Sports News Notes – November 2009
atellite TV giant DirecTV acquires Dan Patrick and Tony Bruno from Jimmy de Castro’s Chicago-based Content Factory and opens its DirecTV Sports Group division. Patrick recently began a simulcast of his Premiere Radio Network’s distributed program on DirectTV’s 101 Network and things moved along from there. Chris Crane and Ken Kohl 
go with Patrick and Bruno from Content Factory to DirectTV to work in the new Sports Group division…..Back in mid-October, Greater Media dropped AC on WNUW-FM 97.5 and began simulcasting WPEN on the frequency as the station becomes “The Fanatic, powered by ESPN.” Greater Media market manager John Fullam says, “We are thrilled to launch Philly’s first FM sports station. Philly fans are the most passionate sports fans in America. They deserve a station like The Fanatic with dynamic programming including Mike Missanelli, ESPN, the World Series, and the biggest stories, names and games in Philadelphia sports.” The on-air lineup is: Mike & Mike in morning drive, Dan Schwartzman and Steven A. Smith in the 10:00 am to 12:00 noon 
slot temporarily, Harry Mayes and Vai Sikahema from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm, Mike Missanelli from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm and the evening show features various hosts broadcasting live from locations throughout Philadelphia. On the sales side, the company names Jake McCann sales manager for the stations…..Former ESPN TV personality and Dallas sports talk host Sean Salisbury is suing the parent company of Deadspin.com –– the website that he alleges published false stories about him, causing him to lose job opportunities and 
ruining his reputation. The Frisco Star reports Salisbury’s lawyers say Deadspin.com has been waging a long-running smear campaign against him primarily by continuing to report speculatively that Salisbury was fired from ESPN and subsequently KRLD-FM, Dallas for “sexting” a female co-worker. Salisbury’s lawyers say he left ESPN voluntarily “for reasons he couldn’t divulge” and also left CBS Radio in a mutual agreement with KRLD-FM…..WDAE, Tampa talk host Dan Sileo served a one-week suspension for reporting on his program 
that the Glazer family had lost hundreds of millions of dollars investing with convicted felon Bernie Madoff and would have to sell the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That generated a flat denial from the Glazer family and WDAE issued a retraction and apology and suspended Sileo…..Talk host Pat Parris exits WXOS-FM, St. Louis. The Bonneville sports talk outlet and Parris mutually agree to part company. Program director Jason Barrett says the station is looking for someone who can match up with co-host Bryan Burwell…..In an unusual reversal for radio, Big League Broadcasting-run sports talker WQXI, Atlanta inks a deal with WGCL-TV to handle the sports reporting duties for the television station. WGCL-TV is letting its two sports personalities –– Gil Tyree and Mark Harmon –– go in the process, although the station says it will hire several more reporters with the money saved. WGCL-TV news director Steve Schwaid tells the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s Rodney Ho, “We are now aligning ourselves with an organization that does sports 24/7 365 days a year. This will give us even more sports content over the next few years. I think this gives us more flexibility in the world of sports. The analogy I use is how ABC News uses ESPN for its sports coverage.”…..The aftermath of the big three-company deal in Raleigh back in August affects the on-air staffs at the stations Capitol Broadcasting acquired from Curtis. Capitol moves David Glenn to WCMC-FM for the 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm show. Adam Gold and Joe Ovies move from their former station WRBZ at 850 on the dial to WDNC 620 which takes on the former’s “The Buzz” brand. The sports content on WDNC simulcast on 850 for a week to allow listeners to adjust…..Davis Broadcasting’s WEAM, Columbus, Georgia begins simulcasting on former Hot AC WIOL-FM’s 95.7 signal. The station airs a combination of ESPN content plus Atlanta-based “2 Live Stews” (brothers Doug and Ryan Stewart) and Alabama-based Paul Finebaum’s regionally syndicated PM drive show…..Beasley Broadcast of Southwest Florida announces John Cassio –– producer of the Miller & Moulton show on sports “770 ESPN Radio” WWCN, Ft. Myers-Naples –– moves into the program director position at the station. Cassio takes over for Mark “Steele” Matthews who also programs the company’s rock WRXK-FM and remains in that position…..In the St. Louis market, Simmons agrees to sell WFFX (licensed to East St. Louis) currently programming African American-targeted sports talk to Entertainment Media Trust which already owns two other St. Louis-area AMs –– classic country and talk hybrid WXOZ and “Hot Talk and Cool Oldies” KZQZ. The sale price is $450,000 and there’s no official word if WFFX will keep its format. In Indianapolis, Raven Broadcasting agrees to sell sports WXLW to Creative Data Management for $150,000…..Border Media Business Trust, the company operating the reorganizing Border Media Partners stations, changes formats in Austin. First, KHHL-FM, licensed to Bee Cave, Texas and KXXS-FM, Elgin, Texas flip from Spanish music formats and simulcast sports with ESPN Radio providing programming. Finally, KXBT-FM flips from Spanish music to news/talk although the full lineup hasn’t been announced yet…..Citadel flips KCSF, Colorado Springs from classic country to sports. It hangs onto “Imus in the Morning” but adds Premiere Radio’s Jim Rome and Fox Sports Radio content. Additionally, it becomes the home of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox minor league baseball club…..WOR, New York extends its deal with Rutgers University to broadcast men’s football and basketball play-by-play…..Clear Channel’s WKBN, Youngstown, Ohio agrees to a four-year contract extension to continue broadcasting Youngstown State University play-by-play for football, baseball and other sports…..E-mail your sports news and photos to info@talkers.com.
