Hards yards starting to pay off for Radio Sport

By TIM WATKIN

Brendan Telfer has dropped the ball. It seems that 13 past Masters champions missed the cut at Augusta in 1998, not 14 as he has just said on air. That, of course, means the winner of the golf balls should be Jean, not the bloke who got the prize, and the phone calls are coming in from Radio Sport listeners who spotted the error.

Having earlier assured his producer Glen Larmer that he double-checked, Telfer is now shaking his head and apologising - everyone knows Greg Norman has never won the Masters. Jean will get some balls if she calls back, he assures his audience of experts. (You'll be pleased to learn that she does).

You might be asking who on earth would know how many champions missed the cut three years ago, let alone care. But this is Radio Sport, "the ultimate sports fan" as its catchphrase goes, and the listeners care all right. If they can be called mere listeners.

As the station has seeped into our lifestyles and on to our car radios, it's become increasingly clear that the Radio Sport audience aren't just listeners. They're fans.

The less sports-minded will shake their heads and say this is just another manifestation of dyed-in-the-wool, sports-obsessed New Zealand. And they'd be right. Where else would you get a ruckus about the minutiae of Masters golf history, or the intense concern over the relationship between Graham Lowe and Mark Graham that follows?

Yet for all of this country's sporting worship, it's worth remembering that this particular shrine - part of the Radio Network - has only just celebrated its third birthday and - this may surprise many - was in danger of being dropped from the airwaves before it turned one.

In the two years since then it has become the little station that could, mate, steadily growing its audience and profitability to the point where manager Bill Francis says it's now financially buoyant. But that growth has been hard won and questions remain over the best direction for the station.

It's getting on towards noon and Telfer's scrunched up in the cupboard opposite the third-floor kitchen - that is, Radio Sport's on-air studio - doing his regular weekday 10 am to 2 pm shift. Over the next couple of hours he will discuss topics including New Zealand league, American soccer, and why blacks run faster than whites.

Telfer is described by his boss Bill Francis as "the Kim Hill of sport," and he loves the freedom to get beyond the ever-decreasing circles of debates, over who should be in the All Blacks or how the Blues played on the weekend, to do long interviews.

"I could tell you right now what a Super 12 captain would say about the weekend games," he sighs, reeling off those all-too-familiar lines about focus, guts and respect for the other team. "So we look for people who can express opinions and put them convincingly."

After the interviews comes the tussle of talkback. Telfer debates with listeners while his studio TV screen shows an NBA basketball game live from Miami. People are twisting, ducking and making impossible leaps. In the basketball too.

A poster of Anna Kournikova, with felt-tip glasses and beard added, looks over Telfer's shoulder at the small sound desk, phone panel, two computers and the TV he and the other Radio Sport presenters use to run their shows. The studio is a cabin compared to the mansion with harbour views that is the Newstalk ZB suite next door, but then Radio Sport is the new kid, having celebrated its third birthday on April 6.

Sliding into a gap like Christian Cullen, Radio Sport has quickly become familiar and, for some, an infatuation. It fits so neatly into our way of life, it's as if it was always there.

And in a way it was. Sports Roundup, that charming summer flower that until three years ago bloomed each cricket season, was so ancient it suggested a time when Brian Waddle had hair.

Come 1998, however, the business of both sport and radio was changing and more was demanded. During a news break Telfer remembers that Radio Sport "was an idea whose time had come. There's probably a case that it could have happened earlier. But it was when so much radio was sold off and with the professionalism of sport ... "

Suddenly, Larmer is waving through the window from the producer's booth and shouting "weather". The news is over and Telfer's on air in a breath. "The not so short forecast for New Zealand ... "

Francis, the manager of Radio Sport and Newstalk ZB, says "when the commercial arm of Radio New Zealand was bought by Clear Channel and the Tony O'Reilly Group (which also owns the New Zealand Herald) we had to weigh up whether we were going to lease the YC transmitters to broadcast a sports programme that would still be interrupted by parliament at times, or whether we grabbed the cricket and set up a 24-hour station."

