I’ve had this tab open for well over a week, yet it still isn’t resolved. The long expected move for Pitt football and basketball to 93.7 The Fan as the team’s flagship station has yet to occur.
The long negotiating process involving the broadcasting rights to Pitt football and basketball has hit a snag.
The deal was almost done between Pitt and The Fan 93.7 (KDKA-FM) and was in the hands of the lawyers for a final look. But it appears the issue of woman‘s basketball is holding up a finalization.
When Pitt was carried by Clear Channel, as it has in recent years, football and men’s basketball were heart first on 104.7 (WPGB) and more recently on 94.5 (WWSW), both on the FM dial. Women’s basketball was heard on Fox Sports Radio 970, an AM station that Clear Channel uses for auxiliary sports program such as the Altoona Curve, coaches shows and various insider programming.
Is there a lot of interest or listening for Pitt women’s basketball? No. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t important for Pitt to have a home for it.
It needs a place for broadcasts. The women’s basketball team has been growing and becoming better than simply respectable. Pitt has to show recruits its commitment, and have a home for the broadcasts so they can be streamed.
The problem is that KDKA-FM has no other minor station to put the broadcasts. As such it puts both sides in a bad spot.
93.7 has not taken off quite as expected. They need Pitt football this fall to get bring in new listeners and then try to retain them. Same with basketball later.
For Pitt, they need a place for their sports. While it appears Clear Channel is still willing to have them, it has gotten more crowded as Clear Channel has already made a move to carry WVU games as well.
Both sides want the move to The Fan. Pitt wants more attention that being the primary live programming on the station would bring locally. The Fan wants to have signature live programming to fill time slots.
The longer this draws out, the worse it is for promoting Pitt football for the upcoming season. 93.7 won’t devote as much resources and energy to training camp and the upcoming season if it doesn’t know that it will be the flagship.
Ultimately, it seems that it has to be resolved. I wonder if they could at least reach a short-term agreement to have women’s basketball games streamed over 93.7’s website.
Coached womens bball for 16 years, so I am not prejudice against…thought “really”s blog..spot on.
I have been broadcasting women’s college basketball for the past four years at a mid-major D-I school on the internet. We have a tremendous following of not only player’s parents, who are listening all over the country with some located outside the states, but also the casual and the diehard fans of the school tune in. I also love PITT as I graduated in 2006 and think Agnus has been exactly what the school, the community and the program needed. These players deserve to get the continued recognition they’ve been receiving up to this point and I don’t think it would be a downgrade to put them on just an internet stream if it’s linked to the 93.7 the FAN website. There is a lot that can be done with a webstream, certainly more than can be accomplished with a just a traditional radio broadcast. If this program wants to be just like the other top women’s program in the Big East and the country, women’s basketball needs its place on the airwaves, or the internet.
HAIL TO PITT
out that 970 was doing a delayed broadcast. Customer service was clueless and uninterested. I never was able to get an answer as to why if they were recording the game for a delayed broadcast they couldn’t just go ahead and stream it.
Support Pitt ATHLETICS and go to a womens game, Agnus is just as dynamic as the men coaches. Was it really that long ago they were in the sweet 16, before the men I believe.
I think if the Fan deal works out, it will be good for Pitt but I will miss Joe Bendel, or Rob King, they were good to Pitt. Wonder who would do the games, Ron Cook anyone????
Pitt needs to get this worked out.
Now that I’ve imagined what it would sound like, I bet it’s something like: “Smith passes to Jones…Jones back to Smith under the post…Smith goes for the easy lay-up…SHE MISSES!…Jones gets the offensive rebound…SHE MISSES the easy put back!”
Or words to that effect…