The Chargers have agreed to a three-year extension with Clear Channel to broadcast all of the team's preseason, regular-season and postseason games on radio through the '14 season. Chargers games will continue to air on KIOZ-FM and KLSD-AM. Both stations will air live coverage of all Chargers games, as well as pre- and postgame shows. The AM station also will air the "Chargers Power Hour" show year-round from 3:00-4:00pm PT Monday-Friday (Chargers).
NAME CHANGE: On Long Island, Neil Best reports Mike Francesa's "Mike'd Up" WFAN-AM radio show changed names yesterday to "Mike's On." The name change was “fallout from Francesa leaving the TV version of ‘Mike'd Up’" on WNBC-TV last spring. The television station “had rights to the name and chose to hold onto it” (NEWSDAY, 1/18).
READY, SET, ACTION: ESPN.com’s Keith Hamm reported YouTube yesterday “launched a handful of channels promising high-quality, original programming.” During the past few months, “most of the anticipatory hype has been lavished upon Tony Hawk's Ride Channel.” Teaming up with some of "the best people in the skate industry," Hawk said that the channel “will cover the gamut, from trick tips and tour clips to music and art.” Other channels launched yesterday include “NBC's Alliance of Action Sports (Alli), the Red Bull channel, and Network A, a collaboration between athlete agency Wasserman Media Group and Bedrocket Media Ventures” (ESPN.com, 1/17).
TALKIN' HOOPS: Former Univ. of Maryland men's basketball coach Gary Williams, who “works as an analyst for the Big Ten Network, will join ESPN 980, a Washington-based sports radio station, as its ‘college hoops insider.’" Williams will “appear weekly on ‘The Sports Fix’ with Kevin Sheehan and Thom Loverro, and on ‘The Sports Reporters’ with Andy Pollin and Steve Czaban.” Williams “will be on the station through April 3” (Baltimore SUN, 1/18).
