NotTV: Is the battle of NY sports radio over?

[Bob Jersey]

Good Karma Brands, the multi-station owner headed by Mel's son Craig Karmazin, tried to acquire WEPN-FM (ESPN 98.7) from longtime owner Emmis, now intending to get out of the biz, but Jeff Smulyan's numbers were too much for him... so the FM, along with WLIB 1190, will close Aug 31st 2024 with the Bristol and local programming such as the "Michael Kay Show" remaining on streaming platforms and WEPN-AM 1050, which was changed back from Spanish-language sports in 2019...

https://www.insideradio.com/ahead-of-station-sale-good-karma-to-end-lma-of-wepn-fm-and-move-espn/article_63de8d96-5716-11ee-93b6-9fab41b97f18.html (link)

B

[Greg Diener]

Really, I’ve always contended WFAN should have competition. Still, ESPN Radio in NY has always been a disaster here because ESPN at the start in NY was trying to push the syndicated radio programming on the station when local audiences would tune out since the national hosts wouldn’t talk local NY sports or take calls. Blowhard personalities like Colin Cowherd and Jim Rome who ESPN pushed to get on the station so they could sell the show to advertisers as being on in NY had awful ratings here. They’ve gotten more local in the last decade or so but I’ve never bothered to listen to the station because I can’t stand Michael Kay and I especially can’t stand Peter Rosenberg who I think is a total hack in everything he does.

Of course, WFAN hasn’t gotten any better the last few years since new programming director Spike Eskin (son of local Philly TV/Radio guy Howard Eskin) turned WFAN into Barstool Lite where the vast majority of personalities he’s hired have turned away many longtime listeners of the station from the Mike Francesa/Chris “Mad Dog” Russo era. I personally haven’t listened to WFAN since the early days of the pandemic and mainly get sports on the radio through podcasts and sometimes SiriusXM.

Greg