This winter, radio broadcasts of Creighton men’s basketball games will move to KOZN, better known as 1620 The Zone. It’s an interesting move for a lot of reasons.
Jays games have been on AM590 for nearly two decades, dating back to when the station was called “Magic 590” and played big band music and standards. Although the station changed formats several years ago to an all-sports model, first as Big Sports 590 and then AM590 ESPN Omaha, it’s never been able to overtake 1620, a ratings juggernaut in the Omaha market.
The vast popularity of 1620 played into the move. “We chose 1620 The Zone for many reasons, but mainly because it has long been considered Omaha’s premier sports talk radio station,” athletic director Bruce Rasmussen noted in a Creighton press release. “Its lineup, its commitment to local sports coverage, and its rank in the market made it the perfect partner for broadcasting our programs.”
One thing 1620 doesn’t have is as strong a signal as the station Creighton leaves behind. AM590’s signal allowed Jays games to be picked up for hundreds of miles; it was possible to listen to games on the road while in South Dakota, Iowa, and even parts of Missouri, Kansas and Minnesota. In the pre-XM and pre-internet radio days, that reach was invaluable, but with 1620 accessible anywhere in the world via the internet and a smartphone app, that’s less important now. For fans without easy access to the internet, though, that could still be a concern — on a good day, in my experience, 1620’s signal reaches only 20-30 miles outside of Omaha, and I’ve had trouble picking it up in West Omaha on occasion.
Of course, signal strength is only an issue if you have to listen to a game on the radio, and Creighton’s move to the Big East means their games will be easier than ever to find on TV, especially if you aren’t in Omaha. During an interview on 1620 Friday afternoon, Rasmussen said, “All of our conference games will be televised on Fox Sports 1 — that’s contractual. A number of our our non-conference games will be there also. I really expect that we’ll have 25 or so of our men’s basketball games on Fox.” The games from the Anaheim tournament will be televised by the ESPN family of networks, so depending on how many non-conference games Fox ultimately picks up, it’s possible that all but three or four of Creighton’s games could be nationally televised.
As with their previous agreements, Creighton will buy the airtime from 1620 and then recoup the costs by selling advertising. In an article in the World-Herald on Friday, Rasmussen said they looked into selling rights to the games, but came to the conclusion they could make more revenue by selling the ad time themselves and/or using it in sponsorship packages with in-arena advertisers.
Perhaps most interesting is a line buried at the bottom of the release, noting that on-air talent for the games will be announced at a later date. White & Blue Review has been unable to confirm with sources whether that means the team of T. Scott Marr and Nick Bahe will return or not. Marr has been the play-by-play voice of the Jays since the mid-nineties, and Bahe has been the color commentator since the 2008-09 season.