Radio decision day for the St. Louis Cardinals this week?

[Viva Medias B's]

Is is speculated this week that the St. Louis Cardinals could announce a decision regarding their radio broadcasts for next season and beyond. The Cardinals could do the dramatic leave KMOX-AM (http://kmox.com/home/) (1120), ending the team's 52-year marriage to the "Voice of St. Louis." Evidently, the favorite to land the rights to Cardinal baseball is KMOX archrival KTRS-AM (http://ktrs.com/) (550). That is according to this (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/1BE73153B35D8FEE862570390013046E?OpenDocument) St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

What the Cardinals would do is purchase "The Big 550" so that they could sell their own airtime on the station and Cardinal ballgames. At KMOX, the Cardinals simply receive an annual rights fee. Whatever the Cardinals' motives are, the possible move is not popular with Cardinal Nation. Cardinal fans have been writing (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/othersports/story/57B9E9E8893FC1C18625703A0012F98C?OpenDocument) the Post-Dispatch expressing their outrage. Many of them are from beyond the St. Louis area where KMOX could be picked up at night but KTRS cannot. KMOX was one of the things that built Cardinal Nation, and I think moving to KTRS would be a huge PR blunder.

[chisoxt]

Nowadays teams in stronger markets are picking up on the same concept - that is, assuming more of an ownership role in the broadcasting and televising of their product - To wit; Yankees - YES Network, Sox, Cubs, Hawks and Bulls - Comcast Sports and now the Cardinals and their impending switch to a team owned radio network.

This shows you how revolutionary Eddie Einhorn's Sportsvision idea was 25 years ago when most of the Sox games were moved off of free TV, to the aforementioned pay channel.

With escalating salaries and expenses, teams everywhere are seeking out new sources of revenue, especially since attendance and gate revenues seem to be be relatively fixed.

[Viva Medias B's]

In today's Post-Dispatch article (http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/70CF96AB79F510958625703D00184C2E?OpenDocument), Cardinals president Mark Lamping basically said that KMOX owner Infinity Broadcasting has submitted a lowball offer to remain the Cardinals radio flagship. I don't know why Infinity would do this. If I were them, I'd go all out to keep the Cardinals on the "Voice of St. Louis." This would be a real shame if KMOX lost the Cardinals because the station's cheapskate ownership.