The relationship between Good Karma Brands and The Walt Disney Company has stretched for more than a decade and taken on various iterations. Two years ago, the radio broadcasting conglomerate closed a deal in which it acquired ESPN New York 1050, ESPN 710 Los Angeles and ESPN 1000 Chicago.
The transaction also had Good Karma Brands assume a local marketing agreement for ESPN New York 98.7, working under the 12-year lease of the powerful FM signal from Emmis Communications. The deal was said to be worth an initial $8.5 million per year with a 3.5% rate appreciation, but it ultimately proved to be an expendable part of the Good Karma Brands portfolio due to a changing industry. Beginning on Saturday, that signal will broadcast a music format concurrent with the decision from Good Karma Brands not to sign a new contract and instead move ESPN New York off the FM band completely.
Internal data from Good Karma Brands demonstrated that 60% of listenership for ESPN New York took place outside of terrestrial radio. The metric has been substantiated in the ensuing months through the ESPN New York app surpassing 100,000 downloads, demonstrating sustained interest and listenership to its various programs. Yet ESPN New York, a station that branded itself with the 98.7 FM signal for many years, is working to urge listeners to reset their preset and establish new brand affinity as Good Karma Brands focuses on serving its fans, partners and teammates. Steve Politziner, the president of Good Karma Brands, explained the growth of the partnership over the years and the high standard these stations and marketplaces demand.
“ESPN owned and operated ESPN New York for a long period as they have other markets, including LA and Chicago,” Politziner said. “As Disney has made decisions on the best businesses for them to concentrate on, we’re fortunate to be in the position really to be considered a best-in-class operating partner from our years operating local affiliates and the other lines of business in relationships that we have with Disney and ESPN.”
ESPN New York departing FM is a decision indicative of a modified media ecosystem in which more consumers are accessing content through digital means of distribution. Programming on the station remains enthralling and engaging, including The Michael Kay Show in afternoon drive for over two decades. In addition to sports talk shows, the vertical also houses the play-by-play rights for several prominent New York sports teams, drawing fans who look to follow the action in real time.
“We’re already moving into the directions of just being where consumers are, and we know that consumers are also still on traditional radio,” Politziner said, “so if we have the chance to be able to deliver to them in an economical fashion, we’re always going to keep our eyes on the best chance to do that.”
Over the last 12 years, ESPN New York has maintained the 1050 AM signal on which it originally launched in 2001. Since that time, traditional radio outlets have been supplanted in an environment with stiffer competition and haste innovation to earn shares of listenership. Vinny DiMarco, who currently serves as the market manager of ESPN New York, was with the station from the time it launched as its general sales manager.
“We know we have great content, and we know we’ve got great shows and compelling hosts that people want to hear every day,” DiMarco said. “There’s a real connection between the fans and our talent and the rest of our content, and we know that people are going to follow it.”
Driven by the obligations to its invested parties and partnerships, Good Karma Brands ultimately made a business transaction that it was prepared to execute at the end of the month. The auspices of that plan called for ESPN New York to leave 98.7 FM and transfer local programming to 1050 AM while remaining available on a digital platform. Utilizing one terrestrial radio signal would have removed ESPN Radio network programming from the airwaves and presumably complicated the overflow situation regarding simultaneous sporting events.
Nonetheless, the company was ready to move in that direction and make it work, strengthened by a commitment from The Madison Square Garden Company to retain play-by-play rights for the New York Knicks and New York Rangers, while the New York Jets shift its broadcast rights to Q104.3. ESPN New York continues to have conversations with the New York Islanders and expects to have a relationship with the organization into next season.
“It’s how 1050 was launched,” DiMarco said. “When it was first launched, it was with the Knicks and the Rangers, and so play-by-play, we know, is a big driver of fans and where they spend their time and give their time listening to, and that’s why we were thrilled that the Knicks and Rangers are great partners and decided all along to stick with us.”
Although Good Karma Brands and Audacy have been perceived as competitors in the New York marketplace, the two sides had engaged in business transactions in the past. For example, the audio companies negotiated a deal with the Cleveland Browns to retain three flagship radio stations for the team, including ESPN 850 Cleveland and 92.3 The Fan.
In a seminal cross-format agreement, Good Karma Brands is taking over the 880 AM signal from Audacy under a local marketing agreement starting this week. Local content on ESPN New York is shifting to 880 AM, while ESPN Radio network content will continue to air on 1050 AM.
