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ESPN FM?
- Thread starter mets18
- Start date
ESPN New York has a lot of local programming, both during the week and on weekends.ka2xuk said:
Barry said:
...and Merlin Media is also partly owned by Emmis, so he also may have had some knowledge of the situation.
It is possible that ESPN was so anxious to get control of the 98.7 that they offered more than Merlin felt it was worth. It is also possible that Emmis did not want to sell 98.7, only lease it. WFME likely will be available for outright sale, perhaps for a comparatively reasonable price.luperm said:
Sounds like a blend of local and shows and national, not all just syndie/national. Still a plan to go after Yanks or Mets.
>>The Post reported Wednesday that the move was done in part to give ESPN the opportunity to bid on the Yankees radio rights with the Mets as a backup plan. The radio contracts for both New York teams are up after this season. The Yankees are currently broadcast on WCBS 880 AM and the Mets are on WFAN 660 AM.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/espn_radio_confirms_move_to_fm_Uhp5JffAjjSbZMAedV2PqI
>>The Post reported Wednesday that the move was done in part to give ESPN the opportunity to bid on the Yankees radio rights with the Mets as a backup plan. The radio contracts for both New York teams are up after this season. The Yankees are currently broadcast on WCBS 880 AM and the Mets are on WFAN 660 AM.
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/espn_radio_confirms_move_to_fm_Uhp5JffAjjSbZMAedV2PqI
d21ofnj said:
Think of it from ESPN's point of view: They don't have to buy the license. Just operate the station. That's keeping with Disney's long term operational plan that involved them selling their radio stations, like WABC and WPLJ to Citadel. They wanted to get out of the ownership business, to focus on the programming and content business. There's no longterm value in towers and transmitters.
raccoonradio said:
WCBS AM 880 coverage map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WCBS&service=AM&status=L&hours=U
WFAN AM 660 coverage map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WFAN&service=AM&status=L&hours=U
WXRK FM 92.3 coverage map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WXRK&service=FM&status=L&hours=U
And although it will become the home of ESPN Deportes, just for informative purposes to compare with its new home on WRKS FM listed in the quote box above - to check out gains/losses in coverage:
WEPN AM 1050 daytime coverage map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WEPN&service=AM&status=L&hours=D
WEPN AM 1050 nighttime coverage map: http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WEPN&service=AM&status=L&hours=N
Likely ESPN Radio 98.7 will still need some help with a network of outlying stations to fill in some gaps if they hope to land a baseball rights package - but, as pointed out in another thread, the 98.7 FM signal does the job of better serving the primary local area (advertising-wise) than the 1050 AM signal ever could (especially at night). Coverage-wise as well as being on the lower-demo FM band should be a major plus - as long as the programming is compelling (see WEMP FM News for a counter example).
Depends on whether the baseball teams value the far reaching coverage of AM blowtorches in a sprawling metro or could be convinced by the stations that there are lower, more salable demos on FM and that the coverage issues on the fringes aren't significant...or could be filled in by a network of affiliates if the teams pressed the issue.
From the Radio-info.com story:
Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan says "recent changes in the way radio ratings are measured"—meaning the Arbitron PPM—"made it very difficult for us to find success with Kiss FM."
In other words, radios in retail and office locations aren't often tuned to urban formatted stations, so the crucial "not voluntarily listening" audience that PPM seems designed to measure is lacking? Tell me again why it suddenly doesn't matter to advertisers whether their sales pitches reach an audience that is engaged by the programming of the station it's listening to?
Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan says "recent changes in the way radio ratings are measured"—meaning the Arbitron PPM—"made it very difficult for us to find success with Kiss FM."
In other words, radios in retail and office locations aren't often tuned to urban formatted stations, so the crucial "not voluntarily listening" audience that PPM seems designed to measure is lacking? Tell me again why it suddenly doesn't matter to advertisers whether their sales pitches reach an audience that is engaged by the programming of the station it's listening to?
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