Sporting News Radio has been struggling since its creation.\u00a0\u00a0 It owns a few stations of its own and has a few dozen stations that carry some of its programming.\u00a0\u00a0 Mostly I find Sporting News on stations that just need filler – AM stations after the sun goes down and the transmitter goes to 8 watts, but the FCC requires them to keep the transmitter on, etc…\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today’s news is that Yahoo! is taking over operation as Yahoo! Sports radio<\/span> effectively immediately.\u00a0\u00a0 This is mostly a sign that the Internet and Cable TV are where people go who are sports fans, not radio.<\/p>\n The other big news is that Westwood One is being merged into Dial Global by the end of the month.\u00a0\u00a0 Westwood One owns the radio rights to NCAA sports and NFL football, syndicates Jim Bohannon, Dirk Van, Dennis Miller, Doug Urbansky, Phil Valentine, a number of satellite delivered music channels and until recently owned Metro Traffic – the people who have a person 1000 miles away who gives the local traffic reports by watching the TrafficCams over the internet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Westwood One basically went under a couple years ago from their debt load – a Private Equity firm saved them from going under, and seems to now be selling off the parts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What’s left is being merged into Dial Global, the folks who syndicated all the Progressive talk hosts, and also do a big business in satellite radio.\u00a0 Dial Global is controlled by OakTree Capital, who control TownSquare Media, Triton Media, StreamTheWorld, and own a big chunk of Cumulus).\u00a0\u00a0 Westwood One was originally closely affiliated with CBS radio, but the nature of that relationshp at this point is very hard to figure out from publicly available information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sporting News Radio has been struggling since its creation.\u00a0\u00a0 It owns a few stations of its own and has a few dozen stations that carry some of its programming.\u00a0\u00a0 Mostly I find Sporting News on stations that just need filler … Continue reading