Mets Formally Announce Five-Year Deal To Make WOR-AM New Flagship Radio Station

The Mets today announced a five-year partnership with N.Y.-based WOR-AM, making the Clear Channel outlet the club's flagship radio station. WOR will air Mets Spring Training, regular-season and playoff games as well as pre- and postgame shows. The deal will place Mets-related programming and promotion across Clear Channel media assets, including radio, digital, outdoor and music/entertainment events. The Mets will be marketed on six N.Y.-area Clear Channel stations (Mets). In N.Y., Bob Raissman reports the deal will bring the Mets "more than" the $7M per year they were getting from WFAN in the final year of the contract that expired this year (NYDAILYNEWS.com, 11/4). In Newark, Jorge Castillo notes the 50,000-watt WOR "replaces WFAN, which had aired Mets games since the station’s inception" in '87. WFAN "will broadcast Yankees games beginning next season." Clear Channel will cross-promote the Mets on its "digital application iHeartRadio," but games "will not be simulcast on FM." The agreement also stipulates the two sides will "work to improve in-game entertainment and concerts, festivals and large-scale entertainment at Citi Field" (NJ.com, 10/4). MLB.com's AJ Cassavell reports Mets radio play-by-play announcer Howie Rose, who has been with WFAN since '87, is "expected to remain the voice of the team." However, it is "not clear whether radio analyst Josh Lewin will join Rose" in the move to Clear Channel (MLB.com, 10/4).

GOING, GOING...: In N.Y., Shelly Freierman writes in an age "when every baseball game is on television and some are streamed to mobile devices, radio audiences are dwindling." Still, some teams had "more than 100,000 fans on average tune to broadcasts on their flagship radio stations." A chart showing the top MLB teams in average radio audience per game follows (N.Y. TIMES, 11/4).