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July 9, 2010

Radio Silence

Filed under: Athletic Department,Media,Money,Radio — Chas @ 9:32 am

I’ve had this tab open for well over a week, yet it still isn’t resolved. The long expected move for Pitt football and basketball to 93.7 The Fan as the team’s flagship station has yet to occur.

The long negotiating process involving the broadcasting rights to Pitt football and basketball has hit a snag.

The deal was almost done between Pitt and The Fan 93.7 (KDKA-FM) and was in the hands of the lawyers for a final look. But it appears the issue of  woman‘s basketball is holding up a finalization.

When Pitt was carried by Clear Channel, as it has in recent years, football and men’s basketball were heart first on 104.7 (WPGB) and more recently on 94.5 (WWSW), both on the FM dial. Women’s basketball was heard on Fox Sports Radio 970, an AM station that Clear Channel uses for auxiliary sports program such as the Altoona Curve, coaches shows and various insider programming.

Is there a lot of interest or listening for Pitt women’s basketball? No. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t important for Pitt to have a home for it.

It needs a place for broadcasts. The women’s basketball team has been growing and becoming better than simply respectable. Pitt has to show recruits its commitment, and have a home for the broadcasts so they can be streamed.

The problem is that KDKA-FM has no other minor station to put the broadcasts. As such it puts both sides in a bad spot.

93.7 has not taken off quite as expected. They need Pitt football this fall to get bring in new listeners and then try to retain them. Same with basketball later.

For Pitt, they need a place for their sports. While it appears Clear Channel is still willing to have them, it has gotten more crowded as Clear Channel has already made a move to carry WVU games as well.

Both sides want the move to The Fan. Pitt wants more attention that being the primary live programming on the station would bring locally. The Fan wants to have signature live programming to fill time slots.

The longer this draws out, the worse it is for promoting Pitt football for the upcoming season. 93.7 won’t devote as much resources and energy to training camp and the upcoming season if it doesn’t know that it will be the flagship.

Ultimately, it seems that it has to be resolved. I wonder if they could at least reach a short-term agreement to have women’s basketball games streamed over 93.7’s website.





This is likely sexist on my part, but I don’t even want to imagine what a women’s b-ball play-by-play broadcast would sound like.

Now that I’ve imagined what it would sound like, I bet it’s something like: “Smith passes to Jones…Jones back to Smith under the post…Smith goes for the easy lay-up…SHE MISSES!…Jones gets the offensive rebound…SHE MISSES the easy put back!”

Or words to that effect…

Comment by Really? 07.09.10 @ 11:20 am

Chas, have you had discussions w/ 93.7 about doing on-air stints during the FB and BB seasons?

Comment by Carmen 07.09.10 @ 12:07 pm

I HATE CLEAR CHANNEL!!!!

Comment by David Goldstein 07.09.10 @ 1:20 pm

Wherever they end up we better be able to listen online. For some reson for the last couple years whenever I tried to listen to Pitt games on 3WS I would only get music. I could almost always hear the game on Fox Sports 970. If WVU now controls that station I don’t really know where I’ll be able to listen online.

Comment by NickW 07.09.10 @ 1:29 pm

NickW – Could not agree more. Seems like 970 had a selective black out time and area. I travel a lot and when I couldn’t get to Pitt games, I literally built my evening or afternoon around being in a hotel room and getting the game via the net. When that music came on, I was not a happy camper. Hope the 93.7 deal concludes soon.
Coached womens bball for 16 years, so I am not prejudice against…thought “really”s blog..spot on.

Comment by Dan 72 07.09.10 @ 3:15 pm

It’s not sexist at all Really. It would be absolutely ridiculous if football and basketball were being held up by women’s basketball to be on the radio. Totally a politically correct move. Chas, I agree with you 95% of the time,”It needs a place for broadcasts”???? Why?? How bout the mens baseball team, womens cross country. How bout economics, teams that people want to listen and watch will be on??? I should also say, that my wife and two daughters are shaking their heads in agreement. None of them have any interest in womens basketball, let alone listening to it on the radio. Both daughers play high school basketball and volleyball by the way, and I have missed a total of 5 games in two years. Love womens’ sports, love women, if this is a sticking point with Pitt, this is absolutely silly!!

Comment by Dan 07.09.10 @ 3:18 pm

I misspoke, I meant to say, “my daughters have absolutely no interest in LISTENING to womens basketball”. Obviously I stated they play, so they, as our whole family is, is interested in girls basketball. Maybe we can hold out for DVE to broadcast Duquesne mens and womens rowing on the radio too????

Comment by Dan 07.09.10 @ 3:22 pm

I don’t think any of you are sexist and you make some valid points. I hope that I can shed a different perspective on the situation.

