Re: Winstar files for bankruptcy

[Sptseditor@aol.com]

In a message dated Thu, 19 Apr 2001  9:33:47 AM Eastern Daylight Time, SteveOrdinetz <steveord@wavewizard.com> writes:

<< While I'm not enough of a sports fan (read: not at all) to discern minute
differences between various sports networks, ESPN seems to be the best of
lot.  We carry them nights & overnights on WKXL, and they're entertaining,
even for a total non-sports fan.  How many satellite sports services do we
really need? >>

ESPN puts out a very good product, and their weekday overnight show with Todd Wright is a blast. All of their personalities are professional. They are pretty much live 24-7 now, which also beats Sports Fan. Working overnights and living in a market with ESPN Radio bird-fed pretty much day and night (station breaks away for high school sports once or twice a week and Don and Mike in PM drive), I've had a chance to become accustomed to this first-hand. Meanwhile, as I have said here before, Sports Fan's programming makes high school radio stations sound professional by comparison.

Mark mentioned Sports Byline USA, which used to have Ron Barr (who had worked in Boston in the 1980s) as host. I think they had added an East Coast overnight feed a few years back, but then I thought I had heard their syndicator had either pulled the program or cut back the hours.

Right now there's four satellite sports services: Sports Fan, ESPN, Fox, and Sporting News. I would expect that if Sports Fan went under, Sporting News would seek to gain a lot of Sports Fan's clearances in major markets (i.e. Detroit, Oakland). Paul Allen does have the money to buy the time; then again, he has to go broke some time, doesn't he?

-Sean