Checked with MLB

[Sean Smyth]

Steve O. wrote:
<< In Boston maybe, but doubtfully in Buffalo.  How marketable to
Buffalo 
advertisers is having sports listeners in Maine, or even western Mass?
I'm 
not sure there are enough Sox fans in Buffalo proper to make it worth 
it.  If they can't sell the games to Buffalo advertisers, what benefit
is 
it to KB?  Don't they already carry some minor league team pbp? >>

Traditionally MLB teams have put their broadcasts on a major-league (pun
intended) flamethrowing flagship, hence the 'KB appeal. (And it may not
be as much about advertising as keeping the Sox happy and the Sox may
want a way to reach out to their western New England fan base.) Boston
is the exception to the aforementioned rule. But ... 


<< As far as a new radio home for the Sox...lotsa luck.  WBZ is about
the only 
AM station with a decent night signal, and I doubt they're gonna want to

give up that much of their regular programming, even for something as 
lucrative as the Sox can be (though stranger things have happened).  As
for 
FM, other than perennial bottom dwellers like WBOS or WXRV I can't see
any 
stations that are doing badly enough that they'd want to make that kind
of 
a change (and I frankly doubt the compatability of baseball & AAA
either). >>

... MLB has seemed to tacitly encouraged teams to move broadcasts to
weaker-powered AM stations and FMs in recent years, with the Detroit
Tigers and the WJR-to-WXYT deal a prime example. A potential reason: MLB
wants to sell a bunch of its $19.99-a-year radio webcast packages. Lots
of fans in Fort Wayne and northern Indiana, in addition to other locales
across the upper midwest, were left in the lurch when WJR lost the
Tigers contract three years ago.

As for an FM that would take the Sox, 96.9 would be a perfect fit - a
great signal as far as Boston FMs go, little other noise on the channel
in the region, and a flexible format similar to what WRKO was 12, 13
years ago when it had Sox rights. And I understand Greater Media did bid
on the most recent Sox, Patriots and Celtics radio contracts.