Once again WBAP radio has captured the Texas Hangers broadcast contract, but not without some spirited competition from WFAA and KRLD. Basically WBAP won because of its strong signal, which saturates the 107-county coverage area the Rangers want. KRLD’s signal doesn’t quite touch all of the counties and the station’s Cowboy game coverage would pre-empt some late season Ranger games. WFAA’s problem is its nighttime signal, which, because of FCC restrictions, is weak to the north. Potential Ranger listeners in far North Texas and Oklahoma might have difficulty hearing the game broadcasts.
With the Ranger contract comes an instant audience. WBAP’s rating in the 107-county area last fall without the Rangers was 41,000 listeners. Last spring, with the Rangers, 163,000 tuned in.
Some of the Rangers may make selling the 1976 network time a little easier. Network sales director Roy Parks says Mike Hargrove, a native of Perryton, “has darn near made the Panhandle for us.” Stations in Lub-bock, Amarillo and of course Perryton will carry the Ranger games. If rookie pitcher Jim Gideon makes the team next year, he’ll be a big selling point for the Ranger radio affiliate in Austin, where only last spring Gideon was an outstanding University of Texas pitcher. Both Gideon and David Clyde were legendary high school pitchers in Houston, so if either of them makes the roster next year, that will help television marketing in Houston. Manager Frank Lucchesi is a big drawing card in Oklahoma City, where he once managed a minor league club. Oklahoma City will be on both the radio network and television network.
Of course, a winning team helps more than anything else, but sometimes a player can really pull an audience. It may be years before anyone tops David Clyde’s record set the night in 1974 when he pitched his first major league game, straight out of high school. The average WBAP Ranger audience that year in Dallas-Fort Worth was 50,000. The night of Clyde’s debut – 367,000.
Big audiences bring big commercial rates. If you’d like to buy a season one-minute spot ad for all the Ranger games the price is approximately $40,000 for the entire network, or about $30,000 for WBAP alone.
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