And that is why I love my school. And why I love being a Sport Management Student.
The John Beilein Radio Show, hosted by Dough Karsch (who, besides yours truly, worked in the Sports Department as an intern at ABC12-WJRT in Flint), is an opportunity to fill all you Michigan Basketball fans in on everything you need to know beyond...er...great program records.
For a guy who is used to the Michigan Athletics atmosphere, Karsch did a great job of bringing out the best of Beilein. From my experience in interviewing him, Beilein will give you the facts if you ask for them topped with a humorous touch at best. Karsch had his questions prepared and the rundown memorized. He asked complex questions that should satisfy the people who want complex answers and simple ones for those who don't.
Sometimes, in our celebrity obsessed and gossip ridden society, all we want to know is what our favorite people like to do in their spare time. Well, we found out that John Beilein doesn't watch many movies in his, but that was good enough because we saw (or heard in some cases) that he's actually human. Seeing coaches on TV and on the sidelines from a fan's perspective is hard because it isn't easy to relate with somebody who only talks business all the time. This radio show gives the fan a whole hour of getting to know him and his thoughts on the team without a practice to run to or the temptation to escape the wrath of the media hounds.
As a sports reporter myself for WOLV-TV, I find that interviewing people is far more enjoyable when you are able to have a discussion with them instead of a race against others to dig for the best story. On Monday, Doug Karsch had an hour long disc
ussion with Beilein. It was comfortable, it was fluid, it was informative and from an audience perspective, it was refreshing. It seemed as if the two had been doing this for longer than two seasons. Beilein seemed reserved enough to fit the bill of a high-profile basketball coach, but gave enough for the fan to want.Except--one thing. How come I did not know about this? Perhaps it is because whenever I am scouting MGoBlue.com, I am looking for something specific and ignore the chatter on the side bars (that's my own fault for having a too narrow focus sometimes), but in any case, as a student and fan of Michigan Athletics, shouldn't I be aware that I can go see our high-profile coach broadcast live to the public about a team I love? Maybe it's because--get this--this show is a radio broadcast. Maybe it's also just me, but my generation fails to factor in the radio as a daily consumption. I don't own a radio so maybe it is just me. But us 18-22 year-olds just happen to love our iPods and internet and TV so much that the radio is almost dead in our minds. Sure, when we are in our cars we listen to it, but who drives cars on this parking-nightmare of a campus?
I made the mistake of trying to point this out to the man who was funding my favorite class excursion of college. He was the one who was laying his job on the line and spending his Monday night with a bunch of college students to get this coach on the radio waves for fans to enjoy. However, it somehow didn't seem to come across very constructively to him...and he seemed a little annoyed with my comments....In any case, my point was that this radio show needed to be brought to my attention so that if I ever am near a radio on a Monday night at 7pm (which I never am but that's not the point), I will think back to whatever markteing scheme I saw one day walking down the street, and remember to tune into the show. Or, simply decide to go to Pizza House on a Monday night because it might be a fun study break excursion. (Reminder: I am a second semester Senior who only takes two classes. I am never really in need of a study break because yea, I really don't study a whole lot. Just being a little honest here for the general point to be made.)
So, *drumline*... Here are the recomendations for the Michigan Athletic Department to follow in order to get more butts in the Pizza House seats:
1. Advertise this better. If even I didn't know about it before this class excursion (I tend to pay way too much attention to Michigan Athletics), then why didn't I know about it? Okay, wait...a thought here. I was abroad last winter. Maybe because I skipped out on the first season of this show, I was blind to all the original advertising of the show and by the time the athletic department decided it didn't need as much advertising, I finally was aware of what was going on in this country. So, maybe for all the others who were gone like me, this could be an issue, so the solution is to....KEEP advertising?
2. Give out free give-a-ways. Bribe students to come to the show. Free stuff or any advertisement with the word "FREE" on it hanging around campus will automatically catch the eye of those who are too broke to even worry about paying off student loans while living in the dangerous job market looming ahead.
3. Make Doug Karsch more of a celebrity. Everyone loves celebrities. Once they become famous for something, even something dumb enough to earn a Darwin award, they bring on attention and if Doug can get more popular, then anything he does or he talks about or features on his show will automatically become more popular too. I know I know...he's working on it that status.
...and finally, number 4. (because I hate odd numbers, I would like to end on this one) Win these last few games, Michigan.
Sure, this last one was a cheap shot. But in reality, a winning team is a popular team and because Michigan fans can be sooooo bandwagonish sometimes (and this REALLY kills me coming from a Notre Dame family who just LOOOVES their school so much because God forgives and they should forgive Charlie Weiss and Ty Willingham and Bob Davie for all their mistakes with the football team because that's what God does), anything that will bring back the basketball pride at Michigan will help any cause the team is trying for.
Overall, Pizza House is a great venue for the show. Everyone who is sane loves pizza and gathering for anything sports-related along with the Itallian delicacy shouldn't have a problem garnering attention as long as the fans can count on a consistant broadcast to follow.
Just remember what I said about "FREE" and about giving-a-ways and the fact that college students really like pizza....really.
Got the hint?
No comments:
Post a Comment