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97.1 The Fan Strikes Contract Extension with Columbus Blue Jackets

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97.1 The Fan Strikes Contract Extension with Columbus Blue Jackets

97.1 The Fan has been the radio flagship of the Columbus Blue Jackets since its debut season in 2000. That isn’t changing anytime soon.

The station and franchise announced a multi-year extension for their partnership.

“As the home of Blue Jackets hockey since 2000, we are thrilled to extend this partnership for years to come and expand Blue Jackets content across Central Ohio and beyond. The Columbus Blue Jackets franchise has exceptional fan support. Fans and listeners alike will continue to receive their favorite Blue Jackets coverage they have grown to love over the years, as well as new content as part of our deep-rooted relationship,” said WBNS-FM 97.1 The Fan Station Manager Cody Welling.

When conflicts arise for 97.1 The Fan’s coverage of Ohio State athletics, Blue Jackets contests will continue to be heard on iHeartMedia-owned Columbus Alternative 105.7.

“We are very pleased to extend the partnerships with 97.1 The Fan, a consistent ratings leader that has been recognized as one of the top sports radio stations in the country, and iHeartMedia’s Columbus Alternative 105.7 to provide our fans comprehensive coverage,” said Blue Jackets Vice President of Business Intelligence and Broadcasting Marc Gregory. “Both 97.1 The Fan and Columbus Alternative 105.7 have been and continue to be excellent partners and we are looking forward to the upcoming years of coverage.”

The partnership between the Blue Jackets and 97.1 The Fan has extended with the addition of CBJ Daily, with Blue Jackets team and broadcast personnel appearing during the station’s morning show each weekday during the NHL season.

Beau Morgan: Too Many People in Our Industry Want to Be Fans But Get Credentials

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Beau Morgan: Too Many People in Our Industry Want to Be Fans But Get Credentials

On Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Atlanta Braves 10-2, slugging six home runs, two of them coming from superstar outfielder Bryce Harper. After he was caught off base for a game-ending double play in the second game of the series, reporters in the Braves locker room overhead shortstop Orlando Arcia mocking him in remarks that were, presumably, off-the-record. 92.9 The Game’s Beau Morgan says there are legitimate issues with the coverage of the incident.

Jake Mintz of FOX Sports reported that Arcia had said, “Atta boy, Harper!,” after the win on Monday night, leading to indignation and an escalation of tensions between the two clubs. When Harper hit his home runs on Wednesday, he made sure to stare down Arcia as he rounded the bases, evoking contentiousness and umbrage towards what had been stated.

After the incident, Tiffany Blackmon outlined a previous example of when someone she was speaking with started to express dismay towards another athlete who played the same position making a return and competing for the job. After warning the player three times that his comments were on the record, he realized and understood what had just happened, but Blackmon chose to handle the situation in a professional manner.

“I could have probably doused some gasoline on that locker room and probably walked away,” she expressed Thursday morning on 92.9 The Game, “but I chose not to do that because I understood the nature of the situation.”

Following Wednesday’s loss, Braves catcher Travis D’Arnaud told media members that the situation with Arcia underscores how the media sometimes looks to villainize players, making them less open to conversation.

When Beau Morgan traveled with the Atlanta Falcons, he was informed that the plane was a safe space and any conversations or interactions therein were not to be reported on. Negligence towards basic journalistic tenets can ultimately harm the media as a whole, making the dissemination of the truth more difficult to attain.

“I think the problem that our business is in right now is we’ve got too many people who want to be media members who get credentials who don’t know how to appropriately handle situations,” Morgan said, “because they haven’t been trained and they’re essentially used-car salesmen who now have a media credential, and that’s where things go awry for me.”

Al Michaels: ‘You Can’t Make a Sideshow the Show’

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Taylor Swift has reportedly decided to attend Thursday Night Football between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. The package’s play-by-play voice — the lengendary Al Michaels — says her attendance won’t change anything for Amazon Prime Video.

Swift’s attendance at previous Chiefs’ games drew much media attention during game broadcasts. Subsequently, reaction from the sports world has been critical of the coverage. Michaels believes a middle ground can be found.

“What we’re gonna do tonight, everything in moderation,” Michaels told Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina. “Our crew talked about it this morning. You can’t make a sideshow the show. The vast majority of the audience are tuning in to watch a football game. There are people — I don’t know how many, it could be a sizable number, but it’s certainly not a majority — that if you trained the camera on her all night long, they’d be satisfied with that. This is not what we’re doing to do.

“There might be an appropriate shot or a couple. I don’t know what the number is going to be. If Kelce scores six touchdowns, who the hell knows what we’re going to do. But for the most part, just in moderation. The game is still the important element here, by far. That’s our thought. After that, you sort of make it, one of my favorite words, farcical.”

The television legend added that the word “moderation” has been used multiple times by behind-the-scenes personnel when it comes to attention to Swift.

