Sports Radio Fallout

Some changes at a national sports radio network have created quite the fallout - at least for some stations.

As part of massive changes announced by Clear Channel on Tuesday, Fox Sports Radio (run by Clear Channel's Premiere syndication arm) also announced a lineup shift.

Out the door at FSR: shows including mid-morning's "Out of Bounds with Craig Shemon and James Washington", the nighttime show hosted by Andrew Siciliano and Crystal Fernandez, and Ben Maller's overnight show.

Locally, "Out of Bounds" has aired on Good Karma sports WWGK/1540 Cleveland "KNR2" (9-10 AM), and Media-Com sports WJMP/1520 Kent "Fox Sports Radio 1520" (9 AM-noon), until today.

What replaced the FSR mid-morning show today?

Why, it's syndicated host Dan Patrick, whose Content Factory show is now being offered directly on the FSR satellite feed.

Patrick's show already has one existing Northeast Ohio affiliate - Clear Channel Akron sports outlet WARF/1350 "SportsRadio 1350". And a quick check of one of our radios here at OMW World Headquarters before 10 AM found all three stations running Patrick's show....WARF via its syndication, WJMP and WWGK via FSR...at least temporarily.

By 10 AM, WWGK scooted off to its regularly scheduled airing of ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd show. WJMP is still with the FSR feed of Patrick.

Since both stations are daytimers, the evening/night programming changes will have little, if any, effect on them. Afternoon drive show "The Drive With Chris Myers", heard on "KNR2", will see Myers gain a co-host - local KLAC/570 Los Angeles host Steve Hartman. (Part of the restructuring means that KLAC's staff is basically merging with FSR.)

How long will the 3-station arrangement last for Dan Patrick's show? We don't know.

We suspect that both 1520 and 1540 were taken by surprise...and since both stations basically run automated in a closet, overshadowed by much more popular "big brother" stations (WKNR/850 and WNIR/100.1), it's quite possible this very item will inform one or both operators that it's happening...