WAMG

Infobox Radio station
name = WAMG


city = Dedham, Massachusetts
area = Dedham/Boston, Massachusetts
branding = "890 ESPN"
slogan = "Sports, When You Want It!"
airdate = 2005
frequency = 890 (kHz)
format = Sports radio
erp = 25,000 watts (day) 3,400 watts (night)
class = B
facility_id = 6475
callsign_meaning = AMG = Mega (referring to the previous Mega 890 format)
owner = WallerSutton 2000/J Sports Boston
website = http://www.890espn.com/|

WAMG (890 AM, "890 ESPN") is a sports radio station in the Boston market licensed to Dedham, Massachusetts. It is owned by a local ownership group called J Sports, and has been broadcasting since July 2005.

890 ESPN broadcasts live sports talk, both locally and nationally. 890 ESPN is the station home of Salk & Halloran and Lew & Mike. In addition to this, they host local favorites such as "Celtic Pride" and "The New England Hockey Journal". The station is also the home of Northeastern University Football and Men's Ice Hockey.

"Mike and Mike in the Morning", "The Herd with Colin Cowherd", "The Mike Tirico Show", and "GameNight" are broadcast from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Lew and Mike, Salk & Halloran and others are broadcast from the studios of 890 ESPN. "All Night with Jason Smith" is broadcast from Los Angeles, California.

Other major broadcasts include MLB Playoffs and World Series, Sunday Night Baseball, MLB All Star Game and Home Run Derby, NBA Game of the Week, NBA Playoffs and Finals, College Bowl Games, and the College Bowl Championship Series.

WAMG & WLLH

890 ESPN also simulcasts its radio programming on 1400 AM WLLH in Lowell and Lawrence. Broadcasts reach the area north of Boston and the southern part of New Hampshire. The Lowell Spinners, a Red Sox single A minor league affiliate team, can be heard throughout the season on the station.

ESPN Radio

ESPN Radio is a national sports radio network in the United States launched on January 1, 1992. It was originally called Sports Radio ESPN. ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. The network airs a regular schedule of daily and weekly programming as well as live coverage of Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, Bowl Championship Series, and National Invitation Tournament games. As of 2006, like ESPN, ESPN Radio now has what is called ESPN Radio Insider. ESPN Radio is broadcast to subscribers of both Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio.

ESPN Radio's parent company, The Walt Disney Company, currently has five company-owned stations in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and Pittsburgh. Most other markets have ESPN Radio affiliates, Boston being one of these key affiliates.

Play-by-play

890 ESPN provides play-by-play of Northeastern University football, hockey, and basketball along with Harvard basketball. 890 ESPN also offers those carried by ESPN Radio, like the Bowl Championship Series, the World Series, and the National Invitation Tournament. Starting in 2007, 1400 ESPN will begin carrying Lowell Spinners baseball. All other local sports (Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins and Celtics, as well as several other colleges) are carried by other Boston stations.

History

In 2005, Mega Communications announced the sale of WAMG 890 and WLLH 1400 to WallerSutton 2000, an investment firm, in cooperation with locally-owned "J Sports". Upon closure of the sale, WAMG dropped its Spanish tropical format and re-launched again, this time with a sports format and the ESPN Radio affiliation. The station added a local afternoon show featuring Mike Felger, and used the branding of "ESPN Boston".

On August 3, 2006, WAMG was the first to report that veteran major league catcher Javy Lopez was being traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Boston Red Sox. The trade was designed to fill a hole caused by the recent injury to Jason Varitek. The next day, the trade was announced as official; the Orioles received cash and a player to be named later (Adam Stern) in return. The station currently staffs reporters covering every major Boston sporting event.

;From the Beginning...WAMG first came on the air in 1994 as WBIV. In 1995, the station adopted a sports format, affiliated with the Prime Sports network. The station also adopted the call letters of WBPS at this time, which remained with the station for many years.In 1998, WBPS was acquired by Mega Communications, and adopted a Spanish adult contemporary format, quickly as "Estrella 890" before becoming "Amor 890".The bad business decision of launching a Spanish language all-news format in New York City led Mega to broker many of the company's stations. So on December 1, 2001, Mega began leasing WBPS to CNET, at which time the station adopted the technology news/talk format of "CNET Radio," as a simulcast of flagship 910 KNEW in San Francisco.

When financial problems led to the cease of CNET Radio on WBPS, Mega then began leasing the station to Chicago-based Air Time Media. This group launched a conservative news/talk format on WBPS, which was known as the "Boston Talk Party".In 2003, Mega sold the company's other Boston station, WAMG "Mega 1150", to Salem Communications. In order to retain the successful Spanish language tropical format of WAMG, Mega moved the intellectual property of WAMG to the 890 frequency, canceling Air Time's lease on the station. Some of the hosts which were dropped from WBPS landed on 1150 AM, which Salem re-launched as conservative talk station WTTT.

Additionally, when WAMG relocated to 890 AM as "Mega 890", its simulcast partners of WLLH-AM 1400 in Lowell and Lawrence continued simulcasting WAMG and were not sold to Salem.

The former afternoon show on 890 ESPN was known as "The Mike Felger Show". Mike Felger's last broadcast was on July 10, 2008.

External links

* [http://www.espnboston.com WAMG official website]
*AMQ|WAMG
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