Why is Sports radio taking over FM?

[OhioMediaWatch]

What "quite a few" FM sports talkers are in the South?

99.9 The Fan in Raleigh just started up 18 months ago.
The Zone in Nashville is another.

I may be remembering this one wrong, but didn't Nashville have TWO FM sports talkers at one point? And that battle goes back farther than 18 months.

Then, there's the Mobile station mentioned earlier, and a couple of others I can't name off the top of my head.

I wasn't even thinking of the Raleigh station.

 

[tomservo]

Just off the top of my head and in no particular order, there's JOX in Birmingham, and the AM that spawned it (690, now Fox Sports) on a translator now, WUMP in Huntsville is on two translators plus the newer Fox Sports WZZN in Huntsville; an ESPN affiliate in Rushton, Louisiana; ESPN on FM on 105.9 in Jackson, Mississippi (competing with what seems like half a dozen sports AMs); The Score in Florence, Alabama; The Deuce in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; WSLY is sports now in Meridian, Mississippi; WNSP in Bay Minette/Mobile, Alabama; WIOL in Columbus, Georgia; The Ticket in Fort Walton Beach, Florida; ESPN is on the HD-2 of a music station in Pensacola, Florida; WTUP in Tupelo, Mississippi is on a translator; I'm pretty sure 92.9 in Hazlehurt, Mississippi is still sports; Flinn just launch a dual FM sports talker in Oxford and Grenada, Mississippi; ESPN on 103.3 in Greenwood, Mississippi… and who knows who else.

Then there's defunct sports stations, like the aforementioned Ticket in Andalusia, Alabama, and I think Clemson, South Carolina had one at one time, too.

 

[whitakermk]

My weekly short format tailgate/grilling/cooking show runs on the AM Fox Sports in Chattanooga. I live in Chatt and on AM there is 1310AM and 1370AM - both WDEF family. They both run FOX Sports & simulcast some shows but carry different shows in other time slots which makes it easy to catch a good show. 1310 carries local shows as well. There is also an ESPN affiliate in Chattanooga on the FM dial and a few Sports/talk stations in outlying areas. I guess most around here are AM.

I know Nashville has one FM Sports-104 the zone, and one AM sports WNSR 560AM. One of my affiliates is in Murfreesboro but covers most of Nashville WGNS Talk/Sports/Local programing.

There is one affiliate in Clarksville about 30 minutes NW of Nashville. AM WJMZ Sports/Talk.

 

[quadraphonic]

Just off the top of my head and in no particular order, there's JOX in Birmingham, and the AM that spawned it (690, now Fox Sports) on a translator now, WUMP in Huntsville is on two translators plus the newer Fox Sports WZZN in Huntsville; an ESPN affiliate in Rushton, Louisiana; ESPN on FM on 105.9 in Jackson, Mississippi (competing with what seems like half a dozen sports AMs); The Score in Florence, Alabama; The Deuce in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; WSLY is sports now in Meridian, Mississippi; WNSP in Bay Minette/Mobile, Alabama; WIOL in Columbus, Georgia; The Ticket in Fort Walton Beach, Florida; ESPN is on the HD-2 of a music station in Pensacola, Florida; WTUP in Tupelo, Mississippi is on a translator; I'm pretty sure 92.9 in Hazlehurt, Mississippi is still sports; Flinn just launch a dual FM sports talker in Oxford and Grenada, Mississippi; ESPN on 103.3 in Greenwood, Mississippi… and who knows who else.

Then there's defunct sports stations, like the aforementioned Ticket in Andalusia, Alabama, and I think Clemson, South Carolina had one at one time, too.

I could only find a list at wikipedia of "sports stations." I don't think any of those were listed.

There's one in Florence SC too, now that you mentioned that Florence one. '

Given that they all seem to be occurring in just a couple states, I'm going to say we should settle on the reason being "copying."
All the sports stations I can think of in NC [8-10 if you count simulcasts and recent defunctions] are still on AM except 99.9The Fan. I guess it's not caught on here. Yet.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Wow...thanks, Zach! I didn't even know about half of those.

And yes, they seem to be in a pretty concentrated part of the south...not to mention the talk formats on FM down there (a la "Supertalk Mississippi") which may have influenced some of the spoken word-on-FM movement.

Radio copying is alive and well...

 

[tomservo]

Wow...thanks, Zach! I didn't even know about half of those.

