It’s been a couple of months since the podcast began, and now more than ten episodes in we are building up some good momentum, and for that we say a big thank you, from Matt Nicholson and Producer John to our podcast producer, Molly, plus myself, we can’t be more thankful, but there is so much more.
With the Memorial Day weekend coming up, and the “Greatest Day in Racing” almost upon us with the Monaco Grand Prix kicking things off in F1, to IndyCar’s crown jewel the “Indy 500”, and then wrapping things up with a NASCAR crown jewel, the “Coca-Cola 600”, we have a lot of good racing to go, plus a driver trying “The Double” in Kyle Larson, but we also know that radio’s Doug Rice will do “The Double” too, working with IRN on the Indy 500 and then his regular job at PRN for the Coca-Cola 600, and Jimmie Johnson wanted in to, so he’s doing a hybrid double, race commentary for NBC during the Indy 500, then heading to Charlotte for to drive in the Coca-Cola 600 for his team, Legacy MC. All kinds of cool storylines to be checking out.
But I have to ask this question of both IndyCar and NASCAR…what the heck are you two doing?
For IndyCar, they’ve got 27 full-time cars, but are talking about a charter system where only 25 cars are guaranteed starts, meaning that, with Prema Racing coming in next year with two cars, there is a chance to have 29 full-time rides, so two cars will go home each race weekend. Why stuck at 27? They don’t have pit roads that generally can handle more than that…really? You’re in a growth spurt IndyCar…and you’re woefully under-prepared for it. You are in the envious position of having teams wanting to join the series, as there is one sitting off to the side, now awaiting the charter situation, to see whether they’ll actually join. Get it figured out IndyCar, hopefully it’s not too late to do it either.
Then there’s NASCAR, which is taking a page from the NBA with an “in-season tournament”. Ok, whatever, it’s a gimmick, no doubt, but not the worst idea in the world after all. But with the other things they’re dealing with, including trying to figure out how to take advantage of the hype of the Chicago street course race, without taking another major (read: $50 million) bath.
Then on top of that they’ve got someone, or a group of someones, who apparently think they need to make all tracks look and sound alike…why? What’s the purpose? These tracks are all in different parts of the country, and different parts of the country have different feels, all you need to do is travel around this country to realize that Talladega has a different feel that Daytona, and they’re only a few hours away from each other. Forget Talladega feeling different from Phoenix, or Sonoma, or Kansas, or whatever other NASCAR-owned track you can think of.
I have worked in radio for going on 40-years now, and I can tell you this, radio has consultants, just like the ones NASCAR is likely listening to…and there are ones who will tell major radio companies to run the same playlist on their music stations to make things easier. History shows those consultants aren’t worth the air they breathe, much less the money they are getting paid.
The best consultants look at the city a radio station is broadcasting in and get a feel for it and tailor the music to that city, and like Talladega is different from Phoenix, so is Birmingham different from Phoenix musically, and the best consultants will let the stations have their own personality. But, NASCAR is listening to the consultants that aren’t worth their papers, and that is sad. Hopefully someone at NASCAR will revert to realizing that while Daytona is a jewel, it isn’t the only shiny jewel they have in their portfolio and allow all 13 of their facilities to get back to being what they truly are, not forcing a national voice and music playlist on them all…
That is my ultimate wish, but I hate to say it, I just don’t see it…things will get worse for NASCAR before they get better, because it takes a lot to turn a big corporation around in a different direction. Hope by the time they realize it that its not too late.