Webcasts

Do the high schools want a cut? The local school in my area is already making a stink about some of the prep sports tabs we put out, because we use their athletes to make money.

 

If the schools want a cut, we don't do their games.

One school we wanted to work with said no live on-air radio broadcasts (webcasts were OK). A couple of schools have simply said "no," because they're worried about their gates.

Enough schools know the additional publicity will help build a fan base and help the gate, rather than the other way around.

 

We don't do webcasts, but we haved dipped our toe into the pool that is live blogging from prep events. It's pretty tough to do during a football game, but so far I've been able to keep up. Basketball, I doubt I'll be able to do.

I post my live updates from games on a regional Web site, and they seem to generate a lot of hits. There are plenty of people who don't attend prep games who aren't within radio-shot who still want updates.

I've also been posting a blog after I write my gamer about some basic post-game thoughts, and it's been generating a decent amount of conversation.

Who knows what direction it will eventually take.

 

I'd love to be able to rope those many people in. We do promos in the paper and on the web and traffic doesn't seem to grow. Photo galleries on the other hand go nuts; but where I'm at I'm sick of the photographer patting himself on the back all day.

 

The problem in my area is that Aircards just don't work in the outlying areas. Sprint provides the only high-speed coverage and that's just to one high school.

 

Our state association asked what our rate card was, which was worth a giggle, since we've sold one ad in five weeks. We use mogilus. We can't do live video because the state association doesn't allow it. Word must be getting out though, because last week's game saw a surge in people clicking on in the fourth quarter. For whatever reason, the second half does better in terms of people listening than the first. This isn't to say we have a huge audience, but it goes up more than 50 percent after halftime.

 

Wow. Seriously? Here, they were just happy someone was finally paying attention to them.

 

ding, ding, ding

 

My question if why can't the ad staff sell for something that has demand? They can sell ads for the church picnic page, but cannot sell ads for decent content.

 

I did color on HS broadcasts for one season in my last town. One AD suggested the crowd was down because we were broadcasting and people could stay home and listen.
Dumb ass. yeah. That was it. It wasn't Hickory Indi-fucking-ana in the 1950s....

 

Well, if I have my druthers, no basketball. That's just not logistically possible. And football would be tight if we had a Saturday paper, too.