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Shrinking Red Sox (Don’t say Radio) Network

J

jlehmann

I was up in NH today and noticed that the Red Sox (don’t say radio) network is a lot smaller than it used to be. There used to be affiliates in Manchester (WGAM being the last), Concord (WTPL), Franklin (WFTN), and Laconia (101.5, now WWLK).

None of these stations now carry the Sox anymore. I know WGAM hasn’t since they were sports, years ago and 93.7 comes in fine in Manchester. I think WTPL carried them last year, not sure about WFTN, and possibly WEMJ Laconia which now mostly simulcasts WTPL.

This seems like a big hole with no affiliate in the Concord/Lakes Region area. 100.1 WPNH-FM has them, but their signal isn’t the greatest in most of the area, especially for those used to strong local affiliates for as long as I can remember.

Has Audacy priced these stations out of carrying the games?
 
jlehmann said:
Has Audacy priced these stations out of carrying the games?
Click to expand...
Yep. There was a discussion about a station on the Maine board (maybe?) which dropped the Sox for cost reasons.
 
Given nobody except old farts watch baseball these days, I'd say the market for OTA broadcast is shrinking in relation to the shrinking # of fans.
 
If they can't find enough advertisers interested in covering the cost of carrying the games, or if they're able to make more $$ by sticking with their regular programming instead of breaking away for coverage of baseball for 3 hours at a clip for 162 games per year, that may explain it. If there simply isn't enough listener interest to drive ratings for those baseball games, that's another possible explanation.

The good thing is that, with streaming as it is, most anyone should be able to find at least one of the stations in the remaining Red Sox network that can be heard via the web or one of the streaming apps.
 
If I had to voice an opinion I would say the smaller stations in the Red Sox Network were up against the wall as far as what it cost them to carry the games versus what they were going to be able to sell for advertising or get back as bragging rights. WBOQ was an affiliate for a while and they are squarely well inside the coverage area for 93.7 which was going to get the Lion's share of the listening in the Boston market. Entercom or whatever they're calling themselves this week paid way too much for the broadcast rights and were trying to pedal off some of that cost on the smaller stations and the smaller stations said no thank you we're done..
 
There was a time (in a time long ago and far away) when the flagship station would offer the games for free to stations that would “fill in the gaps” of the signal of the flagship station. (I’m recalling when 1510AM was carrying the Sox)). Those stations had to run all the network spots….but got to carry the games for free.

Not sure when they started all being required to pay….and if was all stations.
 
My previous post on this thread was deleted by an unnamed moderator for being a "political statement" (depsite no mention of any political candidate), so I'll try this again.

An unnamed Boston baseball team has lost listeners because they continue to push political agendas. As recently as a few months ago, certain New Hampshire radio stations were pre-empting a certain 3:00 - 7:00 regional political talk radio show with these games. Certain people were turning the dial when this was happening. Certain people are happy that certain New Hampshire affiliates are no longer carrying certain baseball games.
 
Three Sox affiliates all serving the Upper Valley of New Hampshire/Vermont! WWOD (AAA) in Woodstock, VT, WCNL (country) in Newport, NH, and WTSL (right-wing talk) in Hanover, NH. With the WFYX translator at 106.7 thrown in, the games can be heard on four frequencies. I suppose there are portions of the valley where only one of these signals provides decent reception, but if carrying baseball is such a financial burden, how are these small stations in a tiny market doing it?
 
In Boston what was then Entercom pushed most Sox games to WRKO starting in 07 (one yr they won a championship) and fans of that talk show had to tune to WCRN to get the 6 pm hour. The intent was maybe to boost RKO ratings (WEEI had Wed games etc). By Aug of
09 Ent. got competition to WEEI from the Sports Hub; two weeks later they abruptly moved all Sox games to WEEI so that station needed to shore up its brand as a sports outlet. Two years later WEEI's Sox and local sports talk would go to FM.

Any station running baseball games has to commit a long period of time from pre game to post game, and music stations (like WBOQ) had to hope enough dollars would come in from Sox listeners to justify longtime pre emption of the main format.

I still think it's interesting that as far as I know, ever since it debuted in Aug of 2009,
WBZ-FM 98.5 has yet to carry play by play of any baseball game.
 
rocket21 said:
My previous post on this thread was deleted by an unnamed moderator for being a "political statement" (depsite no mention of any political candidate), so I'll try this again.

