A long ignored area of our Athletic Department

[iubud]

I have posted before about the poor coverage of IU basketball and football. Many times I will be working outside or not near a TV and rely on a radio to start the game. Living less than 2 hours away in the 3rd largest city in the state, you would expect a station to listen to the games.

Evansville is served by a weak station 20 miles away that you need to stand in the perfect spot to get reception. Sometimes a station in Mt. Vernon will carry the game and sometimes the signal and conditions allow you to pick it up. Both stations will pull the plug on IU for a high school game. We didn't have that this weekend. We had the Purdue announcers instead! If I call Learfield or the IU Athletic department, they will tell me to stream the game online. I can and often do that until my phone goes dead or Tunein locks up or just goes silent. Their recommendations are perfect if I lived 1,000 miles away. It is unacceptable to get Purdue, multiple UK stations, UE, and USI radio for every game and struggle to listen to an IU game and only if high school games aren't happening. at the same time. One year, we had a local AM hi hop station that wasn't licensed to broadcast after 6:00 or at least when the sun went down. What a freaking joke! They never had pregame or post game coverage.

I don't typically pay attention to the Governor's cup. I did notice we are losing badly this year. This weekend we lost wrestling, men's and women's basketball to Purdue. PURDUE!! The program that never wins titles is in better shape than IU! I feel safe in saying Purdue has a better AD and department than IU. This does not mean I think Purdue has a good AD, but he is at least better at leading the program and structuring contracts that Glass.


Poor coverage is annoying for me but should horrify our athletic department. It is a sign of how poor things have gotten and how we have accepted it. The problem isn't new and neither is our struggles to fill seats in basketball (football isn't being helped either). Glass is giving our fanbase away. When the enthusiasm wanes, so does the performance on the court and field. If Glass is failing at holding Learfield accountable for our radio affiliates, what other ways is he screwing up to provide the support for our teams?

The Athletic Director's office is 812-855-1966.if you have a comment. They aren't answering the phone this morning, but you can leave a message.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

You’ll have to forgive Fred.
He’s out shopping for candy stripe apparel:

 

[mobilehoosier]

Bud ; I’m from EVV. Lived with that shitty coverage my whole life until I moved south. Used to kill me to get UK football replays but never IU unless we were getting crushed by Michigan or Ohio State. Always hoped I69 might connect EVV to rest of the state.
Lots of work to do.
Maybe that’s why guys like Walter macarty don’t go to IU. No connection to school due to shitty coverage and no brand mgmt.
Brand mgmt could use help since we’re supposed to have excellent B school.
Go Hoosiers!

 

[mobilehoosier]

Oh ya Kevin Hardy too. Illinois and the Jaguars. Not IU. I went to Harrison so I keep track of those kids. I’m sure there’s more from other schools.

 

[fkfootball]

IU athletics has been a travesty for a while. I'm not suprised that we lose fans, day by day. Down here close to Louisville, almost every kid 15 and under is a UK or UofL fan.

 

[dbmhoosier]

You’ll have to forgive Fred.
He’s out shopping for candy stripe apparel:

Fred has been great at everything except for the one thing that matters.

 

[iubud]

Bud ; I’m from EVV. Lived with that shitty coverage my whole life until I moved south. Used to kill me to get UK football replays but never IU unless we were getting crushed by Michigan or Ohio State. Always hoped I69 might connect EVV to rest of the state.
Lots of work to do.
Maybe that’s why guys like Walter macarty don’t go to IU. No connection to school due to shitty coverage and no brand mgmt.
Brand mgmt could use help since we’re supposed to have excellent B school.
Go Hoosiers!

For many years, IU athletics would be on 1280 AM. You could pick it up an hour or more from Evansville. It moved to WEOA 1400 with a range of about 10 blocks on days they decided to carry the game. 1400 was a hip hop station on AM with DJ's that likely had walked in off the street. They went off the air at dark or at a set time every evening. Now we rely on Boonville and Mt Vernon and hope conditions are perfect and they don't have a high school game scheduled at the same time.

