If this has been asked and answered — my apologies. But I am wondering how WFAN is going to handle play-by-play conflicts now that the Devils and Nets are going to, on some nights, be playing at the same time. In the past, the Devils would be on WFAN, and the Nets would be bumped elsewhere. And I know the discussion has been that WFAN will be a full simulcast on the FM dial. But I wonder if that changes at all for overflow games? Could either the Devils or Nets go to the WFAN AM broadcast, while the other is on the FM side? And of course, this continues in April once the Mets are back. Anyone with any insight on this? Thanks, in advance.
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WFAN Play-By-Play Now That the NHL Is Back
- Thread starter canessa
- Start date
Hi Kevin. I'd imagine that the Nets will be bumped to 1130, 970 or occasionally 1190 when there are Devils/Nets conflicts.
When the Mets start up and all 3 "WFAN" teams are playing in April (and the fall/winter teams hope to play into May + June), things get tricky. Also keep in mind that the Knicks or Rangers play into this as well if they both are also playing at the same time in April, May and/or June.
Perhaps WOR-710 could become a player in future scenarios - they did carry the ESPN Radio broadcast of the BCS College Football National Championship Game on Monday 1/7/2013.
In the most unlikely scenario where the Yanks, Mets, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Rutgers, St. John's + Seton Hall (last three are NCAA basketball) are all playing at the same time ("The Age Of Aquarius: When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars..."), the possible radio lineup may be:
--The "fixed" stations first:
Yankees: WCBS-AM-880
Islanders: WRHU-FM-88.7 (Radio Hofstra)
Seton Hall: WMTR-1250 (in the past WABC-770 - don't know if that's still true)
Rutgers: WOR-710
--The "most likely" stations:
Knicks: WBLS-107.5 (3 games have been "bumped" there this season so far)
Mets: WFAN-AM-660 + FM-101.9
(They've shown no signs of wanting to break the simulcast - yet; this could be an extreme test case, however.
The Mets would have only gotten bumped last June for the Devils if the Devils had played a Game 7 vs. the L.A. Kings in the Stanley Cup Final. A similar situation could arise for the Devils and/or Nets this spring.)
--The "next likely" stations:
Rangers: WEPN-FM-98.7
Devils: WBBR-1130
Nets: WNYM-970 or WLIB-1190 or WWRL-1600 (or highly unlikely: WCBS-FM-101.1)
St. John's: ?? (normally on WBBR-1130; Devils could appear on WNYM-970 + Nets appear on WLIB-1190 to free up WBBR)
(possibly there'd be no St. John's broadcast unless it's a Big East or NCAA Tournament game - they'd likely
find a station to carry the game)
Nothing cast in stone, of course...one never knows which way the broadcast winds may blow. Shuffling amongst the above outlets is not only possible, but likely.
Side note: a few Rangers broadcasts have wound up on additional frequencies in the last few years, those being WWRL-1600 (a couple) and WMCA-570 (once). It's been several years since the Rangers have aired select games on WABC-770.
WWRL broadcasted a few NY Liberty WNBA games years ago.
When the Mets start up and all 3 "WFAN" teams are playing in April (and the fall/winter teams hope to play into May + June), things get tricky. Also keep in mind that the Knicks or Rangers play into this as well if they both are also playing at the same time in April, May and/or June.
Perhaps WOR-710 could become a player in future scenarios - they did carry the ESPN Radio broadcast of the BCS College Football National Championship Game on Monday 1/7/2013.
In the most unlikely scenario where the Yanks, Mets, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Devils, Islanders, Rutgers, St. John's + Seton Hall (last three are NCAA basketball) are all playing at the same time ("The Age Of Aquarius: When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars..."), the possible radio lineup may be:
--The "fixed" stations first:
Yankees: WCBS-AM-880
Islanders: WRHU-FM-88.7 (Radio Hofstra)
Seton Hall: WMTR-1250 (in the past WABC-770 - don't know if that's still true)
Rutgers: WOR-710
--The "most likely" stations:
Knicks: WBLS-107.5 (3 games have been "bumped" there this season so far)
Mets: WFAN-AM-660 + FM-101.9
(They've shown no signs of wanting to break the simulcast - yet; this could be an extreme test case, however.
The Mets would have only gotten bumped last June for the Devils if the Devils had played a Game 7 vs. the L.A. Kings in the Stanley Cup Final. A similar situation could arise for the Devils and/or Nets this spring.)
--The "next likely" stations:
Rangers: WEPN-FM-98.7
Devils: WBBR-1130
Nets: WNYM-970 or WLIB-1190 or WWRL-1600 (or highly unlikely: WCBS-FM-101.1)
St. John's: ?? (normally on WBBR-1130; Devils could appear on WNYM-970 + Nets appear on WLIB-1190 to free up WBBR)
(possibly there'd be no St. John's broadcast unless it's a Big East or NCAA Tournament game - they'd likely
find a station to carry the game)
Nothing cast in stone, of course...one never knows which way the broadcast winds may blow. Shuffling amongst the above outlets is not only possible, but likely.
Side note: a few Rangers broadcasts have wound up on additional frequencies in the last few years, those being WWRL-1600 (a couple) and WMCA-570 (once). It's been several years since the Rangers have aired select games on WABC-770.
WWRL broadcasted a few NY Liberty WNBA games years ago.
The thorn in CBS' side, when it comes to breaking the 660/101.9 simulcast, is Arbitron. In order to qualify for single-line reporting, combining AM and FM numbers, it has to be a 100% simulcast, no exceptions. As soon as you break away for one Mets/Knicks or Knicks/Rangers conflict, you're now listing separate lines for 660 and 101.9 and hoping the agency buyers know to combine them .
My guess is that this is the real reason why the simulcast has lasted this long: CBS really, really doesn't want anything out there showing 98.7 with higher ratings than 101.9 by itself...and so it's waiting patiently for enough listenership to move over to 101.9 that it can break the simulcast at a time when 101.9 is clearly outranking 98.7, even without adding 660's audience to the mix.
Once they break the simulcast for anything, they can break it for everything, and that's probably the point where the CBS Sports Radio content shows up on 660 and where 660 becomes a very useful conflict-resolution signal.
My guess is that this is the real reason why the simulcast has lasted this long: CBS really, really doesn't want anything out there showing 98.7 with higher ratings than 101.9 by itself...and so it's waiting patiently for enough listenership to move over to 101.9 that it can break the simulcast at a time when 101.9 is clearly outranking 98.7, even without adding 660's audience to the mix.
Once they break the simulcast for anything, they can break it for everything, and that's probably the point where the CBS Sports Radio content shows up on 660 and where 660 becomes a very useful conflict-resolution signal.
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