With Yankees and Mets radio rights set to expire in October, most had thought either CBS Radio’s WFAN or Emmis’ lease of WEPN-FM to ESPN Radio would get one or the others’ broadcast rights. As it stands now, CBS Radio’s WCBS-AM has the Yanks.
But a new player has emerged. Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, which bought WOR-AM from Buckley Broadcasting, has made a recent bid in excess of the $14 million currently paid by CBS for the rights to the Yankees’ broadcasts, sources told The NY Post, to get them on 50-KW WOR.
CBS, which also owns WFAN-A/FM in The Big Apple, has owned the Yankees rights since 2002. The Mets air on WFAN, the franchise’s radio home since the station went on the air in 1987, and ESPN. The team, which receives between $6 million and $7 million a year under its current deal, could also find itself the object of a bidding war.
