The first set of local high school football games are just under two weeks away.
One question local radio stations get every year is “Why don’t you air this high school’s sports?”
Seehafer Broadcasting Operations Manager Jim Medley was on the On the Line Podcast recently, where he explained more often than not, it boils down to one thing.
“We can’t find sponsors,” he explained. “I know it’s high school, its for the kids and everything like that, but we have to make a buck. We’ve got to pay the announcers to be there, we’ve got to pay the person back here to do it, we’ve got to pay the electricity, and all this equipment, the transmitter, all that. It takes money.”
Jim also gave tips for high school sports fans who want to hear their teams on the radio more often.
“I guess the thing these days is boycott. Do a buy-cott,” he suggested. “If a grocery store is sponsoring a team that you are following, go grocery shopping there.”
You can learn more about the behind the scenes workings of scheduling sports on the radio by listening to the entire podcast, which can be found at SeehaferPodcasts.com.
Jim also went into detail about what the contracts look like, how to get into play-by-play announcing, and how those announcers prepare for their games.
