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AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - ETSUAlumni - 01-02-2013 12:58 PM
Was just wandering what happened to am640 being an espn affiliate. Looks like they are a cbs affiliate now. I am dissapointed in this.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - ETSUfan1 - 01-02-2013 01:02 PM
Cumulus, who just bought them out, is requiring them to switch from what I understand. Also ESPN is charging affiliates now. I think you'll see a drop in the number of ESPN stations going forward.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - RodShaw2 - 01-02-2013 03:12 PM
Bill Meade announced that was coming with the new year several months ago, I had forgotten about it.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - etsubuc - 01-02-2013 03:15 PM
The ESPN programming was not worth affiliates paying for it. Glad to see radio stations not being bullied by ESPN
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - ETSUfan1 - 01-02-2013 03:23 PM
Since Bill doesn't screen his calls, his show could be humorous for a while, with people just calling in to complain.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - Buccaneerlover - 01-03-2013 11:46 AM
CBS Sports Radio is a steaming pile of s#!t. The thing with the sports format is in other markets, ie Knoxville, Nashville the Cumulus stations are almost exclusively local, even in the midday. If 640 went local all day it would be fine, because the only stuff you'd hear from CBS is prerecorded hourly tidbits of "wisdom" from Doug Gottlieb. 640 needs two good midday shows that focus on local sports, but gives the hits of regional things too. Basically, draw a circle that reaches a five hour radius around the Tri-Cities, and if it's in the five hour radius, give it attention. Focus on local, but talk Falcons, Panthers, Titans, Redskins, Bengals but maybe see if Witten/Sensabaugh will give a couple of segments every week during football. There's enough to do it, they just have to be willing to invest and get out and sell it.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - ETSUfan1 - 01-03-2013 12:03 PM
Cumulus isn't going to do an all day live sports station in this market.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - Buccaneerlover - 01-03-2013 03:20 PM
Oh I know. They're a terrible employer. Dave Ramsey pulled the plug finally on his flagship being with Cumulus. They suck.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - PittsburghBucs - 01-03-2013 04:46 PM
Wait! Aren't we talking about "who grew the biggest pumpkin at the fair?"
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - PittsburghBucs - 01-03-2013 04:57 PM
I have seen the lineup for CBS and frankly I think it has some potential. I have always liked Scott Ferrall and some other hosts, such as John Feinstein, figure to have some potential as well.
Frankly I think Colin Cowherd's act is just that of parroting the ESPN company line obnoxiously, we never heard Mike and Mike in the market, and the rest of the programming one would hear on ESPN radio that 640 would play is rather stale. I do enjoy Bob Valvano's show, but 12-3 a.m. on Sunday morning isn't exactly going to make or break a network and if I really want to hear it, I can tune into an AM 50,000 watter and get it.
ESPN has become all about ESPN and not so much about sports. Even today, when I watched Sportscenter (something I rarely do anymore) they did a retrospective on the 20th Anniversary of Frank Reich and the Bills coming back against the Houston Oilers in the playoffs, the retrospective wasn't so much about how the comeback was engineered but rather how ESPN covered it on PrimeTime back then.
Other than that, Lover's got a good idea about revamping 640, but I would state that I've been around the area enough to know that people wouldn't care about the Falcons or Bengals. If you wanted to go that route, you might as well pick up on the Cowboys and Steelers.
But I applaud the change to CBS. It is the way sports talk is going.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - RodShaw2 - 01-03-2013 06:34 PM
Who would WXSM use as staff for those new shows? Right now they have has hosts Bobby (with Kenny M-W-F and Bud T-Th) in the morning and Bill in the afternoon and if either one misses the other covers and works a double. Oh yeah and Don Helman on Saturday morning. If a business requests they will do a remote "Midday Monster" with one or the other hosting. I don't see them paying to hire a couple of more people (at the least to cover the 10-3 shift). Ideally you would want at least one of those shows to have 2 people manning it so that would be hiring 3 more people.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - Buccaneerlover - 01-03-2013 09:03 PM
It's not against the rules to bring in new people. Sister station 104.5 hired Paul Kuharsky and Jonathan Hutton to do their midday show (Kuharsky does the ESPN South stuff for ESPN, Hutton was a Titans radio guy).
And you don't do a 10-3 shift. That's way too much time to fill.
