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Hudson Valley Needs Another FM Sports Station

D

disney fanatic

Now that 98.7 flipped from urban AC's "Kiss-FM" to an all-sports format known as ESPN Radio, I think it's a good idea to start a thread about it. First of all, WEOK 1390 and WALL 1340 carried The ESPN Radio brand back in 2000 and it continued until 2003 when the station flipped to a failed Spanish format known as "El Ritmo" after they dumped ESPN Radio, because the station is also being heard on 1050 AM where they carried the feed. After that, it went to Radio Disney in 2005 until 2010 when it becomes True Oldies Channel.

If you listen to this new FM sports station at 98.7, it will not reached Poughkeepsie which is unlistenable. 1050 AM which is WEPN has a signal coverage coming into the Hudson Valley which will be sticking around until this fall when 1050 becomes a Spanish sports station known as ESPN Deportes.

Right now, there is also an ESPN Radio affiliate in Albany and it is now on FM, but there's one thing, Hudson Valley never had a sports station in so many years. You've got WFAN which is good and it has some signal coverage in the surrounding areas, but if you want an FM station in Poughkeepsie, we got too many stations. Many of the Cumulus outlets including WPDH, WKXP, WZAD, WRRV and WKNY along with many of the CC stations.

My prediction to an all-sports station is "The Wolf" where they carried Yankees baseball while running a country station. This needs to change. According to the previous Poughkeepsie ratings books that "The Wolf" didn't do well which is either 1.0, 1.5 to 2.0. This one still continues to struggle. WRWD on the other hand is doing well. TLW came back and it did well than CJ and Dee. I wish if 94.3 and 97.3 would be a candidate for a format flip to all-sports and bring back ESPN Radio, that would be great. Bring back the "Athletic Supporters Show" and also move the Army Athletics and Marist basketball games to FM. WEOK and WALL didn't do well when it is a night running IBOC. This is all we need is to dump country and bring ESPN to FM in Poughkeepsie. This is what we need to do. If "The Wolf" goes to ESPN, they should go over to WRWD for a better country station.

Any thoughts?
 
I just checked that Albany still has an FM sports station which is 104.5 "The Team" that carries ESPN Radio, just like the way is going to sound on 98.7 in NYC right now. I can't get 104.5 in Kingston, because 1050 AM is simulcasting ESPN Radio on 98.7 and hanging there until the next few months to go to Spanish sports station as ESPN Deportes.

As I said, Hudson Valley hasn't had a sports station since 2003 when ESPN Radio pulled the plug on WEOK & WALL. If Poughkeepsie and Kingston is planning to bring ESPN back, put it on 91.7 which is WFRH where Family Radio is still on, but this station on 91.7 is still for sale like WFME did in NYC.
 
There is no market for all-Sports on FM in the Hudson Valley. Nobody here is pulling the plug on a music format to put national satellite Sports on FM. Country on WKXP/WZAD is about putting a dent (barely, these days) in WRWD. Putting ESPN Radio on those signals would be a lose-lose for Cumulus.
 
Since Cumulus already tried and failed with ESPN on WEOK/WALL in the Hudson Valley, I seriously doubt they will sacrifice an FM channel to try again. Although like I mentioned in another thread, formats aside ,what is wrong with WEOK? They have had four formats in the past 12 years and not once have they shown up in the ratings. Even lowly WHVW has popped a couple of times albeit with a 1 or less.
Right now ESPN, WEPN -AM on 1050 comes in decent during the day but is very hard or impossible to listen to at night in the Mid-Hudson Valley. However, once the change to 98.7 is complete in September ESPN will disappear from the airwaves in the Poughkeepsie area, unless you have a high end receiver with a directional antenna .Even according to Radio-Locator , often overly optimistic coverage area 98.7 doesn’t get past Newburg. The bigger issue is if ESPN is successful in obtaining, as they want to obtain broadcast rights to live sports such as the Mets and Yankees, both of whose contracts are up this year. I believe ESPN will dig into their deep pockets to grab one of the two. If the Yankees network stays in place with WKXP it won’t matter, but if they get the Mets and no improvements to their network is made, the Mets will not be heard on the radio just 80 miles north of NYC.
 
There is no market for an all sports in the HV on AM or FM. There are not enough local sports teams and it would end up being a sat feed of ESPN or Fox. In this area most sports listeners tune into Fan or ESPN in ny for their fix on NY teams and that is not going to change. it would be good to see an all news for the HV but I don't think anyone would staff one for 24 hrs and hire all the stringers, anchors, production staff etc which it would require.
 
NextFM said:
There is no market for an all sports in the HV on AM or FM. There are not enough local sports teams and it would end up being a sat feed of ESPN or Fox. In this area most sports listeners tune into Fan or ESPN in ny for their fix on NY teams and that is not going to change. it would be good to see an all news for the HV but I don't think anyone would staff one for 24 hrs and hire all the stringers, anchors, production staff etc which it would require.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, ESPN 1050 will still be around until September when it will become ESPN Deportes, a Spanish sports station at 1050. I wish any hispanic listeners in the HV listening area would have to check out a Spanish ESPN station in the Poughkeepsie area. 1050 will continue simulcasting on 98.7 right now until the next four months. If you want your sports radio fix, try WFAN.

Remember when Pamal's WGHQ, WLNA and WBNR carried Fox Sports Radio in the evening? They used to, but Fox Sports Radio is controlled by Clear Channel, but it didn't last too long. So one of the three "Hudson Valley Talk Radio" stations replaced with something else in the evening including WSJ Radio.

If you want ESPN Deportes, I have a link to it. Here is an example of what this station is coming to 1050 AM this September and it is going to replace ESPN Radio with a spanish sports station.

http://tunein.com/radio/stations/ESPN-Deportes-a38353/
 
Just a thought...If John Katatonah can reactivate the currently silent translator on 106.3 carrying ESPN which is moving to 98.7 it could fill in the void left in the Mid Hudson Valley by ESPN's move. He must come back on the air in some form by October 1, the one-year anniversary of going silent anyway.
 
Just a bit of an update, as I mentioned that CBS along with Cumulus are going to launch the new CBS Sports Radio network, and it will be coming in a numerous of cities and states in the next few months. I guess none of them has announced yet. If "The Wolf" at 94.3 and 97.3 should dump country to go to an FM sports station, they should bring "The Wolf's" listeners to WRWD, maybe they should put CBS Sports Radio as a 24/7 network to be on 94.3 and 97.3 along with Yankees baseball every season. That would be a great idea. Move Beth Christy to either "Fox Oldies" or maybe WEOK/WALL and move Jack Hammer to WPDH to replace Coop. That would be good to make way for CBS Sports Radio which will be coming 1/2/13.
 
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