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What could have been: Sports 99.5 with D&C...contract up this yr?

raccoonradio

raccoonradio

It was said on Boston Sports Media Watch that EEI is stuck with big contracts for Dennis,
Callahan, and Ordway. What's interesting is 5 yrs ago, D&C were threatening to leave for
a proposed new all sports station on FM.

Sports on FM? That'll be the day! ;D I think Nassau Broadcasting wanted to make WCRB
99.5 "Boston's new home for sports". Exit Brahms, enter Brady-talk. But WEEI wound up
re-signing them. Anyway, unless D&C got a contract extension, I believe their own Entercom
contract is up at the end of this year, along with another Entercom employee who uses
equipment autographed by Marconi. Hmm....?

Recall:

>>http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/articles/2007/08/16/dennis_callahan_may_move_to_wcrb/
8-16-07: “Sources close to the negotiations say a possible new home for radio talkmasters John Dennis and Gerry Callahan is WCRB-FM (99.5), the classical music station that is considering a switch to an all-sports format. ”

A month later
>>Sports radio hosts Dennis & Callahan have signed a five-year contract to stay on at WEEI. The station had locked them out during the negotiations.
(Sept 2007)
http://bostonist.com/2007/09/10/stuck_between_s_1.php

A 5 yr deal eh? Looks like Howie C isn’t the only sneaker building employee whose contract is up later this year. Maybe the 99.5 Sports idea was far fetched but, you wonder...
 
Of course by now people have observed on radio-info.com's home page that there has been a major bloodletting at Entercom-owned stations in San Francisco. It's possible that the company is less willing than in the past to pay humongous salaries any more.
 
Indeed I'm wondering if Dennis, Callahan, and Carr might be headed elsewhere, but would they get much more from other stations, for that matter? Howie has hinted broadly that he'd like to go to
FM--but the new Greater Media bigwig is no fan of local content, we hear (foisting Delilah on
listeners rather than a local DJ). You're right, Entercom is less likely to pay huge salaries. Again apparently Howie, John, and Gerry's contracts all seem to be up this fall.

Howie: To WTKK? (G. Media might think he's worth it if he brings in advertisers...I could see
Graham moving to 7 pm if Howie got afternoon drive...but is this likely?) To WXKS? (Would
they get rid of Katz or Severin to make room?) To WBZ? (Doubtful! I can't picture CBS
hiring him. )

John and Gerry...to Sports Hub? (Doubtful!) It was noted on Boston Sports media watch that
Sports Hub may have followed WEEI's lead in becoming "cocky" and not treating their
listeners well. The bigger they are, the harder they fall...? Sports Hub may suffer some ratings
downtowns if this happens.
Maybe all 3 could remain where they are, and with smaller contracts, should there be little/no
interest elsewhere, or if the other companies offer less.
 
So...lots of folks are assuming that Howie ended up with the same deal he would have had at WTKK, and therefore will be a free agent in September 2012 or so. What if he didn't? What if in the middle of all the acrimony, badmouthing and complaining Howie actually signed a different deal, one that committed him to Entercom for longer than he would have been obligated if he simply agreed to the "matched" WTKK deal? Would he be perceived differently?
 
I am so grateful that WGBH purchased WCRB and saved Classical music in Boston.

The last thing Boston needs on FM is another whiney sports talk station.
 
Actually we got "another", namely WBZ-FM, and it's doing quite well. Had this happened I don't know if WBZ-FM would have gone sports as it did--but maybe it would, and "WCRB 99.5" would not have been able to compete with the likes of EEI and Sports Hub due to the transmitter being not as close to Boston as Peabody or Newton, and probably having a lackluster lineup (well, D&C, but who else?)
and they would have changed format to something else by '09 or so anyway.
WEEI and WBZ-FM may be whiny sports stations to some ears, indeed, but they do have the
action of all 4 major sports teams (5 if you include Revs) and they make money. (But I know what you mean...you meant yet another besides them instead of classical.)

Entercom did own half of WCRB as part of the deal which put it on 99.5, I believe (and I forget when they gave that up) and you wonder if Entercom got the station fully, would they have attempted
to simulcast WEEI on 99.5 once the Sports Hub did debut. Instead, they wound up putting it on
93.7, a bit closer to Boston.
Years earlier Greater Media was in the running for Sox rights and the Globe reported they might have put them on WBOS 92.9, which would have gone sports talk, but GM
backed out.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/03/18/sox_look_to_move_broadcasts_to_wbos/
3-18-06:
>>(Team in talks to buy 25% stake in station)The Red Sox are negotiating with the owner of radio station WBOS to take an ownership stake in the station and move its radio broadcast rights there, a move that would effectively end the team's relationship with Boston's dominant sports station, WEEI

12/06: Deal puts WCRB on 99.5, WKLB on 102.5
9/07: D&C re-sign with WEEI, killing off poss. of "Sports 99.5" The Howie/WRKO muddle
is settled 2 months later
8/09: Debut of WBZ-FM The Sports Hub.
9/11: After hesitating because WMKK "Mike 93.7" was doing fairly well, Entercom finally
puts WEEI on 93.7 to keep the station competitive. These days as far as they're
concerned 93.7 _is_ the main home of WEEI, and the AM 850 is just simulcasting _them_.
"You're next on 93.7."

---
http://www.fybush.com/NERW/2007/070820/nerw.html
This August 20, 2007 edition of Fybush's NERW mentions the poss. deal with Nassau that
D&C had which would have made 99.5 sports.
>>Nassau was thinking of flipping 99.5 from classical to sports, challenging Entercom's WEEI (850 Boston) with a lineup that would include WEEI's current morning team of John Dennis and Gerry Callahan. By the end of the day, though, a different picture emerged: instead of competing with Entercom and WEEI, Nassau is joining forces with the bigger broadcaster, selling a half-interest in WCRB to Entercom for $10 million in cash and a deal to put WEEI's sports programming on 11 Nassau stations on Cape Cod and across northern New England.

---
(This deal would have put WEEI on WPXC Hyannis; 870 and 1440 up in Portland, and some AMs
in NH and VT. But that deal fell through. So D&C wind up back at WEEI, Nassau-Entercom
sports radio partnership didn't occur, and WEEI found other options to branch out. (Including 95.9 and 95.5
up in Maine)
 
And Fybush also wondered at the time if WEEI could have wound on 99.5--roll over Beethoven,
dig to the sports talk....Same Fybush link:

>>...Is 99.5 going to end up as part of the WEEI network, too?... (Did we mention that the 99.5 signal not only nicely complements the 103.7 signal from the south, but that it also fills in some gaps in the 850 signal north and west of Boston at night?) Again, we emphasize that we're in purely speculative mode here - but an eventual WEEI FM outlet on 99.5 seems like a likely possibility to us.
 
I don't think sports on 99.5 was ever anything more than wishful thinking on Entercom's part. As far as I can tell, Nassau was trying to find a way to get money out of 99.5 without giving up control. As the deal was described to me, 99.5 would have stayed classical and WEEI's network would have been expanded to include Nassau stations in other parts of New England. Entercom would have got a 50% stake in WCRB, but with Nassau retaining control. In the end, Entercom balked, and when Nassau put WCRB up for sale in 2009, Entercom was outbid by WGBH.
 
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