Detroit Pistons Press Conference
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00:00You have waited long enough, it's time for that big announcement, right here on the new
00:04Detroit Sports 105.1.
00:11Hi, welcome everybody, on Detroit Sports 105.1, again DetroitSports1051.com and also
00:16on, drumroll please, Pistons.com Live, as today marks a very big day in Detroit sports
00:23history, as we gather together with our new partners at Palace Sports and Entertainment,
00:28the Pistons, and Detroit Sports 105.1.
00:32Yes, sir.
00:41It is a big day for both organizations as we launch an exciting new relationship that will
00:47benefit our outstanding Detroit, certainly sports fans here.
00:51Here to share the details of our big announcement today, as we go from left to right here, Steve
00:57Chisari, market manager at Detroit Sports 105.1.
01:01Dennis Mannion, the president and CEO of Palace Sports and Entertainment.
01:06And our program director, the man in charge, my boss, Jason Dixon of Detroit Sports 105.1.
01:13At this time, it is my privilege to introduce Dennis Mannion, president and chief executive
01:18officer of Palace Sports and Entertainment, to talk about this exciting new relationship.
01:22Dennis?
01:22Gee, thank you, Matt, and thank you to Greater Media.
01:27It's a pleasure on behalf of Tom Gores and the Palace Sports and Entertainment and the Pistons
01:32to announce that we are your new partners here at 105.1 Detroit Sports.
01:38And I can tell you personally, I couldn't be more thrilled.
01:41I think I counted.
01:42This is my eighth now radio or media-based deal that I've done.
01:46And I couldn't have had a more pleasurable time working with Steve and his team.
01:51It's been fantastic.
01:52And what I'm loving about it is Tom had said a couple of things before we went to do a new
01:58deal.
01:58He said, I need you to be thoughtful, I need you to be innovative, and I need to be passionate.
02:02And the team at Greater Media made that easy for us and our team as we got into discussions.
02:08And Tom's other word was, let's be consistent.
02:10We want to have a consistent voice, a consistent place to be heard.
02:14And here at 105.1, we feel very at home, and it will be one place, the one place to get
02:18all the regular season games.
02:20And because of the tie to ESPN, you also get the postseason games as well.
02:24So we're loving the tie-in with ESPN.
02:26It's very NBA, which is fantastic.
02:28The other thing I'm loving in talking to these guys is this opportunity now to stream distribution
02:33of content.
02:34That's a big thing now.
02:35But you look at radio today and where it's going to be in the next five years, and I think
02:39it'll be literally night and day because of streaming distribution.
02:42So we're excited about that.
02:44I also want to tell you that from a programming standpoint, we've worked very hard at the
02:49Pistons Network to build 20 features per week.
02:53And we're looking forward to sharing all those features with our new partners, both on the
02:58internet and on mobile applications as well.
03:01The other thing I'd like to say is it's fantastic for us to think we have a basketball season
03:06coming up that will be presented on one station and one station only with no conflicts.
03:11That in itself deserves a round of applause.
03:19I'll finish up by saying this.
03:21Not only are we going to be featured on 105.1, but we're going to use the HD2 channel to present
03:28a lot more content for those basketball fans that are out there looking for a little bit
03:33more.
03:33That should be very, very exciting.
03:35And the last thing I'd like to say is on behalf of our players as well, this is going to be
03:42a joy to serve this market through 105.1.
03:46And we are looking forward to being back with Matt Derry again as well.
03:51At this time, I'd like to introduce Steve Chisari, market manager here at Detroit Sports 105.1
04:01to say a few words about the partnership.
04:03Steve?
04:03Well, the first thing I absolutely have to say, and I know everybody in this room who
04:06is a part of Greater Media Detroit, this is an exciting day for us.
04:10And it's an exciting day, but it's also a natural day for us in the progression of 105.1.
04:17You know, we started the radio station on August 12th, just eight months ago.
04:21And the two things that we knew we had to have when we started out was we had to have
04:25a strong affiliation with a sports network that would make us viable on a national platform.
04:31And we had to have a local talent.
04:33We had to have talent that people wanted to hear, that people recognize, and that people
04:37are going to be entertained by.
04:38So we went out, we got ESPN to partner with us as an affiliate.
04:42We got Drew Lane, and we put him in afternoon drive, and Drew has done a phenomenal job of
04:48anchoring our broadcasts in the afternoon.
