Quote from 3fingersplit on April 12, 2018, 5:29 pm

No Offense but other than the fact that 97.3 is the Padre radio station for this year......and I hope it's only one year....

what does any of the other content really have to do with the Padres ?

Just asking

Quote from sportwarrior on April 12, 2018, 10:54 pm

1) Evercom (and the switch to FM) has been an issue for more than a year now. The switch from an all sports AM format to a mixed FM format lead to super crappy pre/post game coverage (not to mention that GOD AWFUL mid game coverage by that non-padre fan non-sports guy).

2) The whole content issue (re: suicide dude) was a pretty big news story here locally. The question of what the Padres would do and how 97.3 (and Evercom) would respond was a considerable one.

3) 97.3 (and Evercom) chose to replace suicide dude with another controversial personality that a) has been fired many times for several different transgressions and b) presided over another terrible pre-game show over on 1090.

4) The transition from a mixed talk format to an all sports format means that, for better or worse, there is now a 3rd station in San Diego via which one might hear consistent Padres coverage and commentary throughout the day.

5) I consider losing a 100+ miles of range in exchange for slightly crisper audio a terrible trade off. Which brings us to:

6) This is all former Padres CEO and current Evercom President Mike Dee's fault, and anytime anyone can ever remind anyone else that asshole screwed something up, it's worth it.

7) Nearly the same can be said for Jim Rome. It's not his fault, but he's still an idiot.

8) No offense taken!

Quote from fenn68 on April 13, 2018, 6:29 am

Mike Dee had a relationship with Evercom in Boston ... gets hired in SD as head of baseball operations ... negotiates a 5 year deal (thru 2021) with Evercom to move the radio rights to a weak signal FM station .... gets "let go" by the Padres (reasons not disclosed) .... get hired by Evercom as head of Sports Programming .... Evercom moves the broadcasts from one weak signaled FM station to another weak signaled FM station. On the surface ... concerning.

Now we don't know if any other stations were bidding on the Padres' radio rights (and for what price) but being on a station that has limited signal range is a major detriment to marketing the Padres and serving the fans. If there was a strong signaled station in the mix ... even at a lower rights fee ... would have preferred that expecting to make up the difference in exposure / marketing to a wider audience.

At his point (assuming I had another option), I would do whatever I could to break the contract and move to another station to carry the games (not easy under any scenario and very had mid-season with the sponsor commitments). So the combination of switching FM stations this year and the format change (with the hot button suicide comments getting a huge negative reaction in SD) opened the door for the Padres to use a lot of leverage (enough to get the station to make a full format change to sports talk and not hire the shock jock). Apparently got the station to add an afternoon show with T.Gwynn, Jr. and Chris Ehlo which will serve as a better lead in to the Padres' games.

The station format does matter in the marketing sense if the Padres want to promote their community friendly - family oriented model not a good idea to be associated with the opposite format.

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Not sure what kind of money the Padres make by selling RADIO rights these days but with all the games on FSSD for home bodies and various streaming options hard to envision traditional radio listening being all that compelling ... which in-turn makes it difficult to garner sponsors making the whole radio rights a lot less profitable (for the station) than in the past. Anyone know what the Padres got for the rights fees for radio? Are we heading to the point where no station will bid for rights fees because they are non-profitable (at least here in SD)?

Side note: 1090 apparently is interested in reacquiring the rights (now that the Chargers and Aztecs are out of the picture) ... not sure what negation has to happen to do that before the full term of the current contract.

Quote from sportwarrior on April 13, 2018, 2:27 pm

I had the sense that 1090 was in the bidding for the radio rights but that Mike Dee was pretty set on the switch to FM. I read somewhere he/they were sort of fixated on the "clarity" of an FM signal. That AM/FM switch alone has been terrible. I used to get Padres games on 760 and 1090 as far north as Santa Barbara or SLO. With FM I can't even drive past Lake Hodges without experiencing a significant amount of static.

On top of that, the switch away from a guaranteed all sports format (1090) to the whims of Evercom's programming was a pretty bad move. Over on 1090 I knew I could tune in at any point and get some sports talk (and very likely Padres talk) a few hours before the game. On FM, the pregame show was... what... like 30 minutes before game time? Terrible lead in, almost no post game, and boy was that midgame dude terrible. As Fenn said, having an approachable all sports format is much better for marketing purposes than a mixed format. It gives much more breathing room for game coverage.

Perhaps things will settle down with the new 97.3. We'll still have to deal with the static, but at least there's a solid chance we get more Padres coverage. Either way, though, I'll still be yearning for a switch back to AM. Especially if it means backing out of the Evercom contract early (and hopefully giving Mike Dee the finger while we do).