I heard a message on 98.5 the Sports Hub this morning that the station was being spun off into Entercom's divestiture trust. Any comments? This may mean that it may be spun off to a local group. And I wonder what's gonna happen to WBZ Newsradio 1030.
I heard a message on 98.5 the Sports Hub this morning that the station was being spun off into Entercom's divesture trust. Any comments? This may mean that it may be spun off to a local group. And I wonder what's gonna happen to WBZ Newsradio 1030.
I agree, there's no way the feds will let Ent keep all 5 teams.
The Feds have no jurisdiction in the matter. It's between the team owners and the broadcasting companies.
I don't think teams owning radio stations work. Look at what's happening with Red Zebra Broadcating in DC. They've disbanded. Red Zebra is owned by Dan Snyder owner of the Redskins Football Team. Also didn't the Cardinals Baseball team own a station or partial owners of a station in St. Louis? If I'm not mistaken the station is gone and the team is back on KMOX.
However, the DoJ could claim concentration of control of the sports ad market and require divestiture. This type of "control of a specific programming genre" has precedent, and can be enforced.
I don't know who airs what in Boston, but I would think that Entercom would automatically inherit any teams that are currently on CBS-owned stations, regardless of which stations get spun off.
I would think that if they were so inclined, they would have broken up Bonneville's monopoly of major sports in Phoenix a long time ago. CBS in Chicago, at least until the White Sox went to WLS last season, was close, with the Cubs, Sox, Bears, and a couple of colleges all under contract.