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What Will Become of ABC Radio Sports?

J

jetfli

ABC Sports, and ABC Radio Sports, were once great brands. Under Disney, they became but a shell of what they once were, languishing in the shadow of the ESPN brand. Now that Citadel (which owns several well-run sports stations) is in charge, can the ABC Radio Sports brand become meaningful again? Could it become a competitive bidder for sports programming and live play-by-play? Or even a provider of content for Citadel and other interested sports stations?
 
I wouldn't count on Citadel getting any national sports rights. ESPN Radio has a stranglehold on the NBA, Major League Baseball and BCS rights and I don't think they're going to give them up that easy.

They could also work as a provider of prgramming, I think what Citadel should do is reach some kind of deal with the current owners of Sporting News Radio, disband the network and use some of the network's big time shows like Tony Bruno, Arnie Spanier, Tim Brando, Todd Wright and the weekend shows and syndicate them as separate shows to not only Sports stations but News/Talk and Talk stations as well, because eventually Sporting News Radio is going to join Sports Fan Radio Network and several others in the sports radio network graveyard. This way Sporting News Radio could still have some their shows around but without the constraints of a network to hold them.
 
Scoobyfan1 said:
I wouldn't count on Citadel getting any national sports rights. ESPN Radio has a stranglehold on the NBA, Major League Baseball and BCS rights and I don't think they're going to give them up that easy.
Click to expand...

I guess I was thinking less of Citadel/ABC competing with ESPN, and more of them competing with Westwood One and Jones for sports programming...

But now I wonder if there are any terms of sale that would prohibit Citadel from using ABC Radio Sports to compete with ESPN? Or if, since more than half of the new company is owned by Disney stockholders, those stockholders would want to see ESPN on citadel stations?

Anyway, those are interesting thoughts about a Sporting News Radio purchase...
 
What used to be ABC Radio "Sports" (back in the day) became ESPN Radio. So the ABC Radio Network has not been a sports player for years. I'm sure Citadel will still be a player in local sports rights through the new properties they acquired from ABC, but I doubt if they have much interest in going head-to-head with ESPN Radio, Westwood One et al as a national sports rights holder.
 
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