By Lizzy Gomez
News talk radio has a great presence in Ithaca, N.Y. But Gabe Carrillo, Brand Manager for Cayuga Radio Group, says the one aspect missing from the local talk radio scene when he arrived in Ithaca three years ago was a variety of sports coverage. This prompted the nine-station radio cluster to seek a way to streamline its local sports coverage and its national CBS Sports Radio programming into one location.
Carrillo, originally from Sacramento, coached high school football before working as a promotions assistant for the local ESPN Radio affiliate. He then moved to the east coast for a job with the Vermont Broadcast Associates, where he stayed for six months before moving to Ithaca. He worked as a program director for the Finger Lakes Media Group until this past February when the company was purchased by Cayuga Radio Group.
Since Carrillo has been with Cayuga Radio Group, he’s been tasked with helping the station expand its sports coverage.
“When we evaluated our frequencies, it was kind of a no brainer to take all of these events that we were simulcasting on other stations and put them all on their own exclusive home,” Carrillo said.
The new frequency, 98.7 The Buzzer, gives the radio cluster more opportunities to implant itself within the community by prioritizing the topics most important to its listeners. Carrillo said this is essential to local sports coverage in any market.
“Whether you have a community college and all they have is one or two sports programs that are doing well, you really have to endear yourself to all of them,” Carrillo said. “Whether they’re nationally recognized or they struggle to get out of their conference every year, they’re going to be important to you because all of those programs have fans.”
Carrillo said that while larger sports coverage formats allow for more immersion into national leagues like the NFL and the NHL, in small-market sports radio, reporters must have a willingness to learn the details about their local beat. They should be ready to cover any team, no matter how unsuccessful, because fans of those teams demand coverage.
“And if you’re not covering it, they’re not going to listen,” Carrillo said.
Since the launch of 98.7 The Buzzer in March, Carrillo said community reaction has been fantastic. He believes much of this is due to the opinion-driven format of sport radio, which listeners in Ithaca seem to embrace.
“And there’s been great reaction to that because it’s another voice; it’s another option for people to listen to an opinion,” Carrillo said. “Who doesn’t love putting down an argument in terms of who is the best player in this sport?"
With 98.7 The Buzzer still in its infancy, Carrillo said he hopes the station will be able to continue expanding upon its coverage under the management of a team dedicated to the growth of the local sports beat.
TRANSCRIPT:
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about why Cayuga Radio Group decided to get more into the sports coverage?
A: Well, the answer is really two-fold. With some of the recent transitions through the clusters here in Ithaca, one of the things that we kind of address the amount of sports coverage we had. Obviously we have the Giants that we simulcast coverage on WIII and we wanted to evaluate, especially locally, how we can kind of make a one-stop-shop for our sports coverage. We cover Cornell football, Cornell lacrosse. Obviously we’ll be carrying the Buffalo Bills this season as well. When we evaluated our frequencies, it was kind of a no brainer to take all of these events that we were simulcasting on other stations and put them all on their own exclusive home. And so that was kind of one half of why we decided to launch our sports formatted station. The other half was, you know, it was really kind of the one thing that we were missing as part of our pie, so to speak. We thought, you know, it would be great to offer our other stations an alternative to waiting for the sports part of say a newscast. To give them more of an in-depth an immersed sports experience through Cayuga Radio Group.
Q: What kind of community reaction have you guys had from your listeners from expanding what you do with the sports?
A: In terms of radio, we’re still in an infancy here, but the early feedback has been fantastic. Aside from the local coverage that we get to take advantage of, we carry national programs like the Jim Rome show. We carry that weekdays. The John Feinstein Show in the mornings. And there’s been great reaction to that because it’s another voice; it’s another option for people to listen to an opinion. The one thing about sports radio is it’s a very opinion driven format and these are figures within this format, these hosts and these shows, that are held in high regard by a lot of people because their hosts are dynamic and they’re very opinionated. Who doesn’t love putting down an argument in terms of who is the best player in this sport? Obviously there’s very topical things with what’s going on, 24/7, in the world of sports and everybody loves to chime in and get a different viewpoint rather than just being stuck with the larger, generalized viewpoint of, ‘this is what it is.’ I think that’s one of the things that really endears talk radio, not only here in Ithaca to our audience, but to audiences everywhere.
