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Rumors of 24/7 ESPN to 680 or 850 return?

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

Haven't found article but Mark S tells me in Globe they mention the rumoprs of ESPN going 24/7 to 680 or 850 are back, prob due to wondering what happens to RKO if Howie leaves. I don't see it in the Touching All the Bases blog...anyway if Ent decides to get rid of talk on 680, they could prob make it all ESPN and pick up any sports spillover from EEI (ex.: Celts playoff on 850/93.7, Sox on RKO) and EEI could pick up the new NBC sports Network for overnights and, ahem, the NFL package...Or EEI could be a combo of 680 and 93.7 with "WRKO 850" for ESPN. Both stations are sim. in signal after night
(the two AMs) so maybe not much of a gain with a flip of the two

Will keep looking in the Globe site
 
Mark tweet to me afterward and again this dep. on if HC leaves:

@bostonradio:
W/out Howie and on AM dial, they might as well lease it out to ESPN to make a few bucks and use it for conflict p-x-p for C's,BC @WMWMBlues
 
Rumor that won’t die: The long-overdue return of ESPN Radio to the Boston airwaves could happen by the end of the summer, possibly on Entercom-owned 850 or 680 AM . . .
As a poster with 12000 posts under your belt, would you care to surmise why
 
Why would Entercom compete against themselves with a sports format??? That seems dumb. Short term gain of some rent money for an LMA but long term competition to their own sports brand.
 
I would think that if ESPN Radio goes 24/7 in Boston, it will be on 850, with WEEI is going FM-only.

And the change might occur as early as next Friday (July 27th).

Why do I think it will occur then?

(1) WEEI will carry some Olympics coverage, including most (if not all) of the U.S. men's basketball games (which will be in the morning or afternoon).

(2) More importantly, next weekend (July 27th-29th) will see the Red Sox play the Yankees in New York. If WEEI ever wanted to go FM-only in Boston, this would be the time to do it (i.e. "You Now Have To Tune Into 93.7 To hear The Red Sox In Boston!").
 
Chad Finn said it, I'm relaying it.
I don't know if they'd stop the 850/93.7 simulcast or not. They'd have to consider it if Howie
leaves maybe and if most people stick to FM, they can at least make a small amt of $ with
680 on ESPN, perhaps.
Whether such a move would happen now, I don't know...it may depend on whether or not
Howie remains. That's the "end of the summer" bit.
 
One has to assume Howie is responsible for most of WRKO's cume and frankly none that Boston talkers are doing that well.

Entercom might figure it would hurt WEEI a little but it would also hurt WBZ-FM and at least Entercom would be getting revenue from ESPN.
 
That's right and poss. WEEI could run the NBC sports network (overnight etc.) which has the NFL package.

5 sports networks (coming soon)
ESPN (WEEI overnights)
Yahoo!Sports network formerly Sporting News (has a big fan on this board)
Fox Sports, synd. by Clear Channel --WBZ-FM overnights

Coming:
NBC Sports aka Dial Global (..WEEI?)
CBS Sports (...Sports Hub?)

--
Entercom already has an ESPN 680--in Memphis, though the 92.9 // prob is accented.
"92.9 FM/680 AM SportsRadio"
http://www.espn929.com/
 
WNTIRadio said:
Why would Entercom compete against themselves with a sports format??? That seems dumb.
Click to expand...

On the surface, yes, but who better to compete with than yourself? It also frees up time for more local programming...in theory anyway.
 
NHRadio said:
WNTIRadio said:
Why would Entercom compete against themselves with a sports format??? That seems dumb.
Click to expand...

On the surface, yes, but who better to compete with than yourself? It also frees up time for more local programming...in theory anyway.
Click to expand...

Because it keeps the competition from taking a swipe at you. CC did this in Minneapolis--use a 500w daytimer to store some ESPN and Fox Sports content.
 
They'd have to consider it if Howie leaves maybe and if most people stick to FM, they can at least make a small amt of $ with 680 on ESPN, perhaps.

Boston is the worst 'neutral' sports major market in the country. Why do you think that they would make more money running ESPN up against two major local players (WEEI and WBZ-FM) than with just about any kind of talk, syndie or local or a combination, against only one real competitor?

Why do you think "They'd have to consider it if Howie leaves" ? I assume you must have a rationale for at least some of what you post.

Regards,
TSB
 
What's left of RKO otherwise, McScreamer? I supp. business news might be a possibility, or do the Drew Mortgage show 24/7. Do about as well. I know we're a very provincial sports market but the train has left the AM station (for the most part) and isn't coming back. Sports talk, even ESPN, could do half decent for them and yes in a way competing against themselves, but this may be what they do. Or at least this is what they're hinting about doing, to Finn at the Globe.

I'm guessing RKO's $$ intake is cratering. Let Howie go elsewhere and change the format. (Even,
dare we say, to prog talk, which the Entercommies do up in Buffalo(1), though they may not go
that route in Boston, as much as some feel it would make sense given the politics here...Actually
talk radio can work best in adversarial situations--criticizing the government which is just about
always Dem-dominated here. Remember Jerry Williams playing that clip from "Network": "So I want you to get up right now, go to your window, open it, and stick out your head and yell I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!")

(1)-- http://www.kb1520.com/Schedule/903181
 
What's left of RKO otherwise

Let's try this again.

Why do you think that national sports talk would work in the worst neutral sports market in the entire country?

Why is getting a straight answer to a straight up question like pulling teeth?

Regards,
TSB
 
I think Mike and Mike would do 'OK' in AM drive with the sports nuts - the rest of billable hours would be flat however.

What would happen is the sports nuts would make it a preset.

TSBench said:
What's left of RKO otherwise

Let's try this again.

Why do you think that national sports talk would work in the worst neutral sports market in the entire country?

Why is getting a straight answer to a straight up question like pulling teeth?

Regards,
TSB
Click to expand...
 
Finn apparently has talked to people at Entercom who are hinting at it, and I was mentioning what he said. Maybe they're nuts indeed to consider making 680 or 850 all ESPN. I do know what you mean about being provincial here. It comes down to how much these AMs make for the company.Should Howie leave, they lose a lot of ad sales and you wonder how the other shows do money wise. They might earn a small amount from carrying ESPN who in turn would get to clear shows and spots.
When WEEI moved to FM Kevin had talked to someone he knew at ESPN who said 850 would prob do all ESPN soon, though it didn't happen. Maybe both sides talked about it at least and Ent. decided that for the time being it made sense to keep their local stuff on 850--there were spots where 850 came in better than 93.7 and a 100 per cent simulcast would add up the numbers of both.

Talk can be profitable because of Time Spent Listening--loyal listeners who stay tuned with interesting topics. It's also an aging demo. Look what happened with 103.3--some would thinki the good ratings would bring in some money, but they had a tough time converting them into ad dollars even after the Christmas switch (and many fled after Christmas). An aging demo...they'd rather go younger. Now switching to ESPN may not necessarily fix the problem but who knows...sports listeners are desirable and maybe skew younger, even if it is national not local. People are deserting AM. Ent. may make enough money from its WEEI and WAAF
franchises to keep WRKO going, but if Howie leaves they may change focus and go national sports. WEEI can then pick up the NBC Sports/Dial Global package including NFL games.

The election can bring in some money and they keep doing local talk with Feinburg, McPhee, and Howie (who if he can depart may be gone in late Sept. or maybe Nov.) But again the talk demo ages...and maybe some younger listeners have fled to FM. (We still btw are not totally sure that CC still isn't going talk on 101.7--the hunch is variety hits but it could be a smokescreen; var hits would poss. skew younger depending on what decades they do).
Anyway, Finn had at least heard from Ent. that it may happen. Does it make total sense?
Maybe or maybe not but if they weren't considering it he would have been told "yeah,
we won't do ESPN 24/7 on either station" instead.
 
And bostonradio tweeted to me (again assuming Howie leaves): "W/out Howie and on AM dial, they might as well lease it out to ESPN to make a few bucks and use it for conflict p-x-p for C's,BC" (@bostonradio)
 
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