The Josh Innes Show - Could Houston Get A True FM Sports Radio Station?

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Today Audacy announced that they are flipping a classic hip hop station to sports in Chicago. I think this is a trend with that company. They want more talk programming. What does this mean for 610 in Houston? Let's do a little radio talk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. All right, here's an interesting story and a story that I think could have impact on you if you're in Houston and you listen to sports radio because I think this, I think this is showing a trend that's already been happening. But a move finally happened in radio that I think was long overdue. And I think the company that made the move is going to start moving more in that direction. and I think it bodes well for Houston finally getting an FM sports radio station. So let's play a couple commercials and let's get into this. Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In the car?

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It used to be CBS Radio where I worked. I forgot what to come. I guess was it Intercom and CBS who combined to form Odyssey. And there was CBS and I worked for CBS, which was the best place. They were great people. Best time I ever had in my life was working at 610. I think it's because it was all kind of new to me. And I thought the company was great. And we had great holiday parties. And like it was fun. That was kind of like the last great run of radio before it's kind of become what it's become, you know. But Odyssey is also who owns WIP in Philadelphia. They own the talk stations in Philadelphia, some music

stations in Philadelphia. They own 610 in Houston. They own like Kilt FM in Houston. They own whatever they call that classic hit station there. The kind of Jack FME classic hit station. What is that called the spot? They own that mix. They own.

And they still own mega. But anyway. So, um, mega. No, Mega Donald. But, um,

I saw a story today that I find interesting because I think they could be opening the door for a couple more FM sports stations. Now, CBS was at the forefront of launching FM sports talk stations. Back in the mid-2000s, like in the 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12 era, there were a lot of underperforming rock stations. Like, for instance, you had, you had, what you a call it, WYSP in Philadelphia, which competed with WMMR and competed with WMGK. And at one point, they decided to take the powerhouse sports talk station, WIP, move it from AM, move it over to FM because you had the Eagles, you had, the Eagles were on YSP FM anyway, you had the Phillies and the companies.

One at the time, I think they still had hockey. I think they had all four sports at one point on WIP, but I may be wrong. I know they had hockey at one point. But so they decided to flip that one over to FM and kill a rock station. In Boston, they decided to flip a station from a rock station to a sports station. That was WBCN, which was a pretty legendary rock station. I think Stern was on BCN. O&A were on BCN at one point, Tudger and Rich on BCN.

The station the Cowboys were on in Dallas used to be a hot talk station. It was called Live 1053. It is now 1053, the fan that station, was owned by CBS and then became Odyssey. That was the norm in a lot of these cities. Detroit did it. They had kind of a hot talky station, flipped it to sports back in the mid-2000s,

I believe is when that happened. Basically, a lot of these stations that were hot talk that were carrying Stern, Stern goes away. They try their own little brand of shock jock radio stuff that doesn't work in a lot of cities. They flip the formats and they go to sports. and a lot of them did that because they already kind of had a talk vibe anyway, or they were rock and they were dying,

so they decided to take stations that they either already had on AM, like in the case of WIP, and put it on FM, or they just straight up launched a new sports station, which in reality is easier because, like, one of the hard things you had to deal with with CBS, and I guess they finally got rid of 610, didn't they? I don't think they own the 610 frequency anymore. I might be wrong on that.

But the hard part is you have a station on AM and you still own the AM, it's a tough move to move it to an FM because you have to then make up for the revenue you're losing on whatever that frequency was carrying before. Like so, for example, in Houston, like let's say you wanted to take Mix, Mix 965 in Houston and you wanted to make that 610. You wanted to make that the sports station. Well, I'm going to guess that the revenue generated by 965 is $5, $6,000, $7, $8 million a year, however many millions of dollars a year it is, I don't know. And then imagine that 610 Generates $5, 6, 7, 8, 9 million dollars. So between the two of them, it might generate, you know, I don't know, $15 million a year, whatever it is.