Q: You mentioned that it’s kind of in the infancy right now. What kind of plans do you guys have as far as where you want this to go in the future?
A: I think the consensus answer to that right now is, you know, we’re really looking forward to growing in terms of our local coverage. We’re in the middle of a couple other big projects at the cluster level, in terms of physically remodeling our facilities and incorporating new assets into the company. Once, you know, once it comes time for The Buzzer to grow, I think the number one thing that we want to do is be able to cover more locally. And whether that means bringing in more sports coverage in terms of personnel, in terms of people who can go out and cover events locally. Whether it’s at the high school, collegiate level or semi-professional level, regionally. Those are going to be the areas that are going to be critical for us. And really being able to put the station implanted even more within our community here in Ithaca and Tompkins County.
Q: How many people do you guys have involved in the sports coverage right now?
A: Right now, I would say there’s probably about five of us that work on the station. You know, it’s definitely, at this point, a collaborative effort just because of the newness and, like I mentioned, some of the other projects we have going on. So, between us operating the station online, in terms of our digital interaction and engagement, there’s about five of us right now. It’s our general manager, our operations manager, myself, our digital coordinator...there’s not anybody specifically that is kind of driving everything. It’s definitely, at this point, a collaborative effort to be able to, to put things together. Whether it’s, you know, reporting scores or, you know, pushing out bigger headlines as they come through. At this stage, you know, we’re still kind of collaboratively pushing the station. But as I said, you know, as we go forward, we are looking to hand off the baton to a small group who can really focus and dedicate us to be able to grow that station to what our listeners not only expect of us, but to be able to give them something to really take ownership of.
Q: In a place like Ithaca covering sport, can you give us just a little bit of an insight into what that’s actually like?
A: I think the, the number one thing is you can’t be successful unless you’re always on the ball. You know, small details and all of those kind of necessary evils. The important thing to understand is you don’t have to be an encyclopedia of sports to be good at working in the sports format environment. What you have to be very good at is staying on top of things. You know, you have to stay on top of details. You have to consistently follow through, because there’s always something going on. You know, unless you’re in a situation where you work for a very sports specific format to say, ‘hey, I work for the NFL Network or the NHL Network,’ and all you’re covering is that specific sport, then you can be a little more immersed in that. Obviously here in Ithaca, we worry more about hockey than stations that broadcast out in California or other parts of the country. With Cornell hockey being a very nationally recognized program, at a local level, have to really work hard to make sure that we’re in touch and reporting the pertinent information to our area. As a bit of advice to potential professionals wanting to get into that industry, sports journalism, you’re always going to have to have a great beat on your community. Whether you have a community college and all they have is one or two sports programs that are doing well, you really have to endear yourself to all of them. Whether they’re nationally recognized or they struggle to get out of their conference every year, they’re going to be important to you because all of those programs have fans. Whether they’re popular, in terms of whether they’re successful or not, they’re going to have fans. They’re going to want the coverage. And if you’re not covering it, they’re not going to listen. But it’s the second tier sports, it’s staying on the details, all of that stuff. When you look at it, it’s about staying on top of the small things that will make you successful. When I was working with Entercom in Sacramento, California, I did partial work at the ESPN affiliate during my early days. The reason I got into that so easily was I spent about 8 years of my, you know, once young life coaching high school athletics. So, it wasn’t hard at all for me to make the transition to covering high school football for our local ESPN affiliate. Did I personally foresee a great future in sports broadcasting? I didn’t, and so that’s why I was happy to help but at the same time, you know, I knew where my successful niche was and it’s wasn’t there. So coming here, you know, I kind of put that behind me as part of my paying my dues, so to speak. For many years here in Ithaca, only had the local ESPN Radio affiliate, which is fantastic and they do a great job of what they do. So it’s great to have different views because even if everybody’s talking about The Open or the All-Star Game last week, everybody’s going to have a different take on a different storyline, so it’s great to be able to offer an alternative to just the singular voice, so to speak.
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