By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
SEATTLE – The shifting of the sports radio waves in the Seattle market has caught up with the Seattle Mariners.
The Mariners, anchored on 710 KIRO AM radio since 1985, will move to KOMO (1000 AM) beginning next season.
The team’s six-year agreement with Fisher Communications, KOMO’s parent company, will run through the 2008 season. The deal, terms of which were not announced, must be approved by major league baseball.
Mariners president Chuck Armstrong said the team talked with four broadcast companies, but “there was really only serious negotiation with two, Fisher and Entercom (which owns KIRO).”
KOMO, the longtime radio flagship for University of Washington sports, recently lost those rights to KJR. The Seattle Seahawks, also fixtures on KIRO, are moving to KISW, an FM station owned by Entercom.
The Mariners have aired on two flagship stations since the team began in 1977, KVI and KIRO.
“KIRO has been a wonderful partner and it was a very difficult decision to move,” Armstrong said. “But Fisher is locally owned and we pride ourselves on being locally owned. They do a lot of wonderful things in the community here.
“KOMO has an excellent signal, perhaps even better coverage than KIRO in some areas. They also have a nice station in Portland (KOTK-AM), which is important to us.”
What’s even more important is that the personalities that Mariners fans are accustomed to hearing won’t change. Dave Niehaus and Rick Rizzs will continue to call play-by-play.
“Niehaus and Rizzs and our whole broadcasting crew are Mariner employees, and they will be going with us,” Armstrong said. “If you took a poll of our fans, Dave Niehaus is probably our most popular Mariner.”
Armstrong also is confident that the Mariners’ network of ratio stations, which now numbers 36 in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho and British Columbia, will remain strong.
“KOMO put together an extensive network for Husky football, so the know how to put together a network,” Armstrong said.
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