For many seasons, The New York Mets Baseball Network called trailblazing Sports Talker WFAN-AM in New York its flagship station, sticking with the station first at 1050 kHz after five seasons on Doubleday’s former Country WHN.
That relationship ended with the start of the 2014 Major League Baseball season, when WFAN — then-owned by CBS Radio — shifted to iHeartRadio‘s Talk WOR-AM 710.
That five-year relationship is now coming to an end, as the company led by David Field has just inked an Amazin’ deal.
Entercom and the Mets, as anticipated, on Monday announced that they’ve reached a multi-year agreement that will make News-intensive WCBS-AM 880 in New York the official flagship of the Mets, starting with the 2019 baseball season.
It’s a six-year deal that ends at the close of the 2025 MLB season; terms were not disclosed.
The broadcast rights include all regular season, spring training, and post-season games as well as Spanish-language broadcast rights; Mets games en español have traditionally been produced by the English-language rightsholder on behalf of the over-the-air station. Mets games in Spanish presently air on ESPN Deportes Radio-affiliated WEPN-AM 1050 in New York.
“We’re pleased to be the new radio home of the Mets,” Entercom Regional President and Market Manager Susan Larkin said. “We remain committed to bringing our listeners and partners the most exciting sports content from their hometown teams, especially in the New York metropolitan area, where we will be the radio home for both Major League Baseball clubs beginning in 2019.”
That’s because WFAN, now an Entercom property, picked up the New York Yankees from WCBS-AM in 2014.
“We are excited to join the Entercom family, and look forward to leveraging the power of their portfolio of stations in the nation’s largest market,” said Mets EVP Lou DePaoli. “This new partnership allows us to continue delivering outstanding radio broadcasts to our passionate fan base, while also reaching a wide audience via cross promotions on all of Entercom’s New York stations.”
As I read this article I got confused. Though raised in NY I have not lived there for several decades, but I still travel there and have family there. My recollection is that WFAN operates on 660 kHz, which I confirmed via the FCC’s CDBS public access portal. WFAN used to carry the Mets games until it switched to carrying Yankee games (that may have been in 2014 as the author notes, I don’t recall). Until that change I used to be able to listen to the Mets on WFAN while driving to or from NY because of its clear channel status. My assumption is that WFAN wanted the Yankees because of the larger fan base they have vs. the Mets. Prior to getting carried on WFAN I forget what station carried the Yankees. After the change, however, it was no longer possible to hear the Mets while driving until I got close to NY. The good news is that WCBS-880 also is a clear channel, so I may once again be able to listen to the Mets during a trip to NY (at least when driving at night). Of course, whether they are worth listening to now is another question entirely.
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