Compass Media Networks

Compass Media Networks

Compass Media Networks is an American radio network. The company launched in January 2009. [1] It is owned by former Westwood One CEO and former COO [2] of Connoisseur Media, Peter Kosann. The company focuses on radio and offers representation and marketing services for national radio.[3]

History

Compass Media Networks debuted in January 2009 with the mission of providing outstanding representation and marketing services to the best brands and programs in national radio.

Programming

The Schnitt Show is broadcast live weekdays 3-6pm ET from WFLA in Tampa and distributed nationwide to an affiliate lineup of over 22 stations. In addition to hosting the Todd Schnitt Show, Schnitt was also the host of the MJ Morning Show, that was broadcast live weekday mornings from flagship station WFLZ in Tampa and heard across a regional network of stations. The final broadcast was on February 17, 2012.

The Free Beer and Hot Wings Show is hosted by cast including Gregg "Free Beer" Daniels, Chris "Hot Wings" Michaels, Eric Zane who will hopefully be back someday, Producer Joe, and Steve. It offers five-hours of live morning drive entertainment programming, broadcasting from WGRD-FM studios in Grand Rapids - where the show captures roughly 35% of the listeners in the market, Free Beer and Hot Wings is now heard nationwide and the listeners want the show whole again. The show airs weekdays: 5am - 10am.

The Lars Larson Show with Lars Larson is heard across a network of over 100 affiliates. Broadcasting from the KXL studios in Portland, Oregon, Lars is an award winning conservative news-journalist, frequent guest on the country's leading cable news channels, and ranked by Talkers Magazine as one of America's best talk show hosts. The show airs weekdays: 6pm - 9pm ET, weekends: 6pm - 9pm ET, Daily Feature: 6am - 7pm weekdays

The Market Score Board Report with Ron Insana debuted nationally on May 11, 2009. The Report has affiliates in New York (ESPN 1050), Los Angeles (KSPN), Chicago (WMVP), Dallas (ESPN Radio), Washington (WTNT), Houston (KFNC-FM), and Miami (WIOD/WINZ). It offers daily business reports Monday - Friday at the open and close of the stock market.

Countdown to Game Time with Kevin Burkhardt is a 30-minute weekly NFL preview show. The show features a preview of the upcoming weeks top match-ups, player interviews and game analysis. Kevin Burkhardt is the Mets field reporter for SportsNet New York, former NFL beat reporter and sports radio host.

Acquisition of Westwood One programs

After Westwood One was bought out by Dial Global, Compass picked up several of Westwood One's former weekend music programs. Among those were The Beatle Years with Bob Malik, Out of Order with Jed the Fish, and Off the Record with Uncle Joe Benson. After Westwood One reformatted its longtime Saturday-night program Country Gold with a new host (first with Randy Owen, now with Terri Clark), Compass hired the show's previous host, Josh "Rowdy Yates" Holstead, to host a continuation of the previous format under the name The Original Country Gold. Compass also owns the rights to The Deep End with Nick Michaels, which was not previously a Westwood One program.

After Dial Global merged with Cumulus Media Networks, Compass picked up additional programs, including the M. G. Kelly syndicated program library and the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40. Big D and Bubba, previously distributed by Premiere Networks, also was added to the Compass lineup.

Acquisition of Wall Street Journal This Morning

In November 2014, Compass announced the acquisition of The Wall Street Journal This Morning, a morning-drive national news/talk program syndicated by the Wall Street Journal Radio division, which was shut down by WSJ after advertisers blacklisted the network. The program was renamed This Morning: America's First News; Gordon Deal, the program's host since 2005, was retained and the format unchanged save for the title.[4] The first broadcast under the new title was January 2, 2015.

Sports

National Football League coverage

Compass, in conjunction with Dial Global, began offering a slate of Sunday afternoon games from the National Football League beginning in the 2009 NFL season. These broadcasts competed with the NFL on Westwood One and the Sports USA Radio Network. Compass's broadcast pairings feature Chris Carrino with Brian Baldinger and Matt "Money" Smith with Dale Hellestrae. Jon Rothstein serve as studio hosts. Other play-by-play announcers include Gregg Daniels and Drew Bontadelli.

