ESPN Radio on WPEN 950 AM: Will it happen?

[Jul]

Should WPEN 950 AM be a ESPN Radio affiliate carrying their sports shows and their play by play sports broadcasts, Yes or No and why?

 

[JimWilliams]

I will attempt to answer this intelligently.

If you had listened to The Racket last week, you would have heard Gregg Henson with George and Kyle talking about many things. I IMed Kyle myself and asked if Gregg is looking into getting broadcast rights for any of the major sports teams in town. Essentially, Gregg gave the impression that he wants to gear the station more towards sports talk and less towards play by play for now. If the rights for say the Eagles came up, that could change.

ESPN Radio on 950? Never would fly. Mike & Mike wouldn't fly here and neither would Cowherd and the gang. 950 has a decent lineup as is on the talk side of things. The morning show is a work in progress, Bruno's always a nice listen, and Jody Mac is a great alternative to Burger King Eskin.

Julius, you seem to be looking at the small picture, and by it, I mean that you're focused on the play by play aspect of things. As a play by play man, allbeit calling high school/collegiate action, I can tell you that radio play by play isn't as enticing as it once may have been. You see there are these new fangled contraptions called computers and television sets, and they just happened to take over the world by and large. With local teams within a market, I can justify an interest in radio play by play. But, aside from us geeks, how many people in the Philadelphia market really wanted to hear Jon Miller and Joe Morgan calling the World Series this past year? If you can find 10 people, I'll give you a dollar in the mail.

Radio play by play can only work best in the smaller/local scale. In Philadelphia, people listen to the local pro sports teams when they're doing well (and the Eagles no matter what). They don't listen to ESPN Radio/Westwood One, et al, for their play by play in as big of numbers. It's just fact.

 

[HarveyBrowning]

Yes, ESPN on 950 prob isnt the way to go. I think you need to have 16 hrs of their programming and 950 needs local programming not national. I like what PEN is doing, I like the interviews and I think if they can add a midday guy or maybe even a team in the midday or pair someone with Jody they can start to see the numbers budge up. I didnt hear Gregg on that show, but I wish I could have. I think if PEN can hang in there and be patience, they will make a dent.

 

[eatspaste]

Should WPEN 950 AM be a ESPN Radio affiliate carrying their sports shows

No.

play by play?

No.

Satellite radio and internet are making local sports stations carrying play-by-play a thing of the past. If you really want to hear the Kansas City Royals in Delaware, you get XM.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

Julius, you seem to be looking at the small picture, and by it, I mean that you're focused on the play by play aspect of things. As a play by play man, allbeit calling high school/collegiate action, I can tell you that radio play by play isn't as enticing as it once may have been. You see there are these new fangled contraptions called computers and television sets, and they just happened to take over the world by and large. With local teams within a market, I can justify an interest in radio play by play. But, aside from us geeks, how many people in the Philadelphia market really wanted to hear Jon Miller and Joe Morgan calling the World Series this past year? If you can find 10 people, I'll give you a dollar in the mail.

Radio play by play can only work best in the smaller/local scale. In Philadelphia, people listen to the local pro sports teams when they're doing well (and the Eagles no matter what). They don't listen to ESPN Radio/Westwood One, et al, for their play by play in as big of numbers. It's just fact.

Thoughtful answer. Perhaps 20 years ago, when I used to listen to AFRTS on shortwave, with baseball games on every night from a different city, I felt that such a format would work on local radio for non-league cities (such as Buffalo). Over the years, I've learned which 50kw clear channel stations carried baseball games; alas, the marriage of 50kw AM and baseball play-by-play is slowly coming to an end. Even the AFRTS has given up radio PBP, and it is much harder to hear them on shortwave nowadays, anyway. I will probably take the plunge and by the MLB audio package next year.

I agree that the advent of league-hosted web-based audio and TV packages, along with satellite radio, provides the fan of these sports with reasonable options that would likely not yield economically viable radio in most cities. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the only radio pbp produced by ESPN the Sunday night baseball games plus the postseason? Westwood One's football tripleheaders are an option for cities without an NFL team, but proportionally few listeners in the Philly market would care.

Mr. May, if you want radio PBP nirvana for the NFL, come up to Allentown. WAEB up here carries the Westwood One afternoon NFL doubleheaders; WTKZ/WEEX carry both the Giants and Jets, as well as the Thursday night NFL games (not sure about Sunday or Monday night); WCTO carries the Eagles.

Richard in Allentown

 

[WTUX]

Play by play on radio still works for baseball and football, and that is all. Basketball and hockey have to be seen. Since all Eagles and Phillies' games are on tv, it may even be just a matter of time before that becomes passe'. I admit I still listen to games on the radio, including Notre Dame on WFAN. But I am of an older generation and grew up with radio sports. We are near the point where the only radio play by play will be small market teams where tv coverage is not affordable.