6-9 - Morning
9-12 - Dan Patrick
12-3 - Midday local
3-6 - Bill
6-6 - CBS - nobody's listening anyway.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - PittsburghBucs - 01-03-2013 09:09 PM
(01-03-2013 06:34 PM)RodShaw2 Wrote: Who would WXSM use as staff for those new shows? Right now they have has hosts Bobby (with Kenny M-W-F and Bud T-Th) in the morning and Bill in the afternoon and if either one misses the other covers and works a double. Oh yeah and Don Helman on Saturday morning. If a business requests they will do a remote "Midday Monster" with one or the other hosting. I don't see them paying to hire a couple of more people (at the least to cover the 10-3 shift). Ideally you would want at least one of those shows to have 2 people manning it so that would be hiring 3 more people.
I would love to do it and have the background of success. It's more complicated than that, but hey.
Bud ought to have a bigger presence. He's a talent.
Jay Sandos knows broadcasting in and out and would love a shot.
There are those sportscasters Jay puts out who are looking for a shot. If Cumulus posted the position they'd get a thousand resumes.
Then again, yeah, instead of replacement hosts they ask guys to do double shifts. You have to wonder, therefore, about the talent of the sales staff as much as anyone else there.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - PittsburghBucs - 01-03-2013 09:13 PM
(01-03-2013 09:03 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: It's not against the rules to bring in new people. Sister station 104.5 hired Paul Kuharsky and Jonathan Hutton to do their midday show (Kuharsky does the ESPN South stuff for ESPN, Hutton was a Titans radio guy).
And you don't do a 10-3 shift. That's way too much time to fill.
6-9 - Morning
9-12 - Dan Patrick
12-3 - Midday local
3-6 - Bill
6-6 - CBS - nobody's listening anyway.
You know why they won't do that? Because from 12-3 Rush is on. And with these big conglomerates the No. 1 rule is "protect the mothership."
And that's why sports talk in the Tri Cities is the way it is.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - bucfan81 - 01-03-2013 09:14 PM
Did anyone listen to the show today and was the condition of the ETSU basketball program discussed?
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - RodShaw2 - 01-03-2013 09:38 PM
You both keep saying lots of people would like that job etc. Read my first post. I think they are to cheap to hire 1 more person let alone 2 or 3 to fill out the slot. That is why Bobby and Bill do so much double duty. I didn't say make it one 5 hour shift btw I said that would be the time frame that would need to be covered. I was thinking scaling back morning show to 6-9 and creating 2 shows 9-12 and 12-3. It was the 12-3 show that I think would need a pair of people hosting not just one.
I think Bud would good, perhaps move him and Bobby to 12-3 slot and bring in someone new for the morning. For gods sake though DO NOT use Don Helman he is totally clueless.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - Buccaneerlover - 01-04-2013 09:31 AM
Until January 1st Cumulus was running the hottest new sports show in the U.S. up against Dave Ramsey out of the same shop.
I said it originally that Cumulus is a bad company to work for, which is sad because there are really good folks over in Gray who have worked their tails off only to have a company with a shoddy employment record buy them out. I agree with you, it'll never happen, but Cumulus has the history of doing it.
Having Dan Patrick on 9-12 is a good national show. Like I said, look at WGFX's ratings and what's going on with them in the last year. It could be mirrored up there on a smaller scale, but ya gotta have people who can and willing to sell it, and not just to promote self interests.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - PittsburghBucs - 01-04-2013 01:45 PM
(01-03-2013 09:09 PM)PittsburghBucs Wrote: Then again, yeah, instead of replacement hosts they ask guys to do double shifts. You have to wonder, therefore, about the talent of the sales staff as much as anyone else there.
Rod- what part of that did you not get?
Lover- Isn't Patrick on The Sports Fox?
Tell you the truth, I'm looking at the lineup they have now, and Jim Rome is not a real good lead in for Bill Meade.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - RodShaw2 - 01-04-2013 02:16 PM
Some ideas for hosts/ Frequent guests on new shows.
Kasey and Jay I think would do well as hosts.. perhaps co host a show?
Also Trey as frequent quest, panelist etc.
RE: AM640 no longer ESPN affiliate - PittsburghBucs - 01-04-2013 02:29 PM
Asked you a question, Rod.
What part of the last sentence of post 13 didn't you get?