It also reached a long-term deal with ESPNRadio that will eventually change its call name to 1500 ESPNTwinCities.

Long story short, it means there are two all-sports stations in the Twin Cities — KFAN and KSTP. Trickling down to Rochester, KFAN has been affiliated with KWEB-AM(1270) and KSTP with KROC-AM(1340).

The switch caught most everyone by surprise.

"Yes, we were caught off guard,'' said Brent Ackerman, the operations manager for Cumulus Rochester, which includes KROC and KOLM-AM(1520), but with sports-oriented lineups. "From our standpoint, not much has changed.''

KSTPis now carrying ESPN Radio programming in the morning. Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse has a show from noon to 2 p.m. and then joins St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Joe Soucheray from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.. Soucheray's "Garage Logic'' will air from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

KSTPis also home to the Minnesota Twins and in a month, will start carrying them almost on a daily basis.

Twins games here are on KROC-AM.

"Our Saturday morning Sports Talk show (with Reusse and Soucheray from 10 a.m. to noon)is not affected at all,'' said Ackerman. "And we still have Joe Soucheray on weekdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on KROC. It's just that now Patrick reuse joins him from 2 to 4 p.m. followed by Garage Locig at 4 p.m.

"Down the road we may explore adding the 5 to 6 p.m. hour of Garage Logic, but there are some contractual issues with other shows in our lineup that would need to be addressed before that could happen.''

KSTP has been struggling to attract listeners with its previous all-talk format.

"KSTP must think that there is room for another sport station in the Cities,'' said Bob Fox, the VPmarket manager for KWEB-based Clear Channel Communications in Rochester. KFAN is really solid and I do not tihnk that KSTPwill make a big dent in KFAN. It will be an uphill battle for KSTPfor a long time. KFAN is a very local station and has a great feel for all of Minnesota.

"Time will tell if it is going to have an effect on any other stations at all.''

KWEB pulls in all the daytime programming from KFAN and at night switches to Fox Sports Radio.