• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Smizik Thinks Pirates Will Land On The Fan

DToTheJ

DToTheJ

PPG's Bob Smizik is speculating that CBS' 93.7 The Fan is the "favorite" to land Pittsburgh Pirates play-by-play starting next year.
http://communityvoices.sites.post-g...l-negotiating-for-pirates-broadcasting-rights

Smizik argues that Clear Channel is "unhappy" about Bucco games pre-empting its high-rated talk programming.

By the way, at one point, he writes, Clear Channel "does not have an all-sports station among its Pittsburgh properties." Last I checked, CC didn't sell 970 after picking up the ESPN branding - unless they pulled a Modell-esque maneuver with "the Mouse"...

One thing's for sure: the Pirates' unexpectedly good play this season will probably act as somewhat of a bargaining chip for both CBS and Clear Channel.
 
970 is a non-entity. The Pirates have no interest in a 5kw AM station.

The biggest issue is programming surrounding the game broadcasts, and The Fan is equipped much better to deliver that. It's a great fit for The Fan, too, because Pirates games are destination programming, which the station now lacks.
 
It would be good to hear the Bucco's on 93.7. If CBS snagged them, could they simulcast night games on 1020? This would give the Pirates a regional night time stage. ( as long as WBZ turns off its IBOC) Finally I think The KDKA call letter sign looks better under the broadcast booth at PNC.
 
Jim Trefney said:
...If CBS snagged them [for 93.7], could they simulcast night games on 1020?
Click to expand...

Don't the Pirates play about 90% or more of their games at night? Hell, if CBS is going to retain the Pirates radio rights, using your logic, they may as well put them back on KDKA!
 
Boss Radio said:
Why would The Fan want to potentially dilute the baseball numbers by having an AM simulcast of games?
Click to expand...
I would love to have it simulcast on KDKA 1020. I'm in eastern PA and The Fan doesn't simulcast the games due to MLB rules so I can't hear them on my Android app. Then at night I'd be able to hear them if traveling. Thankfully I have Root Pittsburgh on my DirecTV so I catch most games anyway.
 
Yeah the Fan was real helpful last night, er this morning. Nothing like THE 24 hour LOCAL station rebroadcasting the prior morning show when a great baseball discussion was going on. Losers. Clear Channel better keep the rights or Pirates fans will be sorry with the CBS coverage.
 
Jkf said:
Yeah the Fan was real helpful last night, er this morning. Nothing like THE 24 hour LOCAL station rebroadcasting the prior morning show when a great baseball discussion was going on. Losers. Clear Channel better keep the rights or Pirates fans will be sorry with the CBS coverage.
Click to expand...

Yeah, shame on them for not being live and local at 2 a.m. when the Pirates set a record for the longest game in the team's 125-year history.

If they carried the games, you realize they would have a live post-game show?

People bitching about umpires = great baseball discussion?
 
They WERE live and local before they canned their overnight guy - for the best of the Fan. That's an oxymoron in itself.

Yes, I know they would carry a live post-game show. But being the local 24/7 sports station - they should be LIVE 24/7 too.

Great baseball discussion? It's all over the news. Everywhere. I'd say so.
 
Jkf said:
They WERE live and local before they canned their overnight guy - for the best of the Fan. That's an oxymoron in itself.
Click to expand...

Actually they canned Jon Burton from the morning show and realized they were wasting money overnights. The original overnight guy is still there doing late nights as far as I know.
 
They canned the scintillating Kalena Bell, moved Burton from the morning show into her slot, moved Gianotti from 6-10p to 6-10a, moved Filiponi from 10p-2a, to 6-10p, and moved Mueller (yes, the original overnight guy) from 2a-6a to 10p-2a. Ms. Bell is the only full-timer with whom they've parted company in the nearly 18 months they've been in the format.

The product may stink (and mostly, it does, but it's the only game in town), but they are absolutely more successful on the sales side than B-94 was, and despite the increases in payroll, The Fan is more profitable than the B was at any time since its heyday under the previous ownership. K-Rock and The Zone likewise did not bill what The Fan bills.

A member of the Fan morning team told me months ago they were going hard after the Pirates and likely would do whatever it takes to win those rights. I have no reason not to expect 93.7 to be the new home of Buccos broadcasts in 2012.
 
KDKA 1020 will not air the games. Mainly because MLB I would think wants more and more teams off AM Blowtorches in order to proffit from MLB.tv, Etc.
 
Ohio radio man said:
KDKA 1020 will not air the games. Mainly because MLB I would think wants more and more teams off AM Blowtorches in order to proffit from MLB.tv, Etc.
Click to expand...

Don't think that's a big consideration. The St. Louis Cardinals have returned to KMOX after a few years away. The bigger issue is the AM band is irrelevant to younger listeners. One of the Pirates' interests in leaving KDKA-AM was the concern about their demographics.
 
I would not rule out KDKA-AM as a backup should CBS Radio win the rights to the Pirates for KDKA-FM, unless someone out at the new Pittsburgh CBS Radio studios thinks, say, WDSY-FM would be a better backup. (I'm not expecting WZPT-FM to be a backup because of its signal and format ... and for some reason I do see baseball as an occasional add to a country station.) The backup will be needed when Pirate games run into the Pittsburgh Power and/or Pitt Panther sports, as long as KD-FM maintains all those rights. KD-AM did do a Pitt sports event last year (I forget if it was basketball or football but KD-FM was doing one and KD-AM the other when both Pitt teams were playing.) Also, as KD-AM is KD-FM's HD3, it actually makes sense.
 
The Pirates would likely demand first right of refusal, meaning Pitt would go to AM and the Power would go to the internet and HD2..
 
Or they will just farm it out to an AM that would like the programming, much like they did with the Pitt women's basketball that KDKA managed to get WJAS to carry.
 
Let's take this in a slightly different direction. Has the annual Pirate swoon from grace taken the bloom off the rose CBS and Clear Channel allegedly are fighting for the right to harvest?

My attempt at poetry notwithstanding, y'all know what I mean.
 
The Pirates drew 112,000 fans last weekend at the tail end of a 10-game losing streak. 104.7 had a HUGE month in July. If anything, the team is more attractive as a broadcast property than they have been at any time in the last 25 years.

I noticed a subtle change in the broadcasts as well.... I've heard that some of the team's upper management HATES hearing promos for political talk shows during the games. All of a sudden, the 10-second drops are for Savran's show on 970.

Where Clear Channel blew this is by not using 970 as part of this in the first place. Once Ellis was gone from 104.7 CC stopped making any effort to wrap programming around the games on FM. Had they simulcast the games on 970, however, they could have morphed Bendel's show into an extended pregame. the game on 970, even if 98% of the audience listened to the play-by-play on FM, is better than whatever 970 was running opposite the game as it stands now. Plus you get a seamless transition into an extended postgame.

It will be interesting to see.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom