Big Deal For Boston Sports Radio

It's looking more and more like the proposed merger between CBS Radio and Entercom could actually happen, and it could very well be approved within the next six months.

As part of the process, Entercom will need to divest itself of several large radio stations due to ownership restrictions in some key markets. For sports radio, there is no radio market matching the significance of Boston, which has had fierce competition between its two sports stations, WEEI-FM and WBZ-FM. Both stations have consistently finished in the top 10 overall in the market, giving Boston the largest sports talk radio combined audience in the country.

This merger would mean that Entercom would then own both of those stations in Boston. Our thinking was that Entercom would choose between keeping them both in place as a means to prevent any serious competition, or perhaps roll one into a local sports powerhouse while putting national sports feeds on the other. This is already the case as WEEI-AM 850 is primarily ESPN Radio.

However, as a means to assure approval of the merger, Entercom has determined that its best course of action is to get rid of "overflow" stations in several markets. Part of that decision is to plan to sell off WBZ-FM Sports Hub in Boston.

WBZ-FM is the flagship station of the Patriots and Bruins. Usually the contract to broadcast a team is with the broadcast ownership group and not the station. This "merger", which is more like a takeover of CBS Radio by Entercom, is being reviewed and eventually approved by the FCC. No word yet as to whether or not Entercom would also assume the Patriots and Bruins contracts and be able to move those broadcasts to another of its Boston stations or if these contracts will be part of the sale.

What happens with those contracts, either way, will have a huge impact on Boston radio.

In the event that the buyer of WBZ-FM also receives the Patriots and Bruins contracts, the stage is set for that buyer to maintain the large sports talk audience and play-by-play and remain as direct competition for WEEI-FM. If the team contracts are not included, continuing as a sports station becomes less appealing but still possible.

If the new owners decide to go with a different format, then it would mean that WEEI-FM could gain as much as double its current audience. Even if it doesn't gain very much, it will have wiped out its strong competitor.

Entercom has other sports stations shown within its list of tentative stations around the country to divest, including KFNQ-AM Seattle and KHTK Sacramento, which could impact sports radio in those two markets. The difference is that no other market has two sports stations as strong as the pair in Boston, nor are other markets involving the possibility of single ownership of more than one sports station.


As we prepare for the MLB League Championship Series in both leagues, it's worthy of note that Fox Sports continues to shaft their telecasts, putting the majority of them on Fox Sports 1 and depriving many fans around the country the opportunity to see these post-season games.

At press time, the only one of the first five ALCS games scheduled for Fox Sports is Game 2 on Saturday (10/14), which is a late afternoon game (4 PM ET) going up against a ton of college football games. Worse yet, Fox still does not allow its over the air stations in New York and Houston to show the games, leaving a lot of fans unable to find or watch these games.

Sure, it's the same with TBS and many casual fans not knowing where to find the National League games. That's the fault of MLB for allowing this to happen.


The report earlier this week from Forbes Magazine shows that local MLB telecasts did well overall this season. Nielsen Media reports show that 12 of the regional sports networks which air MLB teams finished #1 in their respective markets on game nights. Along with those 12 teams, the Mets and the Angels finished #2 in their respective markets only because the Yankees and Dodgers were in the top spot.

This, despite a 38% ratings decline for Detroit Tigers telecasts as a result of their poor season. Fox Sports' regional networks benefitted the most, since they coincidentally own the rights for the Indians (defending American League champs), as well as the Twins, Brewers, and Diamondbacks, each of whom had much better than expected seasons.

We'll sit back and wait for Fox Sports to twist that into how their regional networks did all of those great things and not make it look like the teams' play had anything to do with it.


A couple of surprising announcements from ESPN this week. Looks even their staple of college hoops is being impacted by their financial cutbacks. This college basketball season will start without their usual 24 hour marathon of games.

Granted, scheduling games that start at 1 AM or even 7 AM local time is an inconvenience to the ticket holding fans as well as local broadcast outlets, but clearly there are schools willing to do so in order to gain the added exposure and be a part of this. That will be the reason for doing this, but it's curious that this happens after all these years during a time when the network is making financial cutbacks.

At the same time, the network hired away NHL expert Greg Wyshynski to increase its NHL coverage, adding fuel to the speculation that ESPN wants the NHL back after all these years. Doing so would mean less time for college basketball (see above paragraph), and dropping MLB in return would (eventually) leave ESPN with nothing from mid-June (NBA and NHL finals) until late August college football games.


CHICAGO: Even though WGN 720 just lost out in its bid to recapture the Bears broadcasts, the station plans to continue its Bears related programming. In addition to continuing its post-game call-in show (even though it doesn't broadcast the games), the station has added Mike Ditka as a Bears analyst during its morning and afternoon shows (not sports specific) on Mondays and Fridays, even including the post-season.


NEW YORK: Even though the games will be bumped for the Yankees post-season, the New Jersey Devils have just started their 13th season on WFAN, adding WFAN.com to stream the radio broadcasts. Play-by-play voice Matt Loughlin will be joined by Glenn 'Chico' Resch as the new analyst (replacing Sherry Ross).


CLEVELAND: As the NBA regular season begins next week, the Cavaliers broadcasts are now simulcast on both WTAM 1100 and WMMS-FM, with John Michael and Jim Chones beginning their 7th season as the broadcast team. In addition, both home and road games will be broadcast on in Spanish on a different station.


PHILADELPHIA: SportsRadio 94 WIP is planning to broadcast a high school football game on Thanksgiving Day, with midday hosts Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie on the call and none other than Howard Eskin acting as sideline reporter. The station is letting the listeners determine which of seven area games to broadcast, with voting taking place through October 31st.


ROCHESTER: WRSB 97.5 The Team is disbanding after this week. Starting next Monday (10/16) the station will become a Spanish music station.