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Death Knell For Station That Will Not Die?

L

Laurence Glavin

Guest
There have been more obituaries for ESPN 890 Radio than for Bob Hope in his final years, I gotta tell ya. But this may be the final, crushing blow: according to the media mebsites, ESPN is trying to jack up the fees it extracts from its radio affiliates. General Steel alone cannot keep AM 890 & 1400 afloat if this affects them!
 
Laurence Glavin said:
There have been more obituaries for ESPN 890 Radio than for Bob Hope in his final years, I gotta tell ya. But this may be the final, crushing blow: according to the media mebsites, ESPN is trying to jack up the fees it extracts from its radio affiliates. General Steel alone cannot keep AM 890 & 1400 afloat if this affects them!
Click to expand...
How much ya wanna bet that ESPN is subsidizing WAMG and I suspect some other major-market affiliates that Disney doesn't own--WPEN in Philadelphia, for example? I have to wonder what stations ESPN charges for its content. My guess is they aren't in major markets. But if they aren't in major markets, they are probably losing money already. So if my theory is correct, ESPN's move won't fly. They will drive away the small and medium-market affiliates and thereby reduce their own revenues both from fees and from reduced sales of advertising. ESPN will have to abandon any plan to increase affiliate fees or risk putting itself out of business. Few medium- and small-market stations with syndicated sports-talk formats lack a choice of syndicators. They have more choices than just ESPN, Fox, and Sporting News Radio. There is at least one other national syndicator (so I'm not thinking of WEEI here) and maybe a couple of them.
 
ESPN wants clearance for most/all of its shows in many markets, esp. major ones, and they wound up on a crappy signal in a town where WEEI is king with its mostly locally based talk & play by play. If they had WEEI, most of their shows wouldn't be heard. Last night in N.
Reading @ work (though I don't know if they're supposed to push that way with their signal) I was getting
Mark Levin on WLS instead of WAMG, as I scanned the dial.
The only thing I'd probably tune to ESPN for would be things like baseball playoffs (other teams)--and at least when I'm in the car, I have the option of my "magic radio" instead (ESPN on XM)...
 
raccoonradio said:
Last night in N. Reading @ work (though I don't know if they're supposed to push that way with their signal) I was getting
Mark Levin on WLS instead of WAMG,
Click to expand...

Several months after WAMG received the license to cover for its new night pattern and 6 kW night power, it seemed to me that the station was not operating at its full night power. I got in touch with someone who, at that time, was connected with the station. He confirmed my suspicion but could not explain what the problem was. After that, it seemed that the night power was back up--if not all the way, then at least part of the way. More recently, though, I have suspected that WAMG has again reduced its night power. The person I contacted originally is no longer connected with the station, so this time I can't even find out whether my suspcions are or aren't correct. I don't think WAMG has the option of going back to its old night pattern because the change in the pattern was accomplished by modifying, as opposed to replacing, the original night phasor. It definitely is possible--and very simple--to operate the new pattern at lower power, however.
 
I didn't quite catch what was going on but apparently Lew and Mike's show is going to be revamped with one/both (?) of 'em out of there... and Kevin Winter will become a co-host of whatever replaces it. Kevin's a solid host so it'll still be worth hearing--and it dovetails perfectly with WEEI's breaks. They start right after 4 and hit their first break around the time WEEI comes back from its marathon break around 4:15-4:20
 
update... Apparently, Lew and Mike's 4-7 show is being revamped with Lew Goldstein out, Mike Valley staying and Kevin Winter is becoming a co-host and they say that there will be a third host who will be a "familiar voice." I hope to GOD it's not Eddie... Ryen Russillo, maybe? I wonder if the reports of the station's sports format are premature.
 
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