This is a shit network. It's only in Birmingham, because a 3rd station decided to get in on the sports format. So why is Mobile's only sports station a Yahoo Sports Radio affiliate? I am sure they dropped ESPN over pressure to carry Mike & Mike, but why not go with Fox Sports? At least they have entertaining shows.
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Why Yahoo on WNSP?
- Thread starter robbie roundhouse
- Start date
Because Yahoo was cheaper than ESPN. WNSP also has all those local shows, while ESPN insists that all of their affiliated stations carry at least Mike and Mike and/or Scott Van Pelt and "The Herd."
I'm now wondering how Pensacola, FL can have ESPN 1450 AM and ESPN 107.3 HD-2. Both with different owners. We also have The Ticket WTKE 1490 on the north/east side out of Milton, FL, and The Ticket WTKE 100.3 on the south/east side out of Fort Walton, FL... but I don't know what network programming they carry.
charlestondxman said:
I believe ESPN Radio now charges stations for carrying their shows and the use ESPN branding in their local promotions. It sounds like it may have been an easy decision for WNSP to drop them (We'll stay 'local' and go with a free/cheaper national service), but it probably wasn't. Even at their most pilloried ventures or efforts, those four letters make for a solid brand.
I predict you'll hear ESPN Radio in Mobile on a competitor within the next few years. IMO, WNSP is just too vulnerable--it doesn't cover the market reliably.
If Sean Sullivan were smart, 106.5 should be that competitor.
robbie roundhouse said:
If I owned FM Talk, I'm buying WABB 1480 and flipping it to sports, hoping to package advertising buys for it alongside 106.5. Grab the Braves and one of the two NFL packages from Compass or Sports USA, with designs to go after the Saints, Crimson Tide, or [Auburn] Tigers when those radio affiliate rights come up.
A direct format competitor is nipped in the bud, and you position your business a little better amongst bigger, corporate operators. One stone.
Why can't FM News/Talk and Sports/Talk be on the same channel? With 100.7 moving in on 106.5's turf and the hope that Clear Channel will join in the fun, 106.5 would make a great Sports station with a few News/Talk shows that I doubt Cumulus or CC will pick up sprinkled in... like Leo Laporte, Clark Howard, or other Cox/WSB voices maybe.
It sure does seem like AM radio is dying again. Who or what is going to be the next Rush Limbaugh to come along and save it?
Ya think Cumulus might have to unload an AM or two or three in Mobile/Pensacola with the new Pamal purchase?
It sure does seem like AM radio is dying again. Who or what is going to be the next Rush Limbaugh to come along and save it?
Ya think Cumulus might have to unload an AM or two or three in Mobile/Pensacola with the new Pamal purchase?
poledo said:
You are right that AM radio is dying. That is why I think WNSP would be smart to buy 1480 and put ESPN there. AM is perfect for a companion sports station to 105.5. Put Mike & Mike and Finebaum on AM. That way you can put more local shows on FM and still have ESPN programming when you aren't live.
Do any industry insiders on this board actually know that WABB 1480 is being actively marketed for a sale? Could it be that infighting in the Ditman family is holding up any changes with it? You know a clause in Bernie's will about what could be done with "WABB" after he passed could have been twisted by some lawyers to refer to WABB 1480 and not WABB-FM 97.5. Just sayin'.
The short term future of AM radio seems to revolve around these bizarre new translator rules. Which AM stations can pick up a translator, especially in a town/city the size of Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta, etc... will be not ever be golden, but they will at least have a shiny brass coating on them. There's also no reason to suspect that the FCC will force the AM signals feeding these new translators to stay on the air, in perpetuity, once they have moved their audience over to a translator, because, well, that would just be stupid. I know that right now the AM has to stay on the air, but in the not to distant future, they should be allowed to shut down the AM transmitters or at least shut them down at night or maybe even downgrade every AM with a translator to a 1kw ND graveyard signal.
