It's bad enough they have Schopp
They dropped ESPN for CBS Sports....Bland
They dropped ESPN for CBS Sports....Bland
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What happened to WGR550?
- Thread starter Incompletist
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CBS Sports Radio is operated by Audacy, so they have an incentive to get it affiliates. Presumably they let their deal with ESPN expire, and put CBSSR on.
Audacy Buffalo may be holding ESPN in its back pocket for select event programming, but this move underlines the intense competition that exists for the ears of $ports junkies. (Their eyes have long been on their smart phones.) ESPN once was the premier sports brand, and although it retains much of its sheen, it's facing a full frontal assault by Fox Sports and CBS Sports. Audacy has skin in the game, so it changed its bet on CBS Sports to "win," but may have retained ESPN to "place" or "show." Could ESPN pop up elsewhere on Buffalo radio? Cumulus has its network's conservative talk line-up on weak-signal WHLD. Townsquare has no need for ESPN. WLVL is affiliated with Fox Sports. WXRL is making money doing classic country and polkas in PM drive. ESPN may be content to be WGR's back-up sports network, because there's always a chance for clearance on 550 or 1520. The more pertinent question may be, "does ESPN really need radio."
Schopp is one of the brighter people you'll hear on 'GR. I never understood the attitude some have about him. Maybe it's the sarcasm.
Please. He obviously is going through the motions. Don't get me started on the mystery of Bulldog's career.
I mean CBS overall is a better product right now then ESPN. The ESPN Radio cant go a full year without rebooting the schedule.
That's a fair question, and here's what they tell me: They need radio as long as they don't have to OWN radio. So if someone else is paying for the transmitters and towers, and they can still make money, that's great. ESPN is in the content business. They want to blanket the world in content. There's this thing called "brand management." ESPN is a brand. So the brand managers push the brand in as many platforms as they can push. At one time they had their own print magazine and a series of sports bars. One was in Times Square. But owning restaurants is not in the core business.
There's a lot of this going on. Consider Fox News. Do they really NEED radio? Probably not, since Fox doesn't own any radio stations, and hasn't since the 1930s. But they love it when their brand is being pumped out on radio stations, and they get revenue from it. Same with CBS News, ABC News, and all the others.
Is ESPN exclusive to a specific sport in any way? Does dropping them mean that those who want to hear about that particular sport have been pretty much shut out by WGR?
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ESPN Radio has certain play-by-play rights (World Series for example). Otherwise, you'll probably find the programming very similar.
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