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Cardinals Leave KMOX After 50+ Years

D

DiamondJoe

Guest
Big story at the Arch has the Cardinals move their games from blowtorch 1120 KMOX to the much lower-powered 550 KTRS. The KTRS deal includes half-ownership of the radio station by the Cardinals organization.

Click here for the full story.<P ID="signature">______________


New York City Radio and TV</P>
 
> Big story at the Arch has the Cardinals move their games
> from blowtorch 1120 KMOX to the much lower-powered 550 KTRS.
> The KTRS deal includes half-ownership of the radio station
> by the Cardinals organization.
>
> Click here for the full story.
>

All I can say here is that I'm disappointed about the Cards leaving KMOX, but not totally surprised. It seems like the Cardinals had their eye on KTRS from day one. A similar situation came about in Atlanta, when the Braves left their longtime home of WSB-750 at the end of last season, and signed WGST and 96 Rock, as their respective flagship stations. Fortunately, the Braves have a vast radio network, with more than 200 stations, mainly in the Southeast. Still, the move of the Cards from KMOX to KTRS not only will mark the end of an era, but also mark the beginning of the end of baseball on 50,000-watt clear channel powerhouses, especially now that MLB games are now carried on satellite and internet radio. It's too bad you have to pay for the privilege, though, on both counts.
 
> Still, the move of the Cards from KMOX to KTRS
> not only will mark the end of an era, but also mark the
> beginning of the end of baseball on 50,000-watt clear
> channel powerhouses, especially now that MLB games are now
> carried on satellite and internet radio. It's too bad you
> have to pay for the privilege, though, on both counts.

There are still a lot of teams on full-time 50 kW stations (1-A is the old designation for 50 kW ND stations):

NY Mets: WFAN 660 (1-A)
NY Yankees: WCBS 880 (1-A)
Cleveland: WTAM 1100 (1-A)
Pittsburgh: KDKA 1020 (1-A)
Cincinnati: WLW 700 (1-A)
Chicago Cubs: WGN 720 (1-A)
Minnesota: WCCO 830 (1-A)
Colorado: KOA 850 (1-A)
San Francisco: KNBR 680 (1-A)
St. Louis: KMOX 1120 (1-A, through '05)
Chicago White Sox: WMVP 1000, soon to be WSCR 670 (1-A)
Baltimore: WBAL 1090
Texas: KRLD 1080
Boston: WEEI 850
Houston: KTRH 740
San Diego: XEPRS 1090
 
"It's too bad you have to pay for the privilege, though, on both counts."

Well isn't that what Major League Baseball wants? I am surprised that MLB hasn't forced this on every franchise. Instead it has been a slow process. TV is the same deal. when I was a kid I had the ability to see every Mets, Cubs, and Braves game on cable. Except for a CBS Saturday afternoon/ESPN Sunday night that's the way it was. Now regional sports networks dominate and force people to go without out-of-market games or buy an expensive package to gain access to all games. Good move for MLB, bad move for its fans. A generation or two and then there will be no fans of a team outside of its market. No more Braves fans (or whoever) showing up all over the country because they adopted them through TBS or WSB. Oh well. Money talks. So be it.

<P ID="signature">______________
In Harmony
From the Bop Shop,
Brian "BD Bopper"</P>
 
>
> There are still a lot of teams on full-time 50 kW stations
> (1-A is the old designation for 50 kW ND stations):
>
> NY Mets: WFAN 660 (1-A)
> NY Yankees: WCBS 880 (1-A)
> Cleveland: WTAM 1100 (1-A)
> Pittsburgh: KDKA 1020 (1-A)
> Cincinnati: WLW 700 (1-A)
> Chicago Cubs: WGN 720 (1-A)
> Minnesota: WCCO 830 (1-A)
> Colorado: KOA 850 (1-A)
> San Francisco: KNBR 680 (1-A)
> St. Louis: KMOX 1120 (1-A, through '05)
> Chicago White Sox: WMVP 1000, soon to be WSCR 670 (1-A)
> Baltimore: WBAL 1090
> Texas: KRLD 1080
> Boston: WEEI 850
> Houston: KTRH 740
> San Diego: XEPRS 1090
>

Don't forget 1210 WPHT for the Phillies. I was chatting with Andy Furman (our local sports talk show host at WLW) and he said that this move was also made because of XM's baseball coverage. I'll miss tuning in to KMOX to hear the Cards play the Reds. It's a weird habit of mine, to tune into the opposing team's broadcast.
 
Why leaving 50000 watt radio stations is bad

It's no secret that baseball's popularity isn't what it used to be. While it's easily still the second most popular sport in America (unless NASCAR has overtaken it- the NBA boom is long gone) it now more common to hear how "baseball is boring" from people than ever before.

It's my opinion that making people PAY to listen to the games, instead of tuning in to the night game on the AM dial, is detrimental. Sure, the die-hards will buy it. But nobody else will.

Look at how boxing has fallen. If you want to watch a heavyweight fight you have to pay $50 to see it. So nobody watches them.

I believe kids will listen, even today, with a portable radio turned down low past bedtime.

But they won't pay to do that.
 
