Quote:
WDFN ‘The Fan’ plans to bring back more local programming
By Bill Shea
Crain's Detroit Business
Six months after cutting most of its staff and local programming, sports talk station WDFN 1130 AM said today that a new primarily local show lineup will return Tuesday.
The station, which bills itself as “The Fan,” switched to mostly syndicated Fox Sports Radio programming and gutted its staff in January as part of its parent company’s cutbacks. San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications Inc. planned to trim $400 million in part by trimming its U.S. workforce by 1,850 jobs, or about 9 percent.
The station’s new weekday lineup is:
• 7-10 a.m.: Sean Baligian, who is also doing an afternoon show for a Grand Rapids sports station and is a color commentator for the Plymouth Whalers.
• 10 a.m.-noon: Ryan Ermanni, a WJBK Fox 2 sports reporter.
• Noon-2 p.m.: ESPN’s Colin Cowherd.
• 2–6 p.m.: Detroit Free Press columnist Drew Sharp and local play-by-play announcer Matt Shepard.
• Tom Kowalski, who covers the Detroit Lions for Booth Newspapers, will contribute news and commentary throughout the day.
WDFN lost its Detroit Pistons broadcast rights to WXYT 97.1 FM in February.
Clear Channel operates 20 radio stations in Michigan and more than 800 stations overall.
Locally, the radio giant also owns WJLB 97.9 FM, WMXD 92.3 FM, WKQI 95.5 FM, WNIC 100.3 FM, WDTW 106.7 FM and WDTW 1310 AM.
Clear Channel was taken private in July 2008 in a $24 billion deal after it merged with an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of CC Media Holdings Inc., which is a creation of Bain Capital Partners L.L.C. and Thomas H. Lee Partners L.P.
