Station to replace liberal talk with sports (portland, ME)

[MaineDem]

Fans of sports talk radio will have something to cheer about in October, when Portland is slated to get its second sports radio station.

Nassau Broadcasting, which took over six Portland radio stations in April, will begin broadcasting ESPN radio Oct. 4 on WLVP (870 AM). The ESPN programming will replace Air America, a nationally syndicated liberal talk network that features comedian and political commentator Al Franken.

The switch is being made because Nassau feels sports talk makes a "lot more sense" in Portland, said Patrick Collins, Nassau's senior vice president for its Maine stations. Nassau had been using 870 FM to do some local sports broadcasting, such as weekly high school football games. The rest of the time it aired liberal talk.

...

Collins said he had no complaints about Air America, which is struggling to maintain stations nationally. He also said no listeners had complained about it.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/040921wlvp.shtml

Well, Damn!!!! I can't get Portland radio at home but I listen to it whenever I'm in that area.

And a month before the election??? That blows!

[ikojo]

1. There is way too much emphasis on sports in this

country. I swear we are going to amuse ourselves to death.

[napi21]

2. Is this the only station in OR that broadcasts AAR?

I don't remember which one I listened to via the net, but I know I listened to a Portland liberal radio station. Still do sometimes. Is it going away?

[SoCalDem]

4. Portland. MAINE..

Maybe the Liberal listeners need to flood the station with complain letters and start cozying up to another station that will carry AAR/..:shrug:

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

5. The poster was talking about Portland, Maine

I believe.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

3. Aren't there enough sports talk radio shows

out there already?

Air America probably wasn't very well advertised. I doubt most people even know about it.

[Malva Zebrina]

6. I don't get it here about seventy miles upcountry from Portland

but I don't listen to Franken anyhow. I find him very boring and the new ads on AAR with Franken promoting himself and his CD's are really quite annoying. I am forced to put it on mute everytime, it is so crass and irritating.

[dennis4868]

7. Is this right?

"Collins said he had no complaints about Air America, which is struggling to maintain stations nationally."

I thought they were adding stations.

[napi21]

9. They are adding stations, and announce at least one every day.

I have no problem if a station feels they will have a bigger audience with a different venue. That's what they should do. My initial question was wrong because I thought this was about Portland Or. and the station I listen to via the net.

The only reason I would be bothered by a station dropping AAR is that I really want all audiences to be able to hear both right & left programming. I know I'm on DU, so I guess I am biased, but I've been really tired of only being able to get RW talk radio FOREVER! I am lost without my internet streaming radio, because it finally gives me the opportunity to listen to something else, and someone I mostly agree with.

[Algorem]

8. October.Wonder why,really?

[Political_Junkie]

10. Let 'em know what ya think.

http://www.nassaubroadcasting.com/

[Protected]

11. I can't get 870 AM in very good where I am

but when I did drive down to the Portland area it was a nice change for listening in the car. I live about 20 miles or so out of range of the station so I listen on the internet.

I'm not surprised that they're pulling Air America already given that two out of the five or six times I did try to listen to the station they were pre-empting Air America with Seadogs baseball. Oh well, at least I got to listen to the station broadcast Air America for a few hours earlier this summer. :eyes:

[w4rma]

12. "no complaints" but no mention of "complements".

Just another right-wing media owner who doesn't want to air views he opposes.

[jcappy]

13. ESPN Radio=Machismo

On the afternoon shows, each caller (all their callers are male) have to give their first name, their height and weight. "Dan from Milwaukee is calling, 6-2, 193 pounds.... blah, blah. Real locker room style on this station--total appeal to young white males. Very little political correcness toward minorities, and much less toward women. Find radio espn abominable.

portland is supposed to be a liberal city------rise up.

[frylock]

14. of course it makes more sense to switch to a sports format in maine..

I mean, they have that powerhouse NFL team.. errrrrr, isn't their baseball team in the chase for the pennant.. shit, uhhhhhhhh.. they did get the number one draft pick in the NBA, right? No.. well there isn't going to be any professional hockey this year, so that leaves a lot of time to talk up that high school football, ayuh. WOOOOOOOWEEEEEE!! :eyes:

[Davis_X_Machina]

15. Sporting News Radio already has a station in the market....

...on FM and AM, wth a stronger AM signal. More likely is that Poppy got sick of having to listen to his neighbors talking about what they heard. Kennebunk is home to at least one other Nassau station.

[leesa]

16. All we need more food for brain-dead sports zombies

[Flammable Materials]

17. Just a bullshit ploy ...

... on the part of a right-wing station owner to introduce the format and then sink it shortly thereafter, claiming nobody listened.

Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

[Flammable Materials]

19. Someone in Nassau Broacasting's President's family donates to the GOP

http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?city=Mantoloking&st=NJ&last=mercatanti

[Blue_Tires]

18. "RACK THAT GUY!!!"

lol...j/k

[stevedeshazer]

22. "HAVE A TAKE...DON'T SUCK!"

Sorry, Portland ME. You guys don't deserve being run out of your own crib.

Bang your monkey.

(sportstalk translation: This is unfair, contact the program director.)

[mconvente]

20. wtf?

"...Air America, which is struggling to maintain stations
nationally."

Huh? Didn't Randi Rhodes just say on her radio show tonight that Air America is raking in tons of money?

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Same thing happened in NYC on 9/1/01: WEVD morphed into ESPN.

WEVD was a radio station, the oldest in the city, created in the memory of Eugene V. Debs. The format was liberal talkshows and infomercials in its last years. Then Disney/ESPN made an offer to The Forward Magazine, which owned the station. The Jewish weekly had been losing money in buckets and jumped at the chance to sell an unwanted asset. The listeners formed a protest group, but it didn't extend a minute to the longevity of WEVD.

And believe it or not, Alan Colmes had a kick-ass, liberal-lovin' program on that station.

ESPN is now the third sports station in the market and its ratings for three years are so low that they can't be meaningfully measured.

It was theorized that other than ESPN wanted a New York City station as its flagship, WEVD was targeted by Disney/ABC because it also owned WABC-AM, which is all conservative talk (Rush, Sean, Laura Ingraham, etc.) and wanted the only liberal talk station out of existence.

R.I.P. WLVP!