iHeartMedia Sports “Rip City Radio” 620 KPOJ Portland and NBC Sports Northwest have agreed to a content partnership that will see the station rebrand as “NBC Sports Northwest Rip City Radio” are share nine hours of weekday programming daily.
KPOJ will also relocate its local programming to new studios at NBC Sports Northwest’s facility. The deal will see KPOJ’s “Rip City Mornings” hosted by Dan Sheldon and Nigel Burton from 6-9am and “Rip City Drive” with Travis Demers and Chad Doing from 3-6pm simulcast on the television network replacing programming from Entercom’s “1080 The Fan” KFXX in those dayparts. The two will also debut a new 12-3pm show hosted by Dwight Jaynes & Aaron Fentress. KPOJ will continue to air Fox Sports Radio’s Rich Eisen Show from 9am-12pm.
The new lineup will begin in January 2018.
Rip City Radio serves as flagship station for the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers while NBC Sports Northwest is their television flagship. KPOJ all carries Oregon State and Portland State University sports and Hillsboro Hops minor league baseball.
NBC Sports Northwest and iHeartMedia Portland today announced a new content partnership in the Portland, Oregon area. The collaboration will rebrand iHeartMedia’s Rip City Radio 620 to NBC Sports Northwest Rip City Radio. The announcement was made today by Len Mead, GM of NBC Sports Northwest and Robert Dove, President of Pacific Northwest Region for iHeartMedia Markets Group.
Starting January, the companies will bring a new line-up to the community featuring nine hours of combined content simulcast on both KPOJ 620 AM and on NBC Sports Northwest between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. local, with NBC Sports Northwest producing its own three-hour show within that window.
The joint weekday lineup will consist of Rip City Mornings with Dan & Nigel (6-9 a.m. PT), Dwight Jaynes & Aaron Fentress Show (12-3 p.m. PT) and Rip City Drive with Travis & Chad (3-6 p.m. PT). KPOJ will also simulcast NBC Sports Northwest’s Outdoors GPS program. All shows will originate from a new state-of-the-art radio studio being built at NBC Sports Northwest.
“NBC Sports Northwest is dedicated to serving fans across all platforms, so we are pleased to join forces with iHeartMedia to collaborate on programming for Portland sports fans on both TV and radio,” said Mead. “This partnership combines and amplifies the best talent and production teams in the market.”
“We are excited to partner with NBC Sports Northwest to bring Rip City Radio listeners the best in local sports programming,” said Dove. “Our combined assets will provide even more access for Portland sports fans across both TV and Radio including enhanced audio and visual content for Trailblazer fans all-in-one destination.”
NBC Sports Northwest Rip City Radio will be available online and digitally everywhere listeners are via iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia’s all-in-one streaming music, podcasting and live radio service. Visit iheartradio.com/apps to download iHeartRadio on your favorite device.
Harnessing the reach of iHeartMedia and the regional depth of NBC Sports Northwest, NBC Sports Northwest Rip City Radio will expand its role as Portland’s sports radio home, including live play-by-play of the Trail Blazers, Oregon State Beavers, Hillsboro Hops, and Portland State Vikings games. Programming details will be announced at a later date.
Great branding. Rolls right off the tongue.
This may very well outdo “Blink 102.7” and “Hell 94.7” as the absolute worst branding for a radio station, ever.