I decided to ask John Sadak via email, the Blue Rocks media guy, about it, and it certainly appears from his reply that they did their homework. Mr. Sadak essentially said, that CC did change the deal from where there was no fee to broadcast to a fairly hefty fee for the team's games to be carried only on WWTX, as CC wasn't going to continue 1410 WDOV's carrying the games thus losing all downstate listeners.
He also said, "WGLS actually gives us a much better signal in the greater Wilmington area than 1290. The power of 1290’s signal gets cut dramatically when the sun goes down (from 2,500 watts to 32 watts). The overwhelming majority of our games are at night. For an average Blue Rocks game with 1290, after the third inning/fourth inning or so, fans could not hear the broadcasts in the stadium itself (we got frequent complaints for years from those that brought their headphones), let alone on many of the roads or in the their homes. The WGLS signal comes in quite strong in northern Delaware, southeastern PA, and southwestern NJ. That is where our core fan base lives. While we do draw some from more southern Delaware and would always like more, over 93% of our demo will be able to hear the games on WGLS. It will serve our primary audience quite well and much better than 1290 ever did due to the lack of powering down."
John continued,
"Also, I think you might be overvaluing Blue Rocks baseball on the radio. Most Minor League Baseball broadcasts regardless of competitive level or market size are far from a cash cow. In fact, in recent time many MiLB/independent teams have forged relationships with college radio stations (Trenton Thunder, Bowie Baysox, Camden Riversharks), dropped radio altogether (online webcasts only), or in some cases, have no broadcast coverage whatsoever. In our league alone, two teams have no over-the-air broadcasts (Potomac, Winston-Salem), and Frederick just brought back a part-time over-the-air schedule after having no broadcasts at all for nearly a decade, then an online-only feed for two years."
I also asked Mr. Sadak about WTMC, DelDot Radio, he said, "WTMC/the state of Delaware would likely not be interested in such a venture, but it’s not a terrible idea. Honestly, no, we never considered that as a broadcast path. However, much like 1290, it powers down significantly at night time (from 520 watts to 14 watts). WGLS’s signal is far superior for where the vast majority of our fans live. I have trouble getting a clear feed of WTMC in my car on 95. Plus, WGLS affords a promotional push throughout the day for both the broadcasts and the games that would not be possible on WTMC. And in today’s world, it would likely be asking for PR trouble to use a tax-payer provided radio signal to air our games. While we pride ourselves on being an integral part of the community, we are a private business, and I would more than understand complaints by tax payers for something like that.
So now we know the rest of the story as the late Paul Harvey used to say.
So I checked it out, and I can get 89.7 WGLS at my home just fine, so I'm set to hear the Blue Rocks at home, when I'm not at Frawley Stadium in person.