Re: Why leaving 50000 watt radio stations is bad

> It's no secret that baseball's popularity isn't what it used
> to be. While it's easily still the second most popular sport
> in America (unless NASCAR has overtaken it- the NBA boom is
> long gone) it now more common to hear how "baseball is
> boring" from people than ever before.
>
> It's my opinion that making people PAY to listen to the
> games, instead of tuning in to the night game on the AM
> dial, is detrimental. Sure, the die-hards will buy it. But
> nobody else will.
>
> Look at how boxing has fallen. If you want to watch a
> heavyweight fight you have to pay $50 to see it. So nobody
> watches them.
>
> I believe kids will listen, even today, with a portable
> radio turned down low past bedtime.
>
> But they won't pay to do that.
>

Wirh baseball setting all sorts of attendence records you'll need to back up that popularity comment with facts.

Boxing may not have broad support but it grosses more money now then ever before. Sad for the overall sport but the major players are doing better then ever and in America that's all that matters.

Maybe some kid not inside the Cards extensive network can't hear a game anymore but really, all romantic notions aside so what? Again that won't hurt the Cardinals bottom line.

I know you'll say thats a potential ticket buying future fan but are there enough potential fans in those places not served by the Cardinal network to spend millions cultivating? I doubt it.
 
> >
> > There are still a lot of teams on full-time 50 kW stations
>
> > (1-A is the old designation for 50 kW ND stations):
> >
> > NY Mets: WFAN 660 (1-A)
> > NY Yankees: WCBS 880 (1-A)
> > Cleveland: WTAM 1100 (1-A)
> > Pittsburgh: KDKA 1020 (1-A)
> > Cincinnati: WLW 700 (1-A)
> > Chicago Cubs: WGN 720 (1-A)
> > Minnesota: WCCO 830 (1-A)
> > Colorado: KOA 850 (1-A)
> > San Francisco: KNBR 680 (1-A)
> > St. Louis: KMOX 1120 (1-A, through '05)
> > Chicago White Sox: WMVP 1000, soon to be WSCR 670 (1-A)
> > Baltimore: WBAL 1090
> > Texas: KRLD 1080
> > Boston: WEEI 850
> > Houston: KTRH 740
> > San Diego: XEPRS 1090
> >
>
> Don't forget 1210 WPHT for the Phillies. I was chatting
> with Andy Furman (our local sports talk show host at WLW)
> and he said that this move was also made because of XM's
> baseball coverage. I'll miss tuning in to KMOX to hear the
> Cards play the Reds. It's a weird habit of mine, to tune
> into the opposing team's broadcast.
>
 
As noted in this thread, Boston Red Sox radio flagship WEEI-850 is a 50,000-watt station, but beams it's signal (from a transmitter just west of Boston) towards the east.

As a result, the station's signal does not reach Western Massachusetts, Vermont, or Connecticut. However, it probably travels thousands of miles out into the Atlantic. If you went on a cruise ship and took along an AM radio, and you were in a cabin near a window (as opposed to an interior cabin), you might (I've never been on a cruise ship, so I've never tried this experiment myself) be able to pick-up WEEI at night in the North Atlantic from anywhere at of north of 40 degrees north latitude, provided that it is also nighttime in Boston.

Some parts of the East Coast can get Red Sox night games via affiliate WTIC-1080 in Hartford.
 
Re: Why leaving 50000 watt radio stations is bad

My own ancidotal evidence that the Cards are making a bad move. I gave up on both the Boston Bruins and Red Sox back in the late 70s (when I was an early teen) in part because they both moved off 50K stations. The Sox moved from 850 WHDH to 1510 WITS (which was 50K, but extremely directional) then joined the Bruins (who left 1030 WBZ) on an FM from the South Shore that could not be heard after dark in the western suburbs. The result was that I followed teams on 50K stations - Hartford Whalers (1080 WTIC), New York Rangers (1150 WNEW), Pittsburgh Pirates (1020 KDKA). The Sox won me back somewhat during the Pedro Martinez era. I've never gone back to the Bruins.
 
I have to be missing something here. KMOX has skywave coverage, but KTRS's daytime groundwave is every bit as good in all directions and their nighttime groundwave looks fine into the city and west of it, as well as way past Springfield to the north and quite respectable to the south. Over all, 5KW on 550 produces a BETTER local signal than 50KW on 1120.<P ID="signature">______________
Proud 2 B a pioneering satellite radio subs¢riber
Ai4i is always on the trailing edge of technology
______________</P>
 
> I have to be missing something here. KMOX has skywave
> coverage, but KTRS's daytime groundwave is every bit as good
> in all directions and their nighttime groundwave looks fine
> into the city and west of it, as well as way past
> Springfield to the north and quite respectable to the south.
> Over all, 5KW on 550 produces a BETTER local signal than
> 50KW on 1120.
>

Hell, KTRS is audible in the suburbs of Chicago during the day...KMOX is not, though that may be thanks to a local station on 1110 that splatters onto 1120.

That still doesn't make this move suck any less, though. Just like when the Detroit Tigers left WJR, some fans will be alienated.
 
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