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BostonSportsMedia: 1510ESPN domain names registered

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

A post on a different messageboard says that some domain names relating to ESPN at 1510
have been registered, though Boston Sports Media Watch says that it could be "proactive
or wishful thinking". WWZN's Anthony Pepe says nothing is happening...

...yet?

A post I put up on 8/13 here said that acc to K. Vahey, the Krafts were thinking of
getting 1510 and putting ESPN and Revs soccer on there. But they had concerns
about the signal. Take note though that ESPN started on 850 in Oct. If there are
one year contracts...

ESPN has to be glad 850 is running them overnights but what about other shows, etc.?
Is it poss. ESPN could stay aligned with WEEI (baseball playoffs coming) but also air
reg talk shows, etc., on WWZN?

It could be, again, just a proactive move or wishful thinking but who knows.\

http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2010/09/espn-radio-on-1510

BSMW's Bruce Allen finds it hard to believe that after "all the hype" of the ESPN/WEEI
connection, this would happen, but hey if ESPN wants it daytime or weeknight shows to
be aired, even on a weaker signal... ?

http://1510espnboston.com

http://espn1510boston.com
 
yea but look what happened on 890??? the signal is even worse for 1510??? maybe if kraft does buy it he could upgrade it and make it a a good station, but why 1510 go after an fm signal philly does it 97.5 the fanatic and put jim rome etc maybe entercom would be willing to part with 97.7 or gm part with 96.9 since there not doing too good with ratings or maybe a lma deal??
 
1510 may not be too bad in some areas, though def. some weakness at night etc It's been said not much could be done for 1510 though. What FMs could it wind up on? Don't know about the
97.7 scenario

Greater may be doing OK with 96.9 (at least ratings wise, don't know about $$), better than
RKO maybe. ESPN 680 anyone? Though they still have the contract for Finneran, but imagine
a mostly sports station but with Howie as the non-sports PM drive guy*--though again Entercom would be competing against its own 850, so...

*--like with some stations that do "Imus in the morning, rock all day" or "Imus in the morning,
then sports"
 
all you have good ideas, and it all sounds good. I don't want to mess anyone's ideas up.

This is just an idea, nothing to hurt no one. I just think, 850am, instead of ESPN, I think they should've put "Sporting News Radio". Because, "Sporting News Radio" 's presentation sounds more (attractive-Jingles, Promo's, Rejoins after commercial break and so on...). Their product sounds more attention grabbing. Some of their hosts sounds good to me, and very listenable with good Sports Topics. For a (famous) station like 850am, I think (personnally) they should've put that on from the begginning instead of ESPN. Don't get me wrong, ESPN is great and their Baseball Games are great. I just think "Sporting News Radio" is a little more attention grabbing and will grab the average listenner's attention better than ESPN. That's just my thought, nothing to hurt no one

Anyways, I like you all ideas
 
SNR is on 1510 part time as part of a multi-split-personality station that has prog talk,
wrestling, SNR, Red Sox in Spanish, etc Prob only a few hrs though, as I said when I noted
on one Sunday that one min. it was Red Sox postgame in Spanish then when I tuned back
in a "Sporting News...flash!"

ESPN does have some play by play stuff like baseball playoffs. Even if Sox don't make playoffs
I'd like to hear it. Last year 1510 picked up some of the ESPN MLB playoff coverage
(WEEI placed it there to clear it!)
btw ESPN, Fox Sports, and SNR are all on satellite radio if you so chose to get one.

Somehow ESPN is thought of as a better known name, no doubt due to the TV network
 
My question is, if this deal goes down, what becomes of the fate of one R. G. Stair?

raccoonradio said:
SNR is on 1510 part time as part of a multi-split-personality station that has prog talk,
wrestling, SNR, Red Sox in Spanish, etc...
Click to expand...