Purdue is still on 1280 in Evansville. It is apparently also on the Boonville station with a priority to air their broadcast over IU.

There isn't a shortage of stations here. Someone just has to care a little and make an effort. A Kelley student would be able to create a marketing plan to show the benefits of broadcasting IU in this market.

 

[destewart]

I have posted before about the poor coverage of IU basketball and football. Many times I will be working outside or not near a TV and rely on a radio to start the game. Living less than 2 hours away in the 3rd largest city in the state, you would expect a station to listen to the games.

Evansville is served by a weak station 20 miles away that you need to stand in the perfect spot to get reception. Sometimes a station in Mt. Vernon will carry the game and sometimes the signal and conditions allow you to pick it up. Both stations will pull the plug on IU for a high school game. We didn't have that this weekend. We had the Purdue announcers instead! If I call Learfield or the IU Athletic department, they will tell me to stream the game online. I can and often do that until my phone goes dead or Tunein locks up or just goes silent. Their recommendations are perfect if I lived 1,000 miles away. It is unacceptable to get Purdue, multiple UK stations, UE, and USI radio for every game and struggle to listen to an IU game and only if high school games aren't happening. at the same time. One year, we had a local AM hi hop station that wasn't licensed to broadcast after 6:00 or at least when the sun went down. What a freaking joke! They never had pregame or post game coverage.

I don't typically pay attention to the Governor's cup. I did notice we are losing badly this year. This weekend we lost wrestling, men's and women's basketball to Purdue. PURDUE!! The program that never wins titles is in better shape than IU! I feel safe in saying Purdue has a better AD and department than IU. This does not mean I think Purdue has a good AD, but he is at least better at leading the program and structuring contracts that Glass.


Poor coverage is annoying for me but should horrify our athletic department. It is a sign of how poor things have gotten and how we have accepted it. The problem isn't new and neither is our struggles to fill seats in basketball (football isn't being helped either). Glass is giving our fanbase away. When the enthusiasm wanes, so does the performance on the court and field. If Glass is failing at holding Learfield accountable for our radio affiliates, what other ways is he screwing up to provide the support for our teams?

The Athletic Director's office is 812-855-1966.if you have a comment. They aren't answering the phone this morning, but you can leave a message.

Actually a good AD’s primary responsibility is not to negotiate media contracts or even do anything other than give final approval for the hiring of Olympic sports coaches. His or her primary responsibility is to hire high quality assistants with diverse backgrounds to cover all the many areas of operational,control now encompassed by big time Intercollegiate athletic administration. Purdue’s AD hired two Division II Directors of Athletics as subordinates with one handling day to day operations and the other in charge of fundraising.
The best decision Purdue has made was to end what appeared to be a policy of always hiring Purdue alumni. The culture had to change and the best way to change is to hire the best people for the jobs regardless of their personal undergraduate allegiances. There are still Purdue people working in administration, but they have had to adapt to having a new philosophy of seeking to not just field teams, but to compete to win.

 

[boilerHup]

The best decision Purdue has made was to end what appeared to be a policy of always hiring Purdue alumni.

Man this is so true.

And since OP is from Evansville, let's talk about the Aces for a minute. I was adamant that the UE shouldn't hire someone with Evansville ties. What were the odds that the best candidate for the job just happened to grow up in a town of 120,000 people? Evansville culture is about as middle-of-the-road and white bread as you can get. It isn't some exotic culture that takes years to "get".

Now they ended up hiring Walter McCarty, and it's going well. In this case it was the local tie that let the Aces land the type of guy they otherwise wouldn't have had a shot at. Marty Simmons was the reverse--he never would have been hired at a comparable program to UE if he wasn't a local boy--and Calbert Cheaney would have been the exact same thing all over again.

tl;dr Keep your home-grown talent, but don't think they're more talented than they are just because they're home-grown.

