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Audacy bets on WEEI..AM

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

Fybush.com NorthEastRadioWatch (by subscription) reports today that WEEI 850 flips to sports betting radio
BetQL with CBSSportsRadio instead of ESPN.
No word who will pick up the latter. Don't know what slogan they plan to use.
 
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Just tuned to 850.BetQL is on.
Top of hour check... No nickname like "ESPN on 850" it's simply "AM 850 WEEI Boston" with something like "we're having fun talking sports betting".
 
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It's growing to be lucrative. I'm not a fan of sports betting, and see nothing but problems for people with gambling addictions. However, it is growing (as I already said).
 
MRBIboredop said:
The sad thing is AM 850 the former WHDH, home of Jess Cain and others , has become so irrelevant that none of us knew it changed format last week until we A) read NERW this morning, or B) read it here after Bob read it on NERW.
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To be fair, with two FM sports stations who focus on the local market, who is flipping to the inferior sound of 850 specifically to listen to the national ESPN programming? Without going down a rabbit hole, no matter where they are based out of, they will have a slant towards the market. Having much programming in New York, it will have a New York slant.
 
WEEI AM has no ratings. Like WXKS AM, the ESPN programming was simply to clear network advertising. The same focus is on The Bet. Clear network advertising. This programming may attract a very small rating for diehard gamblers.
 
Motown said:
WEEI AM has no ratings. Like WXKS AM, the ESPN programming was simply to clear network advertising. The same focus is on The Bet. Clear network advertising. This programming may attract a very small rating for diehard gamblers.
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Difference is that Audacy owns the national "Bet" format, if I'm correct. They didn't own ESPN. I don't see Bet as drawing ears to the AM dial. Considering that we can get sports betting info, anywhere. As much as I don't like sports talk, what does talking about betting on the radio really add that the internet and TV doesn't already? I know that satellite has channels dedicated to it, but satellite can program niche; as has been said in other threads, about other formats.
 
Least said:
To be fair, with two FM sports stations who focus on the local market, who is flipping to the inferior sound of 850 specifically to listen to the national ESPN programming?
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I wouldn't worry about the inferior sound for talk-based programming as long at the content was interesting, but this would seem to not be the case. Maybe this could help to diminish the increasing emphasis at EEI and the Hub on rotisserie/fantasy-based crap and the ever-increasing chatter about which station personality "won" or "lost" this week, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Cap-n Spackle said:
I wouldn't worry about the inferior sound for talk-based programming as long at the content was interesting, but this would seem to not be the case. Maybe this could help to diminish the increasing emphasis at EEI and the Hub on rotisserie/fantasy-based crap and the ever-increasing chatter about which station personality "won" or "lost" this week, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Still, Boston sports fans who want to listen to sports talk are going to choose either 98.5 or 93.7 (as you said, because of the content of local sports) over a national feed that tends to slant to a New York perspective. Then add that it is on 850 only serves as the death nail.

But yes, I theorize that if 93.7 was airing ESPN Radio and 850 was airing the local WEEI programming, more people would chose 850 over 93.7. That hypothetical is with removing 98.5 as a variable. In reality, 98.5 would lead WEEI more than it currently does, if the local content of WEEI-FM remained on AM.
 
Too bad sports betting is on the back burner -- at low heat -- in the Massachusetts legislature. I read yesterday that it's not like to come up at all in this session and prospects aren't all that great for next year. Meanwhile, sports betting opened in full here in Connecticut at 6 a.m. today after a week-long soft launch limited to 750 bettors. Online wagering here is limited to people who are physically in the state while betting, so that will rule out any Bay Staters who might want to open an account in CT and bet from MA.
 
Cap-n Spackle said:
I wouldn't worry about the inferior sound for talk-based programming as long at the content was interesting, but this would seem to not be the case. Maybe this could help to diminish the increasing emphasis at EEI and the Hub on rotisserie/fantasy-based crap and the ever-increasing chatter about which station personality "won" or "lost" this week, but I'm not holding my breath.
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The fantasy stuff drives me up a wall. I like to listen to SiriusXM's NFL Gameday, with its live "red zone" cut-ins to games, but twice an hour, everything is put on hold for a mind-numbing two-minute recitation of names and numbers for the no-lifers looking to "win their league."
 
How stupid, putting on a betting station in MA, a state that does not have legalized sports betting. It was voted by the MA House however the bill is before the Senate and is not a high priority. MA is losing revenue the same way when casinos were built in CT and Rhode Island before MA got them years later. The same thing is happening with sports betting. Rhode Island and New Hampshire are the closest states with sports betting. Losing ESPN radio means Boston is without the World Series on radio.
 
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mnw1890 said:
How stupid, putting on a betting station in MA, a state that does not have legalized sports betting.
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Entercom did the same thing in Texas, putting BetQL on their 650 daytimer in Houston, replacing CBS Sports Radio. Neither Texas nor Louisiana has legalized sports betting yet (although Louisiana will in 2022).

I doubt that being able to take a short drive to New Hampshire or Connecticut was a factor in Audacy's decision here, it was more about spreading their BetQL brand.
 
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