Could Dave FM Flip to Sports Talk?

[RTibbs]

Today CBS flipped a lowed rated FM Talker WHFS in Baltimore to Sports Talk. Also they recently did this in Detroit. Could this be a trend? Now in the other two cases they were able to convert over existing sports programming from AM talkers which would not be the case here but they do have Falcons rights already and I believe some other rights could be on the market soon?

The environment on sports teams radio rights have greatly changed since the Atlanta Braves deal was struck. Perhaps the last stupid radio deal a broadcaster signed for a major sports team. I believe now the Falcons actually buy air time from Dave and then sell the ads themselves perhaps with some revenue sharing with CBS but not sure on that piece. Either the Hawks or Thrashers might have similiar deals not sure.

The Braves are entering the last year of their contract with Clear Channel and my guess is they are going to want to move on from the Clear Channel fiasco. Is Georgia Tech available soon?

CBS has had almost no real success on this signal for years with their many deviations of Rock. It is probably time they blow it up with a completely different format that moves away from Rock. They would have a clear advantage over their competitors with one of the best signals in metro Atlanta. A soft sports rights market right now might makes it the opportune time to go forward with it.

They have already done it in two market reecently. They also know the cash cow they have in WFAN, the most successful sports station out there.

 

[SalBass]

Over at GT we sure could use a decent radio partner with a decent signal. I hope DRad is reading this!

 

[TheRealOtherNeil]

Today CBS flipped a lowed rated FM Talker WHFS in Baltimore to Sports Talk. Also they recently did this in Detroit. Could this be a trend? Now in the other two cases they were able to convert over existing sports programming from AM talkers which would not be the case here but they do have Falcons rights already and I believe some other rights could be on the market soon?

The environment on sports teams radio rights have greatly changed since the Atlanta Braves deal was struck. Perhaps the last stupid radio deal a broadcaster signed for a major sports team. I believe now the Falcons actually buy air time from Dave and then sell the ads themselves perhaps with some revenue sharing with CBS but not sure on that piece. Either the Hawks or Thrashers might have similiar deals not sure.

The Braves are entering the last year of their contract with Clear Channel and my guess is they are going to want to move on from the Clear Channel fiasco. Is Georgia Tech available soon?

CBS has had almost no real success on this signal for years with their many deviations of Rock. It is probably time they blow it up with a completely different format that moves away from Rock. They would have a clear advantage over their competitors with one of the best signals in metro Atlanta. A soft sports rights market right now might makes it the opportune time to go forward with it.

They have already done it in two market reecently. They also know the cash cow they have in WFAN, the most successful sports station out there.

Guess who had too much Halloween candy?

If they were gonna flip to sports then why get rid of Zakk? We could have Will Ohman updates every day.

Does ATL really need a third sports-talker? The two we have don't even draw a 2.2 combined. A third would dilute the market.

Fiscally, CBS would need to bring in about 7-10 extra on-air staff or get affiliated with ESPN/FOX for late nights/weekend coverage. They would also need a few more board ops, writers, reporters and such. A news/sports station costs a lot of money to run. A music station is inexpensive.

Chuck Oliver and Matt Chernoff recently jumped to The Fan, who could CBS get with a local connection? (The first person who mentions Eric Zeier gets a boot to the head.)

Lastly, there is Mara Davis who just signed a long-term extended contract. I don't see Mara doing sports updates. Obviously, CBS can buy her out but that would be a lot of cheese flowing her way. I don’t imagine CBS would be willing to part with it in order to start up a sports talker.

Solution; Neil Millman as PD of the 92.9 frequency. I guarantee a personality-driven morning show, specialty weekend shows, no more Brenda-FM music and a strong marketing effort.

 

[RTibbs]

Perhaps too much candy or perhaps a little jealousy on your part concerned I might give them an idea and take away your dream job?

I thought about the Zakk thing not making sense when I was writing it but why keep him around he has no cache to begin with in the market

I realize this is a long shot but they would have to start out with primarily syndicated programming. Then build local shows. Mike and Mike in the morning Jim Rome afternoons. Plausible. In other markets sports station have used TV and newspaper guys. Why not harvest some new talent in this market instead of the same old stuff. Jeff Schultz would be an ideal candidate. What about Randy Waters or Stu Klitenic? Ok just kidding about Stu the world's tallest woman.

They need to abandon these rock-derivative formats. None of them have worked with much success.

Oh yeah and give me credit for at least posing a question instead of framing as the buzz around town is that by January 1st Dave FM will flip to sports. Then when questioned I follow-up with I know people have posted it also.

 

[wooder]

Will never happen. If you look at the places experimenting with FM sports talk you'll see that they're all in major sports towns; towns with sports heritage. Atlanta is far from that. Fans hear aren't passionate enough (with the exception of UGA football). Also, Millman is right in that it'd be way too expensive for them to do it at Dave right now.

 

[jabba17]

Over at GT we sure could use a decent radio partner with a decent signal. I hope DRad is reading this!

DRad has been dropping hints in his "The Good Word" feature on ramblinwreck.com about using WREK for sports. With WREK going to 100k it would definitely be an improvement. Alternatively, it may have just been a bargaining chip in his dealings with ISP and Zone.

Also, is the CPJ show on 106.7 a prelude to moving all of the programming from Zone? Hoops is around the corner and WQXI's night signal will really present a problem. I wonder if DRad would be in a position to force Zone to take a "proper" ATL FM partner, should one offer to do so?

If you had the Falcons, what other sports would make sense to share time with them? Particularly from a standpoint of not having too many schedule conflicts. Assume that UGA is not leaving WSB.