 

[iubud]

Actually a good AD’s primary responsibility is not to negotiate media contracts or even do anything other than give final approval for the hiring of Olympic sports coaches. His or her primary responsibility is to hire high quality assistants with diverse backgrounds to cover all the many areas of operational,control now encompassed by big time Intercollegiate athletic administration. Purdue’s AD hired two Division II Directors of Athletics as subordinates with one handling day to day operations and the other in charge of fundraising.
The best decision Purdue has made was to end what appeared to be a policy of always hiring Purdue alumni. The culture had to change and the best way to change is to hire the best people for the jobs regardless of their personal undergraduate allegiances. There are still Purdue people working in administration, but they have had to adapt to having a new philosophy of seeking to not just field teams, but to compete to win.

A good AD has to make sure the brand is being protected. Contracts and access to broadcasts would be a primary concern. If he isn't directly involved, someone with a lot of trust would be heavily involved with Learfield and Indiana Sports Properties.

If you were the AD trying to sell a program, would it concern you if Evansville, Columbus or Ft Wayne didn't have radio coverage of IU athletics? I would correct that asap!

 

[iubud]

Man this is so true.

And since OP is from Evansville, let's talk about the Aces for a minute. I was adamant that the UE shouldn't hire someone with Evansville ties. What were the odds that the best candidate for the job just happened to grow up in a town of 120,000 people? Evansville culture is about as middle-of-the-road and white bread as you can get. It isn't some exotic culture that takes years to "get".

Now they ended up hiring Walter McCarty, and it's going well. In this case it was the local tie that let the Aces land the type of guy they otherwise wouldn't have had a shot at. Marty Simmons was the reverse--he never would have been hired at a comparable program to UE if he wasn't a local boy--and Calbert Cheaney would have been the exact same thing all over again.

tl;dr Keep your home-grown talent, but don't think they're more talented than they are just because they're home-grown.

It was Cheaney 's job. He answered two questions wrong. One was on scheduling and the other was community involvement. It could be he didn't want to move his family.

Walter is doing well on the court. He has to stop liking hot girl's posts on Twitter. Luckily a lot of the older fans that would be most offended don't have Twitter accounts. At some point it will be addressed if it hasn't already. Attendance is up. They are the only game in town until USI goes D1.

 

[destewart]

A good AD has to make sure the brand is being protected. Contracts and access to broadcasts would be a primary concern. If he isn't directly involved, someone with a lot of trust would be heavily involved with Learfield and Indiana Sports Properties.

If you were the AD trying to sell a program, would it concern you if Evansville, Columbus or Ft Wayne didn't have radio coverage of IU athletics? I would correct that asap!

A good AD hires exceptional people who fulfill the mission he or she gives them. They know what is going in, but knows how to delegate which is the only way to be successful in today’s world of Intercollegiate sports.
The AD is the president of a $100 million a year company with hundreds of employees and responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of property dedicated to athletics.

 

[Big Red Crimson Buffalo]

A good AD hires exceptional people who fulfill the mission he or she gives them. They know what is going in, but knows how to delegate which is the only way to be successful in today’s world of Intercollegiate sports.
The AD is the president of a $100 million a year company with hundreds of employees and responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of property dedicated to athletics.

I used to long to have a guy like Tom Jurich or Mark Hollis....until I found out they were just one step short of the mafia in their operations.

 

[5morebanners]

It does seem odd, but times are changing. FM and AM stations are suffering the same fate as newspapers, cable and network TV. Streaming will someday displace them altogether. Although I don't generally have problems with TuneIn

 

[IUgradman]

IU athletics has been a travesty for a while. I'm not suprised that we lose fans, day by day. Down here close to Louisville, almost every kid 15 and under is a UK or UofL fan.

So true. It is all coming to a head now. Maybe people will finally realize the incompetence of Glass, McRobbie, and the Board of Trustees.

 

[GeddyHoosier]

As bad as IU has been in the high profile sports, let's not forget they do have an elite program in men's soccer. Yeah I know they got upset in the College Cup last month, but they have won it all 8 times, including once under Fred's watch (2012) by the coach (Todd Y) Fred hired. I doubt Purdue has any titles in any team sport in the last decade. I'm as disappointed as any IU fan with basketball and football, but the athletic department is not a total dumpster fire.

