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How Can SLC Support Four Sports Stations?

G

Gregg

Salt Lake City really is an over-radioed market for its size. One example is that it has four sports stations.

I wonder how that works when there's only three national English-language sports networks and only one major league franchise... The Jazz?

--KALL 700 is affiliated with ESPN.
--KFNZ 1320 is affiliated with Fox Sports.
--KZNS 1280 is affiliated with Sporting News Radio.
--KJQS 1230 is also affiliated with Fox Sports.

KFNZ is the only sports station in the most recent ratings above a one-share, even though KALL has a much better signal and ESPN affiliates usually score the highest. How can the other stations even pay their electric bills, let alone have local sports talk hosts?

Overnights and weekends, do 1320 and 1230 run the same Fox Network programming? Is 1230 just there as spill-over station in case 1320 is running a game? Maybe someday one of these stations will switch affiliation to ESPN Deportes.


Gregg
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Remember, sports talk stations are monster billers (only all news has a higher power ratio nationwide) and usually require very little overhead. I suspect that's how the four sports talkers in Salt Lake City are surviving. A glut of sports stations in markets that aren't considered sports powerhouses is actually pretty common. Tulsa and Little Rock, for example, have three all sports stations, and Oklahoma City, which is in a similar situation to Salt Lake, also has four all sports stations.
 
Per Wikipedia, 1230 was the longtime ESPN radio affiliate until ESPN moved their affiliation to 700. Note that 1230, like 1320, is owned by Citadel. I'm surprised they haven't turned it into a simulcast by now.
 
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