WDAN listeners will notice a change beginning early Friday morning, but the station’s format will be staying the same.
Beginning at Midnight on Friday with the start of the New Year, WDAN listeners will hear the voices of Fox Sports Radio instead of ESPN Radio, as they have for more than a decade now. The change is designed to have more consistent programming during the evenings and weekends.
Kurt Kretzschmar, Senior Director of Affiliate Sales at Premiere Networks, which syndicates Fox Sports Radio programming, told WDAN’s Sports Talk panel this past Saturday morning that local listeners here in Danville will see a more solid lineup of talk shows rather than a mix of play-by-play and game-centered shows.
“We’re not really doing much play-by-play at all,” he explained. “We cater to the listeners, trying to give them the approach like they’re talking sports with friends at a sports bar, not being told what to do or what to think, having free thought and being able to be passionate about what they like.”
Neuhoff Media Vice President and COO Mike Hulvey says the change also affects Neuhoff’s Decatur sports station, WDZ, which carries a 24-hour sports format. He says Fox Sports Radio will allow local sports fans to better understand the national sports scene at any given time, while also focusing on local teams through those teams’ broadcasts.
“What we were running into is a lot of content that really didn’t apply, where our listeners really wanted to know what was going on everywhere else, not necessarily a game that didn’t involve them,” Hulvey said.
Kretzschmar says one area where Fox Sports Radio specializes is its weekend and overnight programming, which is done with the use of sports talk hosts and not specialty programming.
WDAN will continue as an affiliate of multiple sports teams, including the Danville Vikings, Illinois Fighting Illini, St. Louis Cardinals and the Indianapolis Colts.
