Craig Karmazin, president of Good Karma Broadcasting, is so passionate about Northeast Ohio sports that he’s dropped $10,003,000 on the business.
For those keeping track, that’s $10 million for two radio stations — WKKG (1540-AM) and WKNR (850-AM) — and $3,000 for four tickets he bought from a scalper for last month’s Ohio State-Michigan game.
Karmazin took over WKKG in October and immediately converted its 1,000-watt signal to an ESPN Radio affiliate.
WKNR will be an altogether different animal to tame with its 50,000 watts of power and mix of local and syndicated programming; it immediately becomes the most powerful station in the Good Karma chain.
Karmazin, who moved to the Cleveland area recently, said that he’s up to the task.
WKNR ranked 16th in Cleveland in the most recent Arbitron ratings period and 17th in Akron, so he will need the optimism.
Ask him about the challenge ahead and he spouts a couple of facts from memory: The sports talk format is the fastest growing in radio, jumping from just over 100 stations to more than 500 over the years, and the average metropolitan area supports two sports talk stations.
It’s a situation that works well for him in Milwaukee and makes sense for him here.
“I don’t know of any market with one sports radio station. That’s the big reason we came to Cleveland,'’ Karmazin said. “Because of the passion of the sports fans in this market, there is certainly enough interest to support two stations.'’
The announcement about WKNR came Monday and Karmazin has been entrenched in meetings since, trying to wrap his head around the station’s dealings and get a feel for its place in the Northeast Ohio market.
He understands that he has to tread carefully in this situation.
While WKNR isn’t a ratings powerhouse, it delivers the male demographic that advertisers covet and the sports talk audience is a rabid one.
WKNR has been a leader in the format since sports talk came on the scene, according to a number of reports. The station has a mix of local programming with hosts Greg Brinda (9 a.m. to noon) and Kenny Roda (3 to 7 p.m.) and syndicated talkers Steve Czaban (6 to 9 a.m.) and Jim Rome (noon to 3 p.m.).
“When you have a provincial market like Cleveland, where people are so passionate about their local teams,'’ Karmazin said, “it’s so important to be able to connect with the local audience.'’
He said that because there are so many options locally and nationally, Good Karma would evaluate everything, but he understands the place teams such as the Browns, Cavaliers, Indians and Ohio State Buckeyes hold in the community.
In short: He hopes to expand local programming with the help of the teams the station covers.
“I’ve gotten to know the teams in the market and they understand that the fans want more and more access to sports and that they’re more and more passionate about their teams,'’ he said. “And that’s what we’re going to be bringing — to continue to help satisfy that passion of the local sports fans.'’