All of Compass's 2009 NFL games were broadcast by individual agreement with eight teams, which will feature in all of Compass's games: the Atlanta Falcons, Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders (with whom Compass also manages local broadcast rights as of 2010), Philadelphia Eagles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Redskins. The Detroit Lions and Arizona Cardinals were added to the agreement in 2010. For 2011 Compass Media acquired the rights to all pre-season and regular season Dallas Cowboys games and will be able to broadcast them nationally on compassmediasports.com alongside the Raiders broadcasts. The coverage also allows them to seek for affiliates who want the Cowboys outside of the covered Dallas Cowboys Radio Network. An additional four teams added their names to Compass's NFL coverage for the 2011 season- the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers, and Seattle Seahawks. By virtue of the teams involved in the two international games, Compass Media Networks holds exclusive national broadcast rights to both the NFL International Series and Bills Toronto Series games in 2011. When all was said and done, Compass Media was to expand their coverage to 60 games a season with the new contracts.[5]

NCAA football and basketball coverage

Dial Global and Compass announced they would offer a slate of NCAA football games beginning in the 2009 season, competing with ESPN Radio, Sports USA Radio Network, Dial Global, Nevada Sports Network, and Touchdown Radio Productions. No specific conference affiliation was announced, and the schedule featured games with teams from the Pac-12 Conference, Western Athletic Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big East Conference, Big 12 Conference, Conference USA, and the Southeastern Conference. In December 2009, Compass Media announced they had gained the national radio broadcasting rights for the Texas Bowl. The Texas Bowl rights lasted only one season as ESPN Radio took over the rights in 2010. By 2012, Compass Media was only broadcasting games from the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC conferences.

In July 2009, Compass Media announced they would expand their sports coverage to include NCAA basketball, competing with Westwood One. While Compass can't gain rights to any NCAA Tournament games, they announced that they signed a contract with the Big Ten Conference to be the exclusive radio provider of the first and second rounds of the Big Ten Tournament in 2010 and all tournament games beginning in 2011.[6]

In 2011, Compass Media Sports increased their coverage of the Big 10 conference by inking a multi-year deal to broadcast the Big 10 Championship game, meaning the Big 10 Basketball Tournament and Big 10 Championship game will be on the same radio affiliates nationwide and at .[7]

Major League baseball coverage

In April 2012, Compass announced an agreement with Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to air 25 games out-of-market throughout the team's 2012 season.[8] Chris Carrino and Steve Quis were named as play-by-play announcers for the broadcasts, with Steve Phillips and Darryl Hamilton to serve as analysts.[9] For the 2013 season, Compass acquired rights to select Tampa Bay Rays home games to increase their MLB coverage. Compass has not syndicated MLB games since the 2013 season

References

  1. ↑ "FREE BEER & HOT WINGS Partners With Compass Media Networks". Reuters. 2009-03-05.
  2. ↑ "Blog Archive » Peter Kosann steps down as Chief Operating Officer of Connoisseur Media in order to focus full-time on Compass Media Networks". Connoisseur Media. 2009-03-24. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  3. ↑ Archived March 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ All Access. "Compass Media Networks To Continue Gordon Deal's Morning Show After Wall St. Journal Pulls Out". All Access Music Group. Retrieved 2015-01-02.
  5. ↑ Nox Solutions. "Sports Programming". Compass Media Networks. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  6. ↑ Nox Solutions. "Sports Programming". Compass Media Networks. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  7. ↑ Nox Solutions. "Compass Media Networks". Compass Media Networks. Retrieved 2012-10-03.
  8. ↑ Marcucci, Carl (2012-04-25). "Compass Media Networks signs LA Angels". RBR.com.
  9. ↑ "Carrino, Quis to call Angels baseball". staatalent.com. 2012-05-15.
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