Press coverage in recent days has discussed the signing of the New York Yankees and New York Mets to broadcast deals with Univision Radio in New York.
This isn’t news. Univision Radio in the Big Apple has enjoyed relationships with both Major League Baseball teams – each of which have increased their Spanish-language outreach and Hispanic initiatives – for several years.
What’s going on for 2010 is a signal flip – one that makes sense for both teams.
Tom Taylor’s “Taylor on Radio-Info” radio industry online newsletter updates the story in its March 22 edition, and talked with the JakeAdams Editorial Services and Research Consultancy to straighten out some inacurracies in its initial report from March 19.
Here is Tom’s coverage:
With the Mets on WQBU (92.7), Univision ties up both Major League Baseball teams in New York.
The Yankees just signed a full 162-game deal with Univision’s Spanish news/talk WADO (1280) – moving them over from Univision-owned regional Mexican WQBU (92.7). Now Univision replaces the Yankees on “La Que Buena 92.7” with the Mets.
Editor’s Note: The Mets had been on WADO.
Hispanic media consultant Adam Jacobson tells T-R-I it “makes sense: Univision puts the more popular Yankees on the bigger signal” of WADO. WQBU, the onetime modern rock WLIR, is licensed to Garden City and straddles the border of the Long Island and New York City markets. Jacobson says the coverage of 92.7 works for the Mets – “The Mexicans live in Queens and the South Bronx, and those are the Spanish-speaking Mets fans the team wishes to grow its fan base with.”
The National League Mets will put 150 of their regular season games on La Que Buena plus two Spring training games. Also on the schedule – an unusual June 28-30 regular-season series against the Florida Marlins – played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in metropolitan San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The deal with the Mets also grants the franchise cross-promotion on other Univision radio stations in the Big Apple. The booth team of Juan Alicea and Max Perez Jimenez continues to call the action, and their voices will be heard on the Secondary Audio Program (SAP) channel for the SNY cable service and WPIX-TV/Channel 11, the Mets’ broadcast partner.
Who’s making money on Spanish-language baseball in NYC?CBS-owned WCBS-AM (880) is the radio rightsholder and has carried the English-language Yankees games since they left WABC (770) at the end of the 2001 season. WCBS continues to produce both the English-language broadcasts as well as the ones in Spanish. But Adam Jacobson adds the detail that the Spanish Beisbol Network “landed ad representation rights for the Spanish-language radio broadcasts of the Yankees” in July 2009. So SBN is selling spots for the Yanks, which are now moving from Univision’s WBQU (92.7) to the bigger signal of WADO (1280). And who is SBN? Adam says it was bought in 2008 by Virginia-based Celeritas Management, funded by Palladium Equity Partners.
Jake
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Radio en Español NEWS NOTES
“Maria” has replaced “José” in some more cities, says Tom Taylor. Entravision has spread its “Siempre Romantica” Spanish soft adult contemporary format to three new markets. Launched in Stockton-market KCVR-AM and Modesto-market KCVR-FM, Maria has settled into Las Vegas, where it is now airing on KRRN-FM (92.7). It’s also now on AMs in Denver (the former regional Mexican KMXA, Aurora at 1090) and El Paso, where KSVE at 1650 has quit simulcasting “Jose 93.9” KINT.
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