Success Stories: ESPN Radio’s Jim Pastor

Jim Pastor, Senior VP Regional Manager of ESPN Radio

It’s time to write a series of success stories about radio, against all of the negative news. What is it that ESPN Radio is doing that’s working so well? They’re up healthy double digits in their stations business and network business as well—that’s on top of double digit increases in the year prior. We’re talking to the folks that are making that happen.

Today, we’re talking with Jim Pastor, Senior VP Regional Manager of ESPN Radio. Traug Keller, SVP/Production Business Divisions for ESPN, named Pastor to the newly created regional GM position designed to better coordinate ESPN Radio’s five owned stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas and Pittsburgh on 8/21/07. Pastor, who has been general manager of WMVP-AM/ESPN 1000 in Chicago, also oversees ESPN Radio 710 in Los Angeles and KESN-FM/ESPN 103.3FM in Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Pastor joined ABC Radio in 1993 and was named director of sales for Radio Disney network in 1997. He became vice president, sales & marketing for Radio Disney network in 2000, and was named president, general manager of WMVP-AM and WZZN-FM in June 2004.

Tell us about some of the success stories with the ESPN Radio stations that you oversee.
Well, programming-wise in Chicago, Mac Jurko and Harry have been a great success and an example of how characters and chemistry can produce great radio. Like a lot of sports fans they don’t necessarily know everything there is to know about sports but what they do best is capture the fun and camaraderie that takes place when friends get together and talk about sports and life. I’m very proud of what those guys have accomplished in this market. They are consistently ranked in the top three among all male demos in afternoons and that’s no small achievement in a market like Chicago. Last fall in Dallas we launched Michael Irvin’s show on 103.3 and while it’s too early to call a success it’s not too early to get excited about what we are seeing and hearing. Here is a guy for all he’s been through who's probably as popular as he has ever been in Dallas. You listen to his show and you can hear how passionate he is about the city and all things sports in Dallas. He and Kevin Kiley are having fun and it’s definitely resonating with listeners. He may be destined for bigger things within the company. Of course there's Mike & Mike and there’s not much more you can say about these guys and what they’ve done for our stations than has already been said. But what I’m proudest of is that they have demonstrated sports talk doesn’t have to be local to succeed. Good radio is good radio and these guys do it every day. Same thing can be said about Colin Cowherd in LA and elsewhere. They all break through and they connect with fans and that’s not always easy to do.

Most of your ESPN stations are high powered AMs--which is a good thing--but then you’ve got an FM in Dallas. Is that a different sell? What’s the idea on FM vs. AM at ESPN Radio?

I think being on the FM dial makes it a little bit easier for listeners to find us but from an operation standpoint the challenges as well as the rewards are much the same as running an AM. Having ESPN in our name provides more credibility than the band we can be found on. The sell itself isn’t really any different because at the end of the day it’s about the brand, it’s about the programming and the results we drive. So yes, it probably provides some inherited advantages when you’re attracting new listeners, but beyond that you still need to prove yourself in all the areas that count.

That’s an HD station, right, on 103.3?

It does and currently we’re running ESPN Deportes on the HD sub-channel. HD can provide a great outlet for programming like Deportes, but as Mo Davenport and Traug Keller have told you, HD is but one platform for distributing our programming. Deportes is growth area for us and our commitment to it in Dallas through KNIT-AM1480 and the HD sub-channel is an indication of how much a priority it is.

How about revenues at the stations? Everyone seems to be griping and groaning about radio revenues and stock prices are going down because of it, but how are revenues performing at your group of stations--your three stations--against the markets they are in?

It's one of the things I’m proudest of. We have consistently out performed the market, particularly in Chicago, and Dallas. We've got strong sales teams that challenge their clients and themselves to recognize and create value in non-traditional ways. It helps when you've got one of the most powerful brand names in the world on your side and the resources to go with it. Our teams have worked hard to get the message out to marketers that they can benefit from doing business with us in ways that others can't. We've enjoyed success because we’ve done a great job of not only leveraging the ESPN name but by re-creating the ESPN experience for listeners and advertisers both. We hold ourselves to a very high standard whether we’re doing remotes or staging a major event like a fantasy football convention. We’ve earned a reputation for super-serving our clients by doing things big and small that drive results for them. One thing that I think a lot of our advertisers have really responded very well to is our ability to execute across multiple platforms...on-air, on-site and online. Radio stations are called upon to work harder than ever and when we can take a really great idea and have it play out on-air with talent, then onsite at an event where we can create things such as sampling and other means of exposure, and have all of it triggered on-line for them via the station web sites, it shows our clients that we really have the resources to make a difference. This three pronged effect has produced some really great results for us.