As part of the agreement, live game broadcasts of New York Mets baseball will continue airing on 880 AM for the foreseeable future. The team moved its radio broadcasts to Audacy’s WCBS ahead of the 2019 season in a deal that runs through next year after broadcasting for several years on iHeartMedia-owned 710 WOR. Audacy is in the process of trying to emerge from Ch. 11 bankruptcy and received an extension of a debtor-in-possession forbearance agreement until at least Sept. 30 as the Federal Communications Commission reviews its restructuring plan. The company’s common stock was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange last year a few months before the company filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy.
“[The] 880 [signal] is as powerful a station as it comes,” DiMarco said. “As someone who grew up around the news business and the news brand specifically in New York, it’s something that everyone knows… and likely [is] already preset in many cars and people are used to going there. So, we feel very strongly, and certainly Mets fans know about the station and where to find it and are finding it regularly, right?”
Good Karma Brands has been focused on executing a marketing strategy for the last several months to inform listeners how they can find the station going forward. Because of the additional deal, the campaign has been altered to reflect the new arrangement that works to leverage its partners and ensure that the messages are heard. The company effectively had two weeks before ESPN New York launched on 880 AM to disseminate the adjustment, and it is confident that the strategy will pay dividends.
“Our job as it relates to our advertisers is to make sure that people are aware of whatever it is the opportunity that they present,” Politziner said. “Our job is to make sure that our fans are aware where they can consume us and how they can consume us.”
“The reaction from advertisers has been kind of, ‘Wow,’” DiMarco added. “I think as people processed [it], who have grown up in this market, and processed the sad part of [WCBS] going away, they genuinely see the value in us moving onto that frequency, and so the response from advertisers has been favorable and nothing short of phenomenal.”
As it pertains to the future of the 1050 WEPN-AM signal, the company is currently focusing on enacting programming on both AM frequencies. A potential sale of the 1050 stick, which it purchased as part of the aforementioned larger deal for $15 million with AM frequencies in Los Angeles and Chicago, is not ostensibly at the top of mind for now. Outside of its operations in the three largest U.S. media markets, Good Karma Brands also owns and operates stations in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Beaver Dam, Madison and West Palm Beach.
“I think given how surprised people were about this, you can say anything is a possibility, but right now, we are just so pumped to be able to offer a local lineup, play-by-play, a network lineup [and] the best national play-by-play in a city that has become accustomed to receiving that and has the sports fans to support it, so that’s really all we’re focused on right now,” Politziner said regarding the future of 1050 AM. “We certainly have our hands full with this and everything else going in Good Karma.”
Starting this week, the pattern of call letters associated with the 880 AM frequency has changed to WHSQ, a syntax that is embedded with an indication of a forthcoming relocation. ESPN New York is moving its local studios to Hudson Square in early 2025, hence the decision to adopt the structure of the new combination.
“We’re excited to have our talent and our shows operating in the same building where our sales offices are, and that’s a big factor of us moving down there,” DiMarco said. “It’s something that we haven’t had recently, and that’s a big part of it. To get the team – the full team – back together in the same building is going to be huge to just continue to drive excitement and camaraderie and collaboration.”
ESPN New York is not making any changes to its programming lineup despite the new frequency, sticking with its weekday prime offering as it has stood since last January. Modified archetypes related to listenership measurement and how to gauge total consumption resulted in Good Karma Brands to unsubscribe from Nielsen Media Research ratings data for ESPN New York. The augmented emphasis on streaming has resulted in proprietary data and internal first-party recognition to become a prominent part of the equation for Good Karma Brands, which does not compare itself to other brands. The conglomerate ultimately believes that the enterprise gives partners a better chance for proper evaluation of the on-air product.
As ESPN New York commences a new era on WHSQ 880 AM and simulcasting national shows on 1050 AM, it intends to further promote sports talk radio and provide informative and entertaining coverage of the local teams. Despite the loss of WCBS Newsradio 880, which has left many listeners crestfallen, there will still be live and local programming on the synonymous frequency, albeit in a different format. Seeking to maintain existing listenership and garner additional shares of attention, the station will seek to reinforce the impact of live programming in its auspicious collaboration between Good Karma Brands and The Walt Disney Company.
“We were full steam ahead with everything that we have and everything that we were moving forward with,” Politziner said. “We’re just excited that this just provides one more opportunity to amplify that choice for maybe people that haven’t consumed us before or want to continue to consume us via a terrestrial offering.”
Derek Futterman is a contributing editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. Additionally, he has worked in a broad array of roles in multimedia production – including on live game broadcasts and audiovisual platforms – and in digital content development and management. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. To get in touch, find him on X @derekfutterman.
