I don’t think they care. Anyone else hear about last year’s Chargers playoff game only aired on AM due to an alternative rock music festival aired on its FM flagship? It all comes down to dollars and sense
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New York Jets radio to WAXQ Q104.3 for the 2024 season as ESPN 98.7 signs off later this year.
- Thread starter NYAZSporty
- Start date
I just don’t understand how Good Karma let this happen. Their direct competitor is the flagship for the Giants and 1050 will have nothing during football season
They will have talk show hosts who can now speak without fear of angering the owner of the Jets. Just because they don't have PBP rights doesn't mean they can't talk about the team or the game.
In Seattle, iHeart's all sports station KJR doesn't have the rights to any local team except hockey. But they talk about the Mariners, the Seahawks, and the college teams.
Just my opinion. Good Karma is watching cents and missing dollars. Not that 98.9 is worth 10 million a year on a LMA, or 50 million to purchase ---they already paid Emmis more than 50 million--- but to abandon FM in market number 1 in 2024 is just ignorant. Perhaps in 15 or 20 years FM will be as irrelevant as AM is today, but there's still a lot of money left on the table for FM in big markets.
NFL teams should know, when you make the deal with a major owner of radio stations, you specify that the games will go on both an FM and an AM station.
In Denver, Broncos games are heard on both iHeart Classic Rock station 103.5 KRFX and on iHeart 50,000 watt News/Talk station 850 KOA. KRFX gives you an FM signal. But KOA can be heard for more than 100 miles.
Same for the New Orleans Saints. Heard on Audacy's 105.3 WWL-FM and on 50,000 watt WWL 870 AM.
The Jets should have said they want both Q104.3 and WOR 710.
In Denver, Broncos games are heard on both iHeart Classic Rock station 103.5 KRFX and on iHeart 50,000 watt News/Talk station 850 KOA. KRFX gives you an FM signal. But KOA can be heard for more than 100 miles.
Same for the New Orleans Saints. Heard on Audacy's 105.3 WWL-FM and on 50,000 watt WWL 870 AM.
The Jets should have said they want both Q104.3 and WOR 710.
Well, not exactly. Disney paid most of it. GK inherited that deal from Disney. I'm sure they expected to get some credit for the money they've already spent. But apparently Emmis wasn't going to give them any credit for money already spent.
The other half of this is that GKB owns AM only sports stations in LA and Chicago. So they know how to do this. They have the Rams in LA, and the Bears in Chicago. They thought they made a convincing argument with AM & streaming. Apparently, iHeart made a better one.
MassMusicMan
Banned
It shouldn't even come down to the Jets demanding it. You put the Jets on 710 in addition to 104.3 just because there isn't a better programming choice in the timeslot of an NFL game. Maybe you experiment with it, and do some kind of second broadcast like ESPN does with major events.
That happened in LA recently, and Good Karma bought time on KABC to air the conflicting game. Lots of options in NY.
In Houston Audacy’s KILT SportsRadio 610 is the Texans flagship, including all the associated programming. But the games themselves (including the network pre- and post-game shows) are also aired on Country sibling KILT-FM The Bull. The current deal runs through the 2027 season. The games are also broadcast on FM in Spanish on Audacy’s Mega 101 KLOL.
iHeart has the rights to both the Astros and Rockets.
Of course they care. Theres a reason they’ve been moving to FM for decades.
Clearly you don’t.
why does it matter when you can stream the game on your phone in market on clear audio
If they want over the air radio, and there is still value to that for the time being, no one is going to go backward to ancient modulation. Teams care about where they are. In secondary and tertiary areas, an AM as part of your network is just a little extra reach. But there’s no way in h…eck you’re putting the bulk of a major market NFL team’s games on AM. It’s 2024.
In Buffalo the Bills are only on AM. I understand that wouldn't qualify as a major market to most people.
Bills Radio
Actually I believe the Bears are only on AM as well
Bears Radio
The Cleveland Browns have two FM flagships (owned by Audacy) and one AM flagship (owned by Good Karma). The AM flagship airs a year-round two-hour program about the team, produced by the team. Pittsburgh has a similar arrangement.
The Jets AFAIK do not do anything that involved, thus WOR does not need to be used as a dumping ground.
It all circles back to Emmis comically overvaluing the 98.7 frequency for way, way more that it is worth. Good Karma had every right to walk away from a punitive LMA with Emmis and they let the Jets opt out of their existing contract with them.
Audacy has the Bills and the Sabres on WGR AM. They extended a multi-year deal in 2021, given the history that probably gives them the rights to 2026. Who even knows if Audacy will still be in the Buffalo market by then.
Yeah, the ancillary stuff is one thing. Between the TV and radio shows and how varied the investment in that content is by the teams, that seems to run the gamut of where it fills space. I mean if the Jets want some kind of show like that outside the actual game & game adjacent shows, have at it, and 710 could be a logical place to clear it.
If someone offered good terms on a decent FM station, watch how fast they’d take that deal in today’s environment. Everyone may not be there yet and the deals may be harder market to market based on the variables at play. But no one would forsake a viable FM opportunity to stick it out on AM.
Plus keep in mind the coverage of the team will continue on WEPN and even WFAN. Just not PBP or coaches show.
Also true. Only real focus of the original comments was on the play by play and immediately connected content. God knows they’re going to be talked about elsewhere. A lot.
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