Courtesy St. Louis Post Dispatch

(August 13, 2010) Cardinals President Bill DeWitt III said the club probably is a couple of weeks away from making the decision as to what it will do with its radio rights, that it's waiting to hear from one of the bidders regarding some points of its proposal.

The options are a return to KMOX (1120 AM), a simulcast on current rightsholder KTRS (550 AM) and WXOS (101.1 FM) or leaving them solely on KTRS.

"One of the groups is taking their time a little bit,'' DeWitt said Thursday. "We've been waiting for them to get their business in order. We'd hoped to have it done by now, but there is no real urgency."

Sources said the KTRS/WXOS combo proposal is the one still in the works.

Because the Cardinals now sell the advertising on the broadcasts - unlike their days at KMOX, when the station handled sales - it's not as pressing that a deal be done far in advance of next season. That's because the club can sell advertising ahead of time because it knows the games will be broadcast, just not where. But an individual station, if it was in charge of sales, could not make those plans until it had secured the rights.

DeWitt said the Cardinals' sales staff is "not even stressing about the decision. They're like, ‘OK let us know and we'll sell where that is.''

And DeWitt said he thinks the decision is not far off.

"I don't see it going beyond this month," he said. "There are still a few big issues that both groups are trying to figure out where they stand. I wouldn't say it's just one little tweak here or there. But the issues have been narrowed significantly."

Buck, meanwhile, who has broadcast the Cardinals on KMOX both with and without his dad, isn't taking sides.

"Obviously with my history and my family's history, I always think about the Cardinals being a part of KMOX," he said. "But that's ancient history by this point. It's going to go where the best deal is, and the Cardinals owe it to themselves to make the best deal they can."

blog comments powered by Disqus