The Durham Bulls announced a new partnership with 99.9 (FM) The Fan, which will broadcast all of the games this season.

The latest quarterly radio ratings from Arbitron show that 99.9 The Fan, Capitol Broadcasting's all-sports FM station, leads each of McClatchey Broadcasting's two AM sports stations, 850 The Buzz and 620 The Bull, in the Raleigh-Durham market.

But McClatchey General Manager Brian Maloney says "The Triangle's Sports Leader," to borrow the company's claim, has not changed, because McClatchey counts its two stations together.

According to Arbitron, 99.9 (WCMC) drew a 1.0 rating — measuring listeners age 12 and over from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Sunday — in the fall 2008 quarter, up from 0.7 in the summer. The Fan attracted an estimated 41,800 unique listeners in any given 15-minute period, up from 30,600.

Next was 850 (WRBZ) at 0.8, the same as the previous quarter, followed by 620 (WDNC) at 0.6. The latter fell 0.2.

But Maloney sees those numbers as a combined 1.4 — or higher than 99.9 The Fan's 1.0.

"We're in the business of providing sports programming to sports radio fans, and we don't really care which one they're listening to as long as they're listening to The Buzz or The Bull. And we have the lion's share of the sports radio market," Maloney says.

More important, as far as 99.9 The Fan is concerned, was its performance in the demographic categories it really wants to own: men 25-54 and men 18-34, essentially the target audience for a sports radio station. In the male 25-54 category, 99.9's rating increased from 0.7 to 2.5, according to the station. (Arbitron limits what it makes immediately available to the press.) Among men 18-34, The Fan's rating rose from 1.4 to 1.9.

Again, in a news release Monday, McClatchey (no relation to the parent company of The News & Observer) noted that its combined rating among men 25-54 exceeded 99.9 The Fan's figure in that category. 

The Fan benefited from its FM signal, its move to ESPN programming and its coverage of Carolina Hurricanes hockey and NFL games, says Dave Shore, the operations manager for the station.

"I'm happy we've been able to do this in the first year," Shore says, referring to the station's ratings success in the year following its format change from country music to all-sports in October 2007.

Ultimately, he adds, 99.9 The Fan will measure itself in its primary demographic against all of the Triangle's stations, not just the sports-talk outlets.

Overall in the fall quarter, the leader was WQDR-FM 94.7, a country station, at 7.8, followed by WDCG-FM 105.1, a pop contemporary hits station, and WPTF-AM 680, a news talk station, each at 6.9.

ESPN Radio is planning a few changes to its programming lineup, including the addition of a new show, some of which will affect 99.9 The Fan's weekday schedule.

Brian Kenny, a "SportsCenter" anchor and ESPN2 "Friday Night Fights" host, will host the network’s weeknight 8-10 p.m. slot starting Feb. 2. Also that day, "The Pulse with Doug Gottlieb" will be moved from its 7-10 p.m. weeknight slot to 4-7 p.m. and be renamed "The Doug Gottlieb Show." In March, "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" and "Tirico & Van Pelt" will start running longer. After the lineups below, we'll specify which changes will be carried on 99.9.

Weekday lineup effective Feb. 2 (changes in bold)
5-6 a.m. SportsCenter
6-10 a.m. Mike & Mike in the Morning
10-1 p.m. The Herd with Colin Cowherd
1-3 p.m. Tirico & Van Pelt
3-4 p.m. Scott Van Pelt Show
4-7 p.m. The Doug Gottlieb Show
7-8 p.m. Football Tonight
8-10 p.m. The Brian Kenny Show
10 p.m.-1 a.m. ESPN live news and information
1- 5 a.m. AllNight with Jason Smith

Weekday lineup effective March 16 (changes in bold)
5-6 a.m. SportsCenter
6-10 a.m. Mike & Mike in the Morning
10-2 p.m. The Herd with Colin Cowherd
2-4 p.m. Tirico & Van Pelt
4-7 p.m. The Doug Gottlieb Show
7-8 p.m. Football Tonight/Baseball Tonight
8-10 p.m. The Brian Kenny Show
10 p.m.-1 a.m. ESPN live news and information block
1- 5 a.m. AllNight with Jason Smith

Dave Shore, operations manager of 99.9 The Fan, says the local FM station will not broadcast Gottlieb's show because of its local program, "The Insiders," from 3-7 p.m. But on nights when the station isn't carrying a live Hurricanes game, listeners will hear Kenny's show and the live news and information block.

On 99.9, "The Herd" will run from 10 to noon, followed by "The Sports Lunch with Mike Maniscalco" from noon to 1 p.m. and "The Herd" again from 1-2 p.m. Mike Tirico and Scott Van Pelt will be on 99.9 from 2-3 p.m., when "The Insiders" comes on. In other words, the extra hour for Tirico and Van Pelt will not be aired here.

Dave Shore of 99.9 The Fan says finding an AM radio partner to deliver ESPN Desportes, the Spanish-language version of the sports network, will be one of his priorities in January and that he expects to have a local station providing that programming around Feb. 1.

The changes generated by ESPN Radio's move from McClatchey Broadcasting — 850 The Buzz and 620 The Bull — to Capitol Broadcasting's 99.9 The Fan are being heard by listeners for the first time. The FM sports-talk station began carrying ESPN programming today, and is planning another big change around the first of the year.

Capitol Broadcasting expects to begin airing ESPN Deportes, the Spanish-language version of ESPN, on an as-yet unidentified AM station in the market around the first of the year.

The FM station's local program from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays is "Sports Lunch With Mike Maniscalco."

McClatchey split with ESPN in large part so it could drop "Mike and Mike In The Morning" in favor of "Imus In The Morning" from 6-10 a.m. on 620 The Bull.

Not surprisingly, "The Dan Patrick Show" has been picked up by 850 The Buzz from 10 a.m. to noon. Patrick, a longtime reporter, anchor and radio host with ESPN, joined The Content Factory in 2007, and also writes a column for Sports Illustrated.

From 1-3 p.m. on weekdays, 620 The Bull will air "Two Live Stews," featuring brothers Doug and Ryan Stewart, a syndicated show out of Atlanta that has gained attention in recent years.

Successfully ending what he termed a "very competitive" process, 99.9 The Fan's general manager, Mike Morgan, confirms that the FM sports talk radio station has reached an agreement to carry such ESPN Radio programming as "Mike & Mike In The Morning" from 6-10 a.m. weekdays and "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd at 10 a.m.

The local station expects to begin airing ESPN programming on Jan. 5, says Morgan, adding that 99.9 now will have access to Major League Baseball, NBA and other games broadcast by the national network.

"Our local shows won't disappear," Morgan says. "You'll still see a local show at midday and 'The Insiders' in the afternoon ... and when appropriate, we'll have special programming that focuses on the things that are important to the local market."

Morgan says 99.9 The Fan had been looking to pick up ESPN for some time and has had informal conversations "off and on" with the national radio network for the past eight to 12 months.

McClatchey Broadcasting, which owns 850 The Buzz and 620 The Bull, announced in mid-October that it was ending its relationship with ESPN, in large part so it could go back to airing "Imus In The Morning."

McClatchey Broadcasting is unrelated to the McClatchy Co., which owns The News & Observer.