Thursday, September 12, 2013

Yankees Moving To WFAN In 2014

The first news of a potential deal came out on Tuesday and yesterday it was made official.  Starting next year, the Yankees radio broadcasts will move from 880 AM to the Fan, WFAN-AM 660 and WFAN-FM 101.9.  The Yankees and CBS Radio announced a 10-year deal worth anywhere from $15-20 million.

The deal makes sense for both sides.  The Yankees get the benefit of using the greater signal strength of WFAN to broadcast games to a wider audience at a higher quality.  WFAN gets the benefit of having the top baseball team in town on their station, the top sports talk radio station in town.  The Yankees were already affiliated with CBS radio and have been for some time.  It's only right that the 2 number 1s in their field team up.

As for what it means for everybody's favorite broadcast duo, that's not quite so clear.  While early indications are that John Sterling will absolutely be back as the play-by-play guy, Suzyn Waldman isn't a slam dunk to join him.  She's the obvious leader in the clubhouse based on her history with the team and current position, but C.J. Nitkowski got good reviews subbing for her last week and there are a couple guys in the YES stable who would be great as radio color commentators.  All those details will be worked out as things transition from 2013 to 2014.

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