Michelle Beadle: Working with Mad Dog ‘Insane’

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Michelle Beadle recently launched a new program on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio with Cody Decker. She said working the station’s namesake has been an interesting experience thus far.

During an appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz, Beadle was candid about working with the Radio Hall of Famer.

“It’s insane,” Beadle said. “Mad Dog, first of all, works harder than I ever intend to work in the next 20-25 years,” Beadle continued. “And he walks in, and he’s just a character.”

Beadle continued by noting that she didn’t grow up listening to the legend, and learning from him was an interesting process.

“I didn’t grow up in (New York), so I didn’t ever truly grasp Mike & the Mad Dog and how big a deal that was,” Beadle said. “He’s a legend.”

Mike Stone: ‘Kind of Sucks’ That Red Wings Opener is ESPN+ Exclusive

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Fans looking for the season opening game between the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils on typical regional broadcast outlets MSG Networks and Bally Sports Detroit will need to tune elsewhere for Thursday’s season opener. 97.1 The Ticket host Mike Stone isn’t happy about it.

The game will be exclusive to ESPN+ and Hulu, both subscription-based platforms owned by The Walt Disney Company. In discussing the game on the Thursday morning edition of Stoney and Jansen with Heather on 97.1 The Ticket, show co-host Mike Stone implored listeners to follow the action through the radio on the station.

Starting on Thursday, the price of ESPN+ subscriptions has increased from $9.99 to $10.99 per month, while the annual plan moved from $99.99 to $109.99. Additionally, several Hulu packages endured price hikes, including a 20% rise on the plan without advertisements, raising the monthly fee to $17.99. The timing of these price alterations coincides with the first streaming exclusive broadcast of the season, which will feature broadcasters Mike Monaco, Kevin Weekes and Emily Kaplan on the call.

“I’ll listen,” co-host Heather Park said on 97.1 The Ticket. “I don’t have either [service].”

“That kind of sucks,” Stone added. “The opener and you have to do that type of stuff. Well, at least you don’t have to do that type of stuff for the baseball playoffs.”

As part of its media rights deal with the NHL, The Walt Disney Company will broadcast 50 exclusive games on ESPN+ throughout the 2023-24 regular season. Furthermore, NHL Power Play on ESPN+, which is included in standard subscriptions to the platform, gives viewers the chance to watch over 1,050 out-of-market contests.

Greg Schulte: ‘Would Be Fun’ for Diamondbacks to Make World Series in Final Season as Radio Voice

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Greg Schulte, legendary radio voice of the Arizona Diamondbacks since the team’s inception in 1998, is retiring at the conclusion of the 2023 season – something he hopes does not occur for several more weeks and ends in a World Series Championship.

In an interview on Arizona Sports 98.7 morning program Bickley & Marotta, Schulte expressed how he knew the National League West was going to be a difficult division to come out of this season and gave a brief synopsis on the Diamondbacks season. Strong September play propelled the team into the postseason, which opened the possibility of his final season ending with the organization’s second World Series championship.

“I was hoping,” Schulte responded when asked if he expected to be calling games this late into the postseason. “I wasn’t going to hold my breath on it, but I just wanted to see a lot of improvement heading into next year with these young kids getting a chance to play on an everyday basis.”

Throughout the final season of his 26-year radio career with the Diamondbacks, the team has commemorated the broadcaster, culminating in a pregame ceremony, gift presentation and ceremonial first pitch on Sept. 29. He has called nearly 4,000 regular-season and postseason contests on radio and television, including Luis Gonzalez’s walk-off hit to clinch the 2001 World Series championship.

“I wanted the Diamondbacks’ kids, this ballclub, to experience Chase Field,” he shared. “We’ve seen it, guys. It’s Arizona – everybody’s from somewhere else. If you win, you’re going to get the fans out there.”

The Diamondbacks eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night, advancing to the National League Championship Series for the first time since 2001. While the result was a disappointment for baseball fans in Los Angeles, Calif., it provides an influx of young, dynamic talent looking to make their mark in October. While Schulte is grateful for every chance he has to step behind the microphone and call games, he can only hope that this illustrious postseason run will end with baseball’s ultimate glory.

“That would be a lot of fun,” Greg Schulte said. “It’d be fun for me – obviously, I’d enjoy it – but for the ballclub; the organization [and] the Valley – just to have this fun right now going on [has] been thrilling and I hope it does continue.”

Julia Ziegler: Being on the Forefront of Technology Helped WTOP Through COVID

BNM Staff
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Julia Ziegler: Being on the Forefront of Technology Helped WTOP Through COVID

Julia Ziegler took over as the Director of News and Programming at WTOP roughly 90 days before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ziegler was familiar with the inner workings of the station due to her long tenure leading the digital programming team, but believes the station’s commitment to staying up with new and developing technologies helped during the pandemic.

During an appearance on The Radio Biz podcast, Ziegler shared that while no one was prepared for the pandemic, WTOP was better aligned than other news organizations to alter its processes and remain on the air in a safe environment.

