KISW - A Ridiculous Thought

[Delete My Account]

Disclaimer: This is a fantasy/brainstorming post. I have no illusions that this could or would happen, and have no horse in the race. It's just a what-if I wondered about. I'm sure there's a myriad of reasons it wouldn't happen, and isn't realistic.

But what would happen if somehow, Audacy wrestled the Seahawks rights from Bonneville?

The station is a lifestyle station, anchored by two male oriented talk shows in AM and PM drive. The Men's Room gets a repeat at night. There's local and metal shows on the weekends, and the remainder of the airtime is filled with mainstream rock.

What would it mean for the market, and KISW, if they also had Seattle's pro football team? Would it be worth it for Audacy as it stands today to make a play for those rights when available?

Think Baltimore's 98Rock. Rock, personality talk and the Ravens. Would it work in Seattle?

 

[lanceventa]

Of the 32 NFL teams, here's the breakdown of flagship by format. I used the FM side by default, quite a few also simulcast on an AM with either News/Talk or Sports.

Sports: 15 (Bills, Patriots, Browns, Titans, Jaguars, Eagles, Giants, Cowboys, Lions, Vikings, Bears, Packers, Falcons, 49ers, Cardinals)
News/Talk: 4 (Bengals, Colts, Saints, Seahawks)
Rock: 2 (Ravens, Raiders)
Alternative: 1 (Chargers)
Classic Rock: 5 (Dolphins, Jets, Steelers, Broncos, Commanders, Panthers)
Country: 3 (Texans, Chiefs*, Buccaneers)
Variety Hits: 1 (Rams)

*Chiefs on both 106.5 WDAF-FM and 96.5 KFNZ-FM this season. Will move exclusively to 96.5 The Fan in 2025.

The bigger issue with your scenario is that Audacy has been pulling back on NFL rights in recent years, while iHeart has been much more aggressive. But will that change with the financial situations of both companies going in opposite directions? Plus as you said this is moot since the Seahawks signed a multi-year extension with Bonneville before the 2023 season.

 

[TheBigA]

But what would happen if somehow, Audacy wrestled the Seahawks rights from Bonneville?

Not very likely, as Bonneville has what I understand to be a long term deal with the team:

Seattle Seahawks and Bonneville Seattle Announce Multi-Year Extension to Radio Broadcast Partnership

Seattle Seahawks News: The official source of the latest Seahawks headlines, news, rosters transactions, injury updates, key matchups, and more

www.seahawks.com

Seattle Seahawks, Bonneville Seattle Radio announce extension

The Seattle Seahawks announced a multi-year extension with Seattle Sports and KIRO Newsradio as their official flagship radio stations.

sports.mynorthwest.com

I think someone said it was a 10-year deal. Whatever it was, it was meant to shut down any possible interest by iHeart, that flipped KUBE-FM to an all-sports station with KJR. As Lance said, iHeart has been far more aggressive with NFL rights, most recently taking the NY Jets and the Green Bay Packers away from Good Karma.

 

[radiofan2023]

Do sports broadcast rights fees generally go down if a team has multiple losing seasons, or not necessarily?

 

[secondchoice]

Since most of these deals are long term not really. Very few NFL teams stay out of the playoffs for a decade or more thanks to the draft. I don't know if there still is a TV blackout if the home team doesn't sell out but back when the Falcons were non factor occasionally the game would not sell out so it was not televised in Atlanta. If you didn't want to go to Fulton County Statium you would either catch the radio broadcast or find someone who lived in extreme North GA. Who got the Chattanooga TV stations on cable or with an antenna.

 

[radiofan2023]

Since most of these deals are long term not really. Very few NFL teams stay out of the playoffs for a decade or more thanks to the draft. I don't know if there still is a TV blackout if the home team doesn't sell out but back when the Falcons were non factor occasionally the game would not sell out so it was not televised in Atlanta. If you didn't want to go to Fulton County Statium you would either catch the radio broadcast or find someone who lived in extreme North GA. Who got the Chattanooga TV stations on cable or with an antenna.

I’ll have to ask my relatives about those days, one lived in Atlanta and the other was in Hephzibah but went to Atlanta sometimes.

I wish there had been a blackout on the Cowboys game…Jerrah’s World is becoming the Twilight Zone!

 

[secondchoice]

I’ll have to ask my relatives about those days, one lived in Atlanta and the other was in Hephzibah but went to Atlanta sometimes.

I wish there had been a blackout on the Cowboys game…Jerrah’s World is becoming the Twilight Zone!

Apparently the Cowboys are still making money for Jerry.

 

[Yazzo]

I would think that broadcast rights are for the term of the contract, good or bad for station or team.

 

[boombox4]

The station is a lifestyle station, anchored by two male oriented talk shows in AM and PM drive. The Men's Room gets a repeat at night. There's local and metal shows on the weekends, and the remainder of the airtime is filled with mainstream rock.

What would it mean for the market, and KISW, if they also had Seattle's pro football team? Would it be worth it for Audacy as it stands today to make a play for those rights when available?

Think Baltimore's 98Rock. Rock, personality talk and the Ravens. Would it work in Seattle?

It would probably boost KISW's ratings a bit, and being that they are almost as much of a talk station than a rock music station anymore, it probably wouldn't mess up the format KISW has any.

As others said, looks like it won't happen, as Bonneville has the Seahawks for a few more years. And that's all right. That means that on Sundays I can tune to another station (KJR-FM or KJR-AM) and hear other football games if I don't feel like hearing the Seahawks one.

 

[AuxRSS]

Per Lance's breakdown, it's perfectly OK for an NFL team's play by play to be covered on a non-sports FM, as it is in Seattle with KIRO-FM.

Furthermore, it's conventional wisdom that rock stations -- wild, uninhibited, masculine -- are natural partners for NFL football that they aren't for other sports.

You mentioned 98Rock. When I lived in Boston in the 90s, the Patriots flagship was not WEEI-AM (sports) or WBZ-AM (NTS), but WBCN-FM ("The Rock of Boston"). The game announcers identified as part of the "Patriots Rock Radio Network" (parodied on other outlets as the Patriots Crock Radio Network!).

So WRT the hypothetical of the Seahawks going to Audacy or iHeart, to me there's no issue with the games being on a rock or male-dominant station. It would work just fine.