With RNZ still trying to keep the commentaries on the YC stations, and a few private companies sniffing out the possibility of a sports station, The Radio Network chose the latter.

"The Radio Network gazumped them and announced the establishment of a full-time network on spare frequencies they had," says John Howson, Radio Sport's original manager. "It was a move by TRN - where the expertise lay in terms of announcers, programmers and commentators - to stop other private operators."

For Howson it was the realisation of a 10-year dream, and he moved with his family to Auckland to run the station. It's fair to say, as he does, that he "was the driving force. I worked with limited resources to set it up and make it viable."

Perspectives on that first year differ. Francis says while audience interest was solid from the start, "the radio station struggled quite a bit early on. We probably went in too hard too soon and tried to do too much ... I think it's fair to say that the company had some very big questions to ask about whether this radio station was viable or not. No question about that."

Howson admits money was lost in the first year, but says losses had been "budgeted and anticipated" for the first three years. The arrival of new senior management changed things.

"When management changed, new ideas came in. I had it operating efficiently, but the new chief executive didn't like to have a loss-making part of the operation, even though it was meeting all its budgets. It [TRN] felt it had to turn around the financial side."

Howson, who had advocated total independence for Radio Sport, was offered redundancy.

"I would rather have not had the offer made. It was still something that I was passionately committed to ... I was not impressed by the way the company made that decision. I regard some of the management as total buffoons."

Francis says "some pretty hard decisions" were made, with "a couple of people laid off" as Radio Sport nuzzled closer to its sibling station, Newstalk ZB.

"It was operating as a unit on its own. A decision was made that to achieve [viability] it would be best to run the two talk brands side by side, using the synergies of both to assist Radio Sport and give me the management of both."

Francis' description of Radio Sport as a talk brand raises one of the major issues Radio Sport and its listeners still wrestle with: how much talkback is too much? Howson is one who is concerned that the station resorts to talkback too quickly to fill air-time.

"I think they are misunderstanding the sports audience in part, as they are dumbing it down in some areas," he says.

Francis says filling air-time on such a niche station is a major challenge. "That applies to both the talk brands. They're like huge sponges that soak up material minute after minute."

But sound the same all day and people will quickly turn off. So to break up the talk, the station has differentiated between its shows.

The Radio Sport day starts with Martin Devlin, the high profile entertainer and rising star, on Breakfast, followed by the thoughtful and experienced Telfer through the middle of the day. In a recent change to the lineup, Graeme Hill has taken over the Drive slot - traditionally the station's best-rating show - in an attempt to lift the tempo. Then Andrew Dewhurst does the evening shift, which the station is trying to energise by sometimes running it from venues outside the studio.

"But we know from long experience that talkback drives your audience," Francis says. "If you run a 15- or 20-minute interview you're providing the audience with an opportunity to say, 'I don't like this. I'm off to do something else.' Whereas talkback, it's for a duration of three or four minutes, no different to a piece of music on a music station. You know it's going to end and someone else will come up. What are they going to say? So it has the effect of holding audience."

Telfer has another argument in favour of talkback. "There's a greater validity to talkback now than there's ever been because it's raw, unedited and honest. There's so much PR now, I sometimes think there's more PR people in sport than in politics. One good thing about a radio station like this is that you can't close down public opinion."

The station's material-hungry nature has also had the advantage of giving minority sports a higher profile.

"We still know what our core sports are - rugby, rugby league, golf now, and cricket," says Francis.

"They're the biggies. But we've got time to cover some of the lesser lights as well."

Balancing these programming tensions is programme team leader Malcolm Jordan, who Howson describes as a kingpin at the station.

"We are incredibly niche," Jordan says. "People say New Zealanders love sport, but the question is: how much? That's still unanswered at the moment."

