93.9 The Ticket Switching Formats

The future of local sports talk radio in Louisville took a major hit Tuesday afternoon when it was announced 93.9 the ticket is switching to a classic rock channel. That means the end of shows like "Dave and Scott in the Morning", and "The Front Row Ticket with Rick Bozich and Big EZ ". General Manager Dugan Ryan tells me John "The Freak" Renshaw's show and possibly the "Bob and Will" show will move to 1450am. That station will be the new home to ESPN Radio.

This is most likely a cost cutting move by Cumulus Media which is based out of Atlanta. Now the question is can local sports talk radio survive in Louisville? You would think with the passion UK, IU and UofL fans show for their teams the river city would be a perfect market for sports talk radio. But the higher ups at Cumulus must not agree. While ESPN Radio is moving to 1450 there's no questioning the programming will suffer. 1450's signal is not nearly as strong as 93.9 and if suits at Cumulus thought ratings suffered now, they'll be non-existent over at 1450.

Let me know what you think.