Everyone has their particular goals for this season, and I have one that I would like to pass along to the other racetracks and series out there. I hope that you get the same kind of media coverage that the local media is providing to Rockford Speedway.
Last Saturday, April 5th, the Speedway opened for its 61st season of racing with its annual Practice & Media Day. It was a pleasure to have all three of Rockford’s television stations and Doug Goodman of the Rockford Register Star come out to visit with many of the drivers and capture footage of some of the on-track activities.
That night, all three television stations had highlights of the activities, sound bytes from Rockford Speedway GM, Gregg McKarns, and various competitors on their newscasts. In other words, they helped us by letting the people in the greater Rockford area know that we are open for the season. You cannot ask for better advertising than that and the cost was reasonable, it was free.
All it took was an e-mail and a follow-up phone call. Part of the selling point to get them out there is that there are many unique stories worth sharing with the variety of drivers competing at Rockford.
On this day, all three stations happen to arrive at the same time, so I was able to give some ideas and line up the interviews.
That Saturday night, depending on what station you were watching, you either saw McKarns talking about the season, a story on Troy and Kyle Shear (second cousins of the late Joe Shear), or 68-year-old competitor Gene Marocco. And if they didn’t see the story on Saturday night, all three said they may run them during the week as a lead up to the Spring Classic opener on April 13th.
What we need to do in racing is inform the local media that there is a racetrack and unique stories out there. This is everyone’s responsibility to do that. It’s not just the track or a series job; it’s also the fans job as well. The fan is also the market that the local media is targeting as well, and the only way they will know what you want to see, hear or read is by you telling them.
Today, we live in a society that is doing way too much “assuming.” We assume that because racing is a sport, that the media better come out and just simply cover it. The problem is that some in the media still look at racing a lower level sport over baseball, football, etc. Yet, it’s funny when I read that NASCAR has the second highest television audience right behind the NFL.
We have seen the media make local high school and college student athletes as today’s heroes and the opportunity is there to do the same with local racers. It really bites when I see a local station showing highlights of a local Home Talent baseball game, but they can’t even stop by for highlights of a heat race.
The racing community needs to stop assuming that local media will not cover and stop assuming that the media will magically appear someday. Everyone needs to get on the phone, e-mail, or snail mail to the local media and share stories and see which ones will get the media to the track and do a story.
Last year, Madison International Speedway was able to capture a local television station to do a story on their 2007 Bandit Champion, Steve Dickson. The story shared more than his racing part of his life, but the fact that he is the Police Chief in Rockton, IL.
You know, I bet that same television station wished they had footage of young Matt Kenesth winning local races before making it to the big time. No matter what market you are in, the local media loves to ride the story of an athlete or someone in sports who started on a local level and made it big time. Racing has those same stories as well, and we need to let the media know about them.
It doesn’t take a college degree to make the media aware; it takes your personal passion of this sport to get things accomplished. The more they hear from you, the more it will open their eyes and realize that there is a market they need to tap into.
One of the sports reporters from one of the Rockford television stations said it best to me, “Our job is to cover area sports, racing is a sport and it’s in our area and that is why we are here covering it.”
