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Far-away affiliates of team broadcasts

T

the golden boy

I was told that a radio station in my area will be carrying the New York Giants football games, though New York is well over a thousand miles from here. I believe the reason why they're carrying it is because of Eli Manning's connection to Mississippi, having been the QB for the Mississippi Rebels earlier this decade.

When I lived in Atlanta, there was a station there that carried Notre Dame football games via Westwood One.

At one time (and it may still be the case now), a Tampa radio station was carrying Yankees games. Owner George Steinbrenner is from the Tampa area, so I see the connection there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't he have a personal connection of some sort in that station?
 
This isn't that unusual and I'm surprised more teams prior to the internet didn't market themselves with far away radio affiliates.

It was not uncommon until the proliferation of cable for teams to insist they be carried on the local 50,000 watt AM station so they could have coverage and a following for thousands of miles.

And in the NFL, when the games are played in the day for the most part, the Dallas Cowboys became "America's Team" in large part because they had radio affiliates in 19 different states.

The Yankees had a North Carolina affiliate- I remember that because I remember listening to a game there in 1983.

The Pittsburgh Penguins once had an affiliate in Denver and another in Canada. The Steelers have had affiliates as far away as Kentucky and Tennessee and currently have a spanish speaking one in Mexico.

The WXIS-WEMB cluster in Erwin, Tennessee, in the 1990s, had contracts with the Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis baseball Cardinals, Alabama Crimson Tide football and Georgia Tech football as well as the Vols.
 
I remember for a short while in the mid-90s, just after the Rams and Raiders left Southern California, there was a start-up FM sports station here that carried Dallas Cowboys games. Of course, the Cowboys have had their training camps on and off through the years in SoCal. Also, on and off through the years since they left, Rams and Raiders were carried on Los Angeles radio; in fact, as of this season, Raiders games are no longer on radio in the immediate L.A. area. The closest affiliate is in San Bernardino (KCAL-FM), about 60 miles east.
 
The one that made no sense whatsoever, but also showed that they were a college athletics program on the rise, was when two stations in Myrtle Beach, SC carried Marshall Thundering Herd (located in Huntington, WV) games in the mid-90s.

This was prior to Randy Moss and the jump to Division I-A.
 
WTDA 103.9 here in Columbus, Ohio carries Pittsburgh Steeler games....even though we are in the middle of Browns and Bengals country....cool for me, since I am a Steeler fan...
 
redsfan1966 said:
WTDA 103.9 here in Columbus, Ohio carries Pittsburgh Steeler games....even though we are in the middle of Browns and Bengals country....cool for me, since I am a Steeler fan...
Click to expand...


sometimes it's all about what's available. If the competitor has the White Sox, and the Cubs are available, carry them. If the other station carries the Red Sox, carry the Yankees, even if you are in New England.
 
After the first Browns franchise relocated to Baltimore and were forced into being renamed the Ravens, WTAM/1100 carried the games for the 1996 and 1997 seasons... while then-WKNR/1220 - which was the last co-flagship for the team's PBP - carried Cincinnati Bengals games. Even WAKR/1590 Akron, a legendary key Browns affiliate, carried the Steelers in the same time frame.

To this day, on bye weeks or in the (very, very remote) case of a Monday night game, WTAM - co-flagship for the current Browns expansion team, along with WMMS-FM - will offer an occasional Steelers game.
 
the golden boy said:
When I lived in Atlanta, there was a station there that carried Notre Dame football games via Westwood One.
Click to expand...

That radio deal with WW1 dated back to the 1960s with the old Mutual Broadcasting System. IIRC, they even had an affiliate in Los Angeles for a period of time!
 
Pratte4Life said:
The one that made no sense whatsoever, but also showed that they were a college athletics program on the rise, was when two stations in Myrtle Beach, SC carried Marshall Thundering Herd (located in Huntington, WV) games in the mid-90s.

This was prior to Randy Moss and the jump to Division I-A.
Click to expand...

The reason for this is simply because there are a great number of Marshall alumni that live on the Grand Strand.
 
WFTL-640 AM in South Florida carries some Yankee games even though this is the Florida Marlins' home town. Before the Marlins came into existence, local stations carried the Yankees, Braves, and Orioles broadcasts to South Florida.

It all has to do with making money as if people will listen to it, you can sell more advertising. These broadcasts were highly rated so the stations made money.
 
Out of town broadcasts have been normal in Florida for years due to all the transplants here from other states who remain loyal to their old home town teams. Another thing that leads to some of the out of town teams being broadcast are that many of them spring train here and some stations will carry their regular season games here in Florida.
 
LA Dodgers have an affiliate in Princeton, IN. (WSJD are the calls I think) I have no idea why.
 
redsfan1966 said:
WTDA 103.9 here in Columbus, Ohio carries Pittsburgh Steeler games....even though we are in the middle of Browns and Bengals country....cool for me, since I am a Steeler fan...
Click to expand...

Columbus isn't that far from Pittsburgh (200 miles, if that much?), so I can justify WTDA playing the Steelers. In fact, with the capital city being within close range of Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Cincinnati, I wondered which team was the most popular there.
 
Nathan Obral said:
the golden boy said:
When I lived in Atlanta, there was a station there that carried Notre Dame football games via Westwood One.
Click to expand...

That radio deal with WW1 dated back to the 1960s with the old Mutual Broadcasting System. IIRC, they even had an affiliate in Los Angeles for a period of time!
Click to expand...

Notre Dame aired accross the country on Mutual.
 
Another couple of interesting tidbits.

In the 1940s the Brooklyn Dodgers had an affiliate in McKeesport, PA. I think the station was WEDO, but I am not 100 percent positive.

The thing is, according to Chet Smith, it did better than the Pirates games on KDKA or WWSW.

In the 1980s, a day-to-dusk AM in Blountville, TN- WJTZ (the station no longer exists) carried Chicago Cubs games. This made TONS of sense as the Cubs played all their home games in the daytime- when the station was on the air.

It made so much sense I wonder if more day-to-duskers that did this. It kind of beat carrying the first 10 minutes of the Pirates-Astros on WHUN before having to sign off at 8:45 p.m.
 
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