‘The Fan’ duels ‘The Game’

Two 24-hour sports talk stations spar for listeners, advertisers

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jul 4, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (37 Reader comments)

L.E. BASKOW / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Isaac Ropp (left) and Jason Scukanec host “Primetime,” a local, daily afternoon show on sports talk station The Fan. The AM station began its 24-hour all-sports talk format in 1990 and now has an FM competitor, The Game.

Twenty years ago, sports talk had little presence and no radio stations devoted to it in Portland.

And now there are two.

On May 12, KXTG (95.5 FM) launched its 24-hour all-sports format, moving its sports programming from KXL (750 AM) to serve as the first round-the-clock sports talk FM station west of Denver.

“The Game,” as KXTG calls itself, joins “The Fan” (KFXX 1080 AM), which became the third 24-hour sports talk station in the nation when it switched to the format in 1990.

It’s the first time the local market has had two all-sports stations, which leads to the question: Is Portland big enough for two of them?

“I’d like to think so, but we’ll find out,” says James Derby, program director for The Game.

“It’s a great question,” says Isaac Ropp, co-host of the afternoon show on The Fan. “I think we’ll find out.”

Trail Blazer owner Paul Allen’s Rose City Radio owns KXTG.

Entercom Communications, which operates stations in 19 major markets throughout the country, oversees KFXX.

Each station has targeted the male audience ages 25 to 54.

The Game features “The Jim Rome Show” — recently dropped by The Fan — along with eight hours of local programming on weekdays. Beginning in the fall, listeners will have plenty of live action, featuring University of Oregon football and basketball, the Seattle Seahawks and the Trail Blazers.

The Fan’s major programming includes Colin Cowherd’s and Dan Patrick’s shows, an afternoon drive-time local show with Ropp and Jason Scukanec and, from April to September, the Seattle Mariners.

It makes sense that there will be competition between the stations for listeners, advertising dollars and pride.

“I think (those at The Game) feel it,” says Erin Hubert, Entercom Portland vice president and general manager. “Some of our former employees are working there now. Competition is healthy. It just makes you stronger and better. I welcome it. It’s great for the sports fan.

“But there is a lot of competition in this market as a whole. I definitely feel it and welcome it, but it’s business as usual. It’s a competitive industry anywhere.”

Particularly in Portland, where — according to Derby — the overall number of talk shows makes it the fifth most competitive market in the country.

“(The Fan is) our competition because they are doing sports talk, but we have to be smarter than that,” he says. “We are really competing against every other station in our demographic — KGON and KINK, for example.”

John Canzano — who plays host to a 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. segment on The Game — sees it the same way.

“What those (at The Fan) are doing is not our focus,” he says. “I know it sounds weird, but I don’t view them as competition. I see other FM stations more as competition. It’s not The Fan we need to be concerned about. They have a younger audience. I think we can both make it.”

Derby puts it differently.

“I think the city can support two” sports talk stations, he says. “That being said, we want to be the one. If the other station goes out of business, they go out of business.

“We want to be the destination for the sports listener. We’re putting out a better product than The Fan, and listeners are finding that out.”

But beating The Fan for listeners — or driving the competition out of the market — isn’t the goal of employees at The Game, says Jay Allen, assistant program director.

“When we’re talking inside the building, our conversation is not, ‘It’s us against them,’ ” he says. “We want to be the best sports radio station in the country.”

After KFXX sacked Rome, it increased ESPN’s Cowherd — who once had a local show on the station — from three to four hours, added Mike Tirico from 10 a.m. to noon and brought on Patrick from noon to 3 p.m. (though The Game employees point out that Patrick is via a six-hour delay).

Hubert uses the adjectives “thrilled” and “tickled” when describing her feelings about the state of The Fan these days, using Arbitron ratings as proof.

“When I got here, I’d look at our afternoon show (Ropp and Scukanec) as a barometer,” she says, pointing to the “share,” or percentage of listeners out of everyone listening in the radio market. “We’d be in a 3 share and bounce to a 4 share if things were good. I wanted to live in a 4 share. Of late, the afternoon show has kept us in 5 to 6 share range and a top-five market rating of all AM stations in our target audience. It’s a huge player in that respect.”

Contentions about content

Ropp and Scukanec have been together for two years on a 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. show that includes a final hour of “men talk.”

“Nothing has changed for us” since the inception of The Game, Ropp says. “We’re comfortable with the style of show we do. What other stations do is their business. If we focus on our own show, it will remain successful.”

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit