What teams do you think ESPN 98.7 will carry?

[nickp]

my Knicks are going to be broadcast in FM

 

[radioguy39nj]

my Knicks are going to be broadcast in FM

After yesterday's blowout, we'll see how long they last! Yes, it will be nice to hear them again, now on FM. Same with the Rangers.

 

[radioguy39nj]

...With ESPN moving to 98.7, only two NFL teams remain that do not have an FM flagship or co-flag, the Giants and the Denver Broncos. If CBS blows up NOW, the Broncos will be the lone AM holdout.

Add the Buffalo Bills to that AM only list. After 13 seasons, the Bills last month moved from gameday combocasting on 96.9 WGRF and 103.3 WEDG (Cumulus via Citadel) to Entercom's WGR 550 (and an HD2 channel on Entercom's CHR WKSE 98.5.)

Well that's strange, an NFL team giving up an FM to rejoin the AM only club. Entercom must've overpaid big for Bills games. Does WGR at least blanket the Buffalo market? ???

 

[stationless listener]

I would have thought that the Red Bulls could sign on to the new ESPN Deportes station but then I read that they've already signed earlier this month to air their games on WLIB, via a partnership with M&E Productions. http://www.newyorkredbulls.com/es/node/6859

Oh, well, it's still a possibility.

Anyway, I think the Jets are going to get first priority on 98.7, followed by the Mets, Knicks and Rangers. The Yankees will re-sign with CBS Radio. There's a slight chance that they'll start their own radio company but do they really want that expense?

 

[pjc1961]

While radio's a different animal than TV, when one looks at the business model of owning your own network and programming that the Yanks have with the YES Network and the Mets have (shared with Comcast + Time-Warner) with SNY, you'd think it maybe could be done on the radio side. The TV networks seem to have a license to print money.

Madison Square Garden was considering just that type of arrangement with the Knicks and Rangers over 10 years ago - then ESPN radio came along with arms wide open and made it favorable for the teams to join the fold.

But...with radio, there's definitely the problem of having enough programming to go around when the teams are not playing, especially during off-season. TV can fill the gaps easily with other sports programming; the Yanks (or Mets) would have to bring along a fall/winter sports team to fill out a radio off-season schedule (as the Yanks do with the NBA Nets on YES).

Plus the expense of hiring talk show hosts and other station personnel - could get costly/troublesome.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Anyway, I think the Jets are going to get first priority on 98.7, followed by the Mets, Knicks and Rangers. The Yankees will re-sign with CBS Radio. There's a slight chance that they'll start their own radio company but do they really want that expense?

If the Yankees re-sign with CBS Radio, it'll be with WFAN. The games won't remain on Newsradio 880.

If WFAN is going to simulcast on 92.3 FM, I say it'll happen before the Giants' first pre-season game. That arrangement can serve both the Yankees (or the Mets) quite well. Conflict games can be split between 660 AM & 92.3 FM. A baseball game overlapping a Giants football game could go to 660 AM, football to 92.3 FM. Fans of both teams are served by full-market signals on both AM and FM.

 

[fmradio1]

The St. Louis Cardinals tried buying their own radio station several years back and moved their games off their longtime home, CBS powerhouse KMOX. It was a dismal failure. The station, KTRS didn't have the signal or the heritage that KMOX did. While the team still is a part owner of KTRS, the games moved back to KMOX last season.

At this point, I can't see the Yankees wanting to own their own radio station. It would be too much hassle and expense with a limited revenue upside. Especially an AM signal, at a time when sports radio is making the move to FM. Add in other options to get the games, like MLB.com, XM/Sirius and other new media options, it just doesn't make sense.