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VCY Acquires KESN

now that the flip has happened that means these are the only options to keep listening to ESPN Radio in the Dallas radio market for the time being.

Option 1: get SiriusXM if you don't have it or it you do, then listen via SiriusXM, channel 80 on Sirius XM

Option 2: listen in podcast form, some of the ESPN Radio content is many podcast options.

Option 3: live stream, there's a stream on ESPN's website and i think it's app too, also there's iHeartRadio & TuneIn as those are the only ones with a direct National stream.

right now, i don't know if iHeart, Audacy or Cumulus will have any plans on bringing ESPN Radio back to this market in whole or at least select programs. but if ESPN radio was to return to this market, it might be some cheap locally owned company that will just run the stick with a syndication deal with ESPN to just air the national feed.

as for more options other than ESPN, there's The Ticket and The Fan for a more local homer POV of sports, and there's 105.3 HD3 which is pretty much CBS Sports Radio's 24/7 national feed.

so RIP KESN 103.3 ESPN Radio 2001-2022.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
now that the flip has happened that means these are the only options to keep listening to ESPN Radio in the Dallas radio market for the time being.

Option 1: get SiriusXM if you don't have it or it you do, then listen via SiriusXM, channel 80 on Sirius XM

Option 2: listen in podcast form, some of the ESPN Radio content is many podcast options.

Option 3: live stream, there's a stream on ESPN's website and i think it's app too, also there's iHeartRadio & TuneIn as those are the only ones with a direct National stream.

right now, i don't know if iHeart, Audacy or Cumulus will have any plans on bringing ESPN Radio back to this market in whole or at least select programs. but if ESPN radio was to return to this market, it might be some cheap locally owned company that will just run the stick with a syndication deal with ESPN to just air the national feed.

as for more options other than ESPN, there's The Ticket and The Fan for a more local homer POV of sports, and there's 105.3 HD3 which is pretty much CBS Sports Radio's 24/7 national feed.

so RIP KESN 103.3 ESPN Radio 2001-2022.
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It’s obvious that no one wants to take up the ESPN affiliation, because they would have done it by now.
 
At one time, having an ESPN affiliation was highly prized. Hands down, it was the most valuable of all the sports radio networks. If you couldn't get ESPN, you settled for Fox, CBS, NBC or, in last place, Sports Map (with four previous names: One on One, Sporting News Radio, Yahoo! Sports or SB Nation.)

I'm not sure why iHeart has several frequencies in Dallas it is doing almost nothing with. I understand iHeart's commitment to the Black Information Network. It acquired both 970 and 1630 in a package deal for BIN. But why keep simulcasting BIN on those two frequencies with essentially the same coverage area? And it has talk station 1190 KFXR, 50,000 watts days, 5,000 watts nights. But its biggest talk shows, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, are all airing on other stations. Rush used to be on WBAP, but I'm not sure where Limbaugh's replacement, Travis & Sexton, is airing in the Dallas market?

Maybe one of those three underutilized iHeart stations would make a good ESPN affiliate?
 
Gregg. said:
At one time, having an ESPN affiliation was highly prized. Hands down, it was the most valuable of all the sports radio networks. If you couldn't get ESPN, you settled for Fox, CBS, NBC or, in last place, Sports Map (with four previous names: One on One, Sporting News Radio, Yahoo! Sports or SB Nation.)

I'm not sure why iHeart has several frequencies in Dallas it is doing almost nothing with. I understand iHeart's commitment to the Black Information Network. It acquired both 970 and 1630 in a package deal for BIN. But why keep simulcasting BIN on those two frequencies with essentially the same coverage area? And it has talk station 1190 KFXR, 50,000 watts days, 5,000 watts nights. But its biggest talk shows, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, are all airing on other stations. Rush used to be on WBAP, but I'm not sure where Limbaugh's replacement, Travis & Sexton, is airing in the Dallas market?

Maybe one of those three underutilized iHeart stations would make a good ESPN affiliate?
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Why would iHeart put ESPN on one of their stations, when they already run/own a sports radio network?. Unless they are really desperate for the play by play aspect of ESPN Radio.
 
salemjedi54 said:
Why would iHeart put ESPN on one of their stations, when they already run/own a sports radio network?. Unless they are really desperate for the play by play aspect of ESPN Radio.
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The short reason is because they think they can make more money off of it than they could with their own product. I’m thinking iHeart airs ESPN in a few markets. As a previous post mentions, it’s always been the gold standard of sports.

I'll disclaim my above statement by saying I don’t see that happening in DFW. I'm just saying that’s a reason iHeart might air ESPN rather than Fox Sports.
 
Kent said:
The short reason is because they think they can make more money off of it than they could with their own product. I’m thinking iHeart airs ESPN in a few markets. As a previous post mentions, it’s always been the gold standard of sports.

I'll disclaim my above statement by saying I don’t see that happening in DFW. I'm just saying that’s a reason iHeart might air ESPN rather than Fox Sports.
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That's kinda like cutting your nose off to spite ya face.
 
salemjedi54 said:
That's kinda like cutting your nose off to spite ya face.
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That's certainly one way to look at it. From a programming standpoint, I get it.

On the other hand, I don’t see how iHeart airing ESPN is different from Cumulus, Cox, Entercom, CBS, or any of the other large radio companies airing Rush Limbaugh. Sometimes, taking programming from a competitor makes the most money in a given situation, and, in the end, that’s what radio is about. Whether we like it or not, all of these groups talk to each other.
 
Will_H_69_9 said:
The Ticket has signal issues with both 1310 AM and 96.7 FM.
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I complained to Cumulus that the signal from 96.7 FM was not clear from my listening spot in central Irving.
The response I got explained that "96.7 is situated north of the Metroplex and is an FM Signal designed to serve Denton and Collin Counties and almost up into Oklahoma. So the fact that you can get it from time to time at all in Irving is a bonus."

VCY could operate 103.3 as HD Radio from what I understand. From Wiki: "Until mid-2011, KESN broadcast in HD Radio, with its HD2 signal simulcasting KZMP (ESPN Deportes Radio) and its HD3 substation broadcasting an audio simulcast of ESPNews. For reasons unknown, the HD broadcasts were discontinued. Because the license to broadcast digital HD Radio is perpetual, the station could resume digital broadcasts at any time."

 
TheRover, that's just not realistic. VCY is a Christian broadcaster, non-commercial and without any expertise or sales force to operate a commercial format nor a secular format. They know Christian programming, fundraising and such. It would be about like taking the staff of a grocery store and having them operate an internet provider. And consider some of their hardcore supporters might quit giving because they're running secular programming. Much of the giving is to 'win souls' and that's not ESPN's agenda. For that reason alone they would not even lease an HD channel to anyone unless it was a very very like-minded ministry that was going after, say, a non-English speaker.
 
b-turner said:
TheRover, that's just not realistic. VCY is a Christian broadcaster, non-commercial and without any expertise or sales force to operate a commercial format nor a secular format. They know Christian programming, fundraising and such. It would be about like taking the staff of a grocery store and having them operate an internet provider. And consider some of their hardcore supporters might quit giving because they're running secular programming. Much of the giving is to 'win souls' and that's not ESPN's agenda. For that reason alone they would not even lease an HD channel to anyone unless it was a very very like-minded ministry that was going after, say, a non-English speaker.
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I didn't mean to imply that VCY would have sub-channel that were commercial. I was assuming that their sub-channels would be Christian -programming related.
 
So VCY is basically piping in the programming remotely. I wonder do they have an office here in the Metroplex.
 
TheRover said:
I didn't mean to imply that VCY would have sub-channel that were commercial. I was assuming that their sub-channels would be Christian -programming related.
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salemjedi54 said:
So VCY is basically piping in the programming remotely. I wonder do they have an office here in the Metroplex.
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VCY is an extremely conservative station in their faith and politics, and they won't do anything different unless it was something like 24/7 ultra-traditional Christian music on a subchannel. And I doubt if they would even do that.
 
TheRover said:
I complained to Cumulus that the signal from 96.7 FM was not clear from my listening spot in central Irving.
The response I got explained that "96.7 is situated north of the Metroplex and is an FM Signal designed to serve Denton and Collin Counties and almost up into Oklahoma. So the fact that you can get it from time to time at all in Irving is a bonus."

VCY could operate 103.3 as HD Radio from what I understand. From Wiki: "Until mid-2011, KESN broadcast in HD Radio, with its HD2 signal simulcasting KZMP (ESPN Deportes Radio) and its HD3 substation broadcasting an audio simulcast of ESPNews. For reasons unknown, the HD broadcasts were discontinued. Because the license to broadcast digital HD Radio is perpetual, the station could resume digital broadcasts at any time."

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Their response sounds accurate. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, 96.7 was licensed to Sherman as KSHM and later KIKM-FM.

I lived in Whitewright, about 20 miles from the transmitter, which ran 3,000 watts.

The signal was usually blown away by KSCS on 96.3 Or maybe my JCPenney stereo just wasn't selective enough.
 
96.7 gets out there a good ways. It normally fades out before you get to Paris or Sulphur Springs going east, and it's scratchy but listenable in Wichita Falls. It goes into Oklahoma too, but you lose it after you cross the Arbuckles and start getting the OKC stations. South of Dallas it peters out quickly.
 
Triple Fake Jerry said:
96.7 gets out there a good ways. It normally fades out before you get to Paris or Sulphur Springs going east, and it's scratchy but listenable in Wichita Falls. It goes into Oklahoma too, but you lose it after you cross the Arbuckles and start getting the OKC stations. South of Dallas it peters out quickly.
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how far south. 96.7 is good in Oak Cliff and Southern Dallas County. Even Waxahachie is decent.
 
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