Sports Radio listeners in Los Angeles are about to have one less option to listen to. The Beast 980 which serves as the radio home of the Los Angeles Clippers, will stop operating the sports talk format in mid-February, the result of a sale to a group that operates foreign-language programming. Staff were alerted of the news yesterday at 10am.
The sale creates some short-term challenges for the Clippers, as they will need to find a new radio home for their games. 710 ESPN carries the Lakers, AM 570 KLAC has the Dodgers and UCLA sports, the Kings are on 790 KABC and team-owned AM 830 offers the Angels and Ducks so those stations don’t appear to be options.
The Beast 980’s lineup includes Fred Roggin, Jeanne Zelasko, Bill Plaschke, Chris Myers, Wes Clements and Sam Farber. Program Director Tom Lee has done a nice job retooling the lineup and making some inroads for the brand since arriving on the scene to fix the product in 2015 but unfortunately the news of this sale brings all of that momentum to a screeching halt.
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
