Willis counting on Blowfish to be a big hit on Z93 airwaves

MIKE WILLIS is all set for Wednesday night’s baseball home opener at Lexington’s new $3 million stadium off Ballpark Road. He’ll settle into his seat as the redubbed Lexington County Blowfish – a summertime squad of collegiate players, many with South Carolina ties – begin their 10^th season in the Coastal Plain League … but their first in their new home.

“I’ll be at the ballpark with a hot dog and a drink,” the president and CEO of Lake Murray Communications LLC said with a laugh. “It’s going to be a great night for Lexington County.”

Willis has more of a stake in the Blowfish’s debut than civic pride, though. Also, working from an open-air broadcast booth, Jordan Kuhns will call the 7:05 p.m. game against the Gastonia Grizzlies for Willis’ radio station, WZMJ-FM 93.1, aka Z93 “The Lake,” in a landmark night for both the league and the town.

Bill Shanahan, owner of the Blowfish and a longtime Midlands baseball fixture, says that so far as he can ascertain, the game will be the first broadcast by any of the CPL’s budget-conscious 15 teams. “At this point,” he said, “we’re cutting edge.”

Too, this isn’t a one-time publicity stunt (not, as Shanahan knows, that there’s anything wrong with that), but a season-long commitment to air all 56 Blowfish games, home and away. That puts the team in company with – oh, just to pull a name out of a hat – South Carolina’s baseball Gamecocks.

At this point, you might ask: Why? True, the Blowfish have garnered a decent following among baseball-starved locals, leading the CPL in attendance (46,000) in their inaugural 2006 season. But with minor league baseball returning to Columbia in 2016, and plenty of Major League Baseball across the airwaves, what makes Shanahan and Willis think their suburban on-air product can be profitable?

Two words: Lexington County. It’s a growing area, small town-dominated, with a craving to create its own niche, independent of its big-city neighbor to the east.

“I think (the Blowfish) are going to do much better here” than in Columbia’s aging Capital City Stadium, Willis said. “You have people here with disposable income, and we’re a bedroom community to Columbia. This is where the families are – which is what Blowfish baseball is all about.”

Indeed, Shanahan embraces a “throwback” philosophy: “I can see fans with FM radios listening to play-by-play in the stands, or to the pregame on the way to the ballpark,” he said. “We want to go back in time and pick up some of the great things of what baseball is all about.”

Think hot dogs and cold beer, warm summer nights, kids playing under the stands: nostalgia to the nth degree.

It began in February when Shanahan, a master baseball promoter dating back 30 years to the Columbia Mets/Capital City Bombers, approached Willis about carrying Blowfish games. Willis, whose family bought the former ESPN Radio signal three years ago, was already airing Clemson sports as well as county high school games, and saw a chance to create a uniquely Lexington County brand (not to mention a slow-summer revenue stream; the Blowfish will pay to have their games aired).

“People come up to me and say: ‘We want to thank you for supporting the Blowfish, and we think it’s great the radio station is carrying all the games,’” Willis said. “There’s definitely a buzz.”

Z93 is doing its part. On Wednesdays from noon-1:30 p.m., the station airs “Lunch on Main,” hosted by Willis and originating from a glassed-in studio in Blowfish headquarters at the busy corner of Main and Church streets. Local celebrities, politicians and restaurant owners drop by to talk about food, politics … and, of course, baseball.

“Each weekday, 29,000 cars pass that corner,” said Shanahan, who can show you the numbers. On Wednesdays, “people wave and honk their horns.”

The real test will come once the games begin. Kuhns, a 26-year-old Pennsylvanian who has done college baseball play-by-play (he’ll also be the Blowfish’s media relations director), will strive to build an on-air relationship with listeners – much, says Shanahan, as when he was a kid in San Francisco and fell in love with the game listening to Russ “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World” Hodges.

“(Kuhns) is a great young talent. People are going to love his voice,” Shanahan said.

Will fans fall in love with Kuhns’ pipes, or with a hometown team to call their own? Will they follow the Blowfish, at least in part, because of the “Lexington County” portion of their name? Willis and Shanahan have their theories, but ultimately – as long as fans listen, and attend games – does it matter why?

“They (Z93) carry Clemson baseball, and we’ve got summer baseball,” Shanahan said of the union. “It was like putting together a Reese’s Cup.” And, along with baseball, hot dogs and summer, who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate?

This story was originally published May 26, 2015 at 9:12 PM.