Tuesday, reports leaked out that WFAN, the nation’s first all-sports radio station, would be carrying New York Yankees games in 2014, leaving the New York Mets to find a new flagship station for next season.
While this came as a bit of a surprise to many, there is no need for anyone to be worried about the move to a new home.
The Mets will still keep the stellar announcing duo of Howie Rose and Josh Lewin, since they are employees of the team – unlike Gary Cohen, Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez, who are employees of SNY who are team-approved.
The only difference will be that Mets fans will have to get used to tuning to a channel that isn’t 660 AM or 101.9 FM to hear the games.
Some may point to the fact that 660 AM has one of the strongest signals of any station in the US – I’ve personally picked up the station in Alabama – but the direction that CBS Radio was planning on taking the AM side of WFAN, that may not matter.
The plan has been to slowly convert 101.9 FM to WFAN full-time – airing the local shows such as Boomer and Carton, Beningo and Roberts, Mike Francesca, and Steve Somers – while 660 AM would become more CBS Sports Radio national programming – including Jim Rome and Doug Gottleib.
Assuming that the Mets (and other local teams) games would be moved over to 101.9, the signal strength would not play as big of a role as it would originally seem.
Also, it’s not like there aren’t potential suitors lined up to offer the Mets a radio contract; Adam Rubin of ESPN reports that Jeff Wilpon says he is in negotiation with several parties.
This is purely my speculation, but the frontrunners are likely ESPN Radio; WCBS News, the Yankees’ former station; and WABC, another former Yankee station.
In the end, the move is nothing to worry about; it’s just a business move by CBS Radio to help them in an ever-competitive atmosphere.
Joe Vasile is a play by play announcer for Widener Pride football and the host of ‘Ball Four with Joe Vasile’ on 91.3 WTSR in Trenton, airing Tuesdays from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Follow him on twitter at @JoeVasilePBP and visit his website.
Another supposed suitor is Clear Channel-owned WOR-AM.
I simply do not like Josh Lewins speech impediment and the tinny voice does not play well on am radio in new york. Even though he may schports (thats how it sounds when he says it) it is nopt pleasing to listen to….But we have to
Its like he tries to say as many s words as possible. Thank goodness for gary cohen and howie rose. They sound like radio and sports voices
Aside from money, and there may not be an aside to it, I see this as a bit ominous. I dont live in NYC and dont care where my feed originates before it beams back to Earth from space and lands on my phone or ipad. New Yorkers can easily find a new spot on the dial if they wish to listen to the Mets. That FAN is active in the divorce says something about the obvious, namely, that the Mets stink and no one wants to watch, attend, or listen to a team of this poor level (by the way, the “plan” is going great, and we have an excellent coaching staff). Watching these last two bombs against the Nats has been something to behold with crowd shots showing about 5000 souls in the stands. To me the divoce says that FAN is not buying in on the Harvey/Wheeler/Wright train. They DONT believe NY will be a Mets town any time soon, or for that matter, later. Money talks, and they dont see the Mets as up-and-coming despite everything we hear are led to believe. Ive convinced myself I think the Mets are better poised than the Yankees are. We have a minor league on fire and the Yankees dont have a single prospect worth anything, and their average age is so high that I can see AARP developing a Yankees Team Plan for investing and insurance. Clearly an unknown Yankees immediate future is better than the one Harvey and Wright can deliver.
The fact is as I look around and try to be objective about my beloved Mets, the signs are not as rosy as I was joyfully willing to “believe” all season. There is only 1 position player who is a slam dunk October-baseball-caliber player on the team. Outside Wright, I see Murph as the next guy who is a role player that could be good enough; Lagares has the leather for sure, but is he complete enough? Maybe. Heading down the list is a bunch of question marks either because we have seen enough and the news aint great (Ike, Duda, Tejada, Bax, Q etc) or we havent seen enough and we dont know what the news is (TdA, Flores, MdD, Lagares, Satin). Our pitching staff is no longer held together by bailing wire…its more like scotch tape. Looking things over, it will be ’16 before all our stars will be unlocked from innings limits. The bull pen? Please.
All in all, Im seeing a less vibrant future as we belly crawl out of 2013. I just checked team WAR values on Fangraphs to find the Mets at 28/30 at 2.0 (MLB avg = 3.4), forming their own little spot just above the Marlins and Astros but some distance shy of the Twins, Mariners and Brewers. This year’s WS winner will have a team WAR between 4 and 5.
Tides can change fast as Name often reminds me. The Giants fell off a cliff this year. But going down is easier than going up. We have not made enough personnel changes to see how this group can see a horizon of winning anytime soon. Only an infusion of genuine talent will effect what could be another 5+ years, and a new FO with a new “plan”, to take some effect.
LGM.
This team will not be good enough to compete as long as it is owned by people whose name rhymes with “Killpon…”
It’s official…
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/09/11/new-york-yankees-ink-multi-year-broadcast-deal-with-wfan-am-fm/
This stinks! This would be the perfect time for Yanks to part ways with Sperling/Waldman. They are easily the worst broadcasting team in all of sports.
They are awful and their TV crew isn’t much better.
Very upset that after so many years they gave up the Mets at least they could have post on the tv durning there game as ,I was out in my pool and could fine them on the radio had to listen to Yanlsees. Yak