I have been broadcasting women’s college basketball for the past four years at a mid-major D-I school on the internet. We have a tremendous following of not only player’s parents, who are listening all over the country with some located outside the states, but also the casual and the diehard fans of the school tune in. I also love PITT as I graduated in 2006 and think Agnus has been exactly what the school, the community and the program needed. These players deserve to get the continued recognition they’ve been receiving up to this point and I don’t think it would be a downgrade to put them on just an internet stream if it’s linked to the 93.7 the FAN website. There is a lot that can be done with a webstream, certainly more than can be accomplished with a just a traditional radio broadcast. If this program wants to be just like the other top women’s program in the Big East and the country, women’s basketball needs its place on the airwaves, or the internet.

HAIL TO PITT

Comment by David 07.10.10 @ 1:39 am

Most anything would be an improvement over last year (and I’m referring to the broadcasts!) The first few games were streamed, both video and sound for free using I assume the same set up as the very early men’s games. After that you had to sign up for All-access (which I did, not a huge financial decision) I could not get 970 over the air and the games were “blacked out” on-line. Unfortuately things went from bad to worse. Choppy video and if video was “available” you could not opt for just sound. Then there were the games that were suppose to be available but you couldn’t get anything and I would later find
out that 970 was doing a delayed broadcast. Customer service was clueless and uninterested. I never was able to get an answer as to why if they were recording the game for a delayed broadcast they couldn’t just go ahead and stream it.

Comment by Mctsk 07.10.10 @ 8:12 am

Hey Dave, no disrepect, after thinking about it, I think the point I wanted to get across was, hey, if we can get womens hoops on the radio, more power to us and more power to Pitt, I just hope it wouldn’t be something Mark and Steve would be using as a petty sticking point. Lets get the football and mens hoops handled….then let’s see what we can do for the girls hoops. Hail to Pitt

Comment by Dan 07.10.10 @ 11:15 am

This move to the FAN really needs to happen…from what I’ve seen, they are talking about having expanded pre and post game coverage for FB games (not sure about BB). When the Pitt Athletic Department sent out a survey a few years back concerning improving the game day atmosphere, the first thing in my response was better game day radio coverage. If you want to have a big time program, it needs big time attention from its flagship station. That’s more than one hour before kickoff and a half hour or so after. It should be more like two before and after the game…That helps create buzz, which helps to sell tickets…Sexist or not, Pitt should not give up the opportunity for better coverage of a revenue generating sport because a non revenue generating sport might not be treated equally.

Comment by HbgFrank 07.10.10 @ 11:39 pm

Comment by Really – sounds alot like when Aaron Gray played for Pitt, how many did he miss?
Support Pitt ATHLETICS and go to a womens game, Agnus is just as dynamic as the men coaches. Was it really that long ago they were in the sweet 16, before the men I believe.
I think if the Fan deal works out, it will be good for Pitt but I will miss Joe Bendel, or Rob King, they were good to Pitt. Wonder who would do the games, Ron Cook anyone????

Comment by ski4pitt 07.11.10 @ 9:34 am

Are you talking about broadcasting the men’s games or the women’s games? If it’s women’s, I’d love the opportunity to come back and be the voice of the team. I too hope that the 93.7 deal works out because it will truly show PITT’s commitment to their programs and giving them the best opportunity to reach the fans.

Comment by David 07.11.10 @ 10:03 pm

Most of us on here do support Pitt athletics, no wonder we’re on here?? I’m sure most of us do this financially, and with purchase of tickets, and souveigners,,,but, don’t tell me I have to go to a sport I don’t enjoy watching. My girls don’t even watch womens sports, they prefer the mens hoops. They may watch the ladies final, but they watch the whole mens tourney and fill out brackets. They play high school hoops also. The sports that the masses enjoy, should be on the radio. Why not mens and womens gymnastics?? How bout the womens softball, mens swimming, etc. etc. Stop with the politically correct stuff. You took the “Penn State Sucks” out of Hail to Pitt, isn’t that enough???

Comment by Dan 07.12.10 @ 12:06 am

There are two, that my wife and daughters and the guys at work tend to agree with, womens sports that are better to watch than mens. Womens soccer seemed more enjoyable a few years back when they won the world cup. Seemed like more goals. And womens tennis is much better, the men nowadays just zip it by each other at 120 mph while the women still volley. Like I posted above, not a diss to womens hoops, get the two revenue sports, and the two sports that 99% of the fans are interested in handled, then try to work something out for the hoops. You don’t hold football and mens hoops hostage over womens hoops though, sorry.

Comment by Dan 07.12.10 @ 12:11 am

I seem to remember that Penn State had a similar problem a few years ago. KDKA AM used to carry PSU FB and PSU wanted them to take MBB too. KDKA said no.

Pitt needs to get this worked out.

Comment by Penguins Fan 07.12.10 @ 4:50 am

[…] Speaking of The Fan, PittBlather notes that negotiations to broadcast Pitt games has hit a snag. […]


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