Sports Rap Host Now Own Boss
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The business of sports talk radio finds popular radio host Chuck Barrett in a new category: lone entrepreneur.
Barrett has been the host of the Arkansas Radio Network’s Sports Rap — a radio talk show that has served as the ethereal support group for thousands of Razorback fans statewide whose collective angst or joy rides on the ability of Barrett to debunk or decipher the countless wild rumors that clog the Internet message boards like so many cigarette butts in a trash can outside a Dickson Street watering hole.
However, Barrett, along with radio sidekicks Otis Kirk, Clay Henry and Dudley Dawson recently ended a business relationship with Arkansas Radio Network and its parent company, Little Rock-based Citadel Broadcasting Co. (Henry and Dawson are employed by Stephens Media, which owns The Morning News in Springdale and The Times Record in Fort Smith.)
Citadel produces news, agriculture and sports programming for more than 50 radio stations in Arkansas. Its sports programming is broadcast on 27 radio affiliates, said Jim Beard, Citadel’s vice president and general manager. The company owns 10 radio stations in central Arkansas.
Since September 2000, Barrett has been the voice of Sports Rap and the show has become a head-to-head competitor with Drive Time Sports — a sports talk radio show based in Little Rock and hosted by Randy Rainwater and Rick Schaeffer.
Beard said Tuesday the decision to end the contract was mutual.
“Chuck and I had long discussions and we just came to the conclusion that our business purposes couldn’t be accomplished by being together anymore,” he said.
Citadel has announced that Ray Tucker, a longtime sports television anchor in Little Rock and recent director of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame, will begin May 7 as the new host for Citadel’s ARN-branded Sports Rap. Tommy Craft, general manager of KTTG 96.3 FM in Fort Smith, is the interim host of the ARN Sports Rap. Beard said Tuesday that Citadel is also looking for Northwest Arkansas person to help Tucker with the show.
“We’re not quite ready to announce that,” Beard said Tuesday when asked for a name.
On Monday, Barrett will launch his “new” Sports Rap radio show from 3 to 6 p.m. on 96.3 in Fort Smith and KFAY-AM 1030 in Fayetteville. The ARN Sports Rap show will broadcast from 6 to 8 p.m. on 96.3 in Fort Smith. (Joe Conway, KFAY manager, was out of town Tuesday. As a result, KFAY show times and availability were unclear as of presstime.)
Two Sports Rap shows?
Yes. At least until March 27, 2008, Craft said. Barrett’s contract with Citadel gave him the right to the Sports Rap moniker, but allows Citadel to use the title for up to 12 months following the end of the contract.
The contract formally ended March 27 because Barrett said Citadel resisted his desires to own his show. Barrett said in August 2006 he told Citadel that when the contract ended on Dec. 31 he wanted to take the show private.
“It’s not that I was unhappy or holding out for more money, like some things you might hear,” Barrett said. “I wanted to do my thing. The truth is, I gave up a very cush job that I was paid very well for, and some could say I’m an idiot for doing this, but this is what I want to do. The show has been my financial bell cow. … So I want to operate it as my business.”
Part of doing his own thing will require Barrett to handle the production, marketing, selling, distribution and other tasks once handled by Citadel.
Barrett, who will initially produce the show from the 96.3 studio in Fort Smith, said such work comes with being the boss. In the radio business since he was 16, Barrett said he has some experience on which to lean.
“Sure, you’ve got to have some business sense and some business savvy to go out (on your own). But,” Barrett said through a laugh, “I may find out that I know just enough to go broke.”
With funding help from a silent partner — Barrett wouldn’t disclose the name — holding a minority interest, Barrett’s real challenge might be in expanding beyond the radio markets of Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas.
According to Barrett, non-compete agreements with Citadel could make it difficult to enter Little Rock and other Arkansas markets. Barrett admitted it will be difficult for his new enterprise to pay the bills if not allowed to expand outside Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas.
Barrett is less than optimistic about reaching a market competition agreement with Citadel.
“I suspect we’re going to end up in court,” he said Tuesday.
Other than to say Citadel believes competition is good for the marketplace, Beard wouldn’t talk about potential legal issues with Barrett.
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