Audacy is about to give Los Angeles something it’s never had — its first full-time FM sports talk station. On May 11th, 97.1 — which has only been simulcasting KNX News since late 2021 — becomes 97.1 The Fan.
Here’s the thing — this isn’t just another random flip. In most other markets, Audacy moved an existing sports station from AM over to FM and brought their audience with them. LA is different. They’re starting completely from scratch with no existing station and no rights to any of the major LA teams.
There’s an interesting wrinkle though: Audacy still owns 93.1 Jack FM, which will continue carrying every Rams game as the official FM broadcast partner. That gives them a built-in promotional machine — they can run spots and teases for 97.1 The Fan around every single Rams broadcast, even though the actual games aren’t moving to the new sports station.
So the big question is — does this actually work in real life?
The numbers say yes, more often than people expect. Pittsburgh’s sitting on a 9 share. Detroit’s right there with them. New York’s 101.9 The Fan has been holding strong in the 5’s. Even the newer flips in Chicago and Kansas City have shown solid gains after moving to FM.
At the end of the day, this flip isn’t really about whether LA has enough sports fans. It’s about something bigger that keeps coming up across the entire radio industry. Fred Jacobs’ Techsurvey just showed it again — 60% of people say they turn on the radio for the personalities, not the music or the games.
Audacy’s betting that if they put sharp, local voices on a strong FM signal, listeners will find them. Whether it works here in LA… we’ll see.
But if personalities really are the one thing left that still cuts through in radio, then maybe the teams were never the main thing to begin with.
On The Dial covers breaking radio industry news, including layoffs, programming changes, talent moves, and broadcast trends across the United States.