Georgia Tech has switched its flagship radio station to 680 the Fan, signing a three-year agreement with the sports-talk station to carry all broadcasts of Yellow Jackets football and men’s basketball games.
Tech’s contract with WYAY-FM News Radio 106.7, a news and talk station that had been Tech’s FM flagship since 2008, ran out at the end of this past academic year. Rick Thorpe, Tech’s associate athletic director for sales and fan experience, said that the athletic department had conversations with “every major player in the marketplace” to become the Tech flagship and received significant interest before settling on 680.
“The opportunity for us to be able to align ourselves with the top college sports station in the South was one that we certainly welcomed the opportunity to be able to enter into,” Thorpe said.
The three-year deal also has opportunities for extensions, Thorpe said. This will be the second consecutive year that Tech’s radio rights have shifted. After 12 years as Tech’s flagship, 790 the Zone and the athletic department mutually agreed to end their flagship deal last June, leaving 106.7 as Tech’s sole flagship for 2013-14.
The sports radio station will continue to carry football coach Paul Johnson and basketball coach Brian Gregory’s shows, which it began broadcasting last season. The shows, as well as the games, will be simulcast on 680’s FM signal, 93.7. Athletic director Mike Bobinski also has a weekly segment on the Chuck and Chernoff show that will continue.
One potential benefit of moving the flagship from an all-news station to 680 is that, as a partner with the station, Tech may be more likely to be a topic of discussion before and after broadcasts and throughout the week. For various reasons, particularly in recent years, Tech athletics has not been a terribly popular subject on local sports radio talk.
Thorpe said the new arrangement places Tech in “as strong of a position as we’ve been in in a long time.”
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