An FM sports outlet makes sense...but you'd have to assume that one of the two incumbent AMs would go away and the other would get the scraps. Alternatively, they might pick up some out of town collegiate teams (didn't Fan have Auburn for a while?), but there may not be enough "talk" to go around.

 

[Tibbs4]

Solution; Neil Millman as PD of the 92.9 frequency. I guarantee a personality-driven morning show, specialty weekend shows, no more Brenda-FM music and a strong marketing effort.

[/quote]

Last memo leaked out of the building said you made the short list, Millman. There are now just 299,999,998 other
Americans in front of you for the job at 92.9.

We're still rootin' for you. Quaranteed. ;D

 

[SalBass]

Over at GT we sure could use a decent radio partner with a decent signal. I hope DRad is reading this!

DRad has been dropping hints in his "The Good Word" feature on ramblinwreck.com about using WREK for sports. With WREK going to 100k it would definitely be an improvement. Alternatively, it may have just been a bargaining chip in his dealings with ISP and Zone.

Also, is the CPJ show on 106.7 a prelude to moving all of the programming from Zone? Hoops is around the corner and WQXI's night signal will really present a problem. I wonder if DRad would be in a position to force Zone to take a "proper" ATL FM partner, should one offer to do so?

If you had the Falcons, what other sports would make sense to share time with them? Particularly from a standpoint of not having too many schedule conflicts. Assume that UGA is not leaving WSB.

An FM sports outlet makes sense...but you'd have to assume that one of the two incumbent AMs would go away and the other would get the scraps. Alternatively, they might pick up some out of town collegiate teams (didn't Fan have Auburn for a while?), but there may not be enough "talk" to go around.

Thanks for the heads-up. I feel that any talk of using WREK is more than a bargaining chip. I feel that Dan is truly interested in the school and satisfying the fan base inspite of what a new deal with ISP would do, short term, for the AA's budget problems. Dan's doing a good job, I think, so far. Paul Johnson may be just what the school needed as far as football goes and Dan certainly exercised his resolve in the face of pressure to make a different hire. A good signal on which to broadcast the ball games is a good, long-term decision.

 

[jabba17]

Over at GT we sure could use a decent radio partner with a decent signal. I hope DRad is reading this!

DRad has been dropping hints in his "The Good Word" feature on ramblinwreck.com about using WREK for sports. With WREK going to 100k it would definitely be an improvement. Alternatively, it may have just been a bargaining chip in his dealings with ISP and Zone.

Also, is the CPJ show on 106.7 a prelude to moving all of the programming from Zone? Hoops is around the corner and WQXI's night signal will really present a problem. I wonder if DRad would be in a position to force Zone to take a "proper" ATL FM partner, should one offer to do so?

If you had the Falcons, what other sports would make sense to share time with them? Particularly from a standpoint of not having too many schedule conflicts. Assume that UGA is not leaving WSB.

An FM sports outlet makes sense...but you'd have to assume that one of the two incumbent AMs would go away and the other would get the scraps. Alternatively, they might pick up some out of town collegiate teams (didn't Fan have Auburn for a while?), but there may not be enough "talk" to go around.

Thanks for the heads-up. I feel that any talk of using WREK is more than a bargaining chip. I feel that Dan is truly interested in the school and satisfying the fan base inspite of what a new deal with ISP would do, short term, for the AA's budget problems. Dan's doing a good job, I think, so far. Paul Johnson may be just what the school needed as far as football goes and Dan certainly exercised his resolve in the face of pressure to make a different hire. A good signal on which to broadcast the ball games is a good, long-term decision.

Right now, Tech is using WQXI, WTSH, and WREK. WQXI has okay day coverage but poor, highly directional night coverage. WTSH has good coverage on the west side but poor coverage on the east side. WNGC or WDUN would be a good fit here for east side coverage but neither will give up UGA despite massive coverage overlaps with each other and WSB. WREK has okay suburban coverage, which should improve with the 40k -> 100k power increase. WREK is also only in use for night games.

Tech had the 640/105.7 WGST simul a while back, and WCNN before that (with occasional simuls on 104.7 when both were owned by Ring Radio/Midwestern), and WGST on 920 before that. WCNN has much better day coverage than WQXI, but night coverage is only marginally better and is still weak on the north side.

If Tech could get on 106.7 that would be a major coup for Tech and would complement 107.1 WTSH's coverage well. Most older demos don't listen to radio much in the evenings, which would work well with hoops and the CPJ show on an older-leaning station. If Tech or ISP paid Citadel to carry the games, and sold their own ads, it would probably be a win-win all the way around if the numbers worked out, considering how pressed for cash Citadel is. While Tech isn't as big a draw as UGA, Tech/ISP could still bid themselves down among cash-starved station owners/LMAers like Big League or Citadel, among others.

Tech on 92.9 would be a bigger coup, being a more powerful intown signal, but would also entail CBS giving up more unless they did flip to sports/talk. Tech would also complement the Falcons well with next to no conflicts, unless a Monday hoops game conflicts with a late season MNF game. I would imagine Dave's demo would listen to music later into the evening than True Oldies'.

 

[Nate Wesley]

An FM sports outlet makes sense...but you'd have to assume that one of the two incumbent AMs would go away

Or one simply slides over with an intellectual property agreement.

 

[jabba17]

How about this for an idea? 106.7 sticks with True Oldies during the day and overnights and goes to sports/talk for evenings and weekends? I wonder how well 106.7 is doing on weekends. They could support both the Falcons and Tech (football and basketball) that way.

IIRC Peach/Lite didn't lose a lot of listeners when they did Braves in the evenings (I don't think Bull has many listeners to lose).