“One of the things that I love, I will say though about our newsroom, is our tech team. Our reporters, even prior to the pandemic, they’ve always been on the forefront of technology. And so that really helped us when we were thrust into the pandemic and having a lot of people work from home,” Julia Ziegler said. “We were able to very quickly set up anchors to anchor from home. Our reporters have always been able to work in their fields so that wasn’t a problem.

“We had never had — on a daily basis — reporters or anchors working from home. It was crazy. All of a sudden we had all these people that are working from home. So it definitely, definitely pushed us even harder to make sure that we could operate efficiently. But I think what’s great about that, is that all of this stuff is great for the next time that we have some emergency come around. We know now so much more than we did three years ago about how we can quickly turn on a dime and make sure that everyone has what they need and can work remotely.”

She continued by noting that the newfound knowledge of remote broadcasting has allowed her employees more flexibility.

“I think it will give more people in our newsroom the option to work from home when needed,” Julia Ziegler said. “In the past, let’s say you were someone who works on the web and you had a contractor coming over the house or you had a plumber coming over the house to fix an issue. You might have to take the whole day off. Now? You’re able to work from home and take care of that. You don’t have to take the whole day off. And I think that gives employees a better work/life balance.

NHL Debut of Connor Bedard Leads to Record Viewership on ESPN

BSM Staff
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NHL Debut of Connor Bedard Leads to Record Viewership on ESPN

The NHL opening night tripleheader on ESPN set viewership records, including the network’s most-viewed regular season game on record. Chicago Blackhawks forward and rookie phenom Connor Bedard made his NHL debut, averaging 1.43 million viewers, 676,000 of which were in the core 18-49 demographic.

Compared to the rest of the television slate, the matchup was the third-most-watched sports program, finishing behind FOX Sports’ presentations of the American League Division Series (ALDS).

As a whole, the two games presented in prime time on ESPN, including the aforementioned Blackhawks-Penguins showdown, were up 64% from the opening night prime-time games last year with an average of 1.06 million viewers.

The other prime-time matchup featured the Seattle Kraken facing off against the Vegas Golden Knights, which began the proceedings with a memorable pregame ceremony to raise the 2023 Stanley Cup Championship banner. That game averaged 691,000 viewers, which was up 24% from the Golden Knights’ opener against the Los Angeles Kings last year.

The tripleheader in its entirety averaged 909,000 total viewers and peaked at 1.65 million, with the first matchup between the Nashville Predators and Tampa Bay Lightning averaging 598,000 viewers. Additionally, 439,000 consumers were in the P18-49 demographic, which is up 40% and 45%, respectively, from last year’s opening night doubleheader.

Bedard’s debut, which garnered a 0.8 rating from Nielsen Media Research, also marked the largest audience for a regular season NHL game on cable, according to Sports Media Watch. Concurrently, the showdown was the most-watched opening night game in the history of cable television. The rating was up 79% with a 92% rise in viewership compared to the Tampa Bay Lightning season opener against the New York Rangers in the same time slot last year.

Glenn Beck: Podcast Censorship Isn’t Far Away in America

BNM Staff
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Glenn Beck: Podcast Censorship Isn’t Far Away in America

A proposed Canadian law will require podcast hosts to register with the national government and could regulate the streaming service and podcast industries. Radio host and TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck believes the move is the first step in a move toward government censorship that will ultimately come to America.

During a recent episode of The Glenn Beck Program, Beck read a description of the new Canadian law, before opining that there could be something similar coming to America in the future.

“Wow. That doesn’t sound dystopian at all. One of our friends to the program, actually wrote, I think, one of the better comebacks, for this. Brian Lilley wrote the CRTC, now wants to regulate the podcast. Here’s my simple message to them: Go to hell,” Beck said.

He continued by noting that Congressional action won’t likely be required because he believes tech companies will independently provide the censorship the government would seek.

“That’s what’s happening here in America. They’re just saying, what do we have to do to impress upon you, your responsibility to stop this kind of talk. We can come up with some harsh regulations for you,” said Beck. “Then they self-regulate. Then they do all the butcheries so the government doesn’t have to. Sounds like a very difficult thing.”

Beck concluded, “You don’t want a regulated ‘Internet Podcast Council’.”

Tide 100.9 Adds AM Signal in Tuscaloosa

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Tide 100.9 Adds AM Signal in Tuscaloosa

Tide 100.9 in Tuscaloosa has moved its originating signal from the FM band to a new home on AM Radio.

The Townsquare Media station can now be heard on 1230 WTBC-AM in Tuscaloosa in addition to the 100.9 FM signal. WTBC-AM features 1,000 watts of power.

Previously, the station originated from 92.9 WTUG-HD2. Both signals will completely cover the Tuscaloosa market.

Tide 100.9‘s sister station — 95.3 The Bear — serves as the flagship of the Crimson Tide Sports Network.

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