 

[IUgradman]

As bad as IU has been in the high profile sports, let's not forget they do have an elite program in men's soccer. Yeah I know they got upset in the College Cup last month, but they have won it all 8 times, including once under Fred's watch (2012) by the coach (Todd Y) Fred hired. I doubt Purdue has any titles in any team sport in the last decade. I'm as disappointed as any IU fan with basketball and football, but the athletic department is not a total dumpster fire.

Any university would be crazy to evaluate an AD based on the performance of the non-revenue sports. Football and men’s basketball are the two cashcows and their performance should determine the AD’s fate.

 

[4IUSox2]

No IU football or basketball on radio in the region this year either.

 

[Stellara1]

As bad as IU has been in the high profile sports, let's not forget they do have an elite program in men's soccer. Yeah I know they got upset in the College Cup last month, but they have won it all 8 times, including once under Fred's watch (2012) by the coach (Todd Y) Fred hired. I doubt Purdue has any titles in any team sport in the last decade. I'm as disappointed as any IU fan with basketball and football, but the athletic department is not a total dumpster fire.

Sarcasm I am going to assume.

 

[destewart]

Any university would be crazy to evaluate an AD based on the performance of the non-revenue sports. Football and men’s basketball are the two cashcows and their performance should determine the AD’s fate.

For every wealthy alum who played football of basketball and is a gererous donor there are probably 10-20 rich alums who played golf, tennis, soccer, ran track, wrestled, competed in swimming. They support their programs and they also give generously to football and basketball. Pat Ryan at Northwestern did not play football or basketball, but has given close a a half billion dollars to athletics overvthe last 25 years plus additions
Funding to a a academics. Any AD worry his salt funds outvreal quick whose ass to kiss and if it means growing some bucks at Olympic Sports they won’t hesitate. There are about 115 scholarshipped football, and men’s and women’s basketball athletes and 400 to 500 Olympic sports athletes. Now which group is a more fertile pool of athletic donors?

 

[GeddyHoosier]

Fred isn't going anywhere. He is setting all kinds of fundraising records and new facilities are popping up all over the place. That is how college ADs are evaluated now.

 

[IUgradman]

Fred isn't going anywhere. He is setting all kinds of fundraising records and new facilities are popping up all over the place. That is how college ADs are evaluated now.

You don’t build new facilities just to look at them- they are supposed to help the programs they serve WIN, which isn’t happening in either men’s basketball or football.

 

[iubud]

I received a call from someone at Indiana Sport Properties. They are looking for a station to carry IU. They suggested I call some stations and ask if they could carry IU. I can walk across the street and ask a radio sales manager of one of the most powerful stations. That might be easier. He is an IU basketball and ND football fan. He isn't all bad!

 

[fpeaugh]

For every wealthy alum who played football of basketball and is a gererous donor there are probably 10-20 rich alums who played golf, tennis, soccer, ran track, wrestled, competed in swimming. They support their programs and they also give generously to football and basketball. Pat Ryan at Northwestern did not play football or basketball, but has given close a a half billion dollars to athletics overvthe last 25 years plus additions
Funding to a a academics. Any AD worry his salt funds outvreal quick whose ass to kiss and if it means growing some bucks at Olympic Sports they won’t hesitate. There are about 115 scholarshipped football, and men’s and women’s basketball athletes and 400 to 500 Olympic sports athletes. Now which group is a more fertile pool of athletic donors?

And for every wealthy alum who played a sport there are probably 300 who didn’t.

And those people generally care about the big sports - football and basketball.

 

[fpeaugh]

Fred isn't going anywhere. He is setting all kinds of fundraising records and new facilities are popping up all over the place. That is how college ADs are evaluated now.

