Soxless Boss

[Scott Fybush]

Bill O'Neill wrote:
> Scott Fybush in a Friday morning update to his NERW at  
> http://fybush.com/nerw.html  confirming that GM is out of the Red Hose 
> deal. Wonder if Entercom upped the value. I can't see how losing the 
> franchise could be good for the sports talker, all the while witnessing 
> the birth of an FM player in the market.

My hunch - and it's just a hunch - is that Entercom's not upping its 
offer, either. The Sox would appear to be looking for more $$ than the 
market will bear, and now that WEEI is the "inevitable" choice, there's 
even less reason for Entercom to increase its offer.

If anything, Entercom might sweeten the pot with some non-monetary 
enhancements to the deal. I stand by my thought that a WEEI-FM on 107.3, 
combined with the existing 850 signal and the FMs in Providence and 
(soon) Springfield, would give the Sox an unbeatable signal footprint 
over a huge chunk of eastern New England.

What would be the other options for the Sox at this point? They could 
surely afford to buy 1510 or 890/1400, but the Cardinals' woes with 
their move away from the big KMOX signal have scared some teams away 
from making a shift to a lesser signal. (Believe me, KTRS on 550 in St. 
Louis, with a huge 5 kw ND day signal and a respectable 5 kw DA-N 
signal, low on the dial with that great Midwestern conductivity, is a 
far better signal for the Cards than either 1510 or 890/1400 would be 
for the Sox.)

I don't see CBS loosening the purse strings to do a WBZ/WBCN deal. Clear 
Channel's not known for paying a lot for sports rights in most of its 
markets, and they don't have any suitable signals for the purpose yet, 
anyway. (The Sox on Kiss 108?)

I think the Sox will end up renewing with Entercom, but not for the $$ 
the team was hoping for. The market, clearly, just won't support it.

s