Thursday, January 06, 2005

Radio talk

In Dallas, if you're an advertiser wanting to target men, you buy time on the Ticket. It's categorized as a sports-talk radio station but is in fact a Howard Stern-meets-sports-talk formula. It's pure guy stuff -- genitalia jokes aplenty! -- but also genuinely hilarious. "The Ticket" name has since been copied and copied and copied in other markets. The formula less successfully so. Until now maybe. In Las Vegas, Spike TV is launching Spike Radio, a format that "'covers everything interesting to men and women who want to understand men.'"

"'We said, "If you mixed hot-talk and sports together, what would you get?'"The name that came out was Spike. That's how (Spike 1140 AM: Radio for Men) happened.'"

Actually, what you'd get is The Ticket in Dallas. Maybe not since MSNBC has someone so artfully stolen a format, re-named it, and created a lot of hype by claiming it's a display of all-new synergy and branding. And while ESPN, Fox and Stern may be formidable national brands that translate into radio programming, I was unaware that Spike TV really had such a following. We anxiously await the next ratings book!

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