(February 3, 2010) The Dallas Cowboys are among the most popular teams in the National Football League. That's been helped by the team's openness to new media ideas. Nearly two years after becoming the first pro sports franchise to have a dedicated HD Radio channel, the Cowboys will now go after stations nationally under a deal with Compass Media.

Team management approached Compass after it saw the arrangement cut by the Oakland Raiders in 2009. Like that scenario, Compass will create a national radio network to air Cowboys games in markets beyond the 65 protected under the team's deal with CBS Radio's all-sports "105.3 The Fan" KRLD-FM. "Our goal is to deliver Cowboys' fans complete access to all our games," team owner Jerry Jones says.

The deal extends through the 2015-2016 season and Compass CEO Peter Kosann expects to sign "high profile" sports talent for the Cowboys coverage. In addition to affiliates, the expectation is advertisers will also be attracted by the Cowboys name. Compass ad sales are handled by Dial Global. With a growing sports portfolio, Dial Global has hired Greg Leader to become VP of sports affiliate relations. He's previously worked with Sports USA and Westwood One. Meanwhile, Compass has separately signed deals with the Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks to air select games next season.

That makes for a total of 14 teams working with the company and will grow its roster of Sunday afternoon games to 60 next season. Kosann says Compass is open to doing other national deals with teams, noting there's a growing market for it. "There are more sports outlets than ever before and there's a hunger for play-by-play," Kosann says. "PPM is showing that play-by-play sports, and in particular NFL football, is very appealing - so we're feeling this need for content."