you land on your feet.
ReplyDeleteWhether you liked B&S and their bits, you have to admit that the show worked very, very hard to gin up content and be liked. The sweat showed a little too much, but it beat no show prep at all. KT performed yeoman duties; surely there's a place for that kind of energy in DFW media somewhere.
Interesting speculation, 1147.
I agree you can find some nice things to say about Ben and Skin, but bottom line to me was that they weren't very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that I'll get lambasted for saying this, but is it possible that some of you are thinking about caller driven sports/guy talk in the wrong way? If we look at social media, what it is, and why it has taken over many of our lives (especially the younger demo), then might we see why it is The FAN's new ownership/management are taking it in that direction? After all, what truly is social media other than the expression of oneself, the projection of oneself onto the public arena. As such, wouldn't it make sense to at least try going that route? Considering the station's lack of success vs The Ticket (and after having had millions spent on it/to spend and years to do so) and its edge in attracting the younger demo (largest consumer of social media), it seems that it would. Nothing else has yielded results thus far...
ReplyDeleteFinally, considering the above, maybe the caller driven approach is the future (?).
I'm pretty much a day one P1, but I've never heard Junior's story about his ill-fated flight to Indianapolis. I'm glad I was running a little late to work this morning and got to hear it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a dilemma for the station and the Musers - a captivating story that they couldn't tell at the time because it intimately involved one of their current sponsors and one of their active promotions.
Does anyone know why Jake was not part of White Elephant draft? Producers were included, as was Julie. I was distracted during the thing so maybe I missed it, but I don't recall his involvement, nor was he picked. I'm looking for a listing to check this observation. Can anyone clarify?
ReplyDeleteHe was. Donovan selected him with his 2nd pick. He'll be on in the morning.
ReplyDeleteWow, OK. Missed it entirely. Thanks, Surly.
ReplyDeleteWhite Elephant Day is December 4
ReplyDeleteMorning
--------
Donovan
Corby
Jake
Junior
Sean
Midday
--------
George
Bob
Dan
Danny
Ty
Fernando
Afternoon
----------
Gordon
Julie
Sirois
Rhynes
Norm
Dave Lane* (gordo picked him as a free agent, don't think he'll actually take part)
Is there anyone that thinks Computer on the radio is good radio? I've been a Cowboy fan for me entire life but his NFL conspiracy theories are a beating of the highest order.
ReplyDeleteShan Sheriff is posting on IG that the Fan destroyed the Ticket in the latest ratings. Is that really true? Could they actually be overtaking the little Ticket for the crown??
ReplyDeleteThis is why you don't give Corby the reins to a show! He turns it into crappy TMZ boring bull$hit
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 5:32
ReplyDeleteLastest October ratings I could find showed the Fan at a 2.4 and the Ticket at a 1.2 (AM only)
This seems to have been the pattern the last few years of them getting a bump during Cowboys season. We'll see what happens after their fruit basket turnover is complete.
You would have to pay for the service that gives you the hour by hour breakdown but I would love to see if the Cowboy's Hour interview shows increase the ratings any.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWow, so the vaunted Hardline is the lowest rated show on The Ticket. And it's the pm drive slot. Yet, as bad as THL has become (and it most certainly has), it still beats its competitors. Just imagine how good it could be if Corby wasn't so unlikable and if Mike was always engaged.
ReplyDeleteI thought DMN stopped posting ratings a few years ago? I tried searching the site and couldn't come up with anything recent, do you have a link for that article Plainsman?
ReplyDeleteAPOLOGIES ALL CONFESSORS: Those ratings I posted above, now deleted, cut and pasted ratings from some time ago. I thought the link was current. I was in error. Sorry for the misleading information.
ReplyDeleteYou should check the ticket subreddit or find Richie Whitt’s post concerning ratings
ReplyDeleteCowboys bump. It happens every year. If somebody wants to listen to Jerry's Word Salad over almost anything else that makes sound including the grinding of teeth they are welcome to it. I would rather listen to an equivalent amount of time of Computer telling us his latest conspiracy theories.
ReplyDeleteIf they are going to go to caller driven radio I can rest assured that they will do poorly. I don't want to hear somebody flapping their jaws about their HSOs concerning cover2, whatever wild ass scenario to get Jamal Adams or any of their other half-baked ideas. If that is what Philly has decided the Fan needs to become I expect these numbers to drop. I look forward to E-Brake voting and Friday Callers because 90% of them are bits and have very little sports opinions. The Crow Line is good because Jake mines that massive pile of ore to get the gold. Do y'all remember the Two Minute Drill? It went away because it sucked. I've heard caller driven radio and it has all the appeal of listening to old men rant at clouds or young men tell us how to bro down.
But, let's say those numbers are legit beyond the Cowboys and there is a movement away from the Ticket to the Fan. Perhaps it will make them work harder to get listeners. Perhaps instead of bogging down for ten minutes on how great Brady is they can get to the rest of the NFL. Perhaps Corby will stop bogging long enough to finish a segment. Maybe once he will read the story instead of the headline and actually know wth he's presenting. Maybe. Perhaps.
And maybe I'll go outside and someone will have left a pile of gold on my front porch and my dog will start doing calculus.