Cleveland Radio: Room For Two Sports Stations?

John Gorman, owner of broadcast consulting firm Gorman Media and a 2000 inductee into the Ohio Radio-Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame, has followed the recent turmoil at WKNR ESPN 850 AM and monitors the performance of its top competitor, WKRK 92.3FM.

According to Crains Cleveland, last Tuesday, Aug. 20, WKNR, an ESPN Radio affiliate owned by Good Karma Broadcasting of Beaver Dam, Wis., fired four prominent on-air personalities — Will Burge, Michael Reghi, Kenny Roda and T.J. Zuppe. The following day, the station unveiled a slimmed-down lineup of local programming. Instead of featuring almost all local programming from 4 a.m. to midnight, WKNR eliminated a pair of local nighttime shows that accounted for four to six hours of airtime per day.

WKRK 92.3 The Fan — a CBS Radio affiliate that debuted as The Fan on Aug. 29, 2011 — has retained a beefed-up local lineup, but, according to industry sources, isn't pulling big audience numbers.

“The problem is there are two sports stations,” Gorman said. “Neither one is doing great in the ratings right now. That's not necessarily because of the material.

“It's because we don't have many winning sports teams,” Gorman continued. “I think you can directly tie a sports format's ratings with how the teams are doing in a particular market.”

In late March, the Cleveland Browns unveiled a radio rights deal unlike any other in the NFL. It involves in part the two all-sports-talk stations — The Fan and WKNR — and WNCX 98.5 FM, carrying Browns games in a unique game-day “triplecast.”

The three stations share Browns flagship station rights, and The Fan and WKNR divide more than 1,000 hours of annual programming produced by the team itself that includes game broadcasts, a two-hour show called “Cleveland Browns Daily,” weekly coach's and preview shows, and pre- and post-game broadcasts.

Terms of the deal weren't announced — the Browns only would say it was a multiyear agreement — but the speculation following last week's upheaval at WKNR was that the rights agreement played a role in the station trimming its staff.

Keith Williams

Good Karma Broadcasting vice president and ESPN Cleveland general manager Keith Williams tried to dispel that notion.

Asked if the firings of Mr. Roda (who had been with the station for 21 years), Mr. Reghi (a former Cleveland Cavaliers television announcer), Mr. Burge and Mr. Zuppe were motivated by finances, Mr. Williams said, “Not in any way.”

Gorman — who spent 13 years as program director and operations manager at WMMS-FM, 100.7 and WHK-AM, 1420, and another seven as a vice president and director of operations at WMJI-FM, 105.7 — isn't buying the explanation.

“My reaction is I'm sure it was a financial decision,” he said. “Those people will be replaced by ESPN network programming.”

He continued, “Getting the Browns had to cost them a few bucks.”

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