NYC Radio: WHSQ ESPN NY Staffers Excited About The Future

 The transition could not have been more jarring, writes Neil Best at Newsday.

There was Wayne Cabot, a signature voice of WCBS/880 AM, with a heartfelt final signoff as Sunday turned into Monday. It was a moment in radio history for a station that had been around for 100 years, had used the WCBS call letters since 1946 and had featured a news format since 1967.

Then, after a minute of silence, New York radio took a detour at 12:01 a.m.

An ESPN Radio update led with Washington beating Atlanta in a baseball game, followed by a national show called “GameNight.”

First topic: Georgia Tech’s Week 0 college football upset of Florida State.

Just like that, WCBS became WHSQ, and all-news became all-sports.

“Welcome,” ESPN New York co-host Dave Rothenberg said at 6 a.m. “A new era in sports talk radio as [Rick] DiPietro and Rothenberg lead the way: 880 AM.”

How and why did this happen? It’s complex and convoluted, but here goes:

Good Karma Brands, which runs the business end of ESPN New York, was set to abandon the expensive 98.7 FM signal at the end of this week and use only 1050 AM and digital distribution for its programming.

Then came the news two weeks ago that Audacy, which owned WCBS, would license 880 AM to Good Karma, citing the redundancy of running two all-news stations in the same market. Audacy retained WINS for that genre.

The wrinkle here is that Audacy also owns WFAN, ESPN’s longtime local sports rival, and now it was selling ESPN a juicy 50,000-watt clear channel signal on 880.

But business priorities trumped the programming and ratings rivalry.

The ripple effects are many, including the oddity that Yankees announcer Michael Kay’s ESPN New York radio show now will lead into Mets games on WHSQ.

Part of the licensing agreement calls for Mets games to continue on 880. When Kay noted the station being the home of the Mets, he jokingly added, “Oooh, so awkward to say!” When Knicks, Rangers and other ESPN content conflicts with the Mets, it will move to 1050. Otherwise, 1050 will carry national ESPN shows.

Vinny DiMarco, market manager for ESPN New York, told Newsday on Monday that as a radio veteran, he understood the heartache at WCBS. But DiMarco said his staff is excited about its new home on the dial.

“We have the opportunity to put our content on a 50,000-watt clear channel radio station that can be heard up in Canada at night,” he said. “It was a great opportunity for us.”