And yes, they seem to be in a pretty concentrated part of the south...not to mention the talk formats on FM down there (a la "Supertalk Mississippi") which may have influenced some of the spoken word-on-FM movement.

Radio copying is alive and well...

Yeah it's probably copying. I definitely think news/talk on FM has exploded down here even more than sports talk, though.

 

[tomficker]

Every day I log on to radio-info sports just hoping somebody has thrown out a new nugget or rumor and I mean I appreciate everyone's efforts on the site but if this isn't the most boring go**amn seven page thread on the site, I'm not sure what is? I'm ready to repost "What ever happened to the Fabulous Sports Babe?" just to get this off top billing.

 

[KMGX]

Every day I log on to radio-info sports just hoping somebody has thrown out a new nugget or rumor and I mean I appreciate everyone's efforts on the site but if this isn't the most boring go**amn seven page thread on the site, I'm not sure what is? I'm ready to repost "What ever happened to the Fabulous Sports Babe?" just to get this off top billing.

...and whatever happened to the fabulous sports babe?

**SPOILER ALERT** She's on in Tampa Bay. Apparently she's been there since 2007... who knew?

 

[quadraphonic]

Every day I log on to radio-info sports just hoping somebody has thrown out a new nugget or rumor and I mean I appreciate everyone's efforts on the site but if this isn't the most boring go**amn seven page thread on the site, I'm not sure what is? I'm ready to repost "What ever happened to the Fabulous Sports Babe?" just to get this off top billing.

You could always talk about Bieber!

 

[wprt949]

who ???

 

[charlestondxman]

Clemson still has one, WCCP at 104.9. They are about the only local sports talk in the Upstate of SC except for a new AM sports ESPN in Greenville, which mostly simulcasts their co-owned station in Spartanburg.

Myrtle Beach has 93.9 FM (ESPN), which used to be on 93.7 FM, simulcasting. Columbia has 2 FM sports stations, 107.5 and 93.1. 107.5 is Fox Sports but with lots of local programming, and 93.1 is ESPN. WCOS 1400 airs on a HD-2, so all three of their sports stations air on FM or HD.

Charleston has 99.3 FM, a translator of 1390, which is Sporting News, and Savannah has 100,000 watt 102.1 FM, which is all-ESPN. Lots of sports on FM here.

 

[TeamSR]

Here's the list of SportsTalkers that i know of in Tennessee:


In Knoxville we have The Sports Animal - WNML 99.1/990 WNRX 99.3 (Local except for FSR at nights)

On AM there's WVLZ 1180 ESPN Radio Knoxville (Local)


In Pigeon Forge there's WPFT 106.3 The Zone (24/7 ESPN)

Chattanooga has 105.1 The Zone (Local/ ESPN)

on AM they have WDEF 1310/1370 (Local/ FSR)

The Tri-Cities have The Sports Monster WXSM 690 (Local/ESPN)


Nashville has the Zone on 104.5 WGFX (Local/ FSR?)

On AM there's WNSR 560 (Local/ESPN)



Memphis has WMFS 92.9/680 (ESPN)

AM there's KQPN 730 (FSR)

 

[tomservo]

Memphis has WMFS 92.9/680 (ESPN)

AM there's KQPN 730 (FSR)

Did 560 WHBQ drop out of the sports race? It seemed to be the more listened-to station when I lived in the area versus the other two.

Going back to Alabama for a moment, the Birmingham ratings just got published on here and the sports station WJOX is #3. Granted this is 6+ (or 12+?) but that's still a pretty good showing.

And just in case it wasn't mentioned yet, we left one out: KABZ Little Rock, on 103.7. I think it's ESPN radio, and a full class C.

 

[TeamSR]

Memphis has WMFS 92.9/680 (ESPN)

AM there's KQPN 730 (FSR)

Did 560 WHBQ drop out of the sports race? It seemed to be the more listened-to station when I lived in the area versus the other two.

Your right..... I forgot about them.

 

[Rusty Muck]

I may be remembering this one wrong, but didn't Nashville have TWO FM sports talkers at one point? And that battle goes back farther than 18 months.

Yes, there were two FM sports talkers in Nashville once. Cumulus ran WNFN-FM in Nashville as an FM sports talker (taking the ESPN affiliation from WNSR) as a complement to FM talk WWTN. That lasted for a year or two before Cumulus dumped it for their "i" CHR format. The ESPN affiliation then went, IIRC, back to WNSR.