NBC Sports To Launch Sports Talk Radio Programming In September

NBC Sports will make a "foray into sports talk radio" this September with distributor Dial Global, according to Michael Hiestand of USA TODAY. NBC Sports Ventures Senior VP Rob Simmelkjaer said, "We'll start with hourly sports updates and one-, two-minute daily essays you could compare to what Charles Kuralt or Paul Harvey did." Hiestand reports NBC also "hopes to have two three-hour weekday shows -- one starting at 7 p.m. ET and the other at 10 p.m. ET -- that could begin airing in September." Simmelkjaer: "The goal is to start with a beachhead of programming and gradually expand to 24 hours per day, seven days per week maybe in 3-5 years." He added that NBC's new sports radio programming, "to be sold in tandem with Dial Global's NFL radio broadcasts, initially won't include programming simulcast on radio and TV." Simmelkjaer: "NBC Sports needs to give fans a way to touch our brand from when they get up to when they go to bed at night" (USA TODAY, 6/11).