Wednesday, April 23, 2014

4.23.14 Heroes of the Day: 97.1 The Ticket and Detroit Sports 105.1

Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.



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TWO SPECIAL HEROES OF THE DAY!
  


Names: WXYT-FM, WMGC aka "97.1 The Ticket", "Detroit Sports 105.1"
Ages: 73, 54
Occupations: sports talk radio stations
Last Seen: Detroit, MI
Awarded For: creating a slam dunk of a deal
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It's official: Detroit Sports 105.1 - despite currently being the Motor City's lowest-rated FM station - will have a future.

Plus, Red Wing fans will no longer have to have to sit through static to sit through the games.

Yesterday at 3 p.m., a blockbuster deal was made between the Detroit Pistons NBA team and 105.1. Effective immediately, 105.1 is now the flagship station of the Pistons, which had been on 97.1.

97.1 had carried all of Detroit's major sports teams - Pistons, Red Wings, Tigers and Lions - until the deal. However, if a Pistons game was on the same time as a Red Wing game, the Wings were forced onto 97.1's lowly sister station, WXYT 1270, a station with a lousy nighttime signal. Even worse, the Pistons are an also-ran in Detroit sports; they ended the 2013-14 season in 4th place in the Central Division. The only team worse than the Pistons in their division is the worst team in the NBA, the 15-67 Milwaukee Bucks.

Personally, this is good news for both stations since 97.1 will keep the winning Tigers and Red Wings while 105.1 will have whatever audience the Pistons have these days. Of course, the team will have yet another rebuilding year after coach Mo Cheeks was fired mid-season and fairly-new owner Tom Gores is still trying to teach himself how to run a successful sports franchise. The Pistons haven't had a winning season since 2008 when Flip Saunders coached the team. Around that time, long-time owner Bill Davidson died and his wife silently owned the team. Gores bought the Pistons in 2011 and has yet to turn around the team.

The constant pre-emptions of Red Wings for Pistons on 97.1 also hurt ratings. Normally, they're in first place. Now, they're in eighth place because of the Pistons lame playing plus the fact that the Red Wings barely made the NHL playoffs this year.

Now, with the Pistons gone, 97.1 can breathe easier. But, what about 105.1? I don't expect the Pistons to be in the W column next year, or anytime soon. It takes years to build a successful team, especially one that has seen better days. The only decent player I see on their roster is Chauncey Billups, who helped the team win their 2003 championship. Too bad his good days are behind him.

Also, once the Red Wings' new arena is finished in the next few years, the Pistons will be stuck with the oldest arena in Detroit, The Palace. Even worse, it's in Auburn Hills, a lily-white suburb of Detroit. I think if they're smart, the Pistons either A) convince the cash-strapped city of Detroit to build them a new arena to replace The Palace or B) share the new arena with the Red Wings. But, who knows? I honestly think that the Pistons are hell-bent on keeping The Palace, which was built in 1988 and is one of the last great hopes for Detroit's deteriorating northern suburbs, still stuck with the eyesore known as the Silverdome and the long-abandoned Big Buck Brewery (at least that Showcase Cinema bit the dust).

But all we know is this: all the Red Wings have to worry about now are their sister team, the Tigers.
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