Amazing no one has thought of this previously. From the Boston Globe’s Sasha Talcott.
The owner of radio stations WEEI and WRKO, fresh from signing one of Major League Baseball’s most expensive radio rights deals, has found a way to get some money back: selling naming rights to the Red Sox radio network.
“We’ll be right back on the WEEI/WRKO (Your Company Name) Red Sox Radio Network,” proclaims promotional material for the deal. Entercom Communications Corp., parent of the two stations, plans to mail out requests for proposals to 25 top advertisers this week to gauge their interest in the five-year agreement.
The asking price: several million dollars a year.
The naming rights sale comes shortly after Entercom won a contentious bidding process for the right to air Red Sox games. Under the company’s new rights deal, estimated to cost about $13 million to $14 million a year, games will be split between WRKO and WEEI starting next season. The idea to sell naming rights came from the Sox during negotiations, said Kahn, the Entercom executive.
Entercom executives are promoting the deal as the last big naming rights opportunity in Boston sports. The Patriots’ home, Gillette Stadium, already has a name, while the Celtics’ and Bruins’ arena was recently renamed TD Banknorth Garden.
“We really believe this is an ocean front real estate opportunity,” Kahn said.
even before i scrolled down i could tell that was dale dorman. i forget he was a dj, to me he’ll always be the more than a little creepy “uncle dale” who hosted channel 56’s afternoon/after school cartoons in the early 80s.