Well, you're going to have to find a way. If you're going to take what's on AM and put it on the FM, well, then the AM is just going to be there left to die. And if the AM's left there to die, you're losing whatever money you were generating on that station. So to move it over to an FM, you would have to generate the money that both of those stations would have generated. So you need to basically double what the station was making to justify that move. And apparently they feel that way with the score in Chicago because that's what happened today. The score in Chicago, 104.3, the frequency was airing a classic like a throwback hip-hop station. Before that, it was a station I actually enjoyed called K-Hits.

But it was called 104-3 Jams. And what they have done with that now is they have, flip that to the score on FM. Now, I don't know what they're going to do with the score on A. and what they may do, and I don't know what sports properties they have, but having the A.M. is a good alternative for if you have conflicting games, for instance, like if you have to carry a Cubs game or White Sox or whoever they have, but there's also a hockey game if you have hockey. Again, I don't know all the details of what they're going to do, but I know they're moving from AM, which is 670 the score, and they are going to 104.3.

the score, and that's going to happen on February 2nd. And why does this matter to you that are listening to the station? Or this show. Why does that matter? Well, fun fact, in the Odyssey universe, there are only three Odyssey-owned sports talk stations that have local programming that are on AM only. 610 in Houston, WGR in Buffalo, and 1320 in Sacramento. and 1320 in Sacramento.

Those are the three Odyssey stations. Okay. Miami. Even Miami has moved their talk radio and Odyssey to an FM. Portland has done the same thing. Kansas City has done the same thing.

Odyssey is obviously putting value on talk. And I think that bodes well for you in Houston if Houston starts to feel like there's no point in playing adult contemporary Kelly Clarkson music on one of these frequencies or playing classic hits music on one of these frequencies if they were to take it and put six tens programming, the sports programming, on FM. And I think it bodes well. Like, I don't know what the situation is in Buffalo. And I can't imagine there's any real desire to take programming that's on an AM station in Sacramento and put it on an FM because I can't imagine that sports talk radio on Sacramento does particularly.

well or generates a ton of revenue. I think at one point it may have. I don't know that it does anymore. But 610 is in a major city that's what market three, market four, market six, whatever it is radio wise. And you could really put 790 out of business. And we've been saying this for years. If anybody in Houston decided to go true FM sports talk, they would put everybody else out. That's been the biggest deterrent to getting ratings in Houston in sports is there are three sports stations technically, none of them get ratings. And because of that, they all kind of fracture each other. They eat each other and kind of divide the number. If you were to take that and you were to put a station on FM, you could basically kill 975, which doesn't really have a pulse now anyway and doesn't

cover the whole market. And then I don't know that you'd ever truly kill 790 because there's nothing else they can put on there and they still have the rights to the, they still have the rights to the rockets and they still have the rights to the Astros. So you're never going to full on kill them, but in terms of being a viable threat to you, you'd kill them. And maybe a move like this, because in Kansas City they've done it, Portland they've done it recently.

I mean, you're talking about three Odyssey markets, and I've talked to people who work for Odyssey. And the idea is they put a lot of value in talk programming, whether that be news talk, whether that be sports talk, because that's the way things are going. Look at podcasts. No one's listening to a podcast to hear fucking fog hat. They're listening to podcast to hear the people that are on the air.

They're there for talk programming. And I think you're going to see more of that. You could see that happen with the news talk station in Philadelphia, WPHT. You could see a spot where they decide, you know what, it's not worth it playing fucking music. It's a waste of time. Let's take our talk show that's on AM right now and put it on FM and let it go. And I think that bodes well for cities like Houston. and that don't have a true FM sports station and never have.

So, and at this point, I like that. And I think Odyssey for years was kind of poorly run. It really wasn't my cup of tea the way they were doing things. I don't think management people that were the higher ups at Odyssey thought very highly of me. I was told as they were making that transition. I still worked there when it was CBS. When I got fired, it was still CBS. But they were in the process of transitioning into Odyssey.

And one of the days I was having a meltdown on the air in Philadelphia, I was told that one of the big bosses was listening because, like, Odyssey is in Philadelphia. And they were like, what the fuck is on the radio right now? So whatever. It appears that the score, though, is going to have a true simulcast. So it's going to be the same programming on both stations. I would imagine they're going to dump some sort of syndicated programming overnights and stuff on the AM. It's also an opportunity.

