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Browns to 92.3 The Fan/850 WKNR?

U

udfan07

According to the News Herald yes.

The gist of the story is that Clear Channel Communications has dropped out of the bidding for the Cleveland Browns' radio rights.

The Browns will be broadcast on CBS Sports Radio's WKRK-FM 92.3 The Fan on the FM side, and ESPN WKNR-AM 850, two industry sources confirmed.


The announcement could be made on Thursday morning. Such an agreement is rare, because the two stations are rivals. Many things will need to be worked out, including how they'll sell advertising.

http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2013/03/26/sports/nh6721115.txt?viewmode=fullstory
 
This is of course surprising news! For those who asked what benefit Cleveland Browns Daily brings to WKNR, we found out today. This changes the entire landscape of Cleveland radio.
 
All that can be said abouth this is:

WOW!

The old saying about politics making strange bedfellows is about the closest thing that can compare to this.

No doubt The Fan was in it to win, but when the Browns insisted on an AM co-flagship, I guess CBS had to accept KNR coming along for the ride (albeit probably kicking and screaming).

This is huge.
 
Huge indeed!

This will be a MAJOR boost to The Fan and even WKNR. Think of how major the announcement could be, especially with both stations being awarded with the rights to the games.

My guess is CC will have to air Cavs games next season on both WTAM and WMMS to make up for losing the Browns rights.
 
Now the PD is reporting that WNCX is joining the party to make it a 3-way dance.

In their article, it said that KNR and The Fan had started bidding against each other, but then teamed up as it was the only way to get the rights from CC, since the Browns insisted on AM and FM.

Tis indeed an unholy alliance brought together by a common enemy.
 
Many inaccuracies in the story. Prior to the Browns leaving town in the 90's the rights were held by Sports Marketing and the games aired on WKNR and WDOK, neither owned by Clear Channel. There is no factual basis in the writer's assertion that the Browns made the switch because of Indians conflicts. It will come down to one thing and one thing only.... money. I can only assume that this consortium threw "stupid" money at the Browns and Clear Channel made a business decision not get sucked into the frenzy. There will be some bragging rights to be had, but having the games on only one dqy per week doesn't drive audience the way baseball does. Indeed KNR and the Fan are strange bedfellows. I wonder if CBS is eying a buyout of LMA with WKNR full-time.
 
Oh darn. Now we won't be able to hear WTAM bragging that they've "got all the balls". They could replace that with "We got kicked in the b....", but don't hold your breath for that one.
 
SonoSational18 said:
Many inaccuracies in the story. Prior to the Browns leaving town in the 90's the rights were held by Sports Marketing and the games aired on WKNR and WDOK, neither owned by Clear Channel. There is no factual basis in the writer's assertion that the Browns made the switch because of Indians conflicts. It will come down to one thing and one thing only.... money. I can only assume that this consortium threw "stupid" money at the Browns and Clear Channel made a business decision not get sucked into the frenzy. There will be some bragging rights to be had, but having the games on only one dqy per week doesn't drive audience the way baseball does. Indeed KNR and the Fan are strange bedfellows. I wonder if CBS is eying a buyout of LMA with WKNR full-time.
Click to expand...

Both CC and CBS/GK had $$ (most of it from CBS's end probably in that deal)...intangibles did play a part here.

Think about this...The Browns will be on 2 stations (850, 92.3) that will talk about them for 80% of the time...all day...every day...they couldn't get that on TAM/MMS

They will be on 3 stations (with WNCX and their strong signal also in the mix) that will broadcast every single game, every single week without conflicts.

Their daily informercial on WKNR will expand to 2 hours.

The Browns wanted to be on stations that would make them the absolute top priority 24/7. KNR and The Fan can do that...WTAM and WMMS can't.
 
Is it absolutely necessary to have an AM/FM combo for an NFL flagship? I know the Bills were on two FM's up until 2011, then switched flagship stations to just one AM station. And the Rams' flagship is one FM station.
 
This was not much of a bidding war at all. Clear Channel backed away thanks to some puzzling new initiatives the new brass wanted to explore.... and the Browns were left with CBS. No bidding there. WKNR agreed to air the expanded Cleveland Browns Daily show and there you go, they get the am rights.

The Browns totally overestimated what type of "bidding war" they thought they would get.
 
billf82 said:
Is it absolutely necessary to have an AM/FM combo for an NFL flagship? I know the Bills were on two FM's up until 2011, then switched flagship stations to just one AM station. And the Rams' flagship is one FM station.
Click to expand...

Necessary...not really.

Something that will (excuse the imagery) allow you to pull the ruler out and brag...definitely.
 