Are there any other key strategies or solutions that you follow with the success stories that you have?

We're ESPN, which means we'll stay true to the brand and serve sports fans wherever they are with personalities who entertain as well as inform. For us, in order for it to be really good there has to be a connection on both sides of the mic. It doesn’t have to be a love affair but there has to be a spark, a passion that cuts through. Mike & Mike, Mac Jurko and Harry and Randy Galloway couldn’t be more different in terms of their style and how they entertain but each possess a chemistry and likeability that fosters a very real connection with listeners. Sports is a bonding experience whether you’re poking fun at it, pulling your hair out because of it or just enjoying it for what it is. The airways are full of guys who shout, talk down to people or otherwise make a name for themselves by personally attacking the people they cover, but that’s not what we’re about. The whole "you know us, we know sports" marketing campaign is based on the relationship between our talent and fans. It’s not easy to achieve that kind of success but when you approach every programming opportunity with that in mind it gives you a roadmap and a guide for what you’re looking for and blueprint for helping talent achieve it as well.

We recently did an interview with Natalie Swed Stone who praised ESPN for their success at knowing how to do a multimedia sell to be able to follow it and back it up with research and to be able to show results for her clients. In each of your local markets how are you retooling things to be able to provide advertisers a multimedia buy that just doesn’t include only the radio station? ESPN--what they offer up for you to do on a multimedia scale locally? What leeway do you have to do specific campaigns for advertisers?

The key is leveraging the brand and knowing how to use each of our various platforms to reach consumers. It goes back to what I was saying before about the on-air, on-site and on-line experience and knowing how to do it well. I'll give you an example. In Chicago we developed an idea for Morton's Restaurant, a high-end client who was looking for ways to increase their lunch business. So we developed a monthly series called "Lunch With a Legend" that featured one on one interviews at the restaurant with sports icons and heads of state. Jerry Reinsdorf, John McDonough, Brent Musburger, Jim Hendry and Richard Petty were among the first guests who participated. The first 30 minutes is live over the air, the second thirty minutes is available exclusively online with the entire thing being webcast. The event onsite is presented as a very classy, upscale affair that provides Morton's clients, our listeners, with a one of kind opportunity to spend time with some high profile sports celebs. We tie-in other sponsors like Sprint and Crown Royal who take advantage of onsite opportunities. Each of the events has sold out two weeks in advance and the feedback from sponsors and listeners has been unbelievable. A great example of a partnership that serves everyone incredibly well. But it's because of the standards we hold ourselves to and the resources we have available to us that we can deliver this level of success.

There was a time when a successful sports talk station was really defined by the play-by-play rights that they owned. How do you still make a sports station successful when play-by-play content isn’t airing?

Play-by-play is still very important. Sports talk fans expect that from their stations, however, you can’t buy credibility or success 5A to 7P based solely on an association you have with a team on weekday evenings or Sunday afternoons...there has to be more. What our stations have done, I think, is a very solid job of developing excellent talk programming that defines who we are far more than our team partners do. The business of play-by-play has changed dramatically in the last decade or so. It used to be that you could justify a bad rights deal based on the new cume you were driving to the station. No more. You better have strengths in your core departs that don't rely on won-loss records to drive listening. There are very few sports properties that can dictate their own terms. There's a reason why time buys and revenue shares have become so popular in recent years. They minimize the risks while providing some of the same benefits. What's great is that the ESPN stations are as well known for being the home of Mike and Mike, Michael Kay, Colin Cowherd, Mac Jurko Harry as they are for their associations with the NBA, MLB and the BCS.

--by Carl Marcucci

Read about our first in the Success Story series: Mo Davenport, SVP and General Manager of ESPN Radio.