Isn't progressive talk sometimes considered to be wrestling? ???
 
raccoonradio said:
BSMW's Bruce Allen finds it hard to believe that after "all the hype" of the ESPN/WEEI
connection, this would happen, but hey if ESPN wants it daytime or weeknight shows to
be aired, even on a weaker signal... ?
Click to expand...

Here's another example of how the bloggers and commenters get an idea in their heads that has nothing to do with reality and continually repeat it as gospel. The story was, WEEI was going to go to FM and abandon the AM frequency to ESPN Radio. One would have to be either mentally deficient or a career board-op to come up with the scenario that Entercom would actually create a second challenger to its major market franchise on a major market signal.

Bruce Allen should check the hype. Most of it was unfounded then, and is unfounded now and despite his self-proclaimed position as a watchdog of sports media, he couldn't tell B.S. when he saw it.
 
When that rumor came up I pounced on it, loving the idea that I could poss. hear the Red Sox games live at work, but eventually even I woke up to the fact that Mike is low budget but
makes money, gets good ratings, and why would they change it?

WEEI does have a lot of listeners but there are also a lot of people who might like the "variety
hits" format Mike has. In some cases, such stations are just afterthoughts...we got nothing else
to put on there, so let's do the computer. Maybe we'll break even or be a loss-leader. But guess
what: Mike's ratings, at least the 6+ ones I get to see, are not all that bad, and they appeal
to various demos. WEEI on 93.7 would be nice but Entercom must like Mike.

And...why would they create competition? Probably quite true, although I think it has happened.
I think in Cle. Craig Karmazin had one WEEI-like station at 850, WKNR, and they put an ESPN
format on a weaker station he owned, but I think later he changed his mind and WKNR became
a blend of local _and_ ESPN....Oops, actually I guess Son Of Uncle Mel (Cousin Craig?)
has WKNR "ESPN Cleveland" _and_ "ESPN-KNR2" on AM 1540...

http://www.espncleveland.com/

If Entercom DID want to have a full time ESPN station on AM they could buy or rent 1510
and make it mostly local on 850, and national ESPN (English? Eng days, Sp. nights?) on 1510.
But would they want to take listeners away from WEEI?
 
How it worked out in Cleveland was this:

1) Craig Karmazin's Good Karma bought WABQ/1540, a then-gospel daytimer (format ended up on east suburban 1460), and turned it into "Cleveland's ESPN Radio 1540", poaching the network from then-Salem owned WKNR/850. WKNR had to turn to Fox Sports Radio, and even ran Steve Czaban (now at SNR) in AM drive.

2) Karmazin then turned and bought WKNR from Salem, and went into an immediate LMA.

3) After the WKNR deal closed, Good Karma brought ESPN back to 850, and pushed FSR back to 1540.

However, 1540 (in its current incarnation as WWGK) has always cleared ESPN's midday programming, such as Colin Cowherd and whatever ESPN is running in early afternoons - Scott Van Pelt?

850 goes local after "Mike & Mike", all the way until 10 PM now, except, of course, for Jim Rome. The popular local midday show hosted by Fox 8's Tony Rizzo - which is heard filling in for Rome from time to time - moved up to a 9 AM start, bumping the last hour of "Mike & Mike" to - you guessed it - 1540. 1540 is now calling itself "ESPN 1540, KNR2", though it still carries FSR's programming from afternoon drive-on.

This all has nothing to do with Boston, but you brought it up :) I don't know if WEEI creates "EEI2" or not. I know there was that speculation that they'd do it on 850, and move the main station to FM, but as I recall, Entercom has no FMs that they would be inclined knock off for a new home for WEEI.
 
Thanks for the summary, great job (I had read about some of these things on your blog--including the mention of some kind of setup in Milwaukee, or was it Cle., where ESPN was on one station
days and another nights due to a daytimer or reduced power situation? Karmazin involved..) And you're right about the Entercom situation for now at least
 
That was Milwaukee...Karmazin started out on 1510 (of all frequencies), a west suburban daytimer. He then landed a nighttime clearance on 1290..."ESPN 1510 Days, 1290 Nights". (1290 was an urban talker that leased out 6 PM-6 AM to Karmazin.)