WhkAm1420 said:
This was not much of a bidding war at all. Clear Channel backed away thanks to some puzzling new initiatives the new brass wanted to explore.... and the Browns were left with CBS. No bidding there. WKNR agreed to air the expanded Cleveland Browns Daily show and there you go, they get the am rights.

The Browns totally overestimated what type of "bidding war" they thought they would get.
Click to expand...

Not really "puzziling" new initiarives...the Browns wanted to be on stations that would make them their top priority.

This is a step below what Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder did, which is buy a bunch of stations himself in the DC area.

All 'Skins, all day...same theory here.
 
Here is the best way to break this down:

If money was the main issue, Clear Channel wins.

But the main issue looked to me more of the Browns wanting to be on stations which would make them their top priority.

Browns CEO Joe Banner is by trade a marketing guy, and he spent many years as president of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagels are NFC East rivals of the Washington Redskins, so Banner no doubt saw what Redskins owner Dan Snyder did...and that was buy a handful of stations in the DC/Northern VA area and simulcast a Redskins heavy sports talk format on all of them. None of these stations on their own were any big shakes, but together were enough to carpet bomb the area.

Now obviously, there was no way the Browns could buy any stations, so they did the next best thing...convince some stations that really wanted the games to make themselves almost Browns-centric.

There was no way WTAM/WMMS would or could do that. They're too entrenched in their news/talk and mancave formats respecively to let the Browns just "take over" essentially.

Pure sports talkers WKNR and WKRK - who spend 3/4 of the time talking Browns anyway - however were perfect for this philospohy. WNCX is along for the ride due to their strong signal.

It almost looks like Banner told CBS and Good Karma "either you share or get nothing, and if you agree to share, we set the terms".

The Browns wanted a Redskins style situation here, being on stations that would make them the centerpiece, not just "one of many toys".
 
Not to mention WTAM/WMMS wanting to keep the Indians so badly might have made the Browns a little bit less important, especially with 'MMS airing more Tribe games this season.

It does make sense to have WKNR and WKRK airing the games since, as mentioned earlier, the hosts and listeners talk about the Browns a lot all year anyway. Cleveland really is a football town.

I wouldn't be surprised if ratings get bigger for those two and WNCX come August. Nice to see 'NCX involved too as I think they're looking at those games as a chance to help bury 'MMS.

The partnership does indeed remind me of when 'KNR (back during the 1220 years) and WDOK carried the games in the mid-90's as another poster mentioned. Ironically, 'KNR is now once again airing the Browns games (this time at 850, which was once WDOK's sister station as WRMR in the 90's) along with 'KRK and 'NCX (who are sister stations currently to 'DOK - small world).
 
I would think The Fan would get about 70% of the advertsing revenue seeing how most people would listen to the cleaner and stronger FM signal.
 
former interm said:
I would think The Fan would get about 70% of the advertsing revenue seeing how most people would listen to the cleaner and stronger FM signal.
Click to expand...
That was not the case with WTAM and WMMS. During the day (when most games will be occurring) WKNR has a much larger coverage area than WKRK.

If CC indeed did walk away before they didn't want to be a 24/7 Browns infomercial, it was a smart move on their part.

To answer another poster's question, there is no real advantage to an AM-FM simulcast other than to fill in coverage holes. Back in the 90's, Tom Embrescia/Tom Wilson owned Sports Marketing made a deal with the Browns and promised them an AM and FM outlet. They sold the deal to WKNR and when there were no takers for the FM deal, they decided to put it on their own WDOK.
 
I still wish 92.3 would have gotten the Indians also because of better sound-I know Browns want to be top priority, but they basically already are on noth stations-once the Cavs season is over, it will be even more-there is just not a lot of sports talk about the Indians right now, even with the moves they made-I guess that will go up or down depending on how they do-there was more Lebron/Cavs talk than Tribe talk in the last month, actually.
 
billf82 said:
Is it absolutely necessary to have an AM/FM combo for an NFL flagship? I know the Bills were on two FM's up until 2011, then switched flagship stations to just one AM station. And the Rams' flagship is one FM station.
Click to expand...

While the Steelers are technically on an AM/FM combo, 970 ESPN is a virtual non-entity with a bad signal and a 0.4 share. WDVE is the flagship.

And were it not for Mel Karmazin having been the person who built Infinity/CBS radio, I doubt that this alliance would have happened with just some random competitor. There are connections here.
 
Announcement made official........I don't like the WTAM folks referring to the new flagships as "Minor Leage Radio stations."
 
Maybe if WTAM had not made the Browns the 3rd cog in the wheel of their broadcasts then they would still be on the station. The Browns like it or not are the #1 sports team in the market. The Browns were always bumped off WTAM when an Indians game was on. (Most of September) So WTAM has nobody to blame but themselves.
 
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