Update 7/14/09: In the 12 hours since this post was made, lots of new details have come out. CBS has announced that they will launch “98.5 The Sports Hub” in Boston on August 13.
Additionally, buried in the press release is this snippet: “Designed with the most passionate sports fan in mind, The Sports Hub and 106.7 The Fan will launch with exclusive content partnerships with CBSSports.com, one of the leading sports destinations on the Internet with an average of more than 12 million unique visitors a month. The station“™s websites, powered by CBSSports.com, combine the best assets of the renowned national brand with a uniquely local approach. Original commentary from distinguished columnists and local beat reporters; blogs from station personalities; premium video highlights available on-demand; in-depth community participation; fantasy football, baseball, basketball, and hockey leagues; polls; real-time scores; breaking news alerts; and high school coverage are among the many features of the sites.”
Original Entry: Back in February 2008, we asked why there was no integration between CBS’ Sports Radio stations and CBSSports.com. Now it looks as though it may be happening. With the impending flip of 106.7 WJFK Washington, D.C. to Sports, 1067TheFanDC.com is currently redirecting to CBSSports.com/DC. Additionally, CBS has registered a number of domains for the markets is operates sports stations and a few additional cities:
CBSSportsBaltimore.com – 105.7 The Fan
CBSSportsCharlotte.com – 610 WFNZ
CBSSportsChicago.com – 670 WSCR
CBSSportsDallas.com – 105.3 The Fan
CBSSportsDetroit.com – 97.1 The Ticket
CBSSportsHouston.com – 610 KILT
CBSSportsNewYork.com – 660 WFAN
CBSSportsPhiladelphia.com – 610 WIP
CBSSportsSacramento.com – 1140 KHTK
CBSSportsTampa.com – 1010 WQYK
CBSSportsWashington.com – 106.7 WJFK
The remainder of the cities are all major league cities in all four sports which explains their additions, but two of them have already had rumors of a potential Sports flip in the future and all but one of them already have local Sports PBP in the cluster:
CBSSportsAtlanta.com – 92.9 WZGC is flagship for NFL Falcons.
CBSSportsBoston.com – 104.1 WBCN is flagship for NFL Patriots, 1030 WBZ is flagship for NHL Bruins
CBSSportsLosAngeles.com – 980 KFWB is flagship for MLB Dodgers
CBSSportsMinneapolis.com – 830 WCCO is flagship for University of Minnesota and NHL Wild
CBSSportsSanFrancisco.com – No Local PBP.
This is a great move for CBS. Their Sports radio stations could easily drive traffic to CBSSports.com to help in their battle against ESPN, Fox and Yahoo Sports. The stations will also provide numerous content to the site via blogs, podcasts, and live streams. We should know more when WJFK makes its flip official this week.
