WBZ-FM


Image result for 98.5 The Sports HubWBZ-FM is a sports radio station also known as "98.5 The Sports Hub" based in Boston Massachusetts, serving the area too. It is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group and has been on air since August 2009. The station is very speech orientated and really informative even to someone who isn't a sports fan like myself. The station talks about a range of sports from basketball to American football to baseball and is neutral on all various Boston teams which is a good way of getting callers or two presenters to have a debate on what team is better for example. You can tell the presenters really know what they are talking about with these sports and they sound so enthusiastic talking about sport too which makes it a really enjoyable listen despite it being speech I don't understand or would usually find uninteresting to listen to. The fact they cover live games so much is a great outside broadcast but will take a lot of preparation and organisation to execute well. (Benoit & O' Donnell 2000) state that "In preparation for a sports broadcast, check all connections and mics. Be careful of the location of the crowd mic, and be prepared to move it or have another one already strung up; one raucous or obscene fan can badly foul up all of your plans."
The target audience will be an older, mainly male audience around the 30-50 mark and you can tell this in the way the presenters talk and the words used to describe the games. They don't use younger phrases or don't talk really bubbly but talk enthusiastically and passionately about the subject. The speech from the presenters are usually long and it is rare crunch and rolls are used so you really can tell it is a speech radio station over a music station. The music played is classic pop or classic rock too so again this is another way in which it fits really well with the target demographic. 

 The website is really well visualised with sections such as show schedules, contests, list of local events, podcasts and sports blogs to look at as well as articles on the page too. It is overall really informative and looks really good yet simplistic. One improvement I think the station could do is upload video content more and make more use of YouTube as online video content is such an important thing to have these days for a media brand especially. Overall the station really represents sport both locally and nationally really well and the style and themes of the show are perfect for their target audience.








https://985thesportshub.com/


 References

  • Benoit, P & O' Donnell, L. (2000) Modern Radio Production. Production, Programming and Performance. 5th Edn. Stamford: Wadsworth



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