He eventually bought full-timer 540 from Salem, and moved WAUK there. 1510 is now ESPN Deportes, still owned by Karmazin.

There were rumors that he'd do the same here after he bought 1540 - lease the night hours at Radio One brokered talk WERE/(then-) 1300. There was even a website with such a logo, presumably linked to his operation. When he ended up buying 850, it became a moot point.

As for Boston, I find this rumor unlikely. I don't think Entercom buys a signal for this, let alone a fairly flawed highly-directional high-band AM.
 
Don't think ESPN wants to get in between WEEI and WBZ-FM. It was already irrelevant on 890 when WEEI was the only game in town. Now with two strong local sports stations it would be totally invisible on another weak AM signal. ESPN pulled off 890 as soon as 98.5 came into the picture. And it's not coming back 24/7 any time soon.
 
I could see ESPN on 850 FT as an adjunct to WEEI in a move of the latter to FM, but 1510 makes no sense, even in a cooperative effort with whoever or whatever owns 1510 these days...Blackstrap? What in the world is Blackstrap?
 
OhioMediaWatch said:
I could see ESPN on 850 FT as an adjunct to WEEI in a move of the latter to FM, but 1510 makes no sense, even in a cooperative effort with whoever or whatever owns 1510 these days...Blackstrap? What in the world is Blackstrap?
Click to expand...

Blackstrap is the name of the company Peter Davidson used when he bought 1510 in Boston and 620 in New York City from Sporting News Radio. Peter Davidson used to also have Davidson Media Group (WSPR/WACM in Springfield, WKKB in Provivdence, and WXCT in Hartford. DMG owns several dozen other stations that are LMA'd to mostly Spanish Groups, but a couple are leased out for Black Gospel and a couple are programmed in house by DMG), but I'm not sure if he's still involved with the company that has his name.
 
These days, I never hear "Sporting News Radio" on 1510am. I listen weeknights, weeknight overnights, and late Sunday night and Sunday into Monday morning. I don't know about other days and times.
I'm sure if another radio station wanted "Sporting News Radio" if 1510am is currently using it, I'm sure they can swap programming? 850am could swap "ESPN" for "Sporting News Radio" and 1510am can swap "Sporting News Radio" for "ESPN"
It's just ideas. Nothing to hurt no one.
I just say these ideas because "Sporting News Radio" sounds more energetic which would be good for 850AM to generate more listenners and keep their current listenners, because they are a very famous Sports Talk Radio Station in this area.
Again, these are just thoughts and ideas. Nothing to hurt anyone.
And besides, Radio Program Management Personal knows more than me, it's their final decicion, not mine. I just try to say good ideas. Nothing to hurt no one
 
I don't think SNR would go to 850 unless for some reason they lost ESPN. Again ESPN is a better known name due to the cable network, plus they have play by play including playoffs for baseball etc. And as it is there isn't much time for network stuff (talk-wise) on EEI due to their heavy local content. Yeah you'd have it overnights and some weekend slots but that's just about it. I suppose they might give up on talk for WRKO if ratings really suffered and they could put SNR (or ESPN) there but they'd kind of be competing against themselves.

I'd like to see Mix 104.1 go all blues, too, but that doesn't mean it'll happen :) It's money. As Andy Travis was told by WKRP's owner in the first episode, "Young man, this radio station is a business. It is not here for your personal listening pleasure." (He replies, "Ma'am, I know it's a business and that's why I changed the format (to top 40)" But who knows, maybe SNR would be a better fit.

Maybe there are simply too many brokered time things to put on 1510--incl. prog talk,
wrestling/boxing, Red Sox in Spanish, etc and that's why you hardly ever hear it.

Who knows, maybe a small AM could pick up SNR. Wasn't it on down in Attleboro or
something? You could have, say, SNR on 1330, 950, 1150 or whatever.

