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WTIC out as Uconn radio ...ESPN 97.9 in

the Blades

the Blades

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Jan 20, 2003
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WTIC Will No Longer Broadcast UConn Athletic Events

WTIC was recently acquired by Entercom Communications...Entercom Sr. VP and Hartford Market Manager Phil Zachary said: “Having grown up in Connecticut, there’s a special place in my heart for UCONN Basketball. However, I couldn’t justify what they were seeking when compared to more successful partnerships Entercom enjoys with elite Power 5 institutions.”

 
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Although this is disturbing news, I believe some other more local station will pick up the UConn games.

As for Joe D, I always thought he was very good at play by play, but he has become very opinionated over the years, and far moreso than the average play by play guy. He also is an intense homer, but because I watch Yankees coverage on YES Network, I am used to homerism.
 
KhalidShockedTheWorld said:
Although this is disturbing news, I believe some other more local station will pick up the UConn games.
As for Joe D, I always thought he was very good at play by play, but he has become very opinionated over the years, and far moreso than the average play by play guy. He also is an intense homer, but because I watch Yankees coverage on YES Network, I am used to homerism.
Click to expand...
From the article above:
IMG today announced a transformative 10-year, multimillion-dollar partnership with iHeartMedia and 97.9 ESPN, Hartford’s Sport Station, to serve as the Home of the UConn Huskies. Also not that I listen to Joe D. very often, but I could care less about listening to him
 
Ollie is going to turn our once elite program into an intramural sport.

I know Kelvin Sampson has caught the ire of the ncaa, but we know the guy wins every where he goes. I'd see how interested he would be in our soon to be available job.
 
Maybe I read this wrong, alot of info was added to the original Courant article in the OP. Sounds like a lot of posturing going on by the negotiating parties, first WTIC, who lost the Uconn package and then by:
"Doug Fillis, associate vice president of the East Region for IMG, said during the conference call. “The brand in New England down to New York is extremely strong, and I don’t think a lot of people can speak to it better than we can at IMG because we deal with the corporate community, and we know the strength of the UConn brand, and it’s tremendous. And I would tell you the offers we had on the table as we came to this decision were extremely strong. I’ll leave it at that, but I will tell you UConn doesn’t take a back seat to anybody when it comes to the audio relationships and the multimedia relationship. We’ve got a lot of people interested, and a lot of people want to be a part of this program.”

The article also now adds "three separate broadcast teams for men’s basketball, women’s basketball and football.".......and " the relationship between UConn/IMG and 97.9 ESPN calls for play-by-play of football, men’s and women’s basketball games and men’s hockey games. It will also include pregame shows, postgame shows and coaches shows with men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie, women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma, football coach Randy Edsall and men’s hockey coach Mike Cavanaugh."

Also a JI article (below) adds Suzie and Co, were over the top and wanted to change/ didn't like WTIC's political viewpoints and the stations programming content:
" Zachary (from WTIC) said one of UConn’s demands was to air more sports talk shows that were favorable to the university".( Well how about winning games KO !)

" It wasn’t just the sports talk shows, however, with which UConn was unhappy ".........."The school felt the conservative programming that WTIC airs is at odds with the best interest of the university,” Zachary said. “WTIC has a successful programming recipe. We’re not going to change it just to have two hours of sports programming at night.” ( Very sad that Uconn sports are now involved in trying to manipulate political views, I think I have to re-evaluate my 30 years of donating if this is the case)

Journal Inquirer - WTIC-AM says UConn wanted to change station's politics

 
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For what it’s worth, I liked listening to Joe D. Granted he was a total homer and moaned about officiating more aggressively than almost all of the posters on this board (to the point of sounding like a whiner at times), and he tended to be opinionated and let some personal opinions creep into his commentary. But overall thought he had a good feel for conveying drama of the game and was knowledgeable. I also sensed passion in his voice and broadcasts, which is essential for good radio broadcast.

Good luck to him on his new gig-
 
New Voice of Uconn FB and men's BB ? That's a blast from the past....Crispino's been around ESPN, Sports Channel, Celtics, Knicks etc. etc, etc......
I remember him on Ch. 30 before Beasley Reese ( the former NY Giant) became the sports director there. ...... Also at " MSG Network for 25 years, will replace Joe D’Ambrosio, the voice of the Huskies for 26 years, multiple sources have told The Courant. Crispino, a longtime resident of the Hartford area, began his career at WRCH radio and at WVIT (now known as NBC Connecticut) in the mid-1980s. "

 
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