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RADIO WARS: 97.5 the Fanatic Cutting Weekday Evenings
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A change for 97.5 the Fanatic after a busy stretch of Flyers and Sixers playoff games.
The station will be ending local weekday programming at 6 p.m., airing a two-hour “best of” show from 6 to 8, and then shifting to national programming afterward. That’s according to super-secret sources.
It means the Fanatic will broadcast its normal daypart lineup – Kincade and Salciunas in the morning, Marks and Brace middays, and then Unfiltered with Bill Colarulo and Ricky Bo in the afternoon, but there will no longer be Fanatic hosts doing local shows after 6 p.m. For instance, no Kevin Cooney or Brendan Gunn on the evening shift, which had been generically branded as “Philly Sports Tonight.”
Weekend Fanatic programming, we are told, is not affected at the time.
For comparison, 97.5 has a sister station in Boston called 98.5 The Sports Hub, which broadcasts live and local up until 11 p.m. on weekdays. A check of this week’s schedule shows a “Baseball Hour with Tony Mazz” at 6 p.m. followed by a 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift from Joe Murray, then national programming between 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. So Beasley’s Philadelphia sports station will be broadcasting less local content than it’s Massholian counterpart.
Presumably, nothing changes when the Sixers and Flyers play at night, and the Fanatic will have Dei Lynam and Jason Myrtetus and other local hosts handling those duties. It should be pointed out as well that the Flyers + Beasley broadcast deal requires renewal, and we should get some news on that front I think sooner rather than later. But I am not 100% sure and will “effort” more info on that.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com