My gender is another impediment to my sports talk radio participation. Dale Pontz from the blog Dames on Games makes an interesting point about women and sports talk radio when she says, However, this is not the only example of how female sports fans are not heard. Interestingly enough, they have a study aptly titled “What Women Want: Factors Driving Tune-In and Tune-Out” where they briefly point out that there is a segment of female listeners they call “sports fans” but they only mention what kinds of music they will tune into.) (Arbitron has several free studies and reports on their site for women, but none of them talk about women and sports talk radio, let alone talk radio in general. Although there are women who listen to sports talk radio and who, on occasion call in, their invisibility in this medium is echoed by how the ratings completely ignore them. David Nylund have pointed out that sports talk radio’s listeners are overwhelmingly white.) Even though Arbitron has not studied women’s listening habits when it comes to sports talk radio, it would be silly to ignore this demographic for the mere fact that there are female sports fans. What does the (female) sports fan sound like?Īccording to a 2002 Arbitron report, the core demographic of sports radio is male, 25-54, “nonethnic.” (Researchers like Dr. Women are deemed “eye candy” and not “ear candy.” This undermines any authority they might have in the sonic realm and relegates them figuratively to the sidelines. John Reffue speaks of, the absence of female callers as participants, goes hand in hand with how females are portrayed in sports media more widely: as visual objects. This “absence” that communications strategist Dr. The websites offer these pictures of women-as-sexual-objects, which stand in opposition to the absence of female voices on the air. Amidst all of the sports logos, and the pictures of the men who carry the voices on the radio station, you will find eye candy for the listeners who navigate to the page. If you scroll down, you will notice on the webpage a scantily-clad woman. Now, go to any sports talk radio website. Most of the people talking on these shows are men. Listen to them and see if something stands out to you. Listen to the cadence in their voices, to the passionate tone about the sporting events of the day, to the witty banter with the hosts. Tune in to any random sports talk radio show and listen carefully to the voices coming from the radio. Radio al atardecer by Flickr user Dany Rivera
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