So as I'm reading more in this story, the score is the home of the Cubs and the Bulls. Okay. So like if there's any conflicts, you could, you know, dump certain things. You could dump some certain national game broadcasts on the AM. You know, so it's a smart idea. I think that and if I'm 610, if I'm, you know, sports radio 610 in Houston, I think that this puts you in play for that. And what I would consider doing, and I don't think they'll do this. Because they're so in bed with the Texans and that makes sense. Texans are the biggest brand in town. That's all they need. They don't want to be bogged down with having to care. carry the Astros or carry the rockets, because the rockets are a waste of time on the radio. You can say whatever the fuck you want about them, but they are a giant waste of time. But here is something I would consider. And I don't think the Astros would do this. And I don't know how much. I don't think that 790 or I heart pays for the Astros rights.

I don't think. But here's something I think could come into play. And this is something I would at least approach. If I were running this thing and I were at, if I were Sarah Frazier, whoever makes these decisions over at Odyssey in Houston. and I'm sure they've looked at all these things because they've got underperforming stations that are on the FM. But what I would do is I would look at that.

And obviously you can't get, unless you sell to like, you know, religious broadcasters or Mexican broadcasters, unless you sell that AM you're stuck with it. How can you make that viable for you financially as well other than just a true simulcast? What I would consider doing with that is I would take that. And they also, they're burdened with this 650,

which I don't even know what they put on, 650 anymore. I think they still own it though. But you got 610. I would make a run at the Astros because baseball on the radio is a great QM getter. Kume is the cumulative audience, right? Time spent listening and there's a huge factor in the rating, so is QM. What I would do is I would try to get baseball because there is value in having baseball. And if I would put them on at night, if the Astros are on at night and it's not conflicting with any Texan stuff, Texans programming, whatever. Now, I also don't know their deal with the Texans. I don't know if in the off season there's Texans programming like once a week on Tuesdays at 8 o'clock at night or something

that the Texans own. Therefore, that would also be kind of a deterrent in that too. But if you made this move, you'd have to entertain the idea of making a move for the Astros. You'd have a place to dump the Astros games or whatever other programming if there's a conflict, right? And you could have both of those. And you'd have the two most important brands in town. Astros, baseball, great QM getter. It's not a huge ratings getter for 6-10 or 790 right now, but it's because no one gives a shit about 790. The other deterrent here, though, if you're looking for a deterrent, is Houston's not a good sports town. It's not Chicago. It's not Philadelphia. It's not Boston. But then again, neither is Miami. Like, I don't

recall Miami flipping the station to FM sports. And was it talk? Let me see this story. I don't remember this happening at all. And I feel like I would have known that. I guess they did. My bad. This was August. shit, where was I? Odyssey, oh, that's QAM. Okay, that makes sense then. I was thinking of the other shitty aim. QAM is the longstanding sports station there. So, okay, that makes sense. So QAM is on FM now. I mean, if QA.m, if in Miami, they're starting to make moves like that, I could see a scenario where Houston comes into play. Houston's not a super passionate sports town, but if Miami's doing that, and that was one of the cities that had like four

sports stations on AM that nobody listened to, I'm kind of curious to know if that's actually caused any bump. Let me take a look at that. Let me see here. I'm curious. Miami radio ratings. Let's see here. Let's see. What is QAM doing? Holy shit. Is that, boy, there's doing particularly well six plus. So I mean, it's certainly a risk in this. Now, that's still early on. And it doesn't even look like it's moved up. So there is a risk in this. Miami does not give a fuck about sports. That is important to recognize as Miami is a very bad sports town. So take from that what you will. But so is Houston. Houston's a better sports town than Miami. But I don't know. I'm still of the belief that if you put one true blue badass sports radio station on FM in Houston that

has the Texans and makes a serious run for the Astros, then you would make money and you would kill everybody else. And maybe the door is open for that. When you see stories like this, the door may just be a jar. Anyway, more to come.