Radio Broadcasts of PPV's...would it work?

[KillBill]

Before you say thats crazy, I want to tell you thats its happened at least once before. I listened to Royal Rumble '94 on the radio. It was in Providence or Boston, so maybe thats the reason. But it was basically play by play with Dibiase and maybe Monsoon? Or whomever, I just know that the people doing the play by play were different than the ones on TV. I actually thought it worked, the play calling was great, I knew what was going on at all times.

So would it work today? I say why not? Not everybody can afford every ppv, or get the streams, or whatever those are, I know I don't. It would be fun for kids who can't stay up and watch to quietly listen without their parents knowing. Problem is getting decent enough guys to call it, which I'm not sure they have, and second, I'm not sure Vince would allow it, since it might affect PPV buys.

What do you guys think?

 

[Leafy]

I wish it would happen because I don't have satellite TV but as you said, I don't see Vince allowing it. If I had the choice of listening to the PPV for free or using 40$ or whatever it is now to watch the PPV i would choose the radio. It would give me the chance to multitask and if there are any amazing matches I would just watch the match on youtube.

 

[InterestingDrug]

I dont think so. The webcasts are the replacement for radio. Even if they did radio, they'd still charge $20 for it. Pointless, just get the webcast.

The announcers nowadays dont provide play by play like Monsoon and others did. They are too busy talking about storylines or promoting something to actually make radio work. New announcers would have to be found. They could use it like the spanish announce table and powerbomb people through it regularly. hah

While we're thinking about radio, how about the telegraph or teletype?? Anyone object to punch cards?? Let's sell some product!!!

 

[Stormtrooper]

I remember them having a Radio broadcast of a PPV, the one I remember most is a Wrestlemania (don't recall which one, maybe 10).

The only way I could see it happen, is if Satellite Radio eventually makes a pay-per-listen type thing. Vince doesn't want to give away PPVs for free (he shouldn't).

I personally would love to see wrestling events have a radio broadcast, and I believe that WWE has the people to do it right now. They are Joey Styles and Jim Ross. With a radio broadcast, you need to tell the listeners what is happening, since they cannot see it (remember, you can't see on the Radio). Joey Styles did just that, which was why McMahon hated Styles doing TV commentary. Jim Ross would be great at it, because he is widely considered the best in the business, and because if my memory serves me correctly, I remember JR doing it back when I remember them doing it before.

 

[CHAOS]

I would hate having to listen to wrestling on the radio, it just wouldn't feel the same. Would you rather hear someone say "And theres Evan Bourne hitting a shooting star press" or would you want to SEE him execute that to perfection like he always does. I suppose i would listen to the radio if i was desperate to know what was going on, but that would be my last resort.

 

[Tastycles]

They've done it, and it didn't. Radio WWF lasted about a year in the early 90s, and nobody listened. The reason is quite obvious. There's too much going on to matter. You can miss the details in football and it doesn't matter, so long as you know when someone scores. In wrestling, missing a key piece of information, such as a shot with a weapon etc, is imperative to knowing what is going on. Also, at the end of the day, it is fake. The result isn't what's important, but how they get there, and the way you experience that, the only way to experience it, is to see it.

 

[Mr. TM]

I'm not so sure on this idea, when I originally saw the thread a while ago. I have been thinking about it for a while now.

Satellite radio has hosted many different levels of programming on it's channels. But last I heard the company was not doing well and could go under. Nonetheless, I could see this as a chance for the WWEcould reachabew audience. The working class who is working night shift, driving truck listening to the radio. I would expect WWE to have another announce team to be more play by play orientated, maybe set up where the raw commentators used to be.

The could also be use to utilize the world of Internet radio for pay per view events for free to those who probably just stream it or follow it on play by play, while getting ads in there as well.