WEMJ AM 1490 prepared turns to sports

WEEI Sports Radio will take the place of talk on WEMJ-AM (1490) as the result of an agreement between Nassau Broadcasting Partners of Princeton, New Jersey and Entercom Communications Corp. of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Last week, Lou Mercatanti, chairman of Nassau, announced that the company signed a letter of intent with Entercom to carry Entercom's WEEI Sports Radio, broadcast from Boston, on 11 of its stations in northern New England, including its Gilford-based AM station. "We are extremely pleased to be able to provide the programming of WEEI to an initial group of 11 of our radio stations that are part of our extensive radio group in New England," Mercatanti said in a prepared statement. "Millions of New England sports thirsty listeners will no have full access to the highly successful sports programming and personalities of WEEI."

Rob Fulmer, general manager of al Nassau's local properties — including flagship WLNH 98.3 FM — yesterday declined to comment about exactly how the station's current programming would be affected by the agreement with Entercom and referred questions to Nassau Broadcasting's corporate headquarters.

Currently WEMJ-AM begins weekdays with Pay Kelly's "Lakes Region Local," a mix of news, weather and features from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. then turns to nationally syndicated political and psychological chatter with Rush Limbaugh, Howie Carr and Dr. Joy Browne. Saturday mornings are filled with local talk, topped by "Meet the New Press," two hours of politics hosted by conservative activists, bloggers and pundits Doug Lambert and Skip Murphy with their partner Pat Hynes.

Lambert said yesterday that he knew little about the change of format, but said he was not concerned about the future of his show since he has a one-year contract with Nassau Broadcasting. However, he said that the last time WEMJ-AM dropped talk radio in a change of format — to a format designed to appeal to tourists — the station received thousands of phone calls and e-mails complaining of the switch.

WEEI bills itself as "the number one rated sports radio talk station in America," despite competition from two other stations in Boston airing sports talk 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Last year WEEI received its first Marconi Award as sports station of the year and was also named large market station of the year.

WEEI is the co-flagship station of the WEEI "Red Sox Radio Network" with sister station WRKO, which originates all Red Sox broadcasts. Beginning this season, WEEI will be the flagship station of the Boston Celtics as well as airing matches of the New England Revolution and Boston College football and basketball. WEEI is the highest rated station of Fox Sports Radio and was an ESPN Radio affiliate for several years before switching to Fox.

Nassau currently broadcasts Boston baseball games as part of the greater "Red Sox Radio Network".

In 2004 Nassau Broadcasting, a privately held firm, acquired WEMJ-AM, along with three other local radio stations — WLNH, WBHG-FM (101.5), and WLKZ-FM (105) — and stations in Concord and Nashua, to nearly double its presence in New England. Today it owns and operates 11 stations in New Hampshire, eight in what Arbitron, the national rating service designates as the Concord market, as well as one in the Manchester market and two in Claremont. Altogether Nassau Broadcasting owns and operates 53 radio stations in seven states, 38 of them in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts and the rest in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

Entercom Communications in one of the largest broadcasters in the country with operations from coast to coast and major markets in between.