ESPN 890 going off the air, Entercom in talks to move WEEI to FM, start ESPN 850

[Lazerlike42]

They have two fm stations, 103.7 out of Providence which I get great from Worcester south and east and 105.5 (?) out of Springfield which I can pick up once I go west of Worcester. Anything north-northeast of Worcester I get 850am or 1440(?) not sure I have them on presets. Ive been listening to 98.5 and some of its pretty good, I think eei will take a big hit in the ratings in the coming months.

Honestly, I don't like 98.5 that much. I like that thee is something else which I can turn to if EEI is on commercial or if they're talking about some subject I don't care about, but so far 98.5 has been not much more than a bunch of negativity.

The idea is that they want to be balanced and not just homers who do nothing but lump praise on the teams, but in order to sound balanced they have just ended up going completely to the opposite end of the spectrum from homers and now can't say anything good even when it's there to be said.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Those guys were 890 employees....890 folded, its done, they literally ran out of money and it no longer exists as any sort of entity. The talks are for entercom to put ESPN radio on 850... not 890 on 850. Therefore, if this happens, it doesn't mean 890's shows move over to 850, it means full time national espn programming all the time on 850... mike and mike, van-pelt and god's gift to sports broadcasting, gamenight, etc. And it makes sense... why would entercom put local sports talk on one of its own affiliates to go against its major station ? The answer is they wouldn't.

One thing this will do is open up EEI for getting back all the espn tv/radio/print guests on to their air, which is something they do not have now. It also would make Mike Reiss only available to WEEI.

Someone mentioned WEEI's ratings must be hurting... not according to the numbers bruce allen posted last week. Deus made the good point that deals like this don't happen overnight... its highly likely there were rumblings of this stuff way before 98.5 went live.

Thanks for the translation.

 

[Patriot Power]

And at the expense of a top 10 rated station? I doubt it. I could see them boosting the signal strength on 97.7 rather than shutting down a cheap, profitable, and highly listened station.

Sticking with my prediction.... EEI to 93.7 ! I think they'll give their Boston flagship their best signal.