There have been some interesting, and I would say disappointing, changes recently in Denver sports radio.
The first was the decision to move The Fan from 950 AM to 104.3 FM. Obviously the sound is better, but do we really need to hear all the sounds that Irv Brown and Joe Williams make? Now when you are listening to The Fan when you turn it on and they are playing their bumper music (or is it buffer music?) it sounds like a typical FM station playing music.
That is all well and good, but what I really liked about The Fan was that I could hear it hundreds of miles away in Kansas or Wyoming. It is bad enough driving through Kansas or Wyoming without knowing you are missing out on listening to a Nuggets game. Now that they have switched to FM I cannot even get reception in my office just 50 miles north of Denver (although that is probably more the fault of my radio than their signal, but my radio did get 950 AM so perhaps both can share the blame). What little gain they have made in sound quality, which I could really care less about, has been achieved at the expense of greatly reducing their broadcast range.
However, as far as the Nuggets and Avalanche go, the decrease in range by The Fan does not matter.
Kronke Sports Enterprises (KSE) has signed a deal with Mile High Sports Radio 1510 AM to broadcast Nuggets and Avalanche games. They will no longer be found on The Fan. Considering the loss in range by The Fan, that sounds like good news. Unfortunately, as of now, it is actually very bad news. Why? 1510 AM has an even weaker signal than 104.3 The Fan. At least The Fan comes in clearly in my car. 1510 AM does not come in at all.
According to the announcement from the Nuggets website the station knows that their tiny broadcasting radius is insufficient and they will seek to acquire affiliates to broadcast games in areas that do not receive their signal.
The bottom line is I believe both of these moves are bad for Colorado sports fans. When it comes to sports radio what I hate more than anything is not being able to listen to a game I want to hear. Next season I may be able to hear Spurs games in 1200 AM from whatever massive station they have in Texas blaring that crap, but I will not be able to listen to Nuggets games unless we have a local affiliate?
What I do not understand is if the Front Range is a region that is rabid enough to have three sports radio stations (104.3 FM, 1510 AM and 1600 AM) shouldn’t someone like me who lives 50 miles away be able to hear all of them in my car? Especially the one the station the Nuggets and Avs will be on.
I am sure that KSE will ensure that Mile High Sports either boosts its signal or acquires enough affiliates to keep Nugget and Avs fans happy. Then again, last season when the Nuggets and Avs both played on the same night one of the games was broadcast on 1600 AM and apparently the fact that the radius of that station was only slightly larger than the stench from a tire fire did not seem to bother KSE.
