WPKZ To Air Yankees Games

[Bob Nelson]

One possible other reason WCRN was given affiliation: WRKO used to be the Sox flagship, and this meant Howie
 Carr would lose at least half of his final hour on 680 in favor of the "VERY exciting Red Sox pre-game show"
 (at the time, pregame was a half hour long, and later it went to an hour). WCRN would air Howie instead
 of the pregame, then went to the game itself at 7 pm or so. In the winter, Howie mentions those to the west
 who lose the 680 signal "can go to WCRN" to hear the rest of his show.

 On Aug. 26, 2009, Red Sox games got WEEI 850 as a flagship again. Surely this had nothing to do with
 the arrival of The Sports Hub, 98.5, on August 12 or so of that year :) The Howie pre-emptions were gone,
 except perhaps on nights when WEEI had the Celtics, etc., in which case WRKO got them. (There are
 about 3 pre-season games this year, including tomorrow, where WRKO gets them due to a conflict
 on WEEI.) Entercom could have beaten CBS to the punch by having the WEEI simulcast on FM _before_
 the debut of the Sports Hub (it was mentioned several weeks in advance) but due in many ways to Mike 93.7's good ratings and billing, they dragged their feet until Sept. of last year. Admittedly Entercom may have had a wait-and-see attitude regarding a movie to FM; i.e., see how Sports Hub does in ratings, etc. but they could have taken pre-emptive action. It meant the lost of a revenue stream with the loss of "Mike" but with
 WEEI having a very strong competitor, the move did have to be made, to protect that cash cow.

 At the time, Jason Wolfe said, "“This move will add consistency to our lineup, whereby all of our sports assets will be consolidated in the same place"

 http://www.weei.com/extras/press-release/red-sox-radio-broadcasts-return-weei

----- Original Message -----
From: Sean Smyth
Sent: 03/03/12 11:15 AM
To: Kevin Vahey
Subject: Re: WPKZ To Air Yankees Games

 Kevin Vahey <kvahey@gmail.com> writes: >T he podcast mentions a new station will have the Red Sox in Fitchburg. > > Is WCRN safe for 2012? What other stations are there in Fitchburg, besides WFGL? Unless WXLO were to flip ... I thought I read on here years back that WCRN doesn't pay for the affiliation, and Entercom in exchange keeps the ad revenue. If that's the case I'd imagine Entercom keeps WCRN on board as long as WCRN wants.