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Newest Addition to ESPN 710 KIRO

Kevin Calabro has been announced to be one of the local talk show hosts on Seattle's newest all-sports station, come April 1st, 2009. Daypart unknown.
 
That's a big blow to KJR, especially considering that their guys have always said that they'd love to have Calabro on their staff but that he wasn't interested in doing a regular show. They must've made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
 
Kevin is major market. So major market that they should simulcast him on 710 ESPN in Los Angeles and have a west coast type show heard on 710 AM in both markets. They could identify the station as much as they wanted!
 
On second thought, I'm not sure what the advantage of that would be for either station. Perhaps if they were co-owned there might be some revenue opportunities...
 
Shark said:
That's a big blow to KJR, especially considering that their guys have always said that they'd love to have Calabro on their staff but that he wasn't interested in doing a regular show. They must've made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Are KIRO 710 and KJR 950 both gonna be ESPN? Simulcasting?
 
CorporateSuit said:
Kevin Calabro has been announced to be one of the local talk show hosts on Seattle's newest all-sports station, come April 1st, 2009. Daypart unknown.

This is great news. What this does is force KJR into an impossible position. What do they do now? Change formats.......again?
 
searadiofreak said:
On second thought, I'm not sure what the advantage of that would be for either station. Perhaps if they were co-owned there might be some revenue opportunities...

With respect, I think you got caught up in the similar names and similar frequencies.

It should be one step at a time for KIRO, as they have to establish themselves as a credible source for sports, and that will take a little time.

With the budget cuts at CC, I wouldn't be surprised if another KJR regular goes to 710. Or perhaps, goes to 710 again.
 
Re: Newest Addition to ESPN 710 KIRO/KJR & KRKO's future

Excellent move by KIRO getting a former/current(Seattle Sounders FC) play-by-play announcer from the area to do a show for them. Kinda OT but a while back I was listening to JT The Brick's show on XM, he was taking a call from this area and before taking it said something like "Seattle, where we have a huge announcement coming soon" or something like that. My guess would be after ESPN leaves KJR and KRKO; Fox Sports Radio will join KJR and KRKO's line-up, I also looked on Dan Patrick's website a while back and saw that KRKO has added the show from 6A-9A weekdays. As for the KJR regular going to 710 again, he'll probably be going solo.
 
That raises the question of Sounders FC broadcasts - as Scoobyfan mentioned, Calabro has been hiried as the announcer for the new team.... will these games be on KIRO as well, or did I hear somewhere that he was doing the play-by-play for Sounders games on TV?
 
CCMilesD said:
That raises the question of Sounders FC broadcasts - as Scoobyfan mentioned, Calabro has been hiried as the announcer for the new team.... will these games be on KIRO as well, or did I hear somewhere that he was doing the play-by-play for Sounders games on TV?

I would think the Sounders FC would be on KIRO but I don't know, as for the TV broadcasts: yes he will be doing the Sounders games for KING 5 and KONG 6/16, btw most of the Sounders games will be on those two stations excluding any games that are on ESPN or any of the MLS national tv partners.
 
CorporateSuit said:
Calabro's shift will be 3 to 6 PM, M - F. Calabro has never done talk radio. Ever.

Not true. Kevin was one of the original sports-talk hosts on KJR, and did "Sonics Talk" before and after games for many years.

As I recall, Kevin was quite good as a talk host.
 
CorporateSuit said:
Calabro's shift will be 3 to 6 PM, M - F. Calabro has never done talk radio. Ever.

Wrong. As TVrg pointed out, he did a regular show on KJR in its sports radio infancy.

Still that was 15 years ago, and at the time he was in Bob Blackburn's shadow. Until he gains credibility on KIRO, he'll be known as the former voice of the Sonics who does sports talk radio. His goal will be to create the image of being a compelling sports radio talk show host that happened to be the voice of the Sonics. Having the Sonics out of town will help him a lot from that angle.

And if the NBA does return, he's a lock to be the PBP man again.
 
AQH said:
Until he gains credibility on KIRO, he'll be known as the former voice of the Sonics who does sports talk radio. His goal will be to create the image of being a compelling sports radio talk show host that happened to be the voice of the Sonics.

