• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

KNR vs The Fan: Tale of the Tape

Here's the Tale of The Tape of the two primary sports stations in Cleveland

WWGK 1540 is excluded because it's merely an ESPN Radio network flanker to WKNR
 
WKNR AM 850:

Owner--
Good Karma Broadcasting

Primary local hosts--
Mark "Munch" Bishop
Tony Rizzo
Michael Reghi
Kenny Roda
LeCharles Bentley
Jerrod Cherry
Greg Brinda
Jimmy Hanlin (Golf Show)

Supporting crew (producers/sidekicks/reporters/update anchors)--
T.J. Zuppe
Aaron Goldhammer
Chris Fedor
Will Burge
Dave Denatale
Emmitt Golden

Prominent syndicated hosts--
Mike and Mike (ESPN)
Jim Rome (Premiere)

Play by play--
OSU football and basketball
Lake Erie Monsters (shared with WHKW)
Cleveland Gladiators
High School Hysteria Game of the Week
MLB on ESPN
NBA on ESPN
NASCAR night races (day races are all on KNR2 1540)
MAC basketball tournament

_________________________________________________________________________________________


WKRK FM 92.3:

Owner--
CBS

Primary local hosts--
Chuck Booms
Kevin Kiley
Andy Baskin
Jeff Phelps
Adam "The Bull" Gastenhaber
Dustin Fox
Ken Carman
Ken Silverstien (weekends)
Joe Lull (weekends)
Kendall Lewis (weekends)

Supporting crew--
Tony Mazur
Josh Potter
Jeff Thomas
Lindsay Foltin
Keith Britton
Anthony "Sportsboy Tony" Lima
Matt Loede
Darryl Ruiter

Prominent syndicated hosts--
Tony Bruno (FSR)
J.T. The Brick (FSR)

Play by Play--
NFL on Weswood One
Big 10 football on Westwood One

________________________________________________________________________________

Well, there they are--matched up apples to apples.

If this were a World Heavyweight Championship prize fight, how would it go down (w/ how many rounds)?
 
Weekdays (My Predictions):
AM Drive: K&B over Mike and Mike by wide margin (CBS 1-0)
9am-10am: K&B over tRBS (CBS 2-0); toughest hour of this race
10am-1pm: tRBS over Baskin and Phelps (CBS 2-1)
1pm-2pm: Baskin and Phelps over Jim Rome (CBS 3-1)
2pm-3pm: Adam the Bull and Fox over Jim Rome by wide margin (CBS 4-1)
PM Drive: Adam the Bull and Fox over Afternoon R&R by wide margin (CBS 5-1)
6-7pm: Adam the Bull and Fox over Browns Daily by wide margin (CBS 6-1)
7-9pm: Ken Carman over X's and O's (CBS 7-1); IMO X's and O's is the best show WKNR has on their lineup.
 
vjm said:
WKNR AM 850:

Owner--
Good Karma Broadcasting

Primary local hosts--
Mark "Munch" Bishop
Tony Rizzo
Michael Reghi
Kenny Roda
LeCharles Bentley
Jerrod Cherry
Greg Brinda
Jimmy Hanlin (Golf Show)

Supporting crew (producers/sidekicks/reporters/update anchors)--
T.J. Zuppe
Aaron Goldhammer
Chris Fedor
Will Burge
Dave Denatale
Emmitt Golden

Prominent syndicated hosts--
Mike and Mike (ESPN)
Jim Rome (Premiere)

Play by play--
OSU football and basketball
Lake Erie Monsters (shared with WHKW)
Cleveland Gladiators
High School Hysteria Game of the Week
MLB on ESPN
NBA on ESPN
NASCAR night races (day races are all on KNR2 1540)
MAC basketball tournament

_________________________________________________________________________________________


WKRK FM 92.3:

Owner--
CBS

Primary local hosts--
Chuck Booms
Kevin Kiley
Andy Baskin
Jeff Phelps
Adam "The Bull" Gastenhaber
Dustin Fox
Ken Carman
Ken Silverstien (weekends)
Joe Lull (weekends)
Kendall Lewis (weekends)

Supporting crew--
Tony Mazur
Josh Potter
Jeff Thomas
Lindsay Foltin
Keith Britton
Anthony "Sportsboy Tony" Lima
Matt Loede
Darryl Ruiter

Prominent syndicated hosts--
Tony Bruno (FSR)
J.T. The Brick (FSR)

Play by Play--
NFL on Weswood One
Big 10 football on Westwood One

________________________________________________________________________________

Well, there they are--matched up apples to apples.

If this were a World Heavyweight Championship prize fight, how would it go down (w/ how many rounds)?



You will also hear about 19 Action News Sports Anchor Tony Zarrella having a role with 92.3 the Fan soon.

As you can see by a recent "Tweet"

@TonyZ19 Tony Zarrella
Looking forward to joining the "92.3 The Fan" family later this week. They start up tomorrow, Clev!!! More on my role later....
 
AntDog152 said:
Weekdays (My Predictions):
AM Drive: K&B over Mike and Mike by wide margin (CBS 1-0)
9am-10am: K&B over tRBS (CBS 2-0); toughest hour of this race
10am-1pm: tRBS over Baskin and Phelps (CBS 2-1)
1pm-2pm: Baskin and Phelps over Jim Rome (CBS 3-1)
2pm-3pm: Adam the Bull and Fox over Jim Rome by wide margin (CBS 4-1)
PM Drive: Adam the Bull and Fox over Afternoon R&R by wide margin (CBS 5-1)
6-7pm: Adam the Bull and Fox over Browns Daily by wide margin (CBS 6-1)
7-9pm: Ken Carman over X's and O's (CBS 7-1); IMO X's and O's is the best show WKNR has on their lineup.

You don't think people would leave RBS now that they can listen to sports w/o dealing with The Bratty Bunch?

You have Baskin, Phelps and Jeff Thomas/Sportsboy Tony vs Rizzo, Hammer and Fedor...

Still think RBS wins out?

Especially if Kiley and Booms as the lead-in takes off?
 
vjm said:
AntDog152 said:
Weekdays (My Predictions):
AM Drive: K&B over Mike and Mike by wide margin (CBS 1-0)
9am-10am: K&B over tRBS (CBS 2-0); toughest hour of this race
10am-1pm: tRBS over Baskin and Phelps (CBS 2-1)
1pm-2pm: Baskin and Phelps over Jim Rome (CBS 3-1)
2pm-3pm: Adam the Bull and Fox over Jim Rome by wide margin (CBS 4-1)
PM Drive: Adam the Bull and Fox over Afternoon R&R by wide margin (CBS 5-1)
6-7pm: Adam the Bull and Fox over Browns Daily by wide margin (CBS 6-1)
7-9pm: Ken Carman over X's and O's (CBS 7-1); IMO X's and O's is the best show WKNR has on their lineup.


You don't think people would leave RBS now that they can listen to sports w/o dealing with The Bratty Bunch?

You have Baskin, Phelps and Jeff Thomas/Sportsboy Tony vs Rizzo, Hammer and Fedor...

Still think RBS wins out?

Especially if Kiley and Booms as the lead-in takes off?
tRBS still has a audience in this market and Baskin/Phelps seems very vanilla to me compared to Rizzo. Within 6 months, I see KNR will drop Rome completely, move R&R to 1 and X's & O's at 3 (Hooley, Bentley, and Cherry).
 
Note that Phelps is not in on launch day, despite announcement by Andy and Lindsey on Twitter on Friday.

Reggie Rucker did the first two hours with Andy, and Dennis "D-Man" Manoloff from the PD is doing the last two hours.

IMHO, it's a much stronger show with D-Man.
 
According to Channel 5's website, the co-host wasn't announced because his contract still needs to be ironed out. Phelps' name wasn't mentioned, but I assume that's who they're talking about.

I think if the contract issue continues, maybe Baskin can carry on with someone else instead of Phelps.
 
Really makes me wish they could do something to get the station in Canton/Stark County..I have WiFi at home, but not a smartphone..
 
CleveFan, is that a new item up on NewsNet5 today?

Tim, good luck with that. One reason you can't hear the station is because of Stark County's own first adjacent WDJQ/92.5 "Q92", the top 40 station out of Alliance. That situation isn't going away any time soon.

