The Business Journal reported today that several key Brewers games will be bumped from WTMJ 620 AM to WSSP 1250 AM to make room for Packers' exhibition broadcasts. This includes what might become one of the most key games of the season, the Aug. 30 match up between the Brewers and the Cubs at Wrigley Field. On that day, the Packers play the Titans in game that means, effectively, nothing.
I've always wondered what would happen if the Brewers were in a playoff hunt -- or more importantly -- in the post-season, and baseball and football created a scheduling conflict.
I assumed it would come down to contracts, team popularity, standings, importance of respective games and other factors. I hoped that even a regular season Packers/Vikings game, like the one on the final day of the baseball regular season on Sept. 30, would get bumped for the Brewers vs. Padres affair at the same time.
We'll see how that pans out, but for now, it looks like it's all about the money for Journal Broadcast Group, the flagship station of the Brewers and the current holder of the rights to Brewers radio broadcasts (for the next few years).
How else would you explain choosing to air the final Packers exhibition game, in which we'll likely see a quarter's worth of action from Brett Favre? The roster will be just about set. People will be playing to avoid injury. Let's be frank, this isn't a march to the Super Bowl.
Hey TMJ, this is 2007, not 1997.
The Brewers are fighting for their first post-season berth since 1982. They're locked in a division battle with the hated Cubs. The other two games are also intra-division match ups of less significance, but writing off games against the Reds and the Astros isn't smart, either.
If WTMJ wants to shove down our throats how they're the local leaders in sports, they might want to look at the team down the street before they pander to the preseason play of a team two hours away. I'm a Packers fan, too, but right now, my attention is focused squarely on the Milwaukee Brewers.
In this case, WTMJ should've bumped the Packers down to WSSP. And if their defense is "it's the way our contract is structured," then they should've signed a better contract with the team.
If you want to call yourself local, start acting local. Journal Broadcast brass could've handled this better.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
