BleedGopher
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per Jace:
KFAN is not only one of the most-listened to radio stations in the Twin Cities, it garners some of the highest — sometimes the highest — sports talk ratings in the country.
The station is a powerhouse. But it was fair to wonder if a global pandemic would take a healthy swipe at 100.3-FM’s gaudy numbers. Do people really want to listen to sports talk radio when there are no live sports? The station’s popularity was about to be put to a stiff test.
KFAN program director Chad Abbott knew what had to be done — nothing. The station’s success is built on its personalities, not its subject matter.
“We really didn’t have to change much about what we do. The station itself, we’ve built ourselves on not relying on sports to do good shows and have good content,” Abbott said. “I think that content we’ve been providing for years that didn’t rely on sports necessarily to have a good radio show is something that we kind of just continue to do a little bit more of. I think we kind of went into this knowing that we were prepared to do radio for a long time without sports, and we have the listeners and the clients that were listening to us and advertising with us because of that model, and we just kind of continued with that.”
At times, you’ll tune into KFAN and hear a sports discussion, but depending on the time of day, you’re just as likely to come across a joke, a personal story or a breakdown of a pressing news matter. From 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each weekday, four shows, all original KFAN programming, all powered by hosts with very different personalities but similar talents for what they do, carry the station with their individual styles and approaches. And it all comes together to form what’s known around the state as, simply, “The Fan.”
“We learned as a radio station … a while ago that our path to success wasn’t going to be a lot of sports. It was going to be a good mixture of everything,” Power Trip morning show co-host Chris Hawkey said. “I believe that’s made it easier for us as your sports leader to also be able to do radio when there’s no sports to talk about. We are a sports radio station, but above all else, we are your entertainment radio station as well, and that hasn’t changed.”
The Fan’s fans remain ever loyal, even with no live sports on which to speak. It’s likely overall radio listeners will dip when the next set of ratings are revealed, because people listen to the radio in their cars, and people are using their cars less during Minnesota’s current stay-at-home order. But Abbott said for every radio listener lost during this period, the station has replaced it with at least one more tuning in via stream or podcast.
Sports or not, KFAN continues to crush.
www.twincities.com
Go Gophers!!
KFAN is not only one of the most-listened to radio stations in the Twin Cities, it garners some of the highest — sometimes the highest — sports talk ratings in the country.
The station is a powerhouse. But it was fair to wonder if a global pandemic would take a healthy swipe at 100.3-FM’s gaudy numbers. Do people really want to listen to sports talk radio when there are no live sports? The station’s popularity was about to be put to a stiff test.
KFAN program director Chad Abbott knew what had to be done — nothing. The station’s success is built on its personalities, not its subject matter.
“We really didn’t have to change much about what we do. The station itself, we’ve built ourselves on not relying on sports to do good shows and have good content,” Abbott said. “I think that content we’ve been providing for years that didn’t rely on sports necessarily to have a good radio show is something that we kind of just continue to do a little bit more of. I think we kind of went into this knowing that we were prepared to do radio for a long time without sports, and we have the listeners and the clients that were listening to us and advertising with us because of that model, and we just kind of continued with that.”
At times, you’ll tune into KFAN and hear a sports discussion, but depending on the time of day, you’re just as likely to come across a joke, a personal story or a breakdown of a pressing news matter. From 5:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each weekday, four shows, all original KFAN programming, all powered by hosts with very different personalities but similar talents for what they do, carry the station with their individual styles and approaches. And it all comes together to form what’s known around the state as, simply, “The Fan.”
“We learned as a radio station … a while ago that our path to success wasn’t going to be a lot of sports. It was going to be a good mixture of everything,” Power Trip morning show co-host Chris Hawkey said. “I believe that’s made it easier for us as your sports leader to also be able to do radio when there’s no sports to talk about. We are a sports radio station, but above all else, we are your entertainment radio station as well, and that hasn’t changed.”
The Fan’s fans remain ever loyal, even with no live sports on which to speak. It’s likely overall radio listeners will dip when the next set of ratings are revealed, because people listen to the radio in their cars, and people are using their cars less during Minnesota’s current stay-at-home order. But Abbott said for every radio listener lost during this period, the station has replaced it with at least one more tuning in via stream or podcast.
Sports or not, KFAN continues to crush.
KFAN during COVID: How one of the nation’s top sports talk radio stations thrives without sports
KFAN is not only one of the most-listened to radio stations in the Twin Cities, it garners some of the highest — sometimes the highest — sports talk ratings in the country. The station is a powerho…
www.twincities.com
Go Gophers!!
