Hubbard Radio will relaunch Sports “1500 ESPN” KSTP St. Paul/Minneapolis MN as “SKOR North” on Tuesday, January 15.
The new branding comes with a transition to a digital-first strategy to distribute content to 1500, 94.5 KSTP-HD2, website, streaming, a dedicated app, podcasts, and social media. The station will carry seven hours of local content on weekdays from 12pm to 7pm and ESPN Radio programming in other dayparts.
The lineup will include ESPN’s Golic and Wingo in mornings from 5-9am and Dan Le Batard from 9am-12pm. A daily Minnesota Vikings show “Purple Daily” will air in the 12pm hour and depending on season into the 1pm hour as well. Purple Daily will share the 1pm hour with the SKOR North Twins Show and SKOR North Wolves Show depending on the season. KSTP Vikings reporter Matthew Collar will host a new talk show from 2-4pm. Phil Mackey and Judd Zulgad will move from 3-6pm and be joined by Ramie Makhlouf who joins the station from Entercom’s “105.7 The Fan” 1250 WSSP Milwaukee where he co-hosted afternoons. The 6pm hour will rotate between the SKOR North Twins Show, Wolves Show, former host Patrick Reusse’s “Reusse Unchained” and The Beer Show.
The station will also debut with 15 podcasts and ten reporters and columnists covering the local teams under the oversight of Director of Content Phil Mackey.
The relaunch of KSTP as SKOR North follows the exits of Reusse, Joe Soucheray and Program Director Brad Lane in September.
I really do think that the new name is a play on the Vikings’ “Skol” chant.
Which is all well and good…
Except that SKOR translates to SHOE in Swedish.