August 23, 2013 – St. Louis, MO – For more than 10 years, The Back Nine Radio Show has been a staple on radio airwaves in the St. Louis area. Covering everything related to the game of golf, with a special emphasis on local and regional story lines, The Back Nine has been the most relied upon regional source golfers have used to keep up with the happenings in game they love.
Since the spring of 2009, only months after WXOS 101.1 FM switched to an all sports format, The Back Nine joined forces with what is now one of the top sports radio stations in the country. “We’ve enjoyed sharing our passion for golf with so many new people as a result of the sheer bandwidth and reach 101.1 provides,” commented host, Dustin Ashby. Ashby has been the driving force behind the franchises growth since being invited to join Dan O’Neill on the air at KTRS, 550 over 10 years ago.
Effective early September, Ashby will lead The Back Nine into a new phase as the show adopts an online format in partnership with 101.1 ESPN. “I first got involved in golf radio as a way to connect with the passionate golf fan. My hope was to provide them an entertaining show that often featured the local and regional personalities involved in the game,” said Ashby. “I’m happy we’ve been able to sustain the amount of local coverage while also tapping into the national stories as well.” Ashby sees a move to www.101sports.com as a way to expand on his vision for The Back Nine.
“It’s been great connecting with golf fans every Saturday morning for a couples of hours, but in today’s emerging media landscape there are so many ways to connect with our audience,” said Ashby. Since the show’s inception 13 years ago the on air broadcast has been made available via podcast shortly after the show concluded. In moving the franchise to the dot com, Ashby sees the opportunity to dive deeper into certain topics interesting to listeners while also broadening the content discussed. “We’re going to be able to create a limitless amount of content and be more flexible with the timing of when we bring a story or topic to our audience.”
Over the past 10 years The Back Nine has established great relationships with professional golfers, caddies, members of the golf media and often connecting on Saturday morning is difficult. This is especially the case when a professional golfer is teeing it up later that day on their respective tour. Having a format conducive to creating and delivering content throughout the week will enhance the quality of guests and frequency of connecting with the top news makers in the game.
This announcement could also mean good things for advertisers looking to connect with the passionate golf fan. In moving the content online, The Back Nine has the opportunity to develop creative marketing programs for sponsors and partners. “Targeting a niche community like the golfer is difficult unless you are comfortable over paying for reach you won’t likely benefit from,” said Ashby. Associating your company’s marketing message with The Back Nine radio show will connect you directly with qualified customers. “At the end of the day, advertisers will spend less while increasing the efficiency of their marketing dollar”.
Just because the weekly radio show is moving online doesn’t mean you won’t be hearing from Ashby over the 101.1 ESPN airwaves. Ashby will continue to be featured as one of the station’s “Insiders” and join the weekday programming around the major championships.
Adam Frillman and Dr. Tobin Lingafelter will also be a big part of The Back Nine’s future. Frillman has been co-hosting with Ashby since 2007 and Dr. Lingafelter joined the show as a weekly co-host this year after being a regular guest of the program since the show’s inception.
In addition to the content featured on 101sports.com, golf fans will continue to enjoy the expanded coverage available at www.espnbacknine.com and www.vugolf.net.
For additional information regarding The Back Nine Radio Show and related sponsorship opportunities contact Dustin Ashby (espnbacknine@gmail.com).
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