04:51And then we got this guy here who does a phenomenal job middays and leading up to Drew and really
04:57bringing home the Detroit sports story to the Detroit sports fan.
05:02So it's an exciting day for us.
05:05It's a day that we feel is a natural evolution of the radio station.
05:08And it's also a very big event for greater media Detroit completely because I've entered
05:16into a marketing partnership not just for 105.1, but also for WRIF and WCSX as well because
05:25Palace Sports and Entertainment is a lot more than just the Pistons.
05:28And it's the first type of partnership of this kind in Detroit, and it's something that I
05:34think it's really going to play out well for the people of Detroit.
05:38So we're very excited.
05:40Thanks.
05:46And now to talk about a bit of the nuts and bolts about the programming that you're all
05:51going to hear and experience, I'd like to toss it over to Jason Dixon.
05:55Thanks, Steve.
05:57Sort of to elaborate on what Dennis said earlier on, one of the things that's so exciting about
06:03this is, yeah, it's a rights deal.
06:05We're going to do pregame shows and postgame shows and in-game broadcast on Detroit Sports
06:09105.1.
06:10But it's really a multi-platform content distribution deal.
06:15When you look at it, it's creating an unprecedented amount of content for the basketball fans of
06:23Detroit and distributing it where they are.
06:26If they happen to be listening to Detroit Sports 105.1, which we recommend most people
06:31do, that's great.
06:33But if they have a car with an HD radio, they're going to have our HD2 channel, which is going
06:38to have a ton of Pistons content.
06:40If they have the Detroit Sports 105.1 mobile app or the Pistons mobile app, that content
06:45will be there.
06:46It'll be on both the club and our radio station website.
06:50So we're going to be creating content constantly, 365 days a year, and then distributing that
06:56where the fans, the Pistons fans, the basketball fans of Detroit are.
07:00And that's one of the most exciting parts of this partnership is the ability to create all
07:06that great content and give it to the fans of Detroit.
07:11You know, a couple of other things we want to mention, the games, something new with the
07:17NBA this year is they're going to allow us to stream the games on our website, DetroitSports1051.com,
07:25Pistons.com, and each of our mobile apps as well.
07:28Again, taking this great content of Detroit Pistons basketball and putting it where people
07:34can hear it, whether they're by a radio or whether they're at home or on a golf course
07:39or, you know, out on vacation, it's going to be there for them.
07:43Obviously, the broadcast team, Mark Champion, Rick Mahorn, are going to be back.
07:47And, you know, Mark Champion and I go way back from my days listening to them call Tampa
07:52Bay Buccaneer games.
07:53So I'm very excited to be working with Mark.
07:56And, of course, Rick's been with us all season long as our Pistons insider.
08:00So great to have those guys back and doing their thing.
08:05One of the best play-by-play teams in the NBA will be heard on Detroit Sports 105.1.
08:10So we're very excited about all that content.
08:12We're very excited that, as Dennis mentioned, every game, preseason, postseason, all going
08:19to be heard in one place on Detroit Sports 105.1.
08:23And really looking forward to kicking things off with the NBA draft coming up here in not
08:29too far in the distant future.
08:30So very excited about this opportunity and this partnership with Palace Sports.
08:41All three gentlemen have mentioned these two names.
08:44We've got to recognize these guys.
08:45Give us a wave or a stand-up or something.
08:47But the voices of the Pistons are in the building.
08:50You'll hear them later on with Drew and Mark.
08:52Mark Champion and Rick Mahorn.
08:54Fellas, there they are.
08:55I worked with Mark for 12 years, Rick with 11, and Mark was a great 12.
09:05Oh, hey, Rick.
09:07I love that man.
09:08Rick, I'm being in all seriousness.
09:11The fact that we're able to be with Rick full-time, he's the best.
09:16And he's a great ambassador for the game.
09:19He'll be a great ambassador always for the Pistons, but for us, too, at the radio station.
09:22So I've got to give him some love, even though he's a big phony sometimes.
09:30Let's open it up.
09:31I love you, too.
09:32Let's open it up for questions about this partnership, please, if anybody has any.
09:36We've got a microphone around with Dave.
09:39Where are you, Dave?
09:40And if anybody has any questions for these three gentlemen in regards to the partnership, let's do it.