If you'd like it on 850 you could talk to Jason Wolfe (send email) but again how many slots would they have open for it, and what of their ESPN contract? Though again, I wonder if
their contract expires in Oct. and maybe they COULD put ESPN on 1510 (leaving space on 850 for SNR), though the signs don't point toward it.

Here's WEEI's schedule
http://www.weei.com/weei/shows-schedules/program-schedule

Here are the only slots (assuming they'd drop ESPN for it) where it could run:

Weeknights mid-6 am
Sat 6-7 am (now informercial?)
Weekends mid-6 am
Sun 6-7 am (instead of Comm. Journal)
That means it could be on about 44 hours per week. Basically just mid-6 am in most cases.
Sorry, but I doubt they will lay off Mike Adams ("...and CLEAN UP AFTER MIKE ADAMS!!!!"--
John Dennis) or dump Red Sox or Celts. They would not get rid of weekend shows like
college or pro football, Sun night baseball, Mustard and Johnson, The Baseball Show, etc.

Outside of mid-6 that's all you could get of SNR, really. (You might as well convince WRKO
to run Jerry Doyle live and dump Howie Carr :) )
As for 1510, they have commitments to the brokered shows I mentioned above. You'd be better off getting a small AM like 1330 to run it, and they must be making money
with brokered foreign.
 
btw Wikipedia says SNR has about 18 stations (WWZN is not listed); not sure how accurate. I think ESPN and Fox Sports (syndie by Premiere) have quite a few more than that. It's poss.
WNMR 107.1 Dannemora NY (west of Burl VT) may have it, not sure.

The WWZN sched page (not sure how current) says SNR runs Sat nights 7 to midnight.
They also list "Sportsing News" (sic) Thu 7-8 pm, and the Ch 5 news at 5 which I think
was dumped awhile ago. I don't know when that page was last updated. Evidently they are
more concerned with shows like "Paster (sic) Bruce", "Mouthpiece MMA Show", "Victory Radio" (and I don't think they mean victory as in sports) and all the progressive talk...
 
bostonradio tweeted to me:

>>So far ESPN to 1510 rumor is just that. The guy who produces BU hockey/bball just extended his deal w/1510 for 2> yrs. /Also UMass football and some Umass hockey/football that doesn't conflict w/BU hockey/bball will run on 1510 this season.

Though who knows, they could still go ESPN _and_ carry those...?
 
bostonradio tweeted to me that 850 and 98.5 use national networks to fill "dead hours"
like mid-6a. Low cost for low listenership...I would doubt you would have 98.5 replacing D.A.
with syndie stuff like SNR or Fox (they DO run Fox after mid. of course), or 850 replacing
Mike Adams with ESPN or SNR. The two big sports stations have lots and lots of local stuff
and there are very few slots available for something like SNR (or even ESPN or Fox, other
than what's already on there).

Who knows, if there were higher listenership for overnights you might someday get local
sports talk on 98.5 or 850 PAST midnight. LOCAL. This may already happen once in awhile,
say, like after a nighttime Pats game.

The best hope for SNR fans is poss. sat radio (though I don't know if it's on XM anymore?)
or getting a smaller AM station to run it. Or listen online at their site...
 
raccoonradio said:
I don't think SNR would go to 850 unless for some reason they lost ESPN. Again ESPN is a better known name due to the cable network, plus they have play by play including playoffs for baseball etc. And as it is there isn't much time for network stuff (talk-wise) on EEI due to their heavy local content. Yeah you'd have it overnights and some weekend slots but that's just about it. I suppose they might give up on talk for WRKO if ratings really suffered and they could put SNR (or ESPN) there but they'd kind of be competing against themselves...
Click to expand...

Or perhaps they could put ESPN on WRKO full-time to "protect" WEEI. Considering the content will be fully, if not mostly, syndicated. I wouldn't simulcast any WRKO shows on WEEI - it might get the PD of the Hub's panties in a bunch... ::)
 
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