Bills ditch WGR as flagship station

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

In other words.... Let the Chris Brown, Steve tasker, Eric Wood, Maddy Glab, Brian Duff and Martin Biron ball washing of everything Bills/Sabres commence harder than it ever has before.

[PromoTheRobot]

Just now, Green Lightning said:

Then why not market the opportunity to other outlets and not produce the games themselves. They can market the product to other stations, but you lose many hours of dedicated talk shows around your teams. Replacing it with homers and Bills staff won't cut it. Seems a big lift.

 

Obviously the Bills are going to assume control of producing radio calls for both teams, and then offer it for $$$ to other stations. The problem is who owns the other stations in Buffalo.

 

Audacy: WGR, WBEN, WWKB, WKSE, WLKK

 

Townsquare: WBUF, WBLK, WTSS, WYRK

 

iHeart: WGRF, WEDG, WHTT

 

All three companies have been shedding employees like dogs shed fur. The Bills/Sabres  are probably asking for a ton and none of these stations are willing to front that kind of money, or they feel they can't make it back on ad sales.

7 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

This is going on all over the sports world.  
 

most hockey and baseball teams can not find anyone who to pay to broadcast their games on the radio or tv.  
 

 

 

Sports teams feel like rights fees should always go up and up. But the realities of the economy will catch up to them eventually.

[US Egg]

7 minutes ago, MikePJ76 said:

most hockey and baseball teams can not find anyone who to pay to broadcast their games on the radio or tv.  

Subscription TV only way to watch your home teams in quite a few cities. It's gonna spread, be it out of necessity or bigger profits 

[Breakout Squad]

43 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Shtupp and Bulldog can now resort to day drinking.  Will fit in well with Ross Tucker.  He always sounds like he has a snootful when he talks with Parker.

This is probably unfair but I cannot stand Ross Tucker. Don’t care that he was a BILL. He’s arrogant. And to me the worst is that he thinks he’s funny and he is not funny at all. I turn off the radio when he’s on. 

[The Wiz]

6 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Yes but as a whole WGR could actually be critical on the team then.  I remember a few times when Doug Marrone wasn’t happy during his weekly interview segment, or another time when Buddy Nix threatened to hang up on Howard Simon.  

 

I feel since McDermott/Boyko came over in 2017 they really threw their weight around about negativity.  Now WGR plays nice for the most part 

It's not exactly "playing nice".  Being critical of a team that you cover and are expected to talk to the fans on a daily basis is expected.

 

Now the bills are good so they are being less critical.  The things they are being critical about (WR) is a valid concern, so has everyone else.  Not just locally but in the national media as well.

Edited February 3 by The Wiz

[gomper]

7 minutes ago, TheFunPolice said:

 

Too much competition. 

 

If you have Sirius XM you can listen to all NFL games online or in the car. Just one example. I think NHL too, but I'm not sure. 

Yes.NHL,MLB,NBA games are all on their app. It's an absolute no-brainer subscription. Fantastic music selection too.

[PromoTheRobot]

Hey @Kirby Jackson, what do you think about this? You worked in the NBA. If a local station said "no thanks" to paying for your games, and no one else was willing, wouldn't that be a red flag for that market's viability?

[Psautcsk]

49 minutes ago, BUFFALOTONE said:

This is wild. I live in So FLA and listen to WGR every day. The only time I tune out is from 12-3. Sabres Live and OBD is terrible radio, I do not know how Chris Brown has that job and Tasker is just stuck in 1990. When the games are on, I cannot listen to play by play on Audacy as I am out of the area, never understood this - thought it was the whole point of the radio over internet. 

 

One poster hit it on the head, the same 3-4 people call Joe and Jeremy every day. I wonder what they do for a living that they can sit on hold and just blather about the dumbest crap. Even my 13-year-old son knows Mo from NJ and just turn the radio down for 3 minutes.

Too funny. I do the same thing. Isn't there a Gina woman who calls in all the time as well?

Edited February 3 by Psautcsk

[RiotAct]

another step towards the media tendencies of the DPRK!

[DaVinci]

I wonder about the bare bones production and broadcast , who is paying for that. 

[Buffalo716]

1 hour ago, zow2 said:

the article did say they could still broadcast games on WGR, they could be part of the radio network.

I just listened to a wgr employee and he said you could listen in your car if your radio can connect to the app or the Bills site 

 

I don't think regular 550 will play the games anymore this next season and this is honestly really dumb 

 

Wgr is what you listen to when you want to listen to local sports 

 

And not everybody wants to listen on the bills app or website I probably haven't been to the Bills website twice in 10 years

Edited February 3 by Buffalo716

[pennstate10]

As long as they don’t fire Art Wander and The Coach, I’m good. 

[US Egg]

1 minute ago, Buffalo716 said:

This is a weird decision by the bills because they want to control every single narrative 

You could be next. 

[PromoTheRobot]

2 minutes ago, pennstate10 said:

As long as they don’t fire Art Wander and The Coach, I’m good. 

Hate to break it to you, but...

[Buffalo716]

3 minutes ago, US Egg said:

You could be next. 

 

What can I be next at I don't work for the Buffalo Bills and they can't fire me lol

 

I do listen to wgr and I haven't been on the Bills website in a decade so I'm not going to listen there

 

If it's not going to be on the radio ever it's a terrible decision

Edited February 3 by Buffalo716

[pigpen65]

Probably moving to some bargain basement AI driven horseshit. This isnt good news. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

1 hour ago, Roundybout said:

So wait, does this mean no more games on WGR, or does this just affect the One Bills Live show? The press release is not clear. 

 

Sounds like the Bills/Sabres are going to produce the broadcasts themselves and then will sell the rights to some local station.  How that will effect out of market, like Rochester, etc, I'd assume same way?  Likely too whomever gets the rights will need to sign things that basically say they won't talk too bad about the Bills/Sabres on their other programming.  

 

So I'd assume that means unless WGR decides to fire Shoap and company, they are out!

[Walking Tall]

1 hour ago, US Egg said:

The 6-10 and 3-6 shows are basically glorified amateur hours. Now they can go full on trash mode, which they seem to enjoy more.

Seriously. You’ve heard one show you’ve heard them all. Nothing changes.

[Nitro]

43 minutes ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

It's more likely Audacy, WGR's owner who is in bankruptcy, couldn't cover the nut for the rights to the Bills and Sabres, and no other station in town would do it. The broadcasting industry as a whole has been circling the drain ever since the FCC allowed companies like iHeart, Cumulus and Audacy to own thousands of stations. Debt service is killing them. Station values have cratered.

 

LOL, not a f****g chance! 10am - 3pm will be syndicated shows. 

Espn content most likely.  They do that here in Indy.

[Virgil]

1 hour ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Ha, no way. He doesnt have that kind of power, nor could anyone pull this off in a week or even two. This is a long time in the making. Just coincidental timing.

 

I thought that as well, but is he not the CEO and President of operations now?