I don't think that's going to be as hard of a task as one might think. Calabro has filled in for Niehaus (and quite capably at that) plus he's called a football game or two for FSN. And I'm sure he'll have a capable supporting cast.
 
AQH said:
And if the NBA does return, he's a lock to be the PBP man again.

Not noted so far on this post - but apparently he's been calling the Thursday night games on ESPN radio this season.
 
Hey guys - Having worked closely with Kevin for several years at KJR I can tell you he's smart, good humored and incredibably knowledgeable. He will do great...afterall, it's a radio talk show. The tough job these days is selling it to advertisers...regardless of content and ratings.
 
FMSteve said:
CorporateSuit said:
Kevin Calabro has been announced to be one of the local talk show hosts on Seattle's newest all-sports station, come April 1st, 2009. Daypart unknown.

This is great news. What this does is force KJR into an impossible position. What do they do now? Change formats.......again?

I haven't heard KJR intends to change formats, but the rumour is they will lose their ESPN affiliation, and will try to go with Fox Sports. Not sure that will happen because 850 KHHO is already the Fox station, and they are all Fox sports net, no local programs. This should get interesting!
 
Mack Daddy said:
FMSteve said:
CorporateSuit said:
Kevin Calabro has been announced to be one of the local talk show hosts on Seattle's newest all-sports station, come April 1st, 2009. Daypart unknown.

This is great news. What this does is force KJR into an impossible position. What do they do now? Change formats.......again?

I haven't heard KJR intends to change formats, but the rumour is they will lose their ESPN affiliation, and will try to go with Fox Sports. Not sure that will happen because 850 KHHO is already the Fox station, and they are all Fox sports net, no local programs. This should get interesting!

Actually according to an article in the Seattle PI, KJR is expected to switch to FSR. But FMSteve does bring up an interesting question: what will happen to 850?, I live in the Tacoma area and can pick up 850 pretty well and while they have the Tacoma Rainiers games, coverage of the state high school football and basketball championships as well as WSU cougar games I can't really see 850 dropping FSR. Remember that KJR is local weekdays from 6a-10p and on most Saturdays from 6a or 7a until 2 or 3p, so if KJR does pick up Fox which it does sound like, it would only be on pretty much the same hours as ESPN is now and there are a few markets where there are two stations affiliated with Fox Sports Radio. I also have XM though and can get FSR 24/7 but who really knows what will happen; I do think KJR will pick up Fox though. Also this brings up another interesting question what about all of ESPN radio's play-by-play coverage? they have the NBA, Baseball and the BCS so will KJR keep those or will KIRO get them, also what about the westwood one play by play that KJR has like the NFL and the NCAA Tournament, will KJR keep those? All told it's going to be an interesting couple of months before KIRO launches with all-sports.
 
Scoobyfan1 said:
Actually according to an article in the Seattle PI, KJR is expected to switch to FSR. But FMSteve does bring up an interesting question: what will happen to 850?, I live in the Tacoma area and can pick up 850 pretty well and while they have the Tacoma Rainiers games, coverage of the state high school football and basketball championships as well as WSU cougar games I can't really see 850 dropping FSR. Remember that KJR is local weekdays from 6a-10p and on most Saturdays from 6a or 7a until 2 or 3p, so if KJR does pick up Fox which it does sound like, it would only be on pretty much the same hours as ESPN is now and there are a few markets where there are two stations affiliated with Fox Sports Radio.

1. As I understand it, 850 AM's coverage into Seattle and northward is poor in "night" hours. It doesn't look particularly good for daytime coverage either, especially into the city or eastward.

2. Clear Channel OWNS 850 and KJR-AM so as long as FSR agrees to a simulcasting period, they can do it. I know some of this happened in Salt Lake City on "The Fan" and "the sports ZONE" so it probably can happen here.

3. I never realized how much of Clear Channel's signals are "rimshots" for the main metro and really only cover south suburbs and Tacoma - KFNK 104.9, KNBQ 102.9 (arguably), KHHO 850. Of course, that's about to change a bit once they take over "KISS" KBKS.
 
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