• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, January 29, 2014

The Super Bowl is coming up, and WestwoodOne is joining forces with Horizon Media to connect with fans ahead of the big game. The weeklong program, “7 Days to Sunday,” kicked off on Monday, January 27 and is scheduled to run through Sunday, February 2, with events around New York City and the tri-state area.
 
Horizon and WestwoodOne, the official network radio partner for the National Football League and exclusive national radio home for Super Bowl XLVIII, are touring the New York metro area with “Football Fan Machines” buses. They connect listeners and fans to NFL personalities, as well as customized audio content and various brand and social-media activations tied into the country’s biggest sporting event.

A number of Horizon clients are participating with feature activations, including Burger King, Corona, Geico, City Harvest, Buffalo Wild Wings and Partnership@DrugFree.org.
 
One of the vehicles includes a VIP lounge and a glass-walled mobile studio (featured in the video for Maroon 5’s “Never Gonna Leave This Bed”) that allows bystanders to see inside the radio studio. Fans who visit the buses can engage with NFL personalities, sample Horizon brand products, and maybe even get on air.
 
On Wednesday, Boomer Esiason is visiting Horizon Media’s New York headquarters to record his “Super Bowl Preview,” joined by Hall of Famers James Lofton and Rod Woodson, former Baltimore Ravens coach and Super Bowl victor Brian Billick, and former Giant and two-time Super Bowl champion punter Sean Landeta, as well as co-host Scott Graham.

NBC Sports Radio is also participating in the “7 Days to Sunday” countdown, with live sports talk programming from locations in and around New York and New Jersey, including bus reports from popular sports journalists.
 
WestwoodOne chief revenue officer Ron Furman stated: “WestwoodOne’s ‘7 Days to Sunday’ program enables our advertisers to create memorable audio, digital, social and on-site brand experiences around the largest sporting event of the year.”
 
While the TV broadcast (and TV ads) tend to receive the most attention, the Super Bowl also attracts a large radio audience: 23.1 million listeners tuned in to hear Super Bowl XLVI in 2012, according to Edison Research. That’s equal to just over one-fifth of that year’s TV audience of 111.3 million, the biggest on record (the 2013 game had a slightly smaller TV audience of 108.4 million, possibly due to the mid-game blackout) .