atellite TV giant DirecTV acquires Dan Patrick and Tony Bruno from Jimmy de Castro’s Chicago-based Content Factory and opens its DirecTV Sports Group division. Patrick recently began a simulcast of his Premiere Radio Network’s distributed program on DirectTV’s 101 Network and things moved along from there. Chris Crane and Ken Kohl go with Patrick and Bruno from Content Factory to DirectTV to work in the new Sports Group division…..Back in mid-October, Greater Media dropped AC on WNUW-FM 97.5 and began simulcasting WPEN on the frequency as the station becomes “The Fanatic, powered by ESPN.” Greater Media market manager John Fullam says, “We are thrilled to launch Philly’s first FM sports station. Philly fans are the most passionate sports fans in America. They deserve a station like The Fanatic with dynamic programming including Mike Missanelli, ESPN, the World Series, and the biggest stories, names and games in Philadelphia sports.” The on-air lineup is: Mike & Mike in morning drive, Dan Schwartzman and Steven A. Smith in the 10:00 am to 12:00 noon slot temporarily, Harry Mayes and Vai Sikahema from 12:00 noon to 2:00 pm, Mike Missanelli from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm and the evening show features various hosts broadcasting live from locations throughout Philadelphia. On the sales side, the company names Jake McCann sales manager for the stations…..Former ESPN TV personality and Dallas sports talk host Sean Salisbury is suing the parent company of Deadspin.com –– the website that he alleges published false stories about him, causing him to lose job opportunities and ruining his reputation. The Frisco Star reports Salisbury’s lawyers say Deadspin.com has been waging a long-running smear campaign against him primarily by continuing to report speculatively that Salisbury was fired from ESPN and subsequently KRLD-FM, Dallas for “sexting” a female co-worker. Salisbury’s lawyers say he left ESPN voluntarily “for reasons he couldn’t divulge” and also left CBS Radio in a mutual agreement with KRLD-FM…..WDAE, Tampa talk host Dan Sileo served a one-week suspension for reporting on his program that the Glazer family had lost hundreds of millions of dollars investing with convicted felon Bernie Madoff and would have to sell the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That generated a flat denial from the Glazer family and WDAE issued a retraction and apology and suspended Sileo…..Talk host Pat Parris exits WXOS-FM, St. Louis. The Bonneville sports talk outlet and Parris mutually agree to part company. Program director Jason Barrett says the station is looking for someone who can match up with co-host Bryan Burwell…..In an unusual reversal for radio, Big League Broadcasting-run sports talker WQXI, Atlanta inks a deal with WGCL-TV to handle the sports reporting duties for the television station. WGCL-TV is letting its two sports personalities –– Gil Tyree and Mark Harmon –– go in the process, although the station says it will hire several more reporters with the money saved. WGCL-TV news director Steve Schwaid tells the Atlanta-Journal Constitution’s Rodney Ho, “We are now aligning ourselves with an organization that does sports 24/7 365 days a year. This will give us even more sports content over the next few years. I think this gives us more flexibility in the world of sports. The analogy I use is how ABC News uses ESPN for its sports coverage.”…..The aftermath of the big three-company deal in Raleigh back in August affects the on-air staffs at the stations Capitol Broadcasting acquired from Curtis. Capitol moves David Glenn to WCMC-FM for the 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm show. Adam Gold and Joe Ovies move from their former station WRBZ at 850 on the dial to WDNC 620 which takes on the former’s “The Buzz” brand. The sports content on WDNC simulcast on 850 for a week to allow listeners to adjust…..Davis Broadcasting’s WEAM, Columbus, Georgia begins simulcasting on former Hot AC WIOL-FM’s 95.7 signal. The station airs a combination of ESPN content plus Atlanta-based “2 Live Stews” (brothers Doug and Ryan Stewart) and Alabama-based Paul Finebaum’s regionally syndicated PM drive show…..Beasley Broadcast of Southwest Florida announces John Cassio –– producer of the Miller & Moulton show on sports “770 ESPN Radio” WWCN, Ft. Myers-Naples –– moves into the program director position at the station. Cassio takes over for Mark “Steele” Matthews who also programs the company’s rock WRXK-FM and remains in that position…..In the St. Louis market, Simmons agrees to sell WFFX (licensed to East St. Louis) currently programming African American-targeted sports talk to Entertainment Media Trust which already owns two other St. Louis-area AMs –– classic country and talk hybrid WXOZ and “Hot Talk and Cool Oldies” KZQZ. The sale price is $450,000 and there’s no official word if WFFX will keep its format. In Indianapolis, Raven Broadcasting agrees to sell sports WXLW to Creative Data Management for $150,000…..Border Media Business Trust, the company operating the reorganizing Border Media Partners stations, changes formats in Austin. First, KHHL-FM, licensed to Bee Cave, Texas and KXXS-FM, Elgin, Texas flip from Spanish music formats and simulcast sports with ESPN Radio providing programming. Finally, KXBT-FM flips from Spanish music to news/talk although the full lineup hasn’t been announced yet…..Citadel flips KCSF, Colorado Springs from classic country to sports. It hangs onto “Imus in the Morning” but adds Premiere Radio’s Jim Rome and Fox Sports Radio content. Additionally, it becomes the home of the Colorado Springs Sky Sox minor league baseball club…..WOR, New York extends its deal with Rutgers University to broadcast men’s football and basketball play-by-play…..Clear Channel’s WKBN, Youngstown, Ohio agrees to a four-year contract extension to continue broadcasting Youngstown State University play-by-play for football, baseball and other sports…..E-mail your sports news and photos to info@talkers.com.