An unnamed Boston baseball team has lost listeners because they continue to push political agendas. As recently as a few months ago, certain New Hampshire radio stations were pre-empting a certain 3:00 - 7:00 regional political talk radio show with these games. Certain people were turning the dial when this was happening. Certain people are happy that certain New Hampshire affiliates are no longer carrying certain baseball games.
Click to expand...

But, are you certain?
 
MassMusicMan said:
Such as?
Click to expand...
not to go off topic too much, but when your fan base is older and more conservative, SOME fans will lose interest when the owners or leagues political agendas conflict with theirs. They are free to espouse what they want, it is a free country, I am free not to attend an event or watch it on TV

The NFL allowing players to "take a knee" was the start, the rest of the sports followed including baseball.

NASCAR is taking it in the nads financially after alienating much of their fan base after the false allegation that a racist item was placed in a mixed race drivers garage. It is not known as NOOSE CAR among formerly loyal fans for nothing. The perfect example of " go woke go broke" ... they can't get people in the stands for races, the TV ratings are in the tank.....

I watch NASCAR only to see Bubba Wallace DNF, or finish sub 20th place where he usually ends up... and I don't watch a lot of it.

Golf has not gotten political... up until this year with the Saudi LIV vs PGA thing.... about the only sport I'll watch is Golf at this point
 
MRBIboredop said:
not to go off topic too much, but when your fan base is older and more conservative, SOME fans will lose interest when the owners or leagues political agendas conflict with theirs. They are free to espouse what they want, it is a free country, I am free not to attend an event or watch it on TV

The NFL allowing players to "take a knee" was the start, the rest of the sports followed including baseball.

NASCAR is taking it in the nads financially after alienating much of their fan base after the false allegation that a racist item was placed in a mixed race drivers garage. It is not known as NOOSE CAR among formerly loyal fans for nothing. The perfect example of " go woke go broke" ... they can't get people in the stands for races, the TV ratings are in the tank.....

I watch NASCAR only to see Bubba Wallace DNF, or finish sub 20th place where he usually ends up... and I don't watch a lot of it.

Golf has not gotten political... up until this year with the Saudi LIV vs PGA thing.... about the only sport I'll watch is Golf at this point
Click to expand...
NASCAR was tanking long before the Bubba Wallace non-incident. And to watch only to see him DNF? SMH, why don't you just come right out and say you hope the "mixed race" driver crashes?
 
MRBIboredop said:
It is not known as NOOSE CAR among formerly loyal fans for nothing. The perfect example of " go woke go broke" ... they can't get people in the stands for races, the TV ratings are in the tank.....
Click to expand...
The 2022 NASCAR television ratings and attendance are the best they've been in years.
 
CTListener said:
NASCAR was tanking long before the Bubba Wallace non-incident. And to watch only to see him DNF? SMH, why don't you just come right out and say you hope the "mixed race" driver crashes?
Click to expand...
I have no problem with his race , my daughter is married to a person of color and I have a grandchild that is mixed race... I object to him being put out there as the next great driver and after several years of being propped up by NASCAR he has not produced.

My gripe with NASCAR goes back decades to when they banned our team and driver.. it is run like WWE.. it was a topic of discussion in the shop this week. Mayfield calls Everham out for sleeping with Erin Crocker and look what NASCAR did to him. Watch the Dale Jr podcasts with Mayfield... it is an eye opener
 
They did the same thing with Danica Patrick. If you're trying to promote NASCAR to a wider audience you try and focus on things or people that could widen your reach to folks that would not normally have any great interest. Obviously Danica brought in a lot of women fans for a while and if a traditional red neck white sport could appeal to more of America that would also be a plus. That is their job to expand audience reach so yes they try and promote the new folks that look different than the past.
 
Correct, Danica was supposed to put people in the seats.

If she spent half the time she spent promoting herself on learning how to drive, she would have been a better driver.

And yes I used to watch the race just to see her hit the wall.

Another case of getting the best equipment, team, etc that money could buy and going nowhere.

Rookies on 1 car teams with no funding were beating her on a weekly basis.

the last anyone heard from her she was getting her breast implants removed.... I guess she didn't need them for marketing herself anymore
 
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