The Univ. of Texas and IMG College yesterday announced that Austin Radio Network, a "group of six local stations stitched together" by local radio personality Bob Cole and a group of investors, "has won a seven-year contract to broadcast" the school's sports, according to Brian Davis of the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. ARN’s signature sports station, KTXX-FM, will become Austin’s "flagship home for Longhorns football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball games beginning this fall." Cole said, "The cost to us, our real cost, is about $1 million per year." Davis reports an "undisclosed amount goes to IMG, the on-air talent and costs associated with the broadcast." Cole said that he will "have to recoup his annual investment through local ads on the broadcast." IMG is "responsible for selling ads that air statewide." Cole: "The mission that we’re confident is that we break even the first year, and maybe down the road it’ll turn." UT Senior Associate AD & CRO Steve Hank, who negotiated the deal, said that Cole "made a passionate pitch." Both Cole and Hank said that they intend to "keep Craig Way as the Longhorns’ play-by-play voice, color analyst Roger Wallace and sideline reporter Rob Babers." However, Way has a current contract with iHeart Media that "must be addressed first." UT Men's AD Steve Patterson said, "Here (with ARN), you’ve got an opportunity to create more and more interactive programming across all of our sports, which helps drives recruiting and interest and ability of fans to keep up with what’s going on with their kids.” UT also "could carry Spanish-language broadcasts in FM and AM signals" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 6/17).
