NEWS BLOG (WSAU) If you’re a regular WSAU listener, you know there was a Wisconsin Badgers basketball game this afternoon. The Badgers-Michigan game had a 12:30pm broadcast time, with a 1:30pm tip-off.

This seems like a good time to discuss what to expect on those rare occasions when there’s a sporting event that falls on a weekday afternoon.

First, in many cases we are under contract to air the sporting event. When you’re the affiliate of a major college athletic program or a major league baseball team, you don’t get to pick and choose the games you air.

Those same contracts limit the circumstances when we can move sports broadcasts to Fox Sports 1390/93.9. The stations don't have the same coverage areas, which makes a "move" problematic for our advertisers, and for listeners in the southern part of WSAU's coverage area. Similarly, we're not allowed to "split" WSAU's AM and FM signals.  They are permanently-coupled simulcasts.

Our broadcast plan is to keep our regular programming (usually Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity) on our web stream during the sports broadcast. And, when the game is over, we’ll play back The Rest of Rush on AM-550 FM-99.9. Admittedly, these are imperfect solutions. Not everyone can listen on-line. And not everyone can listen to their favorite programs when we time-shift the last hour or two. However, this is the best solution available which allows us to accommodate our sports-fan listeners and our news/talk listeners.

As I’ve said before, if I was in charge of the Big 10 tournament or the Brewers baseball schedule, they’d always play on weeknights and weekends.
Chris Conley
3.16.13