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Flippin stations, ESPN to 680, FSR (and Dan Patrick) to 730 as of Monday

All is forgiven so long as 730, 680 and even 560 stay sportstalk and I can get someone talking sports when one or both the others are in break! That's about all the radio I can stand anymore. Anything else makes my eyes bleed.
 
I know I'm kind of late on this, and I know I haven't posted on the board in awhile. But does anybody know the reason for ESPN and Fox Sports flipping stations like this? And whose either station or network initiated this switch? And another thing, the liners on Fox Sports 730 just do not sound right. (Where was the Fox Sports liner guy?)
 
JoeMorris said:
I know I'm kind of late on this, and I know I haven't posted on the board in awhile. But does anybody know the reason for ESPN and Fox Sports flipping stations like this? And whose either station or network initiated this switch? And another thing, the liners on Fox Sports 730 just do not sound right. (Where was the Fox Sports liner guy?)
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Don't know for sure, put I am positive that it was ESPN that initiated it. Better signal and more network shows taken. Pretty much every time they've switched in Memphis, it's for these reasons.
 
I hope 680 and 730 stick around for a long time. 560 can go out of business for all I care. I can't stand most of their hosts and you can't tell one show from another.
 
It has to be over the better signal. I forget, but doesn't 680 have better nighttime coverage than 730 or 560? The daytime signal is certainly superior and it seems ESPN is the larger of the sports nets.

What I don't understand is how a city of Memphis' size can support three sports talk outlets. ???
 
Zach,
There is no evidence as of yet that Memphis can support 3 sports stations.
WHBQ 560 is also brokered I understand.
The Rainman, Lapides and possibly others.
There is not enough local sports to fill out 3 stations programming schedules, so obviously a lot of repeat and boring repartee.
Espn.com can be programmed on your Blackberry or cell phone. It's far more compelling that the high school locker room approach of the local sports "personalities"
 
Seeing these changes, and thinking back on markets where a group will swap its totally different formats between a couple of their frequencies, makes me wonder: Do they give this a lot of promotion, and explanation of "now, you can hear your hits of the 20s & 30s on 101.3 ... and get your sports talk and subprime-mortgage updates on the 7's, here on 94.9"? Or do they just leave it to the listener to cuss and dial-twist until they figure it our for themselves? Shows how far 'back in the day' my thinking is -- we worked our butts off to get the world to know not only what we were, but WHERE we were. Obviously, the new model doesn't give that much importance anymore.
 
I think part of the confusion in this shell game comes from the fact that these stations aren't in a cluster. 560 is Flinn, 680 is Entercom, and 730 is... well, whomever they are.

Someday when they get through with 560, please pass it along to Kuzooter. He can gather all us 60's and 70's top-40 burnouts, and we can have a fun time even if no one listens.
 
Zach said:
...and it seems ESPN is the larger of the sports nets.
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And if they are the largest, it's in name only, not substance. In Dallas, ESPN's FM is soundly defeated by The Ticket. WSKR(Baton Rouge) actually went up in the numbers after dumping ESPN for FSR.

What I don't understand is how a city of Memphis' size can support three sports talk outlets. ???
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Good point. In particularly, a market that bowed it's first real major league franchise in the last decade. There is a good college basketball program in Memphis proper(U of M), though its corresponding football program hasn't been monstrously memorable. Though there is a good bit of SEC affectation by osmosis.

There are a lot of AM signals that remain on the air in Memphis, and three sports AMs there doesn't seem as much in comparison to three sports AMs in Jackson MS. I wouldn't know what would be easier turnkey formats for the AM band, considering broadcasting's downward financial climate. Maybe an all-news format via the AP or CNN Headline News as the main platform, with a good bit of local in AM and PM drives and at noon.
 
kudzooter said:
Or do they just leave it to the listener to cuss and dial-twist until they figure it our for themselves?
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It certainly would be in a station's best interest to advertise a channel swap, but it is apparently verboten to speak of an upcoming format change. Heaven forbid anyone at the station have to take angry phone calls from loyal listeners. ;)
 
Rob, like your HBQ renewal idea. Check with Jack Parnell, to see if he'll let me hang a treehouse beside his ham antenna -- if I couldn't hack the 49-mile drive between Dimebag City and KHOZ's Branson digs, no way I'd live through a Memphis run every day.

Back to the topic:-- I can understand how, for example, CC would mix&mingle formats within stations they own. But does anyone know how three competing owners worked out that sports-nets swap-around?

Does anyone run Jim Rome? Up here, Springfield's Jock 98.7 runs a lot of the ESPN package (including an idiotic-sounding re-rack of the morning show in early afternoon) but has Romie from Premier, also.

And I'm still curious about whether anyone in any market has heard groups doing any on-air (or TV, or newspaper, or billboards) to say "don't worry -- now that you're hearing all farm market reports here on 93.1, you can get your classic oldies up on 106.9." Seems like, with all the entertainment options out there, one of the last things we'd want to do, would be to pull the rug out from under their ears after they've found something they like. (Last, of course, would be to inform and entertain them on a local level. Little sarcasm there, to end it. :-*)
 
Rome moved to 680 before they went ESPN, because they were then the FSR outlet and FSR won't put a live show up against him.

ESPN heard too many complaints about the fact you can't hear 730 east of Mendenhall; that's a problem they can't solve, and I can't figure out why Vernon stays and puts up with it.
 
In particularly, a market that bowed it's first real major league franchise in the last decade.
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Speaking for longtime Memphis sports fans, we'll forgive you for that gaffe. Study a bit of history regarding Memphis and the NFL next time, please. Believe me, you don't want to go there!
 
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