College football has provided a unique tradition to its fans since its creation. For years, fans have embraced that tradition by tuning their radio to hear their favorite broadcaster call the game or listen to a sports talk radio station to hear conversation from other fans. Though many view the radio to be dying out, its longtime importance in college sports keeps it as relevant as ever.
Staple of Saturday’s In the Fall
In the past, not every college football game was on TV. For those that wanted to follow the game but couldn’t go, they turned to their radio. Ted George graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1983 and still follows his favorite college football team today. He described his experience listening to legendary Tennessee radio broadcaster John Ward. He said, “When I was in school you had some games on TV, but not many, so we listened to John Ward. If you couldn’t go to games, especially away games, you were listening to him.”
George mentioned Ward’s catchphrases “Give him six” and “It’s football time in Tennessee” as his personal favorite and iconic sayings to get him excited for a football Saturday. He said, “He was one of the most iconic announcers in the country. I miss him. He was who he was. He was John Ward.”
Today, technology has allowed college athletics to be more accessible than ever. George said, “When I went through school, we were limited in games. You always had a radio. Nowadays, I can go to a game and watch 10 other games on my iPhone at the same time. Back in those days, you were just glad to be able to see a game and you were lucky if one of them was on TV.”
Some see the development of technology as a negative to the radio industry, but those close to radio believe it to be a strength.
Sports Talk Radio
Sports talk radio stations rely on conversation around sports to fuel their hours of radio content. Stations will often allow their listeners to call in to give their opinion on their favorite teams.
Trey Wallace is a sports talk radio co-host and reporter for his show “The Drive” on WKGN Fanrun Radio. Wallace described his role as a radio host. He said, “It’s very interesting. I find it really cool because, yes I am the lead writer at Fox Sports Knoxville, but I can also get my stories out through the radio show. If someone is reading an article that I put out 30 minutes before I go on the air, they can really get a sense of how I’m talking and the tone that I’m talking in.”
Another sports talk host, 104.5 The Zone’s Brent Dougherty, views his job as a chance to engage with others. He said, “It’s a matter of reading and finding things that people would want to talk about at work, school, or church.” “It’s another outlet for fans to have fun with the crazy. I like to listen for crazy takes from listeners.”
The Modern College Sports Fan and Social Media
Social media plays a big role in informing sports fans today. For the first time ever, certain apps can connect the athletes straight to the fans, have live stats and information, and allow fans to follow multiple teams simultaneously. George said, “It’s an information overload today. I’m not going to complain about it cause I’m about as bad as anybody being on my phone looking at all that stuff.”
Wallace said, “I think Twitter is good, because if I have news that I want to get out before I write a 400-500 word post about it, I can get it out immediately. That immediately gets out to the world. I only use Facebook for business. I use it to post articles for people to find me.”
Dougherty said, “I’ve been doing (radio) long enough to have been doing it before the internet was available to us to access information. Back then, you really had to read and you had newspapers and things like that. Twitter kinda changed everything. Twitter became not only a vehicle to find information and follow all of the writers that are putting things on Twitter before they put things in a newspaper, but it also served as a message-board for us.”
“We want phone calls, we want interaction from the listeners, we want the crazy, but if no one is on hold, you have Twitter with people sending you messages and it just added so much to what we’re doing.”
Dougherty on the belief that radio listenership is dwindling said, “The numbers aren’t actually down, when you take everything into account. People are consuming our product in different ways now. Back in the day, you were just listening to the radio in your car or wherever. Now, you have the podcasting ability, you can listen on an app, or you can listen on the internet. We don’t just count the radio necessarily, we count all those things too.”
Not Going Anywhere
The overall consensus from both Wallace and Dougherty was their belief in the future of radio. With social media access continually evolving, access to radio personalities has never been easier. Football fans, such as George, only had the radio to rely on for college football in the past. Today, radio’s role of preserving the college football tradition is still as important as ever, it just looks slightly different.
Matthew Covers Sports 