“When you look at the structure of a radio deal, there are really two components of it. When you hear commercial breaks on the radio during the game broadcasts, some of them are network breaks. Those are your Coke’s, Alltel’s, State Farm… all of those guys. Those are sold through Wolfpack Sports Marketing, and those are the advertisements aired across the state. All the affiliates, anytime when we go to commercial break, air those advertisements. Those are heard on all 30-35 stations across the state.”
“Another piece of the broadcasting is the local inventory,” he added. “A radio station has commercial positions that they also keep and resale in their own market. The biggest change here, and where the upside potential is for NC State from a revenue perspective, is that all the local advertising that used to be sold by WPTF and kept by Curtis Media will now be sold through Wolfpack Sports Marketing which then goes directly back in and benefits NC State. That is the most dramatic change, from a revenue perspective, for NC State.”
How much more revenue will the switch generate for NC State athletics? Asbill feels it is too early to say, but everyone involved will be meeting in the near future to start establishing target goals.
“We will set targets, we will get with NC State, we will sit down with WRAL, and we will put our heads together and figure out how we want to do our programming to provide the best value for everyone and generate the most revenue. That is the next step for us, and we will evaluate all of those aspects.”
