The local airstaff of “ESPN 103.3” KESN Allen/Dallas will exit following their shows on Wednesday, October 7 as Cumulus Media’s LMA to operate the station comes to an end.
The 9am-1pm “JaM Session” hosted by Jean-Jacques Taylor and Matt McClearin will join Cumulus’ “1310/96.7 The Ticket” KTCK/KTCK-FM as weekend hosts as well as hosting a daily podcast. The station also features an afternoon show “Steve Dennis & Company” from 3-6pm.
As KESN returns to ESPN’s operational control on Thursday, it will air the national ESPN Radio lineup. Cumulus had operated KESN via LMA since October 8, 2013.
https://twitter.com/1033fmESPN/status/1313194373560053762
Original Report 8/14: Barrett Sports Media is reporting that Cumulus Media will end its LMA of ESPN Inc.’s “ESPN 103.3” KESN Allen/Dallas on October 7.
Cumulus began its LMA of the station on October 8, 2013. Cumulus has retained dual Sports stations in the market since then operating KESN alongside their “Ticket” 1310 KTCK Dallas/96.7 KTCK-FM Flower Mound.
Barrett reports that KESN is expected to cut its local shows that include “JaM Session” with Jean-Jacques Taylor and Matt McClearin in middays from 9am to 1pm and “Steve Dennis & Company” in afternoons from 3-6pm and run mostly its national lineup. KESN also carries Dallas Mavericks basketball.
INSTANT INSIGHT: As Cumulus and other companies look to cut costs, it isn’t much of a surprise to see the company drop something done by previous management and never brought much success to the Dallas cluster, something that the lack of sports over the past few months has not helped.
ESPN has since also leased out their Chicago station and unlike New York and Los Angeles does not have ESPN television production in the market making it unlikely the company intends to operate KESN on its own again. There are a few operators that could potentially make sense to take over the LMA whether it be Good Karma like Chicago, the Houston based Gow Media, Radio One with room to grow in Dallas, or Mavericks owner Mark Cuban but that is complete speculation on our part at this point.
t_terrasi 
Nathan Obral 
edwardford
Something tells me EMF will end up with the station. Dallas does not have a K-Love station and this seems like a perfect opportunity for EMF to fill that void.
EMF got lucky in LA because the K-Love trademark and slogan was on a legacy Spanish-language station so they could reach an agreement that way. Because KLUV has such a strong legacy in DFW, I’m not sure that EMF can do a “the K-Love for Christian Music” there.
Since Disney is not desperate for cash to pay down debt as Cumulus has been and is, they probably would not sell KESN for a bargain price. EMF doesn’t pay the multiples that other buyers do. A deal between those two entities is not very likely. EMF would get a better price for one of the Cumulus FMs in Dallas at a later date when Cumulus needs to sell additional assets.