At 7 a.m. this morning, KTLT (98.1 FM) will switch from alternative rock to ESPN Radio. It will assume the name ESPN 98 The Ticket.

The station will also be carrying Dallas Cowboys football, beginning with the season-opening game Sunday evening against the Washington Redskins. The games had been on 102.7 — another station in the Cumulus Network.

Some Dallas area talk shows may also be part of the package, according to Jim Christoferson, market manager for Cumulus stations in Abilene and Midland-Odessa.

“They’ve got local hosts who are very well branded,” he said. “Most of the people in Abilene will be interested in the teams in Dallas.”

Christoferson said the network has access to up to 250 events, including college football, the World Series, the BCS bowls, Super Bowl, NCAA basketball tournament games and major golf events.

“They’re even doing some fights now,” he said.

Local sports will be part of the mix in the future as well, but not in the immediate future.

“We wanted to launch the start of ESPN with NFL football. As we move forward, we’ll be looking to add local content. To what degree, I don’t know yet.”

Part of that content could be a locally produced talk segment focusing on more local sports.

“We’ll certainly want to find the right person and be sure that person is confident with the sound of ESPN,” Christoferson said. “We are committed to broadcast in the local interest.”

The sports talk format will be new to the FM band in Abilene.

“There are a number of stations taking the talk format to FM across the United States,” Christoferson said. “We thought it would be a good time to bring sports talk to the FM dial. We love the alternative format that we had on the air, but think there’s a bigger upside with revenue with sports talk.”

The station ended its alternative rock format Friday and replaced it with college bands.

“It’s called ‘stunting,’ ” Christoferson said. “A lot of stations will play one song over and over, maybe something germane to the format that it’s going to. Stations just do unique thing to get ready for the launch of the real format.

“We decided to play some Texas College fight songs. We didn’t know it was such a popular thing. We’ve had listeners calling wanting to know if they could get whatever we were playing.”