The Gophers Need Another Flagship Station

Donate To GopherHole
howeda7 said:
Honestly, they should go wherever they get the most $$. In the grand scheme of building a program, the difference between being on KFAN, KSTP or WCCO is not that siginficant, IMO. It was certainly easier to find the game on WCCO, and despite their reputation, they don't do as bad in the demo's as folks here seem to be suggesting. I still think the Twins screwed up in ditching them, but at least they have other 'blow torch' affiliates in WNAX and KFGO.
Click to expand...

The difference is you can't pick up KSTP too well in the Western burbs
 

short ornery norwegian said:
I live in outstate MN, so I never hear KFAN. I do pick up bits and pieces of ESPN1500 because a radio station in Worthington carries their signal from 2:00 until 5:00.

Here's my question - ESPN1500 tries to come off as "ballsy" - lot of snark and cynical attitudes from the hosts - but half of the commercials I hear are for "male enhancement" products. So they seem to be trying to aim at a younger demographic, but all their ads are aimed at older guys who can't get it up.............

I can say that in outstate MN, CCO is the Twin Cities station that most people can pick up. With KFAN being the flagship, the only way to hear Gopher games in outstate MN is to live near a station that belongs to the Gopher Radio Network - otherwise, you're SOL.

But, I agree that, if the Gophers went back to CCO, someone needs to make it 100% clear that Dave Lee cannot have anything to do with the broadcast - other than make sandwiches with country hearth bread for the tailgate party.
Click to expand...

Dave's a good DIII guy
 


short ornery norwegian said:
I live in outstate MN, so I never hear KFAN. I do pick up bits and pieces of ESPN1500 because a radio station in Worthington carries their signal from 2:00 until 5:00.

Here's my question - ESPN1500 tries to come off as "ballsy" - lot of snark and cynical attitudes from the hosts - but half of the commercials I hear are for "male enhancement" products. So they seem to be trying to aim at a younger demographic, but all their ads are aimed at older guys who can't get it up.............

I can say that in outstate MN, CCO is the Twin Cities station that most people can pick up. With KFAN being the flagship, the only way to hear Gopher games in outstate MN is to live near a station that belongs to the Gopher Radio Network - otherwise, you're SOL.

But, I agree that, if the Gophers went back to CCO, someone needs to make it 100% clear that Dave Lee cannot have anything to do with the broadcast - other than make sandwiches with country hearth bread for the tailgate party.
Click to expand...

Right there with you on that. I thought when they switched to KFAN we were told that more people would be able to hear it than WCCO and that doesn't seem to be the case IMO. WCCO seems to be able to reach a larger area of MN then KFAN but KFAN does have an FM station. Not too many people without grey hair that listen to AM.
 

Sports_Realist said:
You can't just add watts to Radio K's signal. There are all kinds of FCC rules and regs to deal with, many of which concern other AM stations in the vicinity of 770 on the AM dial. There are two major stations, WABC-AM in New York being one of them, at 770 and it would be a big issue if KUOM had a stronger signal. Apart from that, the money required to upgrade the station would not be a small amount, to say nothing of a fanbase that's accustomed to a stronger FM signal that's better than even a 50,000 watt AM blowtorch.
Click to expand...

Just an fyi Radio K does have an FM transmitter (104.5 Mpls and 100.7 St. Paul) Radiok.org, but definitely not stronger enough now to get out to the rural parts or even exUrbs.
 


Ski U Master said:
Rating don't lie, people love KFAN.
If the Gophers want exposure and to grow popularity, KFAN is the place to do it. If all you want are yes men that don't ever speak a bad word about the program, let's just take it back to WCCO and grow our grey hair demographic.
Click to expand...

This is the bottom line. Either stay on KFAN and share air time with the other local teams, or go to another station and not have any listeners. What's the average sports fan going to tune into? Vikes/Wolves/Twins/Wild talk or exclusively Gophers talk? The answer should be clear. It's one of the challenges of trying to be a major college team in a city with major pro teams.
 

Gophers got almost 100% of the coverage this morning on KFAN from about 9-12 it was all Gophers. Barreiro said that this Monday will be Gopher talking points rather than the usual Vikings on his show.
 

Ski U Master said:
Gophers got almost 100% of the coverage this morning on KFAN from about 9-12 it was all Gophers. Barreiro said that this Monday will be Gopher talking points rather than the usual Vikings on his show.
Click to expand...

Been listening too and off-and-on this past week. Common and Gaard have been very good and quite reasonable. Their morning show? Not so much. Today as you've said it's been good. Lots of Gopher talk, praise where it should be, valid criticism, reasonable discussions with only a little snark and a small bit of "can't believe they didn't know that".

Would be perfectly, no very happy if KFAN lost the Vikings and re-upped with the Gophers, with the Gophers now being the main sports team(s) on the station.

Pretty sure that KFAN wouldn't be happy with it though.
 

KFAN is one of the strongest stations in town now and into the future, there is essentially zero viable option outside of them.
 




Well, I was driving home from Moorhead early this morning, and I was streaming KFAN the entire way via Iheartradio on my phone. I listened to the Indiana game the same way while driving in a car out on the west coast. This isn't 1980.