Jordan says research done before the station started suggested potential for a 5 to 7 per cent market share. But in the first year that was revised down to 4 to 6 per cent.

Francis says by the time the changes were made towards the end of the first year, the audience figures were improving and by the end of the second year they were in the vicinity of their 5 per cent target.

"We were clearly over-achieving in some markets and in the 4s in others. I'm not prepared to say what the revenues were, but by the end of the second year we were in profit and by the end of December 2000 we were humming. And with still tremendous potential to improve on that."

The ratings nationwide are a success story. In Wellington, the station peaked last summer at 6.8 per cent, higher than stations such as Classic Hits and Radio Pacific. In Christchurch it hit 5.7 at the same time and in Dunedin 6.6. This summer Dunedin listenership grew to a whopping 7.5 per cent.

Jordan: "We thought 6 to 7 per cent would be the ceiling. Then we got a seven and a half in Dunedin, so we still don't know where the ceiling is."

In rural areas the initial take-up was lower, but the growth has been on a similar arc, typically peaking between 3 and 5 per cent so far. There was great glee at Radio Sport when it out-rated Newstalk ZB in Waikato, but Howson says that won't be encouraged by management.

"You will find that The Radio Network will keep the heel pretty much on the throat [of Radio Sport] and not let it get too successful because it may get to the stage that it will start to feed off Newstalk, and that's their cash cow."

The tough ratings nut to crack is Auckland. The station had grown, but with a 2000 ratings peak of 4.7 per cent. The day I visit is, as a receptionist says on the phone as I wait in the lobby, "the day of days." The Auckland summer ratings are coming out. Summer is the crucial time for Radio Sport, when cricket boosts the station's ratings and, what is known in radio as TSL, time spent listening.

While in the studio with Telfer, Francis pops his head round the door with news and a handshake. "Congratulations, you've cracked a five."

The station share for Auckland has reached 5.7 per cent, higher than expected.

'It's actually had growth in all the core demographics - 10 plus, 18-34, 25-54 and household shoppers," says Saatchi and Saatchi media planner Oliver King. That, he adds, makes media buyers take notice.

Radio Sport's obvious point of difference is what is called a male-skew. David Gapes, editor of media industry paper Admedia, says, "I've seen figures that show it at 3-1 with a male bias."

King says while that makes it an easy match for male-targeted products, it does limit the range of advertisers who might be interested. As Telfer observes, "Demographically, we're only reaching half the country."

Francis says the station's incarnation as Radio Bloke is neither a surprise nor a concern, but they encourage women talkback callers and cover more women's sport.

With the audience growth, Francis is confident advertising revenue will continue to increase. He's having a look at both the number of ads the station runs and how much advertisers pay for them.

"On Newstalk ZB we run anything up to 15 minutes of advertising time an hour, but on Radio Sport we're running seven minutes. So there's that potential. We also have to have a look at what we're charging."

The station's feeling of financial stability is that it is also gaining a winning reputation as being a last bastion for sport commentaries that are live and free.

Francis: "Sport as an entity in the media, particularly electronic, is very expensive because you've got to obtain rights for all kinds of things. That's another thing we've successfully done over the last three years, is build partnerships and buy broadcast rights that hold us in very good stead."

They have rights for rugby, league and cricket and are working on the Commonwealth Games.

"You've got to be careful though," he adds. "There's a radio sports station in Britain that paid £5 million for the Ashes series this winter. So I hope we never get to that stage in this neck of the woods, but, you know ... " He drifts off ominously.

Despite the odd cloud, Radio Sport looks set to bat on in glorious sunshine. Expectations are that it can keep drawing a wider audience to its arena, and once there, that audience develops a passion for the station.

"The response I get over the radio is much more raw and emotional than TV," Telfer says. He's had some nasty letters, some even threatening physical violence.

With a slightly nervous look on his face he says he doesn't take them too seriously. "But it's an indication of how seriously people take sport here and how close this station is to its audience."