Thursday, August 4, 2011

1500 ESPN Twin Cities Cancels Colin Cowherd

Going Local

Sports junkies in Minnapolis-St. Paul, who want more Twins and Vikings talk in the morning, are about to get it. By Labor Day, 1500 AM KSTP ESPN will ax Colin Cowherd's nationally syndicated show, which it airs 9 a.m. to noon. If you want to replace Cowherd, here's the host-wanted ad.

According to a story by David Brauer at minnpost, com, Hubbard Broadcasting vice president Dan Seeman says The Herd with Colin Cowherd was getting around a 2 share of local men 25-to-54-years-old, while another ESPN national show, Mike & Mike in the Morning, basically doubled that in 5-9 a.m. morning drive. "It's not like it was a national [show] problem," Seeman says, pointed to M&M's respectable numbers.

Whomever 1500 puts up will face 1130 AM KFAN's Paul Allen, a ratings behemoth. But since the former KSTP-AM adopted the ESPN brand last year, Seeman has argued two sports stations cannibalize each other less than the grow the audience for sports talkers. So far, the numbers have proven him right. If 1500 makes a good hire, 830 AM WCCO might have more to worry about with a non-sportsaholic like John Williams.

As the ratings indicate, Cowherd's show was a speed bump in many 1500 listeners' day. (Before the ESPN switchover, Joe Soucheray was becoming one, but he has more than righted the ship.) Seeman says morning and evening drive have much bigger available audiences "but from an imaging and consistency standpoint, 9 to noon is pretty important."

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