That’s BTN $$$ and every school has it. We could not have an AD and pull in $60 million with the BTN. It’s impossible to compare to previous AD’s who didn’t have this money. You have to compare him to his peers in the Big Ten. And by anyone’s standards he’d be dead last on that list.

 

[destewart]

And for every wealthy alum who played a sport there are probably 300 who didn’t.

And those people generally care about the big sports - football and basketball.

What sport did Wilkinson play? Kaufman? Armstrong?

 

[mobilehoosier]

And for every wealthy alum who played a sport there are probably 300 who didn’t.

And those people generally care about the big sports - football and basketball.

All the rich guys and gals played intramural at the hyper. Massive grin!

 

[stripetology]

I have posted before about the poor coverage of IU basketball and football. Many times I will be working outside or not near a TV and rely on a radio to start the game. Living less than 2 hours away in the 3rd largest city in the state, you would expect a station to listen to the games.

Evansville is served by a weak station 20 miles away that you need to stand in the perfect spot to get reception. Sometimes a station in Mt. Vernon will carry the game and sometimes the signal and conditions allow you to pick it up. Both stations will pull the plug on IU for a high school game. We didn't have that this weekend. We had the Purdue announcers instead! If I call Learfield or the IU Athletic department, they will tell me to stream the game online. I can and often do that until my phone goes dead or Tunein locks up or just goes silent. Their recommendations are perfect if I lived 1,000 miles away. It is unacceptable to get Purdue, multiple UK stations, UE, and USI radio for every game and struggle to listen to an IU game and only if high school games aren't happening. at the same time. One year, we had a local AM hi hop station that wasn't licensed to broadcast after 6:00 or at least when the sun went down. What a freaking joke! They never had pregame or post game coverage.

I don't typically pay attention to the Governor's cup. I did notice we are losing badly this year. This weekend we lost wrestling, men's and women's basketball to Purdue. PURDUE!! The program that never wins titles is in better shape than IU! I feel safe in saying Purdue has a better AD and department than IU. This does not mean I think Purdue has a good AD, but he is at least better at leading the program and structuring contracts that Glass.


Poor coverage is annoying for me but should horrify our athletic department. It is a sign of how poor things have gotten and how we have accepted it. The problem isn't new and neither is our struggles to fill seats in basketball (football isn't being helped either). Glass is giving our fanbase away. When the enthusiasm wanes, so does the performance on the court and field. If Glass is failing at holding Learfield accountable for our radio affiliates, what other ways is he screwing up to provide the support for our teams?

The Athletic Director's office is 812-855-1966.if you have a comment. They aren't answering the phone this morning, but you can leave a message.

There has been a noticeable degradation of radio coverage over the past 15+ years. Where IU used to be on strong stations (like wowo) they are now on lower power stations that like you said, reduce power at night. Plus they jump around a bit more compared to PU & ND. No doubt coverage is less. Probably mostly related to licensing fees IU demands and stations balk. Without the strong teams, leverage has been lost. It’s not they don’t care but end result is still less exposure.

 

[destewart]

There has been a noticeable degradation of radio coverage over the past 15+ years. Where IU used to be on strong stations (like wowo) they are now on lower power stations that like you said, reduce power at night. Plus they jump around a bit more compared to PU & ND. No doubt coverage is less. Probably mostly related to licensing fees IU demands and stations balk. Without the strong teams, leverage has been lost. It’s not they don’t care but end result is still less exposure.

I seldom listen to anything but Sirius-XM unless it is to hear a local sportscast.

 

[iubud]

There has been a noticeable degradation of radio coverage over the past 15+ years. Where IU used to be on strong stations (like wowo) they are now on lower power stations that like you said, reduce power at night. Plus they jump around a bit more compared to PU & ND. No doubt coverage is less. Probably mostly related to licensing fees IU demands and stations balk. Without the strong teams, leverage has been lost. It’s not they don’t care but end result is still less exposure.

The person that called said he was involved in trying to get an Evansville affiliate. I told him he had to make show how it would benefit the station and set the price where they had a better return than not broadcasting IU. "Make it happen!"