KFAN has done SO much better a job with Gopher football than WCCO ever did. It sounds like a first rate production now. On WCCO the presentation basically hadn't changed much since the 1970's.
 

Iceland12 said:
That's the perception isn't it? Turns out it's only true during the time the Vikings are playing and has been for awhile now.

http://ratings.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/arb027
Click to expand...

It can't be denied that KFAN's ratings rise in the fall when the Vikings are in season and decline thereafter. However, these ratings fall into the largely catch all 12 plus group which is not the demographic KFAN and ClearChannel use to measure the station's performance. KFAN is concerned with the men 25-54 demographic and rates higher in that category. I'd venture that this is the group that buys sports tickets in the greatest number and is the demographic the U of M needs to capture if it wants to move more tickets and merchandise.
 

Sports_Realist said:
It can't be denied that KFAN's ratings rise in the fall when the Vikings are in season and decline thereafter. However, these ratings fall into the largely catch all 12 plus group which is not the demographic KFAN and ClearChannel use to measure the station's performance. KFAN is concerned with the men 25-54 demographic and rates higher in that category. I'd venture that this is the group that buys sports tickets in the greatest number and is the demographic the U of M needs to capture if it wants to move more tickets and merchandise.
Click to expand...

Can't agree with you here. What I see in these numbers is that most people only listen to KFAN when a game is on the air. It's pretty obvious in the numbers.

You don't need a "flagship station" for the other 6-1/2 days. That is pretty obvious.

What is pretty obvious is that you could put the games on any other of the top 13 stations and probably get as good of or better numbers.

As chris said above, it was WCCO's complete lack of regard for production values that lost them the Twins and Gophers. Keep this level of production, and you could put the games on any station. Dave Lee is a nice guy, but not a play by play guy. 'CCO went cheap, and this is where we're at.
 




Common Man pump it up montage on now! WE CAN BUILD THIS THING TOGETHER!
 



Anyone catch part of the morning show? Chris Hawkeye or Hockey is such a dolt. While the Fargo Flash was trying to talk about the Gopher Badgers game, and how it's the biggest game in 10 years... Hockey kept playing the rouser every 10 seconds to interrupt him and chuckling in the background. That guy is an idiot. Why did I listen?
 

nokomismod said:
Anyone catch part of the morning show? Chris Hawkeye or Hockey is such a dolt. While the Fargo Flash was trying to talk about the Gopher Badgers game, and how it's the biggest game in 10 years... Hockey kept playing the rouser every 10 seconds to interrupt him and chuckling in the background. That guy is an idiot. Why did I listen?
Click to expand...

He is not an Iowa fan, he is from Indiana.
 


nokomismod said:
Where he is from is not the issue. He is a moron.
Click to expand...

That's the whole show's bit. You can't listen to that show expecting expert sport takes. It's wall to wall dumb humor. Fargo Flash is kind of a joke on that show in his own way.
 

Yeah, I get that Gold Vision. They do take Vikings football very seriously but anything else (Wolves, Twins, Gophers...) is unlistenable.
 

Maybe it is the time of day I listen to KFAN, but it seems to me coverage of the Gophers has improved on KFAN since they started covering the games. I used to turn KFAN on, and someone would call in with a question about the Gophers, and they would mock him for wasting their time with the Gophers. But again, that could simply be a matter of when I am listening.
 

I realize I am not.......

Gold Vision said:
That's the whole show's bit. You can't listen to that show expecting expert sport takes. It's wall to wall dumb humor. Fargo Flash is kind of a joke on that show in his own way.
Click to expand...

in their target demo (over 50) but that whole morning show is one big fart joke, and in my view unlistenable.
 

BleedGopher said:
per Shooter:

Look for WCCO-AM to make a strong pitch for Gophers football broadcasting rights next year. KFXN's rights deal is up after this season.

http://www.twincities.com/gophers/ci_24561932/shooter-now-how-do-timberwolves-kevin-love-kevin

Go Gophers!!
Click to expand...

The Neighbor got really lazy over the years and lost Gopher football as a result. I don't care where the team ends up. I listen to KFAN sporadically (sometimes Common, sometimes Barreiro), but the Neighbor is sort of lost on me. Quit listening after Cannon retired. I don't even know the line-up over there anymore. Is Joyce Lamont still on? What about "Point of Law?"
 

50PoundHead said:
The Neighbor got really lazy over the years and lost Gopher football as a result. I don't care where the team ends up. I listen to KFAN sporadically (sometimes Common, sometimes Barreiro), but the Neighbor is sort of lost on me. Quit listening after Cannon retired. I don't even know the line-up over there anymore. Is Joyce Lamont still on? What about "Point of Law?"
Click to expand...

I liked "Point-of-Law!"..
 


nokomismod said:
Anyone catch part of the morning show? Chris Hawkeye or Hockey is such a dolt. While the Fargo Flash was trying to talk about the Gopher Badgers game, and how it's the biggest game in 10 years... Hockey kept playing the rouser every 10 seconds to interrupt him and chuckling in the background. That guy is an idiot. Why did I listen?
Click to expand...

That show kinda reminds me of Weenie and the Butt:

 

As long as Dave Lee isn't involved as the play by play guy could care less where they end up.
 


You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom