SYRACUSE -- The two-year affilation between The Score 1260 (WSKO) and Yahoo Sports Radio (formerly Sporting News Radio) won't be reaching a third anniversary. Cumulus Media and CBS Sports are launching a new radio network, and WSKO is said to be one of nearly 70 Cumulus stations who will be on board for the network's January 2013 debut.
Our thanks to NorthEast Radio Watch editor Scott Fybush for sharing a press release issued today, in which CBS bills the effort as "the largest major market sports radio network in the nation."
CBS Radio and CBS Sports will provide programming content, while Cumulus Media will handle syndication and sales duties. At launch, CBS says the network will clear in nine of the nation's top 10 radio markets, and the entire network will reach a potential 10 million listeners.
Although the full 24/7 network will not launch until January 2, 2013, the announcement says affiliates will begin to carry top-of-hour updates from CBS Sports as early as September 4. The announcement also says stations will have the opportunity to "regionalize their lineup by choosing from select programs currently featured on CBS RADIO or Cumulus sports stations."
Locally, WSKO is included on a list of stations that "will broadcast CBS Sports Radio programming," but WSKO is not on a separate list of affiliates which are slated to carry the network 24/7. That seems to indicate WSKO will continue with its slate of locally-produced talk from 10am to 6pm, in addition to Syracuse Chiefs baseball, Syracuse Crunch hockey and some local weekend talk shows.
We'll stress "seems" in that last sentence, as Cumulus Syracuse operations manager Tom Mitchell said he could not yet provide any comment further than what was already offered in the CBS press release.
Originally an affiliate of ESPN Radio, the former WNSS became WSKO and rebranded itself as "The Score 1260" when it changed to Sporting News Radio in 2010. Last August, that network rebranded as Yahoo! Sports Radio, after forming a new alliance with the internet portal.
No other stations in the CNYRadio.com coverage area were mentioned in the CBS announcement, but for those of you who enjoy pulling in distant AM signals, we will note New York City's WFAN is listed among major market affiliates which "will add various components of CBS Sports Radio programming to their lineup."