Falcons land new Radio and TV partners
Announcer Wes Durham (right) and Dave Archer (not pictured here) will continue on the Falcons' radio broadcasts. (By Jimmy Cribb/Atlanta Falcons)
CBS Atlanta will serve as the Falcons’ official preseason television partner, the team announced on Monday.
Also, Lincoln Financial Media, owner of STAR 94 FM and Sports Radio 790 The Zone, was named as the club’s official radio broadcast partner.
WXIA Channel 11 and DAVE.FM were the previous television and radio partners for the Falcons.
CBS Atlanta will also broadcast weekly pre-game and post-game shows during the regular season.
Dave Archer (left) and Wes Durham before the Falcons played the New York Jets on Dec. 20, 2009. (By Jeff Schultz/JSchultz@ajc.com)
In addition, CBS Atlanta will air quarterly specials.
“Ratings for the NFL are the highest in television history,” said Kirk Black, CBS Atlanta’s general manager in a statement.
Falcons broadcasters Wes Durham (play-by-play) and former Falcons quarterback Dave Archer (color analyst) calling all of the Falcons action on both radio stations.
‘We are thrilled to be partners with the pre-eminent sports franchise in Atlanta,” said Andrew Saltzman, general m of Sports Radio 790 the Zone. “Both Star 94 and Sports Radio 790 the Zone have always been part of the fabric of Atlanta and with the passion for the Falcons at an all-time high right now, we are very excited about our future together.”
However, it is not clear how many preseason games the Falcons will have in the future. The NFL and the player’s union are in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. The league is proposing a new schedule that would include 18 regular-season games and two exhibition games.
“We are pleased with both of the new media partners that emerged from our process,” said Falcons president Rich McKay in a statement. “Lincoln Financial Media and CBS Atlanta are solid media companies.”
CBS Atlanta, which shut down it’s sports department in April of 2010, seems a strange partner for the Falcons.
The station virtually runs no sports Monday through Thursday and normally have just spot coverage over the weekend. They do have a Saturday sports evening show featuring radio personalities from 790 The Zone.
Here’s some more background on the deal in Rodney Ho’s Radio & TV Talk blog.
–D. Orlando Ledbetter, The Atlanta Falcons beat blog
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61 comments Add your comment
Me
March 8th, 2011
11:04 am
IM TIRED OF THIS ISH F”YALL
SeenThisB4
March 8th, 2011
11:24 am
The Saints flagship radio station, Sports Talke 870: Fifty Thousand Watts,….50,000…. at night, you can hear it all the way to Toronto, Canada….that’s eh, a little further than their parking lot.
LOL!
Billy
March 8th, 2011
12:13 pm
I am glad 680 didn’t get it because it would horrible to want to listen about football all they want to talk about is Braves baseball or what it was like being on the FM radio doing Rock-n-Roll. That is why I don’t listen to them more than 10 minutes a day any more, talking about the Braves is fine during baseball season this is the south during the fall I want to hear about football college and pro since I am not a fan of UGA that means some one besides them.
georgia force
March 8th, 2011
2:45 pm
we need a real home town sports station and hosts that are hometown fans
The Falcon Avenger
March 8th, 2011
6:24 pm
Why all the rascim??
Ted
March 8th, 2011
8:01 pm
Two losers…790 the Zone and the Falcons. 790 the Zone is garbage and that station would cease to exist in any QUALITY radio market.
Monkey Barf
March 9th, 2011
2:42 am
My former posting name was Smilng Jack, but I find it impossible to find anything positive about either of the Falcon’s new media partners. I can barely receive 790 or 680. In my opinion neither of them are suitable. Whatever became of good old WSB Radio and Channel 2??? Good gracious , at least they have enough wattage to be heard outside the 285 loop! Come on Mr. Blank, give us some better than monkey barf.
D man
March 9th, 2011
9:52 am
I’ll be watching on tv. Not the radio…
Mountain Man
March 9th, 2011
1:40 pm
The “personalities” at 790 are little more than overgrown frat boys. They hardly deserve to be the flagship station of the Falcons, but that is more of an indictment on the Atlanta sports talk radio market.
Sid
March 10th, 2011
11:18 am
Take a walk down Bourbon street and smell the stench. They say this city was built in a bowl…….yeah, a natural toilet bowl.
Hey, Chase Daniels of 94.1 is appearing at McDonalds…..with none other than Ronald….too cool.
It would be nice if they could simulcast the TV with the radio, I would much rather listen to Wes and Dave but that 7 second tv delay is a huge nose booger.
SeenThisB4
March 10th, 2011
2:59 pm
It smells that way on Bourbon Street because of the Atlanta tourists that go there to find some real entertainment and drown their sorrows regarding all their loser teams.
WWL Newsradio 870, the Saints flagship station, simulcasts all their transmissions and has engineers modifying the AM/FM and Digital transmissions to sync up with the analog, digital and Hi Def television broadcasts. (That’s a real Flagship station for ya, for a real city, in comparison to that sports joke of a town, ATL.) When I go to the games, I listen to the AM signal which broadcasts the soonest, there is a short delay from actual live action on the field, but when you’re at the stadium, it helps to fill the data gap in the action.