Tigers, Wings head down the dial

[Sptseditor@aol.com]

Not that this is all that local to my New England compadres, but of interest 
to those who are used to picking up a sporting event on a clear-channel 
station at night.

The Illitch family, which owns the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings, has awarded 
radio broadcast rights for its sports properties to Infinity-owned WXYT 
(1270). WXYT is currently the flagship for Detroit Lions football. The move 
from WJR (760) ends a relationship that the Tigers had with the station since 
1960; the Wings, whose broadcasts move effective immediately, had been on 760 
since the early 1970s.

The story got pretty heavy play out here on the Infinity stations, which were 
apparently psyched about the acquisition. It was the lead story in the AM on 
their hot talker, WKRK (97.1), and received more than a minute of the 
sportscast in PM drive on WWJ (950). There's also heavy speculation that WXYT 
will dump its talk lineup and go to all-sports, challenging WDFN (1130). 

Unlike WJR, I doubt anyone has a snowball's chance in hell of picking up WXYT 
in New England, so no more getting the chance to hear Ernie Harwell on my 
drive home. Harwell is expected to stay on board; it looks like they aren't 
going to try to force him out like the former Tigers owners tried to do 10 or 
so years ago.

-Sean