09:44Come on, Dave.
09:54I've got to do play-by-play.
09:58Yeah, for all three of you, for this partnership, how does it compare to other partnerships you've had in the past with all the stops you've had along the way?
10:05How does this one kind of compare to everything else?
10:07I'll let the other guys take a shot at this, but, look, the speed with which technology is accelerating and escalating, it's different just because we can distribute media now in ways that you never could before.
10:22Jason mentioned the mobile apps, for example.
10:24Two years ago, you didn't have mobile apps to stream radio or television on, and now you do have it.
10:29So it's unique in that sense.
10:31I think we're in the forefront, and I think the way both of our organizations are designed, we intend to stay in the forefront of it and be as forward-thinking as possible.
10:41I think also one key word here is innovate.
10:46Throughout our discussions of how we are going to develop this partnership, innovation was always at the forefront.
10:52We're not just going to put something on the air to have it go out through the speakers or out into the Internet.
10:59We want to be innovative.
11:01We want to do things differently.
11:02We want to entertain the Detroit sports fans in ways that they haven't been entertained before.
11:07That's what we're all about at Detroit Sports 105.1.
11:10We started out being a different sports radio station, and this gives us a great opportunity to continue in that vein.
11:18And the Pistons are the perfect partner for that because they believe in innovation as well.
11:24And I think you're going to see some pretty exciting things in the days to come.
11:28Yeah, I think we're going to try new things, and some of them may work out great.
11:32Some of them may fall flat, but the important part is we're going to try them.
11:36And that's the great thing about the different platforms that we have at our disposal.
11:41If you want to hear Mark and Rick and you want to hear the nuts and bolts of the basketball game, that's great.
11:45We're going to offer that for you.
11:46But maybe there's a unique alternate presentation that we can try on the HD channel.
11:52I don't think we've had our best idea yet.
11:55That's going to come as this agreement moves along.
11:59And I think overall our approach to how we cover things is different.
12:03You know, it's not going to be you're not going to hear about the Pistons all day long, and then at 7.30 flip the switch, and there's the game.
12:11This is a partnership that's going to be 24-7 all day long.
12:14If you're a Pistons fan, you know to turn to 105.1, and you're going to hear Pistons news no matter what time of day it is,
12:20not just at 7.30 at night when they throw the ball up in the air.
12:26Anybody else?
12:27I have a quick question.
12:28Hold on.
12:28Let's get the microphone to you.
12:31Nice shirt, Dave.
12:31The question is about twofold.
12:36Talk to us more about what we're going to hear on the HD channel and what we can expect and community events, partnerships,
12:45what kind of things in the community.
12:46Do you have anything you can share on that front?
12:48Sure.
12:50You know, it's interesting.
12:51You think about everybody talks about content being king, but the reality today is that customization is queen.
12:58And, you know, Jason had mentioned, look, with the HD channel, the mobile apps,
13:04we've got unlimited potential to distribute our games and the things around our games in different manners.
13:10And I asked him, what do you mean by that?
13:11And he said, well, couldn't you do a broadcast just for women?
13:14Couldn't you do a broadcast just for kids?
13:16Couldn't you have the sights and sounds represented even over the airwaves?
13:20So the sneakers on the court, the sound of a swish, the sound of a dunk, the sounds behind, well, maybe not the sounds at the bench.
13:27Maybe the visitor's bench.
13:30But, you know, and that's what, you know, inspired all of us and our team, our head of marketing and our head of sales and so forth.
13:39When we first met with Steve and Jason, it was an eye-opener.
13:42We thought, wow, this is something.
13:44This isn't, you know, going to be a static product.
13:47So I'm pretty excited.
13:47Any other questions for the three gentlemen?
13:55All right, thank you for attending today's press conference.
13:57We're looking forward to a great partnership with Detroit Sports 105.1 and certainly Palace Sports and Entertainment.
14:02Again, as Jason mentioned, our first broadcast will be the NBA draft on Thursday, June the 26th.
14:07So another round of applause, guys.
14:09New home court of the Pistons is the new Detroit Sports 105.1.
14:14This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:17This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:19This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:20This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:21This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:22This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:23This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:24This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:25This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:26This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:27This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:28This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:29This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:30This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.
14:31This is the new place to hear the Detroit Pistons.