Why doesn't ESPN Radio have a flagship station in CT?

It would make sense for ESPN to own the Hartford station since HQ is only a few minutes away. Why not make that a flagship and run it out of Bristol. Most of the national content is already coming out of there anyways.

Agreed, Don. It would make sense for WPOP to be the flagship of ESPN Radio. But besides that, there has been talk for years of bringing a station back to Bristol - the sixth largest city in the state with the HQ of ESPN, the city's largest taxpayer. I used to work @1440WBIS & PD Don Moline & others that worked there always spoke about it. There are other smaller towns in CT that have AM stations. The powers that be don't see having a station as economically viable and feasible. They can't sell it. It's a shame. That's why 1440WBIS (which used to employ Bob Crane from Hogan's Heroes which went on the air in the 1940's) went dark years ago, got sold to Hispanic broadcasters in New Britain & flipped the freq to 1120. Couldn't ABC/Disney with all their $ even open up an LPFM like WZBG/Litchfield?

Having a local station as "flagship" doesnt mean squat to large corps....as long as they are in the top 10 markets....when Radio Disney went on the air from the ABC RN studios in N Dallas, there was no Dallas station....and even after they bought 620, it was not considered the flagship of RD....

98.7 WEPN-FM in NYC is considered to be ESPN Radio's flagship station. WEPN has been since they signed on in 2001 on AM 1050.

amfmradio1 said:

Agreed, Don. It would make sense for WPOP to be the flagship of ESPN Radio. But besides that, there has been talk for years of bringing a station back to Bristol - the sixth largest city in the state

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Bristol is actually the 10th largest city in the state. Actually, looking at the list below, West Hartford is slightly larger and Bristol would be 11th.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_municipalities_of_Connecticut_by_population

Actually, there is an ESPN affiliate in the Hartford market, 97.9 WUCS Windsor Locks, owned by iHeart. It runs most of the ESPN national schedule, along with NY Yankees broadcasts.

The OP's point was "why doesn't ESPN own the station."

And that answer is "because ESPN would rather invest in content than more sticks and transmitters."

98.7 ESPN NY has been coming in fairly clear in the Hartford area lately. I am kinda surprised that the FM signal is making it this far north.