On Tuesday night we learned what we’ve known for months – Peter G. Angelos and WBAL Radio are going back into business together once again for the 2011 Orioles season and beyond. The old man finally gets his eternal wish – to be the king of the AM band on summer nights on a dying radio station that no one listens to anymore but cadavers and people in his age demographic who still think a “smart phone” is one with an answering machine.
Funny, this is the same WBAL-AM 1090 that was also wrongfully denied media credentials the past few seasons and was considered persona non grata the nanosecond that John Angelos cut the CBS Radio deal four years ago with 105.7 FM and only after Bob Phillips squandered the longtime rights to the Ravens and allowed Ed Kiernan and the boys on TV Hill to swoop in for the purple roadkill for 98 Rock after the brand was built on the FM dial.
It’s like jumping in and out of sleeping bags for both franchises and these two corporate monoliths as a formerly lucrative revenue stream – local radio rights – continues to dry up as sports fans go to places on the internet like WNST.net for an honest look at the news, issues and analysis revolving around the franchises and the big business that follows those logos and partnerships.
And really? Who really listens to baseball or football on the radio with any consistency circa 2011 when you can get a real-time scores, chatter and every situation from your mobile device on websites like WNST.net?
Now that The PGA has gone back into the radio sleeping blanket with WBAL there are only two questions remaining: How long before the Ravens wind up back on CBS Radio (now, no doubt, in full desperation mode with an open checkbook) and how long before the former lapdogs over at The Fan start to bite an ongoing 14-year summer train wreck and have their press credentials revoked by the Orioles?
When will our friends Scott and Bruce and Ed and Steve and Bob and Mark and Damon and Jeremy begin “Uncensored” gameday coverage of the Orioles now that Angelos will do his best to make sure they don’t see a dime of revenue regarding the baseball team?
So, far, Scott Garceau has been jettisoned from the daily MASN TV lineup (bowing to the “new partners” at WBAL and Hearst) and Lord only knows how that partnership is going to stay attached now that the CBS Radio portion has been given the cold shoulder by Mr. Angelos, who apparently prefers the sound of mono