I can easily see the move of AMs to these 250 watt max translators resulting in the return of the Class D license, except with a guarantee of a spot somewhere on the FM dial. AMs should eventually be allowed to return their license to the FCC in exchange for a new Class D FM license or, even better in some areas, use their AM license as partial payment for a Class A or better FM license at auction. (A new FM allocation could be found and brought to auction with a requirement that the minimum bid was one local AM license + cash.) Afterwards new AM allocations should not be sold, but existing AMs should be allowed to move around and maximize their signals. Cut way back on the number of AMs requiring more than 3 towers or with a meager 10 mile diameter coverage area to the single digit percentage. Unclutter the AM band. That right there could possibly return news, talk, sports, local, religious, and ethnic and High School/college/public radio programming to the AM band with a fighting chance.
All of these ideas are coming out of the head of a man that has lived his whole life in parts of Dixie with horrible ground conductivity and even in the 1970's AM radio was a nasty dying dog down this way. WWL and WSB are the only two viable AM signals I've ever known.
I wonder if I really just woke up from that nap or if I'm sleep typing? Time to go watch the Preakness since I bet not one red cent on it.
The short term future of AM radio seems to revolve around these bizarre new translator rules. Which AM stations can pick up a translator, especially in a town/city the size of Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta, etc... will be not ever be golden, but they will at least have a shiny brass coating on them. There's also no reason to suspect that the FCC will force the AM signals feeding these new translators to stay on the air, in perpetuity, once they have moved their audience over to a translator, because, well, that would just be stupid. I know that right now the AM has to stay on the air, but in the not to distant future, they should be allowed to shut down the AM transmitters or at least shut them down at night or maybe even downgrade every AM with a translator to a 1kw ND graveyard signal.
I can easily see the move of AMs to these 250 watt max translators resulting in the return of the Class D license, except with a guarantee of a spot somewhere on the FM dial. AMs should eventually be allowed to return their license to the FCC in exchange for a new Class D FM license or, even better in some areas, use their AM license as partial payment for a Class A or better FM license at auction. (A new FM allocation could be found and brought to auction with a requirement that the minimum bid was one local AM license + cash.) Afterwards new AM allocations should not be sold, but existing AMs should be allowed to move around and maximize their signals. Cut way back on the number of AMs requiring more than 3 towers or with a meager 10 mile diameter coverage area to the single digit percentage. Unclutter the AM band. That right there could possibly return news, talk, sports, local, religious, and ethnic and High School/college/public radio programming to the AM band with a fighting chance.
All of these ideas are coming out of the head of a man that has lived his whole life in parts of Dixie with horrible ground conductivity and even in the 1970's AM radio was a nasty dying dog down this way. WWL and WSB are the only two viable AM signals I've ever known.
I wonder if I really just woke up from that nap or if I'm sleep typing? Time to go watch the Preakness since I bet not one red cent on it.
G
Groove1670
Guest
Wait.... the best is yet to come. Another shocker. 
musiconradio.com said:Wait.... the best is yet to come. Another shocker.
Way Cool! Keep 'em rollin' in! Unless someone died.
Not going to be happy until we've got Polka on 92.9, Korean on 99.9. and Sunny 105.7 upgrades to a full market signal on 105.3!
Really, could it be a signal upgrade or move in? Or could the Zew get a 100kw Mobile/Pensacola signal? Whoooo!
G
Groove1670
Guest
No not that exciting. You'll see.
Not that exciting? And here I was thinking that someone had gone around secretly buying up 105.5 in Bay Minette and Fort Walton, 105.7 in Gulf Shores, 105.9 in Atmore and Pascagoula, and 106.1 in Pensacola and Jackson... getting ready to take some silent and move the others around to create a new, full market, 100kw 105.x FM.
Now you've just got me thinking one of the 250 watt translators is about to sign on. This is the Bama board and we're talking Mobile and Baldwin, so it must be 99.5, 100.3 or 103.7. None of which will do me any good.
Time to put back on my foil hat.
Now you've just got me thinking one of the 250 watt translators is about to sign on. This is the Bama board and we're talking Mobile and Baldwin, so it must be 99.5, 100.3 or 103.7. None of which will do me any good.
Time to put back on my foil hat.
G
Groove1670
Guest
For the love of radio man! Bill Gates would need to finance this to make it happen LOL. Poster Rob could engineer it. Sorry, in a wicked humor mood today ;D
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