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Greater could have tried FM sports here...

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

In Phila., the news comes that 97.5 The Fanatic has landed 76ers games, with some games
also winding up on sister station WPEN (950).

http://www.975thefanatic.com/teams/sixers/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10377206
(they're starting right now, w/ playoffs)

In 2006 there was a chance Greater could have landed the Red Sox.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseba...06/03/18/sox_look_to_move_broadcasts_to_wbos/

March 2006:
>>The Red Sox are negotiating with the owner of radio station WBOS to take an ownership stake in the station and move its radio broadcast rights there, a move that would effectively end the team's relationship with Boston's dominant sports station, WEEI.

Imagine: 92.9 co-owned by Greater and the Sox, and I'd think they would have possibly
done all sports (either that or kept some kind of music format and run Sox games)

But shortly later, the word came that Entercom renewed:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/496355/sox_games_to_be_split_between_wrko_weei_in_radio/
>>Red Sox fans who want to hear all of the games on the radio next season will have to switch between the Sox’s new home, WRKO-AM, and Boston’s dominant sports station, WEEI-AM....
During the Sox’s months-long negotiations for radio rights, executives got very close to signing a deal with the owner of WBOS-FM, Greater Media Inc., in which the team could have taken up to a 25 percent stake in the station. It is unclear how much control the Sox would have had, but the sides had talked about putting sports programming on the air.

----------------------------------------
So imagine: An FM sports station back in '06, WBOS. Greater is doing sports in Philly but they
could have had that format in Boston. Of course by August of 09 the Sports Hub debuted,
and a little over 2 yrs later, WEEI began simulcasting on FM.
 
Kind of unusual--the shift to Sports Fanatic in Philly happens now, not at the start of next
year...
anyway, had WBOS gone all sports I would think you wouldn't have the Sports Hub. Boston
can handle 2 big sports stations, not 3.

What could have been?
WBOS--Red Sox, local shows, and maybe network fill-in stuff from ESPN, Fox, or Sporting News
(now Yahoo! Sports Radio)--and maybe a second team too?
WEEI--Celtics
WBZ (AM)--Bruins, unless CBS wanted to place the games on ZLX.
Pats could have still been on 104.1, or maybe shifted to ZLX or something. Though a
"WBOS sports" could have tried to land B's or Pats, but who knows. Another case of
"what might have been" just like: what if 93.7 didn't launch "Mike" and WODS or another
CBS station launched "Jack". 93.7 could have possibly done a WEEI simulcast back in '05
(I think that was the year "Mike" went on...)
 
Just wondering, but is there a point to this?

Or is this just the clatter of the chains of Brian Maloney's ghost roaming the corridors of Radio-Info?

Regards,
TSB
 
Well I'm not Brian Maloney, who last updated his SaveWRKO blog two years ago yet still runs ads, etc. There is a point to this; it's looking back at what may have happened and what may happen in the future with such moves involving sports talk, etc. Greater has made out fairly well, but it's
interesting to note things may have been different had they pulled a switch on WBOS to sports
talk. Might Sports Hub have been created? Maybe--as CBS had and has rights to B's and Pats.
But what if GM got the Sox and Ent. was left only with Celts?

The sports talk, talk, and FM move to sports is very relevant in radio and we can wonder how things could have turned out otherwise.
 
The reason the Sixers jumped now instead of at the end of the season was by mutual agreement with former rights holder CBS (WIP.) WIP had all four major sports, and this spring they added the Phillies to WIP-FM. The Sixers and Flyers were being bumped to the AM whenever the Phillies were playing, as they get the FM priority. There's been a couple of instances this spring when all three teams were playing at once, and the Sixers were sent off to classic hits WOGL. CBS didn't want the hassle of bumping the Sixers all the time (they weren't making a ton on their broadcasts anyway) and the Sixers wanted a stable, FM clearance. It made sense for all involved to make the move now. It's a win/win for everybody, especially Greater Media, which desparately wanted local rights for at least one team.
 
Thanks for that info and yes, having at least one local team in PHL helps GM.

>>CBS didn't want the hassle of bumping the Sixers all the time (they weren't making a ton on their broadcasts anyway) and the Sixers wanted a stable, FM clearance.

btw so far Red Sox-Celts conflicts have bumped the C's to WRKO, but with the playoffs,
such conflicts have WEEI running Celtics and WRKO taking the Sox on Tue and Fri of this
week, at least.
 
raccoonradio said:
Thanks for that info and yes, having at least one local team in PHL helps GM.

>>CBS didn't want the hassle of bumping the Sixers all the time (they weren't making a ton on their broadcasts anyway) and the Sixers wanted a stable, FM clearance.

btw so far Red Sox-Celts conflicts have bumped the C's to WRKO, but with the playoffs,
such conflicts have WEEI running Celtics and WRKO taking the Sox on Tue and Fri of this
week, at least.
Click to expand...
then why wouldn't Entercom bump one of the games to waaf or something like that??
 
They don't want to interfere with the music format. In the case of CBS a rare Pats-B's clash
resulted in B's being bumped to ZLX or ODS (and one time when the B's were still on WBZ AM
and it was election night, the B's game was on ODS). But Entercom doesn't want to take
away from AAF's music.
Conceivably they could have put one of the teams on 107.3 or 97.7, yes. Or do a split of
Sox on 850 and C's on 93.7 or vice versa, but no.

Similarly before WEEI started to simulcast on 93.7 (though they make it sound like
93.7 is the main station, and maybe it is) I called for Ent. to put Sox games on 93.7. Keep
the Mike format if need be but also put the games there for better recep, etc, but they
may have feared the music listeners would give up on the station...especially since the game,
pregame, and postgame can take up a lot of time. Ultimately they sacrificed Mike to
become WEEI-FM. But you can see their point--people would have been tuning in expecting to hear variety hits and they get Joe "CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!" Castiglione. Actually since the Sox are
fairly popular, it would impress some, but others wanting music would be disappointed. It
did happen eventually, with the whole station being simulcast on 93.7 not just Sox.

Flashback to Aug of 2009 when Sports Hub debuted:
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=151953.msg1284351#msg1284351

>>raccoonradio:"Putting the Sox on FM in Boston itself--within the 128 belt, and yes there is WBOQ Gloucester already, but I mean something far closer to Boston--would be great.
Which headline would Entercom rather see in the paper?
SOX GAMES TO SIMULCAST ON 93.7, 97.7
or
BOMBSHELL: SOX TO WBZ-FM 98.5 NEXT YEAR"

mgpt6: "Would Sox Night Games on Mike-FM 93.7 hurt the books of 93.7 FM? Dont thinks o."
raccoonradio: " Pretty good signal, Sox in stereo in Boston...would make sense. Most Sox games are at night (and this time of yr
we have earlier sunsets)"
 
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