Per press release the University of Michigan re-upped with CBS and in the process got at least some Michigan content back on the biggest sports radio station in the State of Michigan's biggest metro area.
DETAILS:
The press release:
CBS RADIO DETROIT
SIGNS A MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT TO BROADCAST
U OF M FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL AND HOCKEY
DETROIT – CBS RADIO Detroit’s WWJ Newsradio 950 (WWJ-AM), 97.1 The Ticket (WXYT-FM) and CBS Sports Radio 1270 (WXYT-AM) in association with IMG, announced today a long-term alliance to air University of Michigan football, basketball and hockey. The multi-year agreement is an extension of a partnership that began more than twenty years ago.
WWJ-AM is the flagship station for U of M Football and 97.1 The Ticket will simulcast select games. U of M Basketball will air on WWJ-AM and U of M Hockey will air on Sports Radio 1270. In addition, 97.1 The Ticket will carry a weekly interview with U of M Football Coach Jim Harbaugh.
…
“We are excited that IMG renewed our great partnership with the CBS RADIO Detroit family. This will continue to provide a consistent flagship home for Michigan football and basketball broadcasts in southeast Michigan and will place our hockey games on a regular channel in the market. We look forward to another multi-year partnership on game broadcasts and coaches radio shows,” said Warde Manuel, Donald R. Shepherd Director of Athletics.
Debbie Kenyon, Senior Vice President/Market Manager, CBS RADIO Detroit said, “WWJ Newsradio 950, CBS Sports Radio 1270 and 97.1 The Ticket are thrilled to renew our partnership with IMG and the University of Michigan. IMG and U of M are truly one of the best sports partners in the business.”
“It’s an honor to continue our relationship with the university and be the flagship station for University of Michigan football and basketball. It’s a perfect partnership between two traditional organizations WWJ Newsradio 950 and the UM” said Rob Davidek, WWJ Program Director.
Getting Michigan more content back on 97.1 is good news for us metro-Detroiters who've spent the intervening dark years trying to follow the bits of 1050 WTKA's signal that make it here from Ann Arbor. The simulcast on the header stations fixes a Dave Brandonism that had all the good stuff disappearing to the AM station that usually runs basic news and traffic updates (950).
A Short History: Michigan's radio presence in Detroit has been a sore spot since 2005, when Michigan State made a deal with WJR that included dropping Michigan (legend has it a WJR media bus stopped that moment and left Brandstatter et al. stranded on the side of the road). Martin turned to CBS, who squeezed various sports into weird spots across all their stations. If you got in your car in the tri-county area the last 10 years you wouldn't know if Michigan's on AM or FM, the oldies station or the place you listen for traffic updates.
Meanwhile the big local FM station you leave your car tuned to for Tigers/Red Wings/Pistons would have Valenti and Foster exploring the cosmological extremity of take temperature. Brandon signed the last deal in 2011 which put most of the content on 950 AM and none of it on 97.1. Accidents where the driver knocked themselves out by slamming their foreheads on steering wheels increased 84 percent. We rarely got a hockey game, and basketball games were interrupted by other stuff so frequently that my best bet here in West Bloomfield was to tune to 1050 and plan my route to get West toward Ann Arbor as soon as possible.
A few years ago ESPN tried to get into the Detroit sports market with 105.1 and had an opportunity to brand themselves as the M/somewhat-intelligent alternative to the 97.1/astoundingly-dumb-even-for-sports-talk-radio option we were living with. Instead ESPN tried to out-hot-take Terry Foster, and as of last month the station is back to music. Michigan's deal with 97.1 doesn't include any content shifts (97.1 was already airing the Pizza House show as of last year) but it may be a good opportunity to explore the market for listeners who can speak in complete sentences.
Lions games were also on 97.1 through last year, but they are switching to WJR to join what is now basically MSU, Mitch Albom, and, um, "news talk."