University signs new radio deal with Emmis

IU signed a new five-year deal with two Indianapolis-based radio stations owned by Emmis Communications to broadcast men's basketball and football games. The agreement begins at the start of the 2006-07 athletic year. \nWLHK-FM 97.1 will air men's basketball games while WIBC-AM 1070 will air football games, as well as weekly coaches' shows. \n"Our goal is to find partners in the marketplace who provide better coverage and signal," said Bob Agramonte, IU sports properties general manager. "That's what we were able to find with Emmis. They are the market leader in Indianapolis, and their promotional power will be huge. We're happy to join forces with them."\nDon Fischer has been the play-by-play voice of Hoosier football and basketball for 33 years.\n"I'll still have the same time frame for the talk shows (coaches' shows) we've had for the past several years," Fischer said. "The normal scenario is Monday nights because it has the fewest conflicts with games and other programming."\nWIBC-AM 1070 runs a news and talk radio format while WLHK-FM 97.1 format is country music. Fischer said the pairing of a country music station with men's basketball game broadcasts has worked well in the past.\n"Back when I first started in 1973, we were on WIRE, which was a country music station, and IU sports was a big part of that," Fischer said. "The country music format and sports has always seemed to fit well together."\nFischer said he likes the switch to WIBC because of the station's reputation.\n"WIBC has been one of the best radio stations in the country for the last 35-40 years," he said. "It's been an outstanding radio station for a long, long time."\nAgramonte added that Emmis will be doing a number of promotional events for the new partnership, including kick-off events right before the football and basketball seasons, and later this month or in early May they will be shutting down the circle in Indianapolis to announce the partnership.\n"We're going to bring up as much IU flavor as we can," said Kent Sterling, assistant operations manager for WIBC and Network Indiana, in regards to the announcement of the partnership in the city's circle. "We are going to try and get a portion of the marching band to come out and maybe even Kelvin Sampson. WIBC is the voice of Indiana, and to extend that to IU is a great thing for us"