Thursday, August 30, 2007

Buh-Bye, 980

Per the Caps, the team will be leaving SportsTalk 980 and the evil, evil Steve Czaban for Talk Radio 3WT:

"ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals and Bonneville International Corporation have reached a two-year agreement that will put broadcasts of all 82 Capitals games on Bonneville stations. The new Talk Radio 3WT, on 1500 AM, 107.7 FM and 820 AM, will be the flagship station for the broadcasts, carrying Capitals games plus pre- and postgame shows on some of the region’s strongest radio signals.

...

"Capitals radio play-by-play announcer Steve Kolbe returns for his 11th season of calling the action. Former Capital Ken Sabourin returns for his fifth season of providing analysis at all Capitals home games.

"In addition to game broadcasts, Talk Radio 3WT will carry a weekly one-hour Capitals magazine show on Saturday nights at 6 p.m. A variety of promotional elements will air on Talk Radio 3WT and Bonneville sister station WTOP (103.5 FM and 103.9 FM), including commercials, community relations and public service announcements, game promotions and station identification reads.

"'We are excited to partner with Bonneville and bring our games to such powerful signals,' Capitals chairman and majority owner Ted Leonsis said. 'This agreement will allow Capitals fans throughout the region to hear our games, and the promotional elements will help us reach new fans as well. We look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership with Talk Radio 3WT and all of Bonneville’s stations.'"

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Definitely a step up. People beyond the Beltway will be able to hear it now, even all the way to Baltimore! I wonder if the Caps are paying for the air time, as with 980, because if so, I can only imagine it'll be a lot more expensive.

Slacker said...

This is great news! I can finally hear the games in Columbia, MD again!

Maybe they aren't paying more, 3WT is taking over Washington Post radio which got bombed in the ratings. They may be looking for new content at a reasonable price.

Anonymous said...

I agree!! B-more now gets to hear Caps games on the radio!! So sweet!!!

Joe said...

Great news! So much better than trying to tune in 570.

Ferris said...

Do they broadcast the games and the Caps show online too?

JP said...

It seems the station streams here, so I should think so.

Anonymous said...

At least now I can hear most of the games at night in Southern Maryland if I'm in the car (other than when I drive in the car with XM)

Anonymous said...

I fail to see the relevance as you have made no mention of the Washington Redskins.

Unknown said...

It seemed to me that 980 and 570's signal strength was lowered at night which made it particularly difficult to tune-in, especially south of the beltway.

This is definitely a step up. I hope this means Dave Johnson will provide a little more depth in reporting the Caps during the morning on WTOP too.

snktimoniuz: I fail to see the relevance of your question as this is a hockey blog.

Anonymous said...

Ted: I was satirizing Steve Czaban of SportsTalk 980 who wrote in a blog reply to Ted Leonsis: "Washington is a political town first, and a Redskins town second."

Unknown said...

Ahh... Thanks for clarifying. In that case, nice one. :-)

Anonymous said...

Well, now we know why Ted made such a big stink a week or so ago about SportsTalk's quality of coverage, don't we?

Anonymous said...

I don't care about Steve Czaban
I don't care about Ted Leonsis
I CARE about being able to hear
the games for the first time in
MANY MANY years.

Good move caphcky