Can you get 98.5 there? If they ever move this thing...
 
He also picked Mike and Mike. I don't know why he did that, but to me it doesn't seem like he's giving much of The Fan a fair chance, especially only since 92.3 switched not even a month ago. He should've waited six months to a year after its flip.

TRBS, especially Aaron Goldhammer, is a joke! I saw a You Tube video where Hammer claims "jealousy" for the hatred towards him. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsSlfII8YH4

To me, he's just annoying and doesn't get it, but he'll be at WKNR for a loooooooooooooooooooong time with Craig at the helm.
 
almaniac27 said:
He picks tRBS over Cleveland's Talking Heads? Really?

Reading his explanations, I have to take John Hitch's taste and overall seriousness into question.

The fact tRBS became a daily train wreck made it such a turn-off, that it was pretty damn easy to turn away from it once a second option showed up. Whatever 92.3 offered against tRBS would be 1000% better. Baskin and Phelps aren't the perfect show yet, but there is clearly promise and upside unlike tRBS.

And "ESPN's signature depth" is an oxymoron, if there ever was one. Good grief.
 
CleveFan said:
He also picked Mike and Mike. I don't know why he did that, but to me it doesn't seem like he's giving much of The Fan a fair chance, especially only since 92.3 switched not even a month ago. He should've waited six months to a year after its flip.

TRBS, especially Aaron Goldhammer, is a joke! I saw a You Tube video where Hammer claims "jealousy" for the hatred towards him. Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsSlfII8YH4

To me, he's just annoying and doesn't get it, but he'll be at WKNR for a loooooooooooooooooooong time with Craig at the helm.

That's assuming that Craig K. owns WKNR for a long time. I can't see GKB staying in Cleveland for long. Aaron will drive that station - and GKB itself - into financial ruin, and honestly, he seems to revel in it. He's an irresponsible little pampered brat who probably has never had any idea of adversity. And just wait if 92.3 were to steal tOSU rights away from 850 (if you were tOSU, would you REALLY want to be on a station whose signature show mocks your college on a daily basis?) let alone the possibility of the Indians and Browns.

I do have the dream, such as it is, that Craig K. is forced to unload 850/1540 to CBS in a firesale transaction. And CBS can blow up WKNR to be a 24/7 relay of ESPN Radio.
 
Just a hunch...but, I'll bet the Indians end up on 92.3TheFan (eventually 98.5TheFan, LOL).

For some reason, pro football seems to work best on rock FMs...since there's only 16 regular season games.

Baseball's 6-month regular season provides near everyday play-by-play coverage from April to October, and a few times a week in March in the pre-season/exhibition season. That frequency of games on a sportstalk station (FM or AM) seems to be of greater benefit to an all-sports station than only having a once a week game for 16 weeks like football.

Besides...pro football is heavily a TV game (appointment viewing, once a week). Many do listen on radio (if they're at work or in cars), but most watch TV if they're able to.
 
Tim said:
Just a hunch...but, I'll bet the Indians end up on 92.3TheFan (eventually 98.5TheFan, LOL).

For some reason, pro football seems to work best on rock FMs...since there's only 16 regular season games.

Baseball's 6-month regular season provides near everyday play-by-play coverage from April to October, and a few times a week in March in the pre-season/exhibition season. That frequency of games on a sportstalk station (FM or AM) seems to be of greater benefit to an all-sports station than only having a once a week game for 16 weeks like football.

Besides...pro football is heavily a TV game (appointment viewing, once a week). Many do listen on radio (if they're at work or in cars), but most watch TV if they're able to.

Well, CBS COULD still have WNCX to kick around as a Browns co-flagship. And WDOK even carried the games back in the mid-90s.

It's an interesting point, though. Oddly enough, two years ago, the Baltimore Ravens left WJZ-FM "105.7 The Fan"** in favor of Hearst's WIYY-FM "98Rock" and talker WBAL-AM. So who knows what happens when the Browns rights come up...

(**That PBP contract was inherited from WJZ-FM's prior incarnation as a "FreeFM" hot talker/rocker.)
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom