NBC Sports announces 1040 WHBO

[flwfg]

Radioinsight.com just announced that 1040 WHBO will be one of the inaugural stations for NBC Sports radio...starting Tuesday 09/04/12... WHBO still shows them as being ESPN on their home page.....

 

[Studio20]

Interesting as "NBC News Radio" is owned and staffed by "Dial Global" which took over CBS/Westwood One, and of course has all things CBS Sports for Radio.. Will NBC Sports Radio be actually run by NBC Sports?

 

[Parttimer]

Yes, as a multi-platform package with NBC Sports, the NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus) on cable, and the Golf Channel. The evening radio host is former ESPN host Eric Kuselias, who left ESPN to host Morning Drive on the Golf Channel, but has since moved into a role with NBCSN.

Basically NBC and CBS have both decided to finally challenge ESPN.

 

[Mike_Hennessy]

The change may be demographically driven. Research is showing that the talk radio audience is getting older and smaller, while sports and "hot talk" represent growth opportunities. I'm not familiar with how expensive music licensing fees are, but that might be something that helps keep overhead down at spoken word formats. Someone who knows more than me can confirm or deny that.

 

[Parttimer]

I'm not familiar with how expensive music licensing fees are, but that might be something that helps keep overhead down at spoken word formats. Someone who knows more than me can confirm or deny that.

That is a huge driving force behind the move to spoken word formats. An unintended consequence of radio consolidation was that it gave the music licensing agencies a few huge, easily identifiable targets to go after for money.

The fees are often a percentage of station revenue, so the bigger the market, the more potential savings for companies. But it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in the top markets.