Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Tampa Radio: Sportsradio WHFS-FM Struggles For Listeners

It started, as many major broadcast projects do, with a flurry of optimism, a display of resources and a high-profile news conference.

But according to Eric Deggans at tampabay.com,  about seven months after debuting the Tampa Bay market's first FM sports talk radio station, officials at CBS Radio are downplaying a restructuring that has seen the departure of the station's first program director, the firing of one on-air personality and the abandonment of its 24/7 live and local format.

At the start of February, nationally syndicated sports talk star Jim Rome began airing on WHFS Sportsradio 98.7 the Fan, ending the station's live and local programming around the clock.

Mike Pepper, the program director who developed the inaugural lineup, left the company last week after moving to sales a few months ago.

And Todd Wright, a former host with ESPN Radio and Yahoo Sports Radio, was also let go, making room to move Nanci Donnellan, the Fabulous Sports Babe, up from an overnight time slot to 7 p.m.

Arbitron Inc. says WHFS's average share of listeners across its entire broadcast day has dropped 41 percent, from 1.7 when it was known as Play 98.7 in January 2012 to 0.7 in January 2013.

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