Competition is about to heat up in Birmingham, Alabama. A brand new sports talker, 99.1FM The Game, has been launched and the radio station has debuted with a familiar name, face and voice leading its charge.
Scott Griffin, has previously hosted shows on WJOX and the former ESPN 97.3 The Zone, and he’s also been a reporter and anchor on local television, appearing at at NBC 13/WVTM-TV, Fox 6/WBRC-TV and CBS 42/WIAT-TV. Griffin is hosting a local morning show titled “Smash Mouth Talk Radio”. The show currently airs 6:30a-9a, but will expand to 6am soon.
“It’s fun to get another shot at doing what I think I’m good at,” Griffin said of his return to radio. “Radio is like long-form communication, meaning I can expound on things, I can discuss topics, I can interview people.”
The Game’s general manager Lyle Reynolds told AL.com that the radio station plans to add more local programming over the next few days and weeks.
“We started out with Scott’s show in the morning because that’s a day part that we really care about a lot,” Reynold said. “And from there, we are going to start filling in the rest of the day parts with quality, local sports-talk radio.”
One other daypart that the radio station expects to be local in is afternoons. The radio station is rumored to be adding “The Drive,” with former Alabama football player Wes Neighbors and sports-talk show host Steve Moulten. The show broadcasts out of Huntsville on ESPN 97.7 FM The Zone and airs weekdays from 5p-7p.
In addition, 99.1FM The Game is airing a mixture of FOX Sports Radio, and NBC Sports Radio programming, and plans to carry Homewood High School football games, and become the Birmingham affiliate for the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
WJOX 94.5 FM has dominated the sports-talk radio scene in Birmingham since the early 1990s, but Reynolds believes the market is big enough to support two locally-driven sports-talk brands.
“There are a lot of markets that have multiple (local) sports stations,” Reynolds said. “Birmingham does not. Now this is a pretty sports crazy town, as evidenced by the fact that consistently Birmingham is the top 10 rated television markets for the NBA finals and we don’t even have an NBA team. This market is a sports-heavy, sports-crazy market, so yeah, I think there is certainly room for (another station).”
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.
