Sunny Radio brightens our weekend with this April Fool’s announcement of a new entertainment venue, The Goodlands:
This parody video is a gentler poke in the legal battle Sunny Radio’s John Small has waged against Badlands pawn broker and radio newcomer Chuck Brennan.
Funny!
Meanwhile let’s lament Brennan’s recent success in shutting down a great and long standing venue in the heart of my old legislative district: the Hartford Speedway. http://www.argusleader.com/story/sports/2016/04/01/i-90-speedway-near-hartford-ceasing-operations/82528448/
It seems the owners of I-90 Speedway are going to work for Brennan, so at least they won’t lose their jobs in a sense. Nothing was said about the other employees there, whether they will transfer to Badlands too, or if they got laid off.
In regards to the Sunny/Brennan lawsuit, I haven’t heard much in regards to that. Brennan’s station KBAD is seemingly doing well, earning a three hour “Morning Crash” simulcast on the local FOX station. They of course aren’t going to say anything about the lawsuit, but in regards to the video above, it’s still going.
That seems odd, Steve. Last fall, Brennan was making noise about all the racing that would happen there this year. Now he buys out the employees and shuts down racing for three years. Does he expect his weekend concerts to bring in bigger money than the races? And are the economic and branding advantages for his company greater than the economic cost for all the race drivers in southeastern South Dakota?
I have been following Badlands on Twitter and FB, and every Thursday concert so far has had a packed house filled with people based on their photos of the concerts. A couple shows have even sold out. It’s pretty safe to say that the concerts are probably doing far better business than the Pawn Shop, and perhaps the same thing will happen with Badlands Speedway. At the end of the day, both Badlands places are glorified concert venues with pawn and racing as a side business.
Perhaps someone other than Brennan could find a way to reopen the old racetrack here in Winner. It’s been empty for a couple years now and it would give racers another place to race their cars.
Which would be the better market for racing: that old track at Winner or the shuttered Lake County Speedway just SE of Madison?
Winner is a dying town, and it would be rather nice to have our speedway running again. It wold actually give people here things to do on the weekends, which seemingly consist of simply going to the bars on Main Street or seeing a movie at the theater. Not much else goes on during the weekends. Even the Winner Bowling Center is struggling to attract customers.
What I understand, the current owner is basically letting our speedway rot away to the elements. A shame too, since about 10 years ago or so, Winner hosted the World of Outlaws! There used to be a Halloween haunted house there as well. If it were to reopen, they would likely have to tear everything down and rebuild from scratch as the current structures are likely beyond repair.
As for Lake County Speedway, they are closer to Sioux Falls and they could give Brennan real competition. But Madison has DSU and there seems to be more things going on there than here in Winner. I don’t think there is a speedway within 90 miles of Winner, and the Oahe Speedway in Pierre seems to be just drag racing. Having a race track in Central SD could bring business to Winner and it would give our residents more things to do on weekends.
In the end, it’s really hard to say. Reopen Lake County Speedway and it would provide good competition to Badlands Speedway. Reopen the Winner Track and it could give our sagging town an economic boost.
Wade, did Brennan buy the speedway so he could shut it down and eliminate competition for his events? Couldn’t he make more money doing concerts and races at the speedway?
Nope. Our track closed before Badlands Speedway was even a thing.
If the Lake County Speedway were to reopen, Brennan wouldn’t be happy and would likely find ways to keep them from being successful, especially if they decide on doing rock concerts as well. Just how, I don’t really know.
Again, it’s hard to say whether or not our speedway should reopen over Madison’s. If I were to choose though, it would have to be Winner. I hate to see my town die. Year after year, businesses close down, school attendance dwindles, and there are increasingly less things to do for recreational activities or entertainment. We don’t need just a speedway, we need jobs too. The speedway can bring some jobs, but we also need another kind of industry to bring jobs here as well.
Wade if I remember right Winner closed due to insurance cost didnt it?
The name of the game right now in dirt track is not competition, its cooperation. Racers are looking at races on at least two weekend nights, and try for three if they can. That means packing up and driving.
The Stouts from winner race at least two places east river and Rapid when their schedule works out for them. Fewer tracks mean a bigger purse from more drivers. More tracks would be just like Winner, fighting for racers and the money to keep the track racable.
Winner was once a beautiful town. It started to die the minute pay to hunt started and never got another chance. Its just like it radio station. KWYR trys to keep people happy, but when you only like one song in ten.
The Blindman
Thanks for the insight, Bill. I don’t know why exactly our track closed down, but I think I recall someone else mentioning the insurance costs as a factor. Besides, if it were to reopen, the track would have to be rebuilt from scratch. The grandstand and infrastructure have been left rotting away since it closed.
Our town radio station is getting by, I guess. They really promote their streaming app and website, and their all-request Friday seems to be popular with the surrounding areas. If anything, they are counting on wherever people can tune in their signal on the radio. They face competiton from smaller stations in Valentine, Ainsworth, and the Rosebud Reservation.
I haven’t listened to KWYR for a long while after they switched from pop hits to all rock. If they would switch to a Jack-FM format where they would mix their current rock playlist along with 70s-80s-90s pop hits (like KMXE in Red Lodge, Montana), I would probably listen more. Who knows what’s in store for KWYR’s future. It’s good that it’s locally owned and operated, a rarity in todays corporate radio world. But with Winner getting smaller every year, it’s not hard to predict KWYR might get sold to a new owner or switch to Brennan’s GGRNR network if they want to keep the rock format.
Do young listeners want to listen to the radio any more? Do they listen to Brennan’s format or anyone else’s, or are they all building their own playlists on their phones and iPods?
Hey Wade thanks, THE MOUNTAIN is cool listening.
The Blindman
Of course your right about young people and their DDs. But their playlist might suprise you.
Small town radio has been taking it in the shorts just like news print. They all struggle finding a format that a dwindling listener base is willing to compromise on. If it werent for the funeral announcements, church notices, school closings, or the next community disaster, small town radio would be a thing of the past.
The name of the game is “social media,” baby. You talk at their level, listen, and recruit.
The Blindman
You ask a lot of questions Cory. :)
Anyway…. The same I guess could be asked if people are listening to Sunny Radio, the only locally owned station in the Sioux Falls area… or was, at least until KBAD signed on. Is KBAD locally owned? That depends, since Brennan seems to like going back and forth between Vegas and Sioux Falls.
The younger generation do go for their iTunes, Pandora, or Spotify. The broadcasters are trying to adapt to this by introducing their own streaming apps. Sunny Radio, Badlands, and KWYR have their own phone apps and corporate giants like iHeartMedia (aka Clear Channel) have their own unified apps. I was on a road trip to the Seattle area last summer (how I found out about KMXE The Mountain along the way), and the Seattle iHeart stations were pushing the app, which can function like Pandora with a build-your-own playlist feature. You can also listen to streams of their various stations around the country.
It’s hard to tell if the younger generation would be attracted to the all-80s Sunny Radio or all rock KWYR or KBAD. Sunny’s FB page has 4,743 likes at the time of this comment, and KBAD has 4,889 likes, only 146 more than Sunny. Both target older audiences, so lets look at the top-40 station in the market, Hot 104.7…. 47,404 likes. So perhaps the younger generation is listening to traditional radio of sorts, either on an actual radio or through a streaming app on their phone.
Judging a stations popularity by FB likes alone is far from scientific, of course.
…but Facebook Likes do provide some insight on how many eyeballs are on those radio stations.
Think about that: eyeballs on radio stations. That emphasizes the importance of what Bill says about social media as an integral part of broadcaster success. The request line has expanded into instant multimedia interaction with everybody all at once.
We gentlemen discussing this issue all grew up with radio as a unifying cultural force, playing the same music for everyone. When we crank our favorite tune from 1984, everybody can sing along or at least bang their heads reliving memories attached to those songs. It seems our kids are growing up in a more fragmented music environment. They can access far more channels to distinguish themselves online. When they grow up, will they have as many shared songs that any given radio station can turn into a format that will draw enoug audience to generate a profit?