WFAN is splitting their AM and FM signals, for at least one day. For the first time since New York’s WFAN 660 AM began simulcasting on 101.9 FM, the two signals will broadcast different content on Thursday August, 8th.
WFAN serves as the flagship radio affiliate for both the New York Giants and the New York Yankees, as it has for six years. On Thursday, the Giants will play their first preseason game against the New York Jets at 6:30pm, while the Yankees have first pitch with the Blue Jays scheduled for 7:05. The radio station will handle the conflict differently than in past years, choosing to place the Giants on WFAN’s AM signal, with the Yankees broadcast airing on 101.9 FM.
The two teams will have similar scheduling conflicts during three of the Giants four preseason games and again during the first four weeks of the NFL’s regular season. Some of the conflicts share direct start times, while others anticipate an overlap between the two broadcasts.
“Depending on pre-game or game times there will be times where we’ll start a broadcast on both stations then split the signal when necessary to get full pre-game coverage on,” Senior VP/Programming Mark Chernoff told Inside Radio. Whenever a conflict forces a split, the Giants will always broadcast on AM, with WFAN’s FM signal carrying the Yankees.
Previously, when a scheduling conflict occurred for the Yankees and Giants, The Fan’s sister station, WCBS NewsRadio 880 provided a temporary home for one of the teams. This season, Entercom’s WCBS 880 is the flagship radio station of the New York Mets, who happen to be off on Thursday August 8th, when both the Giants and Yankees will play at the same time. Still, the decision was made to split WFAN’s signal rather than move one game to WCBS as they did in previous years.
One factor that played a role in choosing to split WFAN’s signal was Nielsen changing its Total Line Reporting Policy. In February, Inside Radio reported Nielsen will now allow stations that simulcast 95% of its quarter hours in a survey period to be reported as one combined rating. Previously, Nielsen required 100% of a station’s content to be simulcast, which would have forced 660 AM and 101.9 FM to report separate ratings numbers if they chose to split the signal for any amount of time.
Under Nielsen’s new policy, splitting the signal to accommodate the Giants and Yankees will keep WFAN over the 95% threshold, allowing them to report ratings for 660 AM and 101.9 FM as a combined number. The Yankees have partnered with WFAN since 2014, while Giants games have been broadcast on The Fan since 1997.
Brandon Contes is a freelance writer for BSM. He can be found on Twitter @BrandonContes. To reach him by email click here.