October 28, 2007
By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

On race day, how do you partake in your racing? TV? Radio? Computer?

The recent trend on television has been that fewer people are actually watching the coverage. Some blame the racing itself…races are too long, and except for the start and the finish, they are pretty boring. Some blame the announcing teams. Every year the season starts and people complain about Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds in the booth with Fox, and say they can’t wait until NBC or ESPN/ABC takes over. Then, when the broadcast team switches, folks complain about the new broadcast team, and say they miss Larry and DW. There always seems to be somebody that is complaining about who is working in the TV booth. Usually the recommended solution is to put the TV on mute and listen to the radio broadcasts.

Radio broadcasts are spread over two different networks. You have Motor Racing Network (MRN) radio which has announcers like Barney Hall, Winston Kelly, and David Moody, and announces at all ISC-owned race tracks. You also can listen to Performance Racing Network (PRN) at tracks like Charlotte and Atlanta this weekend, and has announcers Doug Rice, Mark Garrow, and Brett McMillan. The great thing about listening to a race is that the announcers, regardless of who they work for, have a way of telling you what is going on and allowing you to visualize the on-track excitement in your head.

If you can’t deal with either of those options, you can always utilize NASCAR.com’s Trackpass software that allows you to watch the race on the computer with live standings and driver audio channels.

Looking at this year's TV ratings, with the exception of Las Vegas, Atlanta, Texas, Richmond, the All-Star Race, Richmond, and Loudon, the ratings have been down. On average, between 4 and 7 million people tune in each week to watch the race on TV.

I know several people who openly admit they do chores or nap for the first ¾ of a race, and then wake up for the last 100 laps or so. Their primary complaint is that the races aren’t as exciting as they used to be. The drivers aren’t aggressive enough, and prefer to just drive around in a line than “really race” for position. (Don’t ask Carl Edwards about that this week though.)

It isn’t TV’s fault the racing is boring; however, their announcers could be more interesting. I admit, I actually like the Fox gang, and have always preferred them over the NBC crew. Now, with the addition of ESPN, I have to admit, Rusty Wallace is driving me nuts. I heard for months leading up to ESPN’s resumption of NASCAR coverage how great they used to be, and how many folks wish they had never gotten out of NASCAR coverage. Rusty seems to find a phrase he likes and uses it over and over and over again over the course of a race. Aero-loose and Draft-lock are his two favorites.

The panelists on Inside Nextel Cup admitted they had never even heard of Draft-lock until Rusty used it. And he used it. Over. And over. Boogity, boogity, boogity has nothing on Draft-lock and Aero-loose.

So I tend to turn the TV down, and turn the radio up. Radio was the NASCAR fans first option for coverage when you couldn’t be there in person. MRN radio began broadcasting back in 1970, with PRN joining in for the Speedway Motorsports Inc. races. Between the two networks, they boast a listenership of “millions” each weekend as folks either cannot be in front of a TV, or, like me, don’t want to listen to the TV.

I find that I prefer listening to the radio broadcast because the announcers don’t feel the need to fill time with information that they seem to pull out of nowhere. They have the time to call out what they see in front of them and then pass it along to the next announcer, who seems to pick up the call without missing a beat. The turn announcers can make a race that on TV is a snoozer, into something that is exciting to listen to.

Over the last few years, satellite radio has jumped into the fray, providing even more content for NASCAR fans to listen to. When satellite first came in to being, it was recognized that NASCAR fans would be a great market to appeal to, and XM satellite radio bought the broadcast rights, and hired hosts like Claire B. Lang, Joe Castello and Thommy Nooldes to entertain and inform fans as they drove along America’s highways and byways. They also brought in drivers Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to host their own weekly radio shows.

During the day on weekdays, they would re-broadcast old races from NASCAR’s heyday, taking fans back to the days of Petty, Allison and Yarborough. On race weekends, XM simulcast the PRN and MRN coverage of the race, with some original content provided before and after the race.

This year, SIRIUS, which has been best known for taking Howard Stern from terrestrial to satellite radio and making him the $500 million dollar man, took over NASCAR broadcasting. They expanded on the lessons learned with XM, and added live programming all day long, with hosts like Marty Snyder, David Poole, John Kearnan, and Dave Moody taking fan's calls and talking to the people who make NASCAR what it is today. They also hired Tony Stewart to host his own radio show with Matt Yokum on Tuesday nights, where Tony has shown he is almost as outspoken as Stern can be when he sets his mind to it.

On race day, they not only simulcast the PRN or MRN coverage, but they set up what they call “driver to crew” channels, where you can listen in on one of ten drivers radio chatter over the course of the race. (Much like DirecTV offers HotPass -- where fans can watch what is going on just with their favorite driver).

This week, SIRIUS announced that for the first time, NASCAR radio had topped all other forms of sports radio in America. More people listened to SIRIUS NASCAR Radio on average than any other sports show, terrestrial or satellite. That means more people are listening to NASCAR on satellite than are listening to ESPN radio, or NFL radio, or MLB radio. Not only are more people listening, they are paying to listen.

So, while people may point at the decline in TV ratings as proof that more and more fans are turning away from their favorite sport, it might actually be something completely different. It might just mean that they are tired of listening to the people hosting the race coverage, and instead of sitting locked on their couch in front of their television, they are getting out and turning on their radios and listening to the coverage as called by the guys up in the turns who don’t have the time or the need to make up words to describe what is happening on the track. They call it as they see it, and you can tell by the intensity of their voices that they not only love what they are doing, but they love the fact they can share what they are seeing with the rest of us.

The next time you think of turning off the TV and just ignoring the race, consider turning on your radio